The sun set early this far north, and Jenny coasted across the frozen lake in darkness. She didn't want to rest until she found Circus, but her search was getting tiring, even for her. She stopped her flight, touched down on the ice and continued walking across it aimlessly.
She walked on, away from the city, until she stumbled on some old bloodstains and a piece of a broken plank. Jenny's eyes went to the sharp edges of the plank, then to the bloodstains, which were smeared in the direction of the distant woods.
The world was dark out here, with no manmade light sources. She turned around to look at the city and sat down on the ice. The city was bright in comparison, but Jenny figured it would probably be much brighter if it had full power. She wondered if the people were suffering, and what her friends were doing right now.
It was lonely out here. Maybe the farewell hug she gave her friends was a bad omen. She'd been avoiding people since she came here, and the one interaction she had was with a local superhero who was on a crusade to kill her. It made her feel like the world was against her. In fact, it was definitely against her, ever since she broke out of jail and Dark Jenny appeared on the news for crimes against mankind. She didn't blame the girl with the black cape for her efforts.
Jenny grabbed her phone and opened the group chat to read the messages for comfort, but there weren't that many additional messages after Circus joined the group. Everything happened so quickly afterwards, and they'd been together or talking via radio ever since.
"[Circus]Hi everyone!"
"[Circus]@You 🤖"
"[Saturn]Racist…"
"[Circus]@You ❤️"
"[Saturn]Regrettable…"
"[Plural]Regrettable"
"[You] Be nice!"
"[You] @Circus❤️"
"[Circus]@You ❤️"
At the time, Jenny felt a little left out, being stuck in a cell while the others got acquainted with the new girl.
"[Plural]It ok we said sorry"
"[Circus]@Plural You did not…"
"[Plural]You know ily"
Jenny had a hard time figuring Plural out from her text messages.
"[Saturn]I said sorry"
"[Saturn]You should know @You"
"[Saturn]@Circus Tell her"
"[Circus]Yess"
"[You]Good! 🥰"
"[Plural]Yes but I will make her pasta so…"
"[Plural]Shallow @Saturn"
"[Plural]Be better"
Jenny only now realized this was a hint that Circus joined Plural at her place. Stupid…
She smiled as she re-read the messages, then closed her phone and lay down on the ice to look at the stars. There was hardly any light pollution here, so she could see the center of the galaxy she lived in. The sky was still colored blue from her flight, and Jenny wondered if Dark Jenny left a red glow instead. She kept an eye out for it but never saw anything. Maybe it was holed up somewhere.
Jenny sat upright again and looked down at the ice. She wiped it clean and looked at her own reflection, seeing the stars behind her. Jenny activated her blue hair to look at herself that way. She changed its color, like she was spinning a color wheel in her head, until she hit red, then stared at herself some more. The visual gave her a nasty feeling, and she rotated the wheel further until she ended up on her favorite color blue again.
Then, she could see something huge moving underneath the ice. It looked like some sort of underwater creature, but it was so big she couldn't really tell. Was it reacting to her hair?
Jenny levitated into the air to get a better look, and to her surprise, she saw an enormous eye staring at her. Feeling slightly rude that she'd been sitting on top of it the whole time without noticing, Jenny came back down on the ice and got on her hands and knees. She moved her hand in the center of its pupil and gave it a friendly smile, wondering what kind of nickname Saturn would give this thing if he was here.
"Hello, Mr. Fishy…"
She knew that wasn't it, but whatever.
Like with the bear in the woods, she made a clicking sound again, like to lure a cat over. The eye took a moment longer to look at her, then disappeared, sinking into the depths until Jenny could no longer see it. She sat down again and looked disappointed, taking her eyes back up to the stars.
"Yeah," she muttered to the beast below, "I don't have any treats…"
But she didn't get long before the ice around her cracked with a kind of loudness Jenny had never heard before. Enough for a normal person to go deaf, but nothing Jenny's ears couldn't handle. Jenny tensed up but remained seated on the ice with her legs outstretched and her hands on the surface behind her.
