After school, Daria changed to Dafoanairi on the
school roof. She looked over towards the Oscorp headquarters in the distance.
‘I know you’re planning something for this town. But, not if I have anything to
say about it.’ She then headed off in the direction of the Historia.
However, she was almost there, when she noticed
that the man that had joined her on the rooftops shortly after she had left the
school was still a couple of buildings behind her. She stopped and turned
around while twirling the staff. “I don’t think you’re a new vigilante,” she
said.
“No,” he said as he came closer.
“Tell Osborn that Lawndale is under our
protection.”
She saw him tense up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he
deflected in a hard tone.
“And you made a mistake. I can tell that you were
hired by Oscorp to harass Lawndale’s heroes. But the thing is, we know this
town better than you do.”
Dafoanairi then ran off to the west, towards the
suburban sprawl in that direction. She quickly jumped into the trees as she
headed westwards, and lost the man. ‘I still need to get to the Historia rather
than home,’ she thought as she took a breather a couple of blocks west of the
downtown.
Stacy saw Daria enter the café out of breath.
“Usual tea,” Daria said as she came up to the
counter.
“Are you OK?” Stacy asked.
“I’m fine. I just did some jogging,” Daria
answered.
“I think it’s more than that.”
“I was also thinking about what’s going on.”
“Same here,” Stacy said. “But that’s not all. I
have noticed things since the Historia has opened.”
“Like?” Daria asked in a wary tone.
Stacy took a deep breath as she made sure her hands
weren’t trembling. “I have noticed the vigilante heroes hanging around here.”
“And you’re thinking I’m one of them?” Daria asked
quietly.
Stacy nodded. “I don’t know which one, and I will
keep the secret.”
Daria took a deep breath. “Thanks. We’ll have to
talk more later, but for now, I want to rest a bit.”
“Sure.”
Daria thought about it as she waited for Stacy to
make the tea. She remembered Quinn telling her that Stacy had photographic
memory. ‘But not just anyone would be able to piece it together. They would if
they were here as much as Stacy has been.’ She took out her notebook.
Historia regulars
Stacy Rowe – barista in the afternoons
Angie Zammit – barista in the mornings
Quinn Morgendorffer – barista and theater manager
Daria Morgendorffer – bookstore manager, playwright
and director
Joseph Green – partner
Robert Allen – partner
Elisabeth Rowe – café manager
Jane Lane – Set Designer
‘There are more of course,’ Daria thought. Others
who had been hired, and the actors in the play.
Donna Bolton – barista
Brittany Taylor – actor
Tania Ashworth – actor
Dani Moreno – Special Effects
‘That’s a stretch. She’s only been here nearly two
weeks,’ Daria thought.
Sandi Griffin
Daria crossed the name out. ‘She’s not here that
often. I don’t think Stacy has seen her as the Enigma, but she might have.’ She
wrote some more names down. Then looked at Jane’s name again. ‘I think her
being abducted rules her out, and the Shadow hasn’t been seen here.’ Even so,
she didn’t cross it out.
Stacy brought the tea over. “I see you’re thinking
about it. The others.”
“Yes. But now is not the time.”
“It isn’t?”
“I have to get ready for tonight’s rehearsal,”
Daria answered. “But I will be here early in the morning.”
“I’ll be here,” Stacy said before heading back to
the counter.
Daria turned back to the sheet and put it away. She
didn’t know who would be looking in the café.
It was shortly after sunset when SpiderGirl noticed
another of the Oscorp agents following her. ‘This time I’m not going to let you
intimidate me,’ she decided. She turned and glared at him (as much as she could
through her mask). “Osborn is not going to stop us from protecting Lawndale!”
she said.
She then looked around. They were on the southern
edge of the downtown. ‘Perfect,’ she thought. She started swinging back and
forth, before heading towards Lawndale State.
On the edge of the campus, she turned around. She
saw that the agent was growing tired, although it was subtle. “How long can you
keep this up?” she taunted before turning again and swinging onto the campus.
She headed to the main building where there was a
clock tower. She watched the agent from the top, as he made his way along the
rooftops towards her.
“I doubt Osborn prepared you for the wild goose
chase,” she said when he had started climbing it. “I have explored every part
of Lawndale, every path over the rooftops.”
“That won’t deter me,” he said.
“Really?” she asked. “Then are you prepared for
what I’ll do next?”
“What?”
She swung down the side of the clock tower opposite
to him, before swinging back around, and shooting more webs at him. He tried to
move out of the way, but his options were limited. He ended up webbed to the
side of the clock tower, without his equipment. “The webs will last a while,
and when they fail, they’ll fail slowly, you’ll be able to climb down. Gotta
go!”
“Come back here!”
SpiderGirl made herself scarce, as she swung back
into town and headed back home.
After dinner, Sandi was ready to search again.
After Tamiko Hirakawa in the yearbook was Petra Hollier, with rather short red
hair. ‘Another I don’t really know,’ she thought. She grabbed the energy drink.
“Findu mann sem heiter: Petra Hollier!”
She found Petra at home at her place to the south
of the downtown, playing some Nintendo game.
The rehearsal had gone well, and Brittany joined
Daria in the café shortly after it had entered.
“You have improved,” Daria said.
“Thanks, but practice makes perfect,” Brittany
said.
“That it does, and it helps that you have recovered
from your injury.”
“I just needed a few days rest. But that’s not all,
is it?”
