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Willowbrook was an average sized town nestled in the Virginia countryside, sporting a population of a few thousand people. It was a company town made in the late 1800s, which didn't really have anything else to it's name. Except for the fact that 16 years ago Donna had been found in a burning apartment building in it. 'Your birth in flames' didn't take a lot of work to figure out, so Donna and I rented a car (to be inconspicuous) and headed down there.
But the first stop was at the 249 Diner just on the edge of town. Partially so that Donna could pick up something to eat, but also so that I could do some remote work.
"It looks like money was wired through a shell company before it disappeared into the Caymans," I said under my breath, information dancing in front of my eyes. I keep my actual eyes on the newspaper in my hands, so the rest of the diner goers wouldn't see something amiss. "I can't tell you more about that from here, but I can tell the transfer was initiated at the Gotham docks at 10:43pm. Right around the same time as the weapon sale."
"And if our intelligence is right, they were being sold to Black Manta." On the other end of the line, Starfire was investigating a warehouse along with Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis. "I had thought that the League had managed to collect all of the technology Intergang acquired from Apokolips."
"It's always possible something slipped through the cracks." Sitting at the opposite side of the booth from me, Donna sat and joined in on the conversation via her earpiece. The two of us were in civilian clothing, with her in a blouse and jacket to ward off the autumn chill, and me in a blue button up and duster. "Also, didn't you say that Bialya had some of that tech too?"
I moved the paper aside to look at her. "True, Apokolpian tech might be getting imported to Earth via other groups these days." I really needed to do something about that. But with all the public attention the Titans were getting (not to mention whoever was pulling the strings behind the Deep Night), it would be very difficult not to get noticed. Maybe I could make sure the various intelligence agencies were properly motivated to do their actual jobs…
Back in the moment, Starfire asked "Anything to report from Atlantis?"
From the middle of the Atlantic, Aqualad answered "Yes, we encountered a few of the remaining Orm Loyalists using Apokolpian weapons. Miss Martian and Superboy are still following up with my contacts, but it seems the weapons were acquired from Black Manta."
"I see. Any problems handling them?"
"No, We managed to take them by surprise. Between us and the guard, they were taken in with minimal fighting. Still, there's more investigating to be done."
No rest for the Titans, it seems, I thought. It was a little surprising when Aquaman had come to us for help (you know, considering the whole ignoring the League to make the Titans thing), but he made it clear that he was coming to us as the King of Atlantis and not as a Leaguer. Some of the remaining Purists had been difficult to apprehend, to the point where he had started to suspect they were getting outside help. Aquaman decided the Titans were in the right position to lead an investigation in Atlantis as well as on land for possible connections. Which it looked like we found.
Well, 'we' in the general sense. The Titans were down two members at the moment. "Are you sure you guys don't need us?" Donna asked. "I don't have to do this now-"
"We can handle this, at least for now." Starfire insisted. "Your gods have given you a mission of your own to see through. We'll call you if we need the extra support."
"I wouldn't exactly call the Moiria my gods, but… thank you." Donna said.
"And I'll keep looking into those accounts when I have the time." I added. "Right now I'm a bit more focused on personnel."
I could feel the smirk Starfire was giving me. "Just don't get too lost in the details, Fal'shen." She said teasingly.
The call ended, and Donna gave me a curious look. "Fal'shen?"
"She wasn't being serious, but it's a Tamaranian military term. The closest translation is 'sternguard commander'. Tamaranians are a 'lead from the front' kind of people, but they're smart enough to know that having a general lead the charge can result in your army suddenly not having a leader. So, a lot of their higher ranks have vanguard and sternguard pairs. The vanguard has command out in the field and battle, and the sternguard commands the base and logistics of the war."
"That sounds like a colonel and general… only messier."
"They have different areas of authority, but they are the same rank, and yes, that can lead to some conflict. There has been many a drama about vanguard and sternguard pair with an antagonistic relationship. Or a romantic relationship. Or a romantically antagonistic relationship. A lot of fertile ground for stories is what I'm saying."
Donna smiled gently. "I think it's sweet you've learned so much about Kori's culture."
I smiled back and shrugged. "Aside from said culture being interesting in its own right… what kind of partner would I be if I didn't?"