Then, the beast emerged from the lake and landed on Jenny's piece of ice, which had come loose from the rest of the frozen lake and now floated freely.
Jenny studied the massive creature and saw that it looked like a whale, especially the way it lay beached on her piece of ice. Its incredible weight tilted the piece into the air on the opposite side, causing Jenny to start sliding towards it.
Jenny rotated as she slid, eventually forcing her to turn her head the other way to keep her eyes on it. The creature had no visible eyes besides that big eye from before, which wasn't visible from this angle.
Unworried, she held out her hand as her butt slid the last bit of the way across the ice towards the creature's snout, eventually touching it and bringing herself to a complete stop.
She stood up, felt the snout with both of her hands and smiled. She got the sense that the creature was both friendly and intelligent, and that it wanted to make contact with her.
"What are you doing out here?"
The creature didn't respond in any observable way. It hadn't even made any sound at all and continued not to make any when it slipped back into the water. Jenny could now see the large eye from before on its back. It tilted its body backwards, so the snout was facing the sky, and spat out water like a fountain. The amount of water was staggering and went up far enough it could probably be spotted from the city.
Jenny looked up, then back at the creature to see it sink back into the water. She had no idea what was going on, and the creature was now so far gone that she couldn't see it anymore. She stood there to stare at it, until the shower of the creature's water came back down to hit her. It hit with enough force and volume to shake her piece of ice and make her lose her foothold, forcing her to activate her flight mode again to stay above water.
Jenny was getting soaked, but she didn't mind. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the waterfall while it lasted.
♦
Circus woke up in yet another dark room, shivering in the freezing cold with an awful headache. This place couldn't be further from the warm, pleasant interior of the museum. It looked like an old bunker, somewhere in a cold climate. The room had no furniture and was made of concrete. It was full of cracks, exposing it to the outside world, and the icy wind was blowing right through.
She looked around as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she noticed there were other people in the room with her, all unconscious. No sign of Dark Jenny.
Circus got up and walked on the freezing concrete floor on her socks, ever the way she was taken from Plural's house. When she tried to wake one of the other unconscious people up, she got no response from them. One by one, she checked the others, finding that they all had a pulse but were otherwise unresponsive.
One of the victims had their stomach exposed, and on it, Circus spotted a strange wound. She checked the others, and then herself, and found that they all had the same one. A deep cut surrounded by pale skin. She traced her own wound with her finger and noticed she couldn't feel the spot anymore, like it was frozen on purpose. Whatever it was, it was likely Dark Jenny's doing. It was keeping her alive for some reason.
When they left the museum, she was Dark Jenny's only luggage, meaning these people must've been locals. Circus wondered how long she'd been unconscious for, and for how long she'd had this wound. She put her shirt back down and decided to leave the others the way she found them for now.
Upon stepping through the doorless passage to the next room, the first thing she noticed was a big, fortified door at the end of it. This room was larger than the last one and contained some old furniture and a creepy-looking mirror in a dark corner of the room. A piece of the wall was damaged enough to show her the outside world, through which she saw snow. She swallowed as the view outside confirmed her fears that she wasn't anywhere close to home.
Circus approached the gap in the wall to get a better look and saw dark, unlit buildings. In the sky was the clearest view of the galaxy she'd ever seen in her life. Wherever this was, there wasn't a lot of light pollution. She also noticed some smoke in the distance, like a giant campfire.
Then, she saw something move in the corner of her eye and jerked her head in the direction of the mirror in the dark corner of the room. She stared at the dark spot until her eyes adjusted enough to reveal a silhouette of a figure standing in front of it, it was facing towards the mirror and away from her, but had its head turned her way. It was a terrifying image to look at, but Circus knew it had to be Dark Jenny, who had to be around here somewhere. She wondered if it was still keen on sparing her life.
