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Our Paranormal Chernobyl
Scene 38: The Death Artist
Tuesday, 4:15 pm, The Schoolhouse

It was another PRIMUS uniform that he saw first, the white armor catching the faint light. It was a leg, perhaps, or another arm like the one in the hall. It lay next to another dark-colored shape, perhaps ten feet from the door, and there was another shape next to that, stretching off in a curved line into the darkness.

The fear was coming from the center of the midnight-black pool. Above the noise of the helicopter he heard a wordless moan … and the chuckle of the burning man, the sound of rats scuttling, doors slamming, the cold comfortless murmurs of blank-faced men with needles…

"No," Ed whispered, "that's not real. That’s Theo, goddammit, not you!" He was shaking again, and he had to clench his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering. He focused on his shields, both physical and mental, and drew them tight, walling himself away from the emotions that had drawn him here in the first place. He knew where it was now, no need to put any fresh wounds on his already battered mind.

"Pender," he called out, his voice hoarse and almost unrecognizable. "There’s bodies, and… and I think your guy’s in here."

Unfortunately, this was not the type of thing she hadn’t seen before, but this seemed to be a genuinely new experience for Ed. Laura was no empath, but even she could feel his almost tangible terror. "Alright, Ed," she said, quietly. "You’re doing great. Step aside, and I’ll take it from here."

"Yeah. You do that," Ed replied. He wrapped his arms about himself (not an easy thing to do while still hanging onto a piece of the Leper from Hell, but he’d be damned if he put that down) and let the PRIMUS woman come forward. The smell was almost enough to make him gag.

"Neel?" Pender asked the darkness. "This is Field Agent Laura Pender," she announced, quite forgetting her temporary Silver Avenger status for the time being, then added, possibly untruthfully, "The building is secure. It’s safe to come out."

The only reply was a low moan that came from somewhere in the middle of the room.

"If someone is hurt we had better get in there before it’s too late," Stranger said as he moved towards the door. He could see the shock in Ed’s face and smell the foul stench coming from the room. The kid seemed to be having a really bad day.

"If you think that there’s any danger, let me go in first," Stranger said to Pender.

"No," she said, perhaps too quickly. "No, he’s my responsibility. You two just hold your position here."

Ed wondered when Pender was gonna turn on her flashlight. Or maybe she had secret agent contact lenses that let her see in the dark, ‘cause it was pitch frickin’ black in there. He hoped she had contacts, cause he did not want to see what was in that room.

No sir.

He leaned back against the wall near the door, and concentrated on not throwing up.

Ignoring him for the time being, Pender took a few tentative steps forward, fumbling in a jacket pocket as she did so. Within a moment, she located her flashlight, and snapped it into its underslung position on her pistol. Slowly, carefully, she guided the small circle of light along the floor, tracking the man’s moan to its last place of origin, until she revealed his form in the darkness.

The light revealed first a limbless torso, dressed in dark clothes, with a leg in white PRIMUS armor stuck into the hole where the head should have been. Laura moved the light, and saw more body parts, linked in a chain of arms and legs, heads and feet, bones and organs. The links formed a "V," the apex pointing at Pender’s feet, the diagonal lengths disappearing into the crepuscular reaches of the room. It was impossible to tell how many bodies had been disassembled to make the chain.

Her mouth opened and closed silently in a wordless, involuntary reaction to the scene before her. The stench seemed heavier now, a thick, unwashed blanket that muffled her thoughts, and her eyes blurred briefly as her mind tried to comprehend the horror which started at her feet and stretched out like rival minute hands beyond range of her feeble flashlight. Somewhere in that grotesque display, Laura suddenly knew, was Neel.

Ed felt himself go numb. His mouth went completely dry as he looked at the bits and pieces of human life carefully arranged on they floor before him. He heard someone breathing really really fast, and was surprised to discover it was him. Everything revealed by Pender’s light seemed so bright and crisp, the colors sharp and glistening.

Moistness was the overall theme of death, he decided. Yup. Slick and shiny, like wet licorice.

He was pretty sure he was gonna puke at any moment.

Pender moved her light toward the center of the V, to the source of the man’s moan. But it wasn’t a man.

