Yue

 28th January

12:47 GMT -5

"…similar incidents of arson." Kaldur's team has had worse luck than we have. "Cornwall Boy is attempting to determine the form of magic used."

Left hand to my left ear, I look around the blasted street. Mr Quinn is now standing on what's left of the upper floor of the massage parlour, trying to gain a thorough reading on the magics still present in the building. Fire doesn't just burn things. When it comes to magical traces even normal fire has an unfortunate habit of 'purifying' things. The forensics team had already removed samples of Devil Jizz, but the shrine's gone. And I doubt very much that its destruction matters as far as Ms Bowen's pact is concerned, but without a trace on Triskele actually doing anything about it just got that much harder.

"Doctor Fate confirmed my belief that we were dealing with conjured fire. If it's the same person attacking each site, getting a read on the magic will actually be quite hard. He'll-."

"The point at which the conjuration occurred will be the only place where the magic can be felt."

I nod. "The person I saw was about a mile up. Female, and… Either blonde, or they had a fiery corona around their head. Didn't get time to really focus on them."

"Make that another place."

"Robin, what have you found?"

"Someone's burned down a circle forty feet wide in the Shenandoah National Park. I guess that explains why Tempest had trouble finding it. Hold on."

"Orange Lantern, are you aware of any fire-using metahumans in this part of America?"

"No. But I've sent a message to Vincent Edge at the Alliance in case they know something I don't. Flight and fire isn't a particularly rare combination. A competent magic user could probably manage both."

"An Atlantean could not."

"I'm not… Sure. How many Atlanteans experiment with fire magic on the surface? Atlanteans learn enough general theory that I'd be surprised if they couldn't make it work."

"It is not that simple. The magic used to enable us to live beneath the waves makes it difficult for us to use spells associated with other classical elements."

I frown. "Even for Purebloods?"

"If anything, they are affected more strongly."

"Guys, we.. may have another problem. Whoever burned the forest left a message. They.. burned an 'S' into the ground."

"They're not doing the crazy Gotham clue-leaving thing, are they?"

"No, an 'S' as in 'Superman'."

"In a shield?"

"No, on its own."

"The Kryptonian character doesn't just mean 'Superman'. It can be a reference to House El more generally, or in isolation mean 'hope' or 'resurrection'."

"None of those really fit a demon cult."

"Resurrection might. Thana and I have been pretty clear about what happens to someone who dies without making afterlife provisions. There are demons who are prepared to release people from Hell, if the price is right."

"No, that still doesn't make sense. Why would they use the Kryptonian letter, rather than runes or diagrams?" He pauses for a moment. "Can Kryptonians use magic?"

"According to Har-Zod, if they can, no magic tradition survived to the modern era. But he didn't have good information on Earth. We have a far more thaumically active environment than Krypton did. But I don't think that any of the kryptonians on Earth know enough about magic to make the attempt."

"Oh El, how many kryptonians-" I wince. "-are there on Earth?"

"One more than most people know about, but I doubt that they were involved. They wouldn't be this sloppy. And I don't believe that they know anything about magic."

"Could they know someone who does?"

"During my one conversation with them, they were emphatic about not wanting contact with anyone who knew their identity. And as far as I could see, their only real desire was to live out their life in peace. Getting involved with a demon would be radically out of character."

Richard goes quiet for a moment. "Do kryptonians go to Heaven?"

"They probably can, but I doubt that kryptonians are there rather than in their own afterlife at the moment. If someone was trying to resurrect a kryptonian then they would probably have to go to the Rao system and try there."

"I do not believe that there is any purpose in investigating a single symbol burned into the forest, especially when the symbol is so well known." I nod at Kaldur's conclusion. "Orange Lantern, continue to aid the police in investigating the women you have in custody. Robin, do you have any further leads to follow?"

"Yeah, I'm going to see if I can track down the people who came out here. They might just have been here to get high, but if there are any kind of long term effects to being exposed to Hell Juice we need to find them. How's your investigation going?"

"The fires have destroyed any physical evidence. We are now here in case the police require our assistance with combating DMN users."

"And whoever's creating the fires. I'll contact you again if Fate finds anything. Orange Lantern out."

I lower my hand, then fly over to Mr Quinn. Seeing me coming, he flies up toward where I saw our attacker.

"I have found nothing but Aquagirl's magic. I can only hope that the fire caster left a trace I can find."

"If we had to fight Triskele, what are our chances?"

"She slew an archangel in single combat during the War in Heaven. But she has marinated in hellish magic since then. If Angelica is with us, I am confident we will prevail." He stops in the air. "If we can bring her onto the Earth."

"And if we can't?"

Mr Quinn looks down, and judging us far enough away from any listeners he abandons Nabu's speech pattern. "Then we'll have to go back into Hell and talk someone into telling us where she is. Or wait until her deal runs out." He raises his hands. "Now. Let's see if I can talk the light into showing me what that woman who tried setting us on fire looked like."

Golden lights twinkle around his hands, then coalesce in the air in front of him in the vague shape of a woman. He points his hands at it and the image comes more into focus. Shoulder length hair, slim arms and legs, generous bust with relatively narrow hips. More prominent cheekbones than Kara. Midriff-baring t-shift, short skirt, face…

"Ring, search databases for a facial match."

"No close match found."

Drat. "Is that a cape?"

"Yeah."

"Demon hunting vigilante?" He shrugs. "Can you add colour?"

"I'll try."

He rotates his hands, and… Blotches of colour appear over the still sharp image. I.. think she was wearing a female superman costume. The t-shirt is blue and the red blob is in the right place for an 'S'. The skirt is red, as are the boots which Kara wouldn't be caught dead in. Still isn't Kara herself. Was someone.. trying to pretend that Kara was going on a killing spree? That would be stupid if they were. Even Lex Luthor hasn't tried something like that in years. People aren't quite stupid enough to believe that a costumed hero is going to suddenly turn on people for no reason, not when most costumes aren't hard to copy.

Mr Quinn lowers his hands and the image fades. "Good enough?"

"I'll let the police know. Something.. very strange is going on here."