"A more common one, unfortunately." Donna remarked, sipping her coffee. "But then, I just have high school to go by." She fell silent as she looked out over the diner, her gaze falling on a pair of teens sitting at the counter chatting shyly.
"...Have you ever been back here?" I asked eventually. "Since the fire I mean."
"Twice. To dig through the rubble myself, see if there was anything I could find. I talked to the old building owner too." She frowned. "Not that I got anything useful out of him. I don't think he liked me very much. The second time I met him he practically threw me out and told me to never come back."
"Did you try talking to anyone else?"
"No… there was no one to talk to. Wonder Woman already got the police report. The firefighters who pulled me out have all moved to other towns." Really? All of them? That was odd. "Beyond that, I always just felt kind of… unwelcome here, like I don't belong." She shook her head. "It's dumb, but I think everyone here is such a tight community that just being around them reminds me that missing my own family."
I didn't say anything, looking past her to see a family seated on the other side of the diner from us. A father and son were sitting next to each other, and I saw the young boy get a mischievous look before he blew his straw wrapper at the older man. The father frowned… before he grinned and fired back with his own straw wrapper.
"...Yeah. I think I know what you mean."
It was then our waitress came by, a perky young woman with blonde curls. "Can I get you folks anything else?" She asked with a slight drawl.
I collected myself. "No, I think we'll just take the check." I said.
She nodded and wrote on her tiny clipboard before looking back at both of us. "So, you two new in town? Not a lot of people come through this part of the state, and I think I'd remember a nice young couple like you two."
"We've got business in town," Donna said. "Oh, and we're not a couple."
The waitress arched an eyebrow, and a small smirk crossed her face. "Not with that attitude, you're not." Donna looked at the waitress in confusion, but she had already turned her attention to me. "You here looking for a job at the new textile mill? A lot of people are hoping it will get the town out it's slump."
I shook my head. "No, it's more personal than that. We'll probably only be here for the afternoon, a day or two tops."
"Well," she finished writing the check and placed it in front of me with a grin. "I hope you enjoy Willowbrook."
The waitress walked away and I put cash down on the table. I was about to stand when I noticed there was more on the back of the check. I flipped it over and my eyebrows shot up. "What?" Donna asked.
"...She gave me her phone number."
"You sound so surprised," Donna remarked, bemused. "This never happened to you before?"
"No. Why would it?"
Something about my tone caused her to frown. "Jacob, you do realize you're an attractive man, right?"
"Yeah, but I've only been one of those for a few months." I pointed out, getting up and heading out of the Diner. "I don't know what it's like for the rest of you beautiful people. For me it just feels like everyone else is making a mistake."
"...I swear, you're either genuinely humble or have the worst case of impostor syndrome I've ever seen." Donna muttered, following after me.
"How the hell does this place still look like this?" I asked, gesturing to the rubble-filled lot in front of us. The spot used to contain a 4 story brick apartment, which had been in less than adequate repair. The structure had completely collapsed shortly after the firefighters had pulled Donna out. But, while there certainly wasn't a building's worth of rubble before us, the lot was still just a pile of detritus. "What's it been, 16 years?"
"After the fire, the lot defaulted to the city, and they just cleaned it up enough to keep it from spilling out into the street." Donna explained, walking forward into the site. "No one's bought it from them, and they haven't found a public use for it. So, it's been left like this."
I followed after her, carefully looking around to see if anyone was watching. It was going on late afternoon, and we were in the 'downtown' area of Willowbrook, if you could call it that. There were a couple of people going about their business, but no one paid us any attention. Steeping past a crumbling wall, the two of us climbed a gentle slope of crushed brick and plaster till we were obscured from the street.
Donna stopped in the middle of the lot, taking a moment to just stand still. Then, she sighed, and gestured to the area around her. "Well, we're here, but I don't know what good it will do. I've been through this rubble twice and found nothing." She looked around expectantly. "And it doesn't seem like anything new is happening either."
"There is something new: I'm here." I said moving to the center of the lot next to her. "So, I guess I'll get to work."
With that, I formed several mechadendrite limbs under my duster and moved them into the rubble around me. I didn't find anything technological around the surface with mechanokinesis, so I had to go a little deeper. The tendrils burrowed into the ground and spread out, sensors forming on the tips.
"Really? You're just going to start digging?" Donna asked.
