Talyesin's Tales

Previously on Squirrelman - Sins of the Past:

After helping a new hero called Showdown defeated the infamous terrorist codenamed Solo, Squirrelman, Ace and Blue Jay registered with the Department of Metahumans Protected Registry under the terms of the Claremont Act, in order to form the Crimefighters' League.

Squirrelman received a tip from one of his informants that a new gang of criminals called the Revolutionists were planning a prison break.

Upon returning from Downtown, Squirrelman and his colleagues discovered that the Revolutionists had made good on their plan, breaking out prisoners not only from Bendis Correctional but from the Kane Sanitarium as well.

To make matters worse, someone had hacked the popular datasite Maskwatchers and replaced the normal datafeed with a list of names and addresses - the names of tens of thousands of secret identities...



Starring!

Matt Mattheson ......... as Squirrelman
Kimmy Sinclair ................ as Ragdoll
Rick Duncan ........................... as Ace
Lisa Dumont ................... as Physique
Anna Kimble ................. as Darklight
Stephanie Cooke ............. as Blue Jay
Jay Allen ........................ as Red Bolt
Mike Washington ............. as Dragon
Trevor Andrews ............... as Phenom
Jessica Wagner .............. as Rapunzel
Katie McCormick ............ as Superia

Guest Starring

Reed Sterling ....................... as Doc
Julia Sterling ................... as herself
Joe Sterling ....... as SuperTwin Red
Jerry Sterling .... as SuperTwin Blue
Jeannie Sterling .............. as Zephyr
Carmine DaCosta ....... as Forerunner



"I thought that was impossible, Reed," I say.

"It is," he answers, sounding stunned. "I mean, it's supposed to be."

"Supposed to be?!" Ace yells. "Supposed to be?! Are you kidding me?"

"No, I mean... I made it as unhackable as possible. It's a stand-alone system. Only five people in the country have passkeys to access it, and their passkeys only work in conjunction with the other four. And I put an alarm on it if anyone tried to hack into it while being examined."

"Jesus..." Ragdoll turns to me. "Matt, if the escaping convicts get a hold of this..."

"Oh Jesus," I say, looking at the clock. Only 4:45? This day seems really long. "Reed, d'you have an outside untraceable line?"

"Of course," he says, still stunned. Jeannie shows me the phone.

I disable the vid feed and call work.

"Mr. Accountant, how may I direct your call?"

"Pass me Stretch."

"Stretch is currently on the vid with a client, Matt."

"Interrupt him, right now, dammit!"

"Yes sir."

There's a brief pause.

"Matt, what's- "

"No time to explain. Close the offices. Send everyone home, right now."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You'll know soon enough."

"Matt, tell me what's going on. Why is your vid feed disabled?"

"I can't explain that right now."

"Matt, tell me what the fuck is going on! Why should we close early?"

"Stretch, goddammit, just do what I'm asking you, for fuck's sake!"

Screams in the background. Shit.

"Matt, pause the vid a sec-"

Sounds of footsteps heading away from the phone. Stretch's door opening, Stretch asking what's going on. More screams. Someone rushing back to the vid.

"Matt!" Stretch yells into the vid. "It's Squidface!"

"Stretch! Get out! Get out now!"

The line goes dead.

I look at Reed.

"You have a teleporter?" I ask him.

"Of course."

"Send me there, right now!"

"Where are you going?" Ace asks me. "We have a massive jailbreak on our hands."

"I'm going to work," I tell him.

Ragdoll gets on the pad beside me.

"You don't want to warn your friends?" I ask.

"You go, I go."

I pull my mask up to clear my mouth.

"Do it."

Jerry throws the switch because his dad is still trying to figure out how something like this could have happened and then I'm puking in the lobby of Mr. Accountant.

The place is wrecked. Desks tossed aside, the robo-receptionist in pieces - still trying to direct calls, I see - Pam holding her broken arm and crying, Jake under his desk, two or three people in the corner, terrified.

