The first place to check was, obviously, the Destiny City Library. Tate didn't really keep up with the news--although since deciding to look into the origins of this whole senshi-negaverse thing she'd taken out a few subscriptions. It put a dent in her grocery money, but she figured this was important enough. If she was lucky, she could get her uncle to reimburse her. She was always hearing about how she should be a more active and involved citizen, anyway. The new subscriptions didn't ease the pressing problem, though, which was: She needed to read things from 2008. Actually, 2009, if she could swing it, and the internet said her local public library should have the information she wanted.

Police blotters. She didn't remember a whole lot about how things had escalated--as she recalled, one day they (the senshi) were an urban legend and the next they were a fact. Still, it was common sense to start on the police blotter. Any public disturbance, like the giant centipede monster she'd encountered, would have gone on the blotter. Which was a matter of public record, right? Completely accessible by Citizen John Q Public. (Or Joan Q Public, as the case might be.)

Still, it was a trial. She got into the microfiche room all right--once a newspaper was no longer current, they evidently put it on these little pieces of film that you had to look at on this stupid little projector thing. The words were too tiny for her to make out what each page said; it meant a lot of time spent going painstakingly through each slide. It meant anyone with eyes could see what she was doing, too, but who would care? There were plenty of reasons for people to spend their evenings sitting on the table in a back room at the library, looking at old police blotters and taking notes.

The problem was--the biggest problem--that it took ages. Ages and ages and ages. Tate was a part-time student and worked two jobs; she didn't have a lot of free time. Well, she wasn't very social so it wasn't like she was missing out on much; her housemate was generally busy, too, so no one would really noticed her increased level of… of…

What would you even call it, anyway? Not staying in her room and sleeping constantly? It was easy to do her homework while she sat and clicked through slide after endless slide until she couldn't keep her eyes open. Easier that she could just thrust Wolframite and Giselle and all her friendships to the back of her mind. She'd seen him on a television broadcast--the disguise was good, but not that good, and he was so distinctive with the eyepatch. It wasn't weakness to admit she had teared up, seeing that. Wolframite forcing that newscaster to her knees and what happened after…

Tate coughed, cleared her throat and rubbed her eyes. It figured, of course. Everyone left her--everyone, always. And that's how it would always be. Parker seemed pretty constant, but even he'd disappeared and she maintained no notions that she was his number one concern. If he had to choose between Dani and her, it'd be Dani in an instant. She sighed, tapped her pencil against her thigh. The blotter for mid-August 2010 popped up--she noted the date and slide number, then sighed. The usual mysterious comas… a few public disturbances, reports of a flaming tiger and a burning convenience store. Disappearances.

It was slow going, what she was doing. But it would pay off--wouldn't it?

Deep breath, she told herself; she rubbed her sternum with her knuckles and set her pencil back to paper. Keep working, she thought. Work makes it okay not to think. Right then, she just wanted to not have to think.

Still, there wasn't much she could do. Tate was no Commissioner Gordon and the superheroes in this case were not Batman. With the civilian death toll, anyway, things were just insane. And if the senshi or Negaversers were Batman, well, things would be different. Someone would be successful enough to put a dent in these numbers, wouldn't they? Fewer attacks, fewer deaths.

Although… She flipped back in her notebook. There was an abrupt change in the police reports in November… but before she could parse exactly what it was, a librarian peeked in to tell her the library was to close in ten minutes. With a regretful look, she shut off the slides for the night and packed everything up. She'd figure it out, she told herself. She just needed time.