Talyesin's Tales

From Physique's Workout Journal -

- Met the Mole finally. Heard a lot about him, not all of it good. Rags blames him for her mom's death. Don't have the heart to tell her the truth.

- Fight against the Negaversians. Brawna, aside from having a really dumb name, is pretty f'ing tough. Nearly knocked a couple teeth loose. Good thing I'm not just a pretty face, Ha Ha. Tricked her into an energy ray from Dirk Sterling.

- Think Matt suspects something. Going to have to talk to Reed, up the dosage. It's not getting any better.

- Took Steph and Steve and went clubbing like in the old days. Steph's got no head for shots. This town needs more mask-only bars, then I might meet some guys who aren't squishy.

- Matt says, check out Downtown, sending our toughest. Hope we see some action.



The Phabulous Physique v.2 #21 - A Squirrelman - Sins of the Past Tie-In!

Starring!

Lisa Dumont / Physique

Guest starring:

Mike Washington / Dragon
Trevor Andrews / Phenom
Jill Suzuki / Naiad
Alistair Crombie / The Mole

and

Cricket



- Finally get out of bed, around dawn, after about an hour of tossing and turning and trying to convince myself to go back to sleep. I used to love to sleep. Now it just reminds me of the 17 yrs. I spent unconscious. Don't really need it anyways. Made huge breakfast - dozen eggs, pack of bacon, half loaf toast, litre of coffee. Insane amounts of food.

- Head out to rendezvous with the others. Downtown entrance in Hitch Alley. Mole and Cricket are waiting. Like her. Good kid. Mole's kinda creepy, but good in a fight. Fights dirty, I can respect that.

- Mike shows. Good guy. Complains but he's got your back in a fight so I got no beef with him.

- Jill shows. Wasn't sure how much use she'll be Downtown - no rivers or ponds for her to control. Matt sent her, though, and he knows what he's doing.

- Trevor shows. Looks like my Trev, sounds like my Trev, not my Trev. My Trev never would have been last to a 'mission'. He was such a go-getter. Miss him a lot sometimes. Trevor's not Trev, but that smile... makes me think about better days. Anyhow.

- Mole opens the door, says, Everyone ready for our little excursion? - that fake Brit accent gets on your nerves at first, but you get used to it.

- Head into Downtown. Staircase inside alley door leads to basement, basement to subbasement, subbasement to subway system. X Line, looks like. East to track switch, along S Line for a bit. Trevor asks, How much further? Not far now, my friends, Mole answers. S Line branches to 1 Line, then a service entrance somehow leads to the sewers, and I'm totally turned around by this point. This is why I went into architecture, not civil engineering.

- Finally out of the sewers. Swear Mole did it on purpose. Going to need new boots now. You know how hard it is to find thigh high, three-inch-heeled, royal blue size fourteens? When your legs are as long as mine? Think I like shopping in transvestite stores? Asshole. As if I'm not enough of a freak to shop for, I got to shop in cross-dresser shops. Whatever. I'll send the bill to Matt, claim it as a work expense.

- Downtown's a mess. Smoke from arsons makes a haze, hard to see through more than a couple dozen metres or so. Hardly any natural ventilation down here, no wonder. Still some fires going, gunshots in the distance, head toward the noise.

- Come across a gang war - couple dozen kids, gangers, some with guns, most with knives and bats. Put it down pretty fast - no powers, no contest. Wrap a streetlight around six guys and they simmer down real quick. We spend some time bending the guns into fun shapes while Cricket calls them names. Foul mouth on that kid. Probably why I like her so much, Ha. Definite favourite: "Cocksucking asshat".

- Start putting the hurt on the gangs. Word gets out we're clearing house, we get jumped four, five times. Lots of fun. Even some powered gangers, so I get to let loose on their ass, not worry about making paste out of a squishy. When we took out Stonewall and Umbra last week, it made room for lots of gangers wanted to move up the food chain. Stonewall was a boss down here, Umbra a rival lt., them being gone means big time gang wars, internal and external. Hostile takeovers, Ha! Anyhow, the gangers get put down but good.

