Juvie/Storyline/It's a Wonderful Meta-life
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
Chapter 1
What-if, What Might, What Will!
Juvie had superjump, and Manticore didn’t, but Juvie still had to hustle to keep up with his new mentor. With his legs aching, arms pumping, and breathe burning, they sculled from rooftop to rooftop, dodging from Brickstown, up Independence Port, through Kings Row, and over the canopy of Perez Park to the Skyway gate. Manticore didn’t take the train.
“So, you think it isn’t worth it? You’re just going to give up?” Juvie almost didn’t hear him; Manticore was already springing to the next roof.
“Wha?” huff, huff, gulp, “… att…. attack problem… from a…. different… make a difference…want… to… do… something…”
“You don’t think you’re doing anything? You don’t think you’re making a difference?” Again, Manticore started the sentence atop one skyscraper and ended it atop another a block away, but the sound of anger was easy to hear.
“….no….” huff, huff, spit, “… not... you don’t understand.’
Manticore stopped and turned, making Juvie twist his body in mid-air resulting in an off balance landing in order to keep from landing on him. “Don’t tell me what I do and don’t understand. You’re weak, Juvie. Weak, stupid, and selfish, and you're worse then the all the others because you wont admit it to yourself. You want to leave the dodgers, over what, an argument? Stupid!” Manticore poked Juvie in the forehead. “Your stupid and lazy, and I don’t have the time for either.”
Juvie’s legs gave out, forcing him to kneel while puffing into the ground. “Not just an argument… just need… just feel like I’m not making any difference to anyone.”
Manticore looked down at his protégé. A list checking off in his head… out of shape, relies on powers too much, no control over temper, wont except responsibility for mistakes, wont allow for failure, thinks saying “I’m sorry” solves problems, he’s angry, he’s afraid, he’s terrified… he’s 14 years old. Manticore took a knee beside Juvie and pulled a small glowing blue pill from his belt. “Here, take one of these, it’s a blood-oxygen stimulant, it will help you catch your breath.” Manticore watched as Juvie took the pill. Immediately, a light blue glow filtered through his skin while his breath became even.
“I’ve been to places, Juvie.” Manticore’s voice became low the drill sergeant was now gone. “To other earths. When Portal Corp opened, I….”
Juvie let out a lung of air. Closing his eyes, he began the breath control exorcises Manticore taught him. The silence stretched on as Juvie waited for his teacher to continue his sentence. He knew to keep quiet when Manticore was like this.
“…I was curious. In our business, we seek answers to questions, and there are answers to be gained out there, answers to questions starting with what-if, and what might, and more important, what will. I’ve encountered…” Manticore stiffened and looked around for a moment, like he had heard something. Time stretched on, cooling the sweat under Juvie’s jacket. Manticore moved closer to Juvie, his voice a low, camp-side whisper… “Your friend, Felicity, in one world, I found that she had become a Dark Martyr, killing others so that she, herself could be saved. On another, Jack Travers had become a monster called Curfew, who hides in the gloom of Astoria by day and terrorizes Talos at night, feeding on anyone who’s caught out on the streets after dark... especially the children. There was one world, where Royal had grown to become a Queen, I only escaped because I tricked her into ordering me to go, otherwise, Id be there now, a member of her twisted court as a drone, just a slave to her bidding. On another earth, Jacob Woe owned our souls and used them for his own perverse pleasures; there was no escape, not even in death. And, on one world, the worst of all… there, everyone slept while ghostly figures tended to their needs. When I went to find out how this had happened, I met a gray elf named Alfar, who spoke to me… he said… he could make all my dreams come true.”
Far below, a lonely bakery truck made its rounds.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because, in each of these worlds, each and every one I visited, there were too things in common. One, Emily, your Princess, was dead...”
Juvie choked...
“…and you Tom, you’d given up.”
Manticore stood, “End of lesson. Go home.” And with a flash of teleport energy, he was gone.
For a moment, Juvie thought the flash had blinded him. Then he realized, he’d closed his eyes and didn’t want to open them. He was crying.
"Hullo, my covey! What's the row?" The accent was spot on, but it wasn’t a boy’s voice.
Juvie opened his eyes, wiped the water from his cheeks, smearing his paint. A man in a smart pressed Arachnos uniform leaned against a fire door, long hair framing an angelic face with a devil’s smirk.
“Who are you?”
The man sighed, abandoning the accent. “Oliver, don’t be so boring. That naive innocent look might fly with your troop, but not with me. I’ve had that act down for years.”
“Ok, Sands.” Juvie stood, setting his claws, “So, ya read, Dickens. Did you wanna’ start a book club or somethin’?”
Sands’ disregard for Juvie was evident.
“Quiet a story he told you, believe him?”
“Yeah.” Juvie made three steps in his direction, raising his claws.
“So do I.”
Juvie was within striking distance. Just… one… more… step to be sure.
“If I was a threat to you, do you think Manticore would have lead you to me?”
Juvie paused and looked around for the first time. They had ended their patrol in Overbrook.
“Told him I had something for you, here.” Sands pulled a small chip from within his glove.
“What is it?”
“Answers, to what will be. Jack, Bradley, Dustin and others… your doctor won’t achieve any results without this information.”
“You’re going to give it to me. Just like that? ”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re going to give me something.”
“Forget it.”
Juvie turned, stepped to the roof’s ledge, set himself and…
“…Seen Huck lately?”
Juvie teetered on the ledge, arms waving as he stumbles back onto the roof.
“Well, that seems to have gotten your attention. You disappoint me, Tom, I thought I’d have to…”
Juvie slowly turned.
Sands pressed himself up against the fire door. Tom was known for out bursts of anger, Sands planed on using that temper, but this… this… this wasn’t in Tom Cooper’s file! How could they have missed this! How could they have been this wrong! My god, look at his eyes!
Juvie leaped at Arbiter Sands, and woke to the sound of screaming.
Kid Crey was in the middle of some x-box game. On the screen, little digital monsters screamed.
Juvie gave the Kid a look that said, get the hell out of my bed!
The Kid dropped the controller, “Everyone said you wouldn’t mind, that… that they did this all the time.”
“Whatever,” Juvie grunted. Rolling unsteadily to his feet, he left the Kid to his monsters.
Banging open the bathroom door, he tried to put together what had happened the night before… nothing.
Juvie looked in the mirror; his black paint had streaked down his face like a combination of Alice Cooper and Tammy Fay Baker. Shaking his head, he pulled off his gloves. “I need a glass of milk.”
A chip fell into the sink, and skipped toward the drain. “Shit!” Juvie grabbed for the chip and caught it just as it struck drain lip. Leaning against the counter, he brought the chip up to his eye. Nothing special, solid state, a bit of blood on the USB, but nothing that…
...Juvie closed his eyes while something surfaced in his memory. It was the look of fear on someone’s face. Opening them back up, Juvie was shocked to see that beneath the smeared paint, reflected in the mirror was a smile.
Chapter 2
Judgmental Eyes
This is edited from Role-Play Chat Logs from 6/22/07
EXT. STEEL CANYON. SONG BUILDING. NIGHT
We catch up with two of the Artful Dodgers as they meet in front of the impressive Post-Rikti War skyscraper, The Song Building. Juvie has sough Jack Travers out after receiving a tip from Manticore that she is investigating Crey.
Jack Travers is speaking quietly into her phone as Juvie arrives…
Juvie: Hi, Jack.
Jack Travers: No... I gotta go. Bye.
Juvie: Oh, you’re on the phone sorry. Juvie scratches his head.
Jack Travers: Hey. Nah. Stupid people.
Juvie: So... How are you feelin?
Jack Travers: Like crap. You?
Juvie: I bet sore, to tell the truth.
Jack Travers: Sore?
Jack Travers frowns.
Jack Travers: What for?
Juvie: Yeah, took a brusin recently, and my... um... armor got a bit bashed. So it’s in the shop gettin', you know, fixed.
Jack Travers narrows her eyes.
Jack Travers: From who?
Juvie: Oh... just some Nemesis goons, nothing that I shouldn't have been able to handle.
Jack Travers: Fuckers. You take 'em out?
Juvie: Yeah, eventually, but I got knocked up pretty bad. So, Manticore said you were going after Crey?
Jack Travers: …
Juvie: That’s not your usual beat.
Jack Travers: Fuck Manticore.
Juvie: Right...
Jack Travers: And, yeah, I'm here for Crey. And computers. I love how everyone thinks I can do things with computers.
Juvie: Well you are pretty smart, I mean, if I can do computer stuff I’m sure you could learn...and well, I'm here to help ya. So... I hope I can.
Jack Travers: Well, long as you're not too sore.
Juvie: Nahh, I'm ok. I just need to boost the armor I have. But I've delt with Crey a lot. I should be ok.
Jack Travers: Fine. Then I'll love havin' your judgmental eyes watchin' my back.
Juvie’s judgmental eyes roll, as they step through the Song Building’s revolving door.
INT.SONG BUILDING. LOBBY.NIGHT Jack and Juvie step into an ultra modern lobby, waiting area, elevators, office listings, snack machines, a reception desk, everything that a modern busy office building needs, except for busy businessmen. The place is almost tomb like. Only a large muscled receptionist in a black blazer sits behind the front desk reading a newspaper.
Just as the receptionist looks up from his reading, Jack racing across the lobby and punches him in the throat. The man falls back out of the chair, into the wall, slumps to the floor, and disappears as a hospital teleporter activates somewhere.
Juvie looks at her in astonishment.
Jack Travers: I hate receptionists.
Jack looks around the desk, feels under its lip, wincing at a possible bugger, then finds what she was looking for.
"Click"
The snack machines pivot apart revealing a hidden door.
Jack Travers: Close your mouth Mr. Astonished and let’s go.
Juvie almost flips her a finger, but instead sets his claws and follows after.
Chapter 3
The Reluctant Side-Kick
Continued RP Chat Log Edited for Story from 6/22/2007
INT. SONG BUILDING. LAB LEVEL 1. NIGHT
Stepping quietly between the vending machines, Juvie and Jack enter a high-tech lab. Energy pulses behind the reinforced metal walls and floors creating a low level hum. The two look down the hall, seeing movement not far away.
Juvie winces a moment, rubbing his knee, and tries to hid a small limp, although he should now better then trying to hide any thing from Jack.
Although Jack tries to sound mean… there seems to be more worry in her voice then normal.
Jack Travers: Are you sure you’re up for this?
Juvie ignores Jack’s question.
Juvie: Ok, Jack, what's the plan.
Jack Travers: You think I plan?
Juvie: Right.
Juvie shakes his head, and wipes some sweat from his forehead as Jack charges down the hall headlong into a group of Crey Agents. Swinging fists that trail trendles of black energy, knocking them down one by one.
Jack then takes a aim at one of the generic cloned Paragon Protectors who immediately begins to glow like a star with invulnerability. Her swings do nothing to the clone but she just keeps swinging and swinging anyway!
Juvie moves in and slicing into a Crey agent that managed to get behind her. Although Juvie does his best, it is obvious that Juvie isn’t up to the fight. Juvie is about to fall when Jack finally breaks through the Clone’s resistance, and its ribcage, then Jack picks up the slack by thrusting a well-placed knee into Juvie’s assailant.
Looking down at her panting friend, she hides her worry with bravado.
Jack Travers: Jesus fuckin' Christ! I'm so tired of these guys!
Then she turns and bounds away. Juvie regains his feet and calls after her.
Juvie: You might want to lay off the ones who start glowing like a star... oh, never mind.
Juvie catches up to Jack as she sends a Crey Voltaic Tank, a Paragon Protector, and a Vigilant on a trip to the hospital.
Jack Travers: The who now?
Juvie: The Clones, sometimes they set off this... power that makes them practically invulnerable. So you're just hitting wood at that point. Waste of energy.
Jack Travers: I can always get more energy.
Juvie: Right.
Jack looks over Juvie, some nervousness in her voice.
Jack Travers: You aren’t feeling well. You shouldn’t be here. You’re more a hinder than a help.
Juvie: Right, and who is going to do that computer work for you again?
Jack Travers: Fine, your funeral.
Jack sprints off toward an elevator room.
INT. THE SONG BUILDING. LAB LEVEL 2. NIGHT
The two heroes work their way through another level of the secret Crey lab. Paragon Protectors, Crey Agents, Field Agents, Infiltrators, and even a janitor who pulls a gun are taken out one by one.
Juvie seems to catch a second wind, and is keeping up his side of the fight, even leaping a head to clear a room. He looks about, somewhere there should be a mainframe access point, but can’t manage to find it among all the high tech gear.
Juvie: Are you finding anything?
Jack Travers: Just a burnin' desire to move on.
Juvie: Right.
As they leave the room, reinforcements arrive; Juvie and Jack work the door, taking out each agent as they turn the corner. It almost becomes clockwork. As they fight, the two manage a conversation.
Jack Travers: You see that article in the paper? Jack Travers has defeated Vigilant
Juvie: Yep. Juvie has defeated Field Agent
Jack Travers: I love crap like that. Jack Travers has defeated Vigilant
Juvie: You love anything that is against you in some way… ((Juvie has defeated Field Agent)) …anything that makes life harder. Juvie has defeated Vigilant
Jack Travers has defeated Field Agent Jack Travers: You ain't too keen on sarcasm, are ya? Jack Travers has defeated Infiltrator
Juvie has defeated Infiltrator Juvie: Oh... No, I guess not. Sorry.
Jack Travers has defeated Vigilant Jack Travers: I'll forgive ya. It's fuckin' late. Jack Travers has defeated Vigilant Jack Travers: What the hell are you doing up anyway?
Juvie: Can't sleep. Juvie has defeated Field Agent
Jack Travers: Me either. Jack Travers has defeated Field Agent
The hallway grows quiet, as the remaining Crey move back down the hall toward the elevator room. Juvie and Jack look at each other, one puffing for breath, the other shaking from hunger. They both nod, seeming to understand being tired and waiting for the other to catch their breath, or regain strength.
Jack Travers: You talked to Woe?
Juvie: No, me an him haven't been... connecting lately.
Jack Travers: He was havin' big problems the other day with somethin'. He’s lookin’ a lot like how Stripling used to… Like he hasn't slept in about a year.
Juvie: …
Juvie: Sounds like sleep problems all around.
Jack Travers: Stripling did some kind of dream thing with him because of a voice.
Juvie: …
Jack Travers: I spent my time keeping the moron squad busy because they were gangin' up on 'im.
Juvie looks angry and a bit... Guilty?
Jack Travers: So I ain't heard what the deal is yet.
Juvie nods.
Juvie: I see.
Jack sees the look in Juvie’s face and drops the conversation.
Jack Travers: Come one, there’s one more floor. And I wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.
Jack stands up and leaps down the halls to the Elevator room where she quickly dispatches the Crey making their stand there. Juvie follows and watchs as Jack sends trendles out… trendles that consume the Crey Agent’s life energy before the hospital teleporters do their job. Juvie averts his eyes and activates the elevators, noting that; although the sight made him nauseous, he also feels much more awake.
Chapter 4
I Ain't Worried About Scars!
This is the continued Edited RP Chat Logs from 6/22/2007
INT. SONG BUILDING. LAB LEVEL 3.NIGHT
Jack and Juvie step out of the elevators and into a well-defended choke point. The two leap into the group, swiping, punching, kicking and scraping their way deeper into the lab. While Juvie works the Field Agents, Jack leaps at the Paragon Protector clone and the Clone leaps at her with a set of deadly metal claws!
Jack dives and jukes, as blades seem to fill all the space around her. Her fists glance off the Clone who manages to dodge with her every move, while she blocks the blades with her bare for-arms and wrists. Although the black energy in her keeps the blades from doing permanent harm, she still feels each cut and slice. Then, with a bit of luck, she manages to land a solid blow to the Clone’s head sending it to the floor.
Jack Travers: Holy crap!
Jack rubs her arms, looking for cuts... But finding bone showing instead... Shivering she folds her arms, trying to hide her distress.
Jack Travers: So that's what fightin' you is like?
Juvie clears the room and steps up to her, taking a knee to gain his breath back. He looks closely at the fading blades of the clone wondering who in their right mind would have blades like that installed in them! Madness!
Juvie: Yep, although I don’t get any joy from it.
Juvie stands and reaches for her arms. His scared hands still bloody from his fight.
Juvie: Did he get you?
Jack pulls away from Juvie and turns to move down the hall.
Jack Travers: Yeah. I don' feel much.
Distressed at her reaction Juvie calls after.
Juvie: Slap a health patch on it before it scars!
Jack races away, holding her arms, and turns a corner into a maze of wires, power stacks, and computer banks.
Juvie leans up against a wall, painting for breath. As Jack moves further away, Juvie begins to recover.
Juvie pulls out his Team Locater and sees Jack’s dot start turning from green to yellow, to red!
Juvie: Jack what’s happening! Where are you?
The dot goes black, with the tell tale skull of death blink over it.
Juvie: Shit!
Juvie races after her, following the team tracker map.
Juvie: Jack!
Juvie turns the corner, just as Jack’s tracker turns solid green again. He looks up just in time to see black trendrels retreat into her hands as a Crey Tanker teleports to the hospital. Jack holds up her arms.
Jack Travers: I ain't worried about scars.
Juvie: What the heck just happened?
Jack Travers: I kicked some ass, where were you?
Juvie: I’m here to help you, Jack. Tell me if you’re in trouble.
Jack Travers: Yeah, yeah, hero!
Juvie scowls at Jack for a moment, but smiles as he sees the computer access directly behind her.
Juvie: There, that’s what we’re looking for.
Juvie walks right past Jack and up to the computer terminal. Taking a quick look, he pulls out a sliding keyboard panel and begins typing in the codes Manticore made him remember.
