"Jenny's gonna love that," Plural said with a cackle.
The three were seated in Saturn's work van, which had three seats in the front. The young officer looked at her puzzled.
"Ahem… Nice to meet you, Circus," Plural coughed. "I'm Plural, and that's Saturn," she pointed her hand at the man in the driver's seat.
Saturn raised his hand to say hi. He stared out the windshield, deep in thought.
"Oh…" Circus replied from the outermost seat, darting her eyes back and forth between the two. "So, what's she like? Are you guys friends?"
"Hell yeah!" Plural answered in a surprisingly good mood.
Circus leaned forward to look past her and at Saturn.
"Are you and Jenny, y'know…"
Saturn was pulled out of his thoughts and his eye twitched. He'd been wondering if he hadn't crossed the line by grabbing her like that. Apparently, it was enough to give people weird ideas.
When he took too long to answer, Circus timed out and moved on.
"Does she have… y'know… working bits?" she asked him with the same curious expression.
When she talked so freely, she gave off the impression of a carefree and perhaps not-too-bright girl. Plural put her arm around the girl's shoulder and turned to Saturn with a teasing smile.
"Yeah, tell us."
"I don't think you're old enough to know, kiddo," he replied, keeping a cool face and turning the key to start the van.
The girl didn't really look much younger than they did. Plural gave off the most grown-up vibe of them all, but Circus must've been at least in her twenties.
Saturn took off and left the thrift store, and Circus continued to the next topic without correcting Saturn's comment.
"I immediately knew it wasn't the real Jenny in that photo," she said. "Last Saturday in the woods. The creature you guys encountered, did it ever touch Jenny?"
Saturn and Plural looked at each other, then nodded in response.
"You might wanna sit down for this…" Circus said, then cleared her throat.
Saturn and Plural both frowned, and Plural looked down at their seats.
"But false Jenny is actually the same creature!" Circus explained like it was some big revelation.
"We already know this, Sherlock," Saturn commented with one eyebrow raised.
"Oh…" Circus muttered, looking away from him.
"Jenny told us everything that happened," Plural explained. "She saw it transform. It's got all her powers."
"What else?" Circus asked with great curiosity.
Plural touched her chin and looked stumped.
"That's… all we know."
Circus regained her excitement.
"Then I've got something to show you!"
♦
Their next stop was at Circus' apartment, where a cat greeted them in the messy entrance hallway.
"Hi, Bulldozer!" she greeted the cat while struggling to take off her shoes.
Saturn and Plural gave each other a pensive look as they stood in the doorway, not quite far enough in to be able to close the door.
"Hey, aren't you, you know… in the middle of a shift?" Saturn asked her.
Circus, ever unoffended, looked back at him with a confident smile.
"Yeah," she said as she picked up the cat and walked into the living room.
Plural leaned in and whispered into Saturn's ear: "So are we!"
Jenny's two friends closed the front door and took off their shoes.
"Everyone's on the new Jenny case today, after the photo. But they're not looking where they should," Circus yelled from some other room, moving some items around and making noise.
When they stepped into the equally messy living room of the girl who clearly wasn't expecting visitors today, Circus waved at them from another room, beckoning them to come in.
In that room was a desk, a computer and a pinboard with stereotypically cut-out newspaper articles and printed-out webpages, connected by colored string. Circus gestured to the desk chair, but Plural decided to sit on the edge of the desk itself. Then, Circus smiled and turned her eyes to Saturn without breaking her gesture, so he took the seat instead.
So far, the young officer was being unexpectedly hospitable and sweet, making him feel bad about being rude to her in the van.
With her audience seated, Circus grabbed a stick and tapped against one of the articles that depicted some kind of monster.
"Recognize him?" she proudly asked.
"No," they said together.
"Oh…" she held the stick to her chest and disappointedly looked at the other articles like her whole presentation hinged on the success of this first bombshell.
And Saturn could tell. Much like Jenny, Circus' emotions were written all over her face.
"W-We couldn't get a look at it at all, though," he interrupted the silence. "Where'd you get it?"
Circus perked up again.
"Artist rendition! From ninety years ago!"
The other two exchanged curious looks.
"Ninety years ago? Seriously?"
"Uhuh!" Circus tapped the picture again with her stick. "What do you think?"
"Well," Plural spoke up, "all we could see were two dots for eyes, even after the fire went out."
"The fire went out?" a surprised Circus asked. "How'd you survive?"
"Jenny saved us," Plural explained. "She teleported us to the light, and… I guess it couldn't keep up."
Circus pressed her eyes shut and tightly grabbed her stick with both hands.
"I'm so jealous!"
Plural burst into laughter, and Saturn scratched his chin trying his best to hide his smug grin.
"How'd you become friends!?" Circus leaned forward and asked while still gripping her stick.
"Well," Plural leaned back with an amused smile on her face, "we met at work."
