Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hey, doesn’t that one look like a dog?”

Suzy leans over to see where Collin is pointing, resting her weight a little too heavily on the railing for his comfort, and sticks her tongue out. “I think it’s a wolf.”

“It’s a mass of water formed through the chaotic whims of nature into a shape that could possibly be construed as canine-ish,” Dimitri mutters, not even lifting his head from where he lies face down on the floor of the balcony. “I say it’s a coyote.”

“Well what do you know?” Suzy asks, sticking her tongue out at him. “You’re not even looking!”

“You’re looking for shapes in the geology of places we fly over,” Dimitri says. “Nine times out of ten, the correct answer is a lake. And it might not even be dog shaped, it’s like, almost dusk. The shadows are probably messing it up.”

Collin taps the toe of his shoe against the edge of the railing. “Are you upset because you get dizzy looking down anywhere higher than fifteen feet?”

“We don’t need to be out here,” Dimitri says, finally seeing fit to turn his head and look at them, eyebrows knitted together in a grimace. “I don’t want to be out here. We could be literally anywhere else. We could be going to bed. We could be talking to that— that one girl, Alex. I’m sure she has something to talk about. How about we do that, instead of hanging out with a probably-going-to-break railing the only thing between you and a whole lot of empty air. That sounds much more fun and interesting.”

“And you say all those words, yet you joined us out here anyway,” Suzy says, leaning back on the railing. She raises an eyebrow. “Curious.”

“Uh, he does have a point about the railing, though,” Collin admits, glancing down at it. “It’s kind of really rusty. You probably shouldn’t lean on it like that.”

“Oh come on, scaredy cats, I’ll be fine,” Suzy says, leaning her full weight on it with a creak. “Come on, you really think I weigh enough to break anything—”

The railing cracks, giving Suzy an entire half-second to figure out what’s happening before it gives way entirely and dropping her off the edge.

“Suzy!” Collin cries, leaping out and reaching desperately to catch her hand— but it’s just inches too far, and there’s nothing he can do but stare helplessly at her shocked face as she falls away from him.

And then, roughly fifteen feet down, she snaps back to alertness and twists around. Pink energy flares up around her arm, spinning together into a thick rope that she throws up like a lasso. Also like a lasso, it catches around Collin’s outstretched arm, winding around and fusing into a single knot. Collin nearly goes down right after Suzy, the sudden addition of her weight knocking him off balance, but this time a frantically grasping hand does manage to catch what it’s aiming for— that being the remaining railing.

For a moment, they hang in the balance— Suzy standing with her feet planted on the side of the hull, arms wrapped in the energy she’s using to keep herself attached to Collin, who barely has his feet on the edge of the balcony and is beginning to feel the strain in his shoulders from holding both himself and someone his size from falling, and Dimitri finally scrambling over to peer over the edge to see the situation for himself.

“Well, what are you waiting for?!” Suzy snaps. “Help me up, idiot!”

Mayview is a marvel of spectral engineering. A massive airship held in the air by two huge blimps, large enough to house the population of a small town— an ingenious use of spirits and spectral energy has given it an unending power source, such that it hasn’t touched the ground even once since it was first built over twenty years ago.

It is also a mess of cut corners and barely euclidean geometry, and quite frankly it’s a miracle it didn’t fall from the sky years ago.

“So, like, we should definitely tell someone another one of the railings needs fixing,” Suzy says, strolling along with her hands clasped loosely behind her back, like she didn’t just come within inches of plummeting to her death. “Y’know, in case some vital witness to a murder or whatever goes there and doesn’t notice it’s gone and then we can’t interrogate them because they’re a bloody splatter somewhere miles away.”

“We don’t solve murders, Suzy,” Collin says, holding his still-shaking hands tight to his chest as pale blue energy flickers around his shoulders.

“We might someday,” Suzy says. “And if we do, we don’t want to lose a vital witness.”

“I continue to be impressed by your ability to find the right conclusion from the complete wrong direction,” Dimitri comments, hands in his pockets as he wanders after them, his face definitely not still ashen. “You should get an award. Weirdest Logic In Town.”

“Well, what can I say!” Suzy says, beaming like the sun. “I’m a natural.”

“A natural blonde, sure,” Collin deadpans.

“That doesn’t even make sense as a retort,” Dimitri says.

“Hush, Dee, the veterans are talking,” Suzy says. “But anyway, like I was saying, I’m very smart and beautiful—”

She’s not looking where she’s going, of course, and that fact is proven when she walks right into someone rounding the corner. She yelps, jumps back, and has a hypocritical insult relating to eyes and obstacles right on the tip of her tongue when she actually looks and sees who it is she’s encountered.

“IIIIIIIII’m gonna go tell someone about the broken railing,” Dimitri says, shuffling away as Isabel Guerra blinks quizzically at Suzy.

“The what?” Isabel asks, glancing after Dimitri as he vanishes through a door before looking back at Suzy. “What’s up?”

Suzy blinks, realizes she’s been talked to, and hurriedly straightens out her back, crosses her arms, and looks away. “Nothing, just almost died today, no biggie.”

Isabel gasps, hands flying to her face. “What?! What happened, are you okay?”

“Nothing!” Suzy squawks, stepping back so fast Collin nearly has to leap out of her way. “It was nothing and I’m fine happens all the time why do you care?”

“I’m guessing it’s because she has this thing called ‘sympathy,’” Collin says, grabbing Suzy by the shoulder and tugging her back. “One of the railings was damaged. We’re fine. What are you doing down here?”

“Chasing a spirit,” Isabel says, grimacing. “It’s been going around messing up the workings of everything, so me and Isaac went after it and it ran and now we just have no idea which way it went.”

“Oh, really?” Collin asks, raising his eyebrows. “We could—”

“No!” Suzy snaps, elbowing him in the face.

