Sparks Fly [Book Two in the "Fire And Lighting" Series]

Chapter Twenty- What's The Point?

March 21, 2016. 19:00.

Jump City.

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Blur asks as she runs through the maze of the city.

"Because bridal showers are long and boring." Finch says logically. She swings from building to building on her grappling cord, flying through the air alongside Brass Beetle and Beast Girl, in hawk form.

"How is it that you sound smarter than all of us but you're the youngest?" Beast Girl asks, landing in a crouch on a gargoyle atop a cathedral.

"Because I've been trained by Batman and you haven't." Finch grins at her best friend.

"Speaking of Batman, where is the Dark Knight? Jai- Blue Beetle -said that he occasionally showed up to assign missions...." Sarah trails off.

Finch stops short next to Beast Girl, staring blankly to the street below.

Beast Girl gives Brass a short, scathing glare that makes Sarah regret her question.

"Sorry, it's no big deal. Now did you have something specific in mind, or are we just wandering around looking for trouble?" She amends quickly.

Blur appears on the rooftop next to them with a wicked grin. "Literally or figuratively?" She asks Brass Beetle, trying to assume that "happy-go-lucky-goofball" attitude her brother has already mastered.

"Tammy." Finch says the single word distractedly. She may be in the middle of Jump City, but her mind is a thousand light-years away with her surrogate father.

She's lost one before, can she do it again?

She aims her grapple gun at the next building over, ignoring the growing lump in her throat. "I've got a lead. The guys that kidnapped Tammy wore the Lexcorp symbol right?" She swings off before any of them can answer, giving them no choice but to follow.

"Right." Bridget says, out of breath when they catch up.

"Well, Luthor recently bought a section of a warehouse here in Jump City. I figure that's the most logical place where he would put her. We can check there and look for clues."

"Um, Finch?" Rachel taps her on the shoulder, "You know Luthor's not that dumb, right?" She doesn't mean to be hurtful, she's only preparing her for disappointment.

"It doesn't hurt to check," Finch says, not sounding convinced.

If she can't be as smart as Tim, as on-top-of-it as Emma, as calm and collected and cool as Richard, then what's the whole point of her being trained by Batman?

She hacks the security with the help of Brass Beetle's scarab. The warehouse apparently rented by Lex Luthor is empty, leaving potential for a plethora of clues.

Blur, who's had a bit of forensics training from her grandfather, anxiously takes samples of nearly everything in the compartment. As a bloodhound, Beast Girl sniffs for any scent remotely human that could match the scent of Tammy Agua. The faint smell of chlorine on her skin from being around water all day, or maybe the Suave "Ocean Breeze" shampoo she used. And Brass Beetle scans the room for heat signatures and DNA prints, no matter how old they may be.

Blur can only find splinters from wooden cases, and the fingerprints are masked by gloves. Beast Girl immediately changes back to human form to avoid the overwhelming stench of what she describes a  "Bantha poo-doo" (can she help it if the first episode of "Star Wars" is her favorite?). And Brass Beetle's DNA scans can only pick up a single strand of hair from the sixty-something year-old janitor fired two weeks ago.