"Ummmmmmmmmmm... hi?" says the alligator.

Blinking a couple of times, Lynx stepped forward and offered, “So...what’re you reading?”

The alligator brightens up. "Oh! This? This is The Shadow Puppet, 1932. Do... do you read Maigret? ...Georges Simenon...?"

Looking down at the book and then back up to the alligator, Lynx shook her head. "My apologies. I, uh, haven't read many books yet. Trying to get through the library's selection still. Would you recommend The Shadow-sorry, I mean The Shadow Puppet?"

The alligator nods at White Lynx. "Oh, I understand, I understand! I remember when I hadn't learned to read yet! And then when I realized how many books there were to read-- it was somewhat overwhelming!"

"As for The Shadow Puppet, well-- any Maigret is worth reading... Is it Simenon's best? No. It's just one that I haven't re-read for a little while."

The alligator seems less flustered and therefore more comfortable talking about his favorite topic.

With a nod, Lynx soon followed the avid reader into the comfortable conversation. “Absolutely. A...good old friend of mine introduced reading to me through those hero comic books, but the few actual full books I’ve read have been quite the good reads. I recently made my way through one called The Murder on the Links, which was quite entertaining.” Sure, she’d thought it was going to be much more relevant to her superhero life when she’d heard the title out loud, but she certainly didn’t consider reading it a waste of time. Either way, Lynx mentally patted herself on the back for a half-truth well-told. She had actually been introduced to reading, both in Brin and English, through similar picture-based texts. Her commanding officer thought it made for faster learning. But going by the well-worn comic books in Diana’s apartment, she assumed the human had a similar experience with Lewis.

Breaking out of her brief reverie, she continued, “I suppose I’ll have to find The Shadow Puppet at the library and check it out then, among the other Maigrets. Is there any one that you’d recommend to start with?”

"I haven't read that... is it about golf? It sounds like it's about golf." The alligator gestures at the bookshelves. "These are all the books I have, I'm afraid... it's a little hard for me to get more..."



"Oh, good question! I would say... Maigret and the Burglar's Wife, 1955. It just happened to be the first one I read, but you know, I wouldn't have it any other way. It'll definitely give you the idea of what a good Maigret is like, and it'll make you want more..."

“It’s a murder mystery around a golf course, yes. Interesting stuff!” Following the gesturing gator’s gaze to the shelves, Lynx let loose an impressed hum. “That’s more books than I actually have, to be perfectly honest. How have you gotten them, if you don’t mind my asking?” she asked quickly. Lynx had almost forgotten that she was talking to a talking alligator, an act that was probably supposed to be weird.


“I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for a copy! Thank you very much...I’m sorry, I don’t believe I’ve asked you your name yet. Hello, I am White Lynx. What is your name?”

"Um. Well. Ah. Well. Mostly, I ah... adopt them... from people's trash. You might be surprised how often people throw books out. Early on, someone threw out a lot of Maigrets... I could hardly believe it!"



"Oh. Ah. Um. Well. I-- I call myself Jules. After Commissioner Jules Maigret. No one's ever really named me, as far as I can remember. And, um..." Jules blinks a couple of times, and really looks at you again. "Um... aren't you, ah, Goodwill?" Blink. "And... Scraps? The... Wonder Dog? You two are in all the newspapers..." Jules waggles some claws at Scraps in a hesitant little wave. "...He doesn't talk, does he...?" he asks, referring to Scraps...

"Yes, I'm Goodwill," replied Goodwill, putting out a hand to shake. He wasn't too worried about claws, although if Norwood had something to do with Jules, maybe he should. Still, he'd put the hand out and so he left it there lest he come off as incredibly rude. "And this is Scraps. If he talks, it will be a surprise to me.

"And last, but by no means least, this is Cosmic Girl."

Boy, did Goodwill have a ton of questions he wanted to ask the talking alligator!

Jules shakes Goodwill's hand. "Oh... Cosmic Girl... White Lynx... I might've heard your names on the radio... I don't really get good reception down here at all... But sometimes in the middle of the night I can get a station or two..."

Scraps, meanwhile, had shown great interest in sniffing the scaly man-amal a few times, then continued on to investigating the rest of the residence.

If animals can sense evil, it seemed that Scraps sensed none here.
Currently, he was most interested in the next of material.

The sleeping nest is a little damp and roomy for Scraps, but he can see how it might be pretty all right for a six-to-eight-foot (depending on how one counts the snout and the tail) alligator.

