Talyesin's Tales

Having watched Showdown recapture Codename: Solo, Squirrelman, Blue Jay and Ace got to know the new hero a little before they all had to register. After a long day of examinations, Squirrelman and his friends returned to Action City. When Squirrelman arrived at his place, Kimmy had news for him - Doc Sterling wanted to see him...



Starring!

Matt Mattheson ......... as Squirrelman
Anna Kimble .............. as Darklight

Guest Starring

Reed Sterling ...................... as Doc
Julia Sterling .................. as herself




"What's up, Doc?"

I know, I know, it's corny. But I never get tired of that joke. It's like when Kimmy and I go grocery shopping, whenever we pass the fish section, she says, "Something smells fishy about this." It's one of the few jokes she makes, and it makes me laugh ever time.

Reed smiles that boyish grin of his and waves me in. He's looking into a high-tech microscope-type doodad and says, "Give me a minute, Matt."

I pull off my mask and have a look around. I kind of like Reed's lab, it's like stepping onto the set of a sci-fi movie, one with a huge budget and a really great designer, only everything on this set actually works. And some of this stuff can turn a person into energy or send them into another universe or coat them in silver Mobius particles.

"Right then, give the Exarch my regards," Reed says into a microphone mounted near the microscope thing. He turns to me and says, "Curt and Molly are in the Atomiverse, visiting some friends. How are you, Matt?"

"Good, Doc, you?"

"Fine. No headaches? Nausea? Tail working alright?"

"Yeah," I say, giving my tail a little wave. "It feels a little odd sometimes, but seems to be working fine. Having a little trouble picking stuff up with it."

"Well, it wasn't designed with that in mind, Matt. I wanted to simulate a squirrel's tail, and of course, squirrels don't have prehensile tails. You may be able to catch yourself if you're falling, but the tail wasn't designed to compensate for leverage or fine motor skills. I could design them into the tail, with some modifications. It might require a more intricate harness, or perhaps a subdermal implant with magnetic couplings, that should do the -"

"Doc."

"Right, sorry."

We both chuckle.

"How was Washington?"

"Busy." I shrug. "Annoying."

"Oh?"

"You didn't hear? STAR Force delivered Derrick Wolfe to the DMA."

"Codename Solo?" he frowns. "Really. That's... unusual."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, why bring him to the Department of Metahuman Affairs? A dangerous man like Wolfe should have been brought to the Atlantis Penitentiary."

"Maybe they wanted him to be registered?"

He looks at me, not thrilled at the idea.

"Matt, that's... potentially very troubling. The Claremont Registry is meant to be a means of cataloguing an individual's powers and abilities, for the good of society. Many detractors maintain the Claremont Act is unconstitutional, but... well, you don't really remember those days, but I'm sure your predecessor does. Metahumans were losing the public's trust. People in masks were more likely to be mobbed, or sued, or arrested, or even in a few tragic cases, killed, by the people they were supposed to be safeguarding, rather than being thanked and praised."

"It seems pretty incredible to me, Reed."

"I know, and I lived through it. When the Act was first presented, it got a lot of support. A way of keeping track of individuals with powers. The public loved the idea. If the government was keeping track of the masks, then at least at some level the watchmen were being watched. At first, costumed crimefighters objected, claiming it was an infringement of basic human freedoms, and to a certain extent, they were right. But then, those crimefighters were stretching the boundaries of the law themselves, even with the Costumed Samaritan legislation providing a certain degree of autonomy within the jurislegal system-"

"Reed."

"Of course, sorry. At any rate, use of the DMA's cataloguing facilities against an unwilling participant is a troubling precedent."

"If it's not completely legal to force Solo to register his powers, then why did STAR Force do it so publically?"

"That's another good question, Matt."

"Great, another mystery," I say. "Kimmy said you had news about Doc Steele?"

"Right," he says, going over to a wall-screen. He pulls up a map of the world and punches in some coordinates and it zooms in on a small country near Tibet.

"This, as I'm sure you know, is the country of Shangri-La, inhabited by descendants of the original Atlanteans. Genetically advanced, the inhabitants of Shangri-La were called the Glorious Evolution by the media in the sixties, and granted independence and sovereignty in the early nineties."

"Okay."

"This-" he punches in some more coordinates and the map zooms in again "-is the Monastery of the Infinite, a spiritual retreat for contemplation of higher consciousness. It's a rather interesting place. I spent several weeks there in 1989, learning techniques to focus my mental energies, devote my concentration to-"

"Reed."

"Right. Anyhow, I've been trying to contact the monks since we first spoke about Doc Steele. There hasn't been any response, neither through technological means nor through the meditative telepathic disciplines I learned during my time in the Monastery."

"You're a psi, now? People can learn how to be a psi?"

