Squirrelman - Sins of the Past 62
Previously on Squirrelman - Sins of the Past:
Senator Mazzuchelli of New Jersey called for the repeal of the Claremont Act, calling it a terrific failure, providing figures that showed that the overwhelming majority of known metahumans had never registered with the Protected Registry.
Squirrelman and some of the League met at the Sterling Spire to discuss the various leads they had been following throughout the day, concerning the whereabouts of Doc Steele, the location of the Revolutionists, the identity of the mysterious sorceress from the future, and the strength of the UnSeelie Seeming Downtown.
As they paused for a break, Doc Sterling asked Squirrelman and Ragdoll to accompany him to the med lab, where a surprise awaited the couple...
Starring!
Matt Mattheson ......... as Squirrelman
Kimmy Sinclair ................ as Ragdoll
Rick Duncan ........................... as Ace
Anna Kimble ................. as Darklight
Trevor Andrews ............... as Phenom
Steven Rand ............... as Showdown
Kyle Drake ........... as Troubleshooter
Guest starring
Reed Sterling ....................... as Doc
Julia Sterling ................... as herself
Jerry Sterling .... as SuperTwin Blue
and introducing
Max Mattheson ................ as Captain Hero
Melissa 'Missy' Mattheson ... as Squirrelgrrl
Kimmy looks at me and asks, "What did she say?"
I look at Doc and ask, "What did she say?"
Doc grins and says, "She said, Hi Daddy."
"Why did she say that?"
"There's a very good reason for that, actually."
"That's why I asked the question, Doc."
"Naturally. Well, these two appeared in the middle of my lab while Jerry and I were discussing the relativistic nature of the-"
"Doc."
"Sorry. They appeared, and passed out. We moved them to the med lab-"
"Doc!" Kimmy and I both yell.
"The reason she said 'Hi Daddy' is, these two are your children," he says, grinning. "Congratulations."
"Wait, what?"
"These two, according to the DNA scans I took upon delivering them to the med lab, show that they are the product of your and Kimmy's intermingled DNA."
I look at Kimmy. She looks about as shocked as I feel.
"A Gardner Violation?" she asks.
"No, actually," Doc explains. "Although that's what I first tested for. They seem to be from this alternity, or at least one that's sufficiently similar as to make the difference so miniscule that-"
"Doc."
"Quite, sorry. They're from a future."
"They're from the future?"
"Not the future. A future. We've discussed this, Matt. It may very well be that they're from the most mathematically probable of futures, but-"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. One of countless possible futures. Okay, so, what are they doing here?"
"We're not sure," a voice says behind me. It sounds like my voice, a little higher maybe, but not coming from me. It's the kid. There's a moan from the girl, she's waking up too, eyelids fluttering. Reed and Julia check some things, take some readings, stabilize the kids.
"What do you mean, you're not sure?" I ask him.
"Take it easy, Matt," Doc says. "First things first. What's your first name, Mister Mattheson?"
"How did you- I mean, what are you talking about?" he answers. I see he's got my gift for keeping a poker face.
"It's okay, kid," I tell him. "Even if your sister here hadn't called me Daddy, Reed's DNA scan proved it for us."
He glares at his sister. "Missy, fracking frell. Sterlingdoc told us not to let our parents-"
"I know what he told us, Max!"
Kimmy looks at me. "What is it with your family's obsession with alliteration?"
"What do you mean?"
"Miles and Mary, your parents. Your uncle Myron and cousin Mark. Now our kids are going to be named Max and Missy?"
"I..." I pause a second. "You know, I never really noticed?"
"Welcome to 2005," Doc says to the kids. "My name's Reed Sterling, but my friends call me Doc. Can you tell me when you're from?"
"I'm sorry, sir, we can't," Max says.
"Can't or won't?"
"Can't," Missy says. "We don't know."
"Mnemonic inhibitor," Max explains tapping his forehead. "Stops us from remembering the future so we can't accidentally let some bit of information slip out that might change that future. Standard time jump protocol."
