Quinn returned to where Daria was at home plate. “We’re almost ready.”
“Good, because the stadium is now empty,” Daria said.
“Yeah, he might just get away,” Quinn said.
“You better fill me in on this plan,” said a newcomer, Officer Peterson.
“Of course,” Daria said.
Peterson thought about Quinn and Daria’s plan. ‘It seems that Quinn
can’t act as SpiderGirl because Daria and others are here. And the same for
Daria, that she can’t act as Dafoanairi either, but they haven’t let that stop
them trying.’ The plan wasn’t foolproof, but she was sure that she would be
able to arrest whoever it was. “Go ahead,” she said.
“Let’s play ball!” Trent said.
“Really?” Jamie asked.
“Don’t they say that?” Trent asked.
“It’s just ‘Play Ball!’” Quinn explained.
“Is it?” Trent asked. “We Lane’s haven’t really focused on sports other
than running.”
“Yes,” Daria said. “A bit difficult to ignore baseball, even when we
were in Texas.”
Rhea returned to the booth. “And now up for batting! The
Morgendorffers and the Investigators!”
“I still, like, think it should have had a different name,” the Enigma
grumbled.
“It takes me a while to come up with something creative,” Daria
responded.
“Same here,” Quinn said. “But we should focus.”
“Batter up!” Daria said.
The stadium lights flickered again.
“Ooh…” Rhea began.
“She’s hamming it up,” Peterson commented.
“Can’t blame her,” Trent commented.
The ghost then appeared at the pitcher’s mound.
“There he is!” Daria murmured.
Quinn took up position at the plate and moved the bat into a bunt
position.
“No more games!”
‘Is that all you’re going to say?’ Daria thought. “Now!”
Ninja Talon, the Shadow and the Enigma moved into action, springing the
trap. The Shadow’s dry ice mines went off around the perimeter of the field,
obscuring the various ropes that the four investigators and three vigilantes
had placed into position.
“You think you’ve won?” the ghost asked as the stadium lights
flickered yet again.
“Not yet,” Quinn said, as she shacked the bat.
The ghost seemed to take the bait and threw one of the flaming balls
towards Quinn.
However, it stopped as the Enigma stopped it midair. Then Shadow swooped
in behind the ghost to stop him retreating through the trap door.
However, more illusions then appeared on the field. The ghost appeared
to flicker around the bases.
“You, like, can’t confuse me that way,” the Enigma proclaimed in an
annoyed tone, before shooting projections to either side of the mound.
The Shadow got to the trap door and stood on top of it. ‘The ghost is
still here, somewhere,’ she thought as she changed her mask to infrared vision.
She then sighted him. “There he is.”
“And the ghost is in the middle of the field near second base!”
Rhea said after getting a message from the Shadow.
Ninja Talon fired a zip line in that direction.
The ghost collapsed there, although the illusions kept flickering.
The Shadow then fired her own grapple line.
The ghost then struggled and tried to cut one of the zip lines.
The Enigma stepped forwards. “We’ve got you. I don’t want to have to try
to restrain you too hard.”
“You’re holding back.”
“Like, what?” the Enigma asked, as something suddenly felt familiar.
“You are weak.”
“No!” the Enigma said.
“What is it? Do you know who it is?” Quinn asked.
“We can unmask him now,” the Enigma responded. She wasn’t willing to
just jump to conclusions, despite the fact being nearly entirely certain.
Quinn dropped the bat and walked forwards. “We’ll unmask him together,”
she said.
“Um, sure,” the Enigma said.
“They’re about to try to unmask him,” Daria said to Rhea through her
phone.
Jamie also stepped forwards. “I want to do it too.”
“Sure,” Quinn said as Jamie came alongside her.
“Let’s see who you really are!” Jamie said.
Quinn and the Enigma grabbed the mask and pulled it off.
“Quentin Beck!” Daria said before anyone else could comment.
“So, you’ve gone from abducting critics and disrupting plays, to
disrupting baseball games?” Quinn asked.
“I said I would be back.”
Peterson came forwards. “You said that you disrupted the Historia
because of Daria and Quinn’s ambition,” she said. “What does this have to do
with that, if at all?”
“I’m not answering that,” Beck said.
Peterson took out her cuffs. “You are under arrest, for kidnapping and
disturbing the peace. You have the right to remain silent, anything you do say
can be used as evidence in a court of law.”
The Shadow backed off as her heart beat rapidly. She shook her head as
memories of being held in the room with the critics came back.
Trent looked at his sister as Peterson and a couple of other officers
lead Beck away. He knew that he would have to talk to her about it later.
“Thanks for helping,” Quinn said to Talon, also using hand and
expression signals, that they had worked out, that also said. ‘We need to talk
at the Bridge about this later.’
“See you another time,” Talon responded. ‘I’ll see you again.’ She then
fired a zipline up to the roof and left.
Quinn turned and saw that the Shadow and Enigma had also left. She went
up to Daria. “We solved this mystery,” she commented.
“Not really,” Daria responded.
“Beck as the ghost would be unrelated to the history of the stadium,”
Quinn said. “Given that he wasn’t ever in Lawndale before I hired him for the
Historia.”
“That’s true,” Daria said as she started leading them to the tunnel.
“But the greater mystery of a baseball stadium with a Colosseum-like
underground being in a town like Lawndale.”
“Hmmm, hidden baseball,” Trent said.
“That’s a Spiral lyric I’d like to hear,” Daria commented.
Rhea met up with Daria and the others as they all exited the stadium
into the parking lot. “Nice meeting you.”
