More waiting around, another cheap coffee. Her uncomfortable glasses made her nose itch, the price of wearing a spare pair. The situation seemed so repetitive as she sat as near as possible to Prism's office, once again suffering through a bad drink to look less conspicuous. She had planted herself at a cheap-looking table outside for a better view of the street, despite being near the centre of Metropolis it very much felt like an off-shoot. The street seemed only to be occupied by people rushing by or cars slowly trundling through to avoid worse traffic elsewhere, the dull weather amplified the mundanity. Prism's headquarters address had been on their website and it was easy enough to find. Their building looked as bland as everything else. It was still quite early, so very few had gone anywhere near the building. The only people that had gone in looked nothing like the pictures of Jo. Her eyes were drawn to the Prism logo, the red sitting at the top of the spectrum mocked her. Coincidence or not, there was no escaping the domineering red light in her life.
It felt like so much more waiting was involved with this job than she remembered. This was only amplified by the desire to go out there and be Supergirl instead. She found herself questioning why she was even sitting around here in the first place. This whole endeavour was supposed to remind her of who she was as Kara Danvers or provide some respite to the ring with an alternative approach. Instead, all she noticed was she was lacking the rush she got from putting down the unjust. With her speed and the ring's hunger for action she knew she could stop a several crimes before Jo even turned up. It was an itch that she was not letting herself scratch. Her eyes glazed over at the resentment of constantly having to restrain herself. There was no telling exactly when Jo would arrive, if she was unlucky she may have headed straight out to site visits and might not be at the office for the entire day. She did her best not to dwell on it. If it took too long she could just go in and ask around, though she preferred to interact with as few people as possible.
As she was contemplating possible bad luck, someone walked right by her table and into the coffee shop. Kara did not think much of it at first, focusing on Prism. Though as she processed what she saw, a tall, brown-eyed woman with shoulder-length hair, it dawned on her who it was. Her eyes and hair seemed a shade lighter than what she'd seen on twitter, but it was Joanna Wallace that had just walked into the coffee shop and joined a small queue. She looked down at her own half-finished coffee, she could catch Joanna on the way out. She watched her as subtly as she could get away with. Her voice seemed slightly gravelly, apart from that there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a woman on her way to work getting a coffee. With coffee in hand Joanna moved off, narrowly avoiding another patron despite him being in clear view. After a small exchange and an apology she swung the door open.
"Excuse me?" Kara said. There was no response or acknowledgement. Kara stood up and tried again.
"Prism Electricals?" She said more forcefully, though trying not to be too loud. Joanna seemed startled as she turned and gave Kara a suspicious look over.
"Can I help you?" she said. Kara walked over to her, hoping to shake off the attention of a couple of confused onlookers.
"Sorry to startle you. I'm Kara Danvers, a reporter for CatCo. I'm looking into the Metropolis power outages," she said. Joanna's eyes narrowed.
"Why me?" She said. Kara did not miss a beat as an explanation flew out of her mouth.
"I was at a transformer site recently regarding the story. I'm trying to get a better understanding of it all and one of the security guys said to go to the manufacturer," she said, purposefully not letting on she was looking for her specifically. Joanna's expression softened, she looked over her shoulder to Prism's headquarters, then back at Kara. With a brief glance at her watch she nodded.
"I have to be at work soon, this'll have to be quick," she said.
"Any of your time is valuable," Kara smiled at her, beckoning her to her table. This friendly persona of hers she used to sport by default was exhausting to maintain. As the two got settled, Joanna rested her cup on a napkin and Kara whipped a tablet out from her bag. Joanna winced as she took a sip of the coffee.
"Too hot?" Kara said, attempting to be polite.
"Nah, I just don't normally drink the stuff," she said. Kara nodded, half-listening as she prepped her tablet to take any notes.
"You're not writing that down, are you?" Joanna said. Kara glanced up at her.
"What? Oh, no I'm just setting up," she said.
"Did you know I'd be here, this still seems a little strange," she said. Looking at her coffee again, it looked like she was trying to muster up courage to take another sip.
"I was going to your office, got here earlier than I thought so decided to have a sit down until office hours started. You just happened to walk right by me," she said.
"And you know I worked there?" Her suspicion not totally quashed. Kara raised an eyebrow and glanced at her polo shirt. The Prism logo was stitched in on the right side, not the real reason Kara had recognised her, but it worked in her favour. Joanna tracked down to wear Kara was looking and laughed slightly.
"Ah… that's a bit of a giveaway isn't it," she said.
"Is it okay for me to ask you a few questions on the record?" Kara said. She was not sure if she was actually going to do a write-up, but it would not hurt to have the option.
"Sure," she said, taking out a pencil of her own.
"Can I get your name and position please?" Kara said.
"Joanna Wallace, you can call me Jo. I'm a technician, mainly dealing with the equipment we provide for clients and the city," she said.
"Thank you, Jo. Seems I found the right person to talk too, as a technician I assume you do inspections and visits, is there anything wrong with the tech in the blackout areas?" She said.
"Look, I'll be honest, there's not a lot I can tell you that the big-wigs haven't already confirmed. Everything seems to be in order before and after the power goes out," she said, idly drawing on her napkin.
"There must be something they're not saying, I mean that doesn't make a whole lot of sense," she said.
"If it made any sense they might be able to stop it happening," she said. Kara's eyes flitted away for a moment. She pushed her glasses higher up her nose.
"You haven't had any direct contact with the machines that are playing up?" Kara said.
