Aftermath

"This is it," Clive Rand said to his passenger as they arrived at the clearing amongst the sprawling forests around Chickpea Junction, Iowa. "I'll do the talking, while you see if Asher left any hint as to what happened. I'm not sure how much of this place they've roped off since its now a crime scene."

Nodding with a sniffle, Priya Patil looked out the window as they pulled up to the quaint accommodations that her boyfriend had been hiding away at for several weeks. There were many police cars, some FBI and some state police, while paramedics stood around on standby as they and the officers searched the vast surrounding area.

With the sun hanging low in the sky, it had been a hectic day already for the veteran Graveport detective and his new acquaintance. Earlier, "someone" had assaulted the compound where Asher Avril and his hero escort, Gold Boxer, were being kept in witness protection. The responding cops were still trying to piece together what exactly had happened, but at the time, both men were still missing. Rand, having been the one to put Asher in the witness protection program, had flown down to Iowa as soon as he'd heard what had happened, where he also brought along the young man's longtime girlfriend, Priya. While the FBI and police were searching for clues as to who the culprit was, Rand and Priya already had a pretty good idea as to who was responsible. 

Dressed in a short black dress with her long, black hair over her shoulders, Priya got out of the car after they parked and slowly walked towards one of the farm houses in the clearing, while the detective went to speak with some of the other cops.

"Glad you could make it, Detective," an FBI agent greeted as he shook his hand. "We don't know much, but there are signs that there was a struggle going on. That house over there is largely destroyed on the inside, and we're seeing foot prints that look like several people were running all over the place."

"I see. What about Gold Boxer?" Rand asked.

"No sign of him either, but we're still looking," the agent replied, before nodding towards Priya. "Who is that?"

"Asher's girlfriend. The young lady has been a wreck ever since he left," the detective answered. "I'm concerned for her safety too, that's why I brought her."

"Gotcha. Well, feel free to look around. I'm sure you know the guy more than any of us," the agent nodded again, before returning to his comrades.

Dressed in a disheveled grey overcoat, Rand ran a hand through his grey locks and sighed as he began to walk towards the dilapidated cornfield.

"I'm sorry she found you, Asher," he sighed to himself, before looking towards where Priya had went.

Inspecting the small farmhouse, the young woman's heart almost skipped a beat when she spotted Asher's sketchbook sitting there on the small table next to the rocking chair. Picking it up, Priya flipped through it and almost immediately began to cry. Some of the first sketches were portraits of her, before the following pages ended up being some kind of comic. Paramedic Man and Steel Scorn. Giggling through her tears as it was obviously meant to be her and Asher, Priya turned the page again to find that their opponent was clearly a rendition of Passion Princess.

"Please be safe, babe," she whispered to herself as she turned the page again, only to find a single sentence hastily scratched into the middle of the next sheet.

"She's taking me to her island."

A chill running down her spine, Priya waved down the detective, who hobbled over to her soon after.

"Looks really messy, like he rushed to write this down as she was chasing him," Clive Rand remarked as Priya showed him the sketchbook. "Unfortunately, I think it's safe to say that she succeeded in catching up to him."

"So can we use this as proof to tell the police?" Priya asked as she wiped her eyes. "Have them investigate that bitch's island, they'll find him!"

"I'm sorry, my dear, but this isn't any proof to them at all," Rand sighed. "It's too vague, and even if Asher named Passion Princess in this note, nobody would believe that she kidnapped a guy. It's our word versus the word of one of the most beloved and revered superheroes in the world."

"So that's it? My boyfriend is just going to be locked up in some super powered psycho's hideout?" Priya cried. "W-what do you think she's doing to him? Fuck, this is insane. We know where he is, but you're telling me we can't even do anything?"

"The best thing that we can do now is remain calm. No point in getting worked up over something that we can't do anything about at the moment," Rand attempted to reassure her. "I know this is tough, but we have to bide our time and figure out where to go from here. And don't forget, Asher wasn't the only victim here tonight."

"I-I'm sorry, your hero friend is missing too, isn't he?" Priya asked with a nod. "What do you think happened to him?"

"I don't know, but I can assure you that knowing him, Gold Boxer would have tried to protect Asher no matter how bad things looked," the detective replied. "He'd better be okay too. I owe that man many steak dinners and more alcohol than a bar."

With that, Priya slipped her boyfriend's sketchbook into her jeweled black and pink purse, before following the detective as she looked around a bit more. The sun got lower in the sky, while more information was slowly accumulated as the night went on. One search party discovered a section of the forest were the trees seemed to have been knocked down by a very powerful force, suggesting that the culprit likely had superpowers. Numerous craters indicated a struggle between two forces, which the police assumed was Gold Boxer versus the "unknown" assailant. Speaking of the gold-coated hero, Rand watched through wide eyes as he spotted some paramedics at the edge of the forest hauling a stretcher towards an ambulance.

Forcing his old, tired body forward, the detective jogged over to the medics as he called out to them one question. He wanted to know if his friend was alive. Laid out on the stretcher, covered in a white sheet that was already saturated in blood, Rand grimaced as he watched the quickly-expanding splotch of red around where the man's chest would be.

"He's alive, but critical," one of the paramedics explained as the large man was hauled into the back of the ambulance, his face still covered. "He's going to need a miracle to pull through. He has many broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and has largely bled out. Whatever hit him punched clean through his chest."

"Dammit," Rand winced at hearing this, before putting his hand on the stretcher. "You hear me, Brad? Don't you dare die on me! I know you were prepared to give your life for the man I entrusted to you, but that doesn't mean actually die, you idiot! Live through this, because this young lady and I are going to need you for the battle ahead. You're one of the only people that I can trust, and I'm sure that you know who took Asher."

Confused, the paramedic finished loading the gravely-injured man, before pulling away with his fellow medics. With the ambulance speeding off, Priya joined the detective. 

"Did they find your friend? Is he okay?" she asked.

"He might not make it," Rand stated bluntly. "But if he pulls through, then our case against Passion Princess will get a huge boost. As I said earlier, it looks as though he got between her and Asher and paid the price for it. We might finally have some ammo against that nut if Gold Boxer can testify that he battled Passion Princess herself in order to prevent Asher's kidnapping."

"Seriously? Oh my gosh, that would be amazing," Priya cried as she hugged the purse that now contained Asher's sketchpad to her chest. "My poor Asher. I wonder if he's okay."

"Well, it's almost certain that he's not dead," the detective again tried to reassure her. "But as for what she's doing to him—well, let's just not think about that for now. We'll focus on finding a way to get him home."