Chapter 2: The Glare That Obscures

New Jersey, April 14, 09:32 EDT

"So what do we think about this girl?" Cassie took another lick of her ice cream cone, tucking her hair behind her ear to keep it from falling in the treat.

"Isn't that what we're here to figure out?" Bart asked. He was watching each of his three-scoop cones so carefully that he didn't notice the crack in the sidewalk until he tripped on it. A little dance later, he breathed a sigh of relief that none of his ice cream had fallen.

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, but what initial impression are we going in with? Standard protocols are good for standard situations, but what if this isn't? If we find her, how do we approach her?"

"Cautiously," came Batgirl's voice in their earwigs, "And gently. She has powers, that much is clear, but we don't know their nature or how well she can control them. What we do know is she's willing to run into a fire – twice – to avoid contact with anyone, potentially while injured. We should assume confrontation will make her skittish."

"Maybe she just didn't want the public attention. Those clothes didn't look like a costume, and she wasn't wearing a mask," Bart said.

"That's possible, if she has those resources. Without knowing who she is, we can't assume she has the background and training we do."

"We can't assume she doesn't, either," Cassie retorted.

"Fair enough, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Remember, your mission is strictly to scout and gather intel about her identity and whereabouts. We're not necessarily looking to recruit. We just want to know her intentions, and if she has enough of a handle on her powers not to–"

"Her intentions so far are to save people from dying when no one else can." Bart's response was quick and bitten out more defensively than he meant it to be. They'd started this same debate at the Watchtower but cut it short to finish prepping for the trip, and he was annoyed to hear their ops commander endorsing Batman's ever-paranoid ideas.

"I know – we know, Kid. What she did was admirable," Batgirl placated. "I'm not saying she's a villain in the making, just that we don't know the variables involved. It could be she's the one who needs help, that getting out of a collapsing, burning building alive was more lucky than planned."

"Maybe…maybe." Bart looked absently between the six different flavors of ice cream at his disposal. He furrowed his brow in frustration, not noticing how Cassie watched him from the corner of her eye. "There are too many maybes."

"It's all one big 'maybe' right now, hence your mission. Your only job is research and reconnaissance," Batgirl reminded them again. "If you're lucky enough to find this girl, and unlucky enough to have to approach her on your own, try using tact before all else. We don't want to antagonize her by coming on too strong."

"In other words, Bart, leave the talking to me."

"What? I'm a nice guy."

Cassie chuckled and stopped with him at the corner of the block, signing off with the Watchtower now that they'd touched point. The day after the fire, the street in front of the apartment building was completely cordoned off for cleanup. The structure was unrecognizable even from its news footage, now nothing more than a charred, black mess with a missing front wall and an open top.

Bart let out a low whistle. "Wow, that's uninhabitable even by my standards. Guess the whole thing is coming down, huh?"

Cassie nodded. "Yeah. I wonder if the people who lived there will be okay. It's not exactly the Ritz around here, so I doubt they had much beyond what they put into their apartments."

"They're safe, though, right? They'll be fine," Bart said dismissively enough to earn a raised eyebrow. "I'm just saying, what you consider 'not much' still includes electricity, indoor plumbing, a roof – even our motel rooms have TVs in them. And friends and family. These people felt the mode big time, yeah, but they'll bounce back. What's important is that they all got out okay."

Cassie nodded slowly, studying the speedster while he cheerfully scoffed down his desserts, and she just knew he'd give himself another brain freeze with how fast he was eating. After more than two years in their time, never once having to worry about where his next meal would come from, he still hoarded food like it might be taken away from him at any moment. The Flashes' big appetites were familiar to the whole League, so it was easy to forget Bart had other reasons for acting like a starving man. Speaking of which…

"Bart, why are you here?"

That got his attention. He lowered the cones and looked at Cassie in confusion. "Uh, because there's a mystery hero out here we want to find?"

"You should be with Wally."

Bart looked out over the street again. The beat of silence which followed her words was broken only by the distant sounds of construction equipment down the way. "Nah, it's cool. I volunteered for this mission."

"I know, and I've been wondering why. We all have."