- Things settle down around lunch, which is fine by me. So hungry I could puke. Hate how much I need to eat nowadays. F'ing gross. We find a diner - still running after all these years? Don't know how, don't ask. Eat six burgers, three shakes and five orders of fries, still hungry. I'm totally gross. Don't want to know what kind of meat was in the burgers. Probably dog or cat or never mind, Lisa, never mind. Stolen hamburger. Tell yourself it's stolen hamburger and don't think about the weird taste.

- After lunch, Mole says, Shall we investigate the UnSeelie, as our fearless leader instructed? Mike: That's why we're here, ain't it? Jill: Good idea. Trevor agrees. I want to see these giants they told us about, say, Yeah, let's do it. Of course, while we were eating, a bunch of powered gangers decided to track us down and teach us a lesson. Sure, whatever. Maybe a dozen gangers, different kinds of powers, try to put the beating on us. One guy traps my feet in the old concrete of the sidewalk, thinking that's going to slow me. Pull myself out, pick up slab of sidewalk, toss it, he's down for the count. Jill's managed to get an old water main working, pulls water out of the pipe, swamps the firestarter pissing Cricket off. Mole's got no powers, don't know how he managed solo so long, but he's smart, I'll give him that. Keeps the gangers off balance, squabbling, bantering, while we pick them off.

- Trevor and Jill fix the water pipe, Jill holding back the water until Trevor can squeeze the pipe shut. I offered to help but He's got it, he says. Okay, I said, backing off. Some guys have problems with strong girls. Squishies I totally get, but I expected better from Trevor. Whatever.

- Further into Downtown - less and less buildings. Mole says, We're under Weirdsville now, best be on our guards. Some Thing bursts out of the ground, huge, fifty foot centipede sort of Thing, squidheaded, legs end in claws. Nasty. Touching it is like touching acid sandpaper. Mike sets it on fire, it shrieks like a thousand nails clawing the inside of my skull, can't fight, can't even think. Jill goes liquid, puts out the fire, Trevor and I toss boulders at it, herding it into position, then Trevor tosses me at a huge stalactite overhead, I smash it, skewer the Thing. It writhes around for five minutes, we wait to make sure it's dead. My hands are burned from trying to grab it, Trevor's got a split lip and a black eye from going head-first into the cave wall, we've all got massive headaches, few cuts and scratches from the claws, we'll live. Part of the life. Cheryl always used to say, You've got to like pain a little to be in this business. I sure as hell don't like hurting unless I'm inflicting it. Of course, it takes a lot more to hurt me any. Oh, and a bunch of skeletal Civil War soldiers attacked us. Starting to understand why Matt hates Weirdsville so much.

- Finally reach the UnSeelie Seeming. Huge place, a village more than a refugee camp. Not going to be easy. Mike says, We're gonna need a bigger boat. Me and Mole are the only ones old enough to get the joke. Feel old. Been feeling that way since Mr. Lee's - thinking about the old days gets me nowhere. I should know better.

- How shall we handle it?, Mole asks. I say, What do you mean? He says, Matthew only mentioned we should get the UnSeelie under control, not how. Trevor: We could try talking to their leaders, see if they won't somehow police themselves. Mike: Yeah sure, then we invite them maybe to tea. Jill: From what Squirrelman said about their previous dealings with the leaders of this community, they seem disingenuous. They what?, Cricket says. Bunch of lying assholes, I translate for her. Exactly, Mole says. We can't take them all on, Trevor says, there are women and children down there, and for a second he sounds so much like my Trev I want him so bad it makes me dizzy. It's getting worse, going to have to talk to Doc. Mike says, Some of those women will cut your heart out as soon as look at you, and some of those kids ain't any better. Most, in fact, Mole says. Unpleasant lot.