"So how can you remember that?" I ask. He looks confused.
"I don't know," he says, looking at his sister. She shrugs. "I know that mnemonic inhibitors, unless otherwise designated, won't block memories that are inherent to the timejumper's integral self. Unless a full emersion time jump is required."
"Which by implication would mean that mnemonic inhibitors and time jumps are somehow integral to your self," Doc says.
"Like memories of our parents," Missy says. "Momma, you look so young! And Daddy, I can't believe how thin you are!"
"I get fat?!"
"Told you he'd fall for it," Missy teases her brother. He just rolls his eyes in the classic fraternal 'whatever' look and is about to retort when Kimmy says, "Kids, quit it." Kimmy looks shocked at herself.
"Well, deductive reasoning would tell us when you're from," Doc says. "How old are you, Max? And what's this insignia on your shoulder?"
"Twenty, and Terran Interplanetary Forces," he explains.
"You're an astronaut?" I ask. I look at Kimmy, absurdly proud for some reason. "Our son, the astronaut."
"Starfighter pilot, actually."
"Our son, the starfighter pilot."
"Rank?" Reed asks.
"Captain."
"Twenty years old and you're already a captain?"
"He's always been an overachiever," Missy says.
"What about you, Missy?" Kimmy asks.
"Crimefighter," she answers, with a sort of sheepish look on her face. "Sorry, Momma, I know you and Daddy never wanted me to... oh wait, forget I said that."
"So the earliest you could be from is 2026," Doc says. "Although from what you've told me and my own techno-sociological models for potential expansion I don't imagine there's a Terran Interplanetary Force for at least a few years, so I'd estimate that the latest you could be from is 2035 or '40."
"Which still doesn't tell us why they're here," I say. "Or, for that matter, how they're getting back."
"There's a standard return protocol, preset before every time jump," Max explains. "So that any timejumper undergoing complete emersion in the temporal environment will be returned to the present - um, that is, the future - to keep from risking drastic diversion of the timestream."
"Max, you're giving me a headache," I tell him.
"You say that a lot," he grins at me. "Frell... that is, you will say that a lot. Or, I mean, you will have said..." He laughs suddenly, kind of like my laugh. "You were right, Dad. The biggest problem with time travel is-"
"Verb tense," Kimmy, Reed, Jerry and I finish with him.
"We know we're here until the wedding," Missy says. I look at Kimmy. She's looking at our kids, an odd look on her face.
"Yeah," Max says, remembering. "So when's that?"
"Couple months," I say. "So you can't tell us anything about the future?"
"Sorry."
"Not your fault, kiddo," I answer. "Okay, so now what?"
"What do you mean?" Doc asks me.
"They're here," I say. "Which, according to their timeline, was meant to happen. We don't know why, they can't tell us why. We-" I point a thumb at Kimmy and myself- "know that the League is under attack from some sorceress in the future. How do we know this isn't related to that?"
"You'll just have to trust your children, I suppose," Doc answers. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it's all we've got.
"I guess," is all I say.
"We have plenty of room for them here," Julia says. "They're more than welcome to stay."
"Thanks, Julia," Kimmy says. "We'll set you kids up with some rooms."
"And I suppose some introductions are in order," I say. "That's Julia, Doc's wife, and Jerry, his son. Some of the League are downstairs. We can introduce you to them, too."
The kids are okay enough to stand and walk without help, so we leave the med lab and head back downstairs.
"So, crimefighter, huh?" I say to Missy. "What's your street name?"
"Squirrelgrrl!" she says proudly. She pulls a little black self-adhesive diamond mask from a pocket, fixes it over her eyes, and a black hairband with little squirrel ears attached to it, to hold her hair back
"Squirrel Girl?" I ask, proud for some inexplicable reason.
"No, Daddy, Squirrelgrrl," she says, rolling her eyes. "All one word, two Rs, like a growl."
