Squirrelman - Sins of the Past 27
Having met up with Blue Jay by way of Joe Sterling, Squirrelman led a band of costumed crimefighters against a gang of powered criminals led by the magical menace called Nightzone. Having been nearly shredded by the vicious Gremlynn in one on one battle, Squirrelman rejoined his colleagues to finally defeat Nightzone's crew, and gave him a chance to network the idea of the Crimefighters' League. With another collar under his belt, Squirrelman returned home to face an entirely different sort of challenge...
Kimmy just asked me to marry her.
No, wait.
Kimmy just asked me if I wanted to marry her.
There's a difference.
Is there a difference?
What was the question again?
I'm about to ask her that when my survival instinct finally kicks in, and I say, "Well, yeah!"
"Then why haven't you asked me?" she says, crossing her arms.
Oh, so that's where this is going.
Fuck. There goes that surprise.
"I was waiting for your birthday," I tell her. I'm too tired and, you know, the pain, to come up with a convincing lie, given that I'm a terrible liar in the first place and Kimmy'd see right through it anyway.
She thinks about that for a second.
"My birthday," she finally says.
"Yes."
"You were going to ask me to marry you?"
"Yes."
"On my birthday."
"Yes."
"You were going to ask me to marry you on my birthday."
"Wait," I say, getting up slowly. "Hold that thought." I go over to the vid unit and pull a little box out from behind it. It's the only place in the apartment I knew she'd never look. Don't get me wrong, give her a bomb to defuse or a security access panel to hotwire, no problem. Just don't ask her to hook up the sound system to the vid.
I lower myself to one knee, slowly, painfully, in front of her, and hand her the little velvet box.
"Kimmy, will you marry me?" I ask her, completely not the way I had planned it at all.
She takes the box and opens it. Takes the ring, puts it on her finger. Just staring at it.
"It's a karat and a half, circle-star cut, set in 24 karat white gold," I tell her. It's a small fortune is what it is. They say two to three months salary is a good range when shopping for an engagement ring. I'm the CEO of a medium-sized accounting firm. My monthly salary is pretty good.
"Classic Princess Tiffany setting," I try to say, but she's kissing me hard, her arms wrapped around my neck.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow," I say when she comes up for air.
"Oh! Sorry!" she says, getting off of me and helping me back onto the couch.
"So that's a yes?" I ask.
"Of course it is!"
"I know the setting's sort of simple, but I figured-"
"It's perfect."
"- I figured you'd love it."
She's just staring at it, watching it sparkle on her hand. She looks at me suddenly.
"How am I going to get this rock into my glove?" she asks me, dead serious.
"Uh..." I say. "You could take it off in costume."
"Think again, pal. I'm never taking this ring off."
"I'm sure you'll figure something out," I laugh, but the laughing sort of pulls at the scratches on my ribs and I sort of wince. Kimmy leans over and kisses me, long and slow.
"Let's go to bed," she says. She helps me upstairs to bed.
Utterly, totally, completely not what I had planned. Went fine anyway.
We're drifting off to sleep and I hear her say, "Matt? I love you."
"I know," I tell her.
"You KNOW?" she says, waking up a little more.
"Yeah, I know. And I love you too."
She doesn't say anything for a little bit and I start to drift off again and I hear her say, all happy and satisfied, "I know."
I get up in the middle of the night to take a leak and she's awake, looking at the ring in the moonlight streaming in from the skylight overhead. Damn she's beautiful.
And spellbound by the ring's sparkle. Which is funny because she's not materialistic at all. Odd for a marketing exec, her job basically being to create the materialistic need to consume in all of us. But her apartment would have the Spartans saying, 'Jeez, this place is bare.' Probably why we spend so much time over here.
Next morning we get up. The cuts and scrapes and scratches are mostly healed. I do some yoga to loosen up my muscles and joints and get the blood flowing. Kimmy puts on the coffee and the news. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except Kimmy's humming. Softly, to herself. But humming. And smiling.
"So, public or private?" she asks, handing me my coffee, then sitting in my lap.
"Sorry?"