She was huddled in the center of the room, head bowed, rocking slowly. She had wild brown hair that reached her shoulders, and was dressed in a large gray winter jacket and blue Chicago Bears sweatpants. Her feet were bare.

Laura squatted slightly to take a closer look, professional curiosity now overtaking all else, by necessity—it was either that, or drop to the floor in tears. She had a hard time believing this clearly traumatized woman was capable of the hideous act which, by the looks of things, had recently been committed here, but then again, she had a hard time believing that anything was. Straightening, she reached for her cell phone to radio the chopper.

Ed watched the girl with a kind of fascinated respect. He was pretty sure that if he’d been forced to watch what had happened here tonight, he’d be nuttier than a squirrel. Probably be barking at the moon for the rest of his life in a nice little room.

That was, of course, provided that this girl wasn’t the one who’d done all this. Appearances could be so fucking deceiving.

"Let’s not forget about Mercy, Ed old son." he muttered darkly between pants. "Fucking bitch." Knowing he’d regret it, realizing that by doing so he opened himself up to whatever demons the girl had running around in there, he reached out with his mind.

It’s gonna be okay, the lady is here to help you. The shitheel that did this is dead, he sent, hoping that she wouldn’t just scream and call him an asshole.

The woman’s face jerked up. Her face was livid with fear. GET OUT! she sent. Her fear was what he’d been sensing for all these long minutes, but this direct pipeline made it almost overwhelming. HE’LL KILL YOU! HE’LL KILL YOU! Beyond the words he could glimpse some of what she’d seen: Jigsaw’s hands moving efficiently through flesh and bone… the pieces falling away… the awful craftwork of the assembly…

Oh boy. Just like Dallas. What were the odds that in the space of 33 days he would run into two assholes with the same psychosis and the same set of powers to grant an outlet for them?

God had it out for him. That had to be it. This was his punishment for all the miserable things he’d done. To be forced to endure crap that would make one of those SWAT guys puke.

He’s not gonna kill anyone anymore, Ed sent back, showing her what he’d seen of the scattered pieces of the leper on the ground outside, with Theo standing there nearly on top of it. I know it’s hard, and I know you’ve been through shit that nobody should have to go through, but you got to trust that chick standing there. Her name is Pender, and there’s doctors and ambulances and cops almost here so you’re gonna be safe. Talk to Pender, tell her what happened, ok? Let’s get you outta here.

Pender had gotten the PRIMUS pilot back on the line. "Jardine, get those MCTs up here—now. We’re on the second floor, middle of the building."

"They’re here, and heading in now," the helicopter pilot responded. "And regular CPD have just started to pull in, and SWAT’s on its way."

"Copy that—have them send up an EMT, if there is one."

"One paramedic van is here, four more are on their way. Q-Ball just moved position so that it’s now hovering over the street at an altitude of—what the hell is that?"

"Pardon?"

"Sorry. Two more metas on deck, SA Pender. One definitely ID’s as Maggie Thorin: she’s in her Magnitude armor and that hair is unmistakable. But the other one is unknown—it looks like, well, a giant amoeba. They came out of the same car and appear to be unaggressive, over."

"Copy that. Backup for our backup. Cooperate with them."

"Pender?" Ed said.

She was still talking to Jardine. "Pender out," she finished, and put the phone away. She’d managed to stave off reality for a few moments by losing herself in details, but now that she turned to face Ed it all came crashing back.

"She’s fucking scared out of her mind," the kid said. "So be nice, okay, ‘cause if you aren’t nice, and she gets any more scarder, its gonna drive me right over the edge and I’m gonna run out of here screamin’ my fucking lungs out and I really really really don’t want to do that okay?"

Ed’s voice was full of cracks and wavers, and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to stand anything more. Not one more thing. He was closer to breaking than he’d ever been, and he needed safety and calm more than air.

"All right, Ed." If circumstances had been different, she might’ve taken the time to ask him just what the hell he thought he was doing, wandering into other people’s minds on a whim, but as it was, she just said, "Thanks. It’d really help if you went out in the hall to make sure the MCTs find us, and to keep an eye on things."