"Okay," I humour her. Then to Max, "How about you, space ranger? You got a call sign or something?"
Max looks embarrassed and says, "Yes, sir."
"Okay, don't call me sir. What's your sign?"
"When I was in Basic they called me Actionman because I'm from Action City," he says as we get off the elevator. "But when I got transferred to my unit and they found out who my parents were, they started calling me Hero."
"You're kidding."
"No sir."
"Yeah, he..." Squirrelgrrl starts to say, then stops and frowns and turns her head, listening. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" I say. We all stop.
"I did," Hero says, suddenly dead serious, pulling his fancy laser-pistol from his hip holster.
My twitch isn't twitching.
The lights go out.
My twitch still isn't twitching.
"Where?" Squirrelgrrl asks.
"There," Hero answers. The laser gun flashes blue twice, there's a thump of something heavy and hard hitting the floor, and Doc pulls a light from his belt.
There's a black something with four arms hinged with two elbows each lying on the floor. Legs that bend backwards. Elongated head with six purple eyes. Carrying a sword strapped across its back and a variety of edged weapons strapped elsewhere on its body. It's very dead.
"What the hell?" I say.
"Xerxian Advance Stealth Scout," Hero says.
"Whosian what now?" Jerry asks.
"Alien ninjas," Squirrelgrrl explains.
I look at Kimmy and Doc. "I didn't sense it at all," I say.
"Fascinating," Doc says, heading over to the alien.
"Max, where there's one-" Squirrelgrrl says.
"I know, Missy."
"Where there's one, what?" I ask.
"There's at least five others," he answers.
"Base six?" Doc asks.
"Yes sir. But that's not all. If there are Advance Stealth Scouts here, then there's an armada not far behind."
"An alien invasion?" Jerry asks.
"Very likely."
"Why didn't I sense him?"
"They... I don't know."
"The inhibitor thing?"
"Yeah. Sorry Dad."
"Let's get the others and search the Spire," I tell Reed.
"You go ahead," he answers. "Jerry and I will take this corpse back to my lab. I want to find out how it got past our security."
Jerry picks up the corpse and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'll call in the others," Julia says. Doc gives her a look, nods, and says, "Darling, be careful."
Julia gestures and says something in some language, there's a flash of gold light and she's standing there in golden armour, a spear and shield in her hands.
"Don't worry about me, darling," she says, heading the other direction.
Kimmy and I are alone with our kids. There's an awkward pause, then I say, "Nice shooting, Max."
"Thanks, Dad."
"How'd you know where it was?" Kimmy asks.
"Well, I've got heightened hearing," Missy says, "and Max has had training to ... frell. I don't remember. Sorry, Momma."
"You don't have to apologize, honey," Kimmy says. "It's okay." Missy smiles, and it's Kimmy's smile on a different face.
This is going to take a lot of getting used to.
"Okay, kids, let's get back to the League," I say.
"Okay Daddy."
"Okay Dad."
We head into the conference room where we see the gang standing around the corpse of another one of the alien ninjas. The room's lit by two hovering globes of light, Anna's doing, probably.
"It just appeared out of nowhere!" Trevor says.
"Some sort of cloaking device, or natural invisibility," Kyle adds.
"Just attacked us, no provocation," Rick says.
"They don't need provocation," Max answers. "They're here to kill us all and take our planet."
"Okay, and you are...?" Rick asks.
"Long story short, these are our kids from the future," I say. "Captain Max 'Hero' Mattheson, Terran Interplanetary Forces, and Missy Mattheson, aka Squirrelgrrl." I introduce the League to the kids. Rick's got an odd look on his face.
"What's up?" I ask him.
"'These are our kids from the future' really should sound weirder than it does, shouldn't it?"
"You wear tights and a mask, ride a giant playing card, and you're dating an honest-to-God witch."
"What's your point?"
"What does weird even mean?"
"Ah. Yeah, okay."