Juvie: Yep, this looks like the main-frame access point.
Juvie: Do you have the Virus chip?
Jack Travers: Oh! Right...
Jack Travers digs in a pocket and hands Juvie a lint-covered chip.
Juvie takes chip. Hold it up to his eye, sees the lint, looks at Jack with disapproval, then dusts it off. ((Actually used /e, dustoff at this point LOL))
Juvie: Ok Putting it in now.
Jack Travers watches closely. Juvie plugs in the chip in the frames USB port then sets the types to load. Nothing seems to happen, but Juvie just removes the chip and slides it into his coat pocket.
Juvie: Well, that’s it.
Jack Travers: It's done? It didn't look like it did anything!
Juvie: Yeah, and that’s good.
Juvie snaps the keyboard back in place.
Juvie: If the thing went boom, well, it wouldn't be much of a secret virus, you know?
Jack Travers: Let's get out of here, huh?
Juvie: Yeah.
Chapter 5
Fun Parade
Continued Edited RP Chat Logs from 6/22/2007
EXT.STEEL CANYON.WELL PAST MIDNIGHT
Jack and Juvie leave the Song Building and head off toward the Metro Tram where they both stop and pull out their cell phones.
Jack Travers: You tired yet?
Juvie: Never said I wasn't tired, Just can't sleep.
Jack Travers: ... Well then? You sleepy yet?
Juvie cocks an eye.
Juvie: No, why?
Jack ignores the question and flips open her cell phone.
Juvie: Right.
Juvie does the same.
Jack Travers: Hallo? >Well...Sounds like it can only be good for us.
Juvie: Yeah, Manticore, Jack was able to get the Virus into the system.No, No I don't know what her next mission is.
Jack Travers: Well, thank fuckin' God. ... sorry.
Juvie: Yeah, I'll stick with her, I want to be here anyway. Yeah, Yeah.. Yes. Yes. NO, I mean Yes. Ok.
Jack Travers: What, NOW? Right now?!Shit, okay.
Jack snaps her phone closed.
Juvie: Yeah, Gotta' go, I'll call later.
Juvie snaps his phone closed and runs his hand though his hair.
Juvie: What's next?
Jack Travers: Crey's bustin' up her lab!
Juvie: Who's lab?
Jack Travers: Janet's lab. Just don't tell anyone where it is.
Juvie: Janet? Um.. ok.
Jack Travers: Yeah. She's the one who sent me on this fun parade.
Juvie: Right.No worries.
Jacks phone buzzes with a text message. Opening it up, concentrate on the small controls, after a few swar words and a bit of bitching she thumbs send making Juvie's phone buzz.
Jack Travers: Here... here's the address. I'll meet ya there.
Juvie flips open his phone to read the message.
Juvie: Ok.
Jack finally takes a moment to read the message.
Jack Travers: Preze?!
Juvie shrugs.
Juvie: The rents cheap there.
Jack lets out one more swar that is snatched away by the wind as she leaps away.
Juvie: Nice.
Juvie leaps after her.
EXT.PEREZ PARK.AFTER MIDNIGHT
Perez Park, the worst public park in America, a haven for monsters, gangsters, and things far worse. Circling the park is a wall of once proud condos and office buildings, now fallen into bankruptcy and disrepair. On a road now called hell's highway due to the numerous loitering Hellion Gang members on each block, Jack and Juvie arrive at one of the dingy buildings.
Juvie: You sure this is the place?
Jack Travers: 'less she's lyin' to me.
Juvie: I know rent is pretty cheap around here, but...this is ridiculous!
Jack Travers: Why the hell you'd have a secret lab in Perez...
Juvie: Well, only one way to find out, right?
Jack Travers: Right.
Juvie and Jack push open the jammed doors and step into the darkness beyond.
INT.JANET's LAB LEVEL 1.AFTER MIDNIGHT
After navigating a set of airlocks, Jack and Juvie step into a lab that, although not as advanced as the Crey Lab, still impresses. As they enter, Crey Agents drop their tools and turn to fight the teens.
Jack Travers: Lets get this done.
Juvie: Right.
One Crey after another falls to the two teens as these two Artful Dodgers finally adapt to eachother's styles. It doesn't take much time for them to get to the first elevator. Finding it locked down, Juvie snaps open a panel looking for the override. As Jack watches Juvie work she finally finds time to ask a question she's been meaning to ask for sometime. Is that hope in her voice?
Jack Travers: Noticed you been to visit Dusty.
Juvie: Yeah. But he's kinda stopped talkin to me.
Juvie: Least since is Breakout.
Juvie shakes head.
Jack Travers rolls her eyes.
Jack Travers:Least he started.
Juvie snaps a few wires, and twists their ends opposite ends together. The elevator doors snap open. Juvie grins.
INT. JANET'S LAB LEVEL 2. AFTER MIDNIGHT
Juvie and Jack continue their assault on the Agents waiting above. One by one they go down with ease. Strangely these two are starting to make a good duo.
Jack Travers: Crey needs to stop hirin' short people with black hair.
Juvie smiles at that as the two make there way deeper into the lab. As each group of Crey Agents are defeated, Juvie starts to open up about his visits to Dustin.
Juvie: After a few days, he finally broke down and started talking to me. Just, you know, about little things at first, you know. There isn't much to talk about when you are in a cell. Anyway, I told him a few things to help him get through his time in Jail.
Jack Travers scans the room,one by one the defeated Crey Agents dissolve into teleport energy are gone. Juvie continues.
Juvie: Like... if you arn't going to eat something, give it to another in-mate before they just take it. YOu know, make friends rather than.. um.. well, lets call them enemies.
Jack Travers: I don't see anymore.
Juvie concentrate for a moment, making his entire body a sensory organ, Juvie listens for heartbeats. Underneath the humming of power, Juvie detects no one but Jack and himself.
Juvie: I can't hear anyone, I think the place is empty.
Juvie looks around and sees that the rooms are also empty. Jack and Juvie move to one of the platforms where they sit to catch their breath. The hum of the equipment strangely soothing.
Juvie: I talked to him about drugs.
Jack Travers: Bet that went well.
Juvie: I didn't preach, so he listened. I mean, I told him that jail has plenty of drugs in them if you know who is offering them.
Jack tries not to look at Juvie.
Juvie: That going cold turkey is better than being.. well, someone's ... Boyfriend, for lack of a better word...
Jack Travers: I think the general word is bitch.
Juvie: ...also told him to sleep when he can. That sleep isn't something that comes easy, anytime. he's gonna have to learn to sleep at a drop of a hat if he's going to get any at all. Mostly thoe, I told him to keep his mouth shut as much as possible.
Jack Travers rubs her jaw.
Juvie: I think. I think he thought, He disappointed me when he "Escaped" so he wont come to the visiting room anymore.
Jack Travers: Sounds like him...
Juvie: ... actually when I heard how he was caught, I mean, he came back! He broke back into his cell! I've never felt so, Justified in believing in someone. If that makes any sense.
Jack stands.
Jack Travers: I'm out'a here.
Juvie stands and stretches.
Juvie: Right.
Chapter 6
Imaginary Toast
Continued Edited RP Chat Logs from 6/22/2007
EXT. PEREZ PARK.HELL’S HIGHWAY. WELL AFTER MIDNIGHT
Jack and Juvie exit the building and move to opposite ends of its long steps. Across the street, a mob of Hellions eyes Jack. A few give her cat calls. Jack stairs them down as she flips open her phone. Juvie also makes a call.
Jack Travers: Yeah, its fine. A lizard? No, but I wasn't exactly looking in the cages. I'm sure it's fine. To where? Me? Can't you get a bicycle boy or something? Hold on, shit, got a message, wait…
Jack looks at her phone, starts pressing a few buttons, then reads the screen. After a moment, she presses another button and puts the phone to her ear again.
Jack Travers: Are you there? Good, I gotta go, Bye.
Jack hangs up her phone and keeps on eye on the gang-bangers on hells highway while she listens in to Juvie’s call, which isn’t going very well.
Juvie: Hello, yeah, a lab getting all hit by the Crey. Who's? Um... Can't tell... no, can't tell… listen, I CAN"T TEL.... Sorry, right. I get it you need to know. Yes, I understand it’s important. Yes, I understand. I still can't tell you whose lab it was. No, I can't. Yes... I mean now! No! Um…Yeah... fine. Listen, it’s all about keeping your word. She didn't trick me! No she didn't. No, I cant. If you want to know whose lab it was, why don't you call her yourself! Right. Right. Yeah. Right. No, No. Ok. Fine.
Juvie hangs up his phone and turns to see Jack looking at him with her ever-present scowl.
Juvie: Ok, so what’s next?
Jack Travers: Third degree goin' on over there?
Juvie tries to shrug off the question…
Juvie: No, nothing like that.
…but Jack won’t stop looking at him.
Juvie: Well, something like that. Manticore wanted to know whose lab the Crey were bustin’ apart, but I didn’t tell him
Jack backs off a bit.
Jack Travers: Janet wanted me to go steal some soda.
Juvie: Steel soda? What does she need you to steal soda for?
Jack Travers: Seriously, that's what she said.
Juvie thinks.
Jack Travers: She said that Crey was usin' subliminal messages to sell it, so there must be somethin' bad in it. She wants me to steal some.
Juvie: Ok, I guess. Weird.
Jack Travers: But Tina sent me a text message in the middle, there’s a missing girl, I think that’s a bit more important than any soda!
Juvie: Right, Ok where to?
Jack Travers: To Peregrine. To get a portal to somewhere in some other world that might not exist.
Juvie: Oh...
Jack Travers: She works for Portal Corps. I just do what she tells me and don't ask questions because I'll start to doubt I'm doin' anything at all.
Juvie: I can't leave this dimension, except for Pocket D.
Jack Travers: Oh...
Juvie: Yeah, its part of my parole.
Jack Travers: Yeah, I figured. Just forgot. Well... she's got other people she can call. Just a sec.
Juvie looks down embarrassed as Travers stabs at the number keys on her phone, laboriously poking out a text message. Finaly she hits send, and pockets the phone.
Juvie: Um... I got.. Um... my lawyer is looking into Dusty's case. I mean, I asked her too. Her name is, Athena Currie.
Jack Travers glances over.
Juvie notices that she isn’t scowling and decides to press on.
Juvie: And, she thinks she has a good case, you know, to help him.
Jack Travers: You ain't heard the lawyer situation yet?
Juvie: No.
Jack Travers: Yeah, so my fucking mother, who, for whatever reason is still our fucking guardian, sent down a lawyer to represent him. Now, I have no idea who this lawyer is, but what I do know is that my mom woulda’ signed any piece of paper they pointed at.
Juvie groans and shakes head
Juvie: Cuz, my lawyer said she would need family permission to work on the case. She has a great angle also, and she’s really… she works free with heroes.
Jack Travers: damn.
Juvie: God Damn-it!
Jack Travers / Juvie: Nothin's ever fuckin' easy. / Just once I'd like to find an easy...
Juvie: Wow, did you just notice something, Jack?
Jack Travers looks around, nothings different, only the Hellions show any level of threat, and their threat is quite small.
Jack Travers: No.
Juvie: We both agreed on something!
Jack Travers: It ain't that unusual is it? .... I guess it is. Guess we just talk about the wrong stuff.
Jack Travers lets out a rare smile, showing that she is actually quite pretty.
Juvie: Well, we should work on that, huh…
Juvie laughs then continues.
Juvie: …listen, I'll have my lawyer send over her files to you, so you can look on 'em. But, you'll have to get your moms permission to have them help. Otherwise, its inadmissible.
Jack Travers: See, I'm gonna try, but the thing is, it ain't really my mom's idea. Not ever. She don't got ideas anymore. I don't know what I'm really gonna be gettin' into if I go talk to her. I gotta go back to the Rogue Isles anyway, an' I ain't lookin' forward to any of.
Juvie: I... I... He really needs help. I... feel so dam useless! Telling him how to keep his cherry when I should just go in there and bust him out, but that's just gong to make it worse. It’s so frustrating!
Jack Travers mutters "Tell me about it."
Juvie looks glum.
Juvie: I just wish he'd come to the window again.
Jack Travers: He will. Talked to Brad a little, Dusty wants your approval.
Juvie: He does?
Jack Travers: Yeah. He didn't say so, but from what he did say, I can tell. I ain’t seen him in 3 years, but he's still my little brother, I can tell.
Juvie: You know? I have a thought.
Jack Travers: Just one?
Juvie: Well, more than one, but a new one just hit me. He can't be tried in Paragon.
Jack Travers: Why, cause he's Rogue Isles?
Juvie: Right. I mean, Howell can jump up and down. But he's gotta be deported.
Jack Travers: Yeah, but Rogue Isles hasn't asked for extradition or nothin'. They can allow him to be tried here if they wanna.
Juvie: I know, maybe they don't care, but what I'm saying is. It will give us some time. He's got a lot of red-tape in front of him before he ever goes to trial, because of it.
Jack Travers: Yeah, but who is gonna bring it up that matters? It would have to be someone from the Rogue Isles.
Juvie: Yeah, that’s a tough question, but… the courts in Rogue Island are pretty lenient on crimes committed in Paragon.
Jack Travers: Most of the courts won't convict on anything 'cept murder, rape, or treason. Depends on the governor at the time though. Governors there turn over so fast, there's always a guy with somethin' to prove.
Juvie: I'm not saying Rogue Island law is the best option, but... its one I haven't considered yet. And... Maybe we can bypass that whole, parental guidance over there.
Jack Travers: Only problem is, if they do convict 'im.... ain't no way in hell I'm letting him go into the Islands penitentiary.
Juvie: …Yeah, but you see. If they convict him, we can break him out there. I mean, their jail system is a joke. And, breaking out of Rogue Island, is like, what? You going to tell me it’s against the law?
Jack Travers: Juvie, if Dusty were imprisoned in the Rogue Isles, do you think there is one chance in hell that Sands wouldn't take advantage of that?
Juvie gives a strange look when Jack mentions Sands. A kind of smile.
Juvie: Sands, huh? Right.
Jack Travers: Yes. Arbiter Sands.
Juvie: Well, we deal with Sands a bit better than the law, I think.
Jack Travers looks a little suspicious of Juvie’s smile.
Jack Travers: He owns the Rogue Isles.
Juvie: Right, suer he does when every chair over there has Recluse carved into it. Still, I get your point.
Jack Travers: I'm just sayin'... it's still a risk.
Juvie: All I have to say is..
Juvie looks around to see if anyone is listening.
Juvie: Fuck, Sands!
Jack Travers raises an imaginary glass. "Fuck Sands!"
They share a toast in a silence broken only by an occasional cat call from across the street.
Juvie: … again, we agree. This is a beautiful night, eh?
Jack Travers: For 4 in the fucking morning or whatever, sure.
Chapter 7
True Anger
Continued Edited RP Chat Logs from 6/22/2007
EXT.PEREZ PARK.HELL’S HIGHWAY.AFTER MIDNIGHT
Jack and Juvie have just shared a rare moment where they actually agreed with one another, now we will soon see just how rare those moments are.
Let’s listen in…
Juvie: anyway, Just trying to say, there are options that we haven’t' even thought of. We'll figure it out… and if we don't we'll just go get him.
Jack Travers: We aren’t bustin' 'imp out. Not just... because.
Juvie: Of Course. But if his trial is completely corrupt and bogus, I mean, I’m not just going to stand for that.
Jack Travers: Well... thanks for carin'.
Juvie: Thanks to you for not biting my head off, tonight. Oh... and one last thing. The doctor wants to see you again.
Jack Travers narrows her eyes.
Juvie: Ash that look in your eye. I knew you would just love to hear that! Still, gotta say it, or it wouldn’t be me right?
Jack Travers: We had a deal for once.
Juvie: Of course, I'm not going to make you go, but I think you should. It is your choice. I'm not going to trick you, or force you, or argue into it.
Jack Travers: He can't help me. Look, its gettin' worse!
Juvie: I ...I see that.
Juvie looks sad and angry at Jack.
Jack Travers: I can't sleep because I don't get energy that way. I can't fuckin rest, I don't know what to do about it, an' I almost lost us a fuckin' fight the other day 'cause I couldn't control it!
Juvie: I... I don't like seeing you this way. And this is the only way I know for me to help you. Other wise you’re just behind a window.
Jack Travers: But it' aren’t helpin'.
Juvie: you walked out, just when he was explaining your problem.
Jack Travers: I brought Woe to his knees... everyone, 'cause they were fightin' too close to me.
Juvie: Maybe he has another way; it has been what, 2 weeks?
Jack Travers: I aren’t gonna be Battery Pack Jane, thanks anyway.
Juvie: I don’t... I don't like seeing you this way. And... I… we need you, Jack. You can't do this alone. Not this time.
Jack Travers puts a hand to her forehead.
Jack Travers: Look, ya did fine without me before.
Juvie: Right.
Juvie looks guilty.
Jack Travers: Aren’t sayin' I'm goin', but... I don't think a doctor can fuckin' help me. I got this name. A guy in the Rogue Isles named Virgil. He's 'sposed to know what's up. He knows a crapload more about magic than me, and 'supposedly, that's what I need.
Juvie: A guy in the Rogue Isles?
Jack Travers: Yeah.
Juvie: Jack.
Juvie shakes his head.
Jack Travers: What?
Juvie: Ok… Ok…Check out Mr. Mumbo-jumbo in the Isles.
Jack Travers scowls.
Juvie: All magic ever gave me was a headache and a messed up friend. Really, though, do what you have to do. I'll keep the doctor working on yur case.