"Public wedding, you know, in costume? Or private?"
"Hadn't thought about it, actually."
"If we go private, we can't invite half the people we know," she says, sipping her coffee. She takes a piece of my toast and bites into it. She never has breakfast but she eats off my plate.
"That's true," I answer. "But if it's a public ceremony, we can't invite Stretch, or your friend Maria, or... Oh."
"Oh?"
"Something you should know... Stretch isn't as dumb as he acts."
"Nobody's that dumb."
"Har har," I say. "What I mean is... when I unmasked to him... Well, he put two and two together and came up with 'Kimmy is Ragdoll.'"
"I figured he would," she says, nodding.
"You did?"
"Mm-hmm."
And she let me unmask to him anyway. My gal. She's something, alright.
"Well..." she thinks a little. "If we make it an in-costume ceremony, we can invite Stretch as the team's accountant, and Maria as the team's marketing expert."
"Yeah," I say, thinking about it.
"And let's face it, it's not like either of us has all that much family to invite," she adds.
It's true. A drunk driver killed my folks, but I've got an uncle and a cousin in California. Kimmy doesn't have any family left. Christmas and Thanksgiving are pretty much the two of us in a restaurant.
"That's true," I say.
"And... Matt?" she asks, looking me in the eye. "I'd kind of like it to be a church ceremony."
"Really?" I ask, sort of surprised.
"Yeah."
"Uh... sure."
"It's just... Mother would have wanted it that way."
"Of course."
"You don't mind?"
Kimmy was raised Catholic. I was raised Anglican. We've both met and fought cosmic beings. Doc Sterling told us how the multiverse really came into being, the Harmonics and the Dischordants and all that. Every day we see stuff happen that makes fishes and loaves look like a parlour trick. I hadn't been particularly religious in the first place, not since University. Near as I can remember, neither of us has actually gone to church, not since I've been here in this alternity.
But it's what she wants.
"Anything you want, hon."
She grins at me. We finish breakfast and decide to head over to the new headquarters. I want to have a look at the place. Kimmy calls up Rick and Lisa and we all agree to meet up there. We suit up and head out.
A couple of el trains, a few fire escapes, and hitching a ride on a flying bus later, we're at the place, climbing down from the roof to the balcony. Kimmy punches a code on the security panel next to the door, and the glass doors slide open.
Inside, it's basically a big empty square-ish room. Bare concrete floor, high ceilings, very nice double doors in the far corner.
"Nice," I say. "Bigger than I thought."
"It'll be smaller once we've put in the defensive grid," Physique says behind us, climbing off her skycycle. She pulls out her plans and shows us. She's made a bunch of additions, stuff we talked about last night. The reception area, the training room, showers, kitchenette.
"Looks good," I tell her. She grins.
"We'll need a robo-receptionist," Ragdoll says.
Ace flies in on his card and jumps off. He and I bop fists and he says, "What's up?"
"We're talking about what we'll need," I tell him. Physique is pacing off her design measurements.
"Oh, and we have an announcement," Ragdoll says, pulling off her left glove.
Physique looks up from her feet. Ace looks at us.
"We're engaged," she says, grinning.
"That's awesome!" Physique says, coming over and hugging us both.
"About time, too," Ace grins, shaking my hand and hugging Ragdoll. Then comes the customary inspection of the engagement ring, over which Ace lets out a low whistle and gives me an impressed look, and Physique tells Ragdoll, "Rags, you change your mind, can I have him? I like a man who knows how to spoil a woman."
We talk about what we'll be needing, Physique and Ace argue over whether to use force fields or hard point armour for our defenses, and around lunchtime we break and head out to grab some Chinese take out. We head on up to Skyway Park to eat, talking headquarters and wedding plans.
"Okay," I say, putting aside the little cardboard box of what had been stir-fried vegetables and noodles. "Who have you guys given the pitch to?"
"Let's see," Physique says. She's eaten four times what the rest of us ate. "I talked to Moonbow, Atlas, Nightwraith, Atomika... uh... Rapunzel. Speed."
