The doorbell of the Berlitz household ran waking Dawn up. The girl fell asleep on the couch waiting for her classmate who never came. She heard him last night slam his phone on the bed leaving her hanging. Stirring her body she rubbed her eyes seeing the time. Getting up from the couch she looked through the small glass pane in the door she yanked it open yelling at the boy who stood on her porch.

"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!"

Throwing a punch out of anger he wasn't expecting it hitting him in the chest. It was weak compared to what he's used too but he caught both her arms stopping her from hitting him. Staring at him Ash could read the whirlpool of emotions in Dawn's pearl blue eyes. Anger, frustration, sadness and tiredness among others.

"I'm sorry." Pulling her close to him he hugged her and rubbed her back. Crying over her mother in his chest it was weird seeing the normally strong willed and stubborn girl reduced to a toddler that only wanted to be in her mothers arms.

"I found your mother." Ash gave the good news on what he's been doing since their call. Dawn looked at him with tear filled eyes. Ash continued further trying to lift her spirit.

"She's being treated in the hospital as we speak."

Dawn cried some more. He tried to calm her down.

"Don't cry. She's safe."

"That's why I'm crying." He allowed her to continue to weep rubbing her back in comfort. Dawn finished after a few good minutes of sobbing she pulled away from him. Helping her sit down on the couch.

"I know you want to see her but I need your help."

"What can I do?" Anything to repay him for finding her mother Dawn would do anything he asked.

"I need to know why they were here in the first place. I chased them away before they got to far inside in my house so that that they didn't have a shot at what they wanted. I want to search your house with a friend for clues on why they wanted her and you as well as Leona's and Ursula's." Hearing her friends names she gasped realizing just how lucky she was.

"Them too!? What's going on!?"

Dawn invited him into her house to do his research. Even though he's been inside many times for a school assignment there was a different tone to it. Not soon after Ash was let in the house the doorbell ran again. He went and opened the door. Dawn saw an older male with the same sort of spiky black hair looking a lot like a taller Ash. If she didn't know better she would've said he was his cousin.

"This is the friend I told you about. He's a private detective. He owes me some favors after I rescued him from some robbers in a pinch and together are working on my museum case."

He didn't wanted to lie to her but he needed an excuse for why Riley is here for detective work without revealing he has aura powers too. The two agreed earlier on this act after losing Glaceon to a rain of icy spikes, they heard the sirens of police and ambulances round the area they rescued the woman. Since the authorities took it from there the two aura users decided to go to the place that they heard it from.

"I'm Riley. I have a detective agency in town. I need to know all that happened when you got home. Just from the start." Riley getting into his character of being a private detective. Having a secret identity tends to make you proficient at lying so he 's a quite convincing actor to the girl. Dawn told him all she told Ash when she got home and how she called the boy to tell her mother was kidnapped.

"Was the door unlocked when you got home?" Riley continued his questioning of the girl after hearing the story. Riley moved to the front door and studied the lock there was no sign of forced entry.

"No signs of picking it. The door was opened from the inside. Or someone picked the lock. But because there are the inner locks with chains the door was opened voluntarily."

He concluded. Even if he knows they got in he still kept up the part of reconstructing the crime scene. He and Ash were more interested on the motive of the kidnapping.

"Why would mom open it? It makes no sense!"

"What makes no sense to me is that your house isn't a complete mess." Ash said. Looking all around the house there was nothing out of place. No turned over drawers, broken furniture and the pictures on the wall still in place thinking there might be a wall safe behind them.

"Why go through all the effort of kidnapping and not rob the place while you're in it?"

"Do you have any rare jewelry in the family? Some heirloom maybe? Your mother was a model right? She might have something in the line of wealth." Riley asking the Berlitz daughter.

"No. Mom doesn't keep diamonds in the house and everyone knows that. She told that to everyone in her retirement speech and it's a public secret. I've never seen anything of much value in this house. Mom gave up all her jewelry and all the money is in a bank account off shores. The only thing she has is a bunch of earrings and you can buy those at the shopping mall."

"But the drawers are unturned. If they were desperate for the access code they would've turned this place upside down."

Ash butted in. This wasn't an ordinary kidnapping or theft. And this didn't tie in with why his mom or some of his classmates were also abducted since they didn't share Johanna's supposed wealth. Only Leona who was the heir to a hot spring bathing house might come close to it and he doubted it was such a lucrative business compared to modeling.

"Did you find a note or anything that demanded ransom?" Riley asked.

"Nothing. I already went through the rest of the house and as usual the windows are sealed tight at night." Dawn told the detective with Ash confirming her statement.

"I can testify. Unless I use my strength to lift those windows they don't open from the outside. Not without ripping the whole thing out." The two went looking through the house for clues but nothing unusual showed up. Dawn wanted to help too but Ash told her she could do something else.

"We'll continue looking for more. Get freshened up. Nobody needs to see you like that. Your mom is going to worry more if you went to her looking like you do." He escorted her to the bathroom being in the house a bunch of times before. She went inside and locked the door. Ash went back to Riley cause he wanted to talk a bit more about what was going on.

"We're doing hospital watching tonight. They might come for them again and the last thing we want is a repeat of tonight. I'll meet you on the roof and we'll discuss things further there. I need some time to think about this. There's just way too much going on."

Getting their plan for tonight out of the way they'd talk about this later on the roof. The two also needed a talk about the new figure with ice powers showing up. At least Ash will be staying close to mom and his classmates later. Nearly dying for Dawn to finish up so that they can go to the hospital to visit their parent Riley left the Berlitz household with too much on his mind.

