Talyesin's Tales

Previously on Squirrelman - Sins of the Past:

Squirrelman received information from his informant Seven Year, about a group calling themselves the Revolutionists who were planning a jail break.

The Crimefighters' League fought unsuccessfully against the Revolutionists as they brought an Aztec statue to life, and escaped.

Departing the secret lab under the Living Complex and returning to the elevator under the Sterling Spire, Squirrelman and his colleagues ran into a mob of Downtown goons...


Starring!

Matt Mattheson ......... as Squirrelman
Kimmy Sinclair ................ as Ragdoll
Rick Duncan ........................... as Ace
Lisa Dumont ................... as Physique
Mike Washington ............. as Dragon
Trevor Andrews ............... as Phenom

Guest starring

Reed Sterling ........................ as Doc
Molly O'Malley ............. as Glory Gal
Carmine DaCosta ....... as Forerunner
Curt Connor .......... as Livin' Lightnin'





Downtown goons are tough sons of bitches. They live a hard life, nearly constant war against other gangs. The weak and the slow and the merciful don't last long. These guys are no different, and they have dogs. Mutts that are part German Shepherd and part Doberman and all mean, bred for the fighting pits and the gang wars.

Ace throws in a smoke-card and Ragdoll and I jump in. Dragon lets out a roar that they can probably hear all over Downtown and charges in after us, Physique not far behind.

Ragdoll and I are jumping and twitching, kicking, flipping, somersaulting, a whirl of punches and gouges and throws and flips. The gang have handguns mostly, one of them has a shotgun, but they've mostly wasted their ammo on Phenom and Molly and none of them can see us too well so when they're shooting, they're shooting blind. Strictly speaking we can't see them either, but we still have the edge. Somewhere in the smoke I run into Phenom, his shirt is ripped but he's grinning. He tosses me a thumbs-up and jumps up out of the smoke. I duck under Dragon's fire breath and a couple of Ace's cards gaze me, but we pretty much stay out of each other's way. Molly's good, nearly as fast and agile as me, and she's got some crazy gadgets from the future. Physique has a goon by the legs and is using him like a club against his buddies. The dogs all suddenly whine and cringe and run, no matter how hard their masters yank on their chains, and I get a glimpse of Doc outside the smoke, fiddling with some gadget in his hands.

I run up the wall of the cavern and flip over a guy, land behind him and punch punch slash he's down. Twitch flip up and miss getting shot in the back, land hard on the gunner and grab Ragdoll, flip her over me and kick the guy she was fighting in the face as she flip kicks the guy behind me. She's got that huge gorgeous 'I was made for this' grin on her face, then her eyes go wide and we both dodge, shotgun blasts where we were and then we're both on him, slash punch kick kick. The smoke separates us again and a guy with Ace's cards sticking out of both hands stumbles past, blood pouring out of the wounds, I let him go by. Physique and Phenom are back to back, taking on anyone stupid enough to come close. I duck under a nailed bat swung at me from behind and kick out behind me, knock the guy onto his face and follow up with a punch to the back of his head.

Molly's got some kind of goop-thrower and three or four guys are gooped to the floor and walls. I see Ace and throw him the thumbs-up and he laughs. Dragon's been grabbing guys, flying up and throwing them at their buddies, and one smashes into his buddy next to me, and their heads make a funny bonk noise when they connect and I have to laugh. When the smoke clears, the goons are down, we've got some scrapes and bruises, and Reed pushes past us without a word to get to the elevator inside.

"What's the rush, Reed?" Molly asks.

"Harvest," is all he says, pressing some buttons on his belt, totally preoccupied in thought.

"What?!" Phenom asks, stunned.

"There's a clone of Harvest growing in the lab we found," Ace explains.

"And we need to find Dr. Hi-Q to gain access to the files that control its gestation, fast," Ragdoll adds.

"Where'd you see him, Phenom?" I ask.

"Highway out past Speedway," he says. "Hijacking a truck loaded with Praxis tech."

Doc looks up at that. The elevator arrives and we all pile in.

"What kind of tech?" he asks.

"I dunno, Doc," Phenom answers. "Computers and stuff. Some medical equipment."

Reed frowns and mutters, "Plausible deniability, Kosmos?"

"Doc," Physique says, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I don't mean to, you know, poke a hole in your theories, but Praxis can't be behind everything that's going on. I mean, Konstantinopoulos would have to be some kind of super genius arch criminal."

Reed just looks at her.

"You're saying Kosmos Konstantinopoulos is a super genius arch criminal," Physique says.

The elevator doors open and we step out into Reed's lab, where Curt and Carmine are busy at the computer console.

"Geez, there you are!" Curt says.

"What's the rumpus, guys?" Doc asks, heading for console. He loads the gizmo on his belt into the console, feeding the data he got Downtown into the main computer. His fingers fly over the keyboard, and he's sort of muttering orders to the computer. Subvocal communication, I figure.

"Some group calling themselves the Revolutionists are holding Bendis Correctional hostage," Carmine says, pulling up a media feed on one of the monitors. It's the outside of Bendis, alright, all big industrial grey concrete and a force field fence.

"The whole prison?" Physique asks.

"They didn't waste any time, did they?" Ace says.

"Swell," I say. "That's just fucking great."

"You know these jokers?" Curt asks.

"We ran into them this morning," Ace explains. "Stole a statue from the Museum of Ancient Art and Archaeology."