"Hey now, what's all this about?" He beamed that bright Flash grin, the one that always put people at ease and lightened up the atmosphere. "Dude, now is the time to feel alive! Two weeks, and all has been totally crash in the world!" He gestured to the destroyed building. "The worst we've had to deal with is a new vigilante doing good in an accident where everybody survived. Everyone should be celebrating, not worrying over nothing."

"We are."

It was only a couple months ago that Nightwing finally, fully resurfaced from his "time off," claiming that Wally was still out there. That they could bring him back. It was like the whole world tilted on its axis. The older League members were divided between skeptics who wanted to keep wounds from reopening and hopefuls who didn't want to leave any stone unturned. It was far from easy, what with this Speed Force that most of them still barely understood, but that didn't stop them from trying. No matter what doubts anyone voiced, almost everyone pitched in like it was a compulsion, like they couldn't stop themselves.

Then he was back. It all involved a blend of magic and technology that Cassie couldn't begin to comprehend or approve of, not after what she'd heard about Starro-tech, but it worked. The toughest part wasn't even staving off villains; as it turned out, anything keeping the League distracted was welcome in the criminal community. No, the toughest part, ironically enough, was getting help from one of their own: Dr. Fate. Zatanna did all she could, but she just didn't have her father's experience with crafting magic, nor the depth of knowledge from the being he hosted. It took a lot to convince Fate that trying to get Wally back wasn't time and energy better used elsewhere.

Everyone had been ecstatic, especially the Flash family and the original junior team. At least at first. Bart spent maybe two days with them before coming back to the Watchtower and asking about missions like it was business as usual. Now, here he was.

"I know how hard you took it when he disappeared, Bart," Cassie said gently, hoping this talk wouldn't antagonize him, "And you've worked so hard to do Kid Flash justice."

Ever since his predecessor got back, it showed how much Bart wanted to prove that he'd been honoring his namesake. Ever since taking up the mantle, really, he'd started treating the whole superhero gig more seriously. It was a subtle change for the most part. She probably wouldn't have noticed if not for Blue Beetle, who talked happily and often about how Bart didn't constantly sidetrack everyone on missions anymore. He had his annoying habits, sure (supposedly par for the course for a Flash), but he was more reliable, not always running off for unknown reasons or tricking his teammates into the maneuvers he thought best.

She shook her head. "You can't possibly think Wally isn't proud of you."

"What? No." The look Bart shot her was puzzled. "I mean, yeah, I know that. I've already celebrated. We've already celebrated. How long are reunions supposed to last in this time?"

"That's not…" Cassie stumbled over her words for a moment. A familiar feeling of frustration settled in, the way it always did when she tried to have a serious conversation with Bart. She could never tell if he was derailing the conversation on purpose, or if he was genuinely on a different page from everyone else. "How long isn't an issue, but you came back like everything's back to normal, just another day, nothing special."

"Everything is back to normal." His puzzlement settled into a calm sort of certainty, which confused her in turn. "Wally's safe and home, and everything's back to the way it should be. Right now, we can't get more crash, which means right now's the time to do as much as we can."

"For what?"

"The world? The people we want to protect?" He opened his arms wide, gesturing to the city around them. "What better way is there to celebrate one of us coming back than to do our jobs better than ever before?"

Cassie considered that. It was an odd way of thinking to her, but not necessarily a bad one. "If I hadn't seen my family in two years, I'd probably spend a month straight trying to make up for lost time and helping them settle back in."

His smile was a little too bright, his tone a little too casual as he stared absently into the space above the burnt apartment complex. "Nah. It's great having Wally back, but life is going to keep moving around us whether we want a vacation or not. How else can you settle but to start moving along with it and get back in the flow? We have to make sure the happy endings stay happy after we reach them."

Cassie couldn't put her finger on why, but she felt like she'd just been patronized.

It happened often enough for her to recognize it. Sometimes it came from Beast Boy or Zatanna, when she complained about her mom grounding her and taking away her powers. Sometimes it came from the original Leaguers, when she let her fangirl excitement distract her during fights. Sometimes it seemed like she couldn't open her mouth without someone having an opinion on it, but at least most of the time, she understood why. With Bart, she was never sure what set him off.

She sighed, deciding the discussion would go nowhere fast, and looked around to make sure they were alone. "Anything the vigilante may have dropped or left behind is probably buried under feet of rubble and ash, but it's worth taking a look," she said, voice lowered. Never assume you can't be seen – or heard, Wonder Woman's training came back to her.

