‘Mocha Haearnn.’

 

Aurora cross-referenced the name more specifically against the names of the kids who were abused back at Padua.  No result.

 

Hmmm… Aurora turned her attention to the other files and picked out some of the schools using the extension program.  Having done so, this time a small list of schools came up.

 

Why would this name pull these results?  Aurora rubbed her chin and tilted her head thoughtfully.  Where was this clue leading her? Would it take her to the hacker who’d been behind the Extensive Enterprises foob?

 

Thinking it through, she attempted another cross-check, comparing the name Mocha Haearnn against lists of faculty and students in the schools that came up.  Running the search was a simple matter, because this computer was tied into the Sentinel’s supercomputer across their network, even considering how many names it had to go through, the results were interesting.

 

She found that a student named Mocha Haearnn had been registered at San Isidro’s prep school, Six Bells Academy. It was back in March of this year, but also this same student had also been registered last year at Crosby High School which was near Six Bells.

 

Checking the file, Aurora discovered that it was created in March as expected, but the date on the file was a day before the student was registered with Six Bells. Were these records forged?

 

How much more information can I scratch up on this Mocha Haearnn? Aurora decided to read everything she could get on her.

 

At Six Bells, she was registered by a ‘Harlan Haearnn’ and the bills were being paid by a ‘Megan McCall’. Both parents declined coming to the one parent-teacher meeting.  She was pulled out by Harlan at the end of the previous school year, and she was entered into Crosby at the same grade she was registered with at Six Bells.  Her student ID photo was attached to the Crosby High student record. In both records, she was listed as being fifteen.

 

Aurora’s lips twisted as she stared at the IDs.  Could someone be so audacious as to leave such a huge trail of crumbs to follow?  She’d have to find out more about this Mocha.  How could she find out what this person was doing at this moment? Did she still go to Crosby? She frowned, deciding to call up Chuntao to see if she had any resources she could call on.

 

Dialing her favorite reporter, the line rang a few times, but she was connected with a voicemail. 

 

Aurora giggled softly. “Hiya, Chuntao. Just calling you to thank you for your articles. Thanks to them, I’ve been able to make substantial progress in the case I’m currently working on.  One of your readers wanted to know if you were as earnest as you seemed. I told him you absolutely are. I wanted to let you know that a fan of yours loves your articles so much he felt compelled to help me.” Aurora grinned. “Anyhow, it’s too much to expect you to be available any time I call, so take care and I’ll talk to you when you’d like.  Byebye!”

 

Hanging up, Aurora leaned back in the chair, clasping her hands.  Where to go, next? She’d passed on everything she had, and Midnight Avenger would surely find everything she already had.  She decided to carefully leave a memo on the computer that would point to the connections, just in case she forgot. It was for herself, but it was also to point someone in her direction if she ended up neck-deep in trouble.  Finally, she disconnected from the network and slipped out from the base.

 

Heading up the secret tunnel, she suppressed her luminosity as low as possible as she swooped up into the skies and headed home via a circumspect route.  When she landed, she suppressed her shimmering when she reverted to her normal form and dashed across the dark moon-kissed lawn to her softly-lit home.

 

When the door opened, Goonie looked over her shoulder and grinned broadly at Leona. “My hero.  Come on over here for a hug,” her voice was lightly teasing and playful. “Stop a lot of more crime?”

 

Aurora giggled and walked over after closing the door and bolting it to huggle her Goonie. “Not this time. It was actually just more information gathering. There were a few clues I needed to chase down, and for that I needed a usb port and the Sentinel Network.” Smiling thoughtfully, Leona sat beside Goonie and leaned back against the cushioned backrest. “Now, I have a few leads to follow tomorrow.”

 

Goonie wagged her finger at Leona. “Don’t miss school.” She chided her daughter with a smile.

 

Leona flushed and laughed. “I know. As long as there aren’t any emergencies, I won’t have to miss any, but I think I’ll need to have a little chat with Kirby on my way to school tomorrow,” the little superheroine-in-disguise mused.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Goonie teased Leona in a faux-skeptical tone, “that often turns into ‘but mom, there was a fire!’”

 

They laughed about it for a good while and Leona shifted over into Goonie’s lap and they watched shows for a while. When Leona started nodding off, Goonie shook her daughter and sent her to bed to get some rest.

