1979-

Marty Morgan looked over the field where he had left Jim Marley to die. He turned

in a circle. The damage had been repaired, some kind of grain stretching out of the

ground. He would have never known that all of his friends had died around this site

if he hadn’t been there.

He still didn’t know what he was going to do about it.

In ten years, he was no closer to who had killed his friends than when Jim had given

him his only clue. An ornate ring meant nothing if you didn’t know who made it, or

whom owned it.

What was he going to do about it? The place had no new clues to offer him. The town

had repaired what it could. They turned the giant snake that had killed Positive Man

into a tourist attraction. It was the central exhibit of the Hazard Scouts Museum.

Plaques for the dead citizens Positive Man hadn’t saved were also housed in the

museum. They lined a wall next to the stuffed snake exhibit.

Maybe he should look at the exhibits again. Maybe they would tell him something he

had missed over the years.

He didn’t have any other options as far as he could see. Mr. Robot and Mental were

the detectives on the team. They knew how to track things down, and how to figure

out what a clue meant.

He had been a kid then, and hadn’t learned enough in the ten years since to be a good

detective. His talents had allowed him to get by in case of trouble. The legacy from

the team’s trust had taken care of most of the rest.

Marty summoned a regular horse to carry him into town. He climbed on its back and

let it run while he thought about the events of that day.

The Scouts thought they had a lead on a long time enemy, Cortez. They landed the

plane and scouted some around the then much smaller town. Mr. Robot and Mental

had split from the group to investigate the field where Marty had found Mental

afterwards. The giant snake had been under the local diner. Positive Man and Bounce

had hoped to bring in the plane to rescue the civilians.

The plane had been sabotaged. The engines blew up. Bounce landed in a field not far

from the other field where Mr. Robot and Mental had been ambushed. Positive Man

had ordered Marty to check on her, and then the others. He found Mental wounded

near what was left of Mr. Robot. He had returned to help Positive Man. He was too

late to help out. He rode away before something happened to him.

Marty spent the next few years trying to survive. The team’s foundation had

supported him. He had educated himself as much as he could while living in a bunker

away from the team’s headquarters. As far as he knew, it still sat untouched.

He doubted it was safe to use the base. Whomever was behind the death of the team

was probably watching it like a hawk. He was surprised that he was still walking

around sometimes. When were they coming after him to finish the job?

He supposed as long as he wasn’t close to finding the man who owned the ring, he

didn’t have to worry about being attacked.

When he did have something, then he should worry about another giant snake being

in his future.

Marty rode up to the museum and dismounted. He dismissed his horse after looking

around. He didn’t need anyone connecting him to the Scouts while he was trying to

look around.

He walked inside the building. His eyes tracked the central opening floor. Displays

about the team’s old cases were everywhere. He headed toward where the giant snake

sat in his stuffed glory.

Marty paused when he entered the room. The museum attracted people from all over.

A small group followed a guide from display to display. A young man in black

studied the snake.

He walked around to the other side of the display. The jaw had been broken in the

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

battle. Whomever had stuffed it had fixed that along with the broken bones that had

been inflicted on it.

“Mr. Morgan?,” said the man in the black. “Can we talk?”

“I guess.” Marty called his talent. If things went down, he was prepared to summon

something to do things to this stranger. “What can I do for you?”

“My name is Ren.” The young man smiled. “I am the apprentice for Doctor

Toubanhei. I have to solve a mystery to graduate from my service and set up my own

detective service.”

“So you want to know what happened to the Hazard Scouts?,” asked Marty. “I don’t

know what happened to the Scouts. What do you know already?”

Ren gave him an outline of what happened. It was missing some facts that no one but

Marty knew. The picture was almost right.

“How is the Doctor?” Marty had worked some cases in Japan. He remembered a gruff

man in a black suit like Ren wore. He seemed to have his thumb on the criminal

world around Kyoto and Tokyo when the Scouts visited that country.

