Chapter Text
The sky was bright overhead as it usually is in Megadale, the sun filtered through damaged buildings. The scene lay in ruins but the city bustled around it, oblivious to the tragedy.
It’s 2:45pm when I'm coasting out the window of the cop cruiser as Wackerman steered us into another obvious superhero mess.
“The reports say something about some kind of,.. alien spacecraft with a…death ray?” I read out in disbelief, I had been inside stuck on filing the other super related nonsense in the city, but how could I have missed an alien death ray?
Wackerman spoke as he led us past the police barricades on the destroyed part of the city. "But if there was an alien saucer where’s the ship?”
I couldn’t answer his question, I shuffled through the eyewitness reports. “...They say it.. Imploded and then was suddenly just gone?”
“Gone? A whole spacecraft? Wonder how SheZow pulled off this one!” Wackerman laughed heartily at his own observation.
Of course Shecow could make an entire large building sized spaceship just disappear and then suddenly have her hands tied when it’s time to do the same about the property damage. I shook my head dismissively as I started to reorganize the documents I was looking through, Wackerman was pulling onto the curb of the scene.
The road was surprisingly intact for an alien invasion, actually nothing under 15 ft, 4.5 m actually seemed to be damaged. The crumbling parts of buildings laid around the bases of their construction. I and Wackerman both got out of the car, I looked up towards the higher buildings, obviously empty, scorch marks where parts had been shot off. Yep, that looked like damage caused by a death ray.
Wackerman and I diverged, though the road was more than less intact. It was obvious a few stray death beams had melted through the asphalt and burrowed into the dirt in large enough marks, Wackerman went to follow the traces, there didn’t need to be more than one of us on something so I decided to broaden my search and check around for anything.
I walked forward scouring for anything besides the usual rubble, until I saw a spot in the road that caught me off guard. It looked like something had been seared into the ground and then removed, like some unsupervised child had a magnifying glass, except this one was human sized.
My face scrunched, as I tried to comprehend what happened or what could have caused this. I had heard loose talking from some of the guys who scoured the place before us, I had heard they recovered a body, my wife even called me in hysterics about it. Of course I tried to calm her but I couldn’t understand a word she was on about.
I decided to put down some tape around it; the search team before us apparently didn’t see it important enough to mark off in the commotion of the corpse. That Shecoward didn’t think it was important enough to mention either, she’d been radio silent since the raid.
Unbelievable, decorum was never really one of her strong suits, but usually she would have at least evacuated all citizens from the battle area, now she’s just gotten down right lazy! And now her incompetence has cost the city of Megadale a life. When she comes back from her little after fight hiatus, I’m going to make sure they throw the book at her!
I shook my head at the scene, this is why real people with real jobs should be the ones who take care of the city, not some magical fruitcake person who claims to have super abilities.
As upsetting as that was, I returned to looking about the wreckage, what else was Shefailure ignoring?
I still can’t get over it! She can do the run around and all the action parts but when it’s time to settle in and do the dirty work she’s harder to find then Luigi in a Wanted minigame.
My brow settled low in annoyance as I wandered closer to the debris decorating the edges of the street. I skimmed over the chunks of concrete and whatever other building materials. It wasn’t much to look at just chunks of plastered wall with the wooden planks splintered by chunks of metal used to support the buildings, really just a big crumbly, somewhat melted mess.
I glossed over everything but a blur of pink caught my eye in the sea of dark neutral tones of the wreckage.
I glanced back towards the out of place color, a faint pink glow showed from under a small chunk of wall plaster. I swept aside the rubble overtop and reached in to find what was making the glow. It felt circular in my hand as I pulled the thing from the mess.
Now in daylight I could see it clearly, typical. One of those toy Shezow rings, They throw these things out by the handful after ZowFest. These rings were a very common waste of plastic, teenage girls and failed basement dwelling man children loved these things to death, but they always seemed to never stay on one hand. As much as I hated to see it, this one didn’t look like the regular mass produced low detailed party favor. It had a decent weight to it, it felt like it could be made out of some pink tinted metal, the S shaped stone caught way more light then the plastic gem ones did.
I sighed from deep within my soul, probably one of those ‘collector’s items’, any other time I would have thrown one of these scraps of junk away but this one felt like it was actually worth something. As much as I hated the thought of Shezow in any capacity it wouldn’t be right to throw out someone’s possession, no matter how stupid.
I stared into the gemstone of the thing, it almost felt alive in the way the light pulsed from it, I told myself I probably needed to put it in an evidence baggie or something but the warmth of the ring wouldn’t let me convince myself of that.
Oh well, getting to the station is getting to the station regardless of whether it does that in a labeled bag or in my chest pocket is the same thing.
Just then my partner yelled to me, I jumped straight up, I found the ring, I was just bringing it to the station, I wasn’t going to keep it!
“AYE HAMDON, LOOKS LIKE THE VULTURES BEFORE US PICKED THIS PLACE DRY, WHADDYA SAY WE HEAD BACK UP TO THE STATION, AND CALL THIS A DAY?”
“Uh, SURE, OF COURSE BRIANT, BUT I’M DRIVING BACK.” I dropped my shoulders, he was just tired of staring at nothing, I don’t even think he noticed.
We both hopped into the cruiser and I started us toward the station, Briant was typing some notes into the console, can’t imagine on what.
We got their quickly enough and went to our area, the station was empty because it was mid day, most other cop duos are on patrol around now, people with higher rank were probably upstairs in their offices filling out paperwork if they were even if their offices, things were always a little slow around the station with all the super hero action, having a station at all was close to just a formality at this point so people would have somewhere to call for general issues.
