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Our Paranormal Chernobyl "Home again," Stranger thought as he pulled his hands free and dropped the rest of the way down. He hit with a silent splash and quickly stepped to one side of the tunnel. Above him, he could hear Magnitude, Q-Ball, and Hammersmith talking. "Note to self," Stranger said quietly. "One, remember to thank the state of Illinois for the free Dale Carnegie courses. Two, Never get caught out in the open again.". The shaft ran north and south. About ten feet north he found a side tunnel. He slipped into the shadows there and waited. He did not have to wait long. A moment later he heard a loud splash as someone landed in the sewers. "That's the spirit, Ms. Thorin," Stranger thought to himself. "Now let's have a nice quiet conversation." He lowered himself into a crouch and ever so slightly waved his hand in the water. But the slight sound was drowned out by the familiar roar of Magnitude's belt jets. Stranger heard her leave the shaft, up the way she had come. "Damn," Stranger thought. "What next?" He waited for several seconds, breathing slowly through his metal mask. He leaned out of the side tunnel and peered toward the place where he'd entered the sewers. The lid was evidently off: a shaft of sunlight pierced the gloom. He could hear nothing but the distant sounds of car horns, and the rhythmic beat of the police helicopters hovering over the street. Stranger was just about to turn and run down the side tunnel, when he heard a voice speaking just above the sewer entrance. It was the Detective, Hammersmith, but Stranger couldn't hear what he was saying. A moment later, Magnitude dropped into the sewers on her rocket boots, stopping herself a few inches above the water. And just behind her was—could it be?—a small white sphere: Q-Ball shrunk to about a foot and a half in diameter. Maggie examined the grimy walls—with any luck, Stranger would be using the walls for balance. If she didn't find anything above the water, she'd have to try to feel the mud under the water—not a pleasant prospect, even with the armor. Hammersmith reached the bottom of the shaft and stepped into the water. "Oh, heck," he said. Then a little louder, to be heard over the echoing sound of Maggie's jet belt: "There goes a good pair of shoes." He switched on his light as well. Maggie didn't see anything on the walls that would have marked Stranger's passing. She looked down at the water, which was roiling under feet from the jet blast. Oh well. Maggie landed as lightly as possible in the fetid water, knelt, and felt under the water for any recent tracks. Ewww. Thank goodness Mithralite's impermeable. Q-Ball said over her radio, "I'm searching the City of Chicago computers for a map of the sewers, but I haven't found anything yet—their files are a mess. Do you want to go north or south?" "Wait a sec. I'm checking if I can find anything…" She moved her hand across the muck, but the uneven surface told her nothing. From his spot around the corner, Stranger flexed and unflexed his fingers. "What the hell? Boy, those two got cozy quick. But wait, maybe it's just a probe of some kind, or maybe it really is that Q-Ball. Can't be a probe—she wouldn't have come down alone, and since they're not talking I'm guessing that they mean business. Magnitude looks tough, but I'm pretty sure she wouldn't kill. Q-Ball on the other hand…But could they be working together? Yes, that's why she didn't even make an attempt to converse with me, it was just 'surrender' and 'you're a murder suspect'—hell, she's got to be in with him. And didn't Q-Ball say he modeled himself after her? Shit, they must be working together. And now with two-on-one, the odds are I don't get out of here alive. But if I run they'll catch me. Okay you dirty sons of bitches. If it's a fight they want it's a fight they'll get. In close and play it loose, don't want to kill anyone" Stranger crouched low and got ready to strike. But then another thought crossed his mind: "Wait a minute, that detective can't be involved in all of this even if the rest are. I have to reach out to someone and at least I am on my own turf here. I was expecting a fight, but maybe I can avoid it._" From the darkness, a voice called out: "If you just came to talk, let me know, otherwise it's going to get very ugly in here for everyone. Just remember, if I were up to no good I wouldn't have waited around down here." It was Stranger's voice, coming from the darkness to the north. Inside the echoing pipes, it was difficult to gauge the exact distance, but the man couldn't have been more than fifty