“...We could leave you to it, you seem to be doing fine on your own,” Collin finishes, barely fazed. “We’ve got somewhere to be.”

“Well, alright!” Isabel says, turning away with a cheery smile. “I’m sure I won’t get too lost! See you!”

Isabel gives an energetic wave as she continues on down the hall, energy trailing out behind her, and Suzy grits her teeth and doesn’t wave back. She and Collin stay put, watching until Isabel vanishes from sight once more, and then Collin turns to look at Suzy.

“Oh, wow,” he says. “You’re only like, fifty percent red. That must be a new record.”

“Shshshhhhhhhhhut uuup!!” Suzy hisses, pushing him away. “I don’t! Know! What! You’re talking! About! Why would I be blushing!!!”

“I dunno, you tell me,” Collin says, his expression the very pinnacle of innocence. “I have no insight into whatever it is that happens in that head. That’s on you.”

“You’re wrong and also a butt-face! Why did you have to go and engage her in conversation?”

“Because I’m a normal and polite human being?” Collin shrugs. “It’s not my fault you’re too gay to function.”

“That! Is unrelated!” Suzy says, turning and marching away. “I’m going to go find some place that doesn’t have a dumb butt lying around!!”

“You’re not going to follow her? Investigate what exactly she’s really getting up to?”

“Go jump in a lake!”

“Yeah, okay, fine.” Collin pauses, then shouts one last thing. “Try not to stay out past sunset this time!”

“Lake! Now!”

It’s an interesting experiment in resource allocation, trying to cram three children into a room built for one. It’s sort of like piling up inside a trench coat to try and sneak into an R-rated movie, if by ‘coat’ you mean the combination of a rickety bunk bed and a hammock hung perhaps a little too far from the ground, and by ‘movie’ you mean a meager sense of safety brought on by the constant presence of two other people who practically make up the other two thirds of your heart, to the point where it’s worth the likelihood that one of these days Suzy’s hammock is absolutely going to break and she’ll get a concussion.

All of which is to say, Collin very much would like to clear out some space on the very, very messy floor to put down another mattress, so that when the day inevitably comes, a concussion stays the worst Suzy might get out of it.

Not that this is a plan he can put into motion right now immediately, though. For one, he doesn’t have a spare mattress. For another, it’s the middle of the night, and by all rights he should be asleep.

Despite everything, however, Collin remains wide awake. Maybe it’s the moon shining bright through the window, or the wind howling just outside, or the chill still managing to creep through his blankets, there’s something keeping Collin up. And he really wishes it wouldn’t.

Or maybe, he thinks, blinking a couple times as he listens, maaaaybe it’s the sound of people running around… above us, I think? Don’t they know people are trying to sleep?

He blinks again, staring dead-eyed at the ceiling of pipes and wiring. Then he sighs, pulls his blankets up to his chin, and almost closes his eyes— but something flickers, catches his attention.

His eyes snap open and he scrambles out of the way as a centipede the size of a great dane skitters out of the ceiling, down the wall, through his bed, and out through the door, trailing pink smoke the entire way down. He doesn’t even breathe for a moment, sitting stock-still crammed into the corner of his bed and staring at the place the spirit vanished, before the chill reminds him he still has a physical body to worry about.

“Suzy,” he hisses, leaning precariously off the edge of the bed to grab the edge of Suzy’s hammock and shake it. “Suzy, wake up. Something’s up.”

“Mmgmh?” Suzy mumbles, stirring a little.

“Suzy. Get up.”

She lifts her head, blinking blearily through her hair before seemingly processing the situation and sitting up. “I wasn’t dreaming about Isabel.”

“Cool, good to know,” Collin says, climbing down the ladder. “I think the Activity Club is still up to something, a spirit just fled through our room.”

That gets her attention. “What?! Collin, why didn’t you tell me???” she asks, flailing her way out of her blankets and nearly upending the entire contents of her hammock as she jumps out and lands in a pile of Dimitri’s sweaters.

“I am telling you, right now,” Collin says, grabbing her by the back of her nightshirt and tugging her to her feet.

“You should’ve started with it,” she huffs, marching past him with her nose in the air.

Collin glances over at Dimitri as he picks up one of the sweaters, shaking it out. “You think we should wake up—”

“Not interested,” Dimitri says immediately, voice muffled by the pillow he has over his face. “I enjoy sleeping.”

“Well, suit yourself.” Suzy marches right back away from them, grabbing her coat as Collin tugs on the freshly-stolen sweater. “More mystery-solving for us~”

Now slightly more equipped for the perpetual chilly weather, the two of them slip on their shoes as well and tip-toe carefully into the hall. Collin squints in the low lighting, trying to see if there’s anything there, before Suzy heaves a sigh and pushes past him.

“Really, Collin, it’s a wonder you can do anything,” she says, holding up a lantern and flaring her energy around the handle. It’s quickly pulled in, swirling briefly in the core before the circuit connects and it flickers into a shining, rose-tinted light, bright enough to light their way.

“How did you get that,” Collin says, following a half-step behind, his tone making the question out to be more of a reluctant formality than anything.

“Stole it,” Suzy chirps. “You should know this, Collin, these things are like, super expensive.”

“I know this,” Collin says.

“So of course I stole it.”

“Yes, I was just hoping you had some other explanation,” Collin says. “By the way, do you have some kind of supernatural understanding of which direction things are happening in, or are you just wandering in whatever direction you please? Because it kind of seems like the latter.”

Suzy turns and gives him a single raised eyebrow. “I’m following the sound of people running around like maniacs.”

Collin opens his mouth, then shuts it again with a click. He listens, and sure enough he can hear footsteps clanging about in the distance. “...Okay.”

She resumes marching, trailed by a mildly chagrined Collin, pausing every now and then— mostly at crossroads— to tilt her head this way and that before nodding and picking a new direction to go in.

