Talyesin's Tales

Previously on Squirrelman - Sins of the Past:

Squirrelman and some of the Crimefighters' League met at the Sterling Spire to discuss their various cases.

While there, Doc Sterling introduced Squirrelman and Ragdoll to their children, back from a future: Missy, aka Squirrelgrrl, and Max, aka Captain Hero.

As they returned to the League meeting, they were attacked by a Xerxian Advance Stealth Scout, a sure sign the planet Earth was in imminent danger of invasion...





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

Max Mattheson ....... as Captain Hero
Missy Mattheson ........ as Squirrelgrrl

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
Curt Connor ......... as Livin' Lightnin'
Molly O'Malley ........... as Glory Gal

* * * * *

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking I picked Kimmy up, carried her up fifteen flights of stairs, losing blood the whole time. You're thinking we probably got interrupted by at least one of those alien ninja things, lost vital time fighting them off. That Kimmy probably passed out from blood loss on the way to the med lab. That we got there only to find that the Sterlings still hadn't gotten the power back up, that Troubleshooter had a hell of a time removing the knife and patching up the wound by flashlight, but we managed to save my girlfriend's life just in the, har har, nick of time.

I'd like to tell you all that happened, but I can't.

No panicked race up fifteen flights of stairs. No attack by alien ninjas. No skin-of-our-teeth, last minute, edge-of-your-seat rescue of the woman I love.

The World's Smartest Man called me a genius of metahuman resource management for a reason.

"Squirrelman to Ace and Darklight, I need Anna here right now!" I order into my nanobead.

"Can it wait, son? We nearly got this thing-"

"Ragdoll's bleeding to death."

"Anna, go!"

Anna steps around the corner. She goes right to Kimmy, who isn't looking good. Anna looks at Kyle, asks, "Do you have any coriander or ginger? Or sea salt, perhaps?"

"Going to do some cooking?" Steve jokes.

"Matthew, when I say now, pull out the knife," she says to me.

Troubleshooter hands her a small bottle of something he pulls from his bag of tricks. Anna sprinkles it over the wound, muttering something. There's a golden glow from Anna's hands that travels to Kimmy's leg. Anna says, "Now!" and I give the knife a good hard yank. Blood spurts out and Kimmy passes out, but the wound stops bleeding and closes, healed.

"Momma?" Missy says. I turn to look at her. She's crying. I hand the knife to Troubleshooter, head over to her.

"She'll live," I say, giving her a reassuring smile. She throws herself into my arms, burying her face. I hug her back.

"She's lost a lot of blood," Anna says. "She'll need a while to heal."

"Now, we go to the med lab," I say. I pull back from my daughter, raise her chin, give her a smile and a wink. "Don't worry, hon. She's gotten over worse." I let her go, look at Anna. "Thank you," I say. "The others alright?"

"I'm sure they are, but I better go check," she smiles at me. She heads back around the corner. I know if I look, she won't be there.

I pick up Kimmy and start to carry her to the stairwell when Carmine shows up.

"There you are! She alright?" he asks.

"She'll live, but she's lost a lot of blood."

"You want me to get her to the med lab? Julia can have a look at her."

I look down at Kimmy's pale face. I don't want to let her go. I know Carmine can get her there a helluva lot faster than I ever could. I don't want to let her go.

"Yeah, alright," I decide. "We'll be up as soon as we find the last Advance Stealth Scouts."

I give Kimmy over to Carmine. He's over seventy but he fireman-carries her, no problem.

"Joe and Curt are working on the power outage," Carmine says. "Shouldn't be more'n a few minutes."

"Thanks," I say. He zips off, a blur of navy and silver. I turn to Troubleshooter, Showdown and my daughter.

"We find one of them? Don't kill it," I say. "We need information."

"But Daddy, one of them almost-"

"I know!" I yell, harsher than I mean to. Take a deep breath. "Sorry. I know what almost happened. But we need to know about the possible invasion that's coming. And why they chose the Spire to infiltrate."

