Workday, Rest, and Investigation

“Oh don’t look at me like that.”

Raven had her arms folded and was tapping her foot on the floor. Cole hadn’t taken the idea of the shop being open well. The furrowed brow and hard look he was giving her made it clear enough.

“We need to keep up appearances. Given that we promised to open today in front of everyone that was in the shop…”

“You can’t run it alone. Just let me get my feet under…”

Cole wasn't able to finish his thoughts. The blankets around him glowed black before wrapping around his body and pulling him back down to the bed. He tried to get up, but a flick to his head from Raven made him stumble back down.

“I said you had healed up, but you haven’t fully recovered. With how much energy you used regenerating, the last thing you need to do is go carrying heavy boxes or running up and down stairs.” she explained to him.

“Grrr alright.., what are you gonna tell customers if they ask about me.” He asked, his jaw line clenched.

“Oh. My husband?” Raven said, her eyes opening wider to give her caring doe like look, “How thoughtful of you to ask. Ah he hurt himself moving boxes yesterday. Feel right on his foot, the poor dear.”

“But we made a promise to open the store so here I am working, while he’s upstairs with an ice pack on his leg. Oh thank you for your concern; if he’s not doing better by tomorrow, we’ll take him to a doctor. Now is there any book I can help you find today?” she finished with a polite bow.

“….alright fine. I guess you’ve thought this out.” Cole muttered as he settled back down into the bed, “So what can I do?”

“I could put you in the office and have you do paperwork.” she responded, a vein pulsing on her head.

“…. Tv it is."

Raven gave a small smile before whisking them both away with a portal. He found himself sitting on the couch of the rec room, leg propped up with a pillow. The blanket was still over his legs.

“Your actual damage left is akin to a bad fall and sprained ankle. But again, I don’t believe it’s a good think for you to try overworking yourself. So what you can do is sit here and rest. And before you ask, I believe you’d be more comfortable here than in that bed, along with giving you some freedom of movement that isn’t just locked to that hidden room.”

“That said, Mr McKay, “ Raven looked down at him with narrowed eyes, “If I find you on the second floor without me being with you…”

“You’ll probably make it so I can’t walk huh?” He finished with a weak smile.

“Correct.” She gave him another pat on the head, “But not in the way you’re fearing. I’ll just turn you into a burrito.”

Cole wasn’t sure if she meant the actual food item, or simply meant bundling him up in so many blankets as to look like one. He was pretty sure it was the second one. Though with a demon empowered heroine...., he wasn't sure. Pretty sure one version of her would turn him into food but that wasn't this one..., right? Better not push it.

“So just chill, watch some news and read up on the world huh?” Cole asked, noting the books on the couch with him.

“It could help yes.” Raven noted with a small smirk.

“Alright I’ll do some studying. If you need a hand, I can at least do register. Just get me a good chair first.” Cole said as he started to flip through the books. Mainly travel guides but some history books too.

“I’ll consider it. If you’re good.” she smiled.

Raven turned and started to walk away while Cole grumbled about ‘rewarded with work’. Hopefully he'd just sit there and recover rather than push himself. She started to think about what to make up for dinner, he'd probably be starved with all the energy he burned through to recover. Only stopping by the doorway when Cole called out with a question.

“Hey; Raven? You wiped traces of us right. There’s no way of them following us or something. I’d hate to lead them back to us.”

“I did a sweep; no blood, no hair, no fingerprints or anything that could let them face back to us.” She explained, her power flaring up for just a second, "I have some practice with it".

“Trust the super hero Raven to be on top of that…., is that a common thing to do? It’s something that’s usually brushed over in media.”

“Eh… sometimes.” She gave a weak shrug, “Depends who I’m with, where it’s happening, and what we’re doing. I mean Cyborg doesn’t really have a secret identity, nor does Starfire. Nightwing though…”

“Makes sense I guess.” he said, scratching his neck.

“Indeed. Now if you excuse me, I have a store to open.” She said with a wave as she walked out the room.

“Oh!” Raven popped her head back in, “Do ring me if you need something. I put my number in your address book. And don’t do anything stupid, please.”

With that, she was gone. Her footsteps echoing as she walked down the stairs. He was alone now with his thoughts. That and Tv…, and books. Maybe movies or a game…,

“Feels weird to just have time now.” Cole thought as he made himself comfy.

