Talyesin's Tales

Previously on Squirrelman - Sins of the Past:

After being run out of their new and no longer secret headquarters, and having their secret identities compromised on the popular datasite Maskwatchers, Squirrelman and the Crimefighters' League paid a trip to the Costumer, who outfitted them with new, matching uniforms.

After voting to reject Mayor Ross-Carter's offer to join the ACPD as their official powered branch, the Crimefighters' League split up for the evening, and several of them wound up at Mr. Lee's House of Ideas, a Chinese restaurant that Showdown recommended, where they discussed a variety of subjects.

Upon returning to their quarters at the Sterling Spire, Squirrelman and Ragdoll got ready for bed. But before they did, Ragdoll informed Squirrelman that she had to leave the team...



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
Steven Rand ............... as Showdown
Hannah Cohen ................... as Psifire
Kyle Drake ........... as Troubleshooter
Jackson Archer ............ as Moonbow
Alistair Crombie ............. as the Mole
Cricket ............................... as herself


"What? Why?"

"Matt... I'm just quitting, alright?"

"No, Kimmy, it's not alright. Why are you quitting?"

She takes a deep breath and tries to get off my lap, but I wrap my arms around her waist and don't let her.

"Tell me."

She sighs and says, "Matt, there's... there's a couple of reasons."

"So talk to me."

"Okay. The first reason is, you changed your vote because of me."

"What? So?"

"So you need to be able to make decisions without my opinion influencing them."

"That's the dumbest thing you've ever said."

"What?"

"Kimmy, your opinion is important to me. Rick's opinion is important to me. Everyone on the team's opinion is important to me."

"You said you couldn't make decisions without me."

"I said I couldn't run the team without you."

"So you rely on me, depend on me."

"Of course I do."

"That's why I have to leave the team."

"Still not getting you."

"I have undue influence on you, Matt!"

I take a deep breath.

"Kimmy, listen to me. Everyone has an influence on me. Everyone on the team. Everyone. Because the League isn't a fascist regime. It's a collection of individuals."

"You said, you couldn't do it without me. That's an undue influence."

"What I meant was, I need you on the team. Because- Okay, look. I trust everyone on the team with my life, okay?"

She just raises an eyebrow at me.

"I do. Even Mole, I know you don't trust him. Everyone. But I don't know everyone as well as I'd like. So I don't know who's going to bullshit me or try and influence my decisions or whatever. I need you on the team because I know you aren't going to bullshit me or influence me. I know that you are going to give me your opinion, no matter what, and you aren't afraid to tell me you think it's a bad idea or that I'm being stupid. And I know that you'll do what I ask you to do, even if you do think it's a bad idea, because I know you trust me completely. I don't need an entire team of Mikes and Crickets giving me grief every time I make a decision. That's what I meant."

"Still-"

"No. No still. No but. I need you on the team. You don't exert undue influence. If you did, would I have left you outside Project Solstice when I went in with Reed? No. You would have been in there, right beside me, because that's where you wanted to be. But it wasn't where I needed you to be. If you had exerted undue influence, I would have said, Yes dear, right this way. If you had undue influence, you'd be running the show. Do you feel like you're running the show?"

"Well, no, but-"

"No buts. What's the other reason?"

"It... I... It's stupid."

"So was your first so-called reason."

She slaps my chest but she's trying not to smile.

"So what is it?"

"It's... I miss the mask."

"Huh."

"That's it, that's all you've got to say?"

"No, it's... I agree with you."

"You do?"

"Yeah. A week of the life without the mask and I feel like it's my predecessor's first cases all over again, when no one knew who he was."

"You think the Mayor was right?"

"I think we might have been a bit hasty, getting rid of our masks so quick."

"So what do we do? The League's brand new uniforms cost Wayne a small fortune."

"I say we put it to the team tomorrow. See what everyone thinks."

"I guess."

"So, you're not quitting?"

"I guess not."

"Good." I run my fingers through her hair. It's longer now than I've ever seen it, and it works on her. It works on me, too - in an entirely different way.

So we take care of that and collapse in a sweaty, exhausted heap much later.

Next morning, we sleep in. We actually sleep in. I can't remember the last time we slept in. It feels like a week's vacation.

After breakfast I give the League a call, to meet up sometime that afternoon. Wayne offers his place to meet, so we agree to meet at his mansion around one.

I gotta say this, stately Masters Mansion is exactly that - stately. It's a gorgeous estate on the outskirts of Action City, up past Lawrence. The mansion itself is a beautiful three-storey Tudor-style mansion with probably thirty or forty rooms. Huge and gorgeous. If he sold it, he'd probably get twenty or thirty million, easy. It's a family heirloom, though, so he'll never sell.

Wayne's butler lets us in and escorts us to a sitting room where maybe half the team is waiting. Stephanie and Steve are looking under the weather, Steph especially, though Lisa looks fine, joking and laughing with Trevor and Mike. Guess she can handle clubbing a lot better than Steph or Steve.

Wayne's butler gets us drinks and brings in snacks and whatnot, and we just chill and relax while we wait for everyone. Mole and Cricket are the last to arrive.

"Dreadfully sorry," Mole says with an apologetic smile. "Very few Downtown tunnels lead out here, you see."

"Not at all," Wayne says. "Come on in, have a seat."

