Talyesin's Tales

Previously on Squirrelman - Sins of the Past:

Having fought and conned their way into the realm of Subterra, the Crimefighters' League, Doc Sterling and Doc Steele are brought before the ruler of that underworld, Lord Hades, only to discover a shocking development...



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
Wayne Masters ... as Midnight Avenger
Steven Rand ............... as Showdown
Kyle Drake ........... as Troubleshooter
Cricket ............................... as herself
Max Mattheson ....... as Captain Hero
Missy Mattheson ........ as Squirrelgrrl

with

Reed 'Doc' Sterling

and

Augustus Octavian 'Doc' Steele




"Holy fuck."

"That's just great!"

"What the-"

"I don't understand-"

"How did-"

"But- but-"

"Okay, everyone, cool it," I say to my team. "Doc?"

Steele and Sterling both turn to me. Steele looks stunned. Sterling looks perplexed.

"Reed," I clarify, "check him out. What killed him, how long ago, all that."

Reed climbs the couple of steps up to the throne. The guard-Shades get pretty agitated, but one look from Death-god Avenger puts them flat on their faces. Reed shines a light into the helm, and the skeletal face practically glows in the dimness of the audience chamber.

"Judging from the decomposition, I'd say he's been dead at least-"

"Two point three six years," Troubleshooter finishes for him, looking up from a scanner thing he's got in his hands. Reed looks impressed. Troub climbs the stairs too. Reed asks to see Troub's gadget, and they start happily technobabbling away.

"So now what?" Physique asks me.

"It's pretty clear he couldn't have had anything to do with the UnSeelie and the Boost lab," Ace says.

"I don't know about that," Phenom says. "That Seeming didn't appear overnight. And why specifically over the entrance to Subterra?"

"You think Lord Hades started something up with the UnSeelie, then went and died?" Red Bolt asks.

"I don't know, but I mean, there's got to be some kind of proof, or something."

"We didn't come all this way for nothing," I say. "Steele, ask them where Lord Hades' personal chambers are, his office, whatever. He can't have lived in this room."

Steele turns to the guard-Shades, asks them in their hissing-howling language to show us Hades' private chambers. I leave half the team with Troubleshooter and Reed, and the other half come with Steele and I.

Lord Hades' private rooms are filled with books, a big huge bed, a crystal candelabra, and an elegant meal set out two and a half years ago, long ago rotted and staining the huge gold plates and gold goblet.

We search the room. There's nothing that refers to any deal with the UnSeelie. Superia and Red Bolt speed-read through the books, nothing. Just a lot of rambling journals filled with hate.

"I don't like this," Ragdoll tells me.

"Me neither."

We head back to the audience chamber.

"Natural causes," Reed says as we enter the chamber.

"You're shitting me."

"Not a bit," Troubleshooter says. "He was just... very old. His body just shut down."

"That's just fucking great," Dragon snarls. "Come all this way and nothing?"

"Not nothing," I say. "We know he probably didn't have anything to do with the UnSeelie, or the Boost lab."

"So who did?" Physique asks.

"We could ask him," Darklight says quietly.

"Anna?" Ace says to her.

"More specifically, I could ask him," she says. She doesn't look happy about the idea.

"You mean, actually ask him," I say. "His spirit."

"Yes."

"Necromancy?" Ace asks.

"Yes."

"Isn't that, you know, like, really bad?" Physique asks.

"It's certainly- It's generally frowned upon."

"Can you do it, Anna?" I ask her.

"I know the ritual, yes."

"Anyone have any objections to this? It's the only way I can think of that we're going to find out anything."

"Anna, are you sure?" Ace asks her.

"Yes, love. I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise."

"It's not... um..." Blue Jay says, "it's not... evil, is it?"

"Necromancy is dark magic. Raising the spirits of those who have passed requires disturbing the natural order of the universe. It doesn't require me to sell my soul to dark powers, or even to call on them, but there can be a... balancing of accounts. Unless the mage in question is extremely talented, or extremely powerful, or both."

"Good thing for us you're both, then," Phenom says.

"What can we do to help?" Superia asks.

"Stand in a circle," Darklight says. "Whatever you see or hear, don't break the circle. Augustus, you knew him best, and that knowledge will call to him. You stand to my right. Wayne, the Shades believe you are their god of Death, that faith will fuel the spell. You stand to my left. And I'll need something of his."