Five minutes in, Collin speaks up. “Are you sure you actually know what direction they’re in, or are you just getting us lost?”

“I’m completely, a hundred percent po-si-tive they’re this way, Collin,” Suzy says, tugging a rusty door open with a shriek. “Or at least like, ninety,” she corrects, shining the light in on a dilapidated boiler room. “Eighty-five, maybe.”

“Okay,” Collin says, following her in. “Buuut, do you know the way back from here?”

Suzy hums a high pitched note and makes a face, wiggling the lantern around in a sort of so-so gesture. “Eeeeeventually, I’ll figure it out,” she says, prodding a rusted old pipe. “Hey, what d’you think this is for?”

Collin leans over and raises an eyebrow. “It looks like a pipe. Typically, those transport like, fluids and whatnot.”

Suzy blows a raspberry at him. “Duh, I meant what it transports. What do you think? Water, energy, deadly neurotoxin…?”

“Well how should I know?” Collin snaps. “I’m not an engineer! I’m a journalist!”

“I’m just making small talk,” Suzy says, turning away and shining the light around. “No need to get so snappy. It doesn’t look like there’s anything in here, though, so...”

The light flickers, and she blinks. “Hm? That’s weird, I’m still powering it...”

“Maybe it knows you stole it, and is punishing you for all your sins and transgressions,” Collin says, eyeing it nervously. Something skitters behind him, and he jumps. “We should leave,” he hisses, eyes wide.

“I agree,” Suzy says, voice strained, grabbing him by the wrist and tugging him after her as she beats a hasty retreat back to the hall.

She immediately returns to marching on down the hall, setting a far brisker pace than before and keeping alert. She doesn’t pause, just wordlessly motions at the next hall whenever they reach an intersection.

They’re nearly running when Collin catches sight of a new light other than Suzy’s lantern or the moon— Suzy skids to a stop, dousing the lantern and hiding it behind her back as someone comes racing down the stairs to their left, holding a crackling ball of electricity in his hand as he narrowly avoids crashing into the wall.

“Woah!” Suzy yelps, jumping back as the spiky-haired newcomer whirls to face them, hand outstretched like he’s going to shoot that lightning right at them. “Jeegers, sparky, watch where you’re aiming that thing! You could poke someone’s eye out!”

Isaac realizes what he’s looking at, and immediately the lightning crackles back out of existence. “Oh, f— sh-shoot, damn it, sorry,” he says, clearly resisting the instinct to start swearing, though the effort is wasted given present company. Still, Collin respects the effort. “Did you— I don’t suppose you saw a spirit come through here?”

“How could I?” Suzy asks, waving her hand around— or at least Collin hopes that’s what that was that just went by his face. “It’s like, pitch black.”

“It’s— oh, right.” The lightning sparks back up again, trailing up and down his arm in an erratic pattern, and he at least has the decency to look chagrined. “Forgot people can’t normally see in the dark— you haven’t heard it then, have you? Or felt it? Lots of legs, very scuttle-y...”

“Uhh,” Collin says, glancing over at Suzy and chewing on his tongue. “...N-o, not me.”

Suzy shakes her head, eyes glued to the electricity. “No, we haven’t seen anything, we’re just, uh— taking a, midnight walk.”

Isaac glances them over. “...In your pajamas.”

Collin bites the inside of his cheek. “Yes.”

Isaac shrugs. “Well, okay. You should probably go back to bed, though,” he says, brushing past them— holding the lightning quite far away from them. “You could get lost.”

“We won’t,” Collin says, waving goodbye.

Suzy watches him go, eyes glued to the light right up until it fades away entirely. Then she waits a moment longer, lights the lantern again, and takes a deep breath. “What the heck!”

“Suzy—”

“Why do they get superpowers!” Suzy asks, marching past him and waving her hands about in the air to emphasize her words. “I want superpowers, why do they get superpowers but I don’t!”

“Suzy, we’ve had this argument before—” Collin starts, hurrying after her as fast as he can manage without tripping over the stairs.

“It’s not fair!”

“I mean, I know I wouldn’t want to have to deal with you if you had like, weather-god powers,” Collin mutters under his breath. “Or, or paper, or… what was the other one. Whatever it is Ed does.”

“So sure, Isabel gets to go around throwing paper mache at people, and she’s given official missions going down to the dangerous spirit-infested surface,” Suzy continues, not paying Collin the slightest bit of attention. “But when I do it I’m ‘making a ruckus’ and ‘misusing the craft supplies’ and ‘please leave.’ Talk about a double standard.”

“Was it like, making things… no, um...” Collin pauses for a moment, hand on the railing, and then lights up. “Oh, right, the paintbrush! That. I wouldn’t trust you with that either.”

“I just don’t get it, Collin,” Suzy says, turning back to him. “All I want is some sick superpowers, and I get nothing.”

“I mean, everyone kind of has powers,” Collin says, waving his hand around with spectral energy trailing after it. “All you really need is a bit of training and then you can do stuff like, save your own life with an emergency magic rope. You got that training. I don’t see what the problem is.”

“Well, yeah,” Suzy says, crossing her arms. “But like, everyone and their dead grandma can do that. You don’t see any dead grandmas throwing wind around.”

“We’ve had this argument a hundred times before, and I don’t see it turning out any different this time either,” Collin deadpans. “Also, why are we going this way? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go after Isaac?”

Suzy immediately turns and goes back down the stairs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m calling you an idiot.”

“No, you,” Suzy retorts, hopping over the last step.

“Another stunning original from Suzy,” Collin says. “Can’t wait to hear what great insults you come up… with… next...”

Suzy stops after a moment, turns to look at him. “What? What is it?”

“Did you feel that?” Collin asks, staring down at the ground. “It kind of felt like the floor… stopped.”

“Stopped what?” Suzy asks.

