Talyesin's Tales

Previously:

Squirrelman and his girlfriend Ragdoll tracked down the makers of Boost, a dangerous drug, and ran into their friend Ace on the way. Ace was on the trail of another drug cartel, running Pixie Dust. The three of them headed into Downtown, the city under Action City, and with some help of the Mole and a girl named Cricket, managed to put an end to the Boost cartel, which was being run by a mad scientist called Dr. Hi-Q.

Deciding they worked well together, the trio went to lunch and discussed the possibility of formalizing their relationship by officially teaming up.

Later, the trio teamed up with a Weirdsville sorceress called Darklight to take on the UnSeelie Court and their production of Pixie Dust. Heading once again into Downtown, the foursome managed to find nonviolent means to resolve the issue. They agreed to meet the next night to celebrate their victories, and Squirrelman and Ragdoll returned home for a private celebration of their own...




I wake up confused.

Not a good way to wake up generally, but there’s a couple of reasons for it. First of all, it’s still dark. Secondly, Kimmy’s not next to me. Also, I’m starving, but that’s not confusing.

I get up, pull on my boxer briefs and jump over the bannister, landing on the main level without a sound. Stairs are such a waste of time, really. I look over to the office area, and Kimmy’s at the computer, wearing that white silk robe I got her last Christmas. Farrah’s curled into a little ball on the desk, so Kimmy must be surfing datasites. I go to the fridge and pull out couple of cartons of leftover Chinese food, dumping all of it into the same carton. I grab a pair of chopsticks and head over to Kimmy.

“Time is it?” I ask right behind her. She jumps.

“Dammit Matt!” she snaps. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“It’s my fault I’m a stealth god?”

“Yes,” she says, looking into the carton. She looks up at me. “How you can eat that cold I have no clue.”

“University survival mechanism, hon.”

“Sure,”she says, turning back to the datasite. It’s the Costumed Crimefighter Team Registry.

“Did you know there’s no team anywhere called the Guardians?” she asks me.

“Really?” I say around a mouthful of General Tao’s chicken. “That’s odd.”

“Not so much, what with Sentinel’s Guard being such a hugely popular group during the fifties, sixties and seventies. I guess most people just sort of thought ‘Guardians’ would be to closely associated.”

I sort of grunt, mouth full.

“Teams seem to be split, naming structure-wise, along two main trends,” she says. “Either descriptive - like the Defenders of Justice, Warpers, what have you, or locality based, like the Los Angeles Angels, or the Knight City Knights. So that’s something to keep in mind. Do we want to just be associated with Action City, or are we going to go wherever we’re needed.”

“What about, ‘Squirrelman’s Super Squad’?”

She doesn’t even have to look at me to give me that look.

“I'm just saying.”

“Under the terms of the Claremont Act, at the time of registering our team, all members must be registered with the Department of Metahuman Affairs. That means Ace will have to register, even if he doesn’t have any powers.”

“Really.”

She looks at me.

“Just doesn’t seem... Constitutional somehow. It’s like... registering a gun you don’t have.”

“I didn’t make the law,”she turns back to the screen.

“No,” I agree, finishing the Chinese food. “What else?”

“All members registered... financial backing in place - you’ll take care of that?”

“First thing tomorrow.”

“Medical insurance, Property insurance... a meeting place - we’ll need to scope some spots for that.”

“They’re going to have a hell of a lot of information on us when they’re done.”

“It all goes into the Protected Registry, you know that.”

The Protected Registry was the only way the costumed crimefighters back then would agree to the Claremont Act. It’s a database with only one terminal, accessible only within the secure vault of the DMA. All the information is encrypted with an algorithm so complex it takes four supercomputers to decrypt, all using a separate encryption key. Only the President, the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of Metahuman Affairs, and the Judge Advocate General get a key. All four individuals have to be present in order for the Registry data to be accessed.

I’m not saying I trust all four of those individuals, but Doc Sterling’s the man who came up with the system, and I trust him.

“What time is it?” I ask Kimmy.

“Almost two.”

“Okay.” I toss the carton and wash off the chopsticks, then head back upstairs.

“You going on patrol?” she calls after me.

“Yeah, you wanna come with?”

“No thanks, I still want to get some info.”

“Okay.”

I suit up and head back downstairs. She’s looking at me, backlit from the computer screen, in that white silk robe and a mischievous little smile on her face.

“What?”

“My man... damn you look good in that suit.”

“What, no goggles and a ratty old tail?”

She just raises an eyebrow impishly and turns back to the computer screen.

When she’s playful like this it’s almost enough to get me to keep from heading out on patrol. But I’ve got some things to work out so I head for the secret exit.

Outside, I just run, enjoying the physicality of movement, of using my powers for the sheer joy of them, crawling along buildings, leaping across alleyways, swinging on flagpoles and laundry lines.

Four, five blocks later I take out my first mugger. Talk about bloody cheek, as Captain Anglica would say. The nerve of these guys. Action City has the highest per capita ratio of costumed crimefighters in the world, and these idiots seem to take it like some sort of challenge or something. Like it’s a status thing, being able to say they mugged someone on Squirrelman’s turf.

Anyway, the cops show up after a few minutes, I get the collar, and off I go. Two more muggers and a rapist, a pretty good night of doing good.

Something’s bugging me though, and I don’t know what. Normally this would go into the books as a great day - two drug cartels shut down, three muggers, a rapist. Hung out all day with my girlfriend and my buddy. Risked my life, kicked some ass.

How could so much stuff be happening under Action City and no one know about it? I mean, how long did it take to build Hi-Q’s underground complex? Or the UnSeelie Court? And no one knew about it. All that construction, technological or magical, and no one had any idea. It’s a mystery. I don’t like mysteries.

I decide I’m going to go talk to Reed.

I start heading for the Sterling Spire but it’s east of me and that’s when I realize it’s almost dawn. I’m going to be a mess at work in the morning.