"Anyhow, according to my son here-" and saying the words 'my son' is very weird -"there are four more of these Advance Stealth Scouts in the Spire somewhere. Plus, there's an alien armada on its way here. And, the kids can't tell us about the future so don't ask about the Actionauts' chances at the World Series."
"Damn," Trevor laughs.
"So what's the plan?" Kyle asks.
"We know the interior security sensors can't pick up these scouts, otherwise the alarms would have sounded the first time. But Missy-"
"Daddeeeeeee!"
"Sorry, Squirrelgrrl can hear them, and Captain Hero's been trained to spot them. I say we split into two teams, search the Spire and find these things before the armada gets here."
"What teams?"
"Ace, you take Hero, Phenom and Darklight. I'll take Ragdoll, Troubleshooter, Showdown and Squirrelgrrl. You head down from here, we'll go up."
"You got it, son."
I give my son a nod as they head off. He gives me a nod back. We head for the stairwell, Troubleshooter pulling a small light from his belt and lighting our way.
"So, crimefighter from the future, huh?" Showdown says to Missy. "That's cool."
"Thanks," she answers, a little shy.
"What do you do when you're not following in your parents' footsteps?"
Is he chatting up my daughter? She's not even born yet!
"I go to Weirdsville High."
"High school. Really. Wow."
Yeah, high school, so you best step back, I think. Except Weirdsville doesn't have a high school. Yet, I guess. I'm really beginning to dislike time travel.
We reach the next level. I open the door and we head in.
"Squirrelgrrl, you hear anything?" Ragdoll asks.
"Gimme a sec, Momma," she says, then jump-flips to the ceiling and crawls forward, quiet as a mouse. And there's that pride again.
I feel Ragdoll's hand slip into mine as we watch our daughter move into the darkened corridor. She gives my hand a little squeeze, I squeeze back, she lets go.
When the attack comes, I'm at a loss for a second because my twitch never twitched. From behind us, naturally.
Troubleshooter dials up the brightness of his light so we can see it. Four arms, two of them holding that long curved sword, two of them free. It tosses something small that flares with some kind of anti-light, dropping us into pitch black again. I hear Ragdoll's sharp intake of breath that tells me she's hurt, Troubleshooter pulling something from his belt, Showdown launching himself past me to get at it and my twitch isn't telling me anything and I can't see it or hear it and then Squirrelgrrl is leaping over my shoulder shouting "Get away from my Momma you frelling dreck!"
I can't see what she's fighting, but she's amazing to watch. I can't see her but my twitch is telling me where she is and what she's doing. Flips and kicks and punches, dodging and weaving and jumping around. She's got her mother's triple-jointedness and my reflexes and it's then that I realize I know where it is because there's a nothingness in the middle of the fight.
Showdown is punching something... there. Troubleshooter just threw something at the floor ... there, a sticky patch of something. Squirrelgrrl is jumping around from wall to wall to ceiling, all around ...there.
I hot-squeeze out the claws, jump, slash.
Connect.
There's no scream. There's a sound of something liquid hitting the floor, and a thud of something heavy and hard.
Troubleshooter gets another light going, the anti-light grenade fizzling out right about then. The scout is stuck in some kind of glue. Its throat is ripped out, a puddle of dark purpley blood pooling under it.
"Momma!" Missy says, rushing over to Kimmy. Kimmy's got a knife up to the hilt buried in her thigh. She's applying pressure to keep from bleeding out. She looks pale and I don't think I've ever been that scared in all my life.
"You mind your language, young lady," Kimmy jokes to Missy. "Don't think I didn't hear what you called him."
"I'm sorry Momma, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Kimmy gives her a tight smile. I pull Missy out of the way as Kyle moves in to check her. Kimmy clamps her mouth tight to keep the moan of pain in when Kyle touches the knife.
"Kimmy, you're losing a lot of blood," Kyle tells her. "I think the knife nicked the artery." He looks at me, pulling bandages out of his belt. "We have to get her to the med lab right now."
The med lab.
Fifteen stories above us.
No elevator.
