2.10 – A Little Detective Work

“Well, as you can probably guess, we don’t have much of a budget, so don’t expect a spotlight on the roof or anything,” Ben chuckled. “An email’s all we need at the outset. I get why you’d want to protect your identity, too.” He nodded. “We won’t press.”

Ben Kirby +100, Marlene Ruffino -1000.

At that moment, a uniformed officer hurried over, glancing at Aurora before addressing Kirby directly. “Got some bad news, Detective.” He handed over a folder—definitely a report.

Kirby flipped it open, and his expression soured. “Damn. Looks like your first collar isn’t quite wrapped up yet,” he muttered, handing the report to Aurora.

At the bottom of the page, a grainy photocopy showed a battlesuit standing amid a broken wall.

“The gang’s boss decided to bust out the guys you arrested,” Kirby explained. “Happened not too long ago. If you hurry, you can hit the station and maybe pick up a clue.”

He shrugged on his sports jacket. “I’m heading over too, but you’ll get there before me.”

Aurora grinned, inwardly pleased—she was already part of San Isidro’s crime-fighting system!

“See you there, Detective.” She exited alongside him, but the second they stepped outside, she launched into the sky, streaking toward her destination.

A real case! She spun and barrel-rolled, exhilarated.

The armor in that picture didn’t look easy to deal with, though.

Aurora removed her cell phone from her boob pocket, the screen lighting up as she fiddled with her GPS application. The faint glow reflected on her silver-blonde hair, a stark contrast to the shadows cast by the large high-rises she was navigating. She quickly found the address and launched herself into the sky, wings flaring brilliantly as she zoomed across the city. The warm air seemed alive beneath her, holding her aloft and playfully teasing her feathers.

As she neared the location, the scene came into view—a gaping hole marred the police holding facility’s wall, a sight she instantly recognized from the report's picture. The edges of the breach were jagged and blackened, evidence of a powerful explosion. Aurora touched down just outside the facility, her boots crunching against the debris-strewn pavement.

The sudden movement drew the attention of two uniformed officers stationed nearby. They instinctively drew their pistols, aiming them squarely at her. “Hold it right there!” one barked, his stance rigid with tension.

Before the situation could escalate, a third officer stepped forward, his face lighting up in recognition. It was the same officer from the rooftop the other day. “Whoa, whoa, guys. She’s on our side... I hope,” he added, throwing a glance at Aurora while waving his hands to calm his colleagues. “If you’re here for a visit to those guys you brought in the other day, I’m afraid you just missed them. Or are ya stopping by for something else?”

Aurora relaxed her stance and smiled, disarming the tension with her calm demeanor. “I was formally introducing myself at a precinct when word of the breakout came in. Detective Kirby’s on his way. I’m here to scout and investigate any clues left here.” She couldn’t help but chuckle lightly. “Hm… a power suit, huh… I sure have landed in the thick of things.”

The officers exchanged skeptical glances but gave her space to work, stepping back to observe. Aurora appreciated the distance, though she could sense their wariness. She suspected they were already pegging her as an amateur, which wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Thankfully, being a superhero superfan meant she’d picked up a lot of the theory behind investigations, whether through the message boards, stories or otherwise through osmosis more generally. She simply hadn’t had much of a chance to put theory to practice, that was all.

Determined not to let the perception she was out of her depth take hold, she began poking around the scene. Her eyes scanned the area, noting scorched pavement, fragmented concrete, and the acrid smell of burnt metal still lingering in the air. But despite her best efforts, she wasn’t finding anything that screamed “clue.” The frustration was starting to creep in.

After a few minutes, one of the officers approached, leading a wiry man with darting eyes and a nervous energy that seemed to vibrate off him. His hands fidgeted at his sides, and he looked like he’d bolt if given half the chance.