Before Collin can elaborate, the lantern in Suzy’s hand flickers once, twice— then goes out entirely. “Oh, come on!” Suzy groans. “Now is not the time for—”

“Uh, Suzy?” Collin says, edging closer to her and staring wide-eyed into the darkness. “I think there’s something coming—”

There’s a distant roar, and then rapid footsteps coming their direction— and a voice that Collin belatedly recognizes as Isaac, yelling something that slowly resolves into words— “Grudge grudge grudge grudge grudge get down get down! Get down!”

Collin drops, back hitting the wall just as something rushes past— there’s no light, nothing for him to see by, nothing to tell him just what this is but the cacophony of scraping metal and skittering legs— something brushes just over his hair, and his heart leaps into his throat and he wishes he could see anything, see what’s happening see what this is— if he even wants to know.

An eternity later, the rushing air and skittering finally passes over, leaving Collin still frozen in fear. “S-Suzy?” he chokes out through his tightened throat. “Are you still here?”

“Yeah,” she replies, voice faint. “Can you see anything?”

“No,” Collin says, trying to get back to his feet before giving it up as a lost cause. His legs won’t stop shaking. “I think we should go back to bed.”

Thunder crashes in the distance. Collin doesn’t think it came from outside. “What?” Suzy asks. “How come?”

“I have no idea what just happened, and I don’t want to find out,” he says. “I think I’d prefer if we could just go back to bed, and I can go back to not sleeping, and I can not think about centipedes or millipedes or any type of creature with more than eight legs.”

Suzy scrapes about for a moment, before the lantern flickers on to illuminate her baleful expression. “That’s quitter talk.”

“Well maybe I am a quitter,” Collin says. “It’s the middle of the night, I can’t see, and I’m really regretting waking you up. None of this matters.”

“Maybe not to you,” Suzy says, crossing her arms, “But I like to keep a bead on the competition.”

“What competition!?” Collin throws his arms up in the air. “We’re not competing with them in anything, their job is keeping loose spirits in line! We’re amateur sleuths! There’s little to no overlap!”

“That’s what you think,” Suzy says, sticking her nose in the air.

“What! Does that mean!”

There’s a deafening crack and a flash of light down the hall, and reflexively they turn to see a wavering, half-dead spirit flying towards them, movements unsteady and pale energy trailing after it as it makes a beeline for the two of them. Suzy yelps, leaping back and throwing the lantern at it, and the spirit surges forwards— before the light goes out, plunging them just for a moment back into darkness as the lantern clatters to the floor.

Then Isaac races into view, lightning cracking over his body as he sprints towards them. “Which way did it go?!” he asks, voice cracking.

“I— I don’t know!” Collin replies, eyes wide. “It—  our light went out, I didn’t see where it went—”

“Ack, damn it, I had it,” Isaac mutters, hitting himself on the head, and then he sees Suzy— stooping to pick the lantern back up, spectral energy flickering around her shoulders, and his eyes go wide. “Hey— it didn’t go for you, did it?!”

“H-huh!! No! Nope!” Suzy blurts out, jolting back upright. “Nope didn’t get near me! It went— I don’t know where it went at all. But not— nowhere near me. Definitely.”

“That— good, that’s good,” Isaac says, breathing a sigh. “It— let’s just, hope it went… through the floor, or something. I’ll have to tell them, probably found some random object, gonna have to search...” he trails off, wandering past them, muttering all the way.

Collin meets Suzy’s eyes. “Let’s. Go back to bed. Please.”

Suzy stares at him for a long moment, then sighs. “Yeah, okay.”

Dimitri is dead to the world when they get back, miraculously in only fifteen minutes or so— Suzy happened to recognize what part of the labyrinthine depths they were in, and was able to navigate back to better lit areas without difficulty. Not that they couldn’t have managed it anyway, but— it’s easy, for once.

Collin’s first course of action is to crawl into bed, tugging off the sweater (which by roommate law now belongs to him) and draping it over the edge of his bed as he pulls the blankets back over him. He expects to hear Suzy clambering up as well, but when no such sound emerges, he can’t help but investigate.

She’s standing by the desk, holding the lantern in her hands, staring down at it. “What are you doing?” Collin asks.

Suzy jumps a little, nearly dropping it. “Uh, nothing! I just…” She turns it over. “...I dunno. Zoned out a little.”

“Go to bed,” Collin says, dropping his head back to his pillow.

Suzy doesn’t reply, but a few seconds later Collin feels the bed shift under him and hears the hammock creak under her weight, and he finally settles down. “Goodnight, Suzy,” he says.

After a moment, he hears her reply come out barely audible through the cold night’s air. “Night, Collin.”

Chapter Text

Morning comes with the sun shining in on Suzy’s bleary face, stabbing through her eyelids and forcing her to face reality and accept the fact that there’s someone banging on the door.

As per usual, however, she staunchly ignores this fact in favour of trying to figure out how it is that the sun can reach her. She doesn’t sleep anywhere near the window, and even if it did find a way to shine directly at her, the angle is all wrong— it’s distinctly above her, not off to the side like it would have to be. Therefore, she’s not in bed.

With that conclusion reached, and with the increasingly irritated banging increasing in volume, it doesn’t take long for her brain to finish kicking into gear and processing that yes, indeed, she is on the floor. She’s surrounded by all her stuffed animals and assorted blankets, and based on the particularities of the bumps underneath her she has to guess she’s on the dirty laundry— and above her is her hammock, turned upside down, completely empty.

O-kay, I fell. Gotcha. She sits up, rubbing at her head, and sleepily calls out, “Yeah, yeah, fine, shut up, I’m coming.”

The door squeals a bit as it opens, and Suzy does her best impression of a disgruntled swamp witch in an attempt to scare away whoever it is that’s visiting. Reason #244 why long wavy hair is good. Impressive bedhead.