- We talk it out. Mike and I are for going in there, taking on as many as we can, pulling out if it goes south. Mole, surprise surprise, is for talking to them. Trevor's not sure it will work, but doesn't see any other solution. Then Jill says, Why do we need to fight them at all? Or talk to them? We can't we just scope out the Seeming, get a better idea of what we're up against? Most of the inhabitants are not breaking any laws, after all. I say, Because we can't just walk into an UnSeelie camp unnoticed. You can't, Jill says, but Dragon, Cricket and I can. It's true - the three of them could easily pass as UnSeelie. Trevor's not crazy about the idea, but we don't have a lot of options. The three of them walk, bold as brass, into the camp and out of sight.

- I hate waiting. Especially when I was itching for a fight.

- Couple hours go by, nothing. I'm starving again, tell the other two I'll be back. Just about to leave the cavern when Cricket's voice comes over the nanobead, get down there, on the double. Guess I starve.

- We rush in. Some huge guys all dressed in fur try to stop us. Trevor and I don't let them. In the town square, or whatever you want to call it, Cricket, Jill and Mike are surrounded by an angry mob, yelling, pitchforks, torches, the whole thing, yelling for the outsiders to stay out, this is UnSeelie territory, mind your own business. Trevor and I jump over the crowd and into the middle, with our team. Lose sight of Mole.

- Bunch of bravos with blood red dreadlocks - Redcaps - step up. Trevor's trying to calm things down, telling everyone go back to your homes, whatever, one of the toughs takes a swing, and then we're in it but good. Jill uses the water from the town well, forces everyone back, but the toughs aren't so easily put off, and one of them townsfolk, looks like a cross between an otter and a dominatrix, starts wrestling with Jill for control of the water. I grab one of the Redcaps and use him like a club against his buddies. Mike goes up against this long snakey dragon guy. Cricket's jumping from Redcap head to Redcap head, not doing much more than annoying them. Trevor's one-on-five with some big, ugly brutes - trolls or ogres or something. It's not going good for us.

- Suddenly a voice yells, STOP!, and everyone freezes. Totally paralysed. Magic, probably, because I'm forcing as hard as I can and I can't move a finger. Mole's standing there with this guy looks like he's made of rose vines, all covered in thorns, nice suit. Some green chick standing with him, she's the one stopped us. Mole's buddy has a bunch of toughs of his own, all wearing some kind of uniform. Sometimes the uniforms even match. Makes them look like somebody's idea of Nazi orcs.

- Turns out he's the Prince of Thorns, the leader of the UnSeelie. Tells the Redcaps that we're duly appointed representatives of the law. Tells us that our presence is inflammatory and unwanted. Green chick lets us go, and Trevor says, Sir, I understand what you're saying, but I'm afraid I have to inform you that several of your people have been responsible for crimes topside. Prince: My people, Phenom? What people would that be? Racial profiling still as prominent as ever in Action City's gestapo? Mole says, Mustn't play the race card so early, my dear Prince. Gives the game away, what? Prince gives Mole a tight smile, says, You mortals have so much to learn about the game, dear Mole. Now get out of my town. You've no jurisdiction here. Mike says something about jurisdictioning his ass topside, but Trevor gives him a look shuts him up. They go back, worked together in the Warpers for a bit.

- We leave the Seeming, start to head back topside. Not much point sticking around. Completely outnumbered. Not looking forward to telling the team about this botch job.

- I tell Mole I'm not going through the sewers again, find us another way out. He leads us through an older, more tumbled-down part of Downtown. On the way out, we run into a Krieg cell setting up a storage area. Looks like they're moving into Downtown, the League will have to do something soon. Anyhow, they may have numbers and tactics and equipment, and even a couple of clockrockers with them, but we put manage to put them down, bust up their staging post but good. We're tossing everything into a bonfire Mike set up when Trevor notices something: some of the equipment is WOLFEN stuff. Sure as hell they're working together, now we've got proof. This is bad news for everyone. Two of biggest baddest terrorist groups working side by side? Not good. Definitely time for the League to step up.

- Topside, we split up, leave Mole and Cricket Downtown, Trevor says he'll tell the League what the deal is. I head to the usual place, do something about my gross appetite.