And alien ninjas maybe in the way.
Senator Mazzuchelli of New Jersey called for the repeal of the Claremont Act, calling it a terrific failure, providing figures that showed that the overwhelming majority of known metahumans had never registered with the Protected Registry.
Squirrelman and some of the League met at the Sterling Spire to discuss the various leads they had been following throughout the day, concerning the whereabouts of Doc Steele, the location of the Revolutionists, the identity of the mysterious sorceress from the future, and the strength of the UnSeelie Seeming Downtown.
As they paused for a break, Doc Sterling asked Squirrelman and Ragdoll to accompany him to the med lab, where a surprise awaited the couple...
Starring!
Matt Mattheson ......... as Squirrelman
Kimmy Sinclair ................ as Ragdoll
Rick Duncan ........................... as Ace
Anna Kimble ................. as Darklight
Trevor Andrews ............... as Phenom
Steven Rand ............... as Showdown
Kyle Drake ........... as Troubleshooter
Guest starring
Reed Sterling ....................... as Doc
Julia Sterling ................... as herself
Jerry Sterling .... as SuperTwin Blue
and introducing
Max Mattheson ................ as Captain Hero
Melissa 'Missy' Mattheson ... as Squirrelgrrl
Kimmy looks at me and asks, "What did she say?"
I look at Doc and ask, "What did she say?"
Doc grins and says, "She said, Hi Daddy."
"Why did she say that?"
"There's a very good reason for that, actually."
"That's why I asked the question, Doc."
"Naturally. Well, these two appeared in the middle of my lab while Jerry and I were discussing the relativistic nature of the-"
"Doc."
"Sorry. They appeared, and passed out. We moved them to the med lab-"
"Doc!" Kimmy and I both yell.
"The reason she said 'Hi Daddy' is, these two are your children," he says, grinning. "Congratulations."
"Wait, what?"
"These two, according to the DNA scans I took upon delivering them to the med lab, show that they are the product of your and Kimmy's intermingled DNA."
I look at Kimmy. She looks about as shocked as I feel.
"A Gardner Violation?" she asks.
"No, actually," Doc explains. "Although that's what I first tested for. They seem to be from this alternity, or at least one that's sufficiently similar as to make the difference so miniscule that-"
"Doc."
"Quite, sorry. They're from a future."
"They're from the future?"
"Not the future. A future. We've discussed this, Matt. It may very well be that they're from the most mathematically probable of futures, but-"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. One of countless possible futures. Okay, so, what are they doing here?"
"We're not sure," a voice says behind me. It sounds like my voice, a little higher maybe, but not coming from me. It's the kid. There's a moan from the girl, she's waking up too, eyelids fluttering. Reed and Julia check some things, take some readings, stabilize the kids.
"What do you mean, you're not sure?" I ask him.
"Take it easy, Matt," Doc says. "First things first. What's your first name, Mister Mattheson?"
"How did you- I mean, what are you talking about?" he answers. I see he's got my gift for keeping a poker face.
"It's okay, kid," I tell him. "Even if your sister here hadn't called me Daddy, Reed's DNA scan proved it for us."
He glares at his sister. "Missy, fracking frell. Sterlingdoc told us not to let our parents-"
"I know what he told us, Max!"
Kimmy looks at me. "What is it with your family's obsession with alliteration?"
"What do you mean?"
"Miles and Mary, your parents. Your uncle Myron and cousin Mark. Now our kids are going to be named Max and Missy?"
"I..." I pause a second. "You know, I never really noticed?"
"Welcome to 2005," Doc says to the kids. "My name's Reed Sterling, but my friends call me Doc. Can you tell me when you're from?"
"I'm sorry, sir, we can't," Max says.
"Can't or won't?"
"Can't," Missy says. "We don't know."
"Mnemonic inhibitor," Max explains tapping his forehead. "Stops us from remembering the future so we can't accidentally let some bit of information slip out that might change that future. Standard time jump protocol."