"No, not quite. Actually, yes. Well... It's more a mental tuning, concentrating on becoming one with the psychic energy of the monks, in order to convey messages."

"How is that not being psi?"

"It's... different." He grins. "Trust me."

"Okay, so the monks weren't answering the vid?"

"I contacted the Shangri-Lalian government and asked them to investigate. They did so, and discovered the Monastery abandoned."

"The monks had left?"

"Perhaps. I'm going to investigate it personally."

"Let me know when, I'll come with."

"Are you sure? Leaving Action City isn't usually your style."

"Maybe not, but the people who know where the one guy in the world who can tell me about the guy who may or may not be responsible for the new developments in Downtown have disappeared mysteriously, and that concerns me."

"Very well, Matt."

"Hey, waitaminute, if you were in the Monastery in '89, did you run into Steele at all?"

"No, he was undergoing a very advanced form of training, required a year of absolute, solitary meditation."

"He was meditating for a year? How did he not starve to death?"

"Oh, he'd long ago mastered techniques that allowed him to survive without eating or drinking."

"Didn't need to eat? He could make a fortune in the diet industry."

Reed laughs. "I somehow doubt it, Matt. It requires years of intense dedication and discipline. 'Eat less and exercise more' is far more effective - and quicker."

"Okay, so. Steele disappears from the public. Lord Hades may or may not have something to do with everything that's happening in Downtown, including the UnSeelie Seeming that's grown up down there. Julia said she wanted to look into that?"

"Yes, but we haven't had the chance," Julia says behind us, coming over. She gives me a kiss on the cheek and leans into Reed. She smiles at me and says, "Tell me again about the Seeming?"

So I tell her about the small town that's grown up on the edge of Downtown, filled with fairies gone bad. I tell her about our meeting with the Prince of Thorns and Jenny Greenteeth, about the deal we struck.

"Wait," Julia interrupts me. "Did he say, no more Pixie Dust would be produced, or that no more Pixie Dust would be produced in Downtown? Think hard."

I think.

"Aw, crap. He said, No more Pixie Dust will be produced in Downtown."

"And he agreed to a blood pact?" Julia asks. "Your bloods mingled?"

"My blood mingled at least. His thorns broke the skin on the palm of my hand."

"But his blood was never let?"

"No."

"I'm sorry, Matt, but he agreed to a pact that was inherently meaningless. His blood never mingled with yours, and even if it had, he was agreeing to move Pixie Dust production out of Downtown, not agreeing to halt production entirely."

"Dammit," I say. "Anna's gonna be pissed. Guess we gotta go back down there."

"You can't take on the entire Seeming, Matt," Reed says.

"I don't intend to go alone, Doc," I grin. "This time I'll take the Crimefighters' League along."

Julia's not grinning.

"It'll take more than your team, Matt," she says. "You'll need the help of some major-league magical firepower."

"So we'll recruit."

"And we'll be coming along as well."

"Honey..."

"No Reed, this is something we need to do."

"Alright," he says. "Besides, I want to have a look at the complex that Doctor Hi-Q had built."

"Oh yeah, about Hi-Q, turns out he may not be dead. Phenom says he saw him a few nights ago. But Reed, the complex was destroyed."

"Praxis tech may be designed by an unscrupulous megalomaniac, but by and large it's notoriously difficult to destroy."

"Swell." I cross my arms and take a deep breath. "Okay, so what's first - team up and take on Downtown, or field trip to Shangri-La?"

"Actually, I figured the first thing we should do is get your headquarters equipped," Doc says, grinning.

"Right! Man, I haven't even told Ace yet."

"Tell him now," Reed suggests.

"I don't have any way of contacting him."

"You don't have communicators?" Reed laughs. "And you call yourselves a team?"

He goes over to a cabinet and opens a drawer, pulls out a handful of small glass beads, brings them over and hands them to me.

"Thanks?"

"They're communicators, Matt," he says, taking one. He holds it up and it morphs, flowing into the shape of a ring, wrapping itself around his finger. "Nanobeads. These have been pre-programmed to act as two-way communicators. They can take the shape of rings or earrings or even tooth caps. We used to use them before I perfected my nanotelebytes."

"Your what?"

"Nanite telepathy."

"Wild," I say, taking off my glove and putting on a nanobead. "I'll get them to the team as soon as possible. How do they work?"

"You speak your name, then the name of the person or people you want to speak to, into the ring. It will contact their rings, give the recipient a little squeeze and a buzz to warn them of an incoming message, then you speak as you would into a vid." He gets that big boyish grin again. "As an added bonus, they can act as a homing beacon. It's really neat. And useful."

"I'll bet," I say, pulling my epipen and brand-new Registered Costumed Crimefighter ID card from the pocket at the base of my tail, repacking the pocket with the nanobeads and my stuff. "Thanks, Doc."