"The Fates said I would be here too, so I assume my presence is necessary in some way." I pointed out. "And the one thing I can think of is to try using all my fancy scanners to find something you couldn't." That said, I had no idea what that might be. Anything involved with Donna's 'origin' would probably be magical in nature. Which I couldn't really detect unless it was something obvious.
Still, I would do my best. The ends of the mechadendrites were tipped with magnetic and sonic imaging sensors. And I was regularly sending small pulses of both into the ground to get a comprehensive image of what lay beneath us. While I worked, Donna began to pace. "...What do you think they were like?"
"Huh?"
"My parents." She elaborated. "Do you think they were normal or… something else?"
I… wasn't entirely sure how to answer that. "I don't really have anything to go on, but given what the Fates said, I'm leaning towards 'normal'. Your 'something else' probably came from elsewhere."
This didn't seem to help her. "If that's the case… then what if my 'something else' caused this?" she gestured to the ruin around us.
If I wasn't rooted in place, I would have moved to her. "Donna, take if from a perpetual worrier, you can't think that. And even if something like that did happen, you would have been about 3 at the time. You wouldn't be responsible for it."
Her mouth pressed thin. "You're probably right," she muttered, but I could tell she was still thinking it. "When you got your powers, did your family-" Donna herself off, looking at me with wide eyes. "Ah, sorry, never mind." She said, remember how reticent I had been on the subject the last time we spoke of it.
I tried to say something, but nothing came out. I couldn't answer the question she was going to ask, and without telling her why… I felt an awkward gap between the two of us form, and I wasn't sure what to do about it.
So, I refocused my efforts on my scan, but I was quickly running out of places to check. The only thing the lot seemed to have was a mess of brick, wood, glass, and other building bits. Along with a lot of various bits of metal in the form of beams and pipes, though I wasn't seeing anything out of the-
I attention was brought near a partially collapsed wall, noticing a much more regular shape among the other metal objects. "I, uh, I might have found something." I muttered before I pulled my extra limbs out of the ground and walked to the spot. I looked to see if anyone was watching, and dug my mechadendrites back into the rubble right in front of me. They had to dig deep into the detritus to get at it, and I bent down to use my human hands to grab my target as it was pulled to the surface.
With a jerk I pulled it free, and Donna walked up behind me as I stood up straight with the object in hand. "I think… it's a coal box." I said. It was a metal box about a foot long and wide, and half that deep. It was bare of any markings, and had a simple latch holding it closed, though that was a bit warped. I could tell by moving it around there was something inside, something light and not coal. A little force popped the box open, and I reached in to pull out the object: A rag doll, with red hair, button eyes, and a white skirt.
A cry caused me to look to Donna, her eyes wide and her hands coming up to cover her mouth. "Donna," I asked carefully. "Do you recognize this?"
"I… don't know," she said, reaching out to gently take the doll from me. "I just saw it and I suddenly felt like I was looking at the most important thing in the world." She clutched the doll to her chest, and I saw her eyes start to water. "Why is this affecting me so much?"
I held my hand out, and she reluctantly handed the doll back. I carefully took it and turned it over in my hands, turning my sensors on the object. It wasn't made out of anything special, just cotton and polyester. It was worn down and singed, and I didn't find any residue… except something on the inside of the doll's skirt. I flipped it up and ran a wide spectrum analysis. "I think they're something written here."
Donna peered at the spot. "I can't make anything out, it's too worn." She breathed out. "I can't believe this was here the whole time. I should have dug deeper, I should have-"
"Let's focus on the moment," I interrupted. "I think I can isolate the remaining ink and extrapolate," I said, and scanning lights played over the spot. As they worked, I made a small hologram over my hand to show the letters being processed. Slowly, a sentence formed in the air.
'Property of Willowbrook Orphanage'
I looked up at Donna. "That's a lead if I've ever seen one."
Naturally, it turned out that the orphanage had closed down years ago, because nothing could be simple. The silver lining was that the orphanage was state funded, which meant that all of it's records had to be stored by law. But, the orphanage apparently never bothered getting with the digital age, so I couldn't just pull what I wanted out of a database. That left the paper records, which were stored at the county clerk's office.
Which led to us being pointed down some very narrow and dark stairs. "There are no lights down there?" I asked the clerk who had led us here.