"Yeah, that’d be good," Ed replied hurriedly, and almost slid on (don’t look at it, don’t think about it) something on his way out the door. Thank God his shields were still on. He brushed past Stranger (and sure as hell don’t think about what’s going on in HIS head) standing silently in the hall. The ESPer almost ran down the corridor to the stairs, the girl’s fear still echoing in his mind like cathedral bells on Sunday.

The thought suddenly occurred to Pender that one of the MCTs would be the netgun-wielding Bob Mehldau, and that he and Ed would almost certainly recognize one another.

Now Laura had to face the traumatized young woman on the floor. She stepped over the linked bodies, and realized that the chain was acting like a retaining wall for the blood.

Instinctively, she withdrew her foot, leaving a short-lived ripple in the coagulating blood. She couldn’t let the horror get to her—not now, not here. Pender squatted down to the woman’s level, still outside of the gleaming pool. She pointed her gun at the ground, the attached maglight shining at the space between them.

The woman sat in the pool of blood, arms around her knees, still rocking. She stared at Pender, but the PRIMUS agent wasn’t sure that she was seeing her.

"It’s alright—you’re safe now," she said, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "My name’s Laura, and we’re going to get you out of here."

The woman moaned, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, down her chin.

Right. "Hold on," she said, uncertain if her words were even getting through. "A paramedic’s coming up to look at you. You’re going to be okay."

PRIMUS: Never a dull moment.

Sirens seemed to be converging from all over the city to some point just out of sight, but then DuChamp made a right and everyone in the car knew they’d arrived. Ahead of them was a squad car, lights on but sirens quiet, with two uniformed cops standing beside it. Behind them, hovering over the middle of the block between two big brick buildings, was the huge white sphere Maggie knew as Q-Ball. And sitting in the middle of the street was a white PRIMUS helicopter, blades slowing down, with a PRIMUS van parked behind it.

One of the officers standing next to the squad car seemed to recognize DuChamp, and motioned the car forward. In the middle of the street, ten yards in front of the helicopter, was crater in the pavement. It looked like a mine had exploded. Scattered around the street were slabs of pavement and other material. A woman in white PRIMUS armor and a bulky helmet stood near the hole, and she gestured for DuChamp to pull off to the right.

Three sedans, all of them studiously generic in the style of unmarked police cars, were parked on the south side of the street, in front a four-story building. Heckle and Jackson got out of one car. DuChamp rolled up along side and stopped.

The location in question seemed to be the smaller building across the street. Two people in bulky PRIMUS armor—gender impossible to determine—were running for the entrance of the building. It was graffiti-covered, two-story brick pile, with old-fashioned granite cornices. The windows had been boarded up, but the southwest corner of the building had two fresh openings. One window on the second floor had been knocked in, and to the left and a bit below the open window was a jagged hole, perhaps six feet high and four-feet wide. Maggie noticed that the hole in the wall and the hole in the street were directly in line with each other.

DuChamp opened his door and unfolded his lanky frame. "What the hell has happened here?" he said.

Goo also wondered about the scene.

"Ma-a-a-aggie? He-e-ell happened?"

Maggie opened her own door and stepped out, once again thankful that she’d gone for the streamlined option when she’d designed her armor. "Looks like a metahuman battle to me", she said, taking in the scene. "Seems like someone or something big was knocked out of the building and landed on the street, causing this crater. But let’s not rely on my deductions, PRIMUS should know more about it."

"Ye-ea-ah," Goo agreed.

Preparing to leave the car, Goo extended a tentacle toward its seat belt then noticed that the belt was no longer in place. After giving gurgly shrug, Goo opened the door and spilled out of the car.

The PRIMUS agent standing near the crater was staring at them. Her lips moved, but Goo couldn’t hear what she was saying, or tell who she was talking to.

"Ma-a-a-aggie?" Goo asked. "Fri-ie-ends? Who? Whe-e-e-re?

"Vi-i-ictims?"

Before Maggie could answer, a familiar voice popped into her mind.

Ed practically flew down the stairs, then stopped at the hole Theo had made. Heart pounding in his chest, he glanced down to where the leper thing was hopefully still lying. The street, empty a few minutes ago except for Pender’s black car, was a riot of vehicles and people.

