Drake sighed as he sat in the interrogation room. For hours now, they cops had been asking him the same questions over and over. Where was Paige? Why was he angry with her? Where did he have her? He was the last person to see her, so he was their prime suspect.
The knob on the locked door turned, letting the two main cops back inside. This time, they carried a baggie.
The thinner one threw the bag on the table. "You mind explaining that, son?"
"It's dirt. So?"
"It's dirt from the wheels of your car. It matches a sample we took from the woods, about half an hour from the city. Cameras on the street lights on that part of town caught your car down in the suburbs the day Paige Barnett went missing. You were driving through town to get to the woods. Why?"
"I picked her flowers," Drake honestly replied. "Wild daisies, her favorite, from the spot where we had our first date."
"The woods is a mighty strange place to have a date, son."
"We've both been through a lot. The woods gave us comfort."
"What do you mean by 'a lot'?"
Drake sighed again. They would never believe him. "Paige and I met during an experiment process. Called the AVCORP project. They sent our subconsciouses into a virtual world while they experimented on our brains. We were sent to an island. Paige and I spent a lot of time together, wandering the tropical forest. When we escaped, we chose the woods because it reminded us of our time together."
Both cops broke out in a fit of laughter.
"What are you smoking, kid?"
"How come we've never heard of this 'AVCORP project' before?"
"It was top secret. During our escape, we burned down the place. All the evidence was lost. What remained was probably destroyed by the scientists who survived the fire. I'm telling you, it was real."
"Sure thing, kid. Let's see how that holds up in court!"
"Come on, son, tell us where the girl is."
"I've already told you! I didn't kidnap Paige. Loki did."
"The guy The Avengers beat the crap out of six years ago? Okay. You need help, kid."
The two cops left the room, still reveling in their fit of laughter, as Drake laid his head on the table. It was going to be a long day.
/
Brooke stopped outside the local police station and cocked her head. "This one."
Bruce groaned and leaned his hands down on his knees, trying to catch his breath. For such a small woman, she moved fast. And sure. He had to learn quickly how to not run into everyone on the street as she wove her way seamlessly through the crowd. He looked up at the building. "We have to go in there?"
"I go in," Brooke corrected. "Beasty helps if nothing goes right."
"Yeah, that makes me feel ten times better." Bruce stood up straight and took one last deep breath to still the pain in his side. "I'm coming with you."
Brooke rolled her eyes over to look at him and shrugged. "Can't stop you."
"Absolutely right."
"Mission is a go." Brooke flipped her hair over her shoulder and strutted through the front door.
The receptionist at the front desk looked at them like she had seen aliens that looked more normal. She eyed Bruce twice, probably because she recognized him as "that guy who turned into a giant green monster". He winced at the stereotype.
"I'm here for a boy." Brooke's voice suddenly sounded completely normal, and her gaze would have stunned a horse. "Don't try to stop me, because my lawyer will have words with you if you do." She smiled for a split second, snapped to Bruce, and cat-walked through the side door.
"Where's he at?" Bruce asked quietly as the door clicked closed behind them.
Brooke shrugged. "Never know. Follow the lines."
"What lines?"
"Arrows and lines, hanging on air. Never wrong."
Bruce would have made a smart comeback, but two cops came out of nowhere and pulled Brooke aside. One pinned her to the wall, while the other pulled a taser and started for Bruce.
"You really don't want to do that," Bruce pleaded.
The cop shook his head. "You two aren't supposed to be back here. How'd you even get in?"
"Probably used her pretty little head."
Brooke shrieked and struggled to free her incapacitated limbs as the cop used one leg to hold hers still and one arm to pin the rest of her to the wall. A super spy wasn't much use when she didn't have the room to do her thing.
"Brooke!" Bruce sprang forward when he saw the cop's intent was to harm her. The second cop plugged the taser into Bruce's neck.
Bruce fell to the floor, momentarily hurt, and turned his changing eyes to the cop who'd done the hurting. "Bad choice." A muscle enlarged and popped his shirt sleeve from his arm. His skin gradually faded from white to green. Soon, the hallway barely fit him. He swatted the cop with a taser aside with one arm and grabbed the other by his collar.