"Work!? Jenny works? Like, at an office?" Circus asked with great surprise.
"Yep!" Plural said happily. "And we got to talking during lunch, or…" she tapped Saturn's shoulder, causing him to look over. "This guy did. Then he introduced me."
A wide-eyed Circus turned her attention to Saturn.
"And you didn't have to get in line?"
"No," Saturn scratched his head and wondered the same thing. "I don't think Jenny has any other friends."
"Oh…" Circus uttered with an airheaded look in her eyes.
Once again, Saturn and Plural made eye contact, then turned back to the hostess.
"So, uh…" Saturn pointed at the remaining articles on the pinboard and spun his finger around, "whaddaya got there?"
Circus blinked and turned her head to the target of Saturn's finger, then let go of the tip of her stick and pressed it against the next item. And just like that, she returned to her presentation.
"There have been a number of missing person cases related to the woods, some of which are unsolved, and the bodies were never found, but I think…"
Tap, tap
"It's his doing," Circus concluded, then put her hands on her hips and leaned her head closer to her audience. "And you wanna know something?"
Saturn and Plural blinked and looked at her in anticipation.
"I think it's an eldritch god from another world!" Circus dramatically revealed.
"Sure."
"Of course."
The two were unimpressed in their reaction, so Circus moved on with unwavering dedication and tapped her stick on the next article. It looked like a hand-drawn infographic on the creature's powers.
"I believe that he needs to stay in the dark fog to survive, and like your campfire, light makes the fog go away!"
Saturn raised his hand, and Circus excitedly pointed the stick in his direction.
"Yes! Satty!"
"Whe—" he stuttered and twitched his eye, "where does he go during the day, then?"
"Back to his own world, probably."
"He can go back at will?"
"Well, he's gotta bring the dark fog from somewhere."
Saturn pressed his finger against his lower lip and squinted at the infographic.
"Huh," he uttered like the pieces were all coming together for him. "So, he really is an alien…"
A flustered Circus gripped her stick with both hands and held it by her thighs, "I just said that!"
Then, Plural raised her hand, causing Circus to blink and raise her stick at her other student.
"Y-Yes, P—"
"Why does any of this matter if it's walking around with Jenny's body? It sure doesn't seem weak to light anymore."
The two girls stared at each other with puzzled looks while Saturn rubbed his chin in agreement.
"I… don't know," Circus looked disheartened and turned to her pinned research that looked like it had taken a lot of effort to collect. "I didn't know it could do that until today…"
"Look," Saturn spoke up. "All that matters is we find a way to kill it. We're here to help Jenny."
"W-We are!" Circus perked up with renewed excitement.
Then, Plural giggled, prompting the other two to give her confused looks.
"What? Getting cold feet?" Saturn asked.
"No," Plural cackled, "I just…" and she leaned back and gave the other two a humble look. "Before I met Jenny, I just ignored all this weird stuff going on in the world. But now, here I am, helping her kill an… alien god…"
Saturn raised his eyebrows at her and gave her a smug smile, expecting a conclusion to her story.
"I guess it's kind of exciting," Plural concluded, leaning back on Circus' desk with a big smile on her face.
"I know, right?" Circus exclaimed, bending her stick back and forth in excitement.
"Maybe…" Plural put her finger to her lips and voiced her thoughts out loud. "Maybe it's just hiding inside its Jenny-shell, and if we could somehow pull it out, the sunlight will kill it."
"Pull it out…" Circus said, sounding overwhelmed. "Easier said than done. Jenny's invincible."
Plural hunched over and rested her chin on her hands.
"Right…"
"How did it copy her, anyway?" Circus asked. "Did you see?"
Saturn turned to Plural, who spent some time with Jenny alone this morning.
"She didn't really say," Plural explained. "Jenny was in turtle mode all morning, then went to sleep when I plugged her in."
"Turtle mode?" Saturn remarked, and Plural shrugged in response.
Circus was tapping the end of her stick in her hand, and her face contorted into a naughty smile.
"Why don't we just ask her in person?"
♦
After that, the three went to the police station where Jenny was taken. There, Circus resumed her duties while Saturn and Plural showed up to officially visit Jenny. Together, they were allowed to talk to Jenny in an interrogation room.
"Her name is Circus-Benz!" Plural excitedly told Jenny.
Jenny stared at the girl in question with positive wonder in her eyes while Circus gave her police ID an embarrassed glare.
There were no other police officers in the room with them. Just a single table with an uncuffed Jenny sitting obediently at one end, and Saturn and Plural seated at the other. Circus stood at the side of the table with a pen and notepad.
"So," Saturn leaned forward, glancing at Circus, then turning to Jenny. "Does that mean she's good to join the Sparkle Squad?"
Jenny slammed her fists on the table and nodded aggressively, and Circus almost teared up at the honor.