"Right. Got a safe zone in mind?"

"We shouldn't stay around the sidewalk here. See that alley across the street? There, behind the three-story. It likely goes between this street and the next, so we can go in from the other side." Ah, the glamorous part of hero life: hanging out in filthy alleys and digging through dirt. Still, considering they'd keep scouting the area after this, it was best to have a simple base on the ground away from prying eyes. Trying to sneak up and down rooftops in broad daylight would only waste time.

"Yes, ma'am." Bart frowned. "Ugh, getting there is gonna feel like crawling through molasses."

"It's a two minute walk. Don't be dramatic."

"Two minutes? To go that far?" He put on such an exaggerated look of horror that Cassie couldn't help but laugh. An agonizing two minutes later, plus a few extra seconds waiting for a car to drive past, they slipped between the buildings and made their way through, back to the cordoned road.

"Alright, just make sure no one's working in the immediate area before you look around," Cassie instructed. They hung back in the shadows, taking stock of the burnt building. Their position gave them a more or less clear view of its front, but not of the alley where the girl had disappeared.

Bart saluted her and held out his remaining ice cream cone. Cassie blinked. When had he finished the other one? "Hold this for me, would ya?"

As soon as she had a firm grip on it, she found the space in front of her empty, filled only by a passing breeze. Now it was time to wait, so she watched construction workers and police officers move around the debris. Getting in and out were the hardest parts when it came to infiltration, but this was a simple hazard zone, not LuthorCorp. Security would have its gaze aimed outward to catch people before they got in. If they didn't see anyone enter, they'd likely assume no one was there. Bart should be fine.

"Argh!" she heard in her earpiece.

"What is it?" she asked, immediately tensing into a ready stance, feet spread, knees bent-

"Brain freeze!"

Cassie shook her head. "I'm watching things from here, but I don't have eyes on your location. Try not to take too long."

"Copy that," he replied miserably, too distracted to even quip about taking too long. Served him right.

She gave him one more minute, long enough for him by her estimate. "Find anything?"

"Give me a second."

"Your ice cream's melting."

"Nope, nothing there." Cassie nearly jumped out of her skin. Her elbow propelled upward, aimed at the body attached to the hand that grabbed the cone from her. "Whoa, whoa!" Bart sped back a yard, holding up his free hand in surrender and keeping an eye on her while he licked at his melting treat.

She drew in a breath to yell, then released it before she could let herself do just that. "Well?" she whispered harshly. He smiled sheepishly at her glare.

"I already – uh, no, you were right. No trace of her. So what now?"

So much for being more serious. Cassie huffed in annoyance and gestured tensely back through their own alley. "The park on the next block."

They backtracked the way they came, and once they were at the street corner, Bart followed her gaze to where people were coming and going through a tree line. "Looks like a lot of people are out enjoying the sunshine, I'd guess more than usual," she said.

"Maybe curious neighbors who want a look at what happened?"

"We could see if anyone feels like gossiping. Maybe someone remembers a kid hanging around yesterday."

"Somehow, I doubt they'll be talking about much else."

They made their way over and strolled onto one of the winding paths. Trees were planted densely in the untrimmed grass, but they wore only new spring growth for foliage. Most of the block was still open and visible this time of year.

"Where should we start?" she asked, examining the people around them. There were a few families with young children in the picnic area, kids kicking a soccer ball around, and a group throwing frisbees to each other and their dogs. Others were simply taking a stroll or buying hot dogs and pretzels from a cart.

Cassie was wondering how she could keep Bart from seeing the cart when he got her attention first. "How about her?"

She looked to where he pointed and saw a girl, who might have been about their age, standing off another path a few yards away. She was playing a violin with its case open on the ground next to her. Someone walking back from the hot dog cart dropped his change inside.

"You think she might know something?" The girl was playing through film scores, from what Cassie could tell, and she was pretty good for someone playing solo and by ear. She kept her eyes on the strings, except to smile at the guy who tipped her.

"Homeless, staying in the area, spends her days watching where people gather so she can make money." Bart nodded, smiling easily. "I think she knows a lot that other people don't."

