Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Investigation

Kara POV:

Kryptonian education did actually include quite a bit about investigation. Not ‘criminal’ investigation, like what we were technically doing now, but scientific investigation. Earth had a similar concept in what they called the ‘scientific method’. The Kryptonian version was a lot more complex, but I found that I liked the simplicity of the Earthen version. Question, research, hypothesis, experiment, data analysis, conclusion, and communication.

It didn’t quite translate into what we were doing right now, but for Eve and I it would serve as a guideline. Eve had commented that Batman should have really given us some training in criminal investigations.

The question was ‘what is causing trouble in Crescent Creek?’, and initial research indicated that there was unusual magical energy in the area. Our ‘experiment’ would be to search the town more thoroughly for signs of magic use — which was basically just more research. As I said, it didn’t quite translate.

“Yep. A spell was definitely cast on this recently,” Eve said as she looked at the car that was wrecked in the recent accident — her eyes glowing faintly. “It shows as ‘transmutation magic’, which could definitely be used to cut the brakes.”

Eve had used a spell to turn us both invisible so we could sneak into the impound lot. She kept her detection spell up as we walked through town and had found several traces of magic being cast — mostly ‘illusion’ spells, apparently. The sabotaged car was the most serious incident though, so we had to verify that magic had been involved in that as well.

My phone vibrated as Eve informed the rest of the team of our discovery. When Eve had handed me the Earthen version of a communicator a few days after we had moved into ‘Mt. Justice’, I was a little surprised at how much more advanced it was than most of the other Earth tech I had seen. Considering how social they were as a species though, it made sense that communications technology was a big focus of research and development.

*

Arcana: Magic used on car. Probably sabotage. Illusion magic around town too. Could explain lights and sounds.

Troia: The pinecone museum was vandalized last night. Sensing magic is not my specialty. Would you mind joining us to verify that magic has been used here as well?

Arcana: omw

*

“You got that?” Eve asked as we both looked up from our phones.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “Pinecone museum.”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “Let’s just fly there. We’ve already confirmed that someone’s using magic around town so there’s no point wasting time.”

“Won’t someone see us?” I asked. “We are supposed to be undercover, no?”

“Not if we go invisible,” she answered with a grin.

I smiled back and grabbed her extended hand. We had discovered earlier that keeping physical contact made keeping track of each other much easier when we were invisible. I could see through the invisibility with my x-ray vision, but I quite liked holding hands with her so I didn’t mind.

A few minutes later we landed in an empty alleyway next to the pinecone museum and became visible again. The museum was in a more populated area than the impound lot, so we had to be more careful about being seen. The streets weren’t exactly crowded, but two girls appearing out of thin air was bound to be noticed.

Donna and Wally were waiting for us outside the museum. We approached them, and Wally raised an eyebrow as he saw us.

“Enjoying your date?” he asked and glanced at our still connected hands.

I quickly pulled back my hand and felt a blush spread across my cheeks, but Eve just smiled brightly and answered, “Impound lot wasn’t exactly romantic, but the company more than made up for it.” Which caused me to blush even more. Why did that make me so happy?

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Eve POV:

Kara’s blush made my day. I wasn’t blind to the direction my feelings for her were growing. She was kind, honest and curious. While she was serious most of the time, she had a mischievous sense of humor that was starting to show more and more. Not to mention she was both beautiful and cute as a button. In other words: she was exactly my type.

We had spent almost every waking moment together since she emerged from her pod, even sleeping together when we lived at the Fortress. When we moved to the mountain she got her own room, of course, but we still spent most of our time together.

I was getting a little worried that she was getting too attached to me, though. If she was growing emotionally dependent on me — needing me to stay stable — that would be really bad. The way she always moved to be physically close to me coupled with things like the blush she just made, made me think she was interested in me romantically. But because of my own feelings, I really couldn’t trust my own judgment on this. I needed to talk to Dinah about this.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

But for now, we were on a mission. Donna seemed to agree.

“That’s nice, but perhaps we should focus on the task ahead?” she said with an amused smile as she gestured toward the entrance to the museum beside us.

“Gotcha,” I said, and headed inside.

The pinecone ‘museum’ was actually more of a store than a museum. While one half of the room had displays of — admittedly impressive — sculptures made out of mostly pinecones, the other half was filled with souvenirs for sale. Most of it was typical touristy stuff like posters and mugs, but there was a section where they had smaller pinecone sculptures for sale. Rather obviously, this was where the ‘vandalism’ had taken place.

Behind a cordon of police tape, the pinecone-animal sculptures were all arranged in ‘creative’ positions. Most were displayed in the middle of sexual activities, but there was also what looked like a cult sacrifice and something I assumed to be a fight club. I honestly found it kinda hilarious and thought they should keep it as an official display, but it wasn’t exactly family friendly, so I doubted they would.

“Welcome to the Crescent Creek Pinecone Museum!” a chipper voice called out from my right as Kara and the others entered behind me. I turned my head and found that it came from a short-haired brunette behind a counter with a name-tag that said ‘Milly’. She looked to be about my age — maybe early twenties.