Ash while waiting for Dawn to finish up her cleaning turned on the TV. He had no doubt that just like last time he'd been featuring on the news prominently, only this time in a brighter light then the last time he was featured.

"There were bodies everywhere!"

"Yep. Definitely more positive than last time."

"I don't know what happened. We were all blindfolded and all of a sudden the people who knocked on our doors were laid out. We heard screaming and two figures stood there, one of them like one of the people who fought in the museum."

"One of them froze the hinges and the other rolled it away with the strength of ten men!"

"That's a bit much. I'm not that strong." Listening further in to news snippets regarding the matter. A mass kidnapping like this was sure to be the talk of the town for weeks to come.

"One of them was certainly the vigilante. And I don't know the other but he has snow or ice powers! It's not just a rumor I tell you! There are super powered humans! Not just in movies or comics!"

"You'll get frozen if she hears that." Ash said a bit out loud remembering her small outburst of being called a guy.

"She? You know who it is? And ice powers!?" Dawn had walked down and heard the news as well.

"I didn't hear you come down."

"You were in monologue to yourself. You looked adorable so I didn't interrupt you." Dawn mocked him a bit to take the tension off. Now that she freshened up a bit she locked tge door to her house and together with Ash went on their walk to the hospital.

"So? A she huh?" Dawn eager to hear more of the adventures her raven haired friend had been going through. They talked a bit quietly and took a few shortcuts. Normally Johanna always warned her not to take them due to creepy characters that can lurk there, but with a fighter like Ash next to her she didn't had much to worry about this time. Her worries were better placed elsewhere now.

"Yes. She's just as much a mystery as my other problem. At least she appears to be on my side. But who knows who or what she's really after. Whoever she is, there's too many questions to answer now."

Dawn meanwhile had an answer to minor question to him now. Something he asked her recently and was willing to help him with.

"I have an answer to one of your questions. Yes." He didn't know what she meant. Did she withheld something from him relating to his problems?

"Yes to what?"

"Prom. I'll be your prom date." Hearing that Dawn wants to be his prom date in a few months sounded wrong to him. He felt it sound like some sort of thanks for doing what was the right thing. He told her why he didn't wanted to accept her offer.

"That joke I made about impressing me? Forget it. I know how busy you are and you don't have time to come up with anything clever for me like I asked of you. You're better off spending time keeping the city safe and recovering between your adventures."

"You don't have to do this just because I rescued your mother. I'm not looking for a reward or anything. You're not some prize I get for doing the right thing."

"I know. But I want too."

"Are you sure? It just doesn't feel right. I feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

"When mom was missing I called you first instead of the police. I'm the one taking advantage of knowing what you can do. I never should've called you to begin with and I'm sorry."

"Calling me was the best choice you could've made. I'm the one for being sorry that I didn't contact you."

"All is forgiven. You found her after all."

"But I can't take it you know?"

"Just…just think about what I said and send a text once in a while. If there's anything I can do for you and your detective friend to help just ask."

"You just take care of your mom when she gets out of the hospital. She's more important right now. Don't worry about me." He took a turn away from the direction they were going.

"This way. I need to get something first." They went into another alleyway. With no one around finding it safe enough he told Dawn to keep quiet. With a huge leap Ash jumped higher than Dawn had ever seen before of him or any other human. The rooftop he was checking was the one he left his bag behind the night before. Seeing it still in the same spit he left it he went over to it.

"Still here. Perfect."

Grabbing his bag he checked if everything was still in there. With that fear over he jumped back down to Dawn again landing in front of her with a hard thud. She found it a miracle he didn't shatter his legs on impact.

The hospital coming into sight they saw a huge line of ambulances and news reporter vans parked outside. Some of the reporters demanding entry while a spokesperson of the police and hospital explained and informed matters for the viewers back home. Ash and Dawn forced their way through the crowd with the girl covering her face a bit in fear to be recognized as the little girl of a celebrity and pelt her with questions. After hearing what departments their mothers were in they separated.

"Hey mom." The guardian went inside the room his mother was laying down. A feeling of relief went over him when he saw her smile. Even if Delia wasn't taken away like others he still felt more relaxed seeing her in ok condition.

"Everything ok?"

"I should be asking you after watching the news."

His mother said having watched the news in the room she was in with another patient. The hospital was stacked so there were rooms that had to be shared so he closed in on her and whispered so that the other people in the room couldn't hear them.

"One of them has to learn to write with his left cause he's gonna have trouble writing right for the next few months. And some others have minor concussions and broken ribs."

"Good boy." Ash's mom never was one to promote violence but hearing the news and the ordeal other mothers went through she knew she was incredibly lucky not to be taken.

"After what they did to you, they deserved what was coming to them." Ash agreeing with her. He only wished he got more time alone with the kidnappers and that ice girl got a head start on them.

"So how are you feeling?"

"I should be fine to go back home tomorrow. Not any major injury to speak off. They'll keep in for another night and without any complication I should be allowed to go home tomorrow."

"That's great."

"Mom? Do you mind if I check up on some friends? I want to check up on them."

"Did you finish your homework?" He snickered a bit. As always he finished it before heading out which he told her. Sure she knows he's a hero of some sorts but no matter what kind of trouble he gets in, Ash will always ne her little boy

"Love you." Ash gave her a small peck on the forehead. He wasn't normally that affectional but this time warranted an exception. Telling her to get her rest he went out to check on the others he knew involved in this city wide event.

Just a bridging chapter for now.

Next we'll focus on Dawn a bit more and see what exactly Johanna's and Lila's phone call was all about. I needed this buildup for the coming chapters.

You'll see.

See you around.