"No problem, Matt."

"Okay, so, I'll try and contact Ace, find out our tech needs, get back to you. We'll get our headquarters set up, then head Downtown? Check out the complex, then pay a visit on the UnSeelie?"

"That sounds good. It also gives me a bit of time to finish up some things before we head out to Shangri-La."

"Okay, great." I shake his hand and give Julia a quick peck on the cheek. "I've got to go find Darklight and tell her the Prince of Thorns is a lying sack of shit."

I head out, using the balcony doors, crawling down the side of the Sterling Spire and jumping aboard a passing el train, heading for Weirdsville. It's nearly midnight, not a good time to be in Weirdsville, but I'm not even sure Anna has a phone, so that's where I'm headed. I jump off the el and land on a brownstone on Shelley Avenue.

"There you are," a voice says behind me. I whirl around.

It's Anna. She steps out of the shadows.

"Jesus!" I say. "I was just coming to talk to you."

She smiles and says, "I know. We have to go to the Kane, tonight."

"What? Why?" Then I remember. "Oh, right, Jimenez' partner. We never got a chance to see her. But why tonight?"

"Because after tonight she won't be able to give us any information."

I don't ask how she knows that. We start to head over to the Kane. I tell her about how the Prince of Thorns basically never promised us anything.

"Festering hells," she swears. "That's next on our agenda, I assume?"

"Almost," I say, telling her about Reed's plans.

"Alright," she says. "Princess Julia is right, of course. We'll need more help." She gets a cold little smile that reminds me never to piss her off. "I think I know some people who will want to help."

"More help the better," I say.

The Kane looms against the night sky. I'm gritting my teeth as we walk up the front steps.

"Matt," she says, putting a hand on my forearm.

"I know, Anna, I know." I take a deep breath and we head in.

The Night Nurse doesn't even question why we want to talk to the patient. The Kane is so used to masks showing up at all hours they don't even bother. I've talked and talked and it never does any good.

We're brought to the patient's cell. I finally find out her name - Olivia Briscoe. The nurse lets us in and Darklight goes to her.

She's lying on the bed, brown eyes staring wide at the ceiling, dressed in one of those light blue hospital gowns that no one likes. There's a little line of drool dribbling down her cheek into her brown hair.

Anna wipes the drool away. She puts a hand on Briscoe's foreheaad, concentrates a good long while, and finally says, her voice all weird and echo-y, "Libby."

Briscoe's left thumb twitches.

Anna tries again.

"Libby, what did you see?"

Briscoe's right hand clenches.

"Libby, you're safe now. Safe from harm. Safe from the evil you witnessed. What did you see, Libby? Show me what you saw."

Briscoe goes into convulsions, twitching back and forth, shaking, drool foaming at her mouth. Anna's hand never leaves her forehead. Anna throws back her head and screams just as Briscoe screams, pure raw terror in stereo.

Guards come running, the nurse not far behind. I stop them from coming in.

Anna closes Briscoe's eyes, leans down and kisses her on the forehead.

"Thank you, Libby," she whispers.

"She still alive?" I ask Darklight, letting in the nurse and the guards.

"Yes. But her memories have been wiped."

We head out once the nurse makes sure that Briscoe is alright. Sleeping soundly, in fact.

"By you?"

"No, by a side effect of the unholy energies she bore the brunt of."

"So... you got nothing?"

"Not at all," Anna says. "I... saw who's responsible for Annie O'Day's death."

"Who was it?"

"I don't know. A woman. Very powerful. Tall, imposing, regal almost. Dark hair, piercing dark green eyes. Indeterminate age." She looks at me, a little worried. "I think... I think she saw me."

"How is that even possible?"

"Do you want the technical details, or should I just say, it's magic?"

"Okay, fine." I sigh and we head down an alley that will lead toward Anna's occult shop. "So how does that help us?"

"We know that the ritual was performed by a woman powerful enough to leave an eldritch signature that rendered the first witness catatonic, planted an erasure spell beneath it, and spot any scrying done through secondhand experience. That's a significant investiture of power. And now I know her eldritch signature. She is, in all likelihood, masking herself, but I believe I may be able to scry her out. It will take some time, though."

"Okay," I say. "First things first, though. We need to have a little talk with the Prince of Thorns."

"Alright. Shall we meet at our headquarters tomorrow?"

"Sounds good," I say. Then I remember. "Oh, and here." I pass her a nanobead. "Keep in touch."

"Thank you, Squirrelman."

"Anytime, Darklight. See you tomorrow."

We split up and head in different direction, me back to Lower Uptown, her back to Weirdsville. It's after midnight, it's been a helluva long day, and I'm just about to head home, when I hear it.

A bank alarm, not far.