Author's Notes: I would like to thank my reviewers. I appreciate your kind words, everyone!

Vaudeville -- Thank you for giving my story a chance. I hope I do not disappoint. :)

MK08 -- Please write! I will send dogs after you if you do not post this story.

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Ch. 3

Laurie looked behind her, half-expecting the masked man to be there. Nothing yet. He was late tonight. Or maybe he was watching her from the shadows again. The thought always creeped her out, even now when she realized he was harmless.

Well, using the word harmless to describe the man seemed out of place. Harmless towards her, maybe -- perhaps not even that. Laurie shivered at the thought.

It had been a week since she had spoken to him. After that night she thought maybe she had spooked him away, but the next night he had resumed his old habit of following her and she accepted it. She had scoured the newspapers after they met, looking for any mention of him. She found a brief mention of Ozymandias one day, two articles on Dr. Manhattan. A whole mountain of crime reports. She was surprised by how much went on in the city. Briefly she wondered why nothing was being done when they had a man with god-like powers working for the country.

Laurie was also beginning to wonder what the point of costumed heroes was. She remembered how Hollis, after a few too many drinks and having lost his more optimistic edge had told her how a costumed hero was only good for fighting costumed villains. Her mother had shushed him after that, but Laurie couldn't help but agree. Why couldn't they all just train to become police officers? Join the military forces? Wasn't it their job to begin with? What kind of villain dressed up in costume, nowadays?

Exasperated, Laurie had searched the papers for any mention of "masked crime commiters" as she liked to think of them. Finally, in an obscure magazine, she saw headlines for "The Twilight Lady". Laurie thought the name was pretty, though when she found a picture of her she was reminded of her mother's old costume. Still, she was what she was looking for, and it was a woman, even. Laurie hadn't heard of any super villainesses. Were there even any during the Minutemen era? She made a mental note to herself to ask Hollis about it later.

The Twilight Lady. Laurie had no idea what she did that was bad. She was described as a vice-queen, and Laurie didn't know what that was. If she was making trouble, however, Laurie was going to find her and stop her. Unfortunately, she had no idea on where or how to start. She just hoped that by keeping an eye out for her, she would somehow stumble across her through blind luck or chance.

Laurie took a sharp intake of air as someone suddenly loomed next to her, quickly snapping her out of her musings. It was the masked man. She started to admonish him in her surprise, but he seemed to be trying to silence her with his arm, though he wasn't facing her. Confused, she looked ahead and saw two men struggling with a large crate. She had been so lost in thought she hadn't even seen them. She squeezed her eyes shut in shame, wanting to yell at herself for being so reckless. The masked man didn't seem to care or judge -- at least not right now -- he motioned for her to follow him into the shadows, where they silently watched the men unload the crate into a truck. The men turned and went into a warehouse. The masked man turned to Laurie.

"You may go now," he said in an authoritative tone while waving his hand at her as if dismissing a servant.

"Well thank you," said Laurie, putting her hands on her hips.

"Will take care of them. Safe for you to leave."

"Can't I help you?"

"No need. Two. Can handle."

The masked man turned and left before she could think of a suitable retort. Watching the man leave, Laurie couldn't blame him. Afterall, she hadn't even been able to spot the crate handlers. She wanted to kick herself for that. The masked man re-emerged from the building a few moments later, then cocked his head at her.

"Why still here?" he asked.

"I don't know."

Laurie turned and left quickly before he could interrogate her further. She had wanted to ask him if she could join him, but at the same instant realized that she really had nothing to offer him. She had no experience and would probably just give him trouble. She didn't like to work alone, but she wanted to prove her worth and catch the Twilight Lady. Then she could ask him.

Laurie spent the rest of the night actively searching. She now knew why the masked man hadn't followed her that night -- he was too busy with his own case. She stopped for a moment, realizing that he could have been on the look out for the Twilight Lady. He might even know something about her. Why didn't she ask? Laurie was furious at herself now. She almost went home for good that moment, her hands clutching at her face. When she looked up again, she was surprised to see three men arguing a couple of blocks down. Next to them was a crate. Intrigued, she came closer to listen in.