Jack Travers: Yeah, but you're fuckin' fourteen. You aren’t seen it all yet, an' neither have I.
Juvie: Fourteen? I… I'm sixteen! Who told you I was fourteen!
Jack Travers shrugs.
Jack Travers: Last file I looked at.
Juvie: …right.
Jack Travers: Musta been outta date.
Juvie backs off a bit. Jack hit a little too close to home.
Juvie: So… I mean... Jeezzz Jack.
Juvie shakes his head again.
Jack Travers: What now? What fun bit of Juvie's disapproval do I get now?
Juvie: Just wish there was something I could do.
Juvie looks defeated, and begins to walk away. Jack calls after.
Jack Travers: You could have a little fucking faith.
Juvie stops and turns.
Juvie: Faith? From you?
Jack Travers: Yeah, that maybe, for once, someone other than you is right, and I’m not about to make some horrible mistake that you could have prevented.
Juvie: You have Faith?
Jack Travers: We're not talking about me. You asked what you could do.
Juvie: Just saying it’s a weird word coming out of that mouth.
Jack Travers: Yeah, but that's hat we keep you around for.
Juvie: Ok, but, if you go down, I mean seriously go down, while I'm around, I'm calling that doctor!
Jack Travers: You will never see me go down. ... Or at least, stay down. It aren’t possible.
Juvie: Right, you'll just bring other people down around you!
Jack Travers looks stunned.
There is a moment of silence that begins to stretch just a little too long, until it is finally broken by another cat call from the mob of Hellions across the street. With the spell broken, Juvie suddenly realizes what he had just said and he looks quickly away from Jack.
Juvie: Sorry, I… I shouldn’t have said that. I'm just tired. I'm sorry about that.
Jack Travers quickly covers her shock with anger.
Jack Travers: Sorry doesn't fix crap! Nice to know what you think. Guess I should be around when you're tired more often.
Juvie tries to play it off as a joke.
Juvie: Hey, I'm the king of charming when I get this way.
Jack Travers: So when you're not sitting around pondering how Stripling need psychological help and how I'm a raging fucktard, do you crochet?
Juvie: Fucktard?
Jack Travers glares at him.
Juvie: Don't tell me you have mental powers now! I think you guys think, I think about you guys too much.
Jack Travers: You're tryin' to save this, an' it just aren’t workin'.
Juvie: I haven't saved anything in a while. So, kinda on par right now.
Jack Travers: Poor you. Sorry if I wasn't pityin' your hard life for a brief moment there.
Juvie: No, just as it is, nothing poor about it.
Jack Travers: So what do you want to save, Juvie? Me? You? Dusty?
Juvie: …why not all of the above?
Jack Travers: Jesus, it's just the same as with everything else. Your god damn inability to cope with yourself makes me sick.
Juvie: Yeah?
Jack Travers: Yeah.
Juvie: Ok.… I see. It makes sense. I have problems, and I guess that what you are saying is... stop me if I'm wrong.... is that... I use other people’s problems to keep me from dealing with my own… like a distraction? Is that about right?
Jack Travers: 's part of it. You also try to solve everyone else's shit in some half-baked attempt to absolve yourself of guilty feelings.
Juvie: half-baked? Sometime I burn the shit out of it! Yeah. Sounds about right. Thanks for the tips Mantico’ette!
Jack Travers: Way to be bitter.
Juvie: …still, that doesn't mean, that... in the end... you don't have a problem that needs to be solved.
Jack Travers: Nope. Don't change that a bit. Just sayin', when are you gonna work on your own damn self?
Juvie backs further away. He looks down at his hands, and they form fists.
Juvie: I...
Jack Travers: You're agreein' with me too much... you must want somethin'. I guess, when I feel like I have the time. I just…
Jack Travers: Look, you aren’t on the outside, so you don't see it maybe.
Juvie: Shit, Jack.
Jack Travers: You aren’t go no idea how much you sabotage yourself.
Juvie: Sabotage? I don't Sabotage!
Juvie rolls the words around in his mouth, like he’d never said it before.
Juvie: I may go over board on things, and maybe I care too much.
Jack Travers: Not on purpose, maybe.
Juvie: …But everyone around me has...
Juvie turns back to Jack, and sees just how tired she looks. Her hair is thinning, and her cheeks growing gaunt, she looks like the only thing keeping her standing is sheer stubbornness, and in this case, Juvie knows looks aren’t deceiving!
Juvie: Jack, look at you! You’re practically dieing in front of me, and you want me to go away and take care of some psychobabble teen anxt thing? Sorry, if I just can't find the time.
Jack Travers: I'm not dyin'.
Juvie: Really? When did you last sleep again?
Jack Travers: I don' remember. Point is, I'm talkin' about you, and the fact that you think it's more important to get me to see a doctor that can't help me than it is to get your feet under you again so that you don't gotta backpedal every time you speak. You put up this great front, you have a great speech, really inspiring, but then one person pushes back against you and you're like a cardboard cutout. Aren’t nothin' of weight to keep you from fallin' backwards.
Juvie: I back peddle because every time I talk, someone seems to get hurt, or to argue, or to disagree, your sickness-power-problem-death thing asides for a second, you think its easy being that voice?
Jack Travers: An' now we're back to poor you. You think it's just you? You think when you aren’t around, the rest of us sit around and feed deer?
Juvie: Listen! One day I’m arguing with you, the next it’s Kaijikoro, then it’s Royal, being all... I mean she shut me down like a toy. Then, it’s Sean, or Stripling, or someone else pullin on me…
Jack Travers 's eyes darken when Stripling is mentioned.
Juvie is on a roll, he hasn’t yelled at anyone this loud in a fucking long time and he’s railing in to Jack, stepping closer with each word.
Juvie: … I don't even know why I'm talking abut this with you. You just set them up, and knock them down. Stand up for yourself, you say. But be dammed if you stand up for anyone else but yourself! Except for maybe Stripling, you’d jump off a cliff for that weird elf, and even then it would be a tough fight for you.
Jack Travers balls her hands into fists.
Jack Travers: 'fore you go there, Juvie... 'fore you go ahead an' make that statement... I want you to think for just a second 'bout whether you have ONE FUCKING CLUE what I do with my life, or for anyone!
The two are nose to nose!
Juvie: Damn-it. God! You make me so fucking angry!
Jack Travers: Well it's fucking mutual!
Jack black trendles being to seep from her fists as her eyes flash with anger, she pivots to the balls of her feet, every muscle taught, she’s really about to pounce. You can almost hear her thoughts, “Com’on! Say his name one last time! Do it! I fucking dare you!”
Instead, something completely different happens… Juvie steps back, looks at his hands, feels his face. Shakes his head a bit and blinks his eyes. Then he looks back at Jack. The anger in her like a red hot fire.
Juvie: I... I can't believe I'm going to tell you this... Listen. There is something that I need to get off my chest…
Jack Travers takes her finger away from her DEFCON ONE button, but not too far away.
Juvie: …and honestly, You really are the only one I can tell this too. I think. Cuz, you are the only one that makes me mad, the way I'm suppose to be mad.
Jack Travers folds her arms, hiding the black energy, trying to quell it.
Jack Travers: You got ten seconds, then I’m either going to leave, or sock you, I still haven’t decided which one!
Juvie: Just, hold on... I need you to see this. I need you to be here. I gotta start, to like, get angry.
Jack Travers' jaw muscles are tight.
Jack Travers: Six seconds and counting!
Juvie: I...
Juvie closes his eyes, and he balls his hands back into fists.
Juvie: …I feel... everyone just takes so much... Every time I turn round, it’s another bull shit thing!
Jack Travers starts to forget about being angry and listens.
Juvie: I try to fricken do something for someone right?
Jack Travers nods slightly . Juvie: And All I get is a whole bunch of shit in return! This, that, this, that, Every one telling me how things should be! How every thing sucks! And how everything just turns to shit! And then every one thinks I can do better, that I can be some kinda’ hero! That I can save them, or that I can’t save them or, fuckingchrist! I’m so fucking tired of being everyone’s fucking yard stick for how fucking good or bad they’re own fucking life is, then laugh at me for it, or blame me for it, or fucking! Shittttttttttt!
Juvie opens his eyes… but they aren’t the blue eyes of caring that Jack is use to seeing, nor are they the dark guilty eyes, or the disapproving eyes… or …. his eyes, they are…
Jack steps back… in fear, his eyes, they aren’t human! She wants to call out to him, but her voice is lost some where, some where deep inside, where she wants to go and hide also.
Juvie snarls at Jack, and sets his claws with black smoke streaming from his scars and circling the blades.
Juvie: Go the fuck home, CUNT! Get away from me!
Then he leaps, crossing the distance to the Hellions in a single bound.
Chapter 8
Hell's Highway
Final Chapter Edited from 6/22/2007's RP Chat Logs.
EXT.HELL’S HIGHWAY.AFTER MIDNIGHT
Perez Park is one of the most dangerous places for a citizen to find themselves in Paragon. For those unfortunate enough to wonder into this hazard zone, they face roving gangs of Hellions; Demonic thugs who use satanic threats to get what they want, and what they want is your money or your life! In times like this a citizen’s only hope is for a hero to come, to protect them from these monsters, but what happens when even the hero, is a monster?
Let’s find out.
Jack, can only stair at Juvie as the Hellion’s cat calls turn into shrieks of terror.
Juvie: Fucking gang-bangers! You think you own this place? Fuck you!
Juvie slices into three Hellions at once! Black smoke, red fire, claws, and then the blood, splashing onto the pavement and then… the bowels. The ganger’s bodies take a much longer time to follow.
Without breaking stride Juvie leaps after more who’d turn to run away only to find that Juvie had jumped over their heads! Before they could react, they run headlong into Juvie’s fists, impaled upon his claws. Their looks of fear reflected in the Juvie’s fevered, inhuman eyes.
Jack watches in horror, all this time… all this time… Juvie’s been holding back his punches! His claws! Juvie’s never fought like this! He’s never… Jack thought she knew this troubled boy. Juvie has never… Tom would never… OH MY GOD! HE’S KILLING THEM!
Juvie smiles up at Jack, then looks at the dieing Hellions on each fist, only dropping them as they close their eyes. Juvie turns to looks down to the next block where another group of Hellions are just noticing the massacre and begin to back away.
Juvie: Mine!
Jack snaps out of it and before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s after Juvie! Her sneaker’s soles melt into the pavement of Hells’ Highway as she pushes her powers of super-speed to the limit, trying to reach the Hellions in time. Something inside of her begins to feed, but she doesn’t care!
Jack Travers: Juvie!
Too late, another Hellion goes down, another body adding blood to the gutter’s flow.
One Hellion manages to get off a pistol round, and if that Hellion had only joined the NRA, only spent some time in a gun range learning how to use his weapon, only knew what kind of power it had, what kind of kick it gave, what it took to aim at something other than a liquor store clerk, then he might have had a chance…
…The Hellion falls, blood gurgling out of his mouth….
…then again he never had a chance.
Juvie spins in place, his claws tearing at the flesh around him, as more Hellions turn Hell’s Highway red with gore!
Just as Jack arrives at the slaughter, Juvie has already leapt away, chasing after another mob that is running for the Atlas Park gate.
Juvie: Go home to your fucking moms, Punks! Go rape your mothers! Leave the rest of us alone! I own this street!
Jack Travers: Holy shit... Stop!
Two of the Hellions aren’t fast enough, and join their brothers in Juvie’s street turned mass grave!
Jack Travers: God damn-it stop!
Jack reaches out with her dark energy. She finds Juvie and she grips him, taking from him! Juvie falls to his knees, age energy, youth draining from him into her. His eyes pale.. fade.. red to blue, and begin to tear.
Juvie cries.
Jack walks around Juvie, her fists held up like a boxer, watching her friend just lose it in grief. All around them, Hellions begin to disappear in the hazy glow of hospital teleports. Maybe they have a chance…
Jack knees down to Juvie’s last victim, and places her finger on his neck, a faint pulse as the body disappears beneath her finger…
…maybe, but just a small chance.
Juvie looks up, it’s Tom again. He looks around at all the blood, on his hands, on the street, on his claws. Now horror is dawning on his face. In disgust, he throws the claws away, ejecting them into the red gutter.
Juvie: Jack?
Jack Travers approaches Juvie, looking down at him, she doesn’t look angry; she doesn’t want to look scared. She doesn’t know what to say. The two look at each other for a very long time as the sound of blood drains into a near by gutter.
Juvie: I’ve never… It’s never… been that bad. I, I couldn’t stop, I… I couldn’t stop myself! I need help, Jack.
Jack Travers: No, fucking shit, Tom! What the holy fuck!
Juvie begins to cry again, a true wale of pain and regret.
Jack lets him get it out, but doesn’t come close. After a while, when Juvie’s regained his breath, he whispers.
Juvie: You’re right; I’m just a cardboard cutout.
Juvie gets up, wipes his eyes.
Juvie: I really don't know what’s going on.
Jack Travers: Jesus fuck, Juvie.
Juvie: I've been... I've been working with Cadao Kestrel on it. I’ve been able to control it. I’ve... I’ve never... Jack this wasn’t me. I just wanted to show you! I’ve never done this before! What have I done?
Jack Travers: …Cadao Kestrel? You trust him?
Juvie: No, but I know I can't trust him, with most other people, I’m just not sure.
Jack Travers: Have you... seen yourself?
Juvie: No... I haven’t'. I am really scared Jack. I’m only… I wanted to show you... Because, you’re the only one I know, who can make me mad, with out... that happening.
Jack Travers breathes out a sigh, and finally approaches Juvie.
Juvie: I really am up shits creek on this. I’m sorry, I shouldn't lay all of this on you.
Jack Travers ponders for a moment or two.
Jack Travers: Fuck you shouldn't. Half your problem is you don't share your fucking problems, if you'll excuse the hypocrisy and after school special.
Juvie looks down at his bloody hands and tries to wipe them on his jeans.
Juvie: anyway... that’s why I back-peddle, that’s why I second guess everything I do, that’s why I’m so damn forgiving. Can you imagine what would happen if I weren’t?
Jack Travers: 'cause you're scared of yourself?
Juvie: Shit yeah!
Jack Travers looks down at Juvie with a softer expression.
Juvie: I mean I look around me and who the hell should I talk to. I can't tell Casval about this…he’d thins its good thing. Helps me fight crime then why not, right?
Jack Travers: Frankly, I wouldn't tell Casval about anything, but that's an argument for another time.
Juvie: I can’t tell, Woe. He’d, frick, he’s just has so much shit, and he'd feel guilty cuz it started while I was helping him.
Jack Travers 's ears prick up at that.
Jack Travers: You know when it started?
Juvie nods.
Juvie: Yeah, my first time, was a while back. When I was researching Woe's problem… but the thing is. It’s how I felt, when I... when I hit Clyde. So I think it’s been with me for a very long time. Or it is just is me. Not some, “it.” Thing is... I thought I could, you know control it, keep it tight. But then... I almost hit Princess. Over, nothing really.
Jack knees next to Juvie.
Jack Travers: Princess? You almost hit, Princess?
Juvie: Kijikoro got my goat. Saying all the same stupid stuff you say, no offence.
Jack Travers: For now I'll leave that one alone
Juvie: And with you, it’s just an argument… but he tipped me. Then Princess got in the way… and Royal, she "talked" me down.
Jack seems to pick up on the strange inflection.
Jack Travers: Talked"?
Juvie: Well, she can, control people with her voice.
Jack Travers: ... huh, really?
Juvie: I had no choice but to sit down, calm down and think about what I've done, and for the past, week, all I've been able to think about was that I almost hit Princess. I can't eat, I can' t sleep. Nothing, but that Princess…So now you know, cuz, I need someone to know. Just incase.
Jack Travers: So... 'fore I go gettin' any bright ideas on my own....
Jack Travers pauses in that thought.
Jack Travers: In case?
Juvie: Something should happen too me.
Juvie mumbles "or to someone else, I almost hit Princess."
Jack Travers nods slowly.
Jack Travers: An' I know she's the last person you'd hit.
Juvie: Over a stupid argument, meaningless. Never would hit.. at least never thought I would hit her. Now, I don't know. So you wanted me to ask for help, are you happy? You got what you wished for, a whole heap of Juvie troubles.
Jack Travers: Well... I assume you know that by telling' me this, an obsessive personality like me is gonna wanna try to fix it, right?
Jack Travers kind of smiles.
Juvie: Right, I knew there was something black about your kettle.
Jack Travers: I'm about ta lie out my childhood dreams of taking' over the Ann Landers column.
Juvie: Dear Jack, how do I get blood stains out of leather, and um… how did they get there in the first place?
Juvie gives a half hearted chuckle while Jack Travers keeps the same half-smile.
Juvie: Just, don't tell Princess. I... I really don’t know what I would do… if she...
Jack Travers: I ain't tellin' no one. Less you want me to.
Juvie looks relieved.
Juvie: I think… I think, the reason I don't flip out, when I argue with you. Is because, the things you argue about. That we argue about. It isn't bullshit. Where as Kijikoro, I mean that kid's got issues.
Jack Travers looks a little surprised and gratified.
Juvie actually laughs.
Jack Travers: He totally does.
Jack Travers: Found out, though... he really cares about Dusty. So he ain't all bad to me.
Juvie: Depends, what about Dusty does he cares for?
Jack Travers: I don' trust his judgment, but his heart's in the right place. He really wants to see 'im succeed. Get off drugs. Grow up.
Juvie nods at that.
Jack Travers: But he was really fuckin' with Woe, so he's on my half-shit list.
Juvie looks dark at that.
Juvie: Well... that’s no good. Woe's been through a hell of a lot.
