Talyesin's Tales

Previously on Squirrelman - Sins of the Past:

When Squirrelman, Ace, and Ragdoll first began to discuss forming a team of crimefighters, Ragdoll objected, on the grounds of her previous experience in a team, wherein one of her teammates, Stellar Girl, was left to die by another teammate, Starbright, because Stellar Girl had been having an affair with Starbright's boyfriend, Starlight.

Having been rendered unconscious twice due to synaptic overload, Squirrelman was told by Doc Sterling that he would have to undergo psychic surgery to repair what seemed to be a mnemonic block.

During an alien invasion, the Mole and Cricket failed to respond to the call Squirrelman sent out for all members of the Crimefighters' League. Cricket eventually showed up a few days later, injured, informing the League that she had been captured by persons unknown and held in an unknown location, until she had been able to make good her escape. Despite near-constant patrols and attempts to determine the location of the Mole over the course of the past two weeks, he remains missing.

While recovering from his wounds sustained in the alien invasion and from sheer exhaustion, Squirrelman received an unusual guest in the middle of the night, who claimed to be a former crimefighter called Agent I-5, more commonly named Terence Fleming. Fleming, a one-time associate and colleague of Doc Steele's in a group calling themselves The Seven, told Squirrelman to ask Steele about the events which occurred in Tunguska, Siberia, claiming that those events were the source of all the troubles which currently plagued them.

Frustrated and angry from the new Mayor's description of the events surrounding the death of Mayor Ross-Carter, the dissolution of the Action City Crimefighter ID system and the labelling of all costumed crimefighters and dangerous, incompetent, and unwelcome, Squirrelman led a group of his teammates Downtown, to little avail...



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
Max Mattheson ....... as Captain Hero
Missy Mattheson ........ as Squirrelgrrl
Elizabeth Walsingham .... as Diamond
Gareth King ................ as Lightbringer
Rob Ross ....................... as Ultraman
Rosie Ross ................as Ultrawoman
Ryan Ross .......................as Ultraboy
Rory Ross ....................... as Ultragirl
Melody Johnson .............. as Decibelle
Tony Juarez .................. as Redeemer
Samantha Timmons ... as Speed Queen
Kathryn Hardy.......... as Nightwoman



The League decides eventually to split up, head topside, and keep low profile, but patrol in twos and threes. Ragdoll and I head for the Spire, giving Psifire a call on the nanobead, asking her to meet us there.

"What's up?" she asks over the nanobead.

"I need you to root around in my head a bit," I tell her.

"Really? Why?"

"Doc Sterling thinks I've got some kind of mnemonic block and you're the only person I trust to perform the psychic surgery."

"Oh. Um... okay. I'm on my way."

Ragdoll gives me a look. As we head for the Spire, I deactivate the nanobead and say, "What?"

"That wasn't exactly the enthusiastic response of someone who you can trust with your life."

I sigh. "People are going to do what they have to do. I don't want anyone on the team who isn't one hundred percent. If people have their doubts, if they don't want to go up against the system, I can understand that. And I don't want any hard feelings. If they want out, they can go, no problem. The paperwork on their admission to the team hasn't even gone through yet, I'll bet."

"All right, Matt."

"What's wrong, Kimmy? Talk to me."

"This is exactly what I didn't want from being in a team. Doubt, and recriminations, and disappointment... it's not good, Matt. We need to pull the team back together. We need to force the issue and cut the dead weight. Because the worse things get, the less we'll be able to trust the dead weight to show up... and then people will get killed."

"Kimmy..."

"Matt, I know what you're going to say. You don't... I..."

She stops running so suddenly I actually jump an alleyway before I realize she's not beside me. I jump back across, and she's crying.

"Kimmy, what the hell-?"

"You don't know. You don't understand."

"Kimmy, tell me." I go to hold her but she backs off, pushes me away. "Kimmy... there's nothing we can't deal with, if we deal with it together. Tell me what's wrong."

"You've never been in a team before," she says, wiping away the tears angrily. "You don't know... You don't realize how easily something can lead to someone dying."

"Kimmy... what happened with Stellar Girl... it's not going to happen again."

"How do you know that, Matt? You can't know that."

"Kimmy, come on. Starbright was an unstable, jealous teenager. Starlight was a stupid young prick. And Stellar Girl... what happened with her was-"

"My fault."

"What?"

"Stellar Girl died... because of me."

"Starbright let Stellar Girl die."

"Because I told her that Starlight was cheating on her."

"Oh Jesus," I say. "Kimmy, you're not responsible."

"Yes Matt, I am. I told Lynn what Mark was doing, and she let Karen die because of it."

"Kimmy-"

"So any little thing, any stupid little thing, someone can die because of it, Matt. At first I was okay with the twelve of us who were brought to the Kane, because we... you know. Our souls touched. We knew those people, knew we could trust them with our lives. But then... the team began to grow, and now the team is shrinking again, and people don't know where they stand. We've got... You've got to tell them, flat out, in or out, decide now, or else you're out, because... because..."

