《Tomorrow Girl in Bismarck》Tomorrow Girl: Chapter Seven - When late at night is dark like super dark
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Night. Late. Joss. A common misconception about people who can go fast, like super duper fast, is that they can read super duper fast. Not true. Speed reading is a separate skill that you've got to develop, and Joss had not developed it. She was looking over Mika’s files for something, some sort of clue that the police missed. She was reading at normal speed, because Zoe didn't even notice her as she walked by her mother's office.
Zoe's mom often stayed up late looking into the files trying to determine whether the car accidents were just accidents or not. Zoe was listening to music, talking to their pets, and stopped making sense particularly. She went and got herself a sandwich, and on the way back she finally noted that it was Joss who was scrounging around her mother's office.
"What are you doing?" says Zoe.
"Hey, how's it going?" said Joss.
"Nobody's supposed to be in here."
"I'm aware of that," said Joss.
"I was not aware of that."
"Okay, I'm going to put everything back. I sincerely apologize for that," said Joss, and at super speed put everything back and cleaned it all up as she walked out.
"Guess I can't use that, can't use these," she thought. Well, okay, she would just have to gather her own resources, she could do that. She walked out. She sat back down on the couch, took out her notepad, and started scribbling on how to take the first steps in solving a murder, and wrote a big question mark.
"Seriously, what were you doing in there?" said Zoe.
"Oh, nothing. Can I say how I appreciated your family letting me stay with them," said Joss.
"Oh, don't worry about that."
"So, now that we're best friends, can I tell you something, a secret?" said Joss.
"Sure," said Zoe.
"I'm gonna solve the murder," said Joss.
"Why?" said Zoe.
"Because I suspect something bigger is going on, something in the universe, something secretive," said Joss.
"Really?" said Zoe.
"You think something universe-ending is going on in this case?" said Zoe.
The truth of the matter was, no, Joss did not think about that. But after the night where everything went right for her, in a way she had been rethinking how she was going to approach the super heroics here. And it seemed that an avert brawn wasn't the answer. But cunning guile could simply be it. And nothing was more perfect for her than a murder case to solve. She just had to figure out how to do it, because most likely this didn't involve the Illuminati from every detective book she had ever read on her universe. And the only detective books she had ever read were Dr. Nightowl's how-to guides, 95% of which were about the Illuminati, and lot of stuff about the water being poisoned. He was not a well person.
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"You got any leads?" said Zoe.
"Well, this is what I've got so far." She showed her the notepad. Zoe was unimpressed.
"Did you find anything from my mom's files?" said Zoe.
"No, no, no. That was a total deadend. It was just the make and model and the crash report and, you know, nothing about the killer himself, or themselves. I should not assume," said Joss.
"Well, what are we gonna do then? We could ask questions," said Zoe.
"Wait, you wanna be part of this?" said Joss.
"I'm finding I wanna be part of most things."
"That's great, Zoe. I'm proud of you."
“So what are we going to do?” said Zoe.
"I have an idea," said Joss.
That thing that people do when it seems like they're grabbing an invisible subway holder thing and pulling the subway handle that they use when they're standing up and pulling it really close to their heart - she was doing that.
“All this money is flying around. Okay, so we're on a lonely road in the lonely back roads in North Dakota. I crash my car and I take out my], and there's a bunch of money floating around," said Joss.
“Ok,” said Zoe, "murder victims don't talk unless we're dealing with something that is a horror thing, or they're ghosts."
"Actually, murder victims talk a lot," said Joss. "The money starts to come out of the car, and I see you staring at it, and I'm just about to take out my gun when I notice a kitten right on the road, and I pick it up and I just throw it against the tree," said Joss.
"Ahh, were there any kittens at the crime scene?" said Zoe.
"No, no, no there weren't. I just did it to creep you out," said Joss, falling back on the couch.
"How about I be the murderer this time?" said Zoe.
"Okay," said Joss.
"Okay, the car crashes. There's a bunch of money around, and I see you staring at it. Wait. How do you know that the other guy didn't have the money?" said Zoe.
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"Your mom's notes indicated very strongly that that was not a possibility," said Joss.
"Really? It's the 1930s and I'm the Duce of Italy. My campaign in Zaire was a total disaster," said Zoe, as she to fell on the couch.
"Huh?" said Joss.
"Okay, it's harder than it sounds," said Zoe. as she sat the couch.
"I don't know what to do. What do normal people do?" said Joss.
"We could listen to the Talking Heads," said Zoe.
"Who are the Talking Heads?" said Joss.
"My favorite band. They're really cool. I really like their concert film Stop Making Sense. David Byrne is such a weirdo. It's great. I even like most of his solo work. Most people don't know about his solo work," said Zoe.
"Did you just say David Byrne?" said Joss.
"Yeah, the front man for the Talking Heads."
"Interesting. You know, in my universe David Byrne is a giant floating head who floats around Kansas and stuff and makes comments on things," said Joss.
"Really?" said Zoe.
"Right," said Joss.
"Could you take me flying?"
"Yes, yes I can very much do that," said Joss.
"Great, let me dress in something warm." It took her five minutes to decide what to wear.
Joss stood out at on the front porch of this very normal and plain-looking suburban street. Fortunately, it was the middle of the night and nobody was around. Joss awlays like the nights. She felt that the world was a private place for a short while. Zoe came out dressed in a parka that was wearing her more then she was wearing it.
"You ready to do this?" said Joss.
A long, deliberate pause from Zoe and then, "Sure, yeah, let's do this."
“Grab tight."
Zoe grabbed as tight as she could, and Joss took off. She soared, but not as fast as she could go.
"Oh my God, oh my God. I'm seeing what birds see. Look down on the ground. Only birds can see that, or people in hang gliders. I'm in that vaulted class of people, hang gliders and bird fans," said Zoe.
"It's pretty neat” said Joss. Let's be honest. This was normal for her, so it was not like it was the only thing. So yeah, this was a normal day for her. She was happy that Zoe was happy.
"I hadn't even thought about dying yet, because even if I fall off, you'll just catch me, right? Because you could go pretty fast?" said Zoe.
"Um," said Joss.
"Um!," said Zoe.
"Okay, so here's the problem though. We're pretty high up, and if you were to fall, you know how my arms are almost as strong, or as strong as steel, right? And if I were to catch you, at the rate you were falling, you would most likely break your back and be paralyzed for life," said Joss.
"Okay, I'd like you to go down now," said Zoe.
"Really?" said Joss.
"No,," said Zoe.
They flew around for a little bit more, and then Joss eventually dropped, and sat on top of the estate building - beautiful, well beautiful-ish, art deco building. It was also the tallest in Bismarck.
The second they landed, Zoe layed right down on the building. "Oh my God, that was great. That was great. Hey, how did you get your powers to begin with?"
"Oh, it's a long story," said Joss, who laid down right next to her.
They fell asleep.
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