Talyesin's Tales

Previously on Squirrelman: Sins of the Past

When Squirrelman, Blue Jay, and Ace went to Washington to register themselves under the terms of the Claremont Act, they witnessed the arrival and near escape of Derrick Wolfe, Public Enemy Number One.

Members of the Crimefighters' League and the Sterling Squad discovered a secret lab where a clone of Harvest was being grown. The only person who could stop the clone's gestation, they determined, was Dr. Hi-Q.

Someone hacked the Department of Metahuman Affairs' Protected Registry and posted the secret identities of thousands of metahumans to the dataweb.

Acting on a tip obtained by a friend of Red Bolt's, the Crimefighters' League tracked the location of Dr. Hi-Q to an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Action City. Dr. Hi-Q was subdued and his goons defeated, but during questioning, Hi-Q's head exploded.






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
Hank Scott .................. as Powerband
Wayne Masters ... as Midnight Avenger
Jill Suzuki ........................... as Naiad
Hannah Cohen ................... as Psifire
Kyle Drake ........... as Troubleshooter
Jackson Archer ............ as Moonbow
Steven Rand ............... as Showdown
Alistair Crombie ............. as the Mole
Cricket ............................... as herself

with

Derrick Wolfe .... as Codename: Solo


"Jesus Christ!

"What the fuck?!"

"God!"

"I think I'm going to hurl-"

"Psifire, are you alright?"

"Everybody, shut up!" I yell. "First things first. Anyone hurt?"

"I think I got brain on me. This look like brain to you?"

"Definitely gonna hurl," Blue Jay says, heading outside.

"Anybody hurt?" I ask again. Nobody's hurt. "Okay. Now. What the fuck just happened?"

"His head exploded," Moonbow says.

"Very helpful."

"You asked."

"Hannah?"

"As you were interrogating him, I was keeping a passive scan of his mind open. He has... had some sophisticated anti-teep hardware in his head, keeping me from just plucking it out." She crosses her arms, thinking hard. "He was very specifically not thinking about the access code. But continued questioning brought it closer to the forefront of his mind, and the closer he came to actively thinking about it, the closer to panic he became."

"Panic?"

"He was deathly afraid of thinking about the access code."

"He probably knew his head would blow up if he thought about it," Troubleshooter guesses.

"So I'm guessing he thought about it."

"Pretty much," Psifire says. "Good thing I scanned it from him the split second before he-"

"Lost his head?" Phenom jokes.

There's about a second before we all start laughing. Gallows humour. It's laugh or cry, I guess.

"Oy," Psifire says finally. "Anyway, I have the access code."

"Not much help without retinal and fingerprint scans," Ace says.

"Vocal, too," Physique adds.

"I can handle that," Phenom says, in a really good imitation of Hi-Q's voice.

"Whoa," Ace says. "That good enough to fool a computer?"

"It's a power, not a mail away course."

"He's even got that snarky attitude down."

"Found an eyeball," Moonbow says from where he's standing near the body.

"Oh god," Stephanie says from the door, where she's just walking back in. She turns around and heads right back outside. Superia goes to check on her.

"What are you suggesting?" Troubleshooter asks. "That we take the eye?"

"Just saying."

"Should we take a finger, too?"

"Guys? Not in front of the kids, okay?" Physique says.

Everyone looks at the clockrockers and redcaps, watching us.

"Right."

"Later."

"Anybody call the cops yet?" I ask.

"I'll do it," Ace says.

"They've got a point," Ragdoll says to me, quietly.

"Take the eye, take a fingerprint - we are not cutting off one of his fingers - and not tell the cops?"

"Yeah."

I head over to the body, where Troubleshooter is checking things.

"You got something to make copies?" I ask him.

"Way ahead of you," he answers, putting a gadget over the eye, scanning the retina.

"Let's hope they're good enough for the computer."

"Oh, they will be."

While we're waiting for the cops to show, we start questioning the goons. Telling them that Psifire can do to them what just happened to their boss makes them really talkative. Only problem is, they don't know anything. The one thing they do confirm for us is Hi-Q was working for someone else, but they don't know who.

The cops show up and we give them our statements. It's nearly two in the morning before everything is wrapped up and we're free to go.

"Okay, it's late," I say. "We'll play Compare the Cases tomorrow, okay?" Everyone is okay with it. It's been a long couple days. "Everybody go home. And be careful."

We all head off in different directions, Kimmy and I leaving together. About halfway home, Kimmy gives me a kiss - long, hard, hungry - and says, "I'm going to check my place. I'll see you in a bit."