Jack Travers: Which is how I ended up creating' team moron, too keep them away from him for a night.
Juvie: Good.
Jack Travers: I dunno anything about Woe, but I am gonna need you to tell me what you were researching when this all started up.
Juvie nods.
Juvie: Yeah. It’s a long story. I don't want to get into it right now, I mean, I want to tell you and all, but it’s just a really long story. Let me just say this. I shouldn’t be able to do magic, but I can, and I don't think that is a good thing . Jack Travers tries to consider that. "And we're back to magic."
Juvie: Yeah, and were back to magic. I hate that stuff. Gives me headaches, and nausea. I mean, I really hate it.
Jack Travers: Makes me confused and angry, but that's just 'cause I don't get it.
Juvie: See... For me, I don’t' get it, I don't want to get it, but, here it is, I got it. and it’s doing something to me. I'm not suppose to have it. But I do. That’s as far as I got with Cadao . Jack Travers: Can I register a formal complaint against the inclusion of Cadao Kestrel in this?
Juvie: Don’t worry, he’s gone. He dropped my when I almost took off his head.
Jack Travers looks a little startled again.
Juvie: I’m sure I don't think he wants to work with me anymore, as it is. Gave me a referral to someone that he said can help me. Turned out to be a dentist, so I got the point. he doesn’t want me around. When I went back to the shop, it was gone. The entire shop, candles, building, and everything! I later heard he moved the whole thing, lock stock and barrel to the Gaspee, but I'm not going to look him up. So... here I am, askin for help.
Jack Travers: Y'know what really sucks? Findin' someone who understands magic and is trustworthy is kinda like lookin' for a flyin' pig.
Juvie: Right, but for that, just find a Crey scientist to give a pig a flying enhancement. That’s easy. It’s teaching it to fly, that’s the hard part.
]Jack Travers: I'm so sick of Crey. My knuckles keep gettin' busted up on their tank suits. Almost as bad as fightin' freakshow or those walking rocks.
Juvie: You should try…not that you would, but Icon, They have some great gear, not just flashy stuff, I'm talking about padded gear. Just because your tuff, don't mean you couldn’t use you know, some protection. I learned that a long time ago.
Jack Travers examines her busted hands and torn-up gloves.
Juvie: My "Superhero" suit, although kinda hokey, has pressure layers in it, so I don't get so busted up. Bruised wise.
Jack Travers: Maybe. I am gettin' kinda tired of replacing shit, but I don't really get bruises.
Juvie: Well, you hurt you knuckles, and your gloves get ripped.
Juvie: How many pares of jeans have you gone through since you started this stuff?
Jack Travers: Yeah. 's why I say maybe.
Juvie: Let Icon help you with that. I'm sure you have enough influence with them to, well...
Jack Travers: Jeez... I lost count. They have a pair set aside for me every couple days.
Juvie: Suddenly I feel really tired.
Jack sits up, realizing that she isn’t tired at all. She scrambles to her feet and takes a few steps away. Looking down at Juvie, she’s realized that he is starting to look physically exhausted, almost morbidly so.
Juvie: I think I can sleep now.
Jack Travers: Guess… guess that's a good thing, right?
Juvie: I.. I gotta... get back to base before I fall down.
Juvie attempts to leap away, only achieving a few feet. He looks around, and sees the Atlas Park gate.
Juvie: I think I’ll walk. Good night.
Jack Travers: No, good morning.
Jack watches Juvie stumble way. She looks as the streets as the sun begins to expose the carnage. Her phone buzzes and she snaps it open, takes a second to read the message there, than snaps it closed.
Jack Travers: Sorry, Portal Corp, get someone else, I got enough missions right here in this world to take care of.
Looking about, she gets her bearings, sees the Steel Canyon Gate in the distance and heads for it.
Jack Travers: Cadao’s moved to the Gaspee huh? Not nearly far enough away! I’m fucking coming for your voodoo ass!
Chapter 9
Breakfast at Cadao's
Cadao had covered his tracks well, but he couldn’t totally disappear. He had customers to keep and a business to run, so Jack hit Kings Row with a vengeance, looking for those customers and hoping to disrupt some of that business! It didn’t take long for Jack to shake Cadao’s address out of a Mystic after sending the majority of his gathering to the hospital, so after a short pit-stop at Cuppa-Jo’s Coffee, “A Forum for Taste!” she arrived at the Gaspee and the shop located at 314 ¾ John Brown Way.
It was a basement address with its small door hidden beneath the brownstone’s front steps. A wrought iron gate blocked the passage while matching bars crisscrossed its lone dingy, street level window. Shifting the coffee to her right hand she knelt to look into the window, and wasn’t surprised to find years of grime, dead flies, and brown leaves obscuring the vague shapes and shadows hidden behind the glass. Trying the gate and finding it locked, Jack headed across the street to a nearby ally to find a comfortable spot to wait.
Her wait wasn’t long. Only a few moments later, Cadao Kestrel turned the corner; his mouth held a croissant while his arms managed an apple box overloaded with books. She watches him juggle the box and croissant as he searched for his keys, open his gate, and climb under the stairs. Drinking her remaining coffee in one gulp, Jack tosses the cup into a dumpster, and headed across the street.
Along with the twinkle of a bell, Jack was greeted with a cloud of incense. The room was cramped with unpacked boxes and bags. Above, a chandelier hung threateningly close to her head. Along one wall was an empty display counter with the book filled apple box resting atop it. Behind it was a beaded curtain leading to some back room where Cadao’s voice seemed to slither out from some muffled corner.
“Be right there!”
Jack crossed her arms, trying not to touch anything around her while she coughed silently from the rooms acrid sent. Goosebumps tingled under her fingers and she scratched at them. As she waited, another cough tickled her throat. Damned incense!
“Cadao! Get out here!” Jack coughed again, this time something sick and coffee flavored filled her mouth. Wincing, she swallowed it back down, as her eyes began to water. “Cadao! Get your ass out here!” Jack coughed again, this time her body convulsed. The smell, it burned. “Cado?”
Jack fell to her knees and vomited a stream of coffee onto the musty paisley patterned carpet. “I liked that carpet!” Cadao’s voice was muffled, but close. His paten leather shoes entered Jack’s vision, stepping on paisley that seemed to swarm like maggots in blood. Jack vomited again, convulsing until only bile was left in her tortured stomach. “I saw you across the street. I saw you in line at Cuppa Joe’s, I saw you in Kings Row beating up my customers, I saw you when you first arrived in Paragon.”
Jack managed to look up from the undulating carpet and saw Cadao, seemingly impossibly tall and far away, looking down at her from beneath a gas mask. “After your boyfriend tried to rip out my sanity, and your other boyfriend tried to take off my head, I figured you’d be next, and really, I’m getting sick and tired of you Dodgers trying to kill me.” Jack’s head felt like it weighed sixty pounds. Her arms tingling, her muscles slacking, she felt the floor hit her face before she even knew she fell.
“All I do is try to help you kids, but every time I do, all you want to do is kick my ass. Well, I’m not offering it anymore, my help or my ass! Got it!”
“Fuck yo…” Jack coughed like an asthma victim, her diaphragm cramping with each gasp.
Kneeling down, while being sure to avoid the vomit, Cado brushes hair from her face. “I didn’t do anything to Juvie. I don’t know what’s happening to him, and frankly, I don’t give a shit anymore!” Taking an envelope out of his shirt pocket, Cadao stuffs it into her waistline. “This is a restraining order against every single Dodger. Come anywhere near me, any of you, and so help me, you’ll all be seeing the inside of the zig!”
Jacks eyes flutter... flutter... and close... She feels herself let go of a cliff’s edge… a pit of cool sleep waiting below. No! Don't sleep! Then it comes, the darkness, the blackness, flowing from her, seeking, seeking life.
“What the fuck! What the fuck are these! What the hell are you doing! Get them off! Get ‘em off!”
Jack takes in a deep breath filling her lungs with the noxious air. The dark energy does its work, healing the poison’s damage and returning strength to her limbs as she climbs to her feet. Wiping vomit from her chin, she looks down at Cadao who writhes in panic among dark tentacles. She watches him, smiling, he deserves it. Then something catches her eye. His hair, turning gray at his temples! She feels his vitality enter her, satiating a hunger she’s been denying herself for so long, but his hair… and his face! No! She can hear her own voice coming from somewhere far away, “I don’t eat them, God damn it!”
Horrified, Jack grabs the gas mask from Cadaos’ face and places it over her own. She pulls in breath after breath of plastic smelling sterile air while she reaches out to Cadao, pushing at the tenticales, pushing them down, down and away, snuffing them out.
Free of the dread magic, Cadao now convulses on the floor, water streaming from his eyes, his sick choking through his words. “Just… trying… to… protect… my self!”
Jack kneels down and pulls the envelope out of her pants. With shaking hands, she begins to rip-it into pieces letting its confetti join the sick on the floor.
“Fuck you!”
Standing, Jack turns to go, but instead slams her sneaker into his abdomen causing another slurry of vomit to join the puddle underfoot.
The small bell tinkles as Jack leaves Cadao’s shop. Leaning against the gate, she rips off the gas mask and breaths in the cool morning air. From within the shop Cadao’s coughs grow fainter… fainter... silence. Shaking her head, she turns back; kicks open the door, and manhandle him out of his shop, and into fresh air.
As they pass by enjoying their Cuppa Joe’s and croissants, the jaded morning commuters of Paragon barely notice Jack and Cadao panting in the morning sun
Chapter 10
Fallout Part One
Let me take you back.
Back a few weeks to an important event. One that started out innocently enough. Just another discussion, another argument, another chance to complain about the way things are, and the way they should be.
The debate took place deep underground, below the King's Row Garment Works, in a haven where kids with incredible powers can come and talk, express ideas, learn about each other and about themselves. Here, anything can be discussed, anything can be brought out in the open, but unfortunately some things wish to be kept in the dark.
It was an average night, good cheer all around, Holo Lad, Bradly and others had stopped bye, made jokes, and enjoyed the slow night. Princess and Juvie finally had the chance to catch up, and even Casval made a brief appearance. However, when the crowd started to thin out leaving Juvie, Princess Powerfull, Royal and Kaijikoro alone, the conversation began to take a different shape.
Kaijikoro: So... uh. y' know, I been thinkin’? Well, like, we haven’t 'ad much luck, y' know? So far, ev'rthin seems to be work'n out jus f'ne fer everyone...
Kaijikoro speaks a little distantly.
Kaijikoro: ... even'f ya're a bunch a whining martyrs.
Royal frowns a little.
Kaijikoro: Buh like, what’s goin ta 'appen if some'thin goes wrong?
Princess Powerfull rolls her eyes.
Juvie: ...goes wrong, how?
Princess Powerfull: 'Spose we'd work thru it. Jus' like all the times sumthin’ went wrong before.
Kaijikoro: 'ike, Dustin goin t'jail?
Royal: It’s my experience that something is always going wrong on one level or another.
Kaijikoro: Tha Kinda’wrong. Badness.
Juvie: Well...
Juvie thinks for a second, and takes a deep breath.
Juvie: Had a friend, quiet kid, liked art, and cats. Turned out, he became possessed by an evil spirit and almost killed us all.
Kaijikoro frowns.
Kaijikoro:...
Juvie: But, with Princess's help…
Juvie looks at Princess with a smile.
Juvie: …and Casval, and Crimson, and just about everyone, we were able to stop it, and he's better now. You see, if he was alone he’d be dead now. Probably killed by the witches out in Salamanca, or maybe by the Circle of Thorns, or someone else, or he would have killed us all. Anyway, if something goes wrong. Well, we just... face it.
Princess Powerfull nods in agreement.
Princess Powerfull: We can handle our own Kai. When stuff goes wrong.
Royal brushes her hair back listening to all the things that could have gone wrong while Kaijikoro shakes his head slowly.
Royal: I think the point Kaijikoro, is that it’s the philosophy of the Dodgers as a whole to take things as they come rather than exert energy to present something that could possibly never happen.
Kaijikoro: ...Y' offerin a solution to a problem thah was solv’d through force... I dun’ th'nk y' want us ta’ use force ta' solve the problems.
Juvie: That’s not what I was sayin.
Juvie sighes, this argument again?
Juvie: What I was sayin’ ... is... that you don’t just go out and hurt people without good reason! I mean… man, Jack was suckin’ up life without even seein’ a doctor about her condition. Hell, why doesn’t anyone get that! I use force in self-defense. With my friend, the risk was dangerous, and a lot coulda' gone wrong. Really, what are you worried about, um Raphe?
Kaijikoro: Th'... justice system... it ain' a possessed spirit beat 'n it, or exorcise it. 's a matter of fact... once your in its belly...
Princess Powerfull: Well if y’er wond'rn 'bout the justice system, just look at Tom. He's been a victim of it f’er a long while now. It aint necessarily played 'im fair, none, but with the help a’ everyone, he's pulled thru it just fine.
Princess Powerfull reaches out and snatches up Juvie's hand, and holds it tight. At first Juvie looks uncomfortable and tries to get it back but Princess smiles at Juvie, and Juvie relents and relaxes a bit.
Kaijikoro raises his brow.
Kaijikoro: What w' goin’ ta do if 'Dustin goes ta prison? It’s a rare num’ber that emerge a better person. A real, real rare num'ber.
Princess Powerfull: If he goes ta prison he goes ta prison. We'll do all we can ta help him stay out, n' we'll do all we can ta help 'im get out if he goes. N' help him stay strong while he's in, but we aint gonna bust 'im out er nuthin. That won't help no one!
Kaijikoro: Y' aint goin t' bust 'im out?
Royal: It would only cause more damage I'm afraid.
Princess Powerfull: No. Cuz that aint gonna help 'im n' it aint gonna help us. Only ones it'll help ‘r the ones who want ta see us shut down, ‘cuz they think we're no good despite what we accomplished already.
Kaijikoro: Yup... buh it aint like oth'r folks aint interested in th' kid. ‘E’s prime meat, 'e cou'ld be useful. Suffern’ 'es in prison, an w’ don’t bust 'im out, who's goin ta? Is not 'ike th' prisoners 'ave any trouble e'scapin! I see 'm down by Crey Folley every frickin day.
Royal: Dustin will be all right, and tt’s only a small number, I've heard, that manage that, escaping.
Princess Powerfull: Aint no one gonna, ‘cuz it aint gonna do no one no good ta do it. It aint gonna be good fer 'im, but it aint gonna be worse'n if he's gotta run, always look'n over 'is shoulder or sumthin’ cuz he's an escapee.
Kaijikoro: Th' kid is young, ‘s mind is shattered, 's sister is nah e’sactly wh't I call a role-model. I wen' 'n, saw 'im too, I mean, if I w's som' criminal mastermind, I'd snap 'im up like mad.
Juvie: Not many sisters are, from what I hear, but beyond that, the Justice system is changin’.
Kaijikoro snorts.
Kaijikoro: The Justice System doesn' change, It’s th' same system 's been f’er a thous'n years.
Juvie: Listen, look at Frostfire. That kid, he got his powers, right? And he was stupid.
Kaijikoro: Whatcha mean, 'e was stupid?
Juvie: He tried to stop a robbery.
Kaijikoro raises a brow at him.
Juvie: Without training, without signing up as a hero, without the basics under his belt, and wound up killing everyone. The police picked him up, and the courts put him in jail. they weren't ready to deal with it. They didn't know what to do. It was all new to them, but he escaped, and now he's a criminal. Law twisted him, sure.
Juvie looks upset, while Royal seems sullen, looking at the floor.
Kaijikoro: Th'law twists eve'ryone, f’er better or worse is th' question.
Juvie: Thing is, Raphe, They learned from that mistake.
Royal: Yes, they did.
Juvie: They take precautions now, and don't jump to the worst like they once did. Frostfire is lost.
Kaijikoro snorts.
Kaijikoro: Ever'day, 'ids like Frostfire... th' hear ‘bout a hero, 'bout the crimes.
Juvie looks really upset.
Juvie: But it’s changed!
Kaijikoro: Th' courts applaud them!
Juvie: It’s not like that anymore!
Kaijikoro: The courts egg them on! An y' wonder why a k'id would g' bat'shit on what 'e perceives t' b' the enemy?
Juvie: The courts have special meta-... they handle cases like ours different now.
Juvie pulls away from Princess and pushes to his seat edge, his fists clenching in agitation. Princess tries to put a hand on his shoulder, to pull him back, but Juvie just shakes her off. Royal looks up at Juvie then back at the floor.
Kaijikoro: 'E thought 'e was goin t' be hero. 'every judge on Frostfire’s court knew th' situation. Th' aren’t so -stupid- as t' b’ incapable of figuring it out. No, th' frank reality is it wasn’ that the "System was backwards!" Those judges, those fuckin PRICKS! Th' were SCARED of him. An it ain’ n' differn’ now!
Juvie stands, his fists clenching… his face showing real anger, his voice grows deeper.
Juvie: It’s changed!
Royal looks at Kaijikoro who is stepping forward, stepping up to Juvie’s angry stance.
Royal: Kaijikoro, I suggest you settle down.
Kaijikoro: If it’s changed, it’s changed fer there own convenience, an nothin’ else, ‘cuz tha’s 'ow th'se people run th' show!
Princess Powerfull: Here we go with tha system again.... tha system don't work at a hun'dr'd percent. We know that Kai. We aint gonna debate that.
Kaijikoro: Y' can change th' things b' helpin’ them keep it up. Sometimes, y'gotta make them taste th' result of their own lies! An tha’s s’xactly wh' Frostfire did!
Juvie: You change the system by participating in it! Frostfire is just showing us what kind of an idot he was, and still is!
Royal flexes her fingers and meditates on her fingertips as the voices around her raise.