"Probably because the Spire has the best detection equipment on the planet," Troubleshooter says.

"Sure, makes sense," Showdown adds. "You're going into a fight, first thing to do is take out any chance your opponent could know you're coming."

"Then strike before they know you're there," Troubleshooter says, nodding.

"Wouldn't that mean they're already here?" Squirrelgrrl asks.

"That's why we need one alive," I answer. Then, into my nanobead, "Squirrelman to Ace."

"Ace here, Ragdoll alright?"

"She'll be fine. You find anything?"

"Two of them jumped us. We were fighting them when you pulled Anna away."

"Either of them alive?"

"No. They went down a lot harder than we expected, wouldn't give up. We tried-"

"I know. Okay, so there's one left. We need to find it, and we need it alive."

"Easier said than done, son."

"Yeah. Try anyway."

"You got it."

We start searching, but it's like looking for ... well, not a needle in a hay stack. More like, an alien ninja in a darkened super-scraper. Lots of floors. Lots of ductwork. Lots of hidden nooks and crannies.

"You know what troubles me?" Troubleshooter says after six floors of nothing.

"Ducks in tutus?" Showdown jokes.

"Um... no. Supertwin Red and Living Lightning haven't got the power back on."

He's right. Damn.

"Squirrelman to all crimefighters," I say into my nanobead. "Head for the power core, right now!"

No answer. Shit.

"Come on!" I say, racing back to the stairwell.

Going down stairs an entire flight at a time in the dark, even with emergency lighting and Troubleshooter's lights, it takes us a few minutes to get to the sub-basement that holds the power core.

I don't know why I didn't think of it before. They cut the power to keep the Spire blind to the invasion. They had to have left a guard to keep us from getting the power back on and detecting the alien armada.

"Daddy, wait!" Missy hisses at me as I'm about to throw open the door and run in. She sniffs once, then wrinkles her nose.

"What is it?"

"Knockout gas," she says. "If we go in there, we'll be unconscious in seconds."

"No we won't," Troubleshooter says, pulling something out of his belt. He opens it, shakes out some small white tablets.

"Got a headache?" Showdown ask.

"These are oxygenation tablets. Good for five minutes. Take one, hold your breath."

We all pop the pills, dry-swallowing. I hate dry-swallowing pills.

"Try not to talk," Troubleshooter says, just before popping his.

I throw open the door, Troubleshooter's light the only source of light. On the floor, something I never want to see again - half my team, hurt, some bleeding, on the ground, not moving, my son among them. The light's not good enough to see if they're breathing. Trevor and Joe got the furthest into the room.

I send Troubleshooter to get the power on, the rest of us keeping watch. Missy's checking the people on the floor, gives me the thumbs up to say they're alive.

It's in here, somewhere. I can't feel it, and that's how I know.

Three shuriken-things are suddenly sticking in my leg. There's a bolo-rope wrapping itself around Showdown's throat. And then it's on us, a whirl of blades I can't just twitch away from, I've got to keep it in sight. But there's a big empty nothing in the middle of my urge to twitch, and by keeping that in front of me I stay mostly in one piece.

Then Squirrelgrrl's on it, punching and kicking, gouging with her thumbs at the alien ninja's six eyes, keeping it off me. I follow up with a kick to its leg and a punch in the side of its head. Showdown's on it too, flipping the knives and sword out of its hands, so fast and easy that it's like he's fighting a little kid, the bolo-rope still wrapped around his throat. I break its other leg and Missy stomps hard on two of its arms. But before we can stop it, it twists its head around and there's a dull wet snap. It falls to the ground, dead.

Troubleshooter gets the power on. Ventilation kicks in, sucking out the knockout gas.

I let myself start breathing again. Check on the team. None of them look like they're doing too well, but none of them are going to die, either. Small favours, I guess.

"Looks like we won't get any info about the armada from him," Showdown says, checking the ninja's body.

"Don't think we have to worry about that," Troubleshooter says. He's at a computer terminal, pulls up images from outside.

In the skies above Action City, there's dozens of hexagonal space ships.