Midnight Avenger steps toward the throne, none of the guard-Shades moving to stop him, and pulls the sceptre out of the dead man's hands with a sick crunching sound as the finger-bones crack, the dried-out tendons and ligaments in the corpse's arms snapping.

"How about this?" he says, handing it to Anna.

"Perfect, thank you."

We spread out in a circle around Anna, except Midnight Avenger and Steele. Steele orders the Shades to back away.

Anna starts chanting something in a language none of us understand, but just the sound of her voice sets my teeth on edge and my twitch a-twitching. Chills crawl all over me, and I'm not the only one. Superia looks like she's going to puke, Dragon like he wants to rip someone's head off, Rapunzel like she's got a killer migraine. From where I'm standing, even in the dim light, I can see goosebumps on Ragdoll's legs, Blue Jay's arms.

Darklight points the sceptre at the corpse, and suddenly the ghost of Lord Hades sits up, glowing blue-white. The Shades shriek and howl and put their faces flat on the floor, not daring to look up.

The ghost stands, or hovers, or whatever, moves toward Anna, turns his helmeted head toward Doc Steele.

"Still alive, old friend..." the ghost breathes, barely more than a whisper.

"Still. Old friend," Steele spits out the words, dripping with sarcasm and hate. A lot of hate there. "And you are not."

"No... no... no..."

"Tell us about the UnSeelie," Midnight Avenger says.

"Why...?"

Anna says something, points at the ghost, and it shrieks so loud that everyone grabs their ears, everyone but the three at the centre of the circle.

"Tell us about the UnSeelie," Midnight Avenger says again.

"The... Prince of Thorns... came to me... three years ago... so long ago... when I was... alive... made me... an offer..."

"What kind of offer?" Steele asks.

"He said... things on the... surface world... were ripe for... plunder... He said... the defenders... of the surface... were too busy... on the surface... to notice... the world beneath... them..."

"And?"

"He wished to... join his magicks... and my technology... to create a place... for his people... and strike... against the surface... from a position... of strength..."

"We have been extremely busy the last five years or so," Doc Sterling says to me. I nod.

"Too busy to notice what was happening Downtown," I say to him. He nods.

I notice something moving out of the corner of my eye. It's not one of the Shades. When I turn my head to get a better look, there's nothing there.

"So you and the Prince of Thorns joined forces?" Midnight Avenger asks.

"To an extent... I... allowed him... to place... his kind... above the entrance... to the surface... in exchange... for information... about the surface..."

"You didn't want his original deal? Magic for technology?"

"I am... was... a man of science... when I lived... when I lived... I had no... need... of their sorcery... no need... no need..."

I hear someone call my name, "Matt" in a whisper. I turn to see who, but no one's looking at me. I see something move behind Kimmy, not what it is, just the movement. I'm about to jump, to tackle her, to get her away from whatever it is that's creeping up behind her, when I hear Darklight say, "Matthew. Ignore them."

I see my parents, dead for the last fifteen years, on the other side of the circle. I blink, slow and deliberate, and when I open my eyes again, they're gone. That pisses me off, that whatever it is out there is using the forms of my parents against me, but it gives me an idea.

"Darklight," I say. "It's on the other side, right? Passed beyond the veil? Ask it if it knows anything about Annie O'Day's death."

"Do you know anything about the death of Annabeth O'Day?" she asks the ghost.

It laughs. A ghost, laughing, is not something I ever want to hear again. And no, Blue Ghost and his sidekicks don't count.

The ghost of Lord Hades turns to address Doc Steele again.

"It occurs... to me... Augustus... your... pet witch... can hurt me... but you... you can't do... anything... to me... You can't... hurt me... any more... you pathetic... old fool... old fool..."

"Do you know anything about the death of Annabeth O'Day?" Darklight asks the ghost again, twisting something invisible in midair, and the ghost shrieks again.

"The one... who killed... Annabeth O'Day... is protected... protected... protected..."

"Protected by what?"

"A compact... ancient compact... I cannot tell... I cannot tell..."

Darklight twists again and the ghost shrieks, and shrieks, and shrieks, but all it will say is, "I cannot tell..."

"Anna, stop," I tell her. "He can't tell us anything about who killed Annie O'Day."

"No... no... not who... not who..."

"Then what?"

The ghost of Lord Hades grins, and if ever I saw an evil grin, it's that one. Pure sadistic pleasure.

