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Near the edge of town is where Delmor's radio station, 87.7, used to be, until they moved to an inland station with stronger signal. They used to play rock, mostly from the '90s (It was modern back then), but in about 1999, the station moved, leaving the building intact. However, over the years, the outside has fallen into a state of disrepair. Inside, although a bit dusty and mostly empty except for some office furniture, it's intact, quiet (ironic for a radio station, but true), and a good place to think or just be alone. The door's always locked, but it's one of those locks that even a bobby pin will pick.

Outside, there's a big concrete block where the tower used to be. It was torn down, converted into a cell phone tower, and moved.

<<
Maria sat there, mulling over the obviously weird thing that was her life.

Eventually, she decided that there was only one thing that she could do, barring leaving this haven that was the closest thing to peace she'd seen since the last week or so of school at the Free Academy.

She found the shelf that she'd left the one CD the station had left on and pried at a small chip in the back of the shelf, removing the back panel, and revealing what she always left in the one storage compartment there was in that room (It used to have a safe in there, but they removed it, only leaving a wooden slot in the wall and a panel that hid it.): a photo album. She pulled it out, opening it up and taking it to the desk.

The small blue album, bound in leather and embossed with a single word, "Album". It was the only thing she could think of doing, looking at that album, but there was more than just a few pictures in that album.

She found one of the few shreds of the shirt she'd worn less than 24 hours earlier and slid it into an empty space in the album.

It was one of the Wall Shadow mementos she'd kept secret since the accident she'd been in and decided thatmaybe she should join the growing horde of heroes and villains.

From the crappy first sketch of the costume she'd made What was I thinking? to the shirt scrap, she looked it over.

She knew it was corny with the scrapbooking, if you could call it that, but it was a scrap of sanity. A small scrap, no doubt, but it was hers, left in the deserted building. She slid it back into the old safe, put the panel back, and put the CD back on the shelf.

She wished she could think of anything else to do, but all she could think of doing was thinking. Finally, she found a subject to ponder, and that was herself, and Gatta, technically. Somehow, she just knew Gatta was lying, but Gatta was a good liar. She never showed any cues to her lying, and Maria should know. Her sister's lies were tough to identify unless there was some shred of information you might know. And then there was that Louis guy in the Stop&P. something about some of what he said just said he was lying, and she definitely didn't know him...

Was this some new ability? Or perhaps some of the family 'gift', psychic-ness, kicking in? Because somehow, she just knew when people were lying, and, thinking about the past few days, it wasn't just Gatta's lies she was figuring out.

And what of the LoSI? Would there even BE a new League?

Maria was beginning to get really confused.

<<
As was fitting for the abandoned section of town, the old radio station wasn't far off. Back when Austin had been younger, he had listened to the station sometimes, never getting that great a signal, but still. It looked like he was going to get his exclusive peek inside the station. He had noticed that was often a prize offered. Not that he had ever won it.

Zipping towards the station, Austin cautiously worked through the lock on the door. He couldn't make it look like anyone was trying to break in and draw attention from Stone. When he got inside, he checked the small room to make sure that nobody could peek in. Finding an odd chest to the side wall, a bit tucked away, Austin made way to that. Opening it, he noticed a bunch of old, mostly broken bits of headphones and whatnot. Shifting it around, he tucked the urn in quietly and covered it. Closing the box, he exited the station. Flying out the door, he hurried back towards the steel mill to await Stone. There was no way he could have parked the car, gotten out, and found a way to spy on Austin.

The urn was safe. For now.
after>>>

<<
Wall Shadow, albeit slightly out of breath from running so hard to keep up with Eagle Eye, shoved the boxbush out of her way hastily, and walked in through the open front door of the station.

"I'm here..." she half-yelled, half-panted, shutting the door behind her.

Damn it, I fight, not run track! she thought angrily.

However, now was not the time to get irritated with what she herself had gotten herself into.

Wall Shadow stood in the entrance, thinking about where they should keep Stone. The soundproof room with the shelves was her first thought, it could keep Stone and the urn both within its walls, but she was going to ask what Eagle Eye wanted to do.

I'm seriously wondering why I got myself into this mess...

<<
"Ok. Though if you want to keep him in a more... isolated area, go to the room down the hall on the left, the huge one with all the shelves..." Wall Shadow answered, finding the bathroom and turning the faucet, where a few drops of muddy brown water gurgled out and then nothing.

"I guess that's out..." she muttered, instead searching her bag and finding a bottle of water.

"The water's off, but I found a bottle of water in my bag," Wall Shadow announced, taking a large drink out of the bottle and then capping the rest to use to wake Stone up.

Unfortunately, the hard part might be yet to come... she thought ruefully, waiting for Eagle Eye's decision on what to do with the mohawked captive.

<<
"More than you know..." Wall Shadow replied, hastily unscrewing the cap from the bottle of water, held Stone down in a pose that would be comical if the situation was different, and, with a slight gurgle as the bottle emptied itself, inverted the nearly-full bottle of water right over Stone's face.

"Good morning, you have a lot to tell us..." she began, trying not to start shaking. Fighting was one thing, interrogation was not her forte...

She dropped the water bottle on the floor (she could pick it up later) and used the hand that she was not already holding Stone on the shelf with to hold Stone's pants-legs together, as his ankles were too large for her small hands to hold, so that she did not get kicked painfully if he reacted violently.

She really hoped Eagle Eye was much better at this interrogation stuff than she was...

It worried Austin a bit. Stone looked comfortable, not showing any pain. "Sunshine doesn't have time for small talk," Austin said sharply, trying to keep a serious face, hoping that he could somehow alter Stone's apparent comfort. Looking past it, Austin knew he couldn't be completely at home now, Stone was being interregated. No matter how used to that anyone got, Austin knew Stone wasn't happy about the situation. Maybe he'd just seen too many movies.

"Now tell us what's going on."

"Oh you smart cookie," Austin replied sarcastically. The hard truth was, he was new to this. He had no history in anything like this before. He could only hope it wouldn't turn into torture. Of course, being Austin, the chances of that were slight. Austin had only movies to influence him in his actions.

But that wasn't so bad. Movies had taught him one thing. He wasn't all that comfortable with it, but he knew it, and he knew all along he'd have to resort to it. Blackmail.

"I have your urn," Austin explained calmly. "And if you want it, you're going to have to answer our questions." This always took time in the movies Austin was referring to, and time was aplenty. Usually, it worked in some way, as long as it wasn't the bad guy that was doing the interragation. Austin was pretty sure that he wasn't the bad guy. That was good.