1979-

  Marty Morgan looked over the field where he had left Jim Marley to die. He turned

  in a circle. The damage had been repaired, some kind of grain stretching out of the

  ground. He would have never known that all of his friends had died around this site

  if he hadn’t been there.

  He still didn’t know what he was going to do about it.

  In ten years, he was no closer to who had killed his friends than when Jim had given

  him his only clue. An ornate ring meant nothing if you didn’t know who made it, or

  whom owned it.

  What was he going to do about it? The place had no new clues to offer him. The town

  had repaired what it could. They turned the giant snake that had killed Positive Man

  into a tourist attraction. It was the central exhibit of the Hazard Scouts Museum.

  Plaques for the dead citizens Positive Man hadn’t saved were also housed in the

  museum. They lined a wall next to the stuffed snake exhibit.

  Maybe he should look at the exhibits again. Maybe they would tell him something he

  had missed over the years.

  He didn’t have any other options as far as he could see. Mr. Robot and Mental were

  the detectives on the team. They knew how to track things down, and how to figure

  out what a clue meant.

  He had been a kid then, and hadn’t learned enough in the ten years since to be a good

  detective. His talents had allowed him to get by in case of trouble. The legacy from

  the team’s trust had taken care of most of the rest.

  Marty summoned a regular horse to carry him into town. He climbed on its back and

  let it run while he thought about the events of that day.

  The Scouts thought they had a lead on a long time enemy, Cortez. They landed the

  plane and scouted some around the then much smaller town. Mr. Robot and Mental

  had split from the group to investigate the field where Marty had found Mental

  afterwards. The giant snake had been under the local diner. Positive Man and Bounce

  had hoped to bring in the plane to rescue the civilians.

  The plane had been sabotaged. The engines blew up. Bounce landed in a field not far

  from the other field where Mr. Robot and Mental had been ambushed. Positive Man

  had ordered Marty to check on her, and then the others. He found Mental wounded

  near what was left of Mr. Robot. He had returned to help Positive Man. He was too

  late to help out. He rode away before something happened to him.

  Marty spent the next few years trying to survive. The team’s foundation had

  supported him. He had educated himself as much as he could while living in a bunker

  away from the team’s headquarters. As far as he knew, it still sat untouched.

  He doubted it was safe to use the base. Whomever was behind the death of the team

  was probably watching it like a hawk. He was surprised that he was still walking

  around sometimes. When were they coming after him to finish the job?

  He supposed as long as he wasn’t close to finding the man who owned the ring, he

  didn’t have to worry about being attacked.

  When he did have something, then he should worry about another giant snake being

  in his future.

  Marty rode up to the museum and dismounted. He dismissed his horse after looking

  around. He didn’t need anyone connecting him to the Scouts while he was trying to

  look around.

  He walked inside the building. His eyes tracked the central opening floor. Displays

  about the team’s old cases were everywhere. He headed toward where the giant snake

  sat in his stuffed glory.

  Marty paused when he entered the room. The museum attracted people from all over.

  A small group followed a guide from display to display. A young man in black

  studied the snake.

  He walked around to the other side of the display. The jaw had been broken in the

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  battle. Whomever had stuffed it had fixed that along with the broken bones that had

  been inflicted on it.

  “Mr. Morgan?,” said the man in the black. “Can we talk?”

  “I guess.” Marty called his talent. If things went down, he was prepared to summon

  something to do things to this stranger. “What can I do for you?”

  “My name is Ren.” The young man smiled. “I am the apprentice for Doctor

  Toubanhei. I have to solve a mystery to graduate from my service and set up my own

  detective service.”

  “So you want to know what happened to the Hazard Scouts?,” asked Marty. “I don’t

  know what happened to the Scouts. What do you know already?”

  Ren gave him an outline of what happened. It was missing some facts that no one but

  Marty knew. The picture was almost right.

  “How is the Doctor?” Marty had worked some cases in Japan. He remembered a gruff

  man in a black suit like Ren wore. He seemed to have his thumb on the criminal

  world around Kyoto and Tokyo when the Scouts visited that country.