feet away. The drone rotated to face the noise. "There's an opening to a side tunnel about a dozen feet ahead," he said over the radio. "We just want to talk!" Hammersmith shouted. "We're trying to track down the doctor and nurse who killed Dr. Haans!" Interesting, Maggie thought. He's pretty brave to have stayed here… and he must really must want to help us. "Boy was that awkward," Stranger said as he stepped around the corner. "Just goes to show, you never know who your friends are—that's two, Q-Ball," the big man said, pointing to the little sphere and moving his head to indicate no. "Like I said before, we had gone to see this play and we left the show a little late. We were jumped in the alley by this funky doctor and nurse. Before I knew it I was being injected with some crap—who knows what it was—and when I woke up Dr. Hanns had grown some wings and was dead, and this cop was beating on me. So I ditched the cop, the doc, and my clothes and eventually made it to the museum. Just in time, I might add, to have this giant guy fall on me and one of you fellow officers, whom I saved, as you probably already know. Then I met some guy dressed in red pajamas and this old guy—blah, blah, blah… You know the rest." "So you're not even a suspect," Maggie said. "So why did you run away?" "Jinkies, Daphne, what could it have been? Lets see—I've been carried off in the air, dropped, picked up, questioned, grabbed, injected, followed, surprised," he said, counting off with his fingers, "fallen on, shot at, and…well that's all the fingers I have, but I am sure that you can sense the concern in my voice." "And if that's not enough, then how about just being around old Q-Ball. And by the way Q, the next time you shoot me with that Crazy String of yours, you had better make sure that you don't miss." "I won't," squeaked the tiny sphere. The voice was high-pitched and faint; Stranger could barely hear it from his position a dozen feet away. "So—" Stranger looked back to Maggie and Hammersmith. "—what the hell is going on with these doctors and mutations—and why is he still here?" He extended his middle finger to point to at Q-Ball. Hammersmith sloshed through the water to stand in front of Maggie. "I allowed him to come with us because I wasn't ready to assume that he's a criminal—just as I don't assume that you're a criminal, just because you have a troubled history. I just talked to headquarters a minute ago. They confirmed what you said on the street, that you saved a cop from being crushed when Iggy—the giant you saw—fell to the ground. You didn't mention that you saved him even after he emptied a few rounds in your chest. I respect that." "Thank you, officer; I do believe those are the nicest words I have heard all day. But before I get a swelled head, could one of you explain to me what's going on? And could Dr. Thorin and Q-Ball explain to me just what their angles are in all of this, because as Dr. Haans would say, I'm having some trust issues." "Hmph," said Maggie eloquently. "My 'angle' is just lending the detective a hand, although I seem to be involved with a possible source for these mutations." She shrugged. "For what it's worth, I apologize for calling you a suspect, since it's obvious you weren't." Stranger turned to the detective. "Officer Hammersmith, could you tell me about the guy in the red pajamas? He seemed to involved in something at the museum. And any ideas about the Diamante guy and that phone number?" "I haven't had time to check on the phone number or this Diamante character," Hammersmith said. "I only had a few seconds to talk to headquarters. But we are definitely going to follow up on that—that's a good lead, Stranger. The guy in the red costume was Crossfire—he's a superhero from New York that's helping us on this." Q-Ball broke in over the radio. "Hammersmith's leaving out that Stranger threatened and then knocked out the first officer who found him—and that there definitely is a warrant for his arrest. I've seen Theo August's medical records, and he's a delusional paranoid. Though I can't say I blame him; his father was—excuse the term, Ms. Thorin—a real bastard. In any case, Stranger's dangerous and erratic. He may save a cop or kill him, flip a coin. I'm not going to let him escape again. Are you with me on this?" "Look, I'll just follow Hammersmith's lead," Maggie whispered in the radio, exasperated, caught as she was between an over-eager beginner and a fugitive displaying all the signs of paranoia—although maybe not quite delusional. "He'll make the call. Agreed?" "I'll follow Hammersmith," Q-Ball answered Maggie, "But I won't wait