Harlow was once again led through the vast streets and landmarks of her new underground surroundings. This time a little less frantic and a little less in pain. Black Star wasn’t physically holding onto her anymore, just hoping that’d she keep up. Which wasn’t necessarily hard to do even with how much smaller she was than her. But it wasn’t easy either. She had only just started to get the hang of the flow of traffic down here. 

Harlow had stumbled, apologized, bump into, and accidentally shoved more people down here than she ever thought she had in her life. She felt bad sometimes, mostly when they were nice to her about it. The ones that immediately launched into cursing and being rude, she didn’t feel too bad for. If this place had been a bit more technologically savvy, she’d blow up their phone. 

Which was an entirely violent thought to have, Harlow. She thought before shaking the whole scene from her mind and speeding up to catch up with Black Star. She moved so effortlessly through the crowds, which Harlow envied. Until she realized she was using her powers. 

Black Star was avoiding any physical contact with anyone who’d bump into her by using her powers of gravity manipulation. If someone had move a little too close to her liking, she’d move them a little ways away from her. Harlow starred in awe, before resuming to catch up to her. “You know, that’s a pretty wasteful use of your powers.” She whisper-hissed at her. Black Star shrugged. “Why would I use my powers for any other reason?” She answered, finally slowing down to a halt. “There it is. My place.” She pointed to a building across from where they were standing. 

It looked a bit better built than any other building they’d passed before. For one, it looked properly built at all. Instead of being half-organic cave and half-modern architecture, it was a fully modern building. Placed directly on the corner, the building was wedged between two busy streets. It looked open and inviting, not really what Harlow had in mind for a base of operations, even in a villain city. “You own the whole building?” She asked, a little bewildered at the concept. 

Black Star simply lead her into the building itself and the interior was entirely different from the exterior. It was all one big room, as tall as the building itself. It did have stairs but it just lead to an open loft area and besides that, there were a couple of bookcases built in beneath the loft itself.Other than than, there was nothing of value. At least on that half of the building.

The other half resembled a secret base. No natural lights, walls covered roof to floor with computer monitors all focused on different parts of the city. More than half the screens showed the news, some seemingly paused on headlines that mentioned Harlow’s incident. While others had informations scrolling without any prompting. Information on the heroes of the Citadel. The ones deployed on missions, ones doing PR stunts, even ones that were currently “out of commission”. Ones that were missing.

“So that’s how you figured out…” Harlow trailed off, eyeing the numerous papers and books scattered across the floor. “Gee, Cass, ever consider cleaning?” She said, moving slowly about the room.  Black Star shrugged walking off into a room Harlow hadn’t seen before. She guessed it was the bathroom, cuz she heard water running. 

“Maybe you can live here and I won’t have to worry about it again?” She called out into the main room. Harlow scoffed. “Hmm, guess not then.” Black Star called out again. Harlow walked closer over to the computers and glanced at them. She never considered Black Star a “genius” but this was some very in-depth spying. Why dedicate her energy to any of this? 

“What’s with all the gear?” Harlow shouted over the running water. She didn’t expect an answer, but she figured she could at least have some sort of conversation.

“You know me. I keep myself busy. Are you sure you want the details?” She heard Black Star call back. Harlow decided that maybe she didn’t want the details. Instead, she started absentmindedly picking up papers and books and placing them either onto the tables or just putting them back. When she noticed what she was doing, she stopped abruptly, slapping her own forehead. Did it anyway, stupid! She groaned walking up the step to view the loft area. 

“What’s the plan, Cass? Why help me get to this point?” Harlow stopped at the railing of the loft and admired the vantage point she had. She could now see all the screens fairly easily. When she turned around, she saw the city itself. It looked like the windows had some sort of tint on them to hide whatever was inside. “Surely this would be the perfect time to let me sink on my own.” She wasn’t trying to start a fight, but Black Star had always been the type to let someone learn from the mistakes and not help. 

“This isn’t a school lesson, Harlow. These people probably want you dead.” She heard footsteps lead out of the bathroom. Then paused. “You cleaned up anyways? Hm, never could stand clutter, huh?” Harlow frowned at the comments. 