"Afraid not, sorry if that isn't helpful," she said. Kara was sure she was being lied too, Robert's statement proved that much. What gave her pause was how the ring did not react, it never kept quiet if there was any malicious intent toward her. She brushed it with her thumb, the constant burning from it rose slightly, Joanna's eyes darted to her hand as it did. Kara reached out to her tablet with her ring hand, worried it had made itself visible on its own bizarre whim. She stretched out at the screen and saw no ring on her hand. It was still invisible, yet Joanna's eyes followed her hand intently.
"Jo?" Kara said. Jo shook her head in a quick motion and blinked very quickly.
"Sorry, another reason I may not be of much help. I've been a bit out of it recently, I've been thinking about taking some days off work, it's just I haven't had this job that long, you know?" She said. Kara quickly forced another smile in an attempt to reassure, unable to decide whether it was for her or Jo.
"I get it, probably just stress of the new job, you'll settle in," Kara said. She spotted an opportunity in the barely touched coffee. "You know, overdoing caffeine will probably cause more harm than good." Jo sucked in some air through her teeth.
"I doubt I'd be able to have finished it anyway, no idea why people obsess over that stuff" Jo said.
"Can I have it? Hate to see it go to waste," Kara said.
"Sure," Jo said, merrily pushing the cup away from her side of the table.
"Is there anything you can tell me from a technician's perspective that'll give me more of an insight?" Kara said.
"You can maybe find out who serviced them directly, but I'm afraid I can't think of anything," she glanced at her watch and sat up straight. "Sorry, I need to get going. I feel like you've wasted your time."
"Don't worry about it, it was a gamble anyway," Kara said. She watched Jo gather her things and bid her goodbye. She watched her walk off, not looking for traffic as she crossed the street into the nearby office. Kara listened in, only a few greetings were thrown around, she tuned out of it before long. She glanced at where her ring would be and took a deep breath. Her time with Jo had only spawned more questions. She had lied, and something was certainly off about her. She was sure Jo had something to do with it all or was hiding something. It was the ring's lack of interest in anything Jo said or did that threw a spanner in the works. She waited a moment before picking up the coffee Jo had left her. She looked at the rim before reaching for her phone. Lena's name was sitting at the top of her speed-dial list. Kara fiddled with the cup and anything within reach while the phone rang, she dragged over Joanna's napkin. She had drawn another Lotus, similar to the ones she had on her twitter feed.
"Hi Kara, I'm with someone at the moment," Lena's voiced broke the ambience.
"Not a problem, but I could call later?" This was usually Lena's way of making sure any Supergirl related topics were worded carefully, but Kara liked to check anyway.
"Erm… give me a few moments" Lena said, she heard Lena tell someone to hold on, echoing footsteps and a door shut before her voice was clear again. "Alright, what do you need?"
"I'll be quick. Do you know anything about the power cuts in Metropolis?" she said, looking up at some sad looking power-lines.
"Only in passing, why?" she said.
"I've spent this break investigating it." She picked up the cup again. "I've got a coffee cup someone drank from, I'm assuming you can determine if someone's a meta-human or an alien from their DNA?"
"You're reporting again? That's great to hear," Lena stopped, it sounded like she was hoping for a response of some kind, Kara stayed silent. With a reluctant hesitation Lena carried on "As to your question, I can do that, although I'd like a bit more detail before doing something of that nature."
"I found and spoke to someone that seems close to it all. She was lying about her whereabouts and seems a little off to me." Kara thought back to her experience outside the hospital and Joanna's laser focus on the invisible ring. "My theory is she may have the ability to siphon or steal energy."
"What do you mean by a little off?" Lena said.
"A bit spaced out, overly tired. It could just be the stress of her job, but something just seems wrong about it to me." There was a pause before Lena responded. "Lena?"
"Can you bring this cup to me at 11am? I'll be in my L-Corp office, we can talk about your reporting and catch up a bit," she said.
"Sure," Kara said, she was not sure she had a whole lot to say to her, but Lena always liked to offer.
"Who is this person by the way?" Lena said.
"A technician at an electronics manufacturer called Prism, Joanna Wallace," she said.
"Thanks, I think my forensics gear was starting to feel unloved anyway. Anything else?" Lena said. Lena's closeness to her lab equipment was a cute little quirk of hers.
"No, that'll do for now. See you at eleven," she said.
"Bye for now, take care," Lena said
"Thanks, you too," she said, the call ended. Kara grabbed the cup, she did not want to pursue Prism or Jo any further without confirmation. Her phone returned to its dormant state. She stared at the Prism logo again. There was no joy from what was feeling like progress. Old Kara would have been relentless in pursuing the case until everything was put to light. If this investigation was about finding that old spark, it was failing miserably. She thought back to Bloodsport, Bleez hitting him had been a rush akin to what reporting had once been to her. Shielding the hospital and her talk with Bleez only further muddied her grasp of what she was going through. The ring no doubt had its claws dug into how she thought and acted. Her boredom with this case and the thrill of violence was a largely new phenomenon after all. What she did not want to think about was how much of an influence the ring really was. It felt far too easy to purely blame it, these feelings the ring was latching on to and pushing forward had to have come from somewhere. Fronts, hiding and layers. She was undecided how much of Kara Danver's actions were hers or if the ring was merely accelerating how she had always longed to be. Even if it sat somewhere in the middle, the potential danger she presented to everyone around her was obvious to see. It was a danger she knew even Lena may not be immune to. It added a certain edge to arranging another meeting with her.
A large truck noisily whooshed by, breaking her sight to the prism logo and that domineering red in its spectrum. She tore her sight away and looked back at the table. The empty chair, artful napkin and coffee sat quietly. The ring sent another burning pulse through her veins as she stepped off and gathered what she needed, clearly it enjoyed the idea of tormenting her now she had a couple of hours to kill.