"...I'm telling you, he said he would be here."

"We've been waiting ten minutes, Jerry. We can't afford to wait any longer."

"What are we supposed to do with the fucking crate?"

"Just put it back and wait to hear from Hersch."

Grunting sounds.

"Christ, this is heavy."

"Just shut up and help me."

Laurie briefly contemplated beating them senseless, but she wanted to see where they took the crate. The men struggled as if the crate weighed several tons, but they managed to make it into a small warehouse marked "LD 7". The two men who had been carrying the crate panted and complained for a few moments while the third man looked around, briefly glancing down at his watch before shrugging. He turned to say something to the other two, but Laurie, having sacrificed her hearing for concealment, was unable to determine what was being said. The three men left. Laurie waited ten minutes before quietly making her way towards the warehouse. She looked around many times, though she saw no one. She imagined that somehow the masked man was out there watching her. She crept inside, finding hundreds of crates identical to the one the men were carrying. She walked to the nearest one and was able to open it after a few moments of struggling. Breaking it open would have been easier, but she didn't want the men to know she had been there. Inside the crate was packing straw and decorative wooden candle holders. Laurie was baffled. She picked one up and judging by how light it was, it was pretty cheap. All this secrecy over a few thousand candle holders, and they weren't even expensive.

Laurie paused, set the candle holder back inside, then stooped to pick up the crate. It was unbelievably light. Turning towards the other crates, she started to pick them up at random. All light. Half a dozen crates in, she found one that was almost too heavy for her to lift. Laurie opened the crate, and... more candle holders. She picked one up. Heavy. She turned it around in her hand -- there wasn't anything ordinary about it, just a normal candle holder. She tried to study it in the dim light, but couldn't find anything. She moved to a corner of the warehouse, where the moonlight was streaming in through a crack in the boards. She looked at it, inside and out. She found a seam. Using both hands, she twisted at the candle holder as if grinding pepper. It came apart in two pieces. The top piece was light, a solid piece of wood. The bottom piece was hollow inside and contained dozens of tiny pellets. Baffled, Laurie crouched down to bring the hollow piece to the moonlight. The pellets shone. She poured them out in her hand.

Gold? Whatever it was, it was strange. Laurie put the pellets back, thought about it for a moment, then took out one and put it in her pocket. She secured the lid back on the candle holder -- pellet holder? -- and returned it to the crate, then put the lid back on the crate. She took a last sweep around the warehouse then left as she came. She actively searched for the masked man.

After seeing him so often, Laurie thought she would run into her stalker easily. He wasn't looking for her tonight, though, and she couldn't find him. Laurie stayed out later than usual to find the masked man and cursed when he didn't turn up. Feeling defeated, she returned home. Maybe she would find him tomorrow.

Laurie was exhausted when she finally made it to her room, but she had to check on the pellet now that she had light. It was gold in color, though what its purpose was she had no idea. She rolled it in her hand for a moment as she thought. She was too tired. She gave up and went to bed, mind full of crates, pellets, and pellet holders. She dreamed of a giant golden hamster with a dish full of gold pellets and a wheel the size of a truck.

Laurie had become a nervous wreck by mid-day and the sun had barely set before she was out in the street again. She was excited and was sure she would easily find the masked man. Two hours later, she had a scowl on her face. She wished there was a flare she could put up, or some sort of signal. She stopped walking and started to wave her arms about as if trying to ward off a swarm of flies. Five minutes later, the masked man appeared.

"Why doing this?" he asked. He sounded genuinely baffled.

"Oh good, it worked," said Laurie, with a straight face. Unable to hold it, she started to laugh in disbelief.

The masked man stared at her in silence, and through his swirling mask she was unable to determine what he was thinking. This made her laugh harder. She tried to control herself but found herself unable to. Finally, she took out the pellet from her pocket, still laughing, and held it up.

"Unbelievable. Been using them?" he asked, voice cold and angry.