Brooke scrambled out from where the man had pinned her and flattened herself by a door. Hulk flung the cop through a wall and turned to Brooke, who smiled.
"Find Dragon."
The two began pounding on doors.
/
Drake looked up from the table when he heard a commotion out in the hall. It sounded like one of the prisoners had started a fight.
Without warning, the one-way mirror next to him shattered into a thousand pieces as a large green monster burst its way through. Its yellow toothy grin nearly caused Drake to faint.
He frantically yanked on his handcuffs, desperately attempting to flee from the green giant in front of him. Within moments, his head began to swim. He really did feel like he was fainting. He felt it as his hands slid from the cuffs and his body hit the floor. But, then he couldn't feel the floor under him. It was as if he was floating in space.
Drake opened his eyes to see a vast desert stretching for miles in every direction. Tall shadows dotted the horizon here and there. The tallest ones seemed to be faded images of buildings. In front of him, the green monster seemed to be made of black sand that was quickly blowing away on the wind. His image was faded, like he was standing behind murky glass. The monster's expression was one of confusion, as it turned in a circle, searching for something.
Drake reached out a hand to touch the horrible beast. As quickly as everything had transfigured, it returned to normal. However, he was now standing on the opposite side of the room, mere inches away from the overgrown savage.
With a cry, Drake dropped to the ground, covering his head with his arms, as if that would somehow protect him from getting tossed, squished, or eaten.
/
Another wall smashed in, Brooke could hear it as she stepped through a now open wall and glanced at the girl sitting idly in the corner. Flashlights in her hands. Wait, no. No flashlights. Hands were lights. Strange.
Brooke moved on, following Beasty, and stopped when she saw Dragon. He sank to the ground like black water and came back up again the same way.
Beasty reached for another wall, but Brooke threw herself in front of him and held up both hands, hair flying. "Beasty!"
Hulk stopped and looked down at the tiny woman before him.
"Stop."
He huffed and panted, but didn't move.
Brooke smiled and grabbed one of his huge hands. He lifted her like she weighed nothing. She looked down to Dragon, in the fetal position. "Dragon, no fear. Dragon is brave. Beasty'll get us out." She held a hand toward him. "Come."
Drake blinked and sat up on his knees, confused at the small woman hanging above him from the monster's hand. "You're riding that thing?" he asked, still in shock.
After a few more moments to get over the shock and prove he hadn't lost his mind entirely, Drake stood to his feet. "How did I get out of the cuffs? And did you see that? The world turned to sand." He reached up and grabbed Brooke's hand, hoisting himself up to join her on the massive beast. "Just don't drop me, alright big guy?"
Brooke grunted as she used all her muscles to hoist Dragon up with her. "Beasty's nice," Brooke explained. "Ground not sand, Dragon turned to water. Black, black water with nowhere to go."
"Black water?" Drake asked, confused. "What do you mean? Everything else changed."
Before she could say another word, Hulk dove through another wall – back first so as not to harm the young people – and took off running down the street. Brooke used all her concentration to cling to the hand holding her.
Drake gasped and clung tightly to the green beast as it shoved its way through another wall. Its thunderous running nearly caused him to faint again. His skin began to turn a few shades darker.
/
Kitania turned off the lumen in her hands and tiptoed to the smashed-in wall. She was pretty sure she had just seen the Hulk blaze a trail through the police station. Or had she just been hallucinating again?
Something metal groaned in the nearby wall, possibly causing the structure to shift, and she skittered across the boundary line into the next room. If she followed the breaks, she would eventually find a way outside, right? She hoped her theory was right.
Her only crime had been standing too long outside a downtown bakery, and the owner had grown suspicious and called the cops. Since she wouldn't give them a last name, they had somehow decided she must be a criminal and taken her into custody. Yeah, right. She had never broken a law in her life, but she had been around those that would. And he couldn't find her. Not ever.
She smiled widely when she found a giant hole in the side wall and saw the people walking by on the street. All looked the other way, probably in the direction Hulk had gone. Which left only one thing for her to do.
Kitania pulled a hood up over her long, dark hair and started in the opposite direction.