"Lovely place, Masters," Mole says.

"Thanks."

"Seems to have weathered the recent storms, eh?"

"Yes, well, I had a force field installed a few years back. It's more than paid back the investment, especially now that the world knows I'm the Midnight Avenger. We've had a couple of attacks this week, right, Michaels?"

"Right you are, sir," Wayne's butler says, taking Mole's trenchcoat and Cricket's jacket.

"So what's the sitch, boss?" Cricket asks.

"I thought it would be a good idea to play Compare the Cases and see what we need to prioritize. Some of us came up with a pretty long list last night."

Rick reads out the list we came up with at dinner. Lots of nods from folks around the room.

Folks bring up other stuff. Lots of WOLFEN and Krieg activity. Do-Badders and other gangs. The Technocracy. Some Coven stuff. Everyone's got their personal enemies on their minds - our run-in with the Implacable Foes were only our worst bad guys. There's dozens more out there.

But everyone agrees the priority has to be, dealing with everything going on Downtown. Everything boils down to that. It's the root of our evils, so to speak.

"I wonder," Kyle says, thinking.

"What?" I ask him.

"Well, the jail break and the datahack happening just as you discovered Project Solstice," he says.

"Yeah?"

"Awfully coincidental, don't you think?"

"Think whoever's behind the Harvest clone co-ordinated the jail break and the datahack?" Jackson asks, skeptical. It does sound far-fetched, but it's something Reed mentioned too.

"You have a better theory?"

"Just saying, coincidences happen."

"Yeah, but Doc Sterling thought the same thing," I say.

"So what's the plan, then?" Lisa asks.

"We need to find Doc Steele," I say. "We need to start patrolling Downtown, get some information. We need to find out where the Harvest clone went - Kyle?"

"Doc, Jeannie and I checked and rechecked the Living Complex's security files. There aren't any cameras in the Project Solstice lab, but we traced the power feed to the room. All power needs in the lab ceased exactly one second after you guys left on Monday. According to Living Complex's admittedly tampered data files."

"So either the entire contents of the lab disappeared the second we left..." Rick says.

"Or, more likely, whoever teleported the lab out tampered with the files to hide the exact moment it happened."

"Another mystery."

"Part of the who took the lab mystery, I'd say."

"Okay, here's what I'd like us to do," I tell the team. "Jay, you, Steve, Hank and Kyle head out to the Rocky Mountain retreat where Steve studied under Doc Steele. If he's there, bring him back; if not, look for clues.

"Anna, I want you, Katie and Hannah to look for any clues, mystical or psychic, about the sorceress who's working against us all this time.

"Alistair, take Cricket, Lisa, Mike, Trevor and Jill, start patrolling Downtown. Look for signs of Lord Hades, and get those UnSeelie under control.

"Rick, I need you to take Stephanie, Kimmy, Jessie and Wayne and hit the streets of Lower Uptown. Find the Revolutionists."

"Me?" Jackson asks.

"You and I are going to talk to Johnny Giggles," I tell him. He just nods.

"And everyone," I say, "I know this is all important, but I want everyone to take the day off tomorrow. We need it. Time's against us, absolutely, but we're still banged up from the past week. A day off will recharge our reserves, and that'll make us better at the job. Everyone okay with that?"

There's no complaints to a day off.

"Matt?" Kimmy says, reminding me.

"Right," I say. "One last thing... who thinks maybe our fancy new uniforms were a little... premature?"

There's a few grins and a few nods.

"Not me," Cricket says. "This is the best set of clothes I've ever owned."

"There's something to be said for uniformity," Kyle says. "But probably not in our case."

"It's like the Mayor said, our masks are our faces," Wayne says. "Without them, we lose something."

"We lose our rep," Hank says. Wayne nods.

"I don't know why I got this outfit in the first place," Mike adds. "I haven't needed clothes since my transformation."

"So what're you suggesting, Matt?" Lisa asks.

"I don't think we need to keep to the strict uniform," I say. "We can wear the parts of it we like - I like my jacket, personally - but I'm putting the mask back on."

There's general agreement and a sense of relief. Everyone agrees to wear what they like. Mike rips his uniform off right there.

Lisa really called it. A loose-knit group of individuals.

"There's something I'd like to propose," Wayne says once that's agreed upon.

"Shoot."

"The League needs a headquarters," he says, "and several of us here need new residences. I'd like to propose we use my mansion as our headquarters, and I'm inviting anyone who wants to, to stay here as my guests."

"Wow," Rick says.

"That's incredibly generous, Wayne," Stephanie adds.

"Yeah, Wayne, thanks," I say. "Uh... any objections?"

No one has any. Wayne gives us the tour of the place, including his own secret headquarters in the sub-basement. They're incredible facilities - computer resources, vehicles, training room (including a pool and a sauna), science lab, medical room, and a dozen or more secret entrances and exits. More than half the team accepts his invitation to stay as guests. Kimmy and I tell him we'll think about it.

Sunday, Kimmy and I spend the day making decisions about the wedding. Like a normal engaged couple. Seems like after the week from hell, even the criminals need a couple days off. We don't get any emergencies or anything like that. Nothing's going to interrupt Kimmy, anyway. We set the date, make appointments, all that wedding stuff normal people do.

Monday though...

No one could have expected what Monday had in store.