Homeless, Cassie thought, and it really was a wonder she'd missed it. When they got closer, she could see that only the girl's sneakers were in relatively decent condition, or what could be seen of them as they trampled the heels of her jeans. All her clothes, from her sweatshirt to a very old peacoat, were just barely the wrong size and sported pinprick holes in at least a couple places, and a backpack lying on the ground behind her had been inexpertly patched numerous times. Her face was partially obscured beneath her hood and long brown hair.

"Somehow," Cassie whispered, "I feel like she's wearing way too much for a day when we're eating ice cream."

"She might not have a place to store her stuff." Bart shrugged.

That…was too sad a thought. "Alright. Let's go." It was all the prompting he needed to take the lead, and he moved forward with his Flash grin. He looked sincerely happy in that moment.

"You're really good," he declared with a conviction that was charming, enough to make even Cassie smile, and the girl's smile of thanks was bigger. "Do you take requests?"

Her eyes flicked towards them, but her playing didn't falter. Instead, she deftly reached out a foot and nudged the violin case forward. Cassie pursed her lips, but Bart's grin only grew bigger, and he immediately produced ten dollars to drop inside. That made the music stop. The girl lowered the instrument and bow to her sides, finally turning to her audience.

"And what would you like to hear, sir?" she asked.

The title startled some amusement out of Cassie, something she decided was probably done on purpose, but Bart took it all in stride. "Well, I can't actually think of any songs, but I do have a question. We were wondering if you were around last night." He tipped his head in the direction of the cordoned street. The girl looked that way thoughtfully.

"The fire." No one could accuse her of being indirect.

Bart's eyes slid away sheepishly, and he shifted his weight. "It might not sound great of us, I know, but…well, we're curious."

"You could probably ask anyone. A lot of people were around."

"We weren't, and I'd like to ask you."

She eyed them both silently, measuring them up. Bart held her gaze, as did Cassie, who made sure to stay a step behind him while he did the talking. Maybe the girl remembered the tip they'd already given her, or maybe she thought Bart was just a flirt. Either way, she let out a sigh and relaxed her stance.

"Sure, I was there. Warmest place in the city last night." Cassie had to click her teeth together to keep from snapping something rude. This girl made it sound like the fire was a cozy space heater, not a disaster that put a lot of people in real danger.

"The local shelter must – that is, wouldn't it be better to stay there?" she asked carefully.

The girl gave her an even look in return, her demeanor noticeably cooling. "They were asking questions there." Cassie had no response to that, but they were saved from an awkward silence by Bart, who wasted no time jumping back in.

"So you were here. Did you see what happened?" he asked with quiet excitement.

"You mean the kid?" She snorted. "Hard to miss. Didn't see more of him than anyone else did, though."

"Her," Cassie corrected before she could stop herself. The girl frowned, tilting her head curiously.

"Someone could tell?"

Cassie nodded, clasping her hands behind her back to keep from fidgeting. "The little girls she saved said so. It's been all over the news."

"Oh…I don't tend to get much news." The girl gestured to a newspaper stuck under her violin case, and Cassie could see it was a weekly print, not due for another issue until tomorrow. Heat rose to her face, and she immediately felt embarrassed to realize that this girl probably didn't have access to a TV. Her fingers wove together tightly.

"Then maybe you haven't really thought about it," Bart continued seamlessly, "But did you notice this morning if anybody you know…well…"

"Ah." A small smirk crossed the girl's face as she caught his meaning. "Sorry, I'm new in the city. If you want to play detective, the guys who live here have been hanging around downtown, a few blocks that way." She pointed her bow eastward. "They all know each other. So far as I can tell, none of them are Peter Pan's lost kids."

"If they were, you think they'd tell anyone?" Bart gave her another grateful smile, unmindful of her sarcasm. "Hey, thanks for talking to us! Have a great day."

He dropped another five dollars in her violin case, making a muscle twitch in Cassie's jaw; they weren't given infinite funds for this trip, not even for his endless appetite. With that, he turned to head eastward out of the park, and Cassie turned with him. Before they could take more than a few steps, the girl called out to them.

"Hey." When they looked back, she was checking over her violin strings uncomfortably and avoided looking in their direction. "If you're gonna poke around, watch yourselves. If you got the idea this girl could be homeless, then the cops did too, and none of the others will be happy after dealing with them."