"I won't disappoint you, ma'am!" she said while performing a salute.
"P-Please don't call me that," Jenny said while holding up her hands in front of her. "We're all friends here. Call me Jenny, or Jen."
Friends… friends… friends…
Call me Jenny…
Jen… Jen…
These words echoed through Circus' head like she was scared she'd forget them, enough to make her have to wipe away a tear.
Meanwhile, Plural leaned back in her chair and rested her feet on the table.
"We need the deets, Jen. The beans, spilled. Pants down."
Jenny looked at her in confusion.
"Pan—"
"We've got two problems to solve," Saturn got up from his chair and interrupted Jenny. "One is you're a homicide suspect, the other is your doppelganger still walking around freely. I think they have a similar solution. We need to prove that you and the faker are two different people, preferably by killing it."
Jenny stared at him, starstruck.
"W-What?" he asked her.
Jenny looked at her hands on her lap, opened her mouth to say something, then changed her mind and closed it again.
"C'mon, spit it out…" he said with a frown.
"I just…" Jenny looked flustered and wiggled in her seat. "I didn't think this was a 'we' problem…"
"Cute…" Plural said with a grin, still sitting back in her chair.
"Well, you'd better start. Plu and I already told you, we're a part of this now," Saturn said with his arms crossed and eyes closed.
He opened one eye to look at Circus, who had a sort of "pick me!" look in her eyes.
"And so is the new girl," he added, smiling at her.
Jenny didn't object, and instead wiggled in her seat, looking happy and humbled.
Then, Plural took her feet off the table and sat on her chair normally. "Back to spilling beans…" she put her arms on the table and turned to Circus. "New girl?"
"Ah!" Circus took the cue and sifted through the pages of her notepad. "What happened when it transformed into you?"
Jenny put her finger on her chin.
"I hit it with the lights from the car."
The others raised their eyebrows, and Circus slammed her hands on the table.
"What happened to it? Didn't it work?" she asked like she was really interrogating Jenny.
Jenny sprung back in her seat and raised her arms in defense. She looked like she accepted Circus' dominance and played along.
"I couldn't see, but it got squishier, until it changed into me," she said. "I guess I should've crushed it with my hands when I had the chance."
"You were strangling it!?" Circus asked her in disbelief.
"Yeah…"
"Jen, you were about to strangle an eldritch god to death!" Plural sat up straight.
"Haha, maybe… I guess so…" Jenny rubbed the back of her head like she'd just been praised into the heavens.
The rest didn't look so amused.
"So, what do we do, then?" Saturn asked. He looked at Circus, like she was the creature expert.
"I don't know…" Circus said with a stumped look on her face, then turned to Jenny. "How do we… defeat you?"
Jenny's expression went serious.
"I've thought about that."
The others looked at her with great anticipation.
"We have to make it run out of charge," Jenny explained with an uncomfortable look. "How we dispose of it after that doesn't matter. We'll have all the time in the world to think of something."
The others shared brief eye contact like they thought it was a good idea.
"Anyway…" Jenny continued, "I'd personally throw it into the sun."
Plural, stunned, blinked her eyes and stuttered. "Y-You can fly into space?"
"I don't love it." Saturn ignored his friend and moved on. "You wouldn't be able to see it die. With this thing, you can't be too sure."
"There's no other way…" Jenny frowned.
"Have you been before?" Circus interjected. "To the sun?"
"No…"
"Do you even have enough energy to do that and get back?" Plural asked with newfound amazement.
"I have something for that," Jenny continued. "An item that can bring me back to a full charge in an instant. I'll need it if I'm going to wear it down without running out of charge myself." She pointed at one of the security cameras on the ceiling. "I can't leave this place to show you right now, though."
"What if it shows up again?" Circus asked.
Jenny held up her phone.
"Give me a call and tell me where, I'll come right away."
"They let you keep that?" Circus asked in surprise.
"They tried to take it," Jenny replied with a sassy look, "let's just say they didn't want it badly enough."
Saturn was the first to get up.
"I need to go home first, to my PC, so I can track its location."
The others gave him a surprised look.
"You have a tracker?" Circus asked.
"I thought that didn't work," Plural commented.
"I… told you guys," Saturn tried to argue. "Y'know, I just gotta…" he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the exit.
"Let's go then!" Plural stood up from her seat. "This'll be over by the end of today. What are you gonna do, Jen?"
Jenny stared at the empty table and looked deep in thought.
"I need to get my hands on the item before I engage it, but I can't get out of here unless we can clear my name."
"Leave it to us!" Circus saluted her once more.
Jenny blushed and rubbed her cheek with her finger, then turned to Saturn.
"Let me know if you can get a location," she said with a confident smile, "I'll drag it in front of the cameras if I have to."
Saturn smiled and gave his own salute. "Yes ma'am."
"No!" Jenny put her fists on the table and pouted.