The visitor, who happens to be a rather forgettable-looking brown-haired girl in a very nice burgundy coat and a cap decorated with a band of flowers, does look quite intimidated. She doesn’t run away in terror, though, so it’s not worth much. “What do you want?” Suzy asks, now that her first line of defense has failed.

“Um, I wanted to ask you for help with something…?” the girl says, shifting uneasily with energy flickering around her shoulders, not meeting Suzy’s eyes. “I mean, unless this is a bad time. I can come back later.”

“It’s way too early,” Suzy says.

“It’s almost eleven,” the girl says.

“Yeah.”

Silence hangs in the air for a long moment, and then the girl coughs. “Um, about what we talked about the other day...”

Suzy blinks slowly. “We talked?”

The girl blinks back. “I— yes? Did you forget?”

“Absolutely,” Suzy says, shooting her a finger gun. Then she backpedals a few steps, leaving the girl at the door so she can yell, “Dimitri! Who is this?”

“That’s Alex,” Dimitri says, sitting cross-legged on the bottom bunk with a bowl of ramen. He looks up, briefly drawing Suzy’s attention to where Collin is curled up and sleeping like a log, before Dimitri looks back down at Suzy. “She approached us a couple days ago about a case, but we were busy at the time so you said to try again later.”

“Gotcha,” Suzy says, returning to Alex. “Okay, sweet, still drawing a blank, but okay. Hooow the heck do you know where we live.”

“You wrote your names on the door,” Alex says.

Suzy looks at the door. There, written in different colored markers, are their names. She looks back at Alex. “You got me there. We have a P.O. box for cases, though, you don’t have to come in person.”

“Y-yes, but this is kind of… sensitive information...”

“It’s really not,” Dimitri calls.

“I’ll be the judge of that, thanks,” Suzy calls back, leaning on the wall as she looks back at Alex. “Well, if you’re here anyway, may as well come in. Tell us what your problem is.”

Alex nods, stepping delicately over the threshold. She stands off to the side with her hands folding in front of her, watching wide-eyed as Suzy tugs a hairbrush free from the mess, and then after a moment clears her throat. “So, what I… I told you about it before, but you clearly forgot, so…”

“Spit it out, sweetheart, I don’t have all day,” Suzy says, wincing as the brush tugs on a tangle. She fumbles around for an elastic, giving Alex a beseaching look as she goes.

Alex takes a deep breath, then all at once blurts out “I want you to help me look for UFOs!”

Suzy blinks, staring into her reflection in the window. “Ooh, that explains why I forgot about you,” she says, turning with a rueful grin. “That’s like, not even a case? If you wanted to ask me on a date, there’s more direct ways to get rejected.”

“You said the same thing last time!” Alex protests. “I was being serious then and I’m being serious now!”

“Did I really say that already?” Suzy asks, leaning over to Dimitri.

“Yep,” he says, slurping up some noodles. “Kinda takes the edge off the rejection line when you already used it once, but it’s still good.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Suzy muses, tying her hair up in a ponytail.

“I don’t get why everyone is always like this!” Alex says. “I’ve seen aliens, I know I have, I just need someone with me the next time! To prove it!”

“Listen, Andy, hon, I get it,” Suzy says, leaning on the window sill. “You were tired one time, stayed up too late, and saw a weird spirit fly by. You gotta be more down-to-earth about these things.”

“Bold words from someone who was born in an airship,” Dimitri mutters.

“It was a UFO! It had to be!” Alex insists. “I’m not even asking for anything hard! All I want is for you to come with me and see!”

“We take real mysteries, here, you know,” Suzy says.

“She’s also willing to pay, and I know for a fact we’re fresh out of food,” Dimitri says.

“Oh, come on, Dee, don’t be ridiculous,” Suzy says. “I know we still had at least a couple packets of noodles…”

Dimitri casually sips on the broth in his bowl, not breaking eye contact.

“...Heck. Heck!” Suzy slams the hairbrush down. “Fine, I’ll solve your stupid dumb alien mystery! Are you happy?!”

Alex clasps her hands. “Very!”

“What’re we looking for then, sweet cheeks?” Suzy asks, turning her binoculars over in her hands as she follows a couple steps behind Alex. “We talkin’, lights in the sky, flying saucer, weird clouds…?”

“Every couple nights, I see this weird thing fly around above the city,” Alex says, squinting up at the thin, feathery mist floating just a couple kilometers above them. “It’s like— it’s like a little airship looking thing, but— it’s super small, and it flies around really fast like a bird, before it goes under the clouds and disappears.”

“Okay, couple issues I’ve got here,” Suzy says, dropping the binoculars to dangle around her neck. “First, if it appears every couple nights, why’re we out here in the day?”

“Well, it’s not always night…” Alex says, twiddling her thumbs as she avoids eye contact. “It appears in the day too, sometimes. Mostly nighttime, though, yes.”

“Okay, that leads into my second question,” Suzy says, getting up. “Every couple nights? Which is to say, we could be sitting out here all day, and all night, just to see nothing. Nothing at all!”

Alex makes an uncertain noise in the back of her throat, leaning back. “Maaaybeee…?”

“I am glad,” Suzy says, sitting down heavily, “I am super glad Collin insists on y’all crackpots paying up-front.”

“I’m not a crackpot,” Alex says, pouting.

“Sure looks like it from over here,” Suzy says. “We’ve got bills to pay, y’know, we can’t wait however long it takes for your aaaalieeenssss to show up again.”

“You don’t pay any bills.”

“We need to eat food, sometimes.”

“I’ll give you that,” Alex says, dipping her head. “I would be willing to pay extra. I just want someone to see it and tell me I’m not crazy.”

“Well, you won’t get that from me,” Suzy says, turning away. “Besides, there’s no way you’ve got that kind of cash.”