The figure stepped out of the shadows to reveal itself, confirming her suspicions. It gave Circus a friendly wave. Circus stared back and gave a shallow wave back. Dark Jenny didn't do anything else, like it had no special plans for Circus now that she'd woken up. It held a pistol in one of its hands but did nothing with it.
"So… do you talk?" Circus hesitantly asked.
Dark Jenny didn't respond in any way. It tilted its head slightly, still smiling.
"Did you… do this?" she lifted her shirt up to show the wound.
Dark Jenny nodded.
Circus' heart raced. She just communicated with this thing. It understands her…
"Why? What did you do to me?"
Dark Jenny didn't react and looked at Circus like it didn't even hear the question. She was probably limited to just yes-no kinds of questions.
"Are you gonna kill me??"
Dark Jenny shook its head.
Circus rubbed her wound again and wondered what she could ask to find out what the purpose of the wounds were using just yes-no questions. Then, she wondered if it would even want to tell her. She didn't want to lose this opportunity and started asking her most burning questions.
"Do you wanna kill Jenny?"
It shook its head. No.
"Do you hate us? Me and Jenny, and our friends?"
No.
Circus was flabbergasted. This thing was treating this whole ordeal like some game to cure its boredom.
"Aren't you scared Jenny's gonna kill you?"
Another no.
"You're not afraid of death?"
Dark Jenny didn't answer literally this time. Instead, it handed Circus the pistol. When she gave it a closer look, she realized it was a flare pistol.
"You want me to fire this?"
Yes.
Circus looked at the sky through the hole in the wall next to her. She could fire the flare from here. Was Jenny out there? She remembered holding the tracker button for five seconds like Saturn said, but she didn't know if it really worked. Why would Dark Jenny allow her to call for help anyway? Was this a trap?
She gave Dark Jenny one last look. It was no use trying to guess what it was thinking, even if it did seem intelligent. This thing was some sort of eldritch horror that just wanted to be entertained. It admitted to having no feelings towards Jenny and the group and seemingly wasn't even afraid of death. Maybe that, too, would be a cure for boredom.
Circus pointed the pistol as straight up at the sky as she could and fired it. As expected, a flare signal just like the ones she'd seen in the movies shot up into the sky. Dark Jenny looked pleased and returned to the mirror. Hopefully, Jenny was here to see it, and hopefully this wasn't a trap.
♦
Elsewhere in the city, Tatters' body was illuminated by flames. She stood in front of a burning building, which was the only light source in the immediate area. Her house. She held a blue, caped costume with a yellow "T" logo on the chest. It was her first-ever superhero costume from long ago—and it, too, was tattered. She cringed as she examined it, remembering all the awful things that happened when she wore it, back when she was naïve and optimistic.
Back then, she believed becoming a hero would save her, and she did it exactly the way she'd always envisioned it as a child. But the harsh reality of life had different plans, and it didn't take long before she fell into a depression and turned into a villain instead. Or at least, she wasn't sure what she was anymore.
Everybody feared her, even those who approved of what she did. Every morning, she came home, and there was nobody there to tell her if she was doing the right thing. And every afternoon, she got out of bed to do it all over again.
She remembered the day she stopped wearing the old costume. It was when she killed a man and broke her golden rule for the first time. After that, she couldn't bear wearing that embarrassing "T" on her chest anymore, and she grew to find the color combination ridiculous. That's when her current black cape took its place. It was less offensive because it had nothing on it.
Even still, she couldn't bring herself to get rid of this one up until now. She always had it on display at home like some sort of reminder of her past mistakes.
Tatters folded the cape into a ball and tossed it into the fire, so it could burn with the rest of her belongings.
She turned her back to the fire and walked to her vehicle. A snow trike with two wheels at the front and one at the back, compact enough to be usable anywhere in and around the city, but long enough to be able to carry cargo or passengers. It looked like it had been to hell and back, with its paint job almost completely erased. Some parts of it were reinforced to allow it to ram things, or block gunfire.