if Stranger attacks." Hammersmith took a step forward. "Stranger, the doctor and nurse who attacked you—we think they injected pellets into your body, pellets that may still be there. We don't know what they do, but they could be dangerous. We can take them out for you." "Injected pellets? Interesting delivery choice, huh Q-Ball? Kinda reminds me of another round thing that's been trying to stick it to me today. Boy, just look at all of the coincidences: You appear out of the blue just after all of this starts, and everyone else who is involved either was around before this began or they're directly affected by what is happening. Just as I start to close in on my only lead, bam! there you are to grab me up—never mind that you didn't call the cops, or ask the person I was dealing with if anything was wrong or if they were injured. And wow, that was a neat trick you finding me like that, considering the size of the city. I guess that you must have been on patrol or something? Boy, considering how interested you are in all of this I wonder how your keen senses overlooked what was going on at the museum. And after all that, still no explanation as to who you are, or why you're here. You know the 'I'm just trying to help' story that is linked to some past injustice that you swore to avenge." Q-Ball said over the radio, "Next he'll be claiming I was at the grassy knoll." Maggie couldn't stifle a giggle at that. "Were you?" she whispered in a light tone in the radio. "But back to the pellets," Stranger said. "Are they in my blood stream or near where I was injected?" "They're too big for your bloodstream," Hammersmith said. "Why don't you come with me, we'll take those things out before they do any harm, and then we'll track down this Diamante person. Sound good?" Maggie watched Stranger and waited. "Thank you for the offer, but I must refuse," the masked man said. "I've had a lot of bad experiences in the past with the medical community so I'll just have to risk it on my own. Now—why do you think they are dangerous, and can they track me with them?" "We think they're dangerous because several metas have died this morning," Hammersmith said. "One of the dead had those pellets in her. I'm pretty sure that every meta injected last night is carrying them inside. As for tracking you with them— we don't know. But one thing is for sure—if you don't get them out of your body, you're risking your life." "If you think that I am in danger, the best thing you can do to help is help me to help myself. Please tell me the details of who is involved in all of this so I can protect myself. I will admit that I need help, but only in figuring out what's happening—no treatments or examinations. And I'm still not sure what those are here for, but I am convinced that Q-Ball is up to no good. Gosh, I bet he didn't even file a flight plan, much less have a real pilot's license." Stranger's stomach growled, amazingly audible in the tunnel. "Oh, I was also wondering if you could give me $20 to get a hot meal?" "Stranger," Hammersmith said, his voice tired. He crossed his arms behind his back and shook his head. The detective was three steps ahead of Maggie. Behind his back, he extended one index finger. Maggie's eyes flicked down to the detective's hand. Hmmm, she thought. "I will personally buy you the meal of your choice if you come with me," the detective continued. Hands still hidden from Stranger, Hammersmith extended a second finger. Okay. He's definitely asking me to get ready—but should I jump him on three, or wait until he acts, or what? She revved, but did not fire, her jets, set her glove to its repulsor setting, and prepared to bring up the force fields—all unobtrusive preparations. "Q-Ball, get ready to act," she whispered in the radio. Can't hurt, she thought. The techno-ball pilot seemed a bit wet behind the ears, but everyone must start somewhere, and with her own performance so far she couldn't really judge him. She liked him better, at any rate, than the insufferably and unreasonably stubborn Stranger. The detective took a step closer to the big metahuman, his eyes searching out Stranger's behind the metal mask. "But you'll need our help in getting those pellets out of you—you can't do this alone. And we need your help in tracking down the people who did this to you." The third finger came out. Maggie tensed in readiness, ready to leap at Stranger right over the detective, either from a gesture from the policeman or a quick motion from Stranger. "Thank you for reminding me that there are still a few decent souls in the world, Detective," Stranger said. "But I must refuse