Caleb picked me up Thursday morning in his car from my house. While I waited Wednesday I spent my time creating new pairs of my modified jeans while I looked through the files that the stranger had tried to tamper with. I tried my best to skim through the files to find similarities but many of them were dozens of pages long. I made steady progress in reading through them and had read through five of the over one hundred yesterday. I was sure I would figure it out given time, but it was hard when I had no idea what I should be looking for. It would have been much easier for me if I knew more about my past self but if I knew that then I would likely already know who was targeting me and why. It couldn’t be a coincidence that I had appeared in this world at the same time this stalking started. Something must have triggered it by my actions or by my past self’s actions. We rode in silence for a while until we drove by the residential streets. I had dressed up in a nicer button-up shirt today instead of my usual attire because we were meeting with Diana as a part of the police. Today Caleb wore a police uniform.

“I want to stop by the old house. You said it should be empty now,” I said.

“Yeah, it should be. But we can’t go inside. All of the neighbor’s security systems will be watching us when we turn down their street and the place will be locked up,” said Caleb.

“I know but I still want to visit. The place was connected to the coat even if only indirectly. I want to see it and learn what I can.”

“Fine. We should have time to make the detour. Diana wasn’t expecting us for a few minutes, and it is relatively nearby. And it will be fine if we are a bit late.”

Caleb rerouted the car and we soon turned down one of the residential roads and then a few turns later we reached our destination. The street was small with only a dozen houses collectively. All of which were fairly large and gated. The one where the old collector had once lived did not look different from the rest and only had slightly longer grass at the front of the house and some of the trees had grown large and hung over the fences of the nearby house. I looked over at the house and over to the surrounding houses. The collector's house was lightly decorated but did not stand out from the other houses. As I looked I saw it was missing the distinctive logo of a hero on its mailbox or driveway.

“So, who were his neighbors exactly?” I asked Caleb.

“Have you never been over here before?”

“No, I haven’t,” I quickly said, “I haven’t really paid attention to where all of the city’s superheroes live. Don’t they get people bothering them or solicitors bothering them? Even the Jace’s house had a gated area before the cul-de-sac.”

“They don’t need it because no one tries and if they did then the offender might get thrown into space. It is a show of soft power for them. They do not need to put up a gate because there is already a form of a gate at either end of this street and around the neighborhood in general. People occasionally drive through here but that is usually when they know someone like Thor will fly out of his rooftop exit and put on a show of leaving for a major international mission.”

“I see. If this was his house and I can see the Norman’s name on the mailbox across the street then who are the other people on the street?”

“Of the ones I know for sure there is the Norman’s as mentioned. Then to either side, you have one of the Rodriquez’s houses for their extended family and the Rodger’s main house. Beyond that, there is the house of a multimillionaire businessman and then there is also the small house on the corner that houses the security guard for this street and his family.”

“Wait these people need security from another hero?”

“The guard isn’t a hero. Or at least I don’t think so. They have a mix of super senses and alertness. If someone was coming to cause problems then on the job heroes would be called. It is one of the reasons we should probably get going. The guard has been watching us since we entered the street. We don’t have a great reason to be here so let go.”

“If you are not comfortable with staying here then you can start driving us to Diana’s house again.”

Caleb entered the address into the car’s screen. I looked out the window and watched the house one last time. It was simple brick and didn’t have much decoration on the outside. On its porch was a simple set of wooden chairs and tables. On the table sat a model ship now worn and dusty from sitting outside in the sun.

The drive to the daughter’s house was quick and only took fifteen minutes from our detour. As we pulled into the driveway Caleb stopped me.

“If she asks you are Officer Ogden and let me handle all of the questions. If you need to ask anything else then do it at the end.”

“Ok. I can do that. Is there anything else?”

“Nope.”

Caleb opened his car door open and stepped out. He grabbed his police jacket from the back seats and put it on. I followed him up the stairs of the house and to the door. Diana’s house was much smaller than her father’s and was nested in a separated collective of houses that were connected to the main street towards midtown as opposed to the main road towards the densest part of the city center.

Caleb knocked on the door twice and we waited. Diana came to the door a minute later. She was a middle-aged woman in her late forties or early fifties and had graying hair tied up in a bun. She had a nice smile and opened the door for us.

“Thanks for stopping by. You must be the person who contacted me,” she said.

“Yes, I was hoping to discuss some items from your father’s collection. I am Caleb and this is Ogden,” said Caleb when he pulled a police badge from his jacket.

She shook both of our hands and showed us in as she closed the door.

“Come sit down. I know it is a bit of a mess here. I am a bit of a hoarder like my father,” said Diana.

She pointed us to some chairs next to the window by the doors. Diana sat on the couch that was on the wall across from the kitchen. Between us and her on the ground and in a few piles around the rest of the house from what I could see was a mix of junk, decorations, and useful items. The chairs were already cleared of items, and we sat down.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“We don’t mind. I am glad that you accepted our invitation to speak as soon as you did. It will help our investigation to collect the data we need from you as soon as possible.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” she said as she cast a glance between us without focusing on either one of us in particular, “I don’t have many hobbies these days, so it is nice that you stopped by when you did.”

“Then if you don’t mind I wanted to pick up this in-person conversation from the information you briefly explained in our emails. For my fellow officer’s sake.”

“Of course,” she said before focusing on me, “Your friend here had contacted me about an item he thought belonged to me because of the theft surrounding it. Before you arrived I was able to print off a marked list of everything surrounding the artifacts and oddities that he collected. I think it was here.”

Diana got up and ruffled through a cardboard box. A minute later she passed a stapled set of papers to Caleb. He took it from her and leafed through it. The document was a dozen pages long and double-sided.