---

"Got anything?”

“Kinda. Walk with me talk with me.” He lit a cigarette as he turned towards the alley, “Though I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting you Agent Haze. Who’d you piss off this time?”

“Funny coming from someone that’s still a beat cop.”

Bishop rolled his eyes. Technically he was a detective but the barbs both men traded was in good fun. It was strange to see Haze here given it seemed like such a simple case though. Then again, this was kinda their wheelhouse so maybe he should just be a good little pawn and shut up about it.

He ducked under the tape, tipping his fedora towards a uniformed guard. Haze did like wise before pulling up his collar more. Even with the trench coat, the chilly misty rain bothered him. Bishop watched the man shiver a bit as he tried to warm his gloved hands.

“Man has never liked the rain.” Bishop thought as he adjusted his own overcoat.

The two walked a ways down the alley, keeping out of the way of other police and workers. Collecting more evidence, taking pictures, running tests; typical things at a scene like this. Only thing that wasn't typical was the Agents. Usually they came in later after seeing all the data collected, OR they swarmed over the site the moment something was up. Thus far they'd been rather odd about it, sending only a handful and now Haze too.

“Pretty sure you read the report already, so why come down here anyway?”

“You know how Head Office works. And besides, it gets me out of their hair for awhile, you know, getting tired of all my pranks.” Haze said with a smile.

Bishop could never tell if the man was kidding or not. The heavy shades he always wore did t help matters much. Might as well run through it again, see if Haze let anything slip that he might have learned before coming here.

“Right so, just for you then, I'll take it from the top then.” He said, flicking some ash from his cig into a trash bin.

“Early last night, a lady and her daughter were followed by a gang of kidnappers. She tried to lose them in the mall but was finally caught in this alley. Would have made off with them too if it wasn’t for some helpful bystanders. Both sides were mages, but her saviors didn’t have any markings on them.”

“Chances of them being another gang?” Haze asked, eyebrow raised.

“If they are they care more about disrupting the other faction than making money. They just left the mom and kid behind.” Bishop grunted before taking a drag.

“Gang members not talking I take it?.”

“Not to us. Your Agent friends might get something." pause for another drag, "Now Mom did though, though what we know is only based off her descriptions. Wind projection, energy constructor and Geokinisist vs Shadow manipulators, one male one female. Well, it was vs One actually. According to the mom, guy took out two of them only to get sent through a wall. As you can see.” Bishop gestured towards the large hole in the rear wall of a building.

“Damn…," Haze let out a small whistle as he leaned forward to inspect the damage, "And he lived?”

“Dunno." he answered with a shrug, "The Mom said the other shadow mage came in and one shot Mr dirt. His Golem too. Then she ran to her companion, covered the alley in shadow and both were gone.”

“And she’s sure it was Shadows…, right?” Haze asked, his attention back onto the detective. Who just gave a shrug.

“Ask her yourself. Though you probably will. All she said was that the man's shadow came up and punched someone, and the woman's powers were all black and darkness. Not like she'd know anyway, it's a super rare talent to have and rarer to be seen in public. Talk is around the water cooler that there are no practicing Shadow mages left..., not officially that is.”

“Mr Bishop, I didn’t expect you to be an expert on bloodlines. Careful about who you share that with.” Haze replied, his smile a little wider than needed.

“You’re not gonna fine me or something over scuttlebutt, are you buddy?” He shot back, a sly grin on his own face. Though sweat was starting to build up on his neck.

While info about mages was public, certain kinds were heavily off limits. Usually big ones like Time manipulation, as the last thing anyone wanted was someone trying to mess with the last few hours, or worse. Shadow was thought to be an dark art and thus had been highly regulated(if not killed) till it vanished from general mage population.

If news spread about two new independent mages in town, and shadow users too…, well that was going to get ugly for a lot of reasons.

“Explains why Haze and other Guardians are snooping around.” Bishop internally grumbled.

Agent Haze was the fourth one he’d interacted with today. For as much as the man bothered him, Haze he knew even if he didn’t fully like or trust him. The others gave off more worrying vibes. Too robotic for his tastes.

“Anyway, we’re trying to pull up footage and other traces. Both between two mages attempting to hide their tracks, kinda hard.” Bishop said, trying to move the conversation back to the case.