“Ms. Angel Lady, Jacko here says he saw what happened. Jacko’s had some trouble with his sticky fingers for a while now so we see him on the regular - never anything more than stealing whatever he could fit into his coat from every grocery store he’s ever walked into so this is way above his usual pay grade and probably had nothing to do with what went down. Do you want to talk to him?” the officer asked, keeping a firm grip on the man’s shoulder. “I’ll get his statement when he gives it to you.”

Aurora nodded, stepping closer to the man with an encouraging smile. “Hi, Jacko. I’m Aurora. Can you tell me what you saw?”

Jacko licked his lips nervously, his gaze flicking from Aurora to the officers behind her. “Uh, my name’s Jack Riley. Yeah, I saw what happened. Sounded like a jet was gonna crash here in the street. I looked up, and there was some guy in a metal suit firin’ off missiles and all kinds of hell at the cops!” His arms flailed dramatically as he spoke, his voice rising in pitch with each word.

“He pushed in what were left of da wall, and some guys ran out,” Jacko continued, his hand jabbing toward the ruined structure. “Their ride pulled up and took off thataway,” he added, pointing down the street with a shaky finger.

Aurora leaned forward, her violet eyes narrowing slightly as she tried to tease out more details. “And the guy in the suit?”

Jacko shook his head emphatically. “I mean, the guys got in, not the guy in the suit. He went all Rocket Ranger and flew off or something.”

The officer beside him took over, asking follow-up questions and scribbling notes as Jacko rambled on. Aurora listened intently, trying to piece together the fragments of information. Soon after, Jacko was released, shuffling away with an air of relief.

Detective Kirby arrived shortly after, his long strides purposeful as he approached along the cracked sidewalk. “Anything?” he asked, his voice steady but tinged with urgency.

The officer quickly relayed Jacko’s account, and Kirby nodded thoughtfully. “So if he flew in from off-site, there probably isn’t much to see around here. Come on, Aurora, let’s take a look at the footage. Maybe see if we can get any leads,” he said, gesturing toward the breached station.

Aurora followed him through the jagged entry point, her boots crunching over the debris. The interior of the facility was chaotic—shattered furniture, broken glass, and the acrid tang of burnt wiring assaulted her senses.

At the main reception, Kirby flashed his badge to a harried desk sergeant. “We need access to the monitor room,” he stated firmly, nodding toward Aurora.

The sergeant hesitated for only a moment before waving them through. Aurora followed Kirby into the dimly lit monitor room, where a young officer sat hunched over a console, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

“Run it back to just before the breach,” Kirby instructed, his tone crisp.

The officer complied, and the footage flickered to life on the screen. Aurora leaned in, her eyes glued to the grainy video. It showed the holding cells moments before the explosion.

Aurora noticed something—a man in one of the cells was rubbing his hand conspicuously, his movements agitated and deliberate. She pointed at the screen. “That guy... look at his hand. What’s he doing?”

Kirby frowned, his sharp eyes zeroing in on the detail. “Good catch,” he muttered.

The explosion ripped through the screen next, a blinding flash that sent debris flying. The criminals scrambled out of their cells, their movements frantic but purposeful. The chaos unfolded in stark black-and-white, and Aurora couldn’t help but feel the weight of the impact.

Aurora whistled softly at the power it must have taken to cause such destruction. Detective Kirby had the monitoring officer pull up external cameras where they saw a minivan pull up and the escaping gang members pile in. The man in the exo-suit leveled his arm at something down the street followed by an explosion so thunderous the camera briefly went on the fritz. Smoke and debris clouded the footage as the scene erupted into chaos.

“I got the call on the way over here; that was one of our squad cars. This guy destroyed it with some kind of anti-vehicular ordnance like a howitzer round,” Kirby supplied, his jaw clenched tightly.

“Wow…” Aurora took a deep breath, her eyes scanning the damage on the screen. “Can you track the minivan? I could fly around the area and hope to spot a van of that description, but the odds that I’d locate it are probably low.” Brows furrowing further, “The real problem comes when we do find them. How about the exosuit? What else do we know?”