"Kimmy." This time she lets me take her in my arms. "What happened. It was bad. It was awful. I can't imagine how bad it must have been, and I hope I never find out. Starbright was an insecure and unstable girl. A girl, Kimmy. Teenagers... they're all a little out of whack to begin with. Yes, you told her what her asshole boyfriend was doing behind her back. You wanted to help a friend, right? You saw something happening that was wrong and you acted on it. You told your friend what she needed to know. But what happened next? That's entirely Starbright's fault."

"If I hadn't told her-"

"She would have found out eventually. Starlight wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack, right? What would Starbright have done then? Killed him, killed her - killed you, for knowing but not telling her? Killed herself? You couldn't have known what she was going to do. It's not your fault."

"Matt-"

"It's not your fault, Kimmy."

"Fine."

"Kimmy."

"What?"

"It'll be fine."

"How can it be?"

"I don't know. We'll figure it out."

We head for the Spire. Doc Sterling and Doc Steele are waiting for us. Reed says he'll go set up the med lab for the surgery.

"Glad to see you're up and about," Steele says to me, shaking my hand.

"Thanks," I answer. "What happened to you, that day? You weren't here when I came to."

"No, I... I had planned to see Annie's grave. I knew you were in better hands than mine."

"So, uh... that means there's only two of The Seven left, right?"

He gets really still, looks at me, gives me the hard eye.

"And where might you have heard that name?"

"Fleming."

"Still alive, old friend?" he says to himself. I'm not sure if he's happy or pissed about that. I don't think he's sure, himself. "And what else did Fleming tell you?"

"He told me to ask you about Tunguska. About what happened there."

He pauses for maybe three seconds, then says, "My sister. She died there."

"I'm sorry."

"Nearly a hundred years ago, Mattheson. You never lose the pain, but you learn to live with it."

"That doesn't explain what Fleming meant by whatever happened in Tunguska being the source of all our present-day problems."

"He said that?"

"He did."

Doc Sterling comes back.

"So what happened? Reed says it was a- what'd you call it, Doc? A Discordant rupture?"

"What, Tunguska? That's right."

"In a sense." Steele pauses, like he's deciding whether or not to tell us something. "You see, in 1909, my sister Cleo, Algernon Smythe - the man you call Lord Hades - and I - and a team of native guides - were in the deep Siberian forest, looking for what was reputed to be the lost treasure trove of Genghis Khan, supposedly stolen from him before he died. We came upon an area where none of our compasses worked, our watches stopped, guns wouldn't fire, lamps wouldn't light. We made camp as best we could, and sometime after dark, our guides deserted us.

"Then it came. Like a bolt of lightning in a clear sky. But instead of being a flash and a crack, lightning stabbed down from the empty sky and crackled there, a constant exchange of energy from Heaven to Earth. Cleo and I insisted on investigating, but Smythe was... less eager. More cautious."

"Afraid."

"Just so. And rightfully, too. As we neared the bolt of lightning, something... happened. There was a sudden flare of energy, and the bolt of lightning... expanded. Cleo was caught in it, disintegrated before my very eyes. Rather than tempt fate, we... we fled."

"Holy socks, that's... that's horrible."

"Doesn't explain why Fleming said the last time The Seven were together was in Tunguska, though," I say.

"Told you that, too. How very like him. To force me to be the one to recount it." Steele takes a deep breath. "In 1935, when I escaped from Subterra, I immediately called together The Seven. The technology available in Subterra, in Atlantis, was extraordinary, and in the hands of that madman Smythe, could spell the end of the world. I informed them what we faced.

"The Wraith was the one who suggested it, of course. He was always finding incredibly roundabout solutions to problems. If Smythe blamed me for Cleo's death, and that was the assumption we were proceeding from, then by saving Cleo's life, we could avert the downward spiral of the man I'd once counted as one of my dearest friends. It was impossible, naturally. We laughed. Wraith didn't. He proposed the creation of a time machine, to go back to the event at Tunguska, to alter the past and save the future. At first, we didn't think it was possible. But back then... well, present The Seven with a challenge, and we'd overcome it, hell or high water.

"We became obsessed, I'm afraid. Worked day and night. The Wraith and Mycroft - the Logician - worked out the mathematics. Atya determined the mystical energies we would require to fuel it. Annie and I built the engine, using the rarest technologies Fleming was able to acquire through his network of informants and spies. Philipston funded the entire affair. Dear God, but we were a team! Six months, day and night, week in, week out, working on the device.

"Finally we were ready. We stepped aboard the platform. None of us was willing to let the others go themselves, so we would all go. To be the first known chrononauts, the Wraith said. I was allowed the honour of throwing the switch. I threw it without a moment's hesitation.

"We arrived at precisely the moment that Cleo and I had first approached the strange bolt of lightning. What none of us could have known, was the mystical energies involved in fuelling our time machine, amplified by our temporal engine... was what had caused the flare up in the lightning bolt. Was what had killed Cleo."

"The Discordant Rupture was amplified by the thaumaturgical feedback loop involved in the chronomantic-"

"Doc."

"Right."

"That was the last time The Seven worked together on any project. We'd failed. In our arrogance, we'd sought to rewrite the past. Only to discover the past... is immutable. And we... and I would carry the sins of the past with me, the rest of my days."