First and fucking foremost, a huge white sphere maybe fifty feet in diameter was hovering over the street. The PRIMUS chopper he’d seen flying in was now parked in the street under the sphere’s shadow, blades slowing to a halt. A woman in a PRIMUS flight suit stood near the hole in the pavement where Stranger had stomped the Jigsaw man.

He wondered if the ball thing was some PRIMUS UFO or something. Probably was. Cops didn’t have that kind of crap yet. Though when he thought about it, Pender seemed to have none of the fancy toys that the people down there were carrying, except for that one fancy pistol of hers. Did that mean she didn’t need ‘em, didn’t want ‘em, or wasn’t allowed to have ‘em? A question to be thought of when he wasn’t humming with fear.

Just behind the chopper was a PRIMUS van like the one he’d seen at the grocery store. Police squad cars were idling at either end of the block, sirens off but lights strobing blue and red. Uniformed cops were standing around or else putting up sawhorses to hold back the dozens of bystanders that were starting to gather. And behind the crowd, the media started to arrive. Ed saw a van for Channel 7 Eyewitness News pull up and park.

Oh great. Reporters. He didn’t have time for reporters just now.

Movement drew Ed’s attention to the building across the street. Four sedans—unmarked cop cars?—were parked on the sidewalk in front of the building, and people were getting out of them.

One of them was Maggie, the hot looking chick he’d met this morning, the sunlight glinting off her armor. And next to her was a blob of translucent… goo. It was the only word he could think of. It was about as tall as Maggie, and shaped vaguely like a Hershey Kiss. As he watched, the thing seemed to change shape, the neck elongating, and damn if it didn’t look like it was saying something to her.

He kept back away from the hole a bit, just far enough so he could see out and hopefully be lost in the shadows of anyone else looking in. He didn’t want netgunned again. That would just be pathetic. He could feel Pender trying to be all calm upstairs, and Strangers irritation at something. And the fear, banging away like a boxer at the back of his head.

He glanced down at the shiny black piece of the leper under his arm and felt a little better. Hopefully the fucker would glow or something if leper-guy was trying to pull himself back together, thereby warning Ed to get the hell out.

He zeroed in on Maggie and sent his esper talent out, seeking her mind with his own.

Yo. It’s Ed. There’s a bunch of chopped up bodies up here, and this chick named Pender from PRIMUS. The Pender chick is trying to calm down the one person we found alive up here, but I think it’s hopeless. She needs a shrink. Not Pender, but the girl we found. I can show you the whole thing if you want, but you’d probably just throw up on that pudding pop you’re talking to. I almost did like twice already. Oh yeah, and Theo August is up here, but he probably saved all our lives so you probably should tell the cops to not start any shit with him. I know he’s crazy, but he’s not a psycho.

Ed frowned. That didn’t sound right.

What I mean is he’s only gonna hurt himself.

No, still not right.

I don’t think he’d hurt anyone else right now. I know, cause I got sucked into his head. It wasn’t pretty.

Yeah, that was about right. He wondered if there was anything else he should say at this point.

Oh yeah, and the first son-of-a-bitch who throws a net over me is gonna spend the rest of his days in a looneybin, so tell those Primus assholes to look before they shoot. I’ve had a very bad day.

Probably a bit nastier than he should have been, but he just wanted to make sure everyone knew where he stood. He SO wanted to be away from here, and now that the real pajama-crowd had arrived, he’d be able to leave.

Okay, Maggie sent back. We’ll be up there shortly. Is there anything that needs to be dealt with quickly?

Ed snorted. Anyhing else—yeah, right.

No, I think a chain of chopped up arms and legs, a homicidal leper and a chick sitting in a pool of blood babbling is more than enough.

Ed stepped away from the hole just as two PRIMUS agents came out of the darkness and up the stairs like a couple of Imperial Stormtroopers, all decked out in white plastic armor. With the full helmets and tinted visors Ed didn’t recognize either one of them. He recognized the weapons, though, especially the netgun that he’d gotten so cozy with earlier.

"Ed," one of them said, nodding.

The young man watched them pass in silence, eyes glittering in the semi-darkness of the hallway.

Goddamn netgun, he thought to himself, his earlier humiliation washing over him anew. He leaned against the wall, eyes closed as the commotion began to ebb and flow. At least these new people brought with them saner emotions for him to try to focus