Talyesin's Tales

Coming home from a long day at work, Matt does something stupid and lands himself in trouble...





I run a medium sized company. We have a regular staff of about 40, which swells at tax time to about 65, what with temp workers and students interning for a half-semester. All those people listen to me, do what I ask them with little to no dispute.

When I wear the mask, out on patrol as Squirrelman, people listen to me because I have a rep and street cred. Civilians do what I tell them because they think I know what I'm doing.

What I'm saying is, I'm used to people listening to me and doing what I ask them to do.

I suppose it was a little stupid to go up against five clockrockers. If I'd been in costume it would have gone down a lot differently.

I have just about enough time to realize that as I start to see black spots. I'm banging on his arm with my briefcase, sort of half aware that some of the civilians are screaming and the airbus has stopped mid-air. Stupid, stupid, stupid. In costume I would pop my claws out and tear open that control panel under his jacket. I'm starting to think I'm going to have to blow my secret identity when I hear a knocking noise at the window next to us and a woman's voice.

"You really ought to put him down, you know," she says. I can't turn my head but the voice sounds vaguely familiar.

The big gold clockrocker doesn't turn, but his hand lets up the pressure just the tiniest fraction, and the black spots stop.

"Thizzz don't conzzzern you, mazzzk," Goldy says.

"Oh I know, I know," she says, still out of my field of vision. "It's just... well, hold on..." There's movement beside me and a rush of wind and I get the impression that she's climbing in the window. "It's just that if you stop now, it's just assault. That's three-to-six months. You spend that time in Bendis Correctional, making all kinds of contacts with your fellow Kriegers."

"We're just The Krieg, bitch!" the former secretarial bot with the half face shrills at her.

She steps into view. Medium height, slender. Straight dark hair, reaching just past jaw length. Translucent blue goggles. Gold bird-shaped amulet on a gold chain. Blue and white costume, bare arms and legs, boots, gloves. Oh, and blue wings growing out of her arms.

Blue Jay.

We've worked together a few times. She knows what she's doing. I relax just a little. She's got this whole girl-next-door charm to her, and she's no dummy. She probably has a plan.

She sort of smiles apologetically.

"Right, of course, sorry. Your Krieg comrades. Now, thing is, if you kill him? That's ... I mean, dismantling. Not a pleasant prospect, right? So why don't you just let him go?"

"Ain't no meatzzzack gonna tell uzzz to turn down 01011101!"

"No, of course not, I mean, you have a right to listen to your... music just like anyone else, right?"

"That'zzz right!"

"But with all these witnesses and everything, I mean, you won't stand a chance in a Court of Law. So why not let him go?"

"There don't need to be any witnezzzzezz." His robo-cronies let out nasty electronic chuckles.

A couple of civilians scream at that one, but Blue Jay reaches a hand behind her, makes a reassuring gesture.

"I was afraid you'd say something like that. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to stop you."

The other clockrockers are standing now, ready to fight.

"What're you gonna do about it, mask?" the secretarial asks.

"Well, actually?" she smiles this mischievous smile. "It's what I've been doing since I came in here. See, as I was talking? Subvocally I've been setting up a harmonic field that will let me do... this."

She turns toward Goldy's arm and snaps open her jaw. There's a ripple in the air and suddenly I have a pounding headache, and Goldy's arm is severed at the elbow. It lets go of me as I fall to the floor of the airbus. I gulp in huge gasps of air.

"Now." She turns to the clockrockers. "The driver is going to set the bus down and we're all going to wait for the police to arrive. There aren't going to be any problems, and you'll serve your time - I'll put in a good word for you, since you aren't resisting arrest, now are you? Because if you do? I notch my sonic scream up four or five levels and blow you into components. Deal?"