"So how can you remember that?" I ask. He looks confused.
"I don't know," he says, looking at his sister. She shrugs. "I know that mnemonic inhibitors, unless otherwise designated, won't block memories that are inherent to the timejumper's integral self. Unless a full emersion time jump is required."
"Which by implication would mean that mnemonic inhibitors and time jumps are somehow integral to your self," Doc says.
"Like memories of our parents," Missy says. "Momma, you look so young! And Daddy, I can't believe how thin you are!"
"I get fat?!"
"Told you he'd fall for it," Missy teases her brother. He just rolls his eyes in the classic fraternal 'whatever' look and is about to retort when Kimmy says, "Kids, quit it." Kimmy looks shocked at herself.
"Well, deductive reasoning would tell us when you're from," Doc says. "How old are you, Max? And what's this insignia on your shoulder?"
"Twenty, and Terran Interplanetary Forces," he explains.
"You're an astronaut?" I ask. I look at Kimmy, absurdly proud for some reason. "Our son, the astronaut."
"Starfighter pilot, actually."
"Our son, the starfighter pilot."
"Rank?" Reed asks.
"Captain."
"Twenty years old and you're already a captain?"
"He's always been an overachiever," Missy says.
"What about you, Missy?" Kimmy asks.
"Crimefighter," she answers, with a sort of sheepish look on her face. "Sorry, Momma, I know you and Daddy never wanted me to... oh wait, forget I said that."
"So the earliest you could be from is 2026," Doc says. "Although from what you've told me and my own techno-sociological models for potential expansion I don't imagine there's a Terran Interplanetary Force for at least a few years, so I'd estimate that the latest you could be from is 2035 or '40."
"Which still doesn't tell us why they're here," I say. "Or, for that matter, how they're getting back."
"There's a standard return protocol, preset before every time jump," Max explains. "So that any timejumper undergoing complete emersion in the temporal environment will be returned to the present - um, that is, the future - to keep from risking drastic diversion of the timestream."
"Max, you're giving me a headache," I tell him.
"You say that a lot," he grins at me. "Frell... that is, you will say that a lot. Or, I mean, you will have said..." He laughs suddenly, kind of like my laugh. "You were right, Dad. The biggest problem with time travel is-"
"Verb tense," Kimmy, Reed, Jerry and I finish with him.
"We know we're here until the wedding," Missy says. I look at Kimmy. She's looking at our kids, an odd look on her face.
"Yeah," Max says, remembering. "So when's that?"
"Couple months," I say. "So you can't tell us anything about the future?"
"Sorry."
"Not your fault, kiddo," I answer. "Okay, so now what?"
"What do you mean?" Doc asks me.
"They're here," I say. "Which, according to their timeline, was meant to happen. We don't know why, they can't tell us why. We-" I point a thumb at Kimmy and myself- "know that the League is under attack from some sorceress in the future. How do we know this isn't related to that?"
"You'll just have to trust your children, I suppose," Doc answers. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it's all we've got.
"I guess," is all I say.
"We have plenty of room for them here," Julia says. "They're more than welcome to stay."
"Thanks, Julia," Kimmy says. "We'll set you kids up with some rooms."
"And I suppose some introductions are in order," I say. "That's Julia, Doc's wife, and Jerry, his son. Some of the League are downstairs. We can introduce you to them, too."
The kids are okay enough to stand and walk without help, so we leave the med lab and head back downstairs.
"So, crimefighter, huh?" I say to Missy. "What's your street name?"
"Squirrelgrrl!" she says proudly. She pulls a little black self-adhesive diamond mask from a pocket, fixes it over her eyes, and a black hairband with little squirrel ears attached to it, to hold her hair back
"Squirrel Girl?" I ask, proud for some inexplicable reason.
"No, Daddy, Squirrelgrrl," she says, rolling her eyes. "All one word, two Rs, like a growl."
"Okay," I humour her. Then to Max, "How about you, space ranger? You got a call sign or something?"