Kaijikoro: Pr'tty sure tha’s not th' case, when y' look at things, Juvie.
Juvie: This isn’t France in the 1700's not everything needs to end with guillotines.
Kaijikoro: When I th'nk back on my... understanin’ o’ history, its generally th' ones thah chose nah to participate that chang'd it! Includin’ th' folks th' Statesmen decided t' model himself after.
Juvie: Hold on. Wait a sec.
Juvie blinks, holds his eyes. Takes a breath then moves to his desk where he rummages though some disks, papers, and pizza boxes. Then he pulls out a small USB chip and heads back to Kaijikoro.
Juvie: It’s a couple of songs I carry with me. This one is from The Who. Listen to the track called “Wont Get Fooled Again.” It’s just a song, but it says a lot. If you keep tearing things down, then rebuilding just get harder, and harder, and harder. Tearing down does nothing but help those who don't need help. You work with the system, not for it, not against it. Participate, that’s where change happens.
Kaijikoro reaches into his pocket, fingering his bottle of pills, then takes the chip with his other hand and puts it in his pocket. Royal takes out her cellphone and starts fingering at a button that wasn't originally supposed to be there.
Royal decides not to mention the Berlin wall.
Kaijikoro raises his brow.
Kaijikoro: An lem’me ask y'... Who told y' that lil’ gem of information?
Juvie: No one told me that one. I figured it out for myself. When I was in Juvie hall, and the shit hit the fan. I didn't tear down Juvie Hall, instead I organized it, and got them to listen to us. Through the system...
Kaijikoro smirks.
Kaijikoro: Oh, so lem’me get this straight... a group of meta teens 'anded t'gether an’ man’aged t' get whatthey want, t' be 'eard?
Juvie: ...
Kaijikoro: Did ‘ja think, that that may 'ave noth'n t' d' with th’ system... an w' th' fact that, united, y'all pos'd a very serious risk t' them?
Juvie: Well of course...
Kaijikoro: I mean, I'm assumin’... That, when I think bout it... this whole base, 's a testament, right... t' th' fact that w'ere all 'ere, or, we're out 'burnin down buildings, right?
Kaijikoro begins to pick up speed, talking faster, licking his incisors.
Kaijikoro: So, 'n a sense... if w' were jus... 'omeless kids... Wards o th' state... without rights, a't all.
Juvie: Some people on the force like the dodgers, cuz it’s easier to keep an eye on us, keeps us all in one place, sure. But I can't answer that one. But... If I were all alone, I'd bet that I would still try.
Kaijikoro: Oh I bet’cha would... but... y’er what, how tall? Y' think with out th'ose claws y’er... very threatening? It’s been tha’ way f’er thousnd’s years! It’s broken and it gonna get fixed! The only way thing’s change ‘s ta show some force!
Juvie is now looking very angery. He takes a few steps closer to Kaijikoro, his fists clenching again.
Juvie: Really Raphe, for someone who admits not knowing much about history, you sure do think you know how things work!
Kaijikoro: All o’ history, Missah Juvie, 's survival of the fittest. Th' philosophy y' both es'pous’in is only right... ‘cuz y' can back it up... with'a claw, or a fist, or a blade!
Royal watches Juvie closely, notices his fists, and frowns.
Juvie: Survival of the Fittest?
Juvie begins to laugh at Kaijikoro.
Juvie: Now you say you study science, and you read philosophy? Boy, you’re just a roadside prophet aren’t you, Raphe? Come-on, let us in on your secret, you can tell us, what reality TV show did you pick up that little bit of Darwin from, Huh?
Kaijikoro raises his brow.
Juvie starts looking angry, very angry.
Kaijikoro: Y' speak'n t-me?
Juvie: Yeah, I am, and, really, I’d like to know!
Kaijikoro: I dun’ w' atch Tv!
Juvie: No! Come on! Share your wisdom upon us ignorant savages.
Kaijikoro grins wide.
Kaijikoro: Y' seem t' b’ getting’ angry. Which 's interesting, o’ course, when y' think ‘bout it...
Juvie: Angry?
Kaijikoro puts his hands on the couch, leaning in to Juvie’s face.
Juvie: Whatever, just seems like you have some very definite ideas on how things should be, or should I say shouldn't, for a… what’s that word?
Juvie looks around the room for a moment as if looking for the answer in the air.
Juvie: Gee, I'm so dumb I can’t think of it. Let’s see...
Kaijikoro waits, eyes narrowing.
Juvie: Oh… right, You seem to have some great ideas for a crazy... son... of... ah...well…
Juvie is ready to spit fire at Kaijikoro, but instead he just smiles.
Juvie: Really, its all good. You’re just a flake, anyway, maybe beyond hope. Really why should I care what you think, or any of you! Most of the Dodgers are beyond hope, at least that’s what they want me to think. Why should you be any different? You waste.
Kaijikoro clutches the cushions, his hands flexing.
Kaijikoro: Waste?
Royal notices that tempers are flaring around her, her stoic face is twitching slightly.
Royal pushes herself up standing.
Royal: No one is beyond hope, the system needs to change and arguing about it isn't going to do it.
Princess Powerfull: But we's got to try anyway don't we Tom? Ta maybe, maybe convince people like Kai that maybe there is a way ta have their cake n' eat it too. While everybody else can get a slice?
Princess Powerfull reaches up and grabs J's hand, restraining and reassuring.
Juvie looks down at Princess... something in his eyes flare… something red, something angry, something she hasn’t seen before, like she’s gotten in the way of a gun aimed at Kaijikoro. He pulls his hand away from Princess in disgust, rising it above his head in anger.
Juvie: What do you know, anyway? You weren’t there! This place is pretty cushy for you, isn’t it, Princess? And you like it here, don’t you? It’s more than a street punk like you ever had, and you love it! You all come here, you all love it, but you don’t give a damn what its here for, none of you! Sometimes, I wonder if you really know what I'm talking about, Princess!
Kaijikoro holds the cushions, eyes narrowed.
Something in Juvie struggles, his hand is raised. Something inside is screaming to lower it, while another side is screaming, lower it on to the bitches face! Spoiled brat deserves it! But it isn't two voices, it isn't someone else's voice trying to control him, no, it isn't anyone but himself, looking down at Princess while she looks up at him, shock on her face.
Then a voice does control him. A voice that seems to fill the room. A quiet yet commanding voice. A voice of a royal.
Royal: Settle down everyone! Perhaps we should all sit down and gather our thoughts for a moment!
A light switches of in Juvies eyes, and he falls into blackness...
Now let me take you back to the present where Juvie...
…wakes up on his couch waring the jeans, t-shirt, and boots still stained with the blood from last night's Perez Park fight. Juvie runs his hand through his hair and stretches, feeling refreshed for the first time in weeks, but that doesn’t last long as the memory of last night's dream comes back to him.
He had pulled his hand away from Princess in disgust. He'd raised it above his head. He was so angry! God, he’d wanted to hit her! He’d almost hit her. He’d almost hit Emily!
Juvie wiped his face, rubbing his swollen eyes as he tried to shove the dream back to sleep. Rolling off the couch and onto his feet, Juvie noticed that the basement was empty and quiet. Thank god for that small kindness. Then Juvie looked down at himself, at the dry and crusted blood on his clothes. Juvie tore them off and wadded them up in disguest as he rememberd hunting down the gangers one by one on Hells' Highway.
“What’s happening to me?” his voice echoed in the empty room. In response his smothered cell phone beeped back from somewhere within his wad of cloths. Finding it and filpping it open, Juvie sees that the call came from Sean. "Great, what he hell does he need now? Yawning, Juvie hits connect and listens to the voice mail.
"Juvie me boy, I think we may have a problem. "
"Stripling found a body in King's Row, but it wasn't the only one. The body was wearing a nametag; Nancy, but the body was male. He was obviously killed first, but found last. I ran DNA on the evidence Stripling brought in. His name was William Hendrick Flint. Sound familiar?”
“Another body, identified as Mike Low, and a female body, Akisha Brown were found together. No connection between those two is known. A third corpse, a Pedro Carrerras was found decorated with a bull's eye drawn on his face. However, the names should sound familiar to you. They are on the list of your “Scared Meta Straight” program. Seems someone is doing in your students.”
"Should we look into this? Call me back.”
Juvie slowly sat down and let his cloths drop to the floor while listing to the call. He didn’t need to look up their files, he remembered them, he remembers all of them, the ones that make it, the ones that fail, the ones that are lost, the ones that are found. Some are still his friends, or were, until his phone call.
William or Bill, or Billy, or (most recently “Nancy”) Hendrick Flint, was with the Hellions when he was brought in. He had set a mailbox on fire. It was just a prank, something to get some small recognition from his friends. He didn’t realize it was a Federal crime. Luckily he had a decent lawyer who brought him to the program… when was it? Last winter sometime? He was sixteen then, a fire blaster who never learned how to blast. He was pretty pathetic actually, a kid with a stuffy nose who smelled a bit like sulfur and a look that said, kick me! Juvie guided him through the program, from the first night on the cell block, his exposure to the hardened criminals, and the freak show that are the meta-crime wards. Juvie remembered how scared shitless Flint got when he met an in-mate named Flicker. Yeah, Flint saw what could happen to a lifetime arsonist when Flicker shoved his charred fleshless arms into Flint’s face. Last time Juvie heard from him, Flint was training in a foundry in Kings Row, actually not too far from the basement, where they make the wrought iron gates for the windows and doors in Founders falls. At night he was bar backing and dishwashing at a ‘West Side’ Talos bar called “The Roost.” He sounded happy when he asked me to start calling him Nancy.
Mike Low and Akisha Brown had no connection? They had come separate to the program; Mike a shoplifter, Akisha a drug user and pusher. Mike could affect gravity but lacked the control necessary to keep him from crushing his own legs, which forced him into a life full of painful physical therapy, and crutches. Akisha’s power was that she could fade, literally. She controlled her body’s mass to the point that if she weren’t careful, she would fade completely from existence. The drugs she sold and consumed were the only things that broke through the fear of nothingness that had become her life. Juvie’s first impression was that these two shouldn’t have been in the program. Sure they committed crimes, but they weren’t criminals, and Juvie made sure that their stay in the program wasn’t a nightmare. One thing Juvie remembered, vividly, was when Akisha learned she could affect other people’s mass, and in turn, realized that she wasn’t a living ghost but something that could react with the world around her and bring it into her own tangible level. Juvie also remembered, only a few days ago, when Mike met Akisha for the first time. Mike thought Akisha worked for the program, while Akisha thought Mike was lost and needed directions out of the prison. Then they discovered that Akisha’s power could free Mike from his crutches and pain while keeping him from crushing himself involuntarily, while Mike’s power grounded Akisha for the first time, and made her feel more real than she had ever felt before. Connections? No. None made in their criminal file. However, their new life together hadn’t lasted long enough to appear on any follow up report.
And then there was Pedro Carrerras, or Pete. The first kid Juvie helped through the system. The kid was 17 going on thirty, from Independence Port, and was caught selling guns to the Family. The kid was a dead shot with anything that could be aimed. The way his eyes worked, ultra focus, and their connection to his hands, would have been perfect for a career as a sports star, or as an amazing artist, or really, anything he could dream of. Problem was Pete was from a poor neighborhood where dreams were expensive but guns were cheap. He learned early that he could make a lot of money if you could use them well. He had sworn that he had never killed anyone, and Juvie believed him. Pete didn’t look like a killer, he didn’t have it in him. If you met him, you’d think he was a technician, or an engineer. He got off on shooting targets, making difficult shots, and showing off. Dealing guns was just how he made money. When Pete got out of the program, Juvie introduced him to the Frank Williams over at the Freedom Corps gun range. Although Pete was no longer allowed to carry a gun, the skills he had were put to use as a trainer there. Pete’s 18th birthday was going to be next week, and his criminal record was going to be looked into and possibly stricken from his file. Frank was planning on getting him a gun license, and a Freedom Corps uniform.
Juvie flicked his cell phone closed, set it down, gathered his cloths, and shoved them into the power core’s incinerator. Then he headed to the bathroom, to get ready for his day. He had a feeling it was going to be a long one.
Chapter 11
Fallout Part Two
Juvie jumped over the rooftops of Brickstown while avoiding the TV aerials and chimneys. In one hand a CuppaJoe Coffee, ((no sugar, extra cream)), while he’s cheeks puffed with the remains of the croissant that tasted of butter, flower, and a hundred other ingredients (including the taste of the pan it had been cooking on, the utensils used to mix its batter, and the fingers of the baker that laid it out for cooking.) That last taste always made him wince, but it was something he’d learned to accept with his powers.
After a few leaps, the depressingly impressive edifice of the Zig Penitentiary came into view, rising among the row homes that surround it. Landing lightly on one of these roofs, Juvie watched the sun rise while he finished his coffee. Sitting as close to lotus as his untrained legs would let him, he began the breathing exorcises his mentor taught him. Listening to his breath, the pumping of his heart, the breakfast working in his stomach, he centered himself on his body, on the now. Then he willed his mutations to quiet down.
First he deafened his senses, the world around him faded from the sharp lights, rough edges, noxious smells and screeching noises that was his sensory-scape, and allowed his true hearing, sight, sound and touch reassert themselves. The colors around him dimmed and blurred, once again telling him that he’d need glasses one day. His hearing dulled allowing bass tones to disappear into vibratory nothingness, while the high tones escaped into the wind. The sound of birds singing close by caught and held his attention for a moment, their singing no longer splitting his skull. He let his sense of touch dull, allowing the constantly abrasive world around him to dissolve into a shiver that ran up his spine like he’d just given himself a full body scratch. His taste and smell were next, closely linked, it was the first senses he had learned to control, but still the hardest to dull. Breathing in and out, slowing himself down, allowing the wind to caress his forehead and blow his bangs into his eyes.
Then it was his body, the juked up stamina, the healing factors in his blood, and the iron fist of his mutation’s strength he willed to slow and to loosen. This always brought cramps, dizziness, and a bit of nausea, as his own immune system, weakened by non-use, attempts to jump-start while his muscle tissue strains from overuse. He swallowed hard, keeping his breakfast in place, and breathed, breathed, breathed, while the birds sang near by.
Its not good, this feeling of sickness and pain every time he slowed his powers down. Manticore was right, he needed to keep his own immune system up, and his body in shape. Sure he’d been going to the Freedom Corp’s gym, where he lifted weights, swam laps and worked the boxing bags. He’d even been playing pick-up un-powered b-ball games with some of the guys in Longbow, but he’d always cheated, and felt guilty about it. Not cheat to win, but cheat to get by. Whenever he lifted a weight, or ran a lap, he’d always allowed his powers to help him out. It was just too easy to call on those strengths to cover for his weaknesses. Juvie breathed in and out, in and out, and listened to the birds.
He’d have to talk to Jack again. He’d have to convince her, that she needed to… Breath in and out… Juvie knew what he needed to do, he needed to let the dodgers go. He couldn’t help them, not like this. Not with this feeling in him. This anger. Something was going on. Something… breath in and out… something that he couldn’t control…Breath in and out…You’d almost hit Emily… breath in and out… I can’t be there for them… breath in and out…breath in and out… and listen to the birds, who’d suddenly gone quiet.
First came the piece of tar like shrapnel that smacked into his chest. Then came the half-second memory of a hissing sound, a ricocheted sound, and a zinging sound of a bullet whizzing past his leg. Leaping to his feet, Juvie staggered as his mutations kicked on, jarring him for a moment with their perfection. Finally he ducked behind a chimney. “Slow, being stupid, out in the open!” Juvie shook his head clear, than looked out from behind cover and scanned the world around him. The roofs were all empty. No sign of a gunman, no sign of anything. Just empty sky and the flat skyline of row homes.
Juvie looked to where he had been sitting and for the first time noticed the chalk words that were printed there. “I don’t miss. Your day’s are numbered.” His hand reached into his pocket and felt the USB chip there. Frowning, Juvie took one more look around, and leapt the remaining block to the Zig.
Fracture, The Bone-daddy, chuckled behind his mask. “Easy pickin!” He thought as he set his feet, lifted his arm, and aimed at the hero on the roof above him. “Such an easy target, its almost no fun!” The Darkness grew around his forearm, swirling, growing in power and accuracy, “Almost.”
Holding his breath he opened his hand to set the power free, when a fist smashed into his face causing the dark bolt to miss its target, and dissipate harmlessly into the sky, while the fist’s knuckles cracked against his mask, shattering it to pieces, and turned the cartilage beneath into a sour mash of snotty blood. Fracture crumpled in a heap. The symbol of a crown was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.
“That was a bit close! Don’t cha' think, T-bone?” The hero called from down the rooftop. “I don’t mind playing decoy, but I do mind playing target!”
“Oh… Stop yer’ yammering, Anklet! I got em’ in time!” The big tank called up to his friend. “Da’ plan worked perfect! ‘sides, if’in you were hit, ol’ Saw-bones here woulda’ saved yah.” The tank jerked his thumb behind him where the dark defender had just stepped from the shadows, black energy swirling around his tattooed body.
“Don’t worry Anklet. I’ll be the sitting duck next time.” Saw-bones smiled… then his eyes went blank, as blood began to trickle from his nose.
“Hey, Saw-bones, you feeling a’ite?” The tank asked as the dark defender took a step forward, then fell, exposing a clean little bullet-hole in his temple.
“BONES!” T-bone knelt t lifting the hero off the pavement, as his friend’s life drained into his lap. “Bones! Bones!” The tank felt his friend’s heart stop, then his breathing stop. T-Bone looked for help and noticed that the Skull was still there, passed out. Why wasn’t the teleporters taking him away! Looking back down at his dieing friend, panic struck. Why aren’t the teleporters working! “ANKLET! HELP, I don' no wat' ta do!!” He wailed!