“You’’re right, you’re right.” She began putting away her dirty clothes in a hamper near the wall. Black Star offered a small smile. Not a grin, clearly trying to be supportive instead of instigate an argument. “Harlow, you know why I’m helping. I‘m just worried where your head’s at.”

Harlow sighed, watched as Black Star cleaned up the upper area a little fore sitting down. She grabbed a tablet that was sitting on her her bedside table before offering it to Harlow. “Tell me what you can find, Techy.” 

Harlow grabbed the tablet, eyes glowing blue. She scanned through dozens upon dozens of files, a lot that were collected in the past couple of days. A lot of articles about her “event” at the citadel. They said the same thing though, so she was confused. As for the rest…

“Cass, these are the same article. At least the ones that mention me are the same.” She said, handing back the tablet. Black Star fidgeted with her tablet a little, pressing some buttons that allowed her to switch the files to the numerous screens below. 

“Yeah, it means they have their story straight. A little odd, given the amount of time they had to make one up.” Black Star stood at the railing of the loft, hands gripping gently as she scanned the screens before her. “So what happened, Harlow? Why were you even there?” 

Harlow sighed before retelling the events of the previous day. The materials she needed to return for Superhero day. The entirely too empty citadel. The secret entrance and the secret meeting. She looked away as she described Dr. Gizzard trying to postpone the meeting. Her quick death.  Harlow paused as the images flashed in her head. Black Star leaned further against the railing. 

“It’s okay.” she started, “that tells me a lot actually. Looks like your story pretty airtight too.”Harlow remembered. What she saw in the lab that night. She started to say something then abruptly stopped.

“Ah, well…” she began again. 

“Well?” Black Star raised an eyebrow.

“Well, this might…no well, it possibly has something to do with…the missing heroes?” She said, fidgeting with her clothes for a moment. She had considered keeping that to herself, but then she remembered seeing Henry Atoms on the projector screen. She figured she could at least trust Black given everything that’d happen already. 

Black Star stood straight, looking over her tablet again as Harlow explained seeing the Cosmic Lad. Her face stayed blank, as she went over numerous  When she finished typing, the articles on the screens were all replaced with a new article or broadcast that mentioned a missing superhero or villain. At least 16. Maybe more. Some had previous whereabouts, other contained interviews with the ones who saw them last. 

“There we go. That’s the missing puzzle piece, Harley.” Harlow looked at her confused, then glanced over the articles. Over sixteen missing superheroes and villains. Maybe more if the media could bother keeping track of the villains at all. Harlow hadn’t even known that there were any villains missing.  “You saw something they didn’t want you to see.” Black Star said flatly. 

“You mean besides them murdering a woman?!” Harlow exclaimed, snapping her attention back to Black Star. She was half-joking of course. Anyone could tell she apparently learned something she shouldn’t have. But, the whole thing felt off.

“Yeah, something about those missing people. Did Atoms say anything in the video you saw?” Harlow shook her head. “If he did,  I didn’t really have the time to hear it. Why? What’re you thinking?”

“Hmm…” Harlow’s frowned. She knew that tone. 

“It could’ve had nothing to do with him. He could’ve been found recently and is nursing before returning to the public.” She hoped. Black Star met her eyes for a moment. then she looked back at the screens. She hummed again, this time more focused. 

“Maybe you’re letting your old loyalty get the better of you, Harley.” She hummed again. Finally, she relaxed her shoulders and handed the tablet over to Harlow. “ can look over these if you like, but I’m beat. Think I’m gonna hit the hay and figure out more tomorrow.” She lazily walked over to her bed. Stopping right at the bed, she looked over her shoulder and grinned. “Unless you wanna join me?” 

Harlow scoffed, pushing herself off the railing. “You must be out your mind. You have a perfectly fine couch, thank you.” She heard Black star chuckle then make some noise that must have meant ‘suit yourself’. Harlow walked down the stair and made her way to the computer desk. She placed the tablet down and touched the processor itself. Why worry about sleeping now, anyways? She pushed the stray thoughts from her head. Before she could fully absorb herself into her newfound work, she heard Black Star’s voice overhead. 

“G’night, Harley.” 

Harlow shook her head again.