"I gave the pitch last night to Blue Jay, Red Bolt, Troubleshooter and Joe Sterling," I say.
"Yeah, heard about that. Good job," Ace says.
"Thanks."
"I ran into Glitter and Fantasy a couple of nights ago," Ragdoll says. "I know they're in TeenSupreme but I figured it couldn't hurt to tell them. I also called Superia, Spectrum and Diamond. She said she'd tell Lightbringer."
"How about you, Ace?" I ask.
"Hang on," he says, then pulls out one of his cards. He presses the heart in the center of the ace and the face of the card sort of shimmers, then it's a display screen. He thumbs in a code sequence and a list of names appears.
"Darklight, of course. Dragon, Phenom, Lightning, Illumina, Clown, Harlequin, Midnight Avenger, Poltergeist, Blue Ghost, Dawn and Midnight, Psifire, Crimson, Sizemaster, Moonshadow, Element, Nova, Elasticman, Dark Angel, Nightwoman, Panthera, Redeemer... um..." - he gives Ragdoll an uncomfortable little look - "Champion."
Champion and Ragdoll had been in the New Super Teens together. Ragdoll just nods quietly. Ace turns back to his list.
"Hex, Decibelle, Energette, Powerband and the Ultras," he finishes.
"Damn, Ace, when you network you don't fool around," I say. "Is there anyone in Action City you didn't talk to?"
"I think he left out Toon and Allyson Wonderland," Ragdoll smirks. "Captain Cosmos and Whatta Woman."
"And Womanimal, Venturion, Quantum..." Physique ticks them off on her fingers, not picking up that Ragdoll was kidding, naming vid characters.
"Look, I'm between contracts, okay?" Ace explains. "So I've spent a lot of time getting the word out. Oh, and I talked to Brother Caduceus about setting us up a corporate discount."
"Well," I say, starting to clean up our boxes. I put the bill in my belt to claim as a business expense later. My tail sort of moves out of the way of my hand. I'm still getting used to that, but it gives me an idea. I reach the tail around and try to pick up the empty boxes. It just sort of swats at them. Maybe if I practice.
"Looks like we've got a pretty good list of potential members," I say. "We'll start talking to them this afternoon."
Kimmy just asked me to marry her.
No, wait.
Kimmy just asked me if I wanted to marry her.
There's a difference.
Is there a difference?
What was the question again?
I'm about to ask her that when my survival instinct finally kicks in, and I say, "Well, yeah!"
"Then why haven't you asked me?" she says, crossing her arms.
Oh, so that's where this is going.
Fuck. There goes that surprise.
"I was waiting for your birthday," I tell her. I'm too tired and, you know, the pain, to come up with a convincing lie, given that I'm a terrible liar in the first place and Kimmy'd see right through it anyway.
She thinks about that for a second.
"My birthday," she finally says.
"Yes."
"You were going to ask me to marry you?"
"Yes."
"On my birthday."
"Yes."
"You were going to ask me to marry you on my birthday."
"Wait," I say, getting up slowly. "Hold that thought." I go over to the vid unit and pull a little box out from behind it. It's the only place in the apartment I knew she'd never look. Don't get me wrong, give her a bomb to defuse or a security access panel to hotwire, no problem. Just don't ask her to hook up the sound system to the vid.
I lower myself to one knee, slowly, painfully, in front of her, and hand her the little velvet box.
"Kimmy, will you marry me?" I ask her, completely not the way I had planned it at all.
She takes the box and opens it. Takes the ring, puts it on her finger. Just staring at it.
"It's a karat and a half, circle-star cut, set in 24 karat white gold," I tell her. It's a small fortune is what it is. They say two to three months salary is a good range when shopping for an engagement ring. I'm the CEO of a medium-sized accounting firm. My monthly salary is pretty good.
"Classic Princess Tiffany setting," I try to say, but she's kissing me hard, her arms wrapped around my neck.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow," I say when she comes up for air.
"Oh! Sorry!" she says, getting off of me and helping me back onto the couch.
"So that's a yes?" I ask.
"Of course it is!"
"I know the setting's sort of simple, but I figured-"
"It's perfect."