“Well,” Detective Kirby answered, rubbing his temples as if trying to alleviate the mounting stress, “the exosuit is a recently-purloined item from the Serendipity Corporation. They called it a ‘Machine-Augmented-Exoskeleton’ or something along those lines. That’s the one suit they prototyped all the way to mostly working in order to compete for some defense contract I’m sure our tax dollars are being well spent on. Doesn’t take a genius to see what the baseline platform was aimed at doing, but no prizes for guessing whether the gang added a few little extras of their own though. Guy’s calling himself ‘Blue Max’ after a World-War One flying ace. They stole the dirigible about a week or so ago but it wasn’t reported until we started investigating things.” Both officers had expressions that indicated they were clearly less than pleased with being held back on, even if it was par for the course.

Aurora’s mind raced as Kirby continued. “Anyway, Serendipity’s suit was mothballed about two years ago, I guess they were keeping it around for a rainy day because, as far as we know, it’d been in a local storage facility for some time. They only reported it missing shortly after the first robbery, which is shifty as all get-out so there’s still suspicion that way.”

Kirby tapped the monitoring officer on his shoulder. “There’s a BOLO for that vehicle, right?” He watched the officer’s expression shift from concentration to slight annoyance.

The officer shrugged. “I guess so, sir, but that’s not my department.”

“Great.” Kirby looked to Aurora and rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I can send you more details by email, but basically, the suit was designed to increase the capability of a single man to become a mobile artillery platform. Apparently, it uses some kind of miniaturized turbine technology as the powerplant which they can shunt the exhaust from to create repulsors… Why those eggheads can’t just say it runs on a jet engine that lets that danged tin-can have rocket boosters is beyond me...” He shook his head in frustration. “Anyway, we believe there were other members of the gang who weren’t present at your bust and were off stealing more fuel. We’re currently tracking the few places where that fuel can be correctly processed.”

“That sounds promising.” Aurora nodded, a determined look in her eyes. “How soon do you think we’ll have something? If you can point me to where they are, I can round them up again. The exoskeleton is going to be the most concerning part. If you can get me schematics, we could find a weak point I might be able to exploit when I come up against it. Ideally, I’d want to try to recover it without damaging it, but if we don’t have plans for it, the odds are low that we’ll be able to simply disable it.”

“Certainly, if you can disable it that would be best,” Kirby replied, leaning back in his chair. “I’m sure Serendipity would love that, but I won’t cry if we can just get these criminals off the streets, you know?” He ran a hand through his greying hair, a hint of weariness in his demeanor.

Gesturing to dismiss their assistant, he moved on to the next topic, “Well, if you think you’ve gotten all you can from the tapes, let’s see about that BOLO, hey?”

“Sounds good.” Aurora nodded, grinning. She wondered if her barrier would protect her from the kind of firepower the exo armor had already demonstrated. The thought lingered as she prepared for the imminent confrontation, determination steeling her resolve.

They left the room and headed through the department. Noticing many of the officers stationed there were giving her the cold shoulder, Kirby quietly spoke to Aurora. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re not the first super from San Isidro. They’re all a little bitter over what happened with the last one.”

Aurora nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line. That’d be El Aguila de Oro (aka The Golden Eagle). He was hispanic and was one of the trainees inducted into the Society of Sentinels. A man who declined to identify where he was from, but the rumor was that he was from the area before he “went pro”. His departure left local law enforcement feeling belittled and betrayed; what did it say when their beloved city wasn’t ‘worthy’ of keeping even a trainee hero?

They arrived at another officer’s desk, who looked up lazily at Kirby and Aurora. “Got a date, Kirby? Or did you bust her on Cherry Street,” his tone was smug and insulting.

Aurora raised an eyebrow, her eyes narrowing slightly at the disrespect. Kirby stepped in before she could respond. “Show some respect, Frederick. She’s helping us out on the jailbreak case. Now, do you have anything useful on the getaway vehicle or not?” Kirby barked.

Frederick leaned back in his chair, an unrepentant smirk on his face. “Actually, I do,” he said, unfazed. “Looks like this license plate was registered to a Mr. Robert Franklin Jr.”