"We'll try not to bother anyone," Bart promised somberly. It was a startling twist from his happy attitude a moment ago, but Cassie understood. To everyone here, they weren't heroes trying to help; they were a couple of brats sticking their noses into other people's business for their own amusement. It was why the adults had left this mission to them, because in the worst case, Bart and Cassie would pass off as brats instead of creeps with complexes. Still, it was an easy way to cause grief, something neither of them wanted to do.

"Let's go," she said, nudging Bart with her elbow.

"Sure, but can we get some of those hot dogs first? And could I borrow a few bucks?"

Cassie groaned and rolled her eyes.

It must have been the right plaza, though most of the people there were regular shoppers. There were no police around and only a couple kids who looked like the girl from the park. Both were sitting together by a large fountain in the center courtyard, a girl eating a sandwich from a nearby shop and a boy displaying handmade bracelets and necklaces on a mat on the ground.

Neither was particularly remarkable, except for a sort of agelessness that must have helped them avoid social workers. They seemed small-ish, but that could have been from their ill-fitting clothes or undernourishment. At the same time, their eyes were aware and alert, faces sharp with the kind of definition that was earned by toughing life out. They were teens, but it was hard to say how far or early along, just like the girl at the park. Like Bart.

"Not the big group that girl said would be here," he commented. "You think the police picked them all up?"

It didn't seem likely. What would the police do? Send the kids to a hospital to check for smoke inhalation and other injuries? They could be smokers, and care more about getting away than getting treatment, especially the vigilante. And what would the police do with them afterwards? Let them all go? Hold onto them, try to identify who was underage, and figure out which guardians to contact for each one? It would be a messy process even if the kids were willing to cooperate, which they likely wouldn't be.

"No, the whole thing would tie them up too much," Cassie replied. "If cops came around and started paying them special attention, they might have scattered."

"And here I was starting to think this mission would be easy."

"We could always wait until nighttime and approach them as our other selves, but-"

"The longer we wait, the worse our chances of finding evidence." Bart nodded. "Plus, they might like our other selves even less."

Cassie looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?" They were superheroes. Young superheroes. If anything, she'd have thought the opposite, because wasn't it part of their job to inspire other kids?

Bart smiled, still watching the two. "Just trust me."

Cassie eyed him for a second, then turned and started walking to the fountain with him following behind. There were a lot of things about Bart she didn't get, but one thing she knew was that he couldn't be pushed for information he didn't want to share. It was why they made a good team. She would dwell on what he meant later, but for now they couldn't afford him becoming evasive while they were on the job.

What did alarm her was that he didn't step forward once they reached the kids. He stayed back, leaving her to either start talking or look awkward. She moved up to the mat and smiled softly when the boy looked up at her. He had dirty blonde hair poking out from under a beanie and a sweater rolled up to his elbows. His smile was friendly and attentive, but Cassie saw how his eyes quickly scanned her, taking in her age, her demeanor, her clothes. She saw the gears turn in his head, calculating the best way to approach her. She wished she could see the girl's reaction as well but kept her attention forward.

"Hey, um..." She couldn't get rid of her discomfort, so she'd use it instead. She tucked her hands in her pockets and let herself fidget just a little. "We heard about this place from someone at the park nearby."

"The park," he repeated, his eyebrows shooting up. He turned to his friend questioningly, giving Cassie a chance to look at her as well. Her hair was dark and cropped short, and her jacket looked like it would fit the boy better than it did her. Unlike him, though, she wasn't as laid-back when faced with attention. She didn't seem nervous, exactly, but she had the look of someone who wore her emotions closer to the surface. She sat on the fountain's edge stiffly, her eyes darting over Cassie and Bart.

"New girl, remember?" Her voice was quiet and a little hoarse, like she was getting over a cold. "She comes by at night."

"Oh, yeah. Keeps to herself." The boy nodded. "Are you guys looking for a place to stay? Lucky you ran into her."

He sounded sincere, but Cassie wasn't fooled. His eyes again went over their clothes, too clean and well-kept, and the bags they had on them, too small to be carrying all the essentials a person could need. They couldn't pass off as homeless.

"No, that's not it. Actually, we're hoping to find out more about the fire last night."