"Animated a statue, you mean," Ragdoll adds.

"Right, 'the Aztech'," I say. "But Doc, word on the street was that they wanted to engineer a prison break, not blow it up."

"How did they escape you?" Doc asks.

"Mass transit," Ragdoll says.

"They teleported out?" Molly asks.

"Yeah."

"Holy socks!" Doc says, his fingers flying over the computer console. A schematic of Bendis Correctional displays, then little red dots start appearing on the schematic. All in single file, a red blobby line leading to a bigger blob of dots in the cafeteria. As we watch, about a dozen or so of the dots, the dozen nearest the cluster in the cafeteria, just disappear. The line of dots all move up, calmly, to the bigger blob.

"Tell me I'm not seeing what I'm seeing," I say.

Reed reaches for a phone and presses a button. It speed dials and he says, "Chief? Reed Sterling. You need to send in your SWAT team right now. Yes, Bendis. The Revolutionists are using mass transit to break everyone out. Right." He turns back to us and says, "Now then, where were we?"

"That's it?" Ace says.

"That's what?"

"We're not going down to the Bendis?"

"Why should we? The ACPD SWAT are the best in the country."

"What about the ones who've already gone?" Ragdoll asks.

"I'm tracking their teleportation signal even now," Doc explains. "Now, about Hi-Q?"

"Doc, SWAT haven't gone in yet," I say, still watching the schematic where another dozen dots have disappeared. "Can you get a better resolution on the bunch in the cafeteria?"

"Yes, but-"

"Doc, please."

He zooms in on the group in the cafeteria. There's only four of them.

"Where's the rest of them?" Ragdoll asks.

"The rest of who?" Joe asks as he and Jerry fly in.

"The Revolutionists," I say. "Dammit."

"What are you saying?" Doc asks.

"The Revolutionists," I explain. "There's supposed to be seven of them."

"Eight," Ace says.

"Right, eight, if you count Aztech," I add.

"Yeah, just heard, they're breaking into the Kane," Jerry says.

"No, son, Bendis Correctional," Reed says.

"No, Dad, Kane Sanitorium," Jerry says, pointing to his ear. Right, he can hear the police band radio reports.

"Both of them?" Ragdoll says, looking at me.

"Looks like I should pay Seven Year another visit, tell him his info's only half-good."

"You got one of these maps of the Kane, Doc?" Physique asks.

"Unfortunately, no," Reed says. "So far the Kane has proved rather resistant to electronic surveillance. I suspect it has something to do with the copper in the support structure. I've tried to do take some readings but every time my recording equipment has mysteriously malfunctioned. It's quite frustrating to-"

Jeannie flies into the lab and says, "Daddy?"

"Not right now, honey."

"The SWAT still haven't gone in," Ace notices.

"ACPD SWAT?" Joe asks. "They just reported an ambush. Twelve guys appeared out of nowhere as the SWAT was on their way to the Bendis."

"More now," Jerry adds.

"Daddy, it's important."

"Holy socks... This is... The sheer magnitude of the logistics involved..."

"Doc we need to do something," I tell him.

"Right," he says.

"Daddy!"

"Jeannie, we're in the middle of rather a large crisis right now," Doc snaps.

Jeannie raises an eyebrow at her father and goes to the console.

"Worse than you think," she says, tapping into a datasite. A newsfeed site called Maskwatchers.

Most costumed crimefighters know about Maskwatchers. It tracks masks around the world, gives stats on the fan favourites, interviews, celebrity gossip, that sort of thing.

Right now, the feed is just showing a list of names.

"Fifteen minutes ago someone hacked into the Maskwatcher datasite," Jeannie says.

"And?" Doc asks.

"Computer, locate Zephyr," Jeannie says to the computer. Names scroll up the screen to Zephyr, which is Jeannie's crimefighter name. It highlights Zephyr, then displays "Jeannette Meaghen Sterling, 1 Sterling Spire, Reed Sterling (father), Julia Sterling (mother), Joseph Sterling (brother) , Jeremiah Sterling (brother)" and a list of her powers and their class ratings.

"What is this, a list of masks with public I.D.s?" Jerry asks. "Computer, locate Supertwin Red."

The computer scrolls and finds it, displays "Joseph Seamus Sterling," with the same address, same family information, and his powers.

"Seamus?" Curt smirks at Joe.

"Computer, locate Livin' Lightnin'," Joe smirks back.

"I don't understand, Jeannie," Doc says to her. "Why is this such a pressing matter?"

"Eugene?" Joe laughs at Curt.

"Because Daddy, it's not just a list of public I.D.s," Jeannie says.

"Oh shit," I say. "Computer, locate Squirrelman."

It scrolls. Squirrelman. Matthew Michael Mattheson, my address, my next of kin, my powers. Even my company, Mr. Accountant.

"Fuck," Ragdoll says. "Computer, locate Ragdoll."

Kimberly Ann Sinclair. Her address. No next of kin, her powers, her job.

"Computer, locate Namesmith," Reed says. It scrolls down, displays some guy's stats.

"Holy socks," Reed says, looking sick.

"Who is this guy, Doc?" Molly asks.

"He doesn't exist," Reed explains. "He's a name I came up with to test the system."

"What system?"

"The registration system," he says, "The Department of Metahumans Affairs' Protected Registry. This list... it's the data from the Protected Registry."