"- I figured you'd love it."
She's just staring at it, watching it sparkle on her hand. She looks at me suddenly.
"How am I going to get this rock into my glove?" she asks me, dead serious.
"Uh..." I say. "You could take it off in costume."
"Think again, pal. I'm never taking this ring off."
"I'm sure you'll figure something out," I laugh, but the laughing sort of pulls at the scratches on my ribs and I sort of wince. Kimmy leans over and kisses me, long and slow.
"Let's go to bed," she says. She helps me upstairs to bed.
Utterly, totally, completely not what I had planned. Went fine anyway.
We're drifting off to sleep and I hear her say, "Matt? I love you."
"I know," I tell her.
"You KNOW?" she says, waking up a little more.
"Yeah, I know. And I love you too."
She doesn't say anything for a little bit and I start to drift off again and I hear her say, all happy and satisfied, "I know."
I get up in the middle of the night to take a leak and she's awake, looking at the ring in the moonlight streaming in from the skylight overhead. Damn she's beautiful.
And spellbound by the ring's sparkle. Which is funny because she's not materialistic at all. Odd for a marketing exec, her job basically being to create the materialistic need to consume in all of us. But her apartment would have the Spartans saying, 'Jeez, this place is bare.' Probably why we spend so much time over here.
Next morning we get up. The cuts and scrapes and scratches are mostly healed. I do some yoga to loosen up my muscles and joints and get the blood flowing. Kimmy puts on the coffee and the news. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except Kimmy's humming. Softly, to herself. But humming. And smiling.
"So, public or private?" she asks, handing me my coffee, then sitting in my lap.
"Sorry?"
"Public wedding, you know, in costume? Or private?"
"Hadn't thought about it, actually."
"If we go private, we can't invite half the people we know," she says, sipping her coffee. She takes a piece of my toast and bites into it. She never has breakfast but she eats off my plate.
"That's true," I answer. "But if it's a public ceremony, we can't invite Stretch, or your friend Maria, or... Oh."
"Oh?"
"Something you should know... Stretch isn't as dumb as he acts."
"Nobody's that dumb."
"Har har," I say. "What I mean is... when I unmasked to him... Well, he put two and two together and came up with 'Kimmy is Ragdoll.'"
"I figured he would," she says, nodding.
"You did?"
"Mm-hmm."
And she let me unmask to him anyway. My gal. She's something, alright.
"Well..." she thinks a little. "If we make it an in-costume ceremony, we can invite Stretch as the team's accountant, and Maria as the team's marketing expert."
"Yeah," I say, thinking about it.
"And let's face it, it's not like either of us has all that much family to invite," she adds.
It's true. A drunk driver killed my folks, but I've got an uncle and a cousin in California. Kimmy doesn't have any family left. Christmas and Thanksgiving are pretty much the two of us in a restaurant.
"That's true," I say.
"And... Matt?" she asks, looking me in the eye. "I'd kind of like it to be a church ceremony."
"Really?" I ask, sort of surprised.
"Yeah."
"Uh... sure."
"It's just... Mother would have wanted it that way."
"Of course."
"You don't mind?"
Kimmy was raised Catholic. I was raised Anglican. We've both met and fought cosmic beings. Doc Sterling told us how the multiverse really came into being, the Harmonics and the Dischordants and all that. Every day we see stuff happen that makes fishes and loaves look like a parlour trick. I hadn't been particularly religious in the first place, not since University. Near as I can remember, neither of us has actually gone to church, not since I've been here in this alternity.
But it's what she wants.
"Anything you want, hon."
She grins at me. We finish breakfast and decide to head over to the new headquarters. I want to have a look at the place. Kimmy calls up Rick and Lisa and we all agree to meet up there. We suit up and head out.
A couple of el trains, a few fire escapes, and hitching a ride on a flying bus later, we're at the place, climbing down from the roof to the balcony. Kimmy punches a code on the security panel next to the door, and the glass doors slide open.
Inside, it's basically a big empty square-ish room. Bare concrete floor, high ceilings, very nice double doors in the far corner.