A wad of bills finds its way into the corner of Suzy’s vision, waving around to attract her attention until Suzy gives up and glares at Alex. Alex stares back blankly.

“I hate you and your stupid dumb aliens,” Suzy says, taking the bills and flipping through them. “I hope you get a stomach ulcer and stop being able to eat cheese.”

“You’re not a very nice person, I’m realizing,” Alex says.

“Only just now?”

It has been eight hours. Suzy has seen exactly zero UFOs, and approximately seven thousand miscellaneous spirits flitting about below cloud-level. They’re too far to make out in any detail, but she tries anyway. Busy day, huh.

She sinks her face deeper into her arms. But not busy enough.

“I went and talked to Dee like you asked,” Collin says, his voice cutting through the boredom induced haze. Suzy lifts her head to look, and sees him walking over. “He continued to not be interested. Also I have food.”

Suzy is unaffected by the first half of the news, having expected the response but hoped for more company to torment. More importantly, however— he has two large, steaming bowls in hand, with a rich, meaty scent drifting over and reminding Suzy of how much she hasn’t eaten today.

“Ooh, thank you thank you Collin!” Suzy says, clasping her hand eagerly. “You always know just what I need— one of those is for me, right??”

“No,” Collin says, putting one of the bowls down in front of her. “I was going to throw the other one off the edge, of course. It’s the ground’s birthday, you know.”

“The ground doesn’t have a mouth, I’ll just eat this for her,” Suzy says, grabbing one of the spoons from Collin’s hand and digging into the beef stew.

“I’m sorry I’ve kept you all for so long,” Alex says, barely loud enough to be heard from across the table. She’s staring up at the sky, which has turned to streaks of purple and pink as the sun sets in the distance. “I’m sure it won’t take much longer.”

“Says the person who previously said the thing only shows up every couple of days,” Collin says, putting his own bowl down.

“True, but there’s been another scene transition,” Alex says, adjusting her collar against a frigid breeze. “I don’t see why else this would matter, unless someone important is about to happen.”

“I understood each of those words individually,” Suzy says around a mouthful of meat.

“That’s okay,” Alex replies, fussing with her hat. “It wasn’t supposed to make sense.”

“Great. Great. Love this. Client’s a nutcase.”

“Bold words,” Collin says, steepling his fingers.

“You freakin’ know it,” Suzy mutters into a mouthful of beef.

The conversation drops off, leaving them to eat in relative silence. Alex leans back in her seat, staring vacantly into the sky and idly chewing on the inside of her cheek— she frowns, mutters something, but declines to repeat it loud enough for Suzy to actually hear— and Suzy has just hit the bottom of her bowl when something happens.

There’s a thump as Alex’s chair drops back to the ground, her eyes snapping back to alertness as she looks around. “Did you hear something?”

Suzy narrows her eyes. “Just the wind, crackpot.”

“No, it’s not like wind,” Alex says, getting to her feet and holding on to her hat as she pads over to the railing. “It’s more… buzzing...”

Suzy tilts her head, shutting her eyes, and after a moment catches it too. “...Okay, sure, fine, but it’s probably just a dumb flying spirit—”

Something large— the size of a car, Suzy would describe it as, if she’d ever seen a car in her life— whizzes straight up through the air, backdraft nearly stealing Alex’s hat as it flies up into the air, arcs around, and drops straight back down the way it came.

“That’s it!” Alex shouts, abandoning her hat to the cruel whims of the sky as she slams against the railing and leans frantically over the edge. “That’s the UFO!”

“Okay, cool, you’re not just making things up—” Suzy says, racing over and leaning over as well, scanning the air in search of it. “—But it still looks like just another spirit!”

“It’s not! I’m sure it’s not!”

“And what makes you so sure?” Suzy asks, propping her cheek on her arm.

“Because I—” Alex starts, before cutting herself off with a bite to her lip. She takes a deep breath, lifts her arm to point— Suzy follows it, and finds the UFO flying loops in and out of a cloud— and starts again. “Because it doesn’t look like one. Look, it’s got obvious machinery on it.”

Suzy squints, tugging her goggles down over her eyes to protect against the wind. It doesn’t do much for her vision but make everything look pink, though. “...I don’t see it. Also, that doesn’t prove anything. Just last week I saw a spirit that looked like, just like a toaster.”

“It wasn’t a spirit,” Collin says, with the weariness of a long-tread argument.

“I didn’t put the bread in!” Suzy yells, throwing her hands in the air. “You didn’t put the bread in!”

“I don’t think now is the time to retread old ground here,” Alex murmurs. “It’s coming back.”

Suzy snaps back to attention, leaning over the railing for just a second before Collin grabs her by the collar and drags her back— scaredy-pants, she thinks, as Dimitri bowed out of this particular assignment when he heard where they would be. “Where? Where is it?”

The answer is given a mere second later, as the thing whips up past them once again— but this time, Suzy catches another noise in the brief instant it was next to them. A high-pitched sound, almost like a voice, almost like…

“Screaming?” Collin asks, brow furrowed, and Suzy meets his eyes with a grin. His face drops. “Suzy, what are you thinking?”

“What do you mean, what am I thinking?” Suzy asks, clapping him on the back with a jovial laugh. “I’m not thinking anything! I’ve never had a single thought in my life.”

“It shows.”

“Anyway, I’m thinking we go running off in that-a-way,” Suzy says, gesturing vaguely in the direction the craft flew off, further towards the center of town. The city-town, built on the very large deck of this ship. “Y’know, chase the thing.”

“We should do that,” Collin says, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Yep!” Suzy says, not moving from where she stands with her arm around his shoulders.

“...Look, I don’t think this is the best time for you to relearn the meaning of affection,” Collin says, and before he can say another word Suzy takes off running.

“Last one there is a rotten egg!”

“Last one where?!”

