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

  As she he location, the se came into vieing hole marred the police holding facility’s wall, a sight she instantly reized from the report's picture. The edges of the breach were jagged and bed, evidence of a powerful explosion. Aurora touched down just outside the facility, her boots g 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 escate, a third officer stepped forward, his face lighting up in reition. 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 g Aurora while waving his hands to calm his colleagues. “If you’re here for a visit to those guys yht iher day, I’m afraid you just missed them. Or are ya stopping by for something else?”

  Aurora rexed her stand smiled, disarming the tension with her calm demeanor. “I was formally introdug myself at a prect when word of the breakout came iive Kirby’s on his way. I’m here to scout and iigate any clues left here.” She couldn’t help but chuckle lightly. “Hm… a power suit, huh… I sure have nded ihick of things.”

  The officers exged skeptical gnces but gave her space to work, stepping back to observe. Aurora appreciated the distahough she could seheir wariness. She suspected they were already pegging her as an amateur, which wasirely inaccurate. Thankfully, being a superhero superfa she’d picked up a lot of the theory behind iigations, whether through the message boards, stories or otherwise through osmosis menerally. She simply hadn’t had much of a ce 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 se. Her eyes sed the area, noting scorched pavement, fragmented crete, and the acrid smell of bural 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 ce.

  “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 regur - 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 encing smile. “Hi, Jacko. I’m Aurora. you tell me what you saw?”

  Jacko licked his lips nervously, his gaze flig 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 ireet. 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 filed 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 tinued, his hand jabbing toward the ruiructure. “Their ride pulled up and took off thataway,” he added, pointing dowreet 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 Jabled on. Aurora listened ily, 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 reyed Jacko’s at, and Kirby houghtfully. “So if he flew in from off-site, there probably isn’t much to see around here. e on, Aurora, let’s take a look at the footage. Maybe see if we get any leads,” he said, gesturing toward the breached station.

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

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

  The sergeaated 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 sole, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

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

  The officer plied, and the footage flickered to life on the s. 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 spicuously, his movements agitated and deliberate. She poi the s. “That guy... look at his hand. What’s he doing?”

  Kirby frowned, his sharp eyes zeroing in oail. “Good catch,” he muttered.

  The explosion ripped through the s , a blinding fsh that sent debris flying. The criminals scrambled out of their cells, their movements frantic but purposeful. The chaos unfolded in stark bd-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 destru. Detective Kirby had the monit officer pull up external cameras where they saw a minivan pull up and the esg gang members pile in. The man in the exo-suit leveled his arm at something dowreet followed by an explosion so thunderous the camera briefly went on the fritz. Smoke and debris clouded the footage as the se 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-vehicur ordnance like a howitzer round,” Kirby supplied, his jaw ched tightly.

  “Wow…” Aurora took a deep breath, her eyes sing the damage on the s. “ 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 es 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 retly-purloiem from the Serendipity Corporation. They called it a ‘Mae-Augmented-Exoskeleton’ or something along those lihat’s the one suit they prototyped all the way to mostly w in order to pete for some defense tract I’m sure our tax dolrs are being well spent on. Doesn’t take a genius to see what the baseliform was aimed at doing, but no prizes fuessing 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 iigating things.” Both officers had expressions that indicated they were clearly less than pleased with being held ba, even if it ar for the course.

  Aurora’s mind raced as Kirby tinued. “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 ste 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 suspi that way.”

  Kirby tapped the monit officer on his shoulder. “There’s a BOLO for that vehicle, right?” He watched the officer’s expression shift from tration 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 send you more details by email, but basically, the suit was desigo increase the capability of a single man to bee a mobile artillery ptform. Apparently, it uses some kind of miniaturized turbieology as the powerpnt which they shunt the exhaust from to create repulsors… Why those eggheads ’t just say it runs on a jet ehat lets that dain- 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 trag the few pces where that fuel 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 poio where they are, I round them up again. The exoskeleton is going to be the most ing part. If you get me schematics, we could find a oint I might be able to exploit when I e up against it. Ideally, I’d want to try to recover it without damaging it, but if we don’t have pns for it, the odds are low that we’ll be able to simply disable it.”

  “Certainly, if you disable it that would be best,” Kirby replied, leaning ba his chair. “I’m sure Serendipity would love that, but I won’t cry if we 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 opic, “Well, if you think you’ve gotten all you 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 immi frontatioermination steeling her resolve.

  They left the room and headed through the department. Notig many of the officers statiohere were givihe 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 st one.”

  Aurora nodded, her lips pressed into a thin lihat’d be El Agui de Oro (aka The Golden Eagle). He was hispanid was one of the trainees inducted into the Society of Sentinels. A man who deed to identify where he was from, but the rumor was that he was from the area before he “went pro”. His departure left local w enfort feeliled arayed; 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 zily 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 oaway vehicle or not?” Kirby barked.

  Frederick leaned ba his chair, an uant smirk on his face. “Actually, I do,” he said, unfazed. “Looks like this lise pte 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 arently totalled and got sent over to ’s yard.” Frederick stroked his stubble-covered .

  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 inf Mr. Franklin’s insuranpany 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. e on, Aurora,” Kirby said, leading her onwards to one of the empty interview rooms. Aurora followed, gd 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. ’s junkyard’s owned by one Mr. Ronnie , who has ties to the Triads. Not the good news, but what is is that ’s yard is near a small refihat would have the equipment they’d o 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 ss on his phone, his brow furrowing in tration. “Do you have an email you’d prefer I send these specs to?” Kirby inquired. “If not, you may want to set something up, otherwise I just show you here.”

  Aurora nodded, deg it was important to settle the issue now. Fishing her pho from its pocket, she signed up for a fresh email at, 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 .

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

  Aurora made a mental note of the oints, her mind already formuting a pn. The ons 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 pn was to ‘punch hard’ and ‘find a way to turn up the heat’ uhese 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 make a tai 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 ce 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 imagihe looks on their faces, their fear at her mere presence.

  Kirby raised an eyebrow, a smirk pying 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 ossible her bsts might have an effe the main target, but nothing was certain. So far they didn’t gee heat, but there may be other ways of weakening or peing that armor. Aurora pondered different strategies, her mind rag with possibilities.

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

  “Thanks for the info, Detective.” She waved ahe building, leaping into the big blue sky. The wind rushed past her as she soared, the cityscape unfoldih her. As she made her way to the junkyard iion, Aurora focused her mind on going over pns to case the pce, her determination growing with each passing moment.

  “Well, as you 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 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 ng 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 colr isn’t quite ed 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 expined. “Happened not too long ago. If you hurry, you 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.”

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

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

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

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