“Really? Shadow mages sure who knows what they can do, but the gang members? I don't see how their power sets allow for that.” Haze said, not missing a beat. The fact he shifted so easily back to the topic was..., always worrying.

“Agent Nil figures they had a fourth mage helping them. Less combat, more support. FYI, she’s over there.” He gestured off to a figure huddled over, “She said she might have found something. Working with sound techs for some reason.”

“Ah. You haven’t met her before today have you? Come on.”

The Agent started to walk over to his companion, not waiting for Bishop to follow. The older man sighed and had to hurry his pace to catch up.

The young lady was kneeling over some kind of speaker. She stood and turned to face the men when they drew closer. The black trench coat must be agency supplied, as the Agents both wore the same kind. Same with the shades and hat making them look like clones save for gender. But there were all kinds of myths around the Guardians.

“Agent Nil, this is Detective Bishop. Bishop, this is Nil. She specializes in Sound.” Haze said, motioning from one party to the other.

“Charmed. We already met.” Came the woman’s monotone voice.

“If you call me waving you past the tape as 'meeting' yeah. Now don't look at me like that, he's the guy making us do the meet and greet. ” Bishop thumbed towards his ‘friend’, “Anyway Sound? How’s that help?”

“Depends. Whatcha got?”

“What we say and do leaves a echo Mr Bishop, no matter how small. I’m able to tap into it the lingering echoes, even hours later. The more emotionally charged the better. Usually I could get more but the rain helps mute it. I did pick up this and had the techies record it.” Nil explained, keeping that same level tone, "Observe."

She picked up a device attached to the speaker and fiddled with it. A few sounds started to play against a background of the light rain. A grunt, a smash, some loud metal sounds against stone, then a clear voice.

“Right Wolf…? Cole… COLE!!!”

The following noises were muddled by the rain and other noises they couldn’t make out before the noises stopped. The next time it picked up was the sound of sirens closing in. Probably the first responders, as they had gotten a call about the dust up.

“That’s it. Sorry best I could do. Maybe if...” Nil started but Haze held up a hand.

“Nah. Got more than what we had if this is true.” He said, turning to look at the detective.

“Yeah we do. Even the mom didn’t mention this. Granted she was too stunned and worried ‘bout her daughter to care much.” Bishop flicked out his finished cig and fished a new one from a pack in his coat pocket.

“New info and first to find it. Your play Agent Haze.” He muttered as he lit a new one.

“You probably have men watching hospitals.” Haze started after taking a while to think..

“Morgues too. Any new stiff from last night into today day. But if the lady can teleport, they could have gotten help in a different city, or hell, country. Or just put the dead man in some cave. Dunno it’s limits.” Bishop said with a shrug.

“That was my thought too. Can probably scale that back, but keep a few guys looking for any new admitted patients. Look for those that are in a pair; man and woman.” Haze said as he cupped his chin.

“Next, I want records of anyone new in town, maybe a couple months to a year. Priority to anyone named Cole with a woman near him; like wife, girlfriend….”

“Sister?”Bishop offered.

“Maybe…. The mom said he could fight right? Look up anyone with a hobby for combat sports. Judo, Karate, boxing; all those self defense classes stuff. Maybe start asking around some of the gyms and classes too, see if anyone has shown promise.”

“Anything else?” Bishop said as he got out a note pad to right this all down.

“For the independent mages no…, anything about the kid?” Haze asked, looking up from his thoughts.

“Hasn’t been tested, but considering the gang, likely she has magic. She’s being checked.”

“All the bases covered…. But look into anyone the pair knows or came into contact.”

“Why’s that?” Bishop raised an eyebrow.

“Few people in this city are that level of Good Samaritan to jump into a ****, more so when they realized it was mages. It would probably be someone new they met or a friend that wanted to keep their powers secret. Just case the mom’s associates.”

“Long shot but worth a shot I suppose. I’ll get on that.” Bishop nodded his head to the two agents and headed back towards his car.

“Haven’t seen you this… insightful in awhile Haze.” Nil commented when the detective was out of ear shot

“What can I say. This case is interesting. Besides," he gave a too wide of a grin while a glint in his eye shined past the shades he wore, "Been a LONG while since we've had a hunt now, hasn't it?"