your offer—as far as the pellets go I'll just take my chances. I am, however, willing to do what I can to help find out what is happening. I must, however, impress upon you that I will not allow myself to be taken into custody for any reason. I have spent most of my life behind the walls of an institution and I don't ever plan on going back. As long as you understand that, I think we can work together in some capacity. Look, I'm sure that you have your doubts about me, but for now you're just going to have to trust me. I'm not asking for much, and I am willing to help you—it just has to be in my own way," he finished. Maggie took a step sideways to get the detective out of her line of attack. "Q, you ready?" she asked in the radio. "I thought we were waiting for Hammersmith's signal!" the drone replied. Maggie realized that he couldn't see the detective's hands. Arms still crossed behind his back, Hammersmith clenched and opened his three fingers several times. On the third iteration, he formed his right hand into a gun, and waggled his thumb in the ancient schoolboy symbol for "bang! bang!" "He's signaling me," she explained. "I'll tell you when." Maggie lifted her arm; there was a whoomp, then a ball of biostrands shot from a port on her forearm and expanded into a net, aimed straight for Stranger. Stranger twisted out of the way, as flexible as a whipcord. The net went flying past him. Q-Ball fired a moment later. The tiny white missile struck the water at Stranger's feet. Stranger looked down where the missile had disappeared: then the water erupted around him. Threads surrounded him, and then he was completely encased, tied down. Maggie saw the missile explode and enshroud Stranger; and then in a flash the threads burst outward and covered everything: first Hammersmith, then Maggie herself, and from the shout in her headsets, even Q-Ball. Inside the mass of threads, Stranger's mind roiled. "Remember… remember…" "Hey stop foolin' around with that little punk and get back to the game." "But Ronnie I think he's been tied do too long. His hands are turning blue. I mean shouldn't we untie him now?" "Yeah right, we let him loose and then we gotta clean him up and feed him. If I'm gonna be stuck in this hell hole for freaks over labor day while the docs are out on their boats playing around you can damn believe that I'm not doin' jack. Let the regular crew take care of it on Tuesday, I'm not here to babysit some burnt up kid…hell it ain't even my ward." "I don't know Ronnie, he don't look so good." "Fine I'll take a look…so what's the problem—he already looks like a giant scab. What's wrong you, little punk? What do you have to complain about, all you have to do is lay around all day. Its the hard workin' folks like me that's gotta pay for it. If you're hungry you can just swallow your tongue…haw, haw." Hungry like before and you…I remember you…" "Never again…never again…" Stranger mumbled. But his mouth was covered by threads, and he could barely speak. "Well," Q-Ball said over the radio, "at least I got him." Maggie set her force glove to the armor-piercing setting and started trying to rip through the threads. "Yeah, but you got us, too. I'm thinking this one needs a bit more work." Next time I move from your line of fire, she thought, I'll make it fifty feet or so. The threads started to tear away from Maggie's armor in clumps, but it would take several more tries before she was free. Stranger grunted and heaved inside the mesh: threads flew off his body, but most of his body was still entangled. Hammersmith was struggling but making no headway, and cursing like a cub scout: a non-stop string of darns and shoots. Behind her, Q-Ball's drone whined like a tiny turbine engine, which it probably was. "Perhaps the burst missile wasn't the wisest choice in these close quarters," Q-Ball said sheepishly. "But I was sure I'd miss again with the solo grapple—he moves so fast. Listen, I can uncinch the grapplers, but that means all of us would be free. Do you think you can get out before Stranger? I'm afraid that I'm not going to be out for quite a while." Maggie's eyes narrowed in concentration. "Worst case, you can fire another of these little rockets and we'll be back to square one." She looked to Stranger. "Looks like it's a close match. Okay, release the grapplers on my signal." Stranger again channeled all of his strength into his arms and heaved; strands popped and burst away from his body. He was still bound, but the threads were loosening: one more push ought to free him. The effort was exhausting him, but there was no time to lose. If Bug Lady got out of her