“Was? What do you mean ‘was’?” Kirby shot back, a note of irritation in his voice.

“Well, turns out the car was apparently totalled and got sent over to Chan’s yard.” Frederick stroked his stubble-covered chin.

Kirby frowned, his eyes narrowing. “Seemed awfully mobile for a so-called totalled car.”

“Yeah.” The rude officer or whatever his rank was nodded. “We’ll be informing Mr. Franklin’s insurance company about this. Anything else?” He clearly was of a lower rank than Kirby, even if he felt at liberty to mouth off.

“Nah, I think that’s enough from you, Fred. Come on, Aurora,” Kirby said, leading her onwards to one of the empty interview rooms. Aurora followed, glad to leave Frederick’s smug presence behind. Kirby pulled up his email on his phone as they settled into the room.

“Okay, so this is actually… good news. Chan’s junkyard’s owned by one Mr. Ronnie Chan, who has ties to the Triads. Not the good news, but what is is that Chan’s yard is near a small refinery that would have the equipment they’d need to load the fuel in the MAX’s tanks. If I had to guess, I’d put them somewhere in that area.”

He flicked through a few screens on his phone, his brow furrowing in concentration. “Do you have an email you’d prefer I can send these specs to?” Kirby inquired. “If not, you may want to set something up, otherwise I can just show you here.”

Aurora nodded, deciding it was important to settle the issue now. Fishing her phone out from its pocket, she signed up for a fresh email account, using the name Aurora and slightly falsified information. When she finished, she passed the email address to Kirby. That would do for the moment.

“Anonymous email’s fine for now,” Kirby said, sending the files to the new address. “Cops aren’t supposed to hand out sensitive info like this to non-secured domains but I won’t tell if you don’t. On that note, I’m not going to try and subpoena anything, but just keep in mind that if someone else hits the host domain with a suit, they may fold and give transmission records.” He warned Aurora of a potential issue she was aware could be a concern.

After a moment, the files appeared in her inbox and she looked them over. Included was a maps link to the area the detective was referring to. Looking over the battlesuit schematics, she didn't find anything overtly flawed in its design. That is, until she got to the tolerance specs. If she was reading these numbers right the flight exhaust area was prone to overheating in an enclosed or hot environment, making it hard to use indoors or in the desert for extended periods. Not to mention the noise; it was definitely not built for stealth.

Aurora made a mental note of the weak points, her mind already formulating a plan. The weapons specs were impressive, but little Leona couldn’t put together much else from what she read, so she glossed over the rest. Ultimately, the game plan was to ‘punch hard’ and ‘find a way to turn up the heat’ under these criminals. She looked up at Kirby, her resolve steeled. “Alright, let’s take these guys down.”

“You should get going,” Kirby prodded Aurora, urgency creeping into his tone, “I’m going to call officers over to that area and see if we can make a containment perimeter, so that the gang won’t be able to flee should they be there, but I’m holding off any assault until I’ve given you the chance to disable the thing, okay?”

Aurora nodded and smiled. “I’ll get to do all of the hard work for you then? Thank you. I have some idea of what to do about the exo suit. If they remember me fondly, they’ll throw their arms up the moment they spot me.” She chuckled when she imagined the looks on their faces, their fear at her mere presence.

Kirby raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips. “Let’s hope they do. And if they don’t, well, we’ll be ready to back you up. Be careful out there.”

It was possible her blasts might have an effect on the main target, but nothing was certain. So far they didn’t generate heat, but there may be other ways of weakening or penetrating that armor. Aurora pondered different strategies, her mind racing with possibilities.

Kirby chuckled and nodded. “Good luck. We’re counting on you.”

“Thanks for the info, Detective.” She waved and left the building, leaping into the big blue sky. The wind rushed past her as she soared, the cityscape unfolding beneath her. As she made her way to the junkyard in question, Aurora focused her mind on going over plans to case the place, her determination growing with each passing moment.