We went to our desk area, the floor was pretty open, all of the officers had desks, usually a few pushed together for officers working in teams, most didn’t have offices because there really wasn’t a need and it made things slower. Most desks had a computer, whatever pens, unsorted files or junk an officer needed across the table and a file cabinet to the bottom of the desks with a standard rolling chair. A few room dividers were about the area, so some folk could feel like they have privacy but still keep the place open.
My desk was vertical to Wackerman’s, with the back of his desk being toward a barrier with all sorts of past whatnots pinned into it, he got one of those full body mirrors they sell down at the House Depot. I remember I used to ask him why he’d go and put up a mirror he’d have his back to for 90% of the day and he says he just likes to know his tie is straight before he’s on the go, and honestly that’s why I like Wackerman, a man who brings a good name to justice. No nonsense or any super hero rigamarole, just an honest man doing an honest day's work.
We took our places, both going to boot up our computers, Wackerman messed with his printer, probably trying to get the cursed thing to boot with the computer.
Briant spoke still bothering that machine “Man, makes you wonder why they even called us out if they’d already had the place searched”
“Were the face Briant if something happens, you know the police have to at least stand around, it makes people feel safe, like they can depend on someone before the forensic guys come back with the real stuff.” I spoke over my monitor.
“That figures but they act like we haven’t got better paperwork to fill out and they’re bringin’ us out to stare at rocks.” Briant spoke, settling back into his spot.
“Hey there wasn’t just just rocks out there, there was also an outline where a body should’ve been.” Briant snorted through his mustache, loosely shaking his head at me before looking back to his computer and furrowing his brows.
“That’s odd-”
I interrupted. “What are you on about Wackerman?”
Wakerman continued, “-SheZow’s completely MIA, no call ins from Sheila, no sightings of the Shehicle or the She-C-10, no one from earlier team even reported seeing SheZow.”
I couldn’t really bring myself to care about that, “Why’s it matter so much, sounds to me she just wanted an early day.”
Briant looked at me with concern on his face. “Boxter, I know you can’t stand the woman but this is a serious matter, SheZow’s practically a first responder, she can’t just be missing.”
I folded my arms at that indifference across my face. “She’s such a first responder huh? Well where are her mandatory first responder duties?”
Wakerman looked distraughtly at me “like it or not Hamdon, that woman was still a citizen of Megadale and her disappearance matters just as much as anyone's."
I slouched back dramatically in my chair with a loud sigh before standing from my chair and walking over beside Wackerman to make my point clear to him.
“She this, She that, god, you people are a cult! It’s like you worship the ground that lady walks on! ‘Oh but she saved the city from all types of monsters!’ SO DO WE, They aren’t the kind in costumes though so I guess that doesn’t really matter huh?”
Briant on looked my ramble, wordless with his expression unreadable.
“Why didn’t anyone tell Boxter, if the criminal isn’t wearing all black with a domino mask then no one says they count as villains huh?-” I would have ranted on but Briant interrupted me.
“‘Hamdon, uh, what’s that glow in your pocket there?”
My eyes widened in surprise, I’d forgotten about that toy ring I found, not really thinking I took it out of my pocket and held it in my hand, Wackerman stood from his chair to get a better look at it.
“Wow, Hamdon I thought you hated the woman, how’d you get a dupe that high quality of her ring?”
Forgetting our squabble but not my anger, I snatched the ring away from Wackerman much to his shock.
“It’s not mine, Briant, I found the thing and didn’t want to hurt some kids' feelings by throwing out their lost toy.” I looked at him in annoyance, he smiled back at me.
‘Heh, you’re getting softer by the day, Hamdon.” He chuckled, it was a joke but a flash of anger still shot through me.
“I only kept the thing because it looked expensive and some poor kid’s parents probably took a loan out to buy the thing, just watch, we'll get a report for this in less than a day.”
I said holding up the ring between my fingers, Wackerman kept his lighthearted tone.
“I’ll give you that Boxter, but that’s one of the best knock offs I’ve seen, if you told me SheZow herself came down here looking for it, I wouldn't bat an eye,” He laughed again, I rolled my eyes.
“If she didn’t have the ring she’d just be some regular woman-” I joked, getting a laugh out of both of us, I continued.
“-She needs the ring so she can be all like-” I folded my arms to my sides like a chicken and pranced around as Briant laughed.
I pretended I didn’t know I was holding the ring and acted surprised when I saw it, hand on my cheek, jaw hung open, I held it up to the light and everything.
I drove my voice up into a shrill almost feminine screech “Magical girl powers, activate!” I yelled as I shoved my finger into the ring I held in the light “You go girl!” I managed out before we both burst into laughter.
Wackerman was face down, banging his fist on his desk, I was laughing so hard my eyes watered, it felt hard to stand, I almost toppled back onto his desk too.
I was barely to my senses when it started to feel like the moment passed. The room was oddly quiet, though I could’ve sworn Briant was still doubled over. I got back to my feet, feeling taller, when I caught Wackerman with this look on his face.
He was just staring at me, like we were in the break room and I was leaving with the last donut in hand when I said the last of the box was his. He raised his arm in a loose point but it looked like he couldn’t decide what to point at. His mouth opened and closed a few times but he didn’t look like he had the words.
“….Hamdon, um…how about turning around to that mirror there.” He said, gesturing behind me.