"What... killed Annabeth O'Day... is something else... entirely... something else... something else..."

"We know what killed her, a long knife in the gut," I say.

"No... no... That... was the... tool.... That was.... not... what killed her... killed her... not what killed her..."

I look at Darklight, but she's not showing anything on her face.

"Fine. What killed Annabeth O'Day?"

The ghost smiles that hate-filled smile again.

"The hate... of a... sister... a sister's hate... a sister's... jealousy..."

"He's insane," Doc Steele says. "He was insane in life, he's just as insane in death."

"No... old friend... no... not insane... not insane... all too sane... too sane... too sane..."

"Let him go," Steele says. "He doesn't know anything."

"Whose sister?" I ask.

"Protected... protected... she is protected..."

"Let it go, Darklight," I say. I can see she's concentrating so hard, she's sweating. It's taking a lot of effort to keep the ghost here, keep it answering our questions. "We're not getting anything else out of it."

"What about Kosmos?" Doc Sterling asks. "Did you ever make a deal with Kosmos Konstantinopoulos?"

The ghost grins again. Things are skittering around us now, out of the corner of my eyes I almost see them, see enough to know I don't want to see the whole Thing. Whispers in the dark, all around us.

"No... no... no..."

"But did he ever offer you a deal?"

That grin again. More whispering, louder, our names, trying to get our attention.

"No... no... no... no deal... never a deal..."

Doc Sterling thinks about it for a second, then says, "But he is connected to this, somehow, isn't he?"

The grin vanishes.

"Yes... connected... connected... to it all... to it all..."

"How is he connected to this?"

"I can't keep him much longer," Darklight says, teeth gritted.

"How is he connected?" Reed yells at the ghost.

"Protected... protected... she is protected..."

"The sorceress who killed Annie O'Day is connected to Kosmos?! Tell us!"

"Protected... protected..."

"I can't-!" Darklight yells.

Superia flares a bright white light, leaving bright spots in my retinas.

"Sorry everyone," I hear her say before my vision clears. "It was the only way to keep Them from coming through."

"It's okay, Superia, thanks," I say, blinking, trying to clear my vision. "Everyone okay? Darklight?"

"Yes," Anna answers, despite the fact that Ace is holding her up. Everyone says they're fine, except Doc Steele. I look over at him.

He's staring hard at the corpse on the throne.

"See you... soon... old friend..." we hear the ghost's voice say from everywhere and nowhere.

Before I can stop him, Doc Steele's past me, kicks the corpse's head clean off. The helmet rattles against the stone floor, echoing in the dark. Then Steele starts yelling at the Shades in their hiss-howl language. They're trembling on the floor by the time he's done.

"Steele!" I yell at him. "What the hell-"

"Enough, let's go," he says.

"What did you tell them?"

"I said their former lord and master had been condemned by the Death-god of Darkness and that they should do everything in their power to destroy everything he ever touched."

"Jesus Christ," I say. "Fine. Whatever. Let's just get out of here, okay?"

"Ain't looking forward to those tunnels again," Dragon complains.

"We won't have to," Reed answers, pulling something from one of his pockets. "With this, I can remote-trigger a teleportational field to deliver us back to the Spire."

"Fine," I say, pulling off my mask. "Let's do it."

"Um, Daddy? I don't teleport well."

"Me neither honey, but you don't want to climb all the way back to the surface, do you?"

"Well, no..."

"Okay then. Do it, Doc."

Doc presses a button. There's a bit of a pause, enough time for us to look at him expectantly, and for him to check his gadget, then there's a shimmer and a hum and Missy and I are puking on the Sterling's private telepad.

"Well, we're back," Physique says.

"Yeah," I say, wiping my face with a towel Reed tosses me. Kimmy's helping Missy to her feet. We climb down from the telepad and Reed teleports the vomit somewhere, I don't want to know where.

"What did we learn?" Midnight Avenger asks.

"The UnSeelie took advantage of our being so busy the last couple years to build their town under our noses."

"They were working with Lord Hades, or at least had his permission."

"The sorceress responsible for Annie O'Day's death is somehow connected to Kosmos Konstantinopoulos."

"The first two don't give us anything useful," Troubleshooter says. "The UnSeelie are gone and Hades is dead. The last one..."

"What did it mean, a sister's hate? Whose sister?"

"Mine," Doc Steele says. "My sister, Cleopatra Livia Steele."