The park is the closest thing Suzy has ever gotten to experiencing the surface below. It’s fifteen acres of grass trimmed to barely two inches long, sparse trees dotting the scenery with gravel pathways winding around and all leading to the ‘lake’ in the center.

It’s really more of a pond, Suzy thinks.

It’s also something of a rudimentary landing pad today, she finds out, as she runs down one of the familiar paths to find it bobbing near the center of the water sending waves across the surface every time its stiff wings try to move.

Try being the operative word here. It’s only a couple feet deep where it landed, and judging by the way it landed it must have wedged those things in deep. Without a moment’s hesitation she tugs her boots off, bundles her socks up to stuff in them, then rolls her pants up and wades into the frigid water. She winces at the icy sting, but doesn’t let up until she’s reached the side of the craft.

And it’s pretty obviously not a spirit when you get up close, she’ll admit. It’s some kind of very miniature airship— designed for maybe two to four people, probably run by some kind of specialized tool. The glass is too foggy to see through, but she can hear muffled voices from within.

“What in any god’s name made you think this was a good idea?!” a familiar voice demands, and Suzy has to take a sharp breath to calm the sudden flutter in her chest.

“I can fix this!” Another voice snaps, as the wings shift again, nearly splashing Suzy even more as she steps back out of the way. “Just, give me a sec—”

The wing strains, energy-enhanced metal flexing as the joint moves and oh, that’s cool, it’s like a dragonfly or something it can turn any which way I wonder how they put it together— and then with a loud screech the material bends, not quite snapping but definitely going to need some repairs.

“Isaac,” Isabel says, voice trembling from behind the foggy glass. “What. Was that noise.”

“I… I hope it’s nothing…?”

Suzy grins, grabs onto the edge of the windshield, and hoists herself up out of the water. She knocks on the glass, wipes away the fog, and waves cheerfully to the two people sitting inside. Just Isabel and Isaac, though there’s enough seats in there for four— maybe five, even six if you’re willing to share seatbelts.

They stare in befuddlement at her, and she makes a pouty face and taps on the glass.

Isabel seems to get the message after a second, leaning over Isaac to reach some switch that makes the cockpit slide open. “Suzy? What are you doing here?!”

“Oh, you know, lake-pond things,” she says, gesturing vaguely as she lets her upper half slink into the craft in a manner not unlike a cat lying over the back of a sofa. “And I suppose you two are doing UFO things?”

“It’s not a UFO,” Isaac protests.

“Uhh, let’s see, unidentified, check, flying, check, object, check,” Suzy lists off, ticking off her fingers. “Yep, this is looking like a UFO. And it’s UFO enough for my client, so!”

“Don’t you usually get like, missing persons reports?” Isabel asks.

“I mean, sure, but it’s not like I’m the one choosing who sends in mysteries,” Suzy says, shrugging. “Today’s mystery is a UFO, maybe tomorrow I’ll be cracking the secrets of the universe! Maybe I’ll get to touch an entire mountain. Who knows.”

“I really doubt it,” Collin says.

Suzy screams. “How long have you been there?!” she demands, slipping and falling all the way into the cockpit and frantically trying to right herself and get off of Isabel at the same time. Neither works out particularly well.

“I’ve… been following you the entire time,” Collin says, raising an eyebrow. He’s sitting on top of the broken wing, bare feet swinging and sending droplets of water flying where they skim the pond. “I was talking to you. I mean, you didn’t respond or anything, so it’s conceivable you just somehow didn’t hear me, but...”

“Haha, maybe,” Suzy says, finally choosing to just focus on getting off of Isabel— who, for her part, just looks faintly amused, and isn’t that another kick in the ribs. “Well! Whatever the case, mister sneaky-pants, di'ja see Alex on the way over here? Might wanna tell her her mystery is solved and it’s the dang Activity Club again.”

“No, I think we lost her, actually,” Collin says, adjusting his cap as he looks around. “We’ll have to go track her down probably.”

“Ugh, can we not?” Suzy asks, slumping down in one of the chairs. “She already paid us. Paid us extra, even. She can come find us if she wants to know the result.”

“Who’s Alex?” Isabel asks, glancing between the two of them, and when Suzy goes to reply she finds her throat blocked up.

“Our latest client,” Collin replies in her stead, and she’s never been so grateful to him in her life. Not that she’ll ever say that. “She, uh, wanted us to find a UFO… which I guess is this? What’s up with that?”

“Ed and me found this old craft down in some old ruins and it still had the tool in, and the tool happens to run on light blue energy,” Isabel says, waving her hand around vaguely. “Sooo, Isaac got to have it, and then he decided, like, gotta practice!”

“I can’t just take it into a proper, important mission without knowing how to drive it,” Isaac huffs, getting increasingly red-faced as he continues to mess with the controls and only manages to make the craft shake some more.

“And what a great outcome that’s come to,” Isabel says, leaning out of the cockpit to look at the wing. “I don’t think anyone even knows how to fix something this old—”

“I’m sorry, okay?!” Isaac snaps. “If you weren’t here distracting me, I could’ve landed it just fine!”

“Um!” Suzy cuts in, because as nice as it would be to watch the club dissolve into bickering she does have something she wants to say. “I! Actually! Know a little about super old, vintage crafts and stuff.”

The two of them blink at her, eyes wide. “Since when?” Isabel asks, looking honestly surprised.

“Uhh, a while,” Suzy says, turning her head away sharply. “Since shut up is when, it doesn’t matter. I learn things. This whole town is super old and I dig around in its innards every day of my life. This thing is smaller, but it can’t be that different.”

Isabel’s face lights up in a grin, and Suzy is already starting to regret this. “You’d really do that?” she asks, elated, and yep I hate this already why must I have this weakness for machinery—

“Yes, I’ll do it!” Suzy chokes out, pulling her jacket over her face to hide how red it’s getting. “But I’m not gonna do it in the pond and I’m not gonna move it myself so you gotta get off your asses.”