“Were you able to find the item in the list or find out where it might have gone?” asked Caleb as he read through the first page.

“No, I wasn’t,” she said as she shifted in her seat, “As you can see this place is a bit of a mess and I wouldn’t be able to tell you if it was gone. Especially something like a piece of clothing that doesn’t fit me.”

“Do you know of anyone who might want to steal from you Miss Diana or someone who might have known the value of some of the items in your father’s collection? We are trying to build a profile on the thief and anything you can tell us would be helpful if you can give us any information that you have.”

“I was only a passive observer of what my father owned. Our house became a personal museum for me. I certainly knew that some of the items were very valuable but there had never been anyone who tried to steal stuff from him. At least for as long as he was alive from what I could tell. There might have been some of his old colleagues that knew the full extent of his collection's worth and maybe some of the visitors he had to his private museum. I would recommend you speak with them if possible. I am not really one to speak about his collection effectively. If this thief already has the item then I can’t help you. It no longer is here.”

“From what I can tell from just the first page of this list is that this place certainly couldn’t hold everything in is the collection. So, what you suggest is true. It is unlikely that the item was ever here, to begin with. Especially the multiple super suits in display cases but you know where they were stored. If you could tell me where the rest of the items are I would like to go through the items that are still there. Maybe they left some clues that we can find.”

“Of course. I can’t believe forgot about that. I have a storage space for most of the stuff nearby at a storage facility, but I forget the name. It is only a few minutes away. If you would like I can see about grabbing the name of the place. If you want to just follow me to the other room I can…”

“That isn’t necessary Miss Diana. I can work on pulling the information myself. No, I have some more pressing matters to discuss,” said Caleb more seriously. He looked at me and then back to Diana. “You see, Diana, you have lied to me.”

“Excuse me,” she said a bit blindsided as she froze up, “I have no idea what you are talking about. I have been nothing but honest to you.”

“Please. You can stop with the act. First. I never told you that the item involved in the crime was the coat and I only ever implied that we were investigating the theft of your items. And I suspect these documents don’t have the camera camouflage coat listed. And finally, you have been shifting your eyes to the.”

Caleb didn’t get to finish his sentence as there was a bang from the other side of the kitchen.

“The fucking kitchen. Jason get behind the door now. There is another person in the house,” he yelled.

“When were you going to tell me this,” I said as I got behind the chair and moved toward the doorway.

Another bang went off and the glass window above my head shattered. Miss Diana sat in her chair dead. A hole had been made through the wall to the kitchen and her head. Her body was slumped over. I pushed the junk out of the way. It felt much closer and enclosing as I made my way to the door as quickly as possible.

“They activated a phone and I felt it,” said Caleb.

The person in question had now stepped out from behind the kitchen. They wore the coat and a pistol. I could see now that I was in front of them that the person was a man for sure and tall but that was all I could get from the way they stood before a bullet hit my side.

I froze up before wincing as I felt the pain growing. I could feel the blood pooling where it hit. Caleb grabbed me by the dress shirt I was wearing and forced open the door. Caleb’s powers activated and something shot from his belt. I could barely tell what it was from the pain. It seemed to be a pocket drone. It flew towards the stranger's face and then exploded in a mix of a quick heat flash and then smoke. I wished I was wearing my bulletproof outfit at that moment, but I couldn’t go to the meeting with Diana dressed as a random guy.

I held my side as best I could while Caleb dragged me out of the house. He had gotten me to the grass when the stranger stepped out of the house. The drone had done some visible damage to his clothes at least because the stranger had taken to wrapping several layers of more cloth around his face after the hood had been burned and damaged.

Caleb stood in front of me and was ready when the stranger used his gun again. Caleb brought out another tool from his belt and from the object in his hand a shield formed. The bullets were fired and hit the energy shield and broke it. Caleb’s hand shook a little as the bullets hit but he was otherwise fine. He looked down at me and then around expectantly.

The stranger pocketed the gun into his cloak and switched it out for the other. The stranger tried to fire the new gun. It was slimmer and glowed with it. The gun started to charge up, but Caleb’s powers kicked in. The energy gun started to overheat which caused the gun to overheat. The stranger muttered something and then stuffed the gun into a pocket.

At this point, I was barely conscious and didn’t feel surprised when the stranger took out a blade. The stranger charged at Caleb and then tried to sidestep him. Caleb kept the shield up and watched the movements of the stranger. When the stranger tried to shift he was ready. I was limiting him by bleeding out on the ground, however. Caleb tried to be careful not to step on me or lose his footing while he pushed the stranger back.

The blade met the shield and it glowed as they both pushed trying to get the other to give way. I had weakened my grip on my stomach over time and was just trying to be in as small a ball as I could while Caleb protected me. My shirt had already been completely bleached red from the blood.

Caleb worked on defending me but had no weapon. His only weapon, a surveillance drone that could self-destruct, had already been used to get me out of the house. He tried to swing a fist at the stranger, but they moved quickly and efficiently to dodge Caleb’s blow. When Caleb continued to try an attack, his arm became cut up.

Caleb was pushed back as the fight continued. The effort of using the shield started to tire him out. In doing so the stranger took the chance to slash down at me before moving his blade up. I cried out as a large gash was opened on my leg. I was only focused on my looming death as I felt more blood around me and pain than I ever had in my entire life. The stranger took some steps back as Caleb slammed the shield against the stranger. It wasn’t made to do that effectively, so the stranger was made more annoyed than anything else.

The sky lit up with blue and purple and at first, I thought I was dreaming in my delirious state. I felt chills and then I felt the weight of Caleb falling back and over my legs as he fought the stranger. My ears popped and I felt a loud crack and then silence. The last thing I saw was the blue and gold of Barry Norman’s suit before everything went dark.