“Hey, Milly,” I said with a bright smile. Service workers usually got treated like shit, so I always made a point out of treating them nicely. “Heard you had a new display so I came to check it out.”

Her eyes widened in surprise for a second before she glanced down at her name-tag and seemed to give herself a mental facepalm. Then she gave me a crooked smile and said with good natured sarcasm, “Behind the police cordon. Limited time only!”

“Man! Must be my lucky day!” I said with a laugh as I walked over to her. “Famous artist? Banksy maybe?”

“Pff!” she scoffed and her demeanour shifted slightly, clearly having recognized me as a fellow appreciater of sarcasm. “As if Banksy would visit a hole like this. Nah, buncha weird shit’s been happening all ‘round town lately. My guess is it's just a bunch of kids try’na make the place a little more interesting.”

“Have they?” I asked. “Made it more interesting, I mean.”

“I suppose,” she said with a shrug. “Could do without the laser light shows at 2 A.M. though. School takes more than enough of my sleep as it is, thank you very much.”

“I feel ya,” I gave her a sympathetic smile. “Bet the guy whose car got wrecked doesn’t appreciate the ‘humor’ as much either.”

“Pre~tty sure that doesn’t count as a prank,” she said doubtfully and raised an eyebrow. “How’d you even figure it’s the same guy responsible? Pretty big leap, no?”

“C’mon!” I said with a scoff. “Small town like this? Doubt anything happens around here most of the time. Then someone starts an escalating pranking spree and a guy gets his brakes sabotaged in the middle of it. What’s more likely: they’re connected, or two interesting things happen in this town at the same time?”

“Pff!” she laughed. “Yeah, you got a point. Still, poorly timed pranks and attempted murder ain’t exactly the same thing. ‘Specially since the harmless pranks’ve kept on after.” She gestured to the ‘new display’ to illustrate her point. “What kinda maniac puts car crashes at the same level as that?”

“Fair enough,” I conceded, but her words had given me an idea. An idea I’d have to discuss with the team later — preferably with Zatanna on a call.

I kept shooting the shit with Milly for a while. Partly to be polite, and partly because she seemed really nice. After she dropped the bombshell that she was studying art in Metropolis, we even exchanged numbers. Besides, Dinah’s been telling me to find a friend outside the superhero business.

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Donna POV:

“That was impressive,” I said as we were walking back towards the motel.

“What?” Eve asked, sounding a little confused. “It’s just a spell from my book. I can’t really take credit for how it works.” Then she frowned and added, “Besides, you’ve seen me use it before.”

“While your magic is certainly impressive as well, that was not what I was referring to,” I said with a fond smile. “I was referring to how effectively you gathered information from Milly.”

She looked even more confused as she said, “But… I just talked to her. What’s so impressive about that? She seemed nice.”

I shook my head in fond exasperation. Did she truly not realize her own talent? Even Diana could not gather information so effectively without the use of the Lasso of Truth. Making someone comfortable enough to answer questions freely was no mean feat, and Eve had done it without even thinking about it. Then again, she wasn’t really trying either. She was just having a friendly conversation with a nice girl.

“Did you find any traces of magic?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Huh?” That extremely expressive face of hers shifted from confusion to realization. “Oh! Yeah, definitely magic. Can’t really tell if it’s the same thing that has been casting spells all around town, though.” Then she donned a crooked, smug smirk. “But I did have an idea. Gonna have to ask Zatanna if there’s any merit to it, but I might know what’s causing all of this.”

“And you’re not telling us now because…?” Wally hedged.

“Because I wanna be dramatic about it,” Eve answered with blunt honesty, which caused Wally to burst out laughing.

“Alright,” he accepted. “I can respect that.”

This girl… She made me wish I shared the proclivities of most of my sisters. I could not deny that her personality was highly attractive to me. Unfortunately, I was unable to muster any sexual attraction. Although, even if I could, I do believe I would have to ‘get in line’, as they say.

“That girl. Milly,” Kara hedged nervously. “You like her?”

“Um, sure,” Eve answered a little unsurely. I wondered if she was oblivious to the effect she had on the young Kryptonian. “She seemed nice, and Dinah said I should try and get some friends outside the hero gig.”

Then she casually grabbed Kara’s hand and said, “But I can’t imagine us ever being as close as I am with you,” proving that no, she was not oblivious. It was convenient that ‘you’ applied both to the singular and plural in English.

The blush and small smile that crossed Kara’s face was heartwarming.

“You talk with Dinah a lot?” Wally asked, a little surprised. Fortunately, he did not seem to have noticed the sweet gesture.

“Ah, yeah,” Eve answered, seemingly relieved at the change of topic. “I managed to hijack her as my personal therapist. We meet up every couple of weeks.”

“Pff!” Wally scoffed and raised an eyebrow. “Why would you need a therapist?”

The clear disdain he had for mind healers was discouraging. But Eve once again had an answer that put him in his place.

“We run around dressed in spandex picking fights with criminals,” she said in a completely monotone voice. “We all need therapy.”

“...Touché.”

I found myself biting my lip to prevent laughter from escaping my mouth.