 

Agreeing instantly, Leona headed upstairs and laid in bed. Sleep came a bit slower now that she was trying, so she stretched her muscles and snuggled against her soft sheets. Overall, she felt good about today for the most part, because she’d gotten a lot of exercise and accomplished a lot.

 

She was out cold soon enough after curling up in breezy sheets.

It felt like no time had passed at all before her alarm claxxoned, and Leona groggily kicked the sheets down enough to slap her alarm.  Her goonie allowed her no respite, however, because there was a firm pounding on her daughter’s door to foil her attempt to snooze.

 

“Wake up, Leona. Breakfast’s ready downstairs!”

 

Grumbling, Leona uttered a response she couldn’t remember and crawled out of bed, still heavy with tiredness and as quickly as she could manage, she got ready for her new day.  She hadn’t dragged so much in quite some time, but she managed to make herself pretty and presentable and had a couple of extra minutes, no less.

After spending the extra time savoring her auntie’s breakfast, she got up and stretched from the dining table.  Goonie gave her a kiss on her child’s cheek as she again took on the duty of clearing the dishes, on top of preparing a sumptuous and healthy meal. “

 

You owe me a few dishwashing sessions one of these days, but I’ll cover you again today, since you want to talk to your police friend, so you should get going over there in case there’s a fire, right?”

 

Aurora laughed softly. “Right.” She decided to not trouble her Auntie with how rundown she felt today.  It was probably nothing, but she was kind of drained.

 

“See you later, Mom.” Aurora smiled warmly and shouldered the pack she kept by her chair while she ate and headed out to the usual place to transform and from there into the cerulean sky.  Her backpack disappeared as usual after she transformed, just as her clothes did, which more than helped with hiding her identity.

 

Dropping the name Mocha Haearnn onto Detective Kirby might get her more information, if she was lucky.  She dialed him on her communicator and he answered with as much cheeriness as he could muster, “Kirby.”

 

“Hi, my friend!  I might have a lead to look into.  Would you run some checks on Mocha Haearnn, that’s H-A-E-A-R-N-N, and see what you can scrounge up on her?” Aurora asked.

 

“Huh… hello to you too.  That’s a sure weird name, certainly.  It sounds familiar, somehow,” Kirby mused. “I’ll look into her and let you know what I find. Roll Call’s in about ten minutes. Any other information you’ve got on these robots?”

 

“Nothing at all, I’m afraid.  All I’ve got is this name. It came from some data I found over at Extensive Enterprises.  I think the name’s related to the Mr. Mechanical case.  Whatever you can find out about Mocha will be helpful.”

 

Kirby responded mockingly, “Okay, I’ll be in touch. Enjoy your job, or whatever. We police are going to be stuck at desks for the day, and babysitting robots, thanks to you.”

 

Aurora chuckled softly. “I’ll certainly try.” She disconnected and sped up to reach school.

 

Winging her way towards the school, she headed down to her regular changing location in the shed and rushed out to where she customarily met her friends.  This time, however, they were waiting for Leona.  Maybe she was more tired than she realized.  She didn’t think she was exactly dragging her feet today, but Sarah was already talking by the gate and other students were pouring through them and into the school.

 

“I bet we can get the school to go in for it, come on, what do you say? We can form a club for Aurora, and it’ll be an excuse to hang out afterschool, and maybe we can get her to visit the school, or something…”

 

“Hell yes!” Derrick bellowed.  He was there too, clearly.  His voice was like a tuba, as usual.

 

“Eh, whatever gets you away from those ‘rents of yours,” Maria offered noncommittally. 

 

Leona headed over and waved with both hands. “Wow! A fan club, really?” Smiling, she tried hard to suppress a conspicuous blushing. “I’m sure that Aurora would appreciate your support, but more importantly, Sarah, how are you doing today?” Leona took Sarah’s hands, but Sarah grinned broadly and threw her girlfriend’s hands away and caught her in a super tight hug.

“I’m fine.  Kinda giddy today!” Sarah purred as she squeezed Leona. “How was your day, yesterday?” She leaned to her beloved’s ear and whispered, giving it a little nibble as she nuzzled.

 

Derrick and Maria chuckled and laughed, turning away to mostly give the two lovebirds some privacy, though they were becoming used to Sarah’s open displays of affection.  They stayed close to provide some cover.

 

Leona was feeling rundown, and Sarah full of energy.