She grabbed a weapon from the trike's seat and mounted it to the vehicle's side carrier. It was a heavy-duty crossbow, a weapon she didn't normally use. It fired bolts that stayed connected to it though a wire, allowing her to infuse them with the piercing effects of her power, all the way until impact. Earlier today, during her bout with the robot that could bring an end to mankind, she cursed herself for only being equipped to fight people. This time, she'd bring a harpoon to her white whale.
Then, almost like a sign from the universe itself, the moonlight illuminated an enormous spray of water in the distance. It reached a height comparable to that of a skyscraper, before plateauing and coming back down. That was the direction of the frozen lake, where she was almost killed last night, and where the blue object in the sky had just touched down.
At the same time, not that far away, a flare went up into the sky. A call for help.
"Why now!?"
Tatters clenched her fists and kicked her trike in frustration. To her left, the spray of water had already dissipated, and her white whale wouldn't stay there forever. On her right, the flare was still in the sky, freshly fired, and the location was closer.
Tatters closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then exhaled and got on her vehicle.
♦
Elsewhere, Plural walked through the dark city center alone. She and Saturn split up when the sun went down and they realized they'd gone all day without resting or eating. Plural was trying to find a place for them to sleep and for Jenny to charge, while Saturn looked for a way to get food for the two. The streets were relatively empty for being early evening, but people were probably holed up inside trying to keep warm.
She was ecstatic back when she first saw the city from that rooftop Jenny landed on. Now, she realized how hostile this place really was to two foreigners in this crisis. Restaurants didn't look like they were operating, and she didn't blame them. How were they going to find food? Were there even any hotels that'd still rent out rooms? Then there was the issue of power for Jenny. Would anybody let her plug into their precious generator?
Plural felt her stomach growl as she walked across a bridge, when she saw a flare go up into the sky.
"You seeing this, guys?" radio-Saturn said.
"Yeah…" Plural replied.
Plural looked at the flare and had a strange gut feeling.
Circus…
"Jenny?" she called out again.
Jenny didn't respond.
Plural saw the flare slow its ascent until it didn't go up anymore. She was scared it would disappear soon, and they'd have no idea where it came from.
"Jenny!? Come in!"
Still no response from Jenny.
Plural didn't want to wait anymore and pressed the panic button on her wristband. Almost immediately after she did, she could hear what sounded like fireworks in the distance, going off three times a second and approaching rapidly until Jenny appeared by her side just seconds after she pressed the button, soaking wet.
"What's wrong?" Jenny asked worriedly.
Plural pointed at the flare. Jenny looked in the direction like she was seeing it for the first time right here. Her eyes looked like she was racing the options through her head.
"Let's go," Jenny declared before Plural could explain.
"Was that you, Jen?" radio-Saturn asked.
Jenny grabbed Plural by her upper back and legs and carried her into the air, then flew towards the flare at a fast but manageable pace. When they reached the building, which looked like an old bunker, Plural could see a green glow in Jenny's eyes, like she was looking straight through its walls.
"I'll leave Circus to you," Jenny said as she touched down and dropped Plural outside.
"It's really her? Wait, what're you—"
But Jenny didn't stick around to answer her questions and backed away from the bunker, then stopped and braced herself in midair, ready to blast off.
♦
Circus waited anxiously as she watched her flare go up into the sky and eventually start coming back down. Eventually, she heard loud bangs in the distance, accompanied with blue sparkles going across the city.
"Jenny…"
Nothing else in the world could make those blue sparkles, not with Dark Jenny standing right behind her. A flame of hope lit up in her chest that her friend was responding to her distress signal. She looked up in the sky to see that she'd fired a good shot, and the signal was floating perfectly above her location. Jenny's sparkles weren't headed straight this way, so Circus couldn't know for sure if she was coming or not.
She looked back at Dark Jenny, whose eyes were now visible in the darkness with a faint, green glow, looking in the direction Jenny's sparkles disappeared at.
A few seconds later, it took half a step back before being swept away by a blue flash that crashed straight through the bunker and exited out the other side, leaving Circus behind.