I pull down my mask.

"Hey, Squids!" I yell. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

"In here, Shquirrelly!" he mushmouths from Stretch's office.

I jump up to the ceiling and race along it. Peak through the upper corner of the door, which is smashed off its hinges. Ragdoll's next to the door, ready to follow me.

Stretch's leather office chair comes flying at my head. I dodge it.

Squidface has Stretch in his tentacles, holding him out the smashed-out window.

"Or sshhhould I shay, Matthew Mattheshon?" Squidface says.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't be shtupid, Mattheshon. My boysh ssshhowed me Mashkwatchersh."

"Figures a dope like you would believe whatever they read on the worldnet," I say, stalling.

"Give me shome credit, Mattheshon," he says. "I shent Ram-Man and shome of my boysh to your plashe, too. I figured a goody two ssshhoesh like you would be a nine-to-fiver, but an accountant? Nerd."

"Much better being a hideously deformed ex-forensic scientist, right, Dentavius?"

"Toussshhé, Mattheshon," he chuckles that sick wet burbling chuckle of his.

"So what do you want, Squidface?"

"I wanna shee your fashe, Mattheshon. Take off the mashk or I drop your partner."

"Squirrelman, don't!" Stretch manages to say before a tentacle wraps around his mouth.

"I unmask and you let him go?"

"That'sh the deal."

I glance at Ragdoll who shakes her head. It's a bad idea. I know it. Shit.

I hop down and stand in the doorway. Reach up. Unmask.

"I'm gonna to ruin your life, Mattheshon, the way you've ruined mine all theshe yearsh."

"You ruined your own life, Squids."

"Well, I'm gonna ruin yoursh too, then," he says, and drops Stretch.

"Shit," I say, and I rush into the room and Ragdoll goes out the window after Stretch as I grab three of Squidface's tentacles in one hand and yank on them, hard enough to pull him off his feet.

"You sent your boys to my apartment?" I say, punctuating it with a fist to his face. "You come here and wreck my business?" Kick in the stomach. Dodge some tentacles that have no strength since he's winded. Another punch, right in his tentacled mouth. "What makes you think I am not going to completely kick your ass?"

I toss him through the wall and follow him into my office.

"Thish," he says, pulling a gun.

Bullets are flying and I'm twitching and dodging. Blam blam blam blam click click, my favourite sound in the world. I tackle him again and punch punch he grabs me and throws me through my door, smashing it to pieces. He follows me in and grabs the couch and tosses it, I climb it midair, swing from the ceiling fan and land on him with both feet hard and he flies back into my desk, scattering everything.

He gets up as I'm closing in on him, sees my #1Boss mug - me and Stretch both got one last Christmas from the whole staff - and flicks it with a tentacle, sending it flying at the wall, shattering it, petty asshole.

I grab him by the collar and hold him up.

"Say g'night, Squids," I say.

"How about, Shee ya later?" he answers, reaching into his pocket and disappearing.

Ragdoll comes through the window with Stretch.

"You okay?" I ask him.

"He copped a feel, but he's fine," Ragdoll says, smirking. "For now."

"I was holding on for dear life," he says defensively. "I mean, you swing from flagpoles all the time, but it was a first for me."

"Squidface?" Ragdoll asks.

"Some kind of teleporter," I answer.

"Fuck."

"Yeah."

"Listen, uh... Squirrelman," Stretch says, eyes over my shoulder.

I turn around. The entire staff is there. People I've worked with since I came to this alternity. All of them looking mildly shocked.

Brent, our tech guy, is holding my mask in his hands.

"Uh... Listen, everyone," I say, "I'm sorry this happened. I'm sorry for deceiving you all these years. Take the rest of the week off."

"Matt? Uh... Squirrelman?" Brent says, handing me my mask. "I think I speak for everyone on staff when I say... " He looks around at everyone. "This is the coolest thing ever!"

And like that, they're around me, shaking my hand, clapping me on the shoulder, giving me hugs.

