As a testament to Rose's stubborn little-girl determination, a good portion of this week proves to be an experiment. Rose visits Memorial Park. Several times.

Monday.
She visits in the morning. The lady with the cotton candy booth is in the process of setting up. Rose goes through the routine of buying cotton candy. The woman doesn't show any evidence of remembering past traumas. Three goons in trench coats show up not long after. Rose's attempt to persuade her to move her stand elsewhere isn't any more successful than last time. Rose leaves. She hears cries of "Bash!" "Smash!" "Crash!" - and screams.

Rose comes back later in the afternoon. The area is cordoned off; some police are present. Obviously, a rampage went on here. The trash dumpster is battered caved in on one side, far from its original location. Most of the street lights are down - or sticking up from the ground after being used as improvised projectiles. Park benches are shattered. People nearby excitedly talk about some mutants going berserk, and "What is this city coming to?" as if this wasn't something that happens every day. Later on, Rose checks back, bringing a sack lunch and her knitting supplies; she finds a nice spot in part of the park that wasn't torn up or yellow-taped off. A couple of cops are there for a while, and then they leave. A few people come by on occasion to gawk at the yellow tape and the signs of destruction, but nothing special happens. Rose knits up some new "arm guards" for Vixa - black, of course - while watching for signs of anything special. Nothing happens. She heads back to Scars's place, to use his sewing machine, and work some more on a new (black) costume for Vixa.

Tuesday.
Rose spends the morning working on Vixa's new coat, then heads out to visit Memorial Park around lunchtime, with a bag lunch. The park is back to "normal". The lady with the cotton candy booth is there. Rose goes through the black cotton candy routine. Again, the three trench coat goons show up. Same routine. Rose leaves. She hears sounds of commotion in the distance. She feels a vague headache, but it's not terribly strong.

Rose comes back later in the evening. There's yellow tape, the area is blocked off, and so forth. People nearby buzz excitedly about mutants going berserk, and Rose hears the same person make the same comment: "What is this city coming to?" But it's evening now, not afternoon like last time. Same people, same dialogue, different time of day. Rose hangs around. Eventually, the police leave. People wander off. Rose doesn't see any evidence of anyone coming to clean up the mess. Rose leaves the park area, and heads across the street. On the second floor of a nearby office building, there's a "Mr. Coffee" house that's open 24 hours a day. She heads up there and finds that it's at a higher floor, with a good view of the park. She stays there a long time, knitting and stitching, and the sky gets darker. Still, nobody shows up. She stays there for quite some time, well into the evening. Nothing changes. The park isn't terribly well-lit, since many of the lamp posts got used for weapons, so Rose can't very well see what's going on - if anything. So, Rose heads on down to the park, to find some spot to hide and observe, though she can't get much knitting or stitching done in the dark. She waits and waits and waits.

She dozes off.

Rose wakes with a start ... and she groggily realizes that the yellow "crime scene" tape and "caution" barricades are gone. There are no craters. The trash dumpster is back where it's supposed to be, no more scuffed up than she's ever seen it "pre-rampage". There's the lawnmower sitting beside a fence. There's no cotton candy booth - apparently because the cotton candy vendor hasn't come to set it up yet? And there's nobody in the park at all, save for Rose. Rose rushes back over to the coffee shop and checks the time. It's just a little after midnight. Rose waits a while, watching from the coffee shop. Nothing happens. Eventually, though, Rose finds herself nodding off so often that she heads out, back to Scars's place.

Wednesday.
Rose arrives in the afternoon, since she slept in late. Surprisingly, the park is already torn up. The dumpster is battered, there are large ruts in the ground, and some scorch marks. An area is marked off with yellow tape and caution barricades, and there are some police present. However, the cotton candy booth is still intact, although the lady has moved out of the "battle zone" and closer to the street. When Rose goes through the black-cotton-candy routine, the vendor is less calm than when they usually go through this sequence. The vendor explains that some mutants showed up and started tearing up the park, but that an "angel" appeared - a woman with mechanical wings, anyway. This "angel lady" duked it out with the mutants, using her flying ability to keep clear of their attacks (though they flung just about every large object in the park at her as projectiles). It was a long and drawn out battle, and the police showed up. The mutants started throwing police cars, but finally they were defeated - whereupon the "angel" flew away, and the police called in backup and carted off the mutants.