Nobody says anything for a couple minutes.

"But," Steele says finally, "that doesn't explain how what happened in Tunguska could be the source of the problems of today."

"No, it doesn't," Reed agrees. "Perhaps Fleming was merely trying to point us at the events surrounding Tunguska as an example?"

"No, he's trying to make me think," Steele says with a sour grin. "He was always doing that, back in our day."

"Speaking of thinking," Psifire says, walking in. "Sorry, couldn't help overhearing. You wanted me to have a look at your thoughts?"

"More than that, I suspect," Reed says, and we all head to the med lab.

It's dark, except for one light over one bed. Reed puts some sensors to my temples, my chest, to keep an eye on my vitals. Hannah sits to one side, takes off her gloves. I lay back. Kimmy gives my hand a squeeze, then everyone but Hannah leaves, to watch from an observation room, to minimize distractions.

"Close your eyes, Matt," Hannah says. Her eyes are already lit with green fire.

I close my eyes.

This will feel a little... wow, I hear her mental voice in my mind.

A little wow?

How can you... really. Oh. You know, Matt... I...

I drift off.

When I wake up, everyone's around me, and Hannah's saying, "Well, because there are so many versions of memories in there, I had to... fade down? - is the only way I can describe it - the alternity from the Reality Warp of '99. That let me see... well, you know those transparent overlays they used to use in school? For overhead projectors? Okay, say your memories are on one overlay. Matt's got three overlays in his head. One from this alternity, one from the Reality Warp, and one from an alternity where he's not Squirrelman at all, very weird. Up until about two years ago, where the other overlays stop and there's only this alternity's memories in his head. Anyhow, by fading out the Reality Warp, which was significantly easier than the no-Squirrelman alternity, because technically the Reality Warp never really happened, I was able to sense the spots in the overlays that had ... abnormalities. And in one significant area, in the Spring of 2000, there's an part that's completely blocked off. Best mental block I've ever seen. Encompasses about two weeks of his life. Just... a no-fly zone, you know?"

"So what's behind the block?" I ask.

"I don't know. I wasn't able to crack it. Like I said, best I've ever seen. But I did manage to isolate it, and it shouldn't cause any more synaptic cascades."

"I'd sure rest easier knowing what's inside that block, what happened in the Spring of 2000."

"Yes, so would I," Reed says. "Still, well done, Psifire."

"Yeah, thanks Hannah," I add.

"Sure. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Listen, I have to-"

"No problem. Thanks again."

She heads out.

"How do you feel?" Reed asks me.

"Other than annoyed and frustrated, fine."

"Good."

"Listen, Doc, we've been looking for the Mole for two weeks now, and nothing. Downtown is a dead end, and his nanobead isn't responding in any way. Anything you can suggest?"

"I... hmm."

I give Kimmy a look as Doc heads out of the med lab. I jump down from the med bed and we hurry after him, follow him into his lab.

"I've been tracking instances of teleportation, trying to determine where the escaped criminals are really teleporting to, since I'm quite sure Burgerman isn't seeing any instances of instantaneous customers."

"Okay," I say.

"Which means..." He pulls something up on the monitor, a map of the city. Little flares of blue and red light start flashing on the screen, all over the city. "The blue lights are exit teleports, the reds entrances. Two weeks ago, you said?"

"Yeah, thereabouts. Before the Xerxians invaded."

The monitor resets itself and it's then that I realize it's not just a map, it's a satellite image. There are red and blue flares all over the place, a lot more than just now.

"This is sped up, of course - one minute of our time represents about an hour - ah! There."

Reed taps a few controls and zooms in on one particular area. Lower Uptown, by Adams. Within the confines of a building, a little red flash. Reed plays it again and again, finally pausing the vid right as the flash is at its brightest.

"That's what I thought. According to these readings, this exit isn't in the building, but underneath it."

"Downtown?"

Reed zooms out the map, then punches in some other commands, and the whole satellite image changes from Action City to Downtown, like an x-ray of the city.

"I had no idea Downtown was so huge," Ragdoll says.

"No one thinks it is," Reed says. "This area here is the original blocks of the city that Lord Hades managed to sink." A few relatively parallel buildings are highlighted in green. Mostly Lower Uptown. "This is the UnSeelie Seeming." A blotch of huts and lean-to buildings outlined in red, underneath Weirdsville. "This is a series of various caves, networked under the city." Several splotches, highlighted in blue. Altogether, the highlighted areas cover maybe sixty percent of the area Action City covers. "The Downtown exit teleport took place right there." He points to one of the outlying buildings under Lower Uptown, what looks like an old brownstone. "If that exit teleport was the Mole, then that's where he disappeared from."

"Wow. I wish we'd come to you sooner."

"We've all been a little busy the last couple of weeks, Matt."

"I just hope we're not too late. Can we get a hardcopy map?"

"Of course."

I call in the League, tell them to show up, Downtown. Ace and Darklight, Physique, Max and Squirrelgrrl, Blue Jay, Phenom, Superia and Cricket show up. Less than last time, but I'm guessing people got busy.

The League is falling apart, and I don't know how to stop it.