With a wave of her hand, Lynx professed, “Oh, don’t worry if you haven’t heard much of me. I’m not incredibly well-known as of yet. Just had a couple of recent capers with these big league heroes. Is your reception issue based on your environment or your radio?”

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it's being down here."

Cosmic Girl cleared her throat politely. "I do not want to intrude too much, but we do have some rather pressing business. I am sure we can all have a coffee and a chat afterwards. Tempus fugit, and that sort of thing..."

She was proud of that little smattering of Latin. It was what her tutor said to her all the time when she was being slow with her studies. It didn't help much, admittedly...

"Ah, that's Latin, right? Something about time? Or... about a storm...?" Then Jules thinks about the English part of what Cosmic Girl has actually said, and he gets shyer and flustered again. "Um, ah... what... is it... you're... here to do...?"

“We’re simply investigating the area. We have a possibly radioactive reason to believe a villainous doctor’s around here or setting up something nefarious. Have you seen anyone around here or in the tunnels?” Lynx asked, gesturing to the tunnel they had entered from with her good arm. “Can’t help you much with the Latin though, I’m afraid.”

"'Radioactive? Nefarious?' I thought those were just words that only people in comic books use...? Oh... but you are heroes with powers, huh... --So wait, are comic books about real things...?!"



"No, not really. Just those men in black suits near the river. But no one in the tunnels. I mean, you know. No people."

"I'm sorry," Goodwill said, hoping he wasn't sounding impatient but feeling as though he maybe was just a little. "But I have to ask a rude sort of question here. How are you... you? I mean, talking alligators aren't the norm. We're looking for a guy who... well, he makes creatures that don't otherwise exist. So I can't help but wonder if he made you.

"I mean, there are legends of alligators living in the sewers, but none of them suggest highly intelligent alligators who walk upright and read books that I've never even heard of."

Jules looks even more flustered and embarrassed.



"Oh, him." This is said with scorn. "Yeah, I think so too."




"No, no, I think you're right. On both counts, I mean. I mean, as far as I can remember, I was just some boy's pet... But then his mother found me, and she sent me down here. Then the guy-- I think it's the guy you're talking about, probably-- found me, and he fed me all kinds of strange things. That's when my memories start getting clearer. As I got smarter, he wanted me to call him Ra. He said that Ra was the god who created humans from his tears. I think it was a crocodile joke or something, which is dumb, because I'm not a crocodile. I didn't really get it. Anyway, he was really kind of a jerk. You don't even want to know. I escaped and ran away when I could. He sent a monster or two after me to come fight me, but I won, so they didn't report back. So I guess he gave up on trying to find me. So are you guys going to fight him and his monsters, like in comic books? I did like comic books, when I was first learning to read. They were good for expanding my vocabulary, though they are aren't as deep as book books..."

"Yes, we're going to fight him and his monsters," Goodwill confirmed. It still felt a little weird to be talking to an alligator, but the guy was too personable to treat as anything other than perfectly normal. "He's being especially dangerous, and we think he might be building a nuclear bomb. So he's got to go.

"Could you possibly lead us to him?"

"Or draw a map, at least. It sounds like he has been doing a lot more than we realised. I wonder what other experiments he has been doing?" Cosmic Girl bit her lip thoughtfully. "It goes against our usual methods to risk an innocent civilian, but it sounds to me like you have good reason to want him stopped. And this is hardly paradise down here. At the very least, we should offer to get you somewhere nicer to stay."

She had faith that the government would help him. Then again, she was young and hopelessly naive.

"Really? A bomb? I mean, a nuclear bomb? That... doesn't sound like his... style... I think he uses radioactive elements in a lot of his experiments, but it's all just chemistry and biology, usually..." Jules thinks. "Well, usually... Anyway, I understand why you feel you've got to check it out, either way. And yes, I'll try to help you find him..."




"Mm, my hands aren't very good for drawing. Better I just try to show you."



Flustered again. "What, um, like, you mean, among people? Um, n-no, I don't think that would work out well. People get really upset if they ever see me on my trash-diving trips up top. And, um, screamy."

"If you'd rather stay down here, it wouldn't be fair of us to push you to live elsewhere. Still, there may be other options. Though I can't really think of any that wouldn't hamper your ability to move around if I'm being honest. Maybe you could become a superhero?" Lynx muttered, doing a kind of half-shrug with her right arm. "In any case, your help in this is greatly appreciated. Thank you."