The clockrockers aren't stupid. The trashcan-on-wheels even turns off their boombox as we wait. The cops arrive and take our statements, and I have a chance to watch how they treat Blue Jay as opposed to the rest of us. Her, they treat as one of their own. The rest of us are just victims and bystanders. The paramedics check me out, give me a clean bill. Thank you, heightened healing. Just bruises, they say. I was lucky, they tell me. The cops give me a lecture on not taking on clockrockers in the future.

Blue Jay's about to take off when I call after her. She turns to me and smiles.

"Yes, sir?"

Sir. Jesus, do we really talk like that?

"I just wanted to thank you," I tell her, holding out my hand. She shakes it.

"Of course," she says. "It's what I do."

"Listen, uh... This is very weird. Um." I make a decision and lower my voice so only she can hear. "Look, you don't recognize me? But we've met before. Three months ago, down on Dock Street, near the old cannery."

Squirrelman and Blue Jay had busted Black Crow's robbery spree three months ago. I'm hoping she remembers. She frowns a little at me, probably thinking, He's one of those mask-stalkers, but then realization creeps over her face and she grins.

"Of course!" she says. She looks like she's trying to find something to say, and settles on, "How have you been?"

"Fine, except for a case of the stupids just now," I grin back at her. "Listen, some of my friends and I are... 'getting together'?" I give her a significant look. I'm told I'm awful at poker. "And I was wondering if maybe you wanted to 'get together' too? The Swan Building, say ten-ish?"

"I'll be there," she says, nodding, then she takes a little jump and beats her wings once, soaring into the sky.

I head home. By the time I get there, most of the bruises have healed up, so hopefully Kimmy won't notice. When I walk in, she's already home, and Rick and Lisa are there too, they're all sitting around the dining table. I'm a little surprised to see Lisa there. This wasn't how I had planned to unmask. But let's face it, if I can't trust my team, who can I trust? I already unmasked myself once today.

"Hey," I say. "What's the occasion?"

"We found a place," Rick says.

"Hey, great!" I answer, hanging up my jacket. I come over and give Kimmy a quick peck, murmuring, "You could have warned me," then I take a look at the papers they have spread out on the table, which includes a blueprint schematic. Lisa's got a pencil in one hand and a ruler in the other.

"So what have we got?" I ask.

"It's in the heart of Lower Uptown," Kimmy explains. "Near Perez Plaza. It's not a residential building, so less chance of people discovering us."

"Private elevator, fiftieth floor." Lisa taps on the elevator on the blueprints. "High enough to reach Uptown, but not too far from Lower Uptown, either."

"There's a hidden balcony," Rick points it out. "Opposite the alley is a blank wall twenty stories taller."

"Okay, secret entrance, defensibility, not too many civilians. What's the catch?"

"The rent is a little steep," Kimmy admits.

"Let me worry about our financials," I say.

"And it might not meet our power needs," Rick adds.

"We're going to need a self-contained power supply, anyway," I tell him. He gives a low whistle.

"Damn son, you don't think small do you?" He scratches his chin and says, "Hadn't planned for that. Gonna take a pile of work..."

"And if we're going to put in a defensive system, we'll need to shore up the superstructure," Lisa says. She sees my blank look and says, "I was studying to be an architect when I had my accident." She flexes her bicep at the word 'accident.' "To support any significant defenses for our headquarters, the building's girders and all that will have to be reinforced."

"Well, let's see what Reed has to say about that," Rick says. "A force field would solve that issue pretty damn quick, and he's probably got dozens we can buy off him."

"A field is going to be an even bigger demand on our power supply than just putting in ablative shielding," Lisa argues. Rick looks like he's about to get into the argument.

"Okay, whoa," I say. "This doesn't have to be decided tonight." I look at them. "Good work, team."

We order pizza and I tell them about my run-in with the clockrockers and Blue Jay.

"So you're going to go meet her later?" Kimmy asks. I nod.

"I think it's time we had an unofficial first meeting of our potential new members," I tell them. "I want to meet with everyone we've talked to about this."