“No, there’s more going on besides SpiderGirl
knockoff clothes and the ongoing media speculation about what happened to Lynn
Anders,” Daria answered.
“I have heard some things.”
“But whether those are true or not.”
“Given that there are superheroes in Lawndale, I’m
keeping an open mind,” Brittany said.
“That’s good.”
“But Oscorp is up to something. How do you stop
getting into conspiracy theories?”
“That is a challenge, but usually I try to look at
multiple sources, which is why I have been taking time to investigate what’s
happening,” Daria answered.
Brittany twirled her hair. “That makes sense.”
After Daria had left, Brittany went up to the roof
and changed to Ninja Talon. But before leaving, the roof, she thought about
what she and SpiderGirl had talked about that morning.
She left the Historia to the southwest. The night
was quiet, as was usual for Lawndale on a Thursday night. Thus, she could hear
the agent that began tailing her a block from the Historia.
‘Just as well Spidey told me,’ she thought, as she
changed direction to the east.
She approached the Jefferson Bridge, but then
turned north again, heading up the street alongside the Creek.
She led the agent to the dock and turned back
towards him.
The agent had been tailing Ninja Talon for about
twenty minutes. He didn’t expect her to be a ferocious opponent.
The two fought along the dock, with Ninja Talon
giving no quarter, using karate and taekwondo moves.
It was over in less than a minute, with the ninja
vigilante expertly hitting pressure points while leaving no opening for him to
take advantage of her. She tied him with zip ties and left him on the dock.
She picked up his radio. “I’m aware that Oscorp
sent him,” she said. “Tell Mr. Osborn that we will protect Lawndale, despite
being followed.”
“Who is this?” the
woman on the other end asked.
“Ninja Talon. Lawndale’s second hero.”
“Ah yes, SpiderGirl’s colleague.”
“Her friend and partner,” Ninja Talon clarified.
“Osborn is going too far. Has already gone too far.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not standing for it. I’m not
going to allow Oscorp to stop us from fighting crime or rescuing people in
Lawndale!”
“Look, I’m just doing my job,” the
lady said.
“Then relay the message to Osborn,” Ninja Talon
said, before throwing the radio down and crushing it under her foot. She then
headed southwards again, to patrol for a while, before going home, to clear her
head.
After midnight, the Enigma was halfway between her
place and the Morgendorffers when she noticed an agent was tailing her. She
changed direction, heading southwest instead of northwest. The agent continued
following her.
She climbed to the top of a roof, and saw the agent
climb to a neighboring roof. ‘I can’t lead them to the Morgendorffers like
this. Osborn can’t find out that Dafoanairi is Daria!’ She then fired a
projection as a warning shot over the agent’s head.
The agent barely flinched and drew a pistol.
‘Protection!’ the Enigma thought as she raised a
forcefield. She then pulled the gun out of the agent’s hand telekinetically. It
was quite rough, as she was still practicing operating her powers in a fine
manner at a distance.
The agent yelped but steadied himself on the
rooftop.
“Now, like, make yourself scarce. Tell Osborn to
not stalk us!”
“This isn’t stalking!”
“Oh, it is!” the Enigma objected.
“You’re dangerous. He wants you watched.”
“Is that, like, how he has justified himself?”
The agent was silent but took out some throwing
stars.
“He’s right about one thing,” the Enigma said in a
low menacing tone. “I am dangerous. I have been fighting crime in Lawndale for
over a month, and I haven’t come across the same low level crooks twice.”
“You’re boasting.”
“Am I?”
The agent threw some of the throwing stars.
The forcefield held, and then the Enigma pushed,
causing the agent to fly backwards on the roof, with many of the tiles having
been dislodged.
He got up. “You shouldn’t have done that!”
“Then leave me alone. I can’t help Lawndale if I’m
being stalked.”
“It’s not stalking.”
The Enigma was more annoyed. She threw some
projections directly at him and then pushed downwards on the roof, causing a
collapse, and he fell down inside. She then called 911, as she knew where she
was.
“911 emergency.”
She gave the location and then continued towards
the Morgendorffers.
Daria knew something was up when Sandi entered her
room directly through one of the windows. “One of those agents?” she asked.
Sandi nodded. “And he was armed.”
“I didn’t see weapons on the one I encountered, but
I don’t think he went for one.”
“Maybe Osborn has, like, given each of them
latitude.”
“Most likely,” Daria admitted. She stood up and
walked over to her wall where she had placed a picture of Norman Osborn below
her SpiderGirl investigation timeline. “We need to do more.”
“More than just making it difficult for the
agents.”
“Osborn is up to something in Lawndale. We know
that. But my question is: why go to all this effort? Is he that afraid of us
and the others?”
“We do know that Oscorp has been here for years,”
Sandi pointed out.
“That’s true, but something has drawn Osborn here,
and it can’t just be that SpiderGirl became active,” Daria responded with a
sigh. “It’s something I have been thinking about for a while.”
“It does line up with what Harry has been saying.”
Daria nodded. “I will see if Peterson is at the
Historia in the morning.”
“Or maybe on duty tonight?”
“Maybe, but it’s unlikely we’d cross paths.”
Soon, Dafoanairi and the Enigma headed out along
the laneways.
After leaving High Hills Park, where she had
participated in a Wiccan service as usual, Tania knew she was being followed.
She turned. “Who’s there?” she asked. “It better not be the Shadow!”
No response.
Tania tensed up. She considered back to the Park.
Then she saw the Enigma and Dafoanairi ahead.