"You and everyone else." The boy grinned tiredly, apparently satisfied with their honesty. "And thanks to that girl who was there, being a teen is as good as wearing a spotlight, am I right?"

This wasn't the reaction Cassie expected. She opened her mouth to respond but couldn't think of what to say. Bart chimed in for her.

"It's not so bad, amigo. Everyone knows from the news it was a girl with short hair." From the corner of their eyes, they all noticed the girl fidget. Bart held up his hands when the boy frowned at him. "Shorter than that! It's enough to keep people from bothering with us, isn't it?"

Cassie was careful to keep her expression neutral, but she marveled at how he could talk like he was on the same page as these two. Then again, the other boy was already assuming exactly that, supposedly because they were fellow teens in the same situation and he wanted to vent about it. Plus, Bart had always been good at bluffing.

The other boy scoffed. "You clearly don't know cops and government workers. They're like robots who can only work out one keyword at a time. 'Hashtag teenager.'"

"There are some pretty cool robots out there," Bart offered.

"I guess you'd think so when you never have to deal with them." As soon as he'd said it, the boy held up his own hands, stopping Bart from replying. The girl on the fountain fidgeted again. "Look, I get it - I get why you'd be interested in the hero. I'd like to find her too, let her know how much trouble she made for us."

"What trouble?" Cassie asked, too surprised to be annoyed. "She saved those little kids' lives."

"And that's great. I'm not saying it isn't. But maybe she should have left it to whoever her mentor is, huh? Keep the rest of us out of it, like we don't have better things to do than dodge adults all day. Not all of us have superheroes looking out for us, and when the juniors start running around, thinking they can do whatever they want, all of us have to start hiding from every social service activist and teary-eyed soccer mom on the street who can't stay out of other people's business."

He was clearly on a roll after getting himself agitated. His friend put her hand on his shoulder, stopping his momentum, and from the look on her face, this wasn't the first time she'd heard his rant. Cassie exchanged glances with Bart; this was not how they expected this encounter to go. Only when Bart looked away again with a frown on his face did she notice his own bad temper showing. It was so rare to see that she caught it too late to stop him from speaking again.

"Not crash, dude." Cassie winced at the slip of his old jargon. "She is a superhero for what she did, junior or not. She helped people. What if she's the one who needs help now?"

"The League'll take care of her." The boy matched Bart's challenge with a sneer.

"She was on her own last night," Cassie said. "What makes you think she's part of the League?"

"Please. She has powers; of course they're gonna care. The rest of us can run around after their sidekicks make a mess, but they'll drop everything for someone with powers."

The girl at the fountain looked down at her lap and seemed to shrink into herself. The worst part was that Cassie couldn't say it wasn't true. Her and Bart being there proved it was.

Bart didn't seem to be having the same internal struggle. "What a major inconvenience for you, her putting herself at risk for other people's sakes. You must be suffering as much as the people who lived in that building."

"Bart-" Cassie took a step closer to him.

"Hey-" the girl at the fountain spoke up. She looked at them wide-eyed and leaned forward, almost in front of her friend as though to be a shield between him and Bart, but they looked right through her.

The boy tensed like he was ready to jump up, but instead he just gritted his teeth. "You rich kids have no idea-"

"You know what, amigo?" Bart continued, glaring right back. "You're right. I haven't been suffering, and I think it's because of people like her. I wanted to find this girl to thank her for what she did. To tell her I hope I learn to be as brave as she is someday, and help the people around me no matter what I have to go through to do it. I thought maybe you guys would want to do the same, and you'd know how to find someone like her better than we would. Guess I was wrong."

Gentle coughing cut through their showdown, and both boys broke eye contact to look at the girl on the fountain. Her face was red and she appeared abashed at Bart's words, looking anywhere but at him and Cassie. Or maybe her cold was flaring up, since she was coughing into her sleeve. Either way, the sight of her discomfort disrupted the confrontation.

"Sorry we bothered you. We'll leave," Cassie said, and her voice sounded unusually even after all the sharp barbs that were exchanged. She grabbed Bart's hand and pulled him away while the other boy turned to his friend, pulling a water bottle from one of their backpacks for her.