Rose hangs out in the non-cordoned-off section of the park, and eats her sack lunch. She does some more knitting and stitching. Nothing happens. Eventually, evening comes; the cotton candy lady closes up her booth, and rolls it over to a car, where she rolls it up into a little trailer on the back. The lady secures it, waves to Rose, then drives off. It gets dark. Nothing happens; nothing changes. This time, not all of the lamp posts have been torn up, and the park is at least partially lit, so Rose heads to the coffee house to watch. Time passes. Rose keeps checking, watching for some sign of strangeness, though not exactly sure what she's looking for. Some teenagers show up at one point, and there's some horsing around and revving of car engines, but then they head off. No mutants arrive to cause any further trouble. It nears midnight. Nothing happens. Rose glances at the clock. It's midnight. She looks back out the window.

The yellow tape is gone. The park is back to normal. Rose gets a massive headache, and heads "home" to Scars's place, to get some aspirin and some sleep.

Thursday.
Rose arrives again in the afternoon, since she slept in late. This time, however, she heads straight to the coffee house, staying well clear of the park itself. This time, there's no sign of trouble. It's "park as normal" again - and the cotton candy vendor is there. Rose passes the time by knitting and stitching, for a couple of hours, and nothing happens. Apparently, just watching from the coffee house isn't enough to entice the mutants to pop up. Alas, Rose doesn't see any obvious superheroes show up to test her theories further.

At last, Rose heads on down to visit the cotton candy vendor, to see if she might possibly remember anything at all. The vendor volunteers no evidence of remembering that anything bad has happened recently. One oddity, though: when Rose asks for some cotton candy, rather than asking what color Rose wants, the vendor fixes up a batch of "black" cotton candy, and starts to hand Rose the cone - then she blinks and stares at the dark cotton candy. The vendor blushes and apologizes profusely that she didn't know what she was doing, and seems quite rattled. Of course, it's what Rose wanted anyway, so she gets it regardless, which only confuses the vendor even more for a moment ... until she shakes it off. When Rose goes back to asking about the day before, the vendor looks pained for a moment, complains of having a headache, and then changes the topic. When the topic of headaches comes up, Rose realizes that she doesn't have one herself, though given her earlier experiences this week on the "stakeout", she has this strange, inexplicable, nagging feeling that she ought to be suffering from one. Then, before she has any more time to reflect on this, three mutants in trench coats show up. Mayhem ensues. Rose takes her cotton candy and leaves..

Friday.
On a whim, Rose shows up after sunset, and watches from the coffee house. It's way too late for the cotton candy vendor to be there. So, not surprisingly, she's not. It doesn't look like anybody has "triggered" the mutants into showing up, because all the lights are working, there are no craters, and things look just fine. Rose notices that the lawnmower isn't there; someone must have actually put it away. There are some teenagers hanging around, with a couple of "hot rod" cars nearby.

As part of Rose's further investigation, she walks over to take a closer look at things ... and then, three mutants show up. It looks like there's going to be trouble. She leaves. Rose can hear that they perform pretty much the same routine, tearing things up, though the cotton candy booth isn't there to serve as a projectile at this time of night. (Instead, a couple of "hot rods" serve much the same purpose, except that - once so used - they explode dramatically in a way that cotton candy booths generally don't.)

Rose heads back to Scars's place to take a nap, setting the alarm to give her ample time to head back to the park before midnight. She comes back, and, sure enough, the park is all torn up, and there are some flashing lights from police cars on the scene, yellow tape, barricades, and so forth. Rose sets up in the coffee house. It's getting closer to midnight. Rose asks one of the clerks if he would please tell her when it's midnight. She stares out the window and watches. Nothing happens.

After a while the clerk says, "Oh! It's ... uh ... sorry for forgetting. It's 5 after midnight."

Rose keeps staring. Nothing changes. Rose's eyes are getting dry. She blinks. Nothing happens. She blinks a few more times. It looks like some of the police are about to head out, but otherwise the scene looks unchanged. After a while, she looks away briefly to chance a glance at the clock. It's 1:32 am. She quickly looks back, hardly a second later ... and the police cars are gone, the yellow tape is gone, the craters are gone - the park is back to normal.

By this time, Rose feels terribly exhausted, so she heads back to Scars's place to get some sleep. Once she gets back, though, she first has a gift for Vixa. She sneaks up on the sleeping vixenish alien, and carefully lays out, nearby, a new outfit for her - a black "trenchcoat" with loose fishnet sleeves, and a pair of black knitted "arm guards". Then, she curls up, and resolves to sleep until noon.

Tune in next time, as we see what our other heroes were up to in ... Superior City!