cocoon first, she'd be able to sting him for sure. He breathed deep and— The threads loosed their grip and fell away from him with a splash. Did I do that? he wondered. He looked up in time to see Magnitude fly into him. Her helmet struck him in the solar plexus, and her metal arms—strong arms, he realized—encircled him and cinched tight. It actually hurt. Stranger pushed her arms away from him, easily breaking her grab. Behind her, he saw the small orb zip to hover in front of Hammersmith. "Come along quietly, August," Q-Ball squeaked. The detective was pulling the loose threads from his body. "Never again…never again…" Stranger mumbled as he panted quickly. His body was swaying slightly as he struggled to regain his breath and keep his feet. He looks far gone, Maggie thought. Better knock him out now in case he goes berserk or tries to run. Her gauntlets glowed with blue energy as she switched the force fields to coalesce around her fists. Then she wound up and aimed a punch at Stranger's jaw. The masked man turned slightly and Maggie's punch whistled past him. Over the radio, Q-Ball said, "Magnitude! If your armor doesn't have its own air supply, hold your breath!" Maggie took a sharp intake of breath and held it tight. Q-Ball's missile struck the ceiling of the tunnel, just above their heads, then exploded into a white mist, filling their stretch of the sewer. The drug hit his brain like a slap of morphine. Theo August would have been knocked flat by the effects, but Stranger's new body took the insult, rolled with it, absorbed it. Behind the floating orb, Hammersmith choked on the gas and nearly collapsed into the water, before he steadied himself against the curved wall of the tunnel. The walls were closing in around Stranger, his mind in a haze of pain he struck out. In the echoing tunnel, the blow reverberated like a cannon shot. Stranger's fist struck her armored gut, and the woman rocketed backwards. Her limp form narrowly missed the hovering Q-Ball. She struck the water nearly twenty-five feet away, well past the shaft of light that marked the entrance to the sewers. She did not get up. "Detective Hammersmith," Q-Ball said in his piping voice. "You need to leave. Now." "I told you all before that I had no desire to fight you. If I had I would have ambushed you…like you guys did to me. You claimed that you are trying to help but instead you try to jump me twice. I'm sure that in your own mind you think that you're trying to help me but so did a lot of other bastards… including the guy who gave me this wonderful skin job. In fact almost everyone who has claimed to want to help has ended up screwing me over. Just what do you think you're going to do for me? Fix my burned skin… or maybe give me back the twenty years of hell I had to go through in institutions? Just look at me, do you really think I give a crap about a couple of lousy pellets?" Stranger was huffing and panting, his voice quivering as if he were about to cry. Hammersmith pushed himself to a standing position. He was breathing hard, and Q-Ball's threads still draped from his shoulder. His suit was soaked to the knees. Somehow his voice was still calm. "Stranger, you might not care about those pellets," he said, "but I do. A lot of metas have died today, and I don't want your death on my conscience. Or Maggie's. Q-Ball—" his voice was commanding. "Check on Magnitude." She was somewhere behind them, in the shadows. "Respectfully, sir, I'm not leaving you here with… without my protection. Magnitude is twenty-four feet south of us, lying face up and breathing. She is no danger in the next few seconds." The sphere still hovered in the air a few feet in front of Hammersmith. "Please leave, detective. I will make sure that he does not escape." "No! No more fighting." Hammersmith stepped forward so that he was even with the orb. "Stranger, I'm going to reach into my back pocket for my wallet. I want to give you a business card. Okay?" "That's fine," Stranger said as he collected himself. "I have no desire to fight you or Magnitude. And although I understand that you are concerned about those pellets, I still cannot allow you to try to get them out. If you tell me how deep they are and what they look like I will dig them out myself. Believe me when I tell you I have no desire to die, detective. If it is at all possible for me to remove those pellets I will. I'm very sorry that I hit Magnitude but it was the heat of the moment and I was about one second away from getting my teeth kicked in." The orb is definitely out to kill me. Stranger thought. He didn't say he was going to capture me, but he