Laurie stopped laughing in surprise and turned to him while trying to wipe tears from her eyes without shifting her scarf too much.

"Using them? What do you mean?"

"Drug." he regarded the offending object she was holding up as if it were about to explode.

"Drug? It is? Oh... it is? I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Didn't use them?"

"No! The drugs? No I didn't I...You thought I was on drugs?"

The masked man drew himself up as she went into another fit of laughter. He regarded her as if offended, and she cut herself short.

"I... sorry, just that..." she laughed again. "Sorry."

Laurie bit down on her lip and looked at him with a somber expression.

"I'm sorry," she said, and she meant it. The last thing she wanted to do was make herself look like an idiot, but the very idea of her waving her arms like a drug-crazed lunatic while the masked man watched in a pose of utter indignation made her want to double up again.

Laurie turned red with the effort to stifle her laughter and the masked man finally gestured towards her hand, which was now clenched around the gold pellet.

"Found it? Where?" he asked.

"Oh," said Laurie, brightening. "After I left you yesterday, I saw some men with a crate--"

"Where?"

"On South and 7th, where--"

The masked man was already headed in the direction. Laurie had to run to keep up with him.

"So what are these drugs?" she asked him softly, though there was no need to lower her voice -- the streets were eerily empty.

"For the rich," he said, after regarding her for a brief moment. "THC compound."

"And people... eat these things somehow?"

"No." It sounded like he was smirking. "Inhaled. Used in Vapor Rooms.

"Oh." Laurie looked at the pellet again. She imagined smoky rooms full of basins of melted gold and rich, decadent crime bosses with expensive prostitutes dressed in furs, jewelry and leathers...

Laurie looked up.

"Have you heard of the Twilight Lady?" she asked.

He paused for a moment.

"Yes."

"Do you know where I can find her?"

He paused again, longer this time, long enough to make it seem like he wasn't going to reply.

"I wanted to take care of her," said Laurie. "You know, foil her plans?"

"Plans?"

"Yes," Laurie sounded impatient. "Do you know anything about her? You know... nature of her crimes and all that. I heard she was a vice-queen, but I honestly can't imagine... Well, what does she do with the vices?"

"Vices?"

"Yes! Vices! What are these vices that she uses?"

"Ah. Bondage. Domination. Sex."

"Oh..." Laurie was glad it was dark and he couldn't see her blushing. "Oh. I had... a different idea of what she did."

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"What idea?"

"Nothing, it's really silly. Very silly."

"What idea?"

Laurie shook her head and looked down. When she had read the Twilight Lady was a vice-queen, she had imagined the sort of vice grips, used in hardware. No wonder she couldn't figure it out -- though with her wearing an outfit like that, how could Laurie have not thought of it? She shook her head again. So stupid.

"What idea?" asked the masked man, after a moment.

"Are you just going to keep asking that until I tell you?"

He didn't answer, but she somehow guessed that the answer was yes. She sighed.

"I was thinking of the vices you use in work shops... you know? Clamps? Grips?"

The masked man did not say anything, though a strange hissing sound was escaping from him. Laurie realized it was laughter.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"Funny."

"It wasn't a joke."

"Yes."

Laurie put her face in her hand. She was a walking comedic failure. Wonderful -- no wonder he followed her around. She was sure she provided him with barrels of laughs. She couldn't help but smile at the idea. Despite her disastrous failures at her attempts to impress her fellow crime fighter, Laurie felt happy. They were investigating these crates, with the strange drug that baffled her mind. Were they fighting partners now? Laurie wanted to ask, though it didn't seem like the right time. She also had no idea what his name was. She couldn't keep calling him "The Masked Man" in her mind. She looked at him briefly, though he had stopped walking and she stopped too. Up ahead was the warehouse she had found the night before, but now the doors were wide open. The streets were still silent. The masked man motioned for her to follow him once more.

Some things were going to have to wait. As Laurie crept forward, she couldn't help but feel excited. With a thousand questions in her mind, she readied herself for a fight with a smile on her lips.

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To be continued...