“Is there a catch?” Isaac asks, eyes narrowed, and this is something Suzy can deal with.

“I mean, I will require compensation for my time and effort,” she says, lowering the collar a little to meet his gaze. “We could probably discuss it more once I’ve gotten a better look at the damage, but, well, money.”

Isaac’s shoulders seem to relax a little, like he was expecting something worse. “Right, okay. Fine. We’ll have to talk to Mr. Spender about that, but yes.”

“Great! Pleasure doing business with you,” Suzy says, climbing back out and sliding down the side back into the water. “C’mon, Collin! We’re blowing this pop stand.”

“You know you’re probably just gonna make things worse, right?” Collin asks in a low tone, once they’re back at the shore and well out of hearing range. “Just because you know how things are put together doesn’t mean you can fix a broken wing. It’s like, bent and stuff.”

“You shut your darn pie hole,” Suzy says, buckling her boots back up. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, failing to resist a cute face,” Collin says, grinning.

“Isabel’s not cute,” Suzy insists, tugging the last strap maybe a little tighter than it strictly needs to be. “She could snap my arm with a thought and is not a force to be taken lightly.”

“They’re not mutually exclusive,” Collin says, trailing after her as she wanders back the way they came.

“Just drop it, okay?” Suzy snaps. “That’s not it. This is just a cool thing that I want to look at because it came from below, and I want to look at how it’s put together, and also we’re gonna get paid for that so it’s all good. I still would’ve offered if it was Ed there instead.”

“Sure, okay,” Collin says, and for once he seems to mean it as he lets the conversation drop.

They continue walking in silence for another minute, before a distant yell makes them stop. “Heeey!” they hear again, and they look around in confusion before they catch sight of the source— Alex, running towards them across the grass, looking distinctly out of breath and holding a notebook hugged tight to her chest. “Hey, you found— did you find it?”

“We did, and it’s not aliens,” Suzy says, putting her hands on her hips as Alex comes to a stop wheezing in front of them. “It was the A-Club. Being dumb and terrible like always.”

“Yeah, I— I mean, I… okay, I’m, not surprised. That it’s not aliens.” She sighs, eyes downcast. “It never is.”

“Yeah, ‘cause aliens are fake and not real.”

“You don’t know that!” Alex blurts out. “But— it’s true, they are hard to find.”

They stand there in silence for a moment, until Suzy coughs. “So, you wanna know more, or…?”

“No, it’s fine, I’m sorry I’ve wasted all your time like this,” Alex says, turning away. “I’ll leave you to it. Sorry for wrapping you up in my weird fantasies.”

“Yeah, you’d better be,” Suzy says.

“Actually, I’ve been wondering something,” Collin says, making Alex stop mid-step and look back at them. “I mean, we don’t make it public where exactly we live, so… how did you know how to find us?”

“Oh,” Alex says, looking back down, and then she says like it’s the most casual thing, “Lisa told me, is all.”

Suzy’s blood runs cold. “Lisa?”

“Yeah, she— do you know her?” Alex asks, looking back up and tilting her head. She looks far more innocent than she has any right being.

“You could say that!” Suzy says, voice raising a couple octaves as she grabs Collin’s arm. “Well, we’re going now! Bye! Never talk to me again, goodbye!”

“Okay?” Alex says, lifting her hand in something vaguely resembling a confused wave. “I—”

“Don’t even look at me! Never!”

“...Well, alright,” Alex says, as the two of them step out of the park and vanish behind the brick fence. She hesitates, then breathes a small sigh and lifts her notebook to start writing. “She’ll want to hear about that too, I suppose...”

Suzy manages to hold on to some modicum of sanity until they’re inside, at which point she immediately lets go of Collin, hits her head on the wall, and screams into her sleeve.

“Suzy— Suzy, okay, Suzy, I get it, this is a very stressful revelation,” Collin says, hovering by her side and considering whether or not to put his hand on her shoulder— on the one hand, it’s good to be a supportive friend, but on the other hand she might respond by breaking his wrist. “Let’s just— let’s just calm down and think about this?”

“Nope! No, no, Collin, let’s not think about this, we gotta move,” Suzy says, eyes wild as she digs her fingers into her hair. “This is bad, ohhhh this is so bad.”

“It’s not—”

“It is!” Suzy snaps. “Lisa! Knows where we live. Lisa knows where I live, she figured it out at some point, and any day now she’s going to come along and try and sink her sparkly little nails into everything again!”

Collin bites his tongue. “...Okay,” he says after a moment, sighing. “Yes. I agree. This is bad. Lisa definitely knows where we live. How did she find out?”

“I don’t know! But—”

“We don’t know,” Collin says. “We don’t know how she found out, but she found out somehow, and if we just panic and uproot ourselves without finding out, she’s probably just going to find us again with no trouble. Think it over.”

Suzy opens her mouth, takes a breath, then stops. Slowly, she exhales. “Fine,” she says through gritted teeth. “Yeah, okay, fine, you’re right. So what do we do instead, genius?”

Collin crosses his arms. “I was thinking you should go ahead and do whatever it is you were planning to do with that aircraft,” he says, leaning against the wall. “And then I’d do some reconnaissance.”

Suzy narrows her eyes. “Why you?”

Collin raises his eyebrows. “Do you want to risk running into Lisa?”

“Yeah okay fine,” Suzy rushes out. She straightens back up, tightens her ponytail again, and huffs a sigh. “Well! Good thing nobody panicked. Guess we’d better go see what Dee’s up to, huh?”

“Yep, definitely,” Collin says, trailing after her down the stairs, looking away to hide the relief on his face. She’s the worst person I’ve ever met, he muses, but it’s good to see her back to normal.