The ruins of Maximiland still smoldered in some places as Detective Jason Smith looked over them for any clue as to what had happened. “All the locals were saying that magic was responsible.” his partner noted, stooping to take a closer look at what was left of a concrete post that had once held up a ride. “I’d believe it if I didn’t know better.”, Jason replied gruffly. He ran his haggard fingers through his salt and pepper hair. His lumbering frame moved with surprising swiftness as his eerie sky blue eyes darted about, taking in all of the details of the mess. “What do you make of it, silly-talk aside?”, he called to his partner. Daniel Tang, a young and eager detective fresh from the academy, pulled his full six feet and eight inches to attention, flexing his bulky and muscular frame and relishing in the popping joints that greeted him. He flashed a perfect smile at his partner and teacher as ideas swirled behind his brown eyes. He scratched at his short-cropped black hair, soaked with sweat from the midday sun. “Honestly, boss, not even a fire could do all this.”, he sighed, “I can’t help but believe this was something big. I mean, think about a nuke; even that leaves buildings. Everything wasn’t just torched, it was razed, top to bottom. Even the rumored underground.” He chuckled, and Jason chucked back. “Yep,” the older man noted, “You spend your whole childhood hearing about the wonderful things that happen down there for VIPs at the park, and the first time you see it, God himself has seemingly smashed it to bits.” “Seriously.”, Daniel interjected. The two men worked their way around the last of the rides that they could identify, and looked over the remaining mile and a half of flat ruins left to inspect. “Good God…”, Jason said, “All this shit left to kick and rattle, and I bet we won’t find a damn clue in any of it.” Daniel hummed an affirmative.
Around thirteen hours later, the two men sunk into chairs at a coffee shop. They had been in here often enough that the barista already knew what they wanted, and was busily preparing their drinks. They sat in silence until the frozen coffee drinks arrived. Whipped cream and froth coated Jason’s mustache, and Daniel couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh. “Jason, you’re like a little kid, man.”, he sighed. “You’re one to talk,” Jason retorted before taking another heavy gulp of his highly caffeinated sugar swill, “You actually are a little kid.” “Twenty’s old enough to be on the force…”, Daniel pouted, taking a long pull of his mint mocha. “That doesn’t explain the fact that your phone storage is so full of video games that you had to delete a few to make room for the department’s training videos during your onboarding.”, Jason fired back. Daniel set his mug down with a clunk. “No shame in my game, boss.”, he said curtly, “It’s better than taking out my stress on the perps.” Jason nodded. “I’ll drink to that… kid.” His partner gave him a playful kick in the shin, and the two laughed.
“So?”, Jenny called from the bar, “What’s the dig, boys?” Her ample hips and bosoms swung as she walked over to their table. With no other patrons around, she pulled up a chair and sat with the two men, flipping her golden locks over one shoulder so that they were clear of her ears. “There is no dig, Jen.” Daniel said sullenly, “The place looked like it got hit by a nuke, and then dynamite for good measure. Not a damn thing left of it for us to inspect.” Her bright green lipstick made the resulting frown all the more effective, combined with her slate green eyes doing their best impression of a puppy. The two men thought for a second about how to explain what they knew so far. “Well,” Jason spoke up, “Remember that this is all classified.” Jenny nodded in turn. She had never told a soul what she heard from these two about their cases, and she didn’t plan to start now. “Everybody nearby that we interviewed said that there were two people engulfed in light, fighting. They said that there was magic involved. Like, bona fide witchcraft and wizardry. Would you believe that?” Jenny shook her head. “No way,” she said quietly, “Gotta be some kinda logical explanation, right?” Daniel nodded. “That’s what we’re thinking, but we got nothing to go off of.” Jason cleared his throat. “Not entirely true, kid.” Daniel scoffed. “Oh come on, not that.” Jason nodded. “We got one report from an unverified source, some hobo who happens to pen up nearby most nights. Said that a dude with blue hair was roaming around just before shit went haywire, and he made himself scarce once the fighting started.”
Jenny’s thoughts went to her brother. His icy blue eyes and hair matched naturally, a fact that not many knew. Very few also knew that the bizarre circumstances surrounding his supposed death had not left a body behind. All the same, she made every effort to perish the thought. He had been gone for five years now, and it was time for her to move on. At this point, even their mother had. Even with all of the mental gymnastics, though, she couldn’t let go of the thought that her brother may have been sighted for one reason; he had last been seen walking into MaximiLand, striding right through security with a short log of metal in one hand. There had been an explosion inside the park, and pieces of a human body were found nearby, mixed with unidentifiable remains that seemed to belong to some sort of animal. Officially, there had been a malfunction with an underground power supply due to an animal getting into it, and the resulting meltdown had consumed her brother wholesale, leaving barely any remains behind. In reality, nobody on the force knew what to make of the situation, and nobody could say with a straight face and a clean conscience that they were sure that was the case. Nothing about it added up, and the more Jenny thought about it, the more riled up she became. Every piece of equipment in the park was in ship shape upon inspection. The underground pathways in the park were well-guarded and had never hosted animals before. Even if any equipment had exploded, it wouldn’t have produced enough power to vaporize an adult human, leaving only a few bits of skin and bone behind. None of the remains had been positively traced back to her brother. Even though she knew it was unhealthy to cling to false hope, even though he had been gone for five years now, Jenny couldn’t help but wonder if this homeless man had seen Kyle. She resolved to make her way to the ruins tomorrow night to find this man.
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