was going to make sure I didn't escape. This guy is no talk and all action… better make sure that I really fuck him over if I get the chance Hammersmith withdrew a card from his wallet and extended it toward Stranger. "Call me. Even if you won't let us remove those pellets for you, we can still help each other track down the people who did this to you—the people who killed Dr. Haans." He put his wallet back in his pocket. "I don't know how deep they are, or even where they're located on your body. We'd have to examine you. But the pellets are about half the size of a BB; one's silver and one's gold. That's all we know." "Fair enough detective. Just tell me what I can do to help. And I'll be in touch." "We're leaving now, Stranger. I'm taking Magnitude out of here, and Q-Ball is coming with me. Aren't you, Q-Ball?" There was an edge in his voice. The sphere rotated slightly. After a long pause, it said: "Yes, sir. After you." "See ya," Stranger said, backing away. In a moment he slipped into the side tunnel and disappeared. When Maggie could focus her eyes, she saw Hammersmith standing above her, and the Q-Ball drone hovering over his right shoulder. She was laying on her back, the sewer water lapping at her ears. The smell was horrible. Her abdomen ached where Stranger had struck her; good thing he’d hit where the mithralite plates covered her. "I have had it", Maggie hissed between her teeth. Her tone of voice could only be described as ominous. "Where’s that moronic nutcase?" The implication was that an immediate answer was required, not requested. "I let him go," Hammersmith said. "Didn’t have much choice." "But sir!" squeaked the drone. "We had him on the ropes!" "Of course you did." The detective extended a hand to Maggie. "Shut up, Q", Maggie snapped, pulling herself out of the fetid water. She started ranting, her voice picking up momentum and volume as it went. "This has been one of those freaking, fucking days. I tried being mature, Saint-Cāline. Hey, Goran said he’d found a trigger for metahuman powers, this was a chance to get in on one of the century’s greatest discoveries. But nooooo... Had to be trouble, was there? And still, I tried to be nice and calm. What did it get me? A four-hundred foot giant ran away from me, I got fired—fired!—on suspicions of industrial espionage, like they were going to accomplish anything without Goran and me, I got insulted by a paranoid imbecile, I got tangled by my own ally, and to top it all, I get whacked right into someone’s crap. Make that a hundred someones." "Looks like calm and mature don’t work. I should have known, Saint-Calibi, nothing on this freaking planet has ever understood anything unless it is pounded into them. Repeatedly. And then whack once more so they remember. I’m sick and tired of this shit—no more Miss Nice Gal." "Now. Where’s that pellet? We’ll look at it, track the imbeciles who did all this down, lock ’em up, and I’ll head right back to New Orleans where it’s saner. Marginally. On good days." Detective Hammersmith had stood stock still during her tirade, his expression blank. When she'd finished, he nodded and turned carefully toward the ladder. Outside, Q-Ball’s vehicle still hovered overhead, the police helicopters holding station to each side. The crowd of bystanders had grown larger, forming a ring around the open manhole. Police cars had just arrived; three officers ran over to talk to the wet and reeking Hammersmith. The detective started barking orders. Q-Ball was to fly to Miegs field accompanied by the helicopters, land the sphere, and answer any and all questions. The tiny sphere squeaked an affirmative, then flew up into the larger vehicle. Hammersmith took aside one of the officers, wrote down something, and told him to call back with any information. Then he ordered the remaining two officers to drive Ms. Thorin to the evidence lab so she could inspect the pellets. "I’ll meet you there as soon as I can, Maggie. I need to talk to several people at City Hall, find the PRIMUS Silver Avenger, and also check on Waters’ situation with the other metahuman." He turned to the officers. "Make sure she gets whatever she needs, gentlemen." "What I need is food and a cup of coffee. No, make that a thermos." Maggie tossed her helmet in the police cruiser. "So take that car to McDonalds and Starbucks first, gentlemen—all this bashing is making me hungry." She climbed in the car. "And please hurry—we’ve lost way too much time already." "Sure," one of the officers said, glancing at his partner. The smell of the sewer hung on Maggie like a wet coat. "You mind if we keep the windows down?" |