"Still, this new location could still give us more information on his whereabouts. Though it would be very nice if he didn't know we were coming. Either way, getting there faster should be better. Though it couldn't hurt to rest and recover first, if I may be so bold. Better to miss Norwood by a hair than to catch him at the cost of a friend."

"Uh... let's go?" Goodwill didn't know what else to say to the matter at hand.

"Er... going... to your... home, yes?" Jules inquires. "...If so, might I just stop by my lair? I'm in the middle of re-reading Maigret's Little Joke, and so I'd like to pick up my copy..."

"I don't see why not. Let's all go. That way, we can carry more than just the one book."

And also keep the alligator safe. More than enough people had died that day and Ch'rava wasn't about to let Jules get blindsided by a random exploding Norwood or a gas leak. Though at the same time, she didn't really know how useful she would be at the moment, her arms as useless as they were.

"Sure," Goodwill agreed. "We can take as many books as you like, as long as we can carry them."

"Ah, excellent, I can get The Shadow Puppet, too..."

When the heroes and Jules emerge from the tunnel exit, the agents stationed there draw their guns. "Hey there's a big alligator walking behind you...!"

"Yes, there is," Goodwill said with a single nod of his head. "His name is Jules, and he's a friend."

Cosmic Girl made herself useful, carrying books for their new friend. "He's been very helpful! Please put the guns away! As alligators go, he's incredibly charming!"

The agents, with a little reluctance, holster their guns again. "A friendly, eh? Well... what else'd you find in there?"

"There was a spider. She was less friendly. We also found Dr. Norwood. A lot of Dr. Norwood, in fact. It seems he's been trying to clone himself or create a perfect lifeform. Something like that. We might also have a lead."

"A lead?"

"We have an address," Cosmic Girl volunteered. "But like all the other addresses we have checked, it may just be a link in the chain. But we're getting closer. This time we found a lot of his rejected clones. And they seemed very bitter about being abandoned, so it seems pretty likely they would give us accurate intelligence."

She wanted to get a move on. Giving this villain any time to prepare or run was firmly off her agenda, forever.

"That about covers it," Goodwill concluded as the agents looked to him for anything he might have to add. Between Lynx and Cosmic Girl, the story had been told... save for one private detail. "So we'd like to move on to the next location, if there's nothing that needs our attention here...?"

"What... happened to the clones? What are they... did they seem dangerous...?"



"...Our boss is really going to want to know the next location... he might have a new operative he may want to send along to help. Are you comfortable telling us the new location...?"

"Also, is the alligator going, too...?" the other agent asks.

"The clones ran away into the sewers," Goodwill explained. "There were too many of them for us to catch them all, and they seemed harmless, so we traded letting them alone in exchange for the next location."

When one of the agents pulled out a pad and pencil, Goodwill recited the location for him.

"Jules is welcome to accompany us if he wants to," he added, "but you can just ask him directly. He talks."

"I don't want to go if my new friends think I should stay away," says Jules, "but... if you just want my opinion... Well, I'm not sure if I want to make a habit of fighting crime in this way, but... I do think I could be helpful in this particular endeavor..."

"Adding to that, one of the Norwoods self-destructed when pressed on being a clone. Could have been an identity crisis or a failsafe. Judging by that explosion, it's more to destroy that Norwood than to injure others around them, though being too close is still...not advised. Just, if you find any Norwoods, don't pressure them too much."

Internally, Lynx let out a sigh of relief. The others had said that they would keep her secret, but it was another thing to see them avoid bringing up that topic with the government altogether. Still, this talk of a 'new operative' seemed worrisome. True, adding in another person could help speed up the process of taking out Norwood, but was this going to be a government plant or just another concerned hero? Ch'rava perfectly understood the irony in worrying about someone else being a plant, but she felt it could be justified. Not to mention how tossing another person into the mix could be an issue if Norwood revealed her secret to them. And she wasn't sure she could just trust a brand new hero with that information herself.

At the very least, this would keep her on her toes.

"I think we would accept anything you could do to help," Cosmic Girl said to Jules. "You have been invaluable so far. I do not want to put you in any more danger, but if you can help us bring Norwood to justice at last, we would owe you a condiserable debt of gratitude. When I see how he has caused suffering to you - and all those poor clones... I dread to think how much more he will do if we do not act at once."

Never one for introspection. She left the complex plans and the moral maze to those better suited to that sort of work. Her forté was blowing things up. And if anybody deserved that, it was the evil Doctor Norwood!

"Okay, then..." One agent is jotting things down in a little notebook. "All heroes survived... picked up friendly talking alligator... Lead on Norwood... Trainyard... Far north end of Manhattan..." He flips the notebook closed again. "When do you plan to check out this next location... Right away? Tomorrow? A few days...?" He looks at White Lynx. "Ah, do you need medical attention, ma'am?"

Quickly glancing down at her condition and back at the agent, Lynx replied, "I would very much appreciate medical attention. I...my arms don't feel right. I can't move my left arm at all." She felt like she was barely on her feet and she was sure that she looked the part. Either way, she didn't really want to look at her arm right now. She'd already looked herself over a bit earlier, but Ch'rava wasn't a medical professional and probably knew the least about the human body out of anyone present, maybe even including Jules. "I think we were hoping to get a move on Norwood as soon as we can, so I don't want to hold us up, but anything you can do would be quite welcome. It hasn't exactly been my week, you could say."

"I've had more first aid training than he has," says the other agent, "let me take a look."

He comes and takes a look. "Um, wow, uh ma'am, you do need a doctor... maybe one night in the hospital. Shall I call an ambulance...?"

"I..."

Ch'rava didn't want to hold up the other heroes from getting to Norwood, nor did she want to leave them to do it without her help, but it wasn't like she was going to be much help the way she was now...

"Yes, that is probably best. Goodwill, Cosmic Girl, Jules, Scraps, if you need to get on this tonight, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to join you. I don't want to just get in the way as I am. I'll get out as soon as I can and catch up."

It hurt. Barring Jules, she had just placed a major burden on the others by sharing her secret and now she was leaving them to clean everything up. Going to the hospital felt like the wrong choice, but staying and risking everyone's lives on her useless body was probably worse.

Cosmic Girl instinctively hugged Ch'rava - but very, very carefully and gently. She murmured as she came in close "Are you going to be okay in a hospital? You waon't be... exposed?"

She trusted her friend, and she wanted her safe and well. But she was also pretty sure what the authorities would do if they found an alien masquerading as a human. They had turned her into a laboratory experiment when she was still very small. And she was born on Earth! A chance to do the same to an actual alien would be far too much for them to overlook.

She did not like the idea of Ch'rava stuck in a facility somewhere, being dissected. Especially not after all the risks she had taken to help the planet!

Whispering back, Ch'rava weakly leaned into the hug, "I think I'll be fine. I've been in one of these hospitals before, remember? I'm stuck in this form and most bioscanners wouldn't be able to tell. Besides, I won't suddenly change back or anything. Couldn't do that if I...wanted to."