“You too,” Daria said. “I don’t envy you writing the article about what
happened though.”
“I know what to write,” Rhea said. “With everything that has happened
since SpiderGirl first appeared…”
“Got it.”
Helen was waiting for Daria and Quinn when they got home.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“It was Quentin Beck!” Quinn said with annoyance.
“You mean the ghost was Quentin Beck?” Helen asked.
“Exactly,” Daria answered.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Helen said as she pointed to the lounges.
“I have no idea why Beck came back to Lawndale,” Daria said once she,
her mother and Quinn had sat down in the living room. “He had got away with abducting
the critics and Jane and disrupting the Historia.”
“Peterson said something about our ambition,” Quinn said.
“Officer Peterson?” Helen asked.
“Yes,” Daria answered. “She said that he had disrupted the Historia
because of our ambition. Apparently that was the message he left for her and
the FBI agent when he fled during the rescue of Jane and the critics.”
Helen sighed. The situation was getting more dangerous, and her
daughters were right in the middle of it. “Then I hope that he’ll remain locked
up.”
“It’s unlikely he would escape,” Daria said. “Or are you thinking he
would get off on a technicality?”
Helen nodded. “The latter indeed. I will have to keep a close eye on the
trail when it occurs.”
“I would be more concerned about other would be villains,” Quinn said.
“I doubt more would come to Lawndale, when they could disappear into New
York or Philadelphia,” Helen said.
“There’s still Oscorp anyway,” Daria said. “But I wouldn’t pin the
Stadium’s strange infrastructure on them.”
“What strange infrastructure?” Helen asked, both of her eyebrows fully
raised.
Daria and Quinn then explained about the trap doors down to the old
stadium.
Shortly after midnight, Daria let Sandi in through the window at the end
of the hall, next to her room. “Interesting night,” she commented.
“Are You OK, given that you confronted Beck during the rescue.”
“I’m fine. It’s the Shadow who seemed to react in some way, despite her
not being involved with the rescue herself.”
“I noticed that,” Daria said as she drew Sandi’s attention to her
investigation wall, where she had written down a list of observations about her
night at the stadium.
Sandi quickly found the line.
Shadow reacted, as if she was reminded of something either very
unpleasant or traumatizing.
“I agree. It was, like, she froze for a few seconds.”
“And Trent also looked at her, like he knew something.”
“So, you think it’s someone Trent knows?”
“I don’t think she’s Jane if that’s what you’re thinking,” Daria
answered.
But Sandi could see that Daria wasn’t entirely convinced. ‘She doesn’t
want to believe that Jane is hiding the fact that she’s the Shadow from her,
and she doesn’t want my guess from when we argued just after the Historia’s
opening to be right either.’ But she still believed that Trent and Jane were
talking about something when she had overheard them. ‘But still, even with what
happened tonight, that doesn’t mean that Jane is the Shadow. It could still be
something else.’
Daria knew that Sandi was considering what she said. “We agree to
disagree,” she said.
“You guessed right. I still think Jane might be hiding something, but
yes, we, like agree to disagree.”
“Besides, there is a more urgent matter.”
“Beck,” Sandi said.
“There was a reason he came back to Lawndale and disrupted a baseball
game twice.”
“There’s what Peterson said.”
“Quinn and I’s ambition with the Historia,” Daria commented. “She didn’t
mention Joey and Robert,” she added, referring to the cousins who were also
partners in the theater.
“That’s a good point.”
“So, what else was happening in Lawndale tonight?”
“I thought you wouldn’t ask,” Sandi said as she grabbed her mask from
her pocket.
At the same time, the Shadow arrived back at Casa Lane. She was still
thinking about the fact that Quentin Beck had come back as the ghost. ‘Why?
Why? Why?’ she wondered as she headed back to her room from where she had
parked the Shadow Car in the garage.
‘Janie!’ Trent called from where he had stepped out of the room.
Jane unmasked. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. I saw how you reacted when the fourth vigilante
unmasked him.”
Jane sat down. “I did back off, didn’t I?”
“You did.”
“I thought I had been dealing with it.”
“I suggest talking to someone professionally,” Trent said.
“But keeping my secret.”
“I don’t think you would have to reveal it.”
“I’ll start looking tomorrow.”
In the early hours, SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon arrived at the spot below
the Jefferson Bridge and unmasked. “That was crazy,” Quinn said.
“Compared to everything else?” Brittany asked.
“Not particularly,” Quinn mused.
“But you’re thinking about the stadium itself.”
“Yes. Like, I thought that Lawndale was ordinary.”
“So did I,” Brittany added.
“But if there is, as Daria said, Colosseum like trap doors beneath the
stadium, what else might there be?”
“There is the stormwater system.”
“I did think it strange that there was plenty of room when the we and
the Shadow chased Beck through it that first time,” Quinn said.
“And there might be more.”
“Well, there was what happened to William.”
“Good point,” Brittany said.
Quinn looked out at what could be seen of Lawndale. “Whatever is here.
We can deal with it.”
Brittany nodded.
Sirens could then heard in the distance.
SpiderGirl pulled her mask back on. “Responsibility calls.”
Ninja Talon nodded as she did the same, and they both headed in that
direction, ready to continue helping Lawndale.
Lawndale Sun-Herald
Tuesday, March 21. 2001
Baseball Ghost is Quentin Beck
Rhea Tomlinson
Beck was exposed by the efforts of teen sisters Daria and Quinn
Morgendorffer alongside Ninja Talon, the Shadow and the still reclusive fourth
vigilante.
