CHAPTER II

Detective Augustus glanced over the complete paperwork for case file 098801. As the head Detective of traffic and vehicle related accidents for the greater Somerset county area it was his job to thoroughly look over or at least check on every traffic case that came across his desk. With that said accident's happened everyday and it was impossible for one man to look over every single fender bender in the greater north Jersey area so he tried to keep his full attention limited to case's like this. Asian female apporximatley 15-16 years of age involved in head on collision off of an I-95 off ramp in Newark. Single suspect. White male 17 years of age name Corben Jay Smyth, Father Jefferey Smyth a Sergeant for the Plainfield police department with 19 years of service and no bad conduct reports or IA investigations. Upon glance of the round up report by Detective Valerio have concluded that the girl did not suffer any trauma from the suspects car nor was she hit by the car at all. The suspects vehicle a 1993 Nissan Maxima license plate RX9-014 show's no sign of damage from impact with the victim. The victim also show's no sign of blunt trauma or vehicle related injury. Suspect is still unconscious at this time at St. Luke's west Newark hospital but, something was strange. It had been over 6 hours since the incident and no one had called in looking for this teenager. Not only that but, she didn't match any missing person's reports in the county nor the state.

She was quite obviously of Asian decent but, her clothes seemed somewhat American. Having a young girl himself the detective's thought drifted to his daughter and more to the point how ridiculously furious he would be if he caught her going anywhere but to the beach in the getup they had found the victim in. Knee high boots and black gloves with very short short's and an all to revealing spaghetti strap bra with black coat ensemble. He would have to wait until the girl awoke to complete his investigation but, as of now there was no longer any reason to hold the young man in question. He quite obviously had not hit her and judging by the skid marks on the off ramp from the preliminary report he wasn't speeding excessively on exit 17. "Hey boss" Valerio came into his office without knocking. After 12 years on the force together there was no need they were on almost psychic level. "What do you wanna do with our suspect? His father's here and he's a cop also." Valerio added with meaning.

"Yes I know I've looked over our young football star's file, no misdemeanors, no previous arrests, I'm sure daddy keeps his boy out of trouble wouldn't you say?" Augustus added with a quip.

"Heh, yeah you wanna cut him loose? He didn't really do anything wrong."

"Quite the contrary actually this kid deserves a medal for doing the right thing if you ask me. Most teenage drivers would drive off and we would just have another hit and run case but, considering the circumstances and evidence the only thing this kid hit was a stroke of bad luck so let's go pull him." Augustus said lifting himself up out of his office chair.

Rock awoke to blinding light. Hot stinging blinding light. As her vision cleared she lifted her left hand to cover her eyes. Then her right. There was a small tube sticking out of her right forearm and her gloves were gone. She sat up quickly the sheets sliding down her torso. Her gloves weren't the only thing. Aside from a white hospital gown which was far to loose she was for all intents and purposes naked underneath this flimsy garment. Rock blushed furiously and looked up at the wall clock. She tried to think back Dead Master then a fight with Black Gold Saw an earthquake a vortex and then blackness. She obviously wasn't a prisoner, she'd been captured and captured many other's over the course of her strange life. Prisons had bar's and chains and interrogations and they didn't take your clothes! Rock blushed again. So where was she. Rock rolled her feet off the bed and placed her left hand over the tube. It was shoved deep into her skin and into her veins. She gripped it hard and tore it out tape and all.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! A siren from a machine beside her bed and outside her room screamed this loud obnoxious noise. She placed her hands over her ears hard slammed her head down into her lap. "What the hell" she thought. She heard a door slam open a man and woman dressed in all white came in smiled and flipped some switches on the machine ceasing the noise. Rock replaced her hands by her side and watched the two older individuals as they moved around the room with some strange sense of purpose. The man opened some cabinets, removed some instruments and sat down in a chair then wheeled himself over to her with great ease. "And how are we felling tonight?" The man asked still smiling. "I'm Dr. Lennox and this is Gabe you've been asleep for over 6 hours, so whats your name? How are you feeling" Any chance you could give us your mom and dad's phone number I'm sure there worried about you." The doctor inquired all smiles.

