Chapter 16 by Zeebop

What is Lois Lane's first step?

Find Out Everything Blaze Knows About Maria

"First things first," Lois Lane said. "I need to know everything you do about Maria."

The demon blinked, slowly...and then Lois swore she saw a black spark burst from the broad, smooth forehead and shoot straight forward and down. Lois froze in electric shock...and then a cacophony of images and names flooded her brain, pushing out all other thoughts. The reporter trembled for a second, unable even to breathe, every muscle in her body constricting at once...it reminded her when, as a kid, Lois had reached out to touch a static electricity generator at school...and then the moment passed, and the reporter found herself rocking on her heels, blinking swiftly. She tried to gathered her thoughts on Maria...

...Ortiz, 23 years old, dropped out of Metropolis University last year, bra size 36D, bisexual, picked up twice for prostitution but never charged, misdemeanor possession of marijuana before legalization, currently between girlfriends...

"Gaah," the reporter said. Lois shook her head to try and clear it, but that didn't help. She rubbed her temples.

"I probably should have warned you," Blaze said. "But this seemed faster. Just focus on the detail you want, and the memory should come up."

"Okay...okay..." Lois took a deep breathe and tried to focus. "Known friends...associates...economic situation..."

The information came to Lois Lane's mind with unnatural ease. Yet it was simply raw information, it needed a mind to organize it, to look for connections, to realize connections. The raw impressions and facts that Blaze had gathered was like downloading a dictionary into the reporter's brain, and from that she needed to construct sentences...or, perhaps, to divine something of the nature of the English language.

It took the reporter a minute or two to work through the facts. Oddities in Maria's shifts, rumors that Blaze had picked up but not considered, shifting relationships between Maria and her coworkers...breakups, ambitions...and suddenly it all slid into place.

"I know where she's going," Lois said. "We need to go to..."