"Okay. You know... my place is probably wrecked. Ram-Man and Dust Devil-"

"I know. Get your things and we'll go to a hotel or something."

"Okay."

My place isn't probably wrecked. It's definitely wrecked. Ram-Man and Dust Devil had a field day. I'm lucky to find three pairs of underwear that aren't ripped to shreds. Ram-Man apparently put his head through my secret office door. All my mementoes, all those awards, they're all destroyed, shredded, busted up, crushed. Farrah is smashed to pieces. That's what brings it home.

My life as Matt Mattheson is over. My life as Squirrelman is over.

I grab a gym bag and fill it with some stuff. Clothes, important papers, a picture of me and my parents taken a few months before they died, my stash of cash Squidface's goons didn't find. I turn around, give my loft one last look around.

Someone else is here with me.

I didn't hear him. I don't see him, not really. I'm not wearing my nightvision goggles. Which isn't the smartest thing, but give me a break, I'm exhausted. He's in the deep shadow at the back of the bed area of the loft.

Watching me.

My twitch isn't twitching.

"About time you noticed," he says. His voice is deep, gravelly. I've heard it before.

Derrick Wolfe, Codename: Solo.

"What do you want?"

"It wasn't me."

"Sorry, I should have been more specific. What do you want, with me?"

"I couldn't get into the Sterling Spire."

"Why do you want to get into the Sterling Spire?"

"Doc Sterling's the only man who might believe me."

"You're right about that."

He steps forward into the patch of moonlight streaming in from the skylight. Still no twitch.

"Tell him. It wasn't me."

"You tell me one thing, first. Why were you there, that day? Why did STAR Forces bring you into the DMA so publicly?"

"That's two things."

"Answer the question."

"Sometimes I need information. Sometimes to get that information, I need to talk to the people who are hunting me, who hate me more than anyone. Sometimes, the only way to get that information is to be interrogated."

"To interrogate, you mean."

"No."

"Okay, whatever. I'm too tired to argue with you. Why so publicly?"

"Because I've been Number One for too long. They had to make it public. To show they can get the job done. To justify their budget increase."

Yeah. That makes sense.

"Fine."

"Tell him."

"Why bother?"

"What?"

"Why bother telling Doc Sterling you're not the one?"

"I don't mind taking the heat for the things I've done, because they're things that needed doing, to people that needed doing to. This... this wrecks the lives of people who were just obeying the law. Innocent people... for the most part. That's not what I'm about. STAR Forces is going to try and pin this on me. Doc Sterling is the only guy anyone's going to listen to."

"Alright. I'll tell him."

He leaps up, fluid like nothing I've ever seen, grabs the edge of the skylight.

"Not going to try and stop me, hero?" he asks, almost smiling.

"Tell you what... I'll give you a head start. You know. For not kicking my ass."

He smiles then, and then he's out the skylight and gone.

I turn over my armchair and sit down.

"Squirrelman to Ragdoll," I say into the nanobead.

"Go."

"You about ready? I could sleep for a week."

"I'm almost there. You in civvies?"

"Uh... not yet. Let's head down to Best Western, okay?"

"Race you."

"Not tonight."

I get changed, which basically means pulling jeans and a sweatshirt over my tights, head out the balcony. Down the wall, jump the alley to the next building over, run along Parker Avenue until I hit Perez, then to Best Western. Kimmy's waiting.

"You okay?" she asks.

"It's been a long couple of days."

"Yeah."

"And Derrick Wolfe paid me a visit."

"What?!"

"I'll tell you about it later, okay?"

We head in to the hotel. The clerk at the desk looks halfway asleep, reading a magazine. I tell her we need a room, give her my credit card while we're filling out the forms.

"I'm sorry sir," the clerk says. "Your card's been declined."

"What?"

"The machine isn't accepting your card, sir."

"Try again."

She tries again. No good.

I call the credit company's help line. They tell me my card's been placed 'at risk' pending investigation into my case.

"What case?" I ask the help line guy.

"Uh... Mr. Mattheson," he says. "The company's placed all cardholders whose names appeared on the Maskwatchers datasite 'at risk'."

"What? Why?"

"The company is investigating the possibility that these people may be guilty of identity fraud."

Meanwhile, Kimmy's trying her card. Different card. Same result.

I start making a mental list of lawyers I know.

I hang up and offer to pay cash. Of course, they can't book us a room without a valid credit card. Great.

It's nearly dawn when we stumble into the lobby of the Sterling Spire.