Anklet leapt down the building side, widow to window, something was wrong! “T-bone what happ…” Strange? I was just reaching for a windowsill, and I haven’t anything to reach with. Curious! Anklet thought as he missed his grip on he 9th story. As the pavement rose to meet his falling body, Anklet looked at the spot where his arm use to be, now just a stump of mangled blood and bone. “What the fu…”
T-bone watched Anklet fall, but he didn’t see him land. The bullet that killed him entered at the bridge of his nose and exited just behind his left ear.
The street was empty and quiet for a long time. Somewhere, birds started singing.
Fracture struggled to his feet. Pulling his cracked mask aside, he held his hand to his nose to stop the blood that drained from there. Blinking past the pain of his blackened eyes, he looked around confused, expecting to see the interior of the King’s Row precinct house, but instead discovering the three heroes, The Kingsmen, bleeding out into the curb.
He stumbled backwards and fell on the slick blood covered pavement. In panic he scrambled away, crab-style, tipping over a garbage can and setting a nearby watchdog barking as he sought safety in the shadows of the Gish.
Athena Curry blew her hair out of her face in frustration as she pulled another file from the pile of more than fifty that had just arrived on her desk. This one was labeled, Tom Cooper, evidence part 22. Each file contained page after page of photos, testimonies, and eyewitnesses accounts of alleged illegal activities that Tom had committed during the Rikti war and the years following including; looting, extortion, assault, vandalism, drug-dealing, conspiracy to committee crime, and rape. The lists just went on and on. Many of these accusations Athena could imagine being true. Juvie was just a kid, trying to stay alive on the streets during the war. She herself had looted a grocery store once to get food for her brother and mother, but the sheer amount of crimes in these folders told a different story, one of calculated criminal activity during a time of War.
The new District Attorney who had taken on Juvie’s case had delivered the files to her. A man name Simon Bar. Athena didn’t know him, never had heard of him before, but he seemed to be intimately familiar with Juvie’s case history. More so than she had been. If even half of these allegations are correct, then Juvie had been holding out on her. Looking over the next file, she pulled a pen from her purse and started jotting down notes, only to run out of ink. She threw the pen aside and hunted in her purse, then her desk. No pens.
Rolling her eyes at the enormity of the evidence pouring in, she couldn’t possibly research every crime listed in these files, she didn’t even have a budget for new pens let alone the hours of fieldwork this will take! Hunting down and interviewing just one folder’s worth of eyewitnesses would take months. Where did they all come from, and why were they coming forward now? Even if Simon decided not to pursue these cases, there was enough testimonial here not only to keep Tom from early parole, but it might just be enough to send him back to Juvie Hall without parole.
Athena reached for another file just as an intern arrived at her office with another mail bin full of folders. “Oh, Tom.”
Juvie sat at his desk at Scared Straight, staring at the cubical wall, his eyes unfocussed while emotion welled within him. Anger, seething there… “Control it, Tom.” …Breath-in…Breath-out.
“Hey, Tom.” It was Sheriff Dan Frank, the lead in the department who leaned into his cubical. He had a worried look on his otherwise washout face. “I need to talk to you, mind stepping into my office?”
“Fine!” Juvie blinked and smiled, “I mean, yeah, sure, what’s it about?”
“Just, follow me Tom.”
Juvie shut down his computer and followed the Sheriff passed the other cubicles crowded into the unused locker room, and into an office that was once a shower room. Office space at the Zig was premium, and if any room was available, it was used. Scrapping open a folding chair on the cement floor, Juvie sat and looked absentmindedly at the cracked tiled walls.
“Tom, I got a report in from the Infirmary, that a group of Hellions came through the hospital teleporters last night, and they were hurt pretty bad.”
“Serious.”
“The ones that could talk, they all named you as their assailant.” The Sheriff looked across his desk at Tom who still looked at the tiles with a blank face. The Sheriff continued, “I don’t believe them, of course, but there is this need for an investigation that’s been handed down from upstairs.”
“I did it.” Tom didn’t look at the Sheriff, but instead spoke to the tiles.
“Well…” Sheriff Frank adjusted his seat and pushed papers around his desk, avoiding the pink one in it’s center. “I’m going to pretend, just for now, that I didn’t hear that.’
“I did it. I hurt them.”
“I’m sure they deserved it.”
“No they didn’t.”
“Well, that’s not really up to me to decided. So internal affairs is looking into it. I’m sure nothing will come of it, but they’re going to want a statement from you, and I’d be vary careful what I say to them.”
Juvie looked toward the tile, but instead saw the blood on Hells’ Highway. “What do you think I should say, Dan?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know. Not my place to say really, but I think you should see a lawyer.” Sheriff Frank rearranged his desk again, again avoiding the paper that sat in its middle. “Really Tom, I don’t know why they’re making such a big noise about this. The Infirmary teleporters handled most of the injuries, its not like the Hellions don’t deserve to get their ass kicked every once in a while, but someone upstairs is really on me about this. Anyway, I think its best if you, took some time off.” Sheriff Frank finally lifted the page off his desk and handed it out to Tom. “Don’t think of it as a suspension, just think of it as a vacation, without pay.”
Finally Tom looked at Dan Frank, narrowed his eyes and snatched the letter of suspension from his hand. Later the Sheriff will remember red eyes, but for now he just wants to get away.
“Listen you fucking asshole! I don’t get paid to be here! This is part of my goddamn community service! I’m a fucking convict not your goddamn employee or your fuck buddy, so stop blowing flowers up my ass. You don’t want me, fine! This just sets me free from this useless pathetic hole. I’m out’ta here!”
((Writer’s Note: The following event tales place after Jack Traver’s final chapter for “Sol Invictus,” and was written by Princess Powerfull, ENJOY))
Emily stood on the platform, leaning against the rusty railing. It wasn’t far now. The trip was nearly over. Another hour and she would be back in Paragon. She smiled a little at that. The isles didn’t agree with her at all. She knew some heroes and villains made the trip often, but there was something about it that seemed to make everything in her “off”. Perhaps it was something in the air, the environment, or even the power of the PTS all around. The eggheads had always told her that her body was constantly mutating, adapting, so perhaps it was that, just her body adapting. She shrugged her shoulders. It didn’t matter now.
Glancing back through the window behind her, she gave the captain a smile. The man smiled back at her, with a wince. His face was puffy and bruised, and one eye was swollen shut while his Council uniform was a mess, wrinkled, and with dried blood from his nose on it. The man wasn’t very compliant at first, but after Emily had confirmed the containers were full of goods and weapons destined for the Council operations in the Rogue Isles, and after she had subdued him and his fellows, he’d been quite agreeable to completing his trip and lying over for a day in port. The fact she had locked him up with the rest in one of the empty containers when she left and threatened to turn the bunch of them over to Arachnos if he had refused to comply probably helped things along.
Over the sounds of the waves, the creaking of the ship and the rumble of its engines deep below decks, there was a gentle ‘clomp’, like boots landing upon the deck above her. Spinning around in surprise, Emily gazed up atop the wheelhouse at the foreign yet familiar sight of the white clad Arbiter looking down at her. The man adjusted his glasses and fixed her with a handsome smile. “Now, before you do anything rash… please hear me out.” He said, holding up his empty hands in front of him in a sign of good will and surrender.
After scanning the empty deck for signs of an ambush, Emily fixed him with a stare; her face smirked in skepticism, and then slowly nodded.
“I do not think we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting young lady, but I can assure you I know both you and several of your friends very well. Including Mr. Tom Cooper, who I know is quite close to you.”
Emily continued to stare at him; stone faced and unresponsive to his words.
“As you may or may not know I had a bit of a… run in with Mr. Cooper not too long ago. We had a nice chat where I made him a proposition, however, he was not very kind to my offer I’ll have you know. He was even, if I dare say, rather nasty about the whole thing. But… I am not a man to feel such petty slights. Indeed if I were to act against him, by say… harming someone he was close to, hmm? Someone he even professed his love to, perhaps? Why, that could ruin the perfectly fine working relationship we’ve been developing. No, I think that would not be prudent at all.” Arbiter Sands assured her with that sly smile of his again.
“Now something where to happen, say… the Council getting revenge for you fouling up their plans? Well. I certainly couldn’t be held responsible for that. Could I?” He asked with that smile on his face even as the teleporter engaged and he vanished from the ship.
As his image finished fading, Emily jumped up and landed next to the spot where he had just stood. No sooner had he landed, than an explosion rocked the ship causing her to stumble to the railing side. Turning around Emily had time enough to see a chain of explosions consuming the ship fore to aft. She even felt the roof below her feet bubbled and bucked outward with the force of the last blast.
Chapter 12
The Fall of The Firefly Kid
I gave up pulling on the shackles days ago. I gave up on everything, days ago. I’ve given up. My hands… they’re numb now, but they’re still there. I know, because every once in a while, they hurt them, and when they hurt them, I can feel them. I know they’ve taken things from me. I don’t feel some things anymore, but the things they hurt, I feel pain, and that’s how I know I still have hands, and that I’m still alive.
“Ahh, you’re awake, good. How do you feel?”
“…”
“Yes, well, please don’t try to talk. I’m sorry I asked.” Arbiter Sands steps into view of my one good eye, the left eye. My right is swollen shut, I think; I haven’t been able to see with it for days. He holds a handkerchief to his mouth when he talks. What… what’s that in… reflected in his glasses! Oh my God!
“Oh, I’m sorry, I should have removed these, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” My god! My face! My face! Don’t think about it. I give up. I… just don’t think about it.
He’s taking off his glasses, those hideous glasses. He’s wiping them with his handkerchief, whipping off my reflection. Then he sets them down, somewhere, out of view, of my one good eye. His actions, so… normal, how can he be so, when I’m like this?
He’s covering his mouth with that handkerchief again. Touching it to his lips, and looking at me again, but now its worse. My reflection was hiding something worse. His eyes are looking at me in pity. Pity from those eyes, it’s too much. I’d cry, but I don’t think I’m able to.
“I, I’m sorry this has happened. I fully intended to follow through on our agreement concerning the Travers’ boy, but even an Arbiter’s powers are limited. You’re past obligations are ones that I cannot ignore. You should have told me about how you left us. How you abandoned your duty to Arachnos. Unfinished duties, unfinished work that hurt people, which caused problems, for others. I would have arranged something. I would have talked to someone, on your behalf, for a favor of course, but it’s too late now. I’m a member of an organization after all. An important member, of course, but still, just a member, not its entirety.”
He’s left my view. Thank god. I can’t take it, that pity.
“Are you quite certain?”
He’s talking to someone else, someone behind me.
“It’s a part of him, like a parasite. We’ve managed to suppress it, but we cannot remove it without killing him.”
The second voice, I know that voice, and when I get out of here, I’m going to find the man who uses that voice and… and… I’m going to… tie him up… and I’m going to…
“I see.”
…tie him up, and I’m going to cook him with electricity, cut… I’m going to slice him with sharp knives, Ginsu his mother-fucking ass! I’m going to record it, so I can show it to his friends, because I’m going to find them also… and his family, and I’m going show them how I removed things from him, bit by bit, until he… until he only has pain left, then I’m going to do it to them, to all of them...
Sands is in my view again, with the handkerchief over his mouth, and his goddamn eyes.
“Your armor is worth quite a lot. I’m sure you know that. But you, I’m afraid, you have no worth. You once served a purpose, but that purpose has ended. My organization wants their armor back, and so, such is politics.”
You can’t. It’s not possible! It’s part of me for god’s sake! You can’t! It won’t let go, it wont come off! I tired! Let me go, I’ll do anything, anything! You’ve read my files! You know! I’ll do anything… anything…
“I’m gratified you are unable to speak, or else you would be begging me for you’re life. A life that, although is worthless to me, I still cannot afford to give to you. Honestly though, I’ve done all I can, but I must wash my hands of you.”
You wont get the chance! I’m going to kill you Sands! I’m going to… My arm is free! The pain! The Pain! God the Pain, the exquisitely unbearable pain! So worth it, so worth it, the pain, tells me that I have his throat, my fingers, painfully digging for his windpipe. The shackle is dangling there, from my white dead broken wrist, but my twisted fingers, my beautiful twisted fingers have him! I’m going to do it! I’m going to kill him…
His eyes, he’s looking at me with pity! But I’m killing him, why, pity? He’s gripping my dead wrist. Now he’s tugging at it… tugging, gently…
…and my hand, it come free… from his throat, no strength, I have nothing left. He’s placing it on my chest. I give up.
“Take the armor. Whatever you must do. Do it.”
He’s leaning in close to me, to my left ear, my last good ear. He’s whispering.
“I know about the fire, that killed your parents, and I have the proof that it wasn’t your fault. I’ll show it to your sister. Rest easy.”
...and he’s left my vision, my one good eye, and I do cry, I can cry. I sob. Its painful, to cry, but the pain lets me know I ‘m still…
“When you’re done, clean him and dress him in this uniform. Then, send Firefly Kid's remains back to his Dodgers."
...I hear a humming noise, I stop feeling pain, and I realize that I’ll never feel pain again.
Chapter 13
Playing Catch-up, Part 1
Cold and lonely, Tom awoke in the dark. The luxury apartment he’d chosen to camp in hadn’t had the luxury of electricity for a long time, but it didn’t matter. Even if he’d been able to turn on a lamp it wouldn’t have been able to penetrate Dark Astoria’s gloom. Besides, he’s eyes were getting use to the eternal dark. Tom settled back against the wall and allowed his senses to expand, to fill the space, to listen and feel the high-rise around him. Feeling for motion, for activity, for danger; but nothing come to him. The apartment was as vacant as the neighborhood around him.
That’s not to say the building was empty. The wisps come and go. The shadows of the apartment buildings’ past occupants, doing the things they use to do. They’re not ghosts, as far as Tom has figured out, ghosts tend to glow, well the ghosts he’d encountered in Salamanca glowed, and they tended interact with the world around them. For instance, Penny Tuesday complains that ghosts steal her candles and play tricks on her, but these shades would pass right through you without even blinking. They go to school, to work, they open their shops in the morning, restaurants serve lunch and dinner, and bars even let-out at 3am. These shades do everything that they did in their past lives, forever replaying the last events of their past lives. If you live in Dark Astoria long enough you don’t need the sun to tell time, just watch the shades. Right now, from where Tom has set up his sleeping bag, he can see that the apartment's former occupant, Bob, is in the bathroom showering, therefore it must be around 7am. The water isn’t running, its been shut off for as long as the electricity, but Bob doesn’t notice. He doesn’t notice anything that wasn’t apart of his last “real” day, including his new roommate sleeping in his den. So, Tom let Bob do his thing, watching him fade in and out of site until finally disappearing through the front door. He's probably off to his architect firm hoping to meet a deadline that will never arrive.
Tom winced as he stretched. His leg cramped in pain. Pulling up his jeans he prodded at the deep bruise on his calf. The day before he hadn’t been able to walk on his leg. Today, it just felt stiff. Tom pulled himself to his feet, tested the leg, shook it out, and tried again. Biting his lip, he applied pressure, a little stiff, but solid. A lucky Rikti got him with power-blast. He’d been slow; picked a fight with too many of them, out matched, and ‘bam’ his leg felt like it was hit with a sledgehammer. Tom took a few steps around the drafting table and back to his sleeping bag, limping along the way. Tomorrow it will be as good as new. Tomorrow he could go out again, and kick those fucking Rikti’s asses! FUCKING RIKTI!
He remembered when they came back!
The zombies, disorganized, stumbling, “Away! Away!” they groan. “Away! Away!” they chant. “Away! He comes!” they warn!
Eyes flashing like a rat pierce through the soup that is Dark Astoria’s air. A streak of red, clouds of dark amber, blood, and hate. Then a snarl, “I come!”
The Banished Pantheon of Dark Astoria now falls, one after the other, their bodies sliced, eviscerated, and splayed across the buildings. Gore and bones. Alleyways turned butchers blocks, charnel houses, slaughterhouses.
“Away! He comes!”
- All Dodgers, the Rikti are attacking. Give me your location, status, and describe any opposition. Scanning for information now.::
Juvie reels! His head pounding with the message sent by Crimson Muse! His bruised and bloody hands reach for his temples as he lets out a cry of pain and falls to his knees in the bloody gutter.
- Get out of my head, bloody witch!::
The Zombies slow… turn… something in their limited awareness feel a change has occurred in the being that peruses. There is weakness there. Their relationship has changed. They are no longer its prey; they are now its predator. “We come! We Come!”
Juvie looks up; eyes clear for the first time in weeks begin to fill with panic.
“What? What?” The blood, the bodies, the Zombies the gloom, the light. The light?
His eyes blinded by the light! The piercing light! Eyes that haven’t seen light in weeks, now burned by it. Confused, Juvie stumbles to his feet, backing away from the Zombies.
Then the sound of thunder followed by a concussion of fragments and pain. The Zombies join Juvie in a blast that throws everything across the ally and into to a brick wall. The building opposite them demolished.
Rising from the ruins around him, Juvie eyes wince as they adjust to the new light of the Rikti drop ship.
The Rikti!
Memories flood Juvie’s mind of a few years ago. A time filled with the explosions that took away everything he knew, the school, the orphanage, the bodies of his housemates, the bodies of the heroes falling around him. Then the hiding and the things he did to survive those dark days, and all the days that followed them. The Rikti!
Anger once again grew in Juvie… and this time he'd welcomed it!
Juvie’s claws whipped out and slashed down into the drafting board beside him. The table splintered to the floor.