"Nice," I say. "Bigger than I thought."
"It'll be smaller once we've put in the defensive grid," Physique says behind us, climbing off her skycycle. She pulls out her plans and shows us. She's made a bunch of additions, stuff we talked about last night. The reception area, the training room, showers, kitchenette.
"Looks good," I tell her. She grins.
"We'll need a robo-receptionist," Ragdoll says.
Ace flies in on his card and jumps off. He and I bop fists and he says, "What's up?"
"We're talking about what we'll need," I tell him. Physique is pacing off her design measurements.
"Oh, and we have an announcement," Ragdoll says, pulling off her left glove.
Physique looks up from her feet. Ace looks at us.
"We're engaged," she says, grinning.
"That's awesome!" Physique says, coming over and hugging us both.
"About time, too," Ace grins, shaking my hand and hugging Ragdoll. Then comes the customary inspection of the engagement ring, over which Ace lets out a low whistle and gives me an impressed look, and Physique tells Ragdoll, "Rags, you change your mind, can I have him? I like a man who knows how to spoil a woman."
We talk about what we'll be needing, Physique and Ace argue over whether to use force fields or hard point armour for our defenses, and around lunchtime we break and head out to grab some Chinese take out. We head on up to Skyway Park to eat, talking headquarters and wedding plans.
"Okay," I say, putting aside the little cardboard box of what had been stir-fried vegetables and noodles. "Who have you guys given the pitch to?"
"Let's see," Physique says. She's eaten four times what the rest of us ate. "I talked to Moonbow, Atlas, Nightwraith, Atomika... uh... Rapunzel. Speed."
"I gave the pitch last night to Blue Jay, Red Bolt, Troubleshooter and Joe Sterling," I say.
"Yeah, heard about that. Good job," Ace says.
"Thanks."
"I ran into Glitter and Fantasy a couple of nights ago," Ragdoll says. "I know they're in TeenSupreme but I figured it couldn't hurt to tell them. I also called Superia, Spectrum and Diamond. She said she'd tell Lightbringer."
"How about you, Ace?" I ask.
"Hang on," he says, then pulls out one of his cards. He presses the heart in the center of the ace and the face of the card sort of shimmers, then it's a display screen. He thumbs in a code sequence and a list of names appears.
"Darklight, of course. Dragon, Phenom, Lightning, Illumina, Clown, Harlequin, Midnight Avenger, Poltergeist, Blue Ghost, Dawn and Midnight, Psifire, Crimson, Sizemaster, Moonshadow, Element, Nova, Elasticman, Dark Angel, Nightwoman, Panthera, Redeemer... um..." - he gives Ragdoll an uncomfortable little look - "Champion."
Champion and Ragdoll had been in the New Super Teens together. Ragdoll just nods quietly. Ace turns back to his list.
"Hex, Decibelle, Energette, Powerband and the Ultras," he finishes.
"Damn, Ace, when you network you don't fool around," I say. "Is there anyone in Action City you didn't talk to?"
"I think he left out Toon and Allyson Wonderland," Ragdoll smirks. "Captain Cosmos and Whatta Woman."
"And Womanimal, Venturion, Quantum..." Physique ticks them off on her fingers, not picking up that Ragdoll was kidding, naming vid characters.
"Look, I'm between contracts, okay?" Ace explains. "So I've spent a lot of time getting the word out. Oh, and I talked to Brother Caduceus about setting us up a corporate discount."
"Well," I say, starting to clean up our boxes. I put the bill in my belt to claim as a business expense later. My tail sort of moves out of the way of my hand. I'm still getting used to that, but it gives me an idea. I reach the tail around and try to pick up the empty boxes. It just sort of swats at them. Maybe if I practice.
"Looks like we've got a pretty good list of potential members," I say. "We'll start talking to them this afternoon."
And someone's been busy with his database, hm?
t!
And actually, it was more a matter of looking at the poster I drew for the Superhero Party a couple years ago. Just about every name mentioned is someone I invented years and years and years ago.
But I know it's more than the sparkle, and the money spent. It's the symbol, what it represents.