Max looks embarrassed and says, "Yes, sir."
"Okay, don't call me sir. What's your sign?"
"When I was in Basic they called me Actionman because I'm from Action City," he says as we get off the elevator. "But when I got transferred to my unit and they found out who my parents were, they started calling me Hero."
"You're kidding."
"No sir."
"Yeah, he..." Squirrelgrrl starts to say, then stops and frowns and turns her head, listening. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" I say. We all stop.
"I did," Hero says, suddenly dead serious, pulling his fancy laser-pistol from his hip holster.
My twitch isn't twitching.
The lights go out.
My twitch still isn't twitching.
"Where?" Squirrelgrrl asks.
"There," Hero answers. The laser gun flashes blue twice, there's a thump of something heavy and hard hitting the floor, and Doc pulls a light from his belt.
There's a black something with four arms hinged with two elbows each lying on the floor. Legs that bend backwards. Elongated head with six purple eyes. Carrying a sword strapped across its back and a variety of edged weapons strapped elsewhere on its body. It's very dead.
"What the hell?" I say.
"Xerxian Advance Stealth Scout," Hero says.
"Whosian what now?" Jerry asks.
"Alien ninjas," Squirrelgrrl explains.
I look at Kimmy and Doc. "I didn't sense it at all," I say.
"Fascinating," Doc says, heading over to the alien.
"Max, where there's one-" Squirrelgrrl says.
"I know, Missy."
"Where there's one, what?" I ask.
"There's at least five others," he answers.
"Base six?" Doc asks.
"Yes sir. But that's not all. If there are Advance Stealth Scouts here, then there's an armada not far behind."
"An alien invasion?" Jerry asks.
"Very likely."
"Why didn't I sense him?"
"They... I don't know."
"The inhibitor thing?"
"Yeah. Sorry Dad."
"Let's get the others and search the Spire," I tell Reed.
"You go ahead," he answers. "Jerry and I will take this corpse back to my lab. I want to find out how it got past our security."
Jerry picks up the corpse and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'll call in the others," Julia says. Doc gives her a look, nods, and says, "Darling, be careful."
Julia gestures and says something in some language, there's a flash of gold light and she's standing there in golden armour, a spear and shield in her hands.
"Don't worry about me, darling," she says, heading the other direction.
Kimmy and I are alone with our kids. There's an awkward pause, then I say, "Nice shooting, Max."
"Thanks, Dad."
"How'd you know where it was?" Kimmy asks.
"Well, I've got heightened hearing," Missy says, "and Max has had training to ... frell. I don't remember. Sorry, Momma."
"You don't have to apologize, honey," Kimmy says. "It's okay." Missy smiles, and it's Kimmy's smile on a different face.
This is going to take a lot of getting used to.
"Okay, kids, let's get back to the League," I say.
"Okay Daddy."
"Okay Dad."
We head into the conference room where we see the gang standing around the corpse of another one of the alien ninjas. The room's lit by two hovering globes of light, Anna's doing, probably.
"It just appeared out of nowhere!" Trevor says.
"Some sort of cloaking device, or natural invisibility," Kyle adds.
"Just attacked us, no provocation," Rick says.
"They don't need provocation," Max answers. "They're here to kill us all and take our planet."
"Okay, and you are...?" Rick asks.
"Long story short, these are our kids from the future," I say. "Captain Max 'Hero' Mattheson, Terran Interplanetary Forces, and Missy Mattheson, aka Squirrelgrrl." I introduce the League to the kids. Rick's got an odd look on his face.
"What's up?" I ask him.
"'These are our kids from the future' really should sound weirder than it does, shouldn't it?"
"You wear tights and a mask, ride a giant playing card, and you're dating an honest-to-God witch."
"What's your point?"
"What does weird even mean?"
"Ah. Yeah, okay."
"Anyhow, according to my son here-" and saying the words 'my son' is very weird -"there are four more of these Advance Stealth Scouts in the Spire somewhere. Plus, there's an alien armada on its way here. And, the kids can't tell us about the future so don't ask about the Actionauts' chances at the World Series."