Among the ruins of Bob’s desk, Tom blinked, retracted his claws, and whipped the tears from his eyes. Tom dropped back onto the sleeping bag, and pounded the floor in frustration. Then he closed his eyes, and began to breath, in and out, in and out…and let his mind drift.
The chip… the chip was filled with information, about him and about the others. Where was it? Who had he given it too? Its so hard to think anymore… breath in… breath out… remember…
INT. SECURITY ROOM. ARTFUL DODGER’S BASEMENT. WEEKS AGO
Juvie has asked Wylde Hunt to meet him in The Basement. He needed to show Sean the chip he’d gotten. The chip with all the encrypted info on it. Maybe Sean could hack it, find out everything that’s on it, and help.
Juvie: There's something, something I need you to see.
Wylde Hunt: What?
Juvie: Here, I need to you look at this.
Juvie fishes in his coat pocket and pulls out a USB chip, look at it for a second, flips it once in his hand, takes a deep breath, and tosses it to Wylde Hunt. Hunt catches it, and holds it up to the light, seeing the blood on it.
Wylde Hunt: What's this?
Juvie: Well... As far as I've gotten with it, it’s an immense file, but only some of it is decrypted so I can read it.
Wylde Hunt puts it in the port…then closes his eyes. Wylde accesses the computer system with his new found technological talent allowing his cortex to link with the basement’s mainframe, and displaying he information into this visual center… Juvie eating lunch with Jack at a subway shop, Juvie working at Scared Meta-Straight, Juvie's route from the basement to the prison, along with time tables, contact lists and other personal information. There are a lot of pictures of Juvie taken only a few feet away. Then the images begin to scramble until only blindingly fast scrolling pixels remain.
Wylde Opens his eyes and blinks.
Wylde Hunt: Who made this?
Wylde Hunt closes his eyes again, and pulls back from the scrolling numbers to find he is only looking at one column, there look to bee a number of similar columns, with other files, filled with other people? Other places? It’s hard to discern through the encryption.
Juvie: Sands.
Juvie looks down at the ground.
Juvie: I got it from Sands.
Wylde Hunt opens his eyes. "Sands?"
Juvie: Yeah.
Wylde Hunt whispers silently "Christ on a crutch!"
Juvie: I need to know what the other files say. I need to know if Pete, and Ashekia and Bill… and... I need to know who else is on that chip.
Wylde Hunt: Let me set up a code run... It will take some time.
Wylde Hunt whispers to himself, then pulls the chip out and puts it in a port on a box on his wrist.
Wylde Hunt: I built this to keep me in touch with the system. Wireless.
Juvie nods and watches as Wylde Hunt slides it back next to the tubes on each arm.
Juvie: I ... I think your' right, about... my students being targeted. I think, Sands killed them. Don't, serious now... listen! Don't tell anyone about this unless its dire, if you find targets or something. I don’t' think a panic will do anyone any good. At least not until we know what’s on that thing.
Wylde Hunt: This is your secret. Trust me. I have the time to work on this.
Tom breathed in, breathed out… and remembered. Sean has the chip, and he was working on it.
"I, I should call him, find out, find out what he found. If, if anyone else is in danger, I got’ a know…"
Tom felt inside his coat. Worked through the pockets. Empty. Tom padded his pants. Empty. Tom looked though his duffle bag. Pulled out some clothes, felt them for his phone. Nothing.
"Where the fuck is my phone!"
A tearing sound made Tom blink. in his hands, what was once a pare of his jeans was now nothing but a tattered mess. Shit! Tom threw the rags across the room. Blinked a few times then settled in to breath again… in and out…Tom thought hard.
There was a note. No, two notes. One from, Nuke? And the other was unsigned, but it must have been from Cheapjack. Yeah, it was the last time I had my phone. There were two letters sitting outside The Basement’s vortex...
Juvie knelt and picked them up, flicked out a claw, he cut open the envelopes.
The first envelope contained a piece of paper, with a hastily written note.
“I think I've found the answer.
-Nuke”
Nuke? Juvie thinks for a second, then tucks the paper aside and pulls a heavier sheet of paper out of the second envelope. This one has elegant handwriting on it:
“Come to Bloody Bay on Saturday, 9:00
or else the green candle gets his!”
Juvie walks into the common room and thumbtacked the letters to the community board. Then he pulls out his phone… his phone… I had my phone then…and… he fumbled with it, while he tacked the notes to the board. He wanted to talk to Jack. While he dialed, Juvie walked to the Security Room, to see if the security camera’s caught who left the notes. As the call rang threw, Juvie saw the message displayed on the monitor.
ALERT
Nuclear Striker
Status: UNKOWN
Location: CAP AU DIABLE, ROUGE ISLES
Juvie reads this just as his Jack’s voice mail picks up…
…And, I was so angry! I remember I got so angry! First it was Jack’s little brother Dustin getting into trouble and being sent to Jail. Then Royal, breaking him out, taking him, kidnapping him, God only knows why! Then, then it was Martial Eidolon, getting framed by Detective Howell, and… and now this, Nuclear Striker going missing and Cheapjack able to just waltz into the base, drop a note whenever he wanted. Everything was going wrong.
I started to yell… I started to yell at Jack…
"Jack, shit… Answer your goddamn phone! Listen, got two letters, one from Nuclear Striker, and the other I think is from that Cheapjack guy! It looks like Nuclear Striker got some info on what was going on, and Cheapjack got to him! Cheapjack wants to talk to us this Saturday in Bloody Bay and... Fuck, this is all going down wrong! Everything’s fucked up! FUCK!"
…Then I lost it. I remember… I just lost it. I was so angry. I couldn’t stop myself. I had to… try… to stop myself, I needed to think! I dropped the phone on the ground, I dropped the phone and I tried to get it out of me. I just let lose, and screamed! I remember screaming! I tried to get it together, I… I picked up the phone, I needed to tell Jack, let her know that Nuke was in trouble, but instead I just vented!
"Call fucking Sean and Halo to get the Fucking Security working! FUCK! AND get that asshole Casval to... FUCK! If he's so fucking good, get him to get Nuke back! Fucking worthless, it’s fucking worthless!"
…That's when I lost it completely. I smashed my phone, I smashed it. And I was going to start smashing everything, everyone, and anyone… I remember I wanted to rip, and tear, and…. That’s when I left. That’s when I left the Dodgers and came to Dark Astoria.
Tom breathed in and out… and remembered the weeks of hunting the Banished Pantheon. Just venting, hating everything! Wanting to destroy, to rend, to tear everything apart. Street by street, block by block, ripping the zombies limb from limb, heads rolled, mummified guts, and… and… just wanting to kill these dead things filling memories painted in coagulated blood. How long had he butchered the dead? How long? He remembered, a night, a night when he was tired, and he came back to this apartment to sleep, but someone was here.
It was Jack. She’d found him. Found his hiding place. She was standing in this room. She was looking through his things! How dare she touch his things! Juvie wanted to hurt her. To hurt her, and teach her not to snoop where she wasn’t wanted! But… but… no, Tom wanted her. Tom needed her. There she was, looking through Tom’s stuff. Looking for him. Tom wanted to cry out, help! Jack I need help! But if he had, Jack would have convinced him to return, and he would have, could have hurt someone if he returned. So he could only look at Jack, sitting there in the dark. She, she had stopped looking though Tom’s things. She was listening; she knew Tom was there, in the apartment. She knew she was being watched.
“Tom? Tom, get your fucking ass out here! I need to talk to you!”
Juvie leaped away from the apartment building, away from Jack, away from The Artful Dodgers, and away from Emily. Juvie leaped away and down into the gloom to the bags of rotting flesh waiting there for his anger.
Tom's eyes snapped open… the pain shocking him awake. His leg twisted under him. His bad leg! He had leapt while he was remembering. He had leapt, he… he had leapt away from the apartment building for real! He... his leg! He had leaped away from the apartment building and landed here! What the hell? Where was he? It’s so dark! Where was he? God the pain is incredible! Tom grabbed his leg and tugged, tugged it out from under him and twisted it back in place, and felt the bone grind… and almost passed out.
He was thirsty. So fucking thirsty, and tired. And… his leg! Tom grabbed his twisted leg. Shit! He need help. God, he need real help! He needs to call someone for help.
Tom tried to stop the pain. Quiet the pain. Dull his senses… breath… breath… breath…
….and remember…
Every corner was an opportunity to vent. There were so many soldiers lurching, so many of the dead Banished Pantheon shuffling in the dark, each one a target for Tom’s hate! And it was easy. So easy to bit into them with claw and fist, and tear, rend, take, rake, kill! In the back of Tom’s head, something smiled, and laughed. It was good to do this thing. These abominations! These dead nothings, mockeries of life, and of valor, and of loyalty to king, and country, who died for causes, and who are arisen, as husks of dead nothing! Destroy them. Kill them, again!
Tom remembered the bodies lined up behind him, the line of bodies shambling toward him. They seemed to just run to him. To offer themselves on his claws, and the anger in his head was soothed by this. The anger in him rejoiced in this. Yes… this was good. Destroy the Pantheon! Destroy them! And when they were all gone, when they were destroyed, then The Circle of Thorns! The anger grew! The Circle will be next! I will hunt them! I will hunt them, and then… and then MAGI! Yes… MAGI, and anyone who touches magic! How dare they touch my things! Up ahead, there was another group of the Pantheon, waiting for my claws, and behind me, the line of bodies trailing off down the street, the line of bodies leading back, and back, and… leading to someone. Someone is back there. Someone is following my offerings…
It was Princess Powerfull. She’d come here. She’d found me. She’d come for me!
Juvie spun, set his claws and leapt to the roof above him, and watched.
The bodies were fresh. This massacre hadn’t happened more than a few moments ago. This is the closest she'd been in weeks.
“Oh, Tom! What the heck are ya’doin’?”
Princess Powefull stood and wiped her hands on her jeans and stepped around the dead zombies and continued down the street, into the gloom.
“Tom! Tom are’ ya there? Tom, Luv! Tom? Come out!”
Juvie perched on the ledge above her. The gloom was dense, but Juvie had been here for weeks, and his eyes were use to it. She was looking for Juvie, but she couldn’t see, not in this gloom. Not up here, above her. Then came her voice from below.
“Tom! Tom are’ ya there? Tom, Luv! Tom? Come out!”
Juvie twitched, his eyes, a burning red now fading… fading until his clear blue eyes showed in the dark.
Princess stopped. The hair on her neck prickling, “Tom! Tom! I know yer’ here! Tom! Come out!”
Her voice, that tuff voice she uses, when she’s the most scared. She’s scared of him? Tom looked down at himself, at the ghastly butcher he had become. The Zombies he’d slashed and hacked and cut and torn, each one, each one could have been her. Could still be her, if she were to say the wrong thing. If that tuff voice were to say something to make him mad.
“Tom! I miss you! Come out!” Princess felt him. He’s up there, on one of the buildings. He’s looking at her. “Oh, Tom!”
Princess pulled a cell phone out of her hip pocket and held it up. “Tom, I’m leavin’ this phone for ya. I’m leavin’ it right here for ya. Take it! Please take it! I… I won’t call it, and I won’t give no one 'te number! Just… Just take it and use it if ya' need ta’. Just call me! Tom!”
Her voice isn’t tuff anymore. She’s crying. She’s crying up into the gloom.
Tom watches Princess Powerfull places the cell phone on the sidewalk, and steps back. Then looking up into the gloom, once more, she turns and runs away.
Tom lets her run. Then slowly worked his way down the building side, making sure he wasn’t walking into a trap. He waits, and listens. The streets were empty, except for the occasional shambling from the dead, and there was the phone. Tom stuffed it into his coat pocket, and leapt away into the gloom…
…and awoke, in pain! God the pain! His leg, oh god it’s healing wrong! Oh god! Tom tried to concentrate on his healing powers, tried to slow them down. Need to set the leg, before I heal into a cripple! Tom braised himself and begin to push the bones into place. Push… push… he felt them grind. Shit! They had already started to nit together! He’d have to break them again to reset them. Tom began to cry. Lifted his hand, summoned his strength and came down on his calf. SNAP! And passed out.
Chapter 14
Playing Catch-up, Part 2
Claws, blood, claws, blood, theirs and mine mingle, but I will come out on top. I hate them!
Target: Hero: Juvie, The: Cooper, Tom Danger: Threat: Vicious: Killer: Beware Location: Paragon City: Kings Row: The Gish: Grid 440: Alleyway Activity: Assault: Ambush: Failed Options: Kill: Be Killed Directive: Kill
The Chief Solider hefted his power rifle and checked its sight.
Chance: Small Shots Numbered: One Accuracy: Paramount Consequence: Kill: Be Killed Probability: Be Killed Action: Kill
The Chief Solider looked down to where the constant strobe of power rifle shots cast flickering shadows across ally walls. Shadows that mingled and bleed into each other, reflecting the massacre that was taking place within.
Time: Now Action: Kill
The Chief Solider took careful aim down the ally. As the power riffle shots grew less and less frequent, he followed the shadows, found their silhouettes and followed their movements. When the movements stopped and only one shadow remained, he hesitated.
Chance: Small Action:
Juvie surveyed the carnage around him as his anger drained into the gutter along with the streams of Rikti blood. Ejecting his chipped and broken claws, he staggered into the wall as exhaustion shut his powers down like dominos. How many, how many had there been? He blinked at the corpses and thought, too many, there were too many. Then, red light flared like a match behind his eyes, no, not too many, just enough! I came out on top. Fuck them. Juvie looked up at the clear night, gathered his remaining strength, and leapt.
The Chief Solider watched the silhouette as it staggered, and propped itself against the wall. Then, it saw its eyes glow.
Action: Kill
Pain exploded in Juvie’s calf, knocking him off trajectory, and into the ally’s wall. Twisting in the air, he crashed into a fire escape ladder and met the pavement with a sickening thud.
The Chief Solider watched the ally, watched for shadows, watched for silhouettes, watched for movement, and saw none.
Target: Hero: Juvie, The: Cooper, Tom Danger Threat: Unknown: Beware Accuracy: Hit: Lower Body: Leg: Left: Calf Probability: Wounded: Severity: Unknown Location: Paragon City: Kings Row: The Gish: Grid 440: Alleyway Activity: None Action: Kill: Certainty
The Chief Soldier zoomed his site and found Juvie’s body slumped against the wall. He adjusted his posture, lifted his sites and found his target’s head. It was lulled to one side with its eyes closed against the dim moonlight.
Chance: Large Accuracy: Assured Action:
Juvie’s eyes snapped open and flamed in anger!
Action: Be Killed.
Tom snapped his eyes open as pain blinked the memory away. A pain that was so sharp, it stole his scream and left him gasping for breath. Through his tears, Tom slowly sat up. Then he set a claw and cut off his pant-leg at the knee exposing his bruised and swollen calf. He hadn't set it right. It was messed up good. About two thirds of the way up from his foot, he could see where his bone pushed sickeningly in the wrong direction, and the bruise was darker than it should be. There was more going on down there then just the broken bone.
The thought of it turned Tom’s stomach and filled his mouth with bile. Swallowing it down with the pain, he let himself lay back down to cooled his head on the roof tar.
In a whisper, Tom found his scream. “Shit, Emily. Emily, help.”
The zone’s war walls were down and the line of invading Rikti Drop Ships were already halfway through their bombing run when an army of bright and noble heroes arrived to save the day. Powers terrible and mighty were set lose upon one another as each tried to destroy the other. All the while a Vanguard Spy Flier hung high above the battle, seemingly oblivious to the great show of energy and destruction below. Instead of moving with the battle, it sits like a stone against the current. Its cameras, sensors, and various probes trained not on the battle, but upon a lonely patch of an empty lot. The tension of the moment caused the rookie pilot to involuntarily raise his voice, “We’re in position.”
Although quieter, the observation officer’s voice commanded more attention “Steady. Don’t get over excited. If he were here, he would have heard you! We only have moments. He’s entered the portal in Talos, so he should be emerging from the base, now!”
Far below a swirl of blue flashed in the empty lot and deposited their target.
“Got him.” The pilot whispered.
“Hold position. Move only when he does, and then only at a distance. We must not be detected”
As if hearing the observation officer, Juvie looked up directly into on of the Flier’s scopes. The observation officer held his breath as he looked into those flaming eyes. Something made the officer jump, a chill that lasted moments.
Then as Juvie turned his eyes toward the line of Rikti ships in the distance, he set himself, and leapt. The officer let out his breath, “Follow him.”
The Flier swung after Juvie, gliding high above the boy as he raged into the center of the Gish and struck death into the Rikti lines.
“Look at him.”
“Yes, look at him, he's perfect.” The observation officer clicked frame after frame of the attack, while his video, thermal, digital and a hundred other scopes recorded the onslaught. “Don’t get too close, but don’t let him get to far ahead. Ahh, that’s it. Good, good. We need this evidence.”
“Yes, sir.”
The boy was a wonder. The battle below had stalemated, perhaps it was turning into the Ritki’s favor, but now the Rikti were realizing what was in their midst. He was unstoppable. Cutting into the troops as if the battle was only a game.
Frame after frame captured the moments of carnage in the still camera that the film and digital cameras would only describe in a blur. Captured elegant choreography. The graceful butchering of the boy’s fierce attack, as well as the fear that was developing in the Rikti… he could be what we are looking for… he could…
“Sir.”
“What?” The observation officer’s voice showed anger at the interruption.
“Sir, there is another force coming from the south.”
The officer swung a thermal camera south. The rest of the battle had moved on, following the drop ships away toward Atlas Park, but here was an advance of the Rikti reinforcements. No, not reinforcements, there were too many for that. It’s a trap.