“He is well.” Ren smiled. “I didn’t know you had met.”

“It was a long time ago.” Marty put his hands in his pockets. He had joined the team

a few years before the final case. His encounters with Toubanhei were almost fifteen

years in the past.

“Would it be all right if I ask you some questions?,” asked Ren. “The more

information I am able to gather, the quicker I can solve this case and locate the

murderer.”

“Getting out on your own means that much?” Marty felt one eyebrow go up.

“Doctor Toubanhei is training several other apprentices.” Ren made a gesture to

indicate that didn’t matter to him. “He wants to make sure that someone is there to

defend Japan as much as possible. If I can graduate, I will be able to pick the district

I work in. I will be able to solve cases without having someone looking over my

shoulder all the time.”

“I understand that.” Marty had been the youngest of the Scouts. His ability didn’t

seem that great at the time. He had worked on it in the years he had been on his own.

He could do things he only dreamed about doing then.

He supposed he wouldn’t have pushed so hard if the others were still around.

“Can you find out things about jewelry?,” asked Marty. “I have a ring that I need

researched.”

“I can do that,” said Ren. He smiled. “It might take some time.”

“I don’t have anything but time.” Marty smiled. “Let’s go over to the diner. I’ll buy

some lunch.”

“Did you see anything on that day?,” asked Ren.

“Not really.” Marty headed for the front door. “These people were trapped in the

diner. Daryl had gone to the jet to fly over so we could try to save them by lowering

a ladder from the air and moving them out of danger. The plane crashed. Doug asked

me to try to get Daryl out but the plane exploded before I could do much of anything

to help. I went to find Jim and Barry, but I only found Jim. He was barely alive. He

told me that his powers had been shut off for the amount of time it had taken to

wound him. He wound up burning up his body to prevent it from falling into the

wrong hands.”

“Doug?,” asked Ren.

“Positive Man.” Marty realized the road was better paved than it was on that day. “He

died fighting the giant snake they put on display in their museum.”

“What about Mr. Robot?,” asked Ren.

“I saw Barry’s skull,” said Marty. “I didn’t see the rest of his body. Maybe the

murderers took it with them.”

“Just the skull?,” asked Ren. “That’s unusual. I would have expected that to be gone,

and the body left behind.”

“I didn’t think about that.” Marty paused in the middle of the sidewalk. “I thought Jim

had blown himself up. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the skull had been some kind of

bomb.”

“Seems likely.” Ren nodded. “Something had to be done to cover their tracks.”

“I admit I wasn’t a good detective, and didn’t learn much.” Marty led the way to the

diner. It looked better than it had the first time he had seen it.

“You were the Animal Boy, weren’t you?,” asked Ren. He paused at the door leading

into the diner, inspecting the place before he walked in behind Marty.

“Yes,” said Marty. “My powers were useful for rescues, especially at sea.”

“I see.” Ren settled in a booth away from the door. He looked the place over as he

waited for a waitress.

Marty was forced to sit down where he had to twist to look out the window if he

wanted to keep an eye on things.

“Doctor Toubanhei said he had not seen any progress on what happened.” Ren

frowned. “Professional detectives had learned nothing new after the first reports went

out.”

“I didn’t think about it at the time but I left Doug’s body when I should have buried

it,” said Marty.

“I’ll find out what happened to it.” Ren shrugged. “We need to know that if we want

to construct a full picture of things.”

“Do you think you can find out what happened?,” asked Marty.

“I have been trained to unravel the thread of stories,” said Ren. “This is a problem

that I feel that I can solve given enough time and information.”

A waitress approached their booth. She put two menus down in front of them. She

pulled out a pad and pen.

“Do you know what drinks you want?,” she asked.

“I’ll have water,” said Marty.

“I’ll have tea, please,” said Ren.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said as she wrote down the drink order on her

pad.

“I have a lot of questions when we are done eating,” said Ren.

“I don’t have a lot of answers.”