"Damn," Trevor laughs.
"So what's the plan?" Kyle asks.
"We know the interior security sensors can't pick up these scouts, otherwise the alarms would have sounded the first time. But Missy-"
"Daddeeeeeee!"
"Sorry, Squirrelgrrl can hear them, and Captain Hero's been trained to spot them. I say we split into two teams, search the Spire and find these things before the armada gets here."
"What teams?"
"Ace, you take Hero, Phenom and Darklight. I'll take Ragdoll, Troubleshooter, Showdown and Squirrelgrrl. You head down from here, we'll go up."
"You got it, son."
I give my son a nod as they head off. He gives me a nod back. We head for the stairwell, Troubleshooter pulling a small light from his belt and lighting our way.
"So, crimefighter from the future, huh?" Showdown says to Missy. "That's cool."
"Thanks," she answers, a little shy.
"What do you do when you're not following in your parents' footsteps?"
Is he chatting up my daughter? She's not even born yet!
"I go to Weirdsville High."
"High school. Really. Wow."
Yeah, high school, so you best step back, I think. Except Weirdsville doesn't have a high school. Yet, I guess. I'm really beginning to dislike time travel.
We reach the next level. I open the door and we head in.
"Squirrelgrrl, you hear anything?" Ragdoll asks.
"Gimme a sec, Momma," she says, then jump-flips to the ceiling and crawls forward, quiet as a mouse. And there's that pride again.
I feel Ragdoll's hand slip into mine as we watch our daughter move into the darkened corridor. She gives my hand a little squeeze, I squeeze back, she lets go.
When the attack comes, I'm at a loss for a second because my twitch never twitched. From behind us, naturally.
Troubleshooter dials up the brightness of his light so we can see it. Four arms, two of them holding that long curved sword, two of them free. It tosses something small that flares with some kind of anti-light, dropping us into pitch black again. I hear Ragdoll's sharp intake of breath that tells me she's hurt, Troubleshooter pulling something from his belt, Showdown launching himself past me to get at it and my twitch isn't telling me anything and I can't see it or hear it and then Squirrelgrrl is leaping over my shoulder shouting "Get away from my Momma you frelling dreck!"
I can't see what she's fighting, but she's amazing to watch. I can't see her but my twitch is telling me where she is and what she's doing. Flips and kicks and punches, dodging and weaving and jumping around. She's got her mother's triple-jointedness and my reflexes and it's then that I realize I know where it is because there's a nothingness in the middle of the fight.
Showdown is punching something... there. Troubleshooter just threw something at the floor ... there, a sticky patch of something. Squirrelgrrl is jumping around from wall to wall to ceiling, all around ...there.
I hot-squeeze out the claws, jump, slash.
Connect.
There's no scream. There's a sound of something liquid hitting the floor, and a thud of something heavy and hard.
Troubleshooter gets another light going, the anti-light grenade fizzling out right about then. The scout is stuck in some kind of glue. Its throat is ripped out, a puddle of dark purpley blood pooling under it.
"Momma!" Missy says, rushing over to Kimmy. Kimmy's got a knife up to the hilt buried in her thigh. She's applying pressure to keep from bleeding out. She looks pale and I don't think I've ever been that scared in all my life.
"You mind your language, young lady," Kimmy jokes to Missy. "Don't think I didn't hear what you called him."
"I'm sorry Momma, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Kimmy gives her a tight smile. I pull Missy out of the way as Kyle moves in to check her. Kimmy clamps her mouth tight to keep the moan of pain in when Kyle touches the knife.
"Kimmy, you're losing a lot of blood," Kyle tells her. "I think the knife nicked the artery." He looks at me, pulling bandages out of his belt. "We have to get her to the med lab right now."
The med lab.
Fifteen stories above us.
No elevator.
And alien ninjas maybe in the way.
Ha ha.
t!