The woman, a nice older lady with greying hair, smiled apologetically at us. "Sorry, the building's been having electrical trouble lately." She adjusted her glasses. "And I'm afraid the files you're looking for are down there. Perhaps you could come back in a few days-"
"No, we'll manage." Donna said. "Can you tell us anything about the Willowbrook Orphanage? Why did it close down?"
The woman hesitated. "I don't quite remember. I think there was some kind of minor scandal or another. The orphanage was already not doing well financially and so… that was it."
"Is there anyone in town who came from there?"
Her expression brightened. "Oh a handful, yes. Scooped right up into loving families they were. Shame that couldn't happen to all of them before the closure. Why do you ask?"
"I may want to talk to them," Donna said. "It's a long shot, but they might know something."
"Well, the records are right down there," The clerk pointed down the stairwell. "Though I wouldn't get your hopes up. I'm sure they've had such good lives since, they barely remember the orphanage. Well, if you need anything, just give a holler."
The nice old lady wandered back to her desk, and we headed down the stairs. We came to the basement door and opened it to reveal a wide open space with rows and rows of filing cabinets. And sure enough, it was quite dark, and no fiddling with the light switch changed that.
I looked at the small card attached to the key the clerk had handed me. "We're looking for cabinet 127A," I said, and walked into the basement. We got a good ways in before I realized something. "Oh, sorry, I should make a light for you."
"It's fine. I can see."
I glanced back at Donna. "You can see in the dark?"
"Since New York, yeah." She said, looking around as we passed by the rows of cabinets. "Just how big is this place?"
"It's an old town, they might be keeping records from over a century ago." I said, turning my attention to the walls. "That said, this building is relatively new. I'm not detecting any aging or problems with the wiring I can see. Probably an issue with the junction box or something."
It took us about a minute to navigate through the rows to find the cabinet we were looking for, and I opened it up with the key. "Let's see… here we are, Willowbrook Orphanage." I pulled out a thick folder bound with a cord out of the drawer. I undid the cord and started to open it before I stopped, and after a pause I held it out to Donna.
She looked at the folder for a moment before she shook her head. "I'm… we don't even know if there is anything in there. And after seeing that doll I'm getting nervous. You do it."
"Alright." I flipped open the folder… and my brow furrowed. I flipped to the next page, and the page after that. "There's… nothing here."
"Well you can't give up that fast," Donna let out an exasperated sigh. "It possible that my birth name isn't Donna-"
"No, I mean there's nothing here." I showed her folder, showing her how it was completely filled with blank pieces of paper.
She snatched the folder from me and started flipping through the pages herself, but they were all the same. It was just a few hundred sheets of simple copy paper. "I don't understand, what does this mean?"
"...this isn't just a clerical error or some of the original files went missing. Someone intentionally filled this." I reasoned out loud. "Someone took or destroyed the original files."
"But why would-" Donna started to ask, but stopped when she flipped the last page. It too was blank, but moving it revealed that the back of the folder it had been covering had scrolling patterns and circles covering it. The moment it was fully revealed, the lines began to shimmer and-
I both saw and felt the space around us warp. The space between the filing cabinets got bigger, the cabinets themselves started to stretch upwards along with the ceiling, and I saw the rows start to twist and branch off from each other. "What the..." Donna looked around. "Some kind of trap?"
"Looks like it's turning into a labyrinth… but it's still building itself." I said, trying to keep my disorientation in check. I was getting conflicting feedback from my various senses, telling me the space was expanding but also staying the same. It felt like two spaces were being overlaid over each other. But… "Whatever this is doesn't affect the walls, I still feel the wiring. Follow me, we have to get out of here before the trap closes."
Using the wall wiring as a guide I bolted straight for the exit, Donna close behind. Walls of filing cabinets sprung up in our way, but in spite of their size they were still just made of normal metal. And that was not nearly enough to stop the likes of me and Donna. What was a problem though was how the space was getting bigger and bigger, and the exit getting farther away. I accelerated, everything becoming a blur of crushing metal and flying papers until-
I suddenly slammed into the stairs that had taken us down to the basement, breaking them a little. Donna then tumbled into me at top speed, breaking them more. We pulled ourselves up to see the doorway we had come through twist and ripple before it snapped back into place. Past the door I could see a mess of broken filing cabinets in an otherwise unremarkable basement.
I stared for a moment before I turned to Donna "I think this counts as something else."
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