Once they're done, I say, "Okay... Thanks. This means a lot to me. Things are going to get bad in Action City. There's a jail break going on at Bendis and the Kane, so get home as soon as you can, and try to stay home until we get things under control. Stretch?"

"Yeah, partner?"

"All this okay with you?"

"Sure. A week off will give me a chance to figure out what to tell the clients."

"Yeah... sorry about this."

"Forget it," he grins. "Go kick some tail."

I look at him.

"You been waiting a long time to use that?"

"Little while, yeah."

I roll my eyes and pull on my mask, running for the window, Ragdoll just ahead of me. We jump out to the sounds of my staff cheering us.

"That was odd," I say as we're falling. Flagpole and jump across the street, rooftop somersault and along the roof.

"Why?"

"Just... I expected a different reaction."

"You just saved their lives, they're grateful. Wait a week and see how many famous athletes and CEOs and actors and politicians and people from their daily lives are actually masks, lying to them all these years, and see how they'll react then. Wait a week and see how many lives have just been ruined because of a hacked datasite and a supposedly unhackable registration system."

"This isn't Reed's fault, hon."

"No, it isn't. But a lot of people will react like it is."

We hop the el and ride it through Lower Uptown. Cop cars are flying everywhere. Smoke is starting to rise from lots of different places. This is the worst prison break in Action City history, and it's only going to get worse with the Maskwatcher site feeding out our secret identities and addresses.

I activate my nanobead.

"Calling all Crimefighters," I say into it. "Action City is in trouble."

"Tell me about it," Dragon says.

"We're still at the Spire," Phenom adds.

"Things aren't going so well," Physique says.

"About ten seconds after you left, Starrior attacked the Spire," Ace explains.

"We'll be there as soon as we can," I say.

"Blue Jay reporting. I'm at the Garcia-Lopez Overpass - the Sky Barons are attacking traffic."

"RedBolthereLungfishDoBaddersturfwaratthedocks."

"Rapunzel. The Circle are opening a soulgate in Ditko Park."

"Superia here. What's going on? Katie was just attacked in class by Phantasm, Psiphon, and Rumplestiltskin."

"Meet us at the Sterling Spire and we'll explain," I say as Ragdoll and I hop off the el and head for the Spire ourselves. From here we can see Starrior attacking the Spire.

"Powerband here, is this thing on? Okay, Action City Power's Central Junction just got attacked by Electrode, Voltage, and Nightzone's crew."

"Darklight reporting, I'm with Princess Julia in Weirdsville, recruiting some assistance, and the Winterqueen is back."

"Okay team, we need to coordinate this," I say. "We can't just react. Rendez-vous at the Sterling Spire and we'll sort this out. Red, swing by and pick up Rapunzel?"

"Okay!"

I sign off and Ragdoll looks at me.

"Who do you figure?" she asks.

"For the hack? Had to be someone on-site."

"Inside job?"

"I was thinking Solo."

"What, he let himself get captured just to be run through the registry so he could somehow hack it?"

"Something like that."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

We're back at the Spire now, start climbing when Jerry sees us and swoops down from the battle on the roof, grabs us and soars back up.

"What does he want?" I ask him.

"Dunno. He blasted the Spire with a high-concentration EMP blast, knocked everything out. Now he's just blasting away randomly, all over the spectrum. Fried Phenom pretty hard."

"He's a fast healer," I say, just as we get to the roof. Doc's got some weird tech shoulder-mounted cannon thing, blasts Starrior with a purpley blue ray beam, he falls to the roof where Carmine zips up and clamps a collar around his neck, and he starts glowing the same purpley blue colour. Jerry and Joe grab him.

"Get him in the holding cell until the police have a chance to come by," Doc says, and the boys fly the alien criminal inside.

"Now what?" Ragdoll asks me.

"We wait for the team to arrive, should be a couple of minutes."

"Then what, leader-man?" Ace asks me.

"Like I told you before... We go to work."