He pulled out a small piece of rounded wood and proceeded to stick it in Rock's mouth. "Say AHHH," he said. "Rock opened her mouth to comment and the man shoved the wood into her mouth. She was furious she slapped the wooden stick across the room.

"Anata wa nani o shite iru. Anata dare!?" Rock shouted in protest.

The old man looked hurt "oh dear, I'm sorry. Young lady do you speak English?" The doctor asked.

Rock was confused why were they speaking in that tongue. "Anata wa nani o eigo no imidesu ka? Anata dare? Watashi wa sa reta?" The doctor looked more confused than ever.

"Doctor?" Nurse Gabe asked "What is she speaking?"

"Well I'm a little rusty but, that's definatley Japanese. Hmm lets see uh watashinonamaeha hakase renokkusudeari, anata ga eigo o hanasu ka wa, Amerika no byōindearimasu ka?" the doctor asked. Rock looked confused for a moment but then understood. All at once in fact.

There was no doubt about it she was in Mato's dimension but, wherever she had landed the speech here was different. Black Rock Shooter however was obviously no normal human and reached deep into the recess's of her brain to flip a small switch which would allow her to communicate with these people and hopefully figure out a way out of here.

"Yes" she said with a perfect accent "I do speak English."

"Wonderful now that we got that cleared up let me explain I need to take your temperature and pulse and run some tests, you were brought from what your chart said a collision with a car but, aside from being unconscious you show no signs of being hit by well... anything. Tell me dear did you just pass out from the heat in the road?"

"No." Rock said

"So you were hit by a car?" The doctor asked.

"No."

"So what were you doing lying in the middle of the road?"

"I don't know." Rock said her face like stone.

"Hmm" Dr. Lennox scrunched his brow and thought hard, nurse could you do me a favor and call that detective, his card should be in my office.

Corben sat in the interrogation room starring at an empty chair until the door opened. In walked two men in suits who he assumed were either detectives or FBI or whatever. There had been no real talk of his case since he got there. To people had asked him if he hit the girl and he had said no to both of them. He was sure of it, there was no blood, no damage, so was he guilty or not. The suspense was killing him. Was his life about to end? Were these guy's going to charge him with vehicular manslaughter? Corben was sweating hard, his whole life was flashing before his eyes this was bad. The fat detective sat down across from him and opened a folder while the skinny one lit up a cigarette in the corner.

"Corben Smyth age 17 you play wide receiver for the Somerset Six Knights right?" the detective asked. "Yeah for the past 3 years I'm hoping to get a full scholarship to Notre Dame." Corben replied hoping the detective would go easy on him. "Heh, you can rest easy son you didn't hit that girl and we just got back your tox reports. Negative on all illegal substances." Corben let out a huge sigh of relief

"As a matter of fact" the Detective continued "we both agree your a hero."

"What do you mean?" Corben asked unsure of the comment.

"Well most young men with a future like yours wouldn't of even stopped hell they wouldn't of even glanced. But you stopped and helped a total stranger without even thinking twice of the trouble you could have been in and on top of that you didn't hit her to begin with. You weren't driving some big fancy car and you took care of the girl right up until the EMT's showed up. Your daddy raised you right son and he's here to pick you up now."

"So I'm" Corben was interrupted by the beaming detective "yup your free to go. Your dad's waiting in the lobby to take you home and we have a truck dropping off your car now back home free of charge of course."

The skinny detective extinguished his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and opened the door. "Have a good night Corben" he said "And make sure you do your homework." Corben chuckled and left the room but, stopped and ducked his head back in. "Look I know I didn't hit that girl but, if you don't mind I would like to go bring her some flowers or something at the hospital. What room is she in? Is she still asleep."

Detective Augustus looked at his watch then opened the file back up. "Sure why not" he said "She's in roooooooooooom uhhhh 402 at St. Luke's I'll let the boys no your" the man's cell phone vibrated dulling the conversation. The plump detective unclipped it from his belt and looked at the text. "Hmm, looks like she just woke up. Well I better head over, you can come by tomorrow regardless of how she feel's there going to have to keep her overnight for testing. Why don't you come by after school."

"Thanks Detective..." Corben trailed off "Augustus" the man finished "and don't mention it Detective Valerio will show you to the lobby have a nice night."