“Sir, it’s a…”
“I know what it is! Lower your voice!”
“Should we engage?”
“No, hold your position. We are here to observe, not intervene.”
The ambush caught Juvie in an alleyway in the area of Kings Row known as the Gish. The boy welcomed the new combatants and tore into them without hesitation. There were so many of them! The boy must fail! But, as the officer snapped his pictures, and recorded his film, the Rikti fell, one after another, click, slash, click, claw, click gut, click, click, click, again and again. "If we only had him before."
“It’s, it’s inhuman!”
“No, no. It’s not inhuman. Its other-human, its beaut…” The observation officer caught himself. Did the pilot hear him? Would he understand?
The boy had come out on top, staggered, and leaned against the wall. Then…
“Sir!”
The boy was hit by a rifle blast that flung him across the ally.
“Where did that come from? How could I have missed a sniper?”
“Sir, we must engage!”
“No, hold your position!”
The officer zoomed in on the boy lying in the gutter. Like an innocent child, Juvie's unconscious face looked asleep, unaware of the infrared site marking his forehead for the kill shot.
“Sir!”
“Hold, that’s an order!”
Then the boy’s eyes snapped open, a fire was there, brighter than any flame the officer had ever observed. Fear leapt into the officer’s soul. A fear he’d never felt and for the first time, the observation officer turned away from his scopes as his auto cameras recorded what he himself could not stand to see.
“Sir, its… its…not human! Its something else. Its…something other than human!”
“Yes, it is.”
The observation officer loosened his gun in his holster. The pilot had heard, and he now understood. After they land, he’d take care of the rookie personally.
Cold, how could he be cold? He, he had his coat on. He always had his coat on. He…so cold. Winter? Where, where is he? Dark. Its dark. Thirsty, so thirsty. Emily! He calls out for Emily, and feels for his phone. Where is his phone? He asks the dark, “Emily. Where’s my phone?” He pats himself down, his coat, and his pants. The pain! God!
Juvie groaned and reached for his coat again. “Where’s my phone! I have one. Emily left it for me. Emily! I remember! She left me a phone! Where is it! There, in my coat pocket. Deep down. Deep down. Deep…”
“No don’t pass out. Get the phone! Emily, help. There, its in my hand, its in my, no don’t drop it. No… ok, dial, dial her number, dial her… her number… light! The phone is so bright! Damn it! I can’t see! Damn light I can’t see! So bright! No, it’s not the phone! It’s a Rikti Ship! Here! They’ve found me!”
The roar vibrated the roof beneath Juvie. Wind whipped at him, tore at him, the ship lowered to him.
“Come… come and get me you… come!” Fire started to ignite in his eyes. “Come and get me, you fuckers!” Juvie pushed himself to his feet…
PAIN!
…And fell hard on his side sending the phone from his shaking hands, skip over the roofs edge, and disappearing into the gloom below.
“Emily, HELP!”
Juvie awoke. Thirsty. He opened his eyes to blinding light. “Rikti!”
“No Tom, relax, you're safe.”
Juvie struggled, but couldn’t move. Restrained.
“We had to restrain you, Tom. You almost ripped your own leg off. Relax and we’ll release you, but be careful, your leg isn’t healed yet.”
Juvie closed his eye, and breathed in and out, in and out.
“Where am I?”
“You’re with Vanguard.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Gaussian. My title is tactician, but I'm also in charge of Vanguard's cloak-and-dagger stuff. I've been watching your work, so I know you can handle weird situations, and that you have a tendency to come out on top despite the odds. That sounds like just the kind of person I need right now.”
“To do what?”
“To defeat the Rikti, but more on that later, first, you must be thirsty. There’s a glass of milk on the table to your left.”
Chapter 15
Milk
“Milk. I love the stuff. So white, n’ pure n’ good. Served cold, it’s refreshing, warm, it’s soothing. Some people are lactose intolerant. I couldn’t imagine that. I jus’ couldn’t live without it. Serious. I see how people look at me when I order milk at the D. They think I’m a goody-two-shoe, which I am, but man, I’m no Ascendant. You know? I just gotta drink the stuff a lot, so I drink it when I can, and I’d rather drink it then coke now, or beer, or whatever the others drink.
“I mean, I love milk. I love how it makes me feel. It’s like a high, you know? It’s like a craving. Ok, listen. Ever been hungry for, I don’t know, say pizza, and you’ve been thinking about eatin’ a slice all day, and then someone gives you a slice, and man it tastes so good. Well, that’s how I feel about milk every time I drink it, only better. When I drink the stuff, I can feel it, all the way down, and then it spreads out across my body, like a spark, makes me shiver, up my arms, and into my claws. I can feel them grow under my coat sleeve. Little buds, growing, row after row… like shark’s teeth. When I draw out my claws, like this…”
“Juvie, please, put them away. This isn’t the time for such displays.”
“Oh, right, sorry… here, you got a waste basket? Ok, there, all gone, now… anyway, here, under my sleeve, I can feel the buds from the next set growing out. I mean, they’re already grown; I could set them again, right now. They're that quick ta’ grow. When I’m inna fight, I use, I don’t know ten, fifteen sets? Maybe more! N ’that’s a lot a’ calcium, let me tell’ya.
“But for a while now, the milk hasn’t been enough, you know? I mean, you have any idea how much milk I’d have ’ta drink to make all my claws? Shit, it’d be gallons! I tried, you know? For a while, ta’ not drink milk. Just to see what would happen to my claws. And I got hungry. I mean starving! I could eat a whole sub, n’ fries, n’ shoot, another sub, I mean with the works, and I could still eat more. That hungry! So, I think there’s something goin’ on in my guts, that like, makes calcium from stuff I eat, and that it makes the calcium first, you know, until I got enough in my system, then it lets me eat for the rest of me, it lets me, you know, eat normal. It’s kinda’ sick to watch me binge like that. Some kinda’ mutant chemistry down there, keeping me from running out of calcium, churnin’, and churnin’, and I don’t like ta think about it. But like I said, Milk hasn’t been enough, so I pop calcium tabs now. I eat them…”
Beep
“It’s been five minutes since the subject has stopped talking. His eyes appear dilated. He is motionless, except for his leg, which shakes with hyperactivity. The dosage seems to be accurate. I will now attempt to regain his attention.
Beep
“Juvie, you were…”
“…like candy. I mean, ever read “The Outsiders?” Its like those kids in that book, and how they eat like ten aspirin before they get in a rumble because they know they’re gonna get it, and get it good, and the aspirin will stop the pain, you know? Well that’s what I do with the calcium pills now. Just eat 'em like they were candy. Anyway, that’s all I really gotta say about that. I mean, I really don’t know why I’m harpin’ on my milk right now. I never bothered talking about it before. You know?”
“Yes, Juvie. I know how it can be. But, you haven’t needed to drink as much milk since you’ve been with us, right?”
“No, no, I mean, I still crave it, you know? But I don’t feel that need that I use to feel before.”
“That’s because we understand the, mutant chemistry, as you put it, which is “churnin’ in your gut,” and our milk works with that chemistry better.”
“Yeah, your milk is so good! It’s so sweet! I don’t get hungry at all when I drink your milk.”
“Good, then its doing its job.”
“Yeah… I like your milk. A lot. I really like it.”
“Would you like a glass now?”
“Hellz’ ya!”
“Ok, I’ll order some for you, but first I need to ask you a few more questions.”
“No… no I want the milk now.”
“Juvie, I’ll order…”
“No, I’ll order! Give me the fucking milk! Now!”
“No... No… Juvie, please....no!”
Growls, horrible growls and screams. Screams punctuated with choking, gurgling, coughs and then the sounds become wet and slick.
Gaussian touches his consol to shut off the sounds. With peaked fingers, He sits for a moment in silence, while looking at a small man with big glasses who looks back at him from across a clip board. Then, “Who did we lose?”
“Dr. Hunnycutt, Sir.”
“Where’s the footage.”
“I, I have it locked away sir. I thought, I thought the graphic nature of the footage was unnecessary for you to see at this point.”
“And what point is that?”
“He’s reacting to our formula very well, sir…”
“Reacting well? You think Dr. Hunnycutt would concur with your assessment?”
“It’s just a matter of time until we have the correct dosage.”
“We don’t have time! Time matter’s too much for you to test and hold back information from me. I need him operational within the day! And I need to see the footage.”
“It’s, its not… Sir, its horrifying sir. The footage is absolutely horrifying, I… not even I could watch it sir.”
“Unlock it, now.”
The small man touches his styles against his clipboard and closes his eyes behind those big glasses.
“There, I sent the code. If you will excuse me, Sir, I should…”
“You are not dismissed. Take a seat Dr. Bernard, and open your eyes. That’s an order! You’re going to watch this with me. You’re going to watch all of this, and then you’re going to explain to me at what point your testing is with this boy and how much time you need to get him active.”
“Oh, God.”
Gaussian touches his console and his monitor flashes to life.
“Milk. I love the stuff. So white, n’ pure n’ good. Served cold, it’s refreshing, warm, it’s soothing…”
Chapter 16
I Am Evil
“Tom, do you believe in evil?”
“Yeah, ‘course.
“Tom, I’m evil.”
Dr. Bernard lost balance for a moment and was forced to grip the steel table for support. What the hell is Gaussian saying to him? Is he insane? The new formula isn’t fully tested!
Gaussian shot the doctor a sharp look then returned his attention to Tom. Juvie had barely noticed the small man with the owl glasses stumble; his senses were riveted on Gaussian. “You’re… why would you say that?”
“Because, Tom,” Gaussian took a seat across from Juvie, “Sometimes you have to be evil. I admit that I’ve been evil, but I’ve been good as well. Many times, both at the same time. I have been known to do evil in order to accomplish something good. I believe that the ends justify the means. Do you?”
“No. Nothing good comes from evil!” Tom’s voice had become almost a growl. His irises were turning red. Dr. Bernard gripped the table tighter as his hands grew slick at the sight of them.
“Tom, are you angry with me?”
“No, I mean… yes… but…”
“Yes? You are? Why don’t you do something about it?”
Dr. Bernard nearly lost it. “Sir, I don’t think…”
“Quiet Doctor, I want to hear Juvie’s answer.”
Tom sat for a moment, his legs bouncing in anxiety while his eyes unfocused and refocused, then with typical teenager apathy, Tom slumped and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Dr. Bernard realized he had held his breath throughout the exchange and finally gave out a sigh as his body grew more steady. Thank god the formula’s working.
Tom looked up at the owl eyed doctor, his eyes flashing blue innocence. “Dr. Bernard, are you ok? You look like you need a chair. Here take mine.” Juvie went to stand, but the sound of riffles racking caused him to pause. “Listen, guys, I was only offering him my chair.”
“Tom, we’ll get another chair for the Doctor. You keep your seat until were done.”
“Until we’re done? Well then I got some questions too. Why are the goons here? Why is my door always locked? Am I in jail?”
Again the Doctor grabbed the table to steady themselves as he watched Juvie’s eyes rim with red … hold it in, hold it in, please gods, hold it in!
“Can someone get Doc a chair! Christ he’s gonna' fall down! What's wrong with you! His heart’s pumping a mile a minute and… Christ, look at him! Give the guy a seat!” There’s the sound of locks, six of them, then the door opens and more armed goons come in, one carrying a chair. “Ok, see? Finally, you listen to me!”
“Tom, please.”
“No, please me. What the fuck is with the locks on the doors?”
“You’re not in prison.” Gaussian moved his chair over allowing Dr. Bernard’s chair space at the table.
“They call me Juvie, ‘K? I know when I’m in a prison. What gives?”
“You’re under our care, and we… you’re not well, Tom. You’re dangerous.”
“To who?”
“Tom!” Gaussian put his full authority into that word, but tempered it with love, amazing, thought Dr. Bernard, the man’s a master manipulator. “You know exactly what were talking about, don’t even try to sit there and act innocent to me! You may know prisons, but I know evil, and you Tom, you’ve been evil. Dr. Bernard, please show this young man how evil he has been.”
Dr. Bernard’s touched this styles to his clipboard and activated the monitor. On its screen, Tom sat opposite the late Dr. Honeycutt.
“Yeah, your milk is so good! It’s so sweet! I don’t get hungry at all when I drink your milk.”
“Good, then it’s doing its job.”
“Yeah… I like your milk. A lot. I really like it.”
“Would you like a glass now?”
“Hellz’ ya!”
“Ok, I’ll order some for you, but first I need to ask you a few more questions.”
“No… no I want the milk now.”
“Juvie, I’ll order…”
“No, I’ll order! Give me the fucking milk! Now!”
“No... No… Juvie, please....no!”
Tom turned his head, Gaussian slapped him across the face and pointed to the monitor, “Watch!”
Shocked, Tom turned back to the monitor and watched himself gut Dr. Honeycutt, rend Dr. Honeycutt, and eviscerate Dr. Honeycutt until there was nothing but meat between his claws. Juvie looked down at his butcher’s work and began to laugh. Between guffaws and giggles Juvie looked up at the blood stained camera and spoke, “Now… where’s… my… fucking… milk!”
Dr. Bernard froze the image on that fearsome flame licked face, and turned back to the boy sitting across from him. Boy? He had never thought of Tom “The Juvie” Cooper as a boy before. Of course he had never seen this monster cry either.
“I, I… I didn’t…”
“You killed Dr. Honeycutt, Tom! He had a wife and child who are now planning his funeral; so don’t give me any judgments on evil and good! Don’t you ever judge me or anyone else again!”
Gaussian sat back in his chair and allowed Tom to cry himself out.
“ I don’t remember doing that.”
“No, of course you don’t, you blacked out. You weren’t totally conscious at that moment. You’ve been blacking out a lot haven’t you, Tom? And when you wake, you don’t remember where you’ve been, or what you’ve been doing? Right? But you know, don’t you. You know what you did? Deep down inside, you know. Son, you aren’t in prison, but you’ve been under strict quarantine while we have been trying to help you figure things out..”
Again, Tom began crying as Gaussian stood and moved his chair around the table and placed it next to the boy. Then Gaussian put his arm around the boy’s shaking shoulders and whispered in his ear. “I’m evil, Tom. I’ve done some horrible things, but I repent. I’m truly sorry about the things I’ve done.”
“I’m sorry too! I’m s… so sorry!”
“I know you are, but to truly repent, you need to do good. You need to turn that which is evil in you, toward a good purpose.”
“I want to do that. I’ve been trying!”
“We know. We know, and that’s why we brought you here. So you can.”
“How?”
Dr. Bernard turned away, trying to hide a smile. Got him!
“Are you thirsty? Yes? Ok, Dr. Bernard, please order our boy here another glass of milk while I show him how we can help him help himself. Tom, I’m sure you remember the footage, from the first Rikti war, the footage from the steps of Chrion Medical Center? It was Atlas Park’s last stand of heroes against wave after wave of invaders? Of course you do. It was heroic, no? Of course, it was incredibly heroic. But that footage isn’t the only footage available of that day. There are hours of footage, reel after reel of tragic scenes from other last stands that took place through out the city. Hopeless battles ending in death. Footage that is,” Gaussian let out a sigh, “although equally heroic if not more so, still isn’t suitable for public viewing. Horrifying scenes of massacre. Just horrifying.”
Allowed to lean against a fatherly arm, Tom looked up at Gaussian intently, drawing strength there. Gaussian smiled inwardly at the boy’s need. “I, I know. I watched, from a rooftop as they attacked Crowne Hospital in Kings Row. I saw what they did to Razor and The Pounder, and,” Tom wiped his eyes, “the rest of The Hercules’s Squad when they had finally laid down their weapons and begged for mercy. I remember.”
Gaussian nodded as a glass of milk was set before Tom. Just before the boy could reach for it, Gaussian distracted the boy by pushing the monitor closer. “Do you remember this Tom?”
Dr. Bernard touched another control on his clipboard and the monitor ran footage showing Tom striking at a hoard of Rikti. Even though the action was shot with a telephoto lens on a camera mounted on a flier, the image was as crisp as a Hollywood close-up.
In it, the boy was a wonder as he battled a Rikti invasion. The battle below had stalemated, perhaps it was turning into the Rikti’s favor, but something was changing. Now the Rikti were realizing what was in their midst. Juvie was unstoppable. Cutting into the troops as if the battle was only a game.
Frame after frame captured the moments of carnage and when Juvie became to fast for the camera to capture but a blur, still shots popped up revealing the elegant choreography of the boy’s fierce attack. In the end the footage freeze framed on Juvie celebrating among the massacred dead, while behind him, the next wave of invaders fell back in retreat.
Tom’s eyes were riveted to the screen and after the scene played itself out Tom blinked and looked back at the milk. “No, I… I don’t remember that.”
“What if you could remember? What if you could control it? Imagine would have happened to The Hercules’s Squad had you been there that day? What would have happened to The Protectors, the Remarkables, to the hundreds of men, women, and heroes… to the children on that day, had you been there?”
Tom reached for his glass, but Gaussian picked it up. Tom grew anxious at that and Dr. Bernard raised his clipboard in defense. “Think about it? What you do, is evil, Tom, but with this, with this milk we’ve developed for you, you can repent. You can use that, which is evil in you, for good. You can control it and together we can stop the invasion. We can save lives! We can do that!” Garrison gestured with the glass at the monitor’s still of Juvie celebrating victory.
Tom looked pass the milk and up at the screen.
“Tom, are you sorry? For the things you’ve done? Are you truly sorry?”
Tom nodded…
“Then will you help us? Will you help us stop the war?
…again, Tom nodded.
Gaussian handed Tom the milk. “Good, then I have your first mission.”
Dr. Bernard touched his styles to his clipboard and the monitor once again flashed to life.
