Questions and Answers

Stogen Williams was an old friend of Justin's; they knew each other since college. When Justin went on to join the KCPD, Stogen went a more culinary route, opening up a diner in the center of town, becoming immensely popular within only a few weeks of opening. Being such a fan favorite spot, a lot of different people came and went from it, and Stogen overheard a lot of different rumors and discussions that Justin found could be put to good use in certain situations. He was hoping this could be one of those times.

The diner itself was moderately sized, with a red exterior and a neon sign labelled STOGEN'S in yellow above the door. Justin could smell the wafting scent of grilling meat from inside (Stogen always grilled his meats, never bothering to touch a fryer unless absolutely necessary, or if it was for something like his famous deep fried ice cream).

Justin walked in and was greeted by a waitress in a black shirt and pants.

"How are we today?" she asked.

"Fine" Justin replied, "I'm here to speak to Stogen. Is he here?"

"Woods!" shouted a voice. Justin looked to see a man a few years older than him, wearing a black cooking outfit and a white apron. He was clean shaven, like Justin was, and wore a bandanna around his head. A wide grin was on his face.

"If it isn't the top dog detective himself!" he said.

Justin smiled. "Good to see you too, Stogen. You got a sec?"

"Take a seat, I'll be right there" Stogen shouted, "Jess, could you show him to a seat?"

Jess nodded and waved Justin over to a booth in the corner of the room.

"He talks a lot about you" Jess said, "Says you come here often for help on cases."

"It's true." Justin replied, "You'd be surprised what I can learn from a popular stop like this place."

Jess nodded, "I'll go let him know where you are." Then, she walked off. Justin waited for on his own for a few minutes, not realizing he was being watched with great interest by a young woman with red hair at the other end of the room. He could sense it though, and glanced around, looking for whoever was watching him.

Just then, Stogen appeared carrying two trays of food. One he placed in front of a group of customers at a nearby table, while he brought the other over to Justin and placed it on the table as he sat down, showing two different plates of burgers, fries, and milkshakes. Stogen always insisted on making food for Justin, despite Justin's multiple attempts to pay him afterwards.

"Bacon and cheddar burger, just the way you like it." Stogen announced with pride, holding up his own burger, "Though I prefer my Stogen Special."

Justin chuckled as he took his food. "Thanks."

"Anything for an old buddy. Now, what can I do for ya."

"Have you heard about Aqua's murder yet?"

"Of course. I don't think there's a person in this whole city that hasn't heard of it yet. Still shocks me now. Looks like they've got you in on it, eh?"

Justin nodded, "I was looking over the scene and I came across a few things that left me with questions."

Stogen raised an eyebrow in interest as he bit into his burger, "Oh?"

"The blood test revealed two types of blood at the scene" Justin explained, "One was Aqua's, but the other showed sign of heavy mutation."

"Isn't that a thing though with supers?" Stogen asked.

Justin shook his head, "Yes, but this one was way more mutated than that. Have you heard anything about such mutations?"

Stogen scratched his chin as he took a sip from his milkshake. "Actually, I did hear something from a group of fisherman from the harbor. They think there's some creature in the water that's chasing the fish and sabotaging boats."

"Any descriptions?"

"All I got was it looked like a shark with legs. I don't know; it's probably just fisherman paranoia. At least that's what I thought, until last night, when I heard something that startled me from my sleep. I don't know what it was, but it was definitely not human. Didn't sleep a wink after that."

Justin pondered this as he took another bite from his burger. "Interesting." He then made a mental note to visit the harbor later today before going to the other question. "Now, the autopsy on Aqua showed scorch marks, like if she was burned in the attack. The thing is, there were no other marks on the ground anywhere around the scene."

Stogen's expression showed full interest. "Hmmm, no. But I do know that these have shown up before…on Angel."

"Angel?" Justin asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah. Rumor's been floating around that she suffered a burn wound from a recent scuffle that people know next to nothing about. It's possible she might know something."

"Maybe, but there's one problem. How do I even get an audience with her?"

Stogen thought for a moment as he finished his burger. "Well, there is one way. Angel has her own nightclub on top of the S Resort, as you may know."

"I've heard of it."

"Well, I heard from a group of hero fans that Angel herself shows up there every Saturday to personally meet with people. It's a long shot, but if it's an audience with the Angel that you want, then this is the only way."

Justin nodded his thanks as he finished his food and left. As he walked out, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a bit of red hair disappear into a group of people. He then decided to hurry to his car and drove back to his lab.

Once he made it there, he sat down and thought over his options; getting an audience with Angel was a long shot, but the harbor might not be as safe has originally thought. However, if he was going to get more information on what had happened, maybe the harbor was the better option as of right now, and he planned to go there that night. Right now, he needed to talk to Wayne.

"Ah, Woods" Wayne said as Justin entered, "How's it going?"

"Smoothly" Justin replied, "Any word about the camera feeds?"

"I was just about to talk to you about that actually. The guys couldn't get any feed."

This surprised Justin. "What do you mean?"

"Well, when we looked at the cameras, the drives with their memory were fried beyond repair, as were the wiring."

Justin shook his head in disbelief. "Unbelievable. Well, while we're on the subject of burnt things, there's something I need to tell you about."

Wayne rubbed his face after Justin explained everything. "A super villain?"

"I know it sounds crazy, Wayne" Justin said, "But it makes sense. The only way burn marks like that could possibly appear so accurately is because they came from someone's power. I genuinely think this could be a potential villain. I'm going down to the harbor tonight to look around some more, but this is what I think."

Wayne leaned back in his seat and sighed. "I see where you're going with this, but I'm gonna need more proof. There hasn't been a super villain for twenty years since the S-serum was first made."

"I know, but that doesn't mean they won't show up now. I'll see what I can find at the harbor and I'll try to talk with a superhero and see what they know. Maybe it'll prove my theory. I just wanted to let you know now in case something happened."

Wayne was silent for a few moments, then nodded. "Ok, do what you need to. But whatever you do, do NOT bring this up to anyone else. The last thing we need is people panicking about this; especially after Aqua's death."

Justin nodded. "Consider it done."

"Good luck, Woods."

The two shook hands before Justin left the room and headed for his car. As he got in, though, he had a second thought; granted he was told not to mention possible villains to anyone, but if anyone absolutely needed to know about this, it was the superheroes. He checked his phone and chuckled; it just so happened to be a Saturday.

He sighed. "Sorry, Wayne" then started the car and drove off towards Downtown Killearn in a change of plans; it was time to go have a talk with the Angel.