  “He is well.” Ren smiled. “I didn’t know you had met.”

  “It was a long time ago.” Marty put his hands in his pockets. He had joined the team

  a few years before the final case. His encounters with Toubanhei were almost fifteen

  years in the past.

  “Would it be all right if I ask you some questions?,” asked Ren. “The more

  information I am able to gather, the quicker I can solve this case and locate the

  murderer.”

  “Getting out on your own means that much?” Marty felt one eyebrow go up.

  “Doctor Toubanhei is training several other apprentices.” Ren made a gesture to

  indicate that didn’t matter to him. “He wants to make sure that someone is there to

  defend Japan as much as possible. If I can graduate, I will be able to pick the district

  I work in. I will be able to solve cases without having someone looking over my

  shoulder all the time.”

  “I understand that.” Marty had been the youngest of the Scouts. His ability didn’t

  seem that great at the time. He had worked on it in the years he had been on his own.

  He could do things he only dreamed about doing then.

  He supposed he wouldn’t have pushed so hard if the others were still around.

  “Can you find out things about jewelry?,” asked Marty. “I have a ring that I need

  researched.”

  “I can do that,” said Ren. He smiled. “It might take some time.”

  “I don’t have anything but time.” Marty smiled. “Let’s go over to the diner. I’ll buy

  some lunch.”

  “Did you see anything on that day?,” asked Ren.

  “Not really.” Marty headed for the front door. “These people were trapped in the

  diner. Daryl had gone to the jet to fly over so we could try to save them by lowering

  a ladder from the air and moving them out of danger. The plane crashed. Doug asked

  me to try to get Daryl out but the plane exploded before I could do much of anything

  to help. I went to find Jim and Barry, but I only found Jim. He was barely alive. He

  told me that his powers had been shut off for the amount of time it had taken to

  wound him. He wound up burning up his body to prevent it from falling into the

  wrong hands.”

  “Doug?,” asked Ren.

  “Positive Man.” Marty realized the road was better paved than it was on that day. “He

  died fighting the giant snake they put on display in their museum.”

  “What about Mr. Robot?,” asked Ren.

  “I saw Barry’s skull,” said Marty. “I didn’t see the rest of his body. Maybe the

  murderers took it with them.”

  “Just the skull?,” asked Ren. “That’s unusual. I would have expected that to be gone,

  and the body left behind.”

  “I didn’t think about that.” Marty paused in the middle of the sidewalk. “I thought Jim

  had blown himself up. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the skull had been some kind of

  bomb.”

  “Seems likely.” Ren nodded. “Something had to be done to cover their tracks.”

  “I admit I wasn’t a good detective, and didn’t learn much.” Marty led the way to the

  diner. It looked better than it had the first time he had seen it.

  “You were the Animal Boy, weren’t you?,” asked Ren. He paused at the door leading

  into the diner, inspecting the place before he walked in behind Marty.

  “Yes,” said Marty. “My powers were useful for rescues, especially at sea.”

  “I see.” Ren settled in a booth away from the door. He looked the place over as he

  waited for a waitress.

  Marty was forced to sit down where he had to twist to look out the window if he

  wanted to keep an eye on things.

  “Doctor Toubanhei said he had not seen any progress on what happened.” Ren

  frowned. “Professional detectives had learned nothing new after the first reports went

  out.”

  “I didn’t think about it at the time but I left Doug’s body when I should have buried

  it,” said Marty.

  “I’ll find out what happened to it.” Ren shrugged. “We need to know that if we want

  to construct a full picture of things.”

  “Do you think you can find out what happened?,” asked Marty.

  “I have been trained to unravel the thread of stories,” said Ren. “This is a problem

  that I feel that I can solve given enough time and information.”

  A waitress approached their booth. She put two menus down in front of them. She

  pulled out a pad and pen.

  “Do you know what drinks you want?,” she asked.

  “I’ll have water,” said Marty.

  “I’ll have tea, please,” said Ren.

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said as she wrote down the drink order on her

  pad.

  “I have a lot of questions when we are done eating,” said Ren.

  “I don’t have a lot of answers.”