weldedtomyspine | Orla, Texas, Early Saturday Afternoon

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Orla, Texas, Early Saturday Afternoon

Dinah and Jaime had gotten up early, and Dinah had helped walk Jaime through an actual plan for investigation. Which was much better than his "plan" of going back out to Orla and "trying to find something helpful".

So they were back out in the desert, driving old, mostly abandoned roads. Jaime didn't have much to say, and Dinah seemed willing to let him think. So the silence drew out between them until they finally arrived. "There's Mrs. Wilson's car," Jaime said as he pulled in behind it and stopped the car. "I found her phone a couple of dozen feet away, just lying on the ground."

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"Not really my wheelhouse either," Dinah noted with a frown. "If we knew what she was investigating here in the first place-- well." Wishes and horses.

She jumped off the car and paced a little ways away, then stopped. "Hey. You still talk to Traci, right?"

Jaime blinked, then nodded abruptly. "I do." He stood up a little straighter. "Hold on, I'll give her a call. She'd probably come out for Momoko."

He pulled out his phone, and dialed, foot tapping impatiently as he waited for Traci to pick up on the other end.

Dinah circled the area again, noting no boot or footprints either; so either whatever happened to Momoko didn't happen here (slightly unlikely, with the lost phone) or someone erased all trace of themselves after (not impossible, just more trouble than it was usually worth) oooor the magic kicked in and that's why there were no other physical traces. Argh.

She headed back toward Jaime, and added, "Tell her I found history of weird things happening here about the same time last year, too."

Jaime nodded as he finished explaining the situation over the phone, then added Dinah's bit of information.

Then: "Thanks so much, Traci. I totally owe you."

"Hey," an accented voice said suddenly from behind him, "you'd do the same for me." And there was Traci, smiling a bit tensely, staff held lightly in one hand. She took a deep breath and shrugged. "Besides, you know how much I love the air out here."

"Good to see you, Traci." Dinah's own shoulders had relaxed a bit. "Do you need us to do anything beyond stay out of your way?"

"Not at the moment," Traci answered. "But keep an eye out. It's possible I'll trigger something unexpected, and who knows what might pop up." She shrugged. "This could take a few minutes."

And without any further preamble, Traci raised her staff and began murmuring. A soft glow, almost entirely invisible under the Texas desert sun, surrounded her and seemed to creep out across from her feet.

Jaime stepped over to Dinah, leaning in slightly. "I take it that you didn't see anything on your walk-around?"

"Nothing that gives me an idea of who, how, or why someone might take Momoko from here." Dinah tilted her head. "Although it does look like magic is the most likely, just because there's nothing else." She released a frustrated breath. "I'm going to check out the edges of town just to be sure I didn't miss the obvious, if you think Traci is going to be a while."

Jaime nodded. "She's usually pretty good about time estimates, so 'a few minutes' is probably five to ten?" He glanced over at Traci. "And someone should probably keep an eye on her, so... yell if you find anything?"

Wow. He felt really useless right that moment.

"Or call." Dinah held up her phone with a grin, because having both her and Momoko disappear from the same place would *so* not look good for Jaime with the police.

She made her way out around the tiny town in a grid pattern, center to north, north to west, west to south. Abandoned buildings, abandoned cars... a tumbleweed blew by.

"This place just needs the soundtrack from a Sergio Leone movie," Dinah muttered.

...did she hear footsteps? Above her?

And there was another one. Definitely coming from a two-story building with all its windows blown out. And maybe a flash of red coming from one of those windows.

Dinah froze, then slowly crouched down behind an old oil barrel, watching the window. Approach, or wait? Had whoever it was spotted her? Friend, or foe?

Approach.

Dinah soft-footed it to a window near the one where she'd seen the movement, and waited for another noise to confirm that someone was still there.

There was a crunching sound from behind Dinah as a tall woman wearing some sort of armored suit stepped through a broken window. Some sort of metal staff dangled almost casually in one hand as she looked Dinah up and down.

Dinah leveled a stare at her, and tilted her head. "And who would you be?"

No weapon, but she set herself, ready for a fight.

"Huh. Oracle said someone else might be out here investigating. I take it you're with them?" she asked, jerking her head toward where Traci and Jaime were still standing.

Some people weren't very good at answering questions.

Well, it was an indirect answer. Although Dinah didn't go off guard just yet. "You take it right." She paused, and added, "Got anything to prove Oracle's the one that sent you? I mean, I know she doesn't exactly give out business cards..."

"No," the woman agreed, "but she does give out IDs and licenses when necessary."

That made Dinah relax at the same time she looked more concerned. "So Oracle doesn't know where she is?" Dinah grimaced. "I was really sort of hoping she knew exactly what was going on, and just wasn't saying yet."

That got a wry twist of the lips. "That does sound like the sort of thing she'd do. But she asked me to come out here and take a look around, and she knows I don't like having my time wasted, so she better not be playing any games on this one."

The woman swapped her baton to her left hand, then extended her right. "Manhunter."

Dinah took it in her own for a firm shake. "Dinah Lance." Since she knew about the documents, she'd know that much anyway. "Friend of Blossom's. Alternate dimensions, it's a thing." She paused and added, "And hopefully not what vanished her."

"Right."

Manhunter looked around again and frowned. "Well, whatever it was, it was something weird. No signs of a struggle, or even another vehicle." She shrugged. "I don't think there's much I can do here to help. All this crazy stuff is really outside my area of expertise."

"Stick around a little bit," Dinah invited her. "Our magic-user is trying a tracking spell of some kind, we might need back-up sooner than you'd think."

He kept to the shadows, silent, his mind full of what he was overhearing. He'd just barely managed to make it through the desert to the reservoir, drawn by the need for water to refresh his powers, only to return and find humans were suddenly in the town where he'd been transported. And now to hear that there was a magic wielder among them... Tynan was fairly sure this was not news that would help him get back to his own world and his mission.

Manhunter switched her weapon back to her right hand and nodded. "I suppose I could stick around for another half hour or so." She looked back toward where Dinah had come from. "Group up?"

"Works," Dinah said, and started retracing her steps back to Traci and Jaime, eyes still wandering to catalog her surroundings.

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