Ferris had led Josh to the old abandoned train tracks. She figured, if she was going to tell him everything, the sight of their first mission might be a good visual aid. When she had told him, Josh had stared down the ravine, trying to picture an ambulance flying down it. That had been a while ago, and by now Ferris had just finished recounting her most recent mission. "So let me get this straight:" said Josh, beginning to count off on his fingers, "The three of you got powers; that crazy doctor tried to experiment on you; you kicked his ass and escaped; you decided to become super heroes; along the way, you encountered evidence of a smart magic user trying to kill people with your stuff; then last week this smart magic user, the Dark Queen, shows up, steals your wand and runs away. Is that all?" Ferris shook her head and sat down on a log, "That's just the summary."
At the police station, Captain Curtson walked into his office. He took his coat off, draped it over the chair, and then sat down with a sigh. "Lightning striking twice in the same place? That's not my responsibility. Why isn't it the fire department filling out the paperwork. Oh wait, I forgot they don't do paperwork, they just sit around all day, lift weights and watch porn." The Captain jumped at a "pft" and pulled out his gun. "That is just unfair, even I do paperwork." The Captain saw a ripple in the air and pointed his gun at it. "That's pretty good." Said the Scientist. The Captain recognized the voice and put his gun away. "Learned it from my son's Halo game. Nice cloaking device by the way." Jake appeared. "It still could use some work. I am trying to get rid of that ripple, and for some reason it makes the room smell like ozone."
"So that's what that smell is. Please, have a seat." Jake sat down. "The Scientist coming to visit me in my own office. This is quite unusual." The Captain could see the sides of Jake's mouth forming a smile. "As is lightning striking twice in the same place." The Captain looked sternly at him. "You had something to do with that, didn't you?" "You could say that. Here, have a look at this." Jake held out a disk. "What is it?" "It's a DVD." The Captain looked embarrassed, "Oh, I still haven't traded up from my VHS player yet." Jake reached into his coat. "Not a problem, I made a VHS copy just in case."
Jake popped it into the VCR and the tape began playing. It was the battle with the Dark Queen, with a few details cut out. "A person did that?" asked the Captain. Jake nodded. He kept watching. "She got the Sorceress's wand!" then he saw the beamsword blocked. "Since when can the Sorceress' wand do that?" "That was the first time. This witch is far more powerful than any of us." The Captain fell back in his chair, his hand on his head. Then he looked at Jake. "Who is she?" "As far as we know, she refers to herself as the Dark Queen. Do you remember that symbol on her head?" "Vaguely." "Well that symbol has shown up during a previous Variant mission. We believe that this witch is responsible for some of our stranger encounters since the Sorceress sensed the Dark Queen's magical equivalent of a fingerprint in connection with the symbol encounter, as well as an earlier incident."
"So why are you showing me this?" Jake sighed, "We are going to fight her again. I hope to track her down to her extra-terrestrial home so we can avoid casualties." The Captain nodded, "Good policy." "However, as you have seen, she is quite powerful. If we do not survive, the Variants are counting on you to be ready to fight her." The Captain stared. "Me?" "You, the police force, the government, the whole world. This intelligence is the most we can give you, and if you ask, "why not my weapons?" you have seen how useless they are against her." There was silence. The Captain sighed. "Why couldn't this have happened in a few years. Then I would be retired." Jake smiled. "Captain, we both know, you would come out of retirement if that had happened."
He smiled back, "Probably, so how do you suggest we fight this Dark Queen?" "I believe the Lieutenant might have some ideas." "The Lieutenant?" Jake raised his hand over his shoulder and the door swung open, the Lieutenant tumbling in. "He has been eavesdropping." The Lieutenant brushed himself off. "So another one of you mutants decided to show up, huh?" He walked around to behind the desk where the tape had been re-wound. The Captain pressed play and the Lieutenant began watching. "She doesn't look so, holy fuck..."