Cassie led Bart back up the streets without a word, and he followed without a word, without even asking where they were going. Every minute or so, she'd look at him to gauge how intensely he was staring at the air in front of him, and most of the walk was spent giving him time just to cool down. She wasn't worried; he was a Flash, after all. The whole family was optimistic to the core, and frankly, it was nice to be reminded that he was human enough to get angry too sometimes.

True to form, it didn't take too long for his gaze to lose its edge, though there was still a lingering frown on his face.

"What you said was really nice," Cassie said softly, "About the vigilante."

He didn't react at first. Then he shrugged his shoulders as though shrugging out his remaining tension. "It was true."

An artless smile appeared on her face, and she simply watched him for a moment. Bart could be a pain in the neck, but he always managed to remind her why he was her favorite partner to work with.

"So where to next, boss?" he asked.

"I want to look at the other street, the one behind the dead end the girl jumped."

"You think we'll find something?" The building behind the burnt apartments had avoided catching fire itself, thanks to evacuations and prevention measures, but it had still taken some damage and was being tended to over the course of the day.

"It's also an apartment building, I think," Cassie mused. "The cops will be gone already, and the people living there should be at work by now. All the repairs are going to be in the back of the building, so we should be able to take a look around without trouble."

"Yeah, but do you think we'll find anything?" Bart repeated. "The place has probably been cleaned out and combed over already, to make sure it's still livable."

"Which is why we won't be looking at the building. I want to look at the rest of the street around it." At Bart's questioning look, she explained, "She had to get out of there somehow, which means she could have left a trail."

"Unless she can fly. Or teleport."

"Right, but..." Cassie shook her head. "I have a hunch."

"Oh yeah?"

"First of all, have you ever tried flying through smoke? Not fun - better to stay low to the ground. Second of all, there was something about the way she looked in the videos. She was hurt. If there were police and firemen and evacuated crowds on that road as well...I mean, if it were me trying to get away, I wouldn't risk using my powers, flying or blinking out, where I might be noticed. I'd save my energy to blend in and sneak out."

"Got it. So we're looking for shadowy corners out of sight-"

"Places where she could stop and lean against something, other alleys to go through, anything she could have snagged a hair on."

"Okay, I'm on-glgh!" Bart tried to dash away, only to find his sweatshirt collar choking him when Cassie preemptively grabbed it.

"We're out in the open here, genius. No blinking around, okay?" she warned. "Just deal with the flood of molasses."

"Aw, man," he whined, but dutifully he kept to a normal, and sometimes horrendously (for him) slow, pace. They carefully took stock of one full side of the sidewalk, then, finding nothing, started back up the other.

"Cassie," Bart called almost immediately.

She joined him around the corner building. He was crouched down, looking at something on the ground, and she noted that he was just out of sight of where the action would have been by the damaged apartments, even factoring out darkness.

"What is it?" She peered over his shoulder, and he leaned back to let her see. "A..."

"Sooty shoe print," he supplied.

"A third of one, it looks like." He made room for her to crouch down as well. She pulled out her League communicator and took images, making sure to get measurements. "What could leave a third of a shoe print?"

"What could avoid leaving any all the way down here, and then this?" Bart countered.

It sat inches away from the brick wall of the corner building, the ball of a foot pressing down through a shoe, while somehow the heel had been cut off. Or lifted?

"Maybe she flew away," Cassie murmured, her brow furrowed.

"Maybe, but that doesn't explain how there aren't any prints leading up to it." Bart stood and positioned one foot close to the print, lifting his other foot in the air. He immediately lost balance and grabbed at the wall for support, which made Cassie take a closer look at it.

"Here," she said, fingers hovering over a spot near his hand. "More soot, a hand and maybe a shoulder. The girl leaned against it - I knew she must have been hurt." Cassie made a sound of frustration. "The brick is too rough; no way to get fingerprints off that."

"But hey, this is a start." Bart smiled. "And we know which way she was headed. We'll keep looking."

She sighed. "Yeah."

"And you know, I would have found it a lot faster if I'd-"

"Shush. Accept the molasses."

He groaned, and she chuckled, and they started off down the street in the direction the print pointed, carefully examining the ground and walls around them.

To be continued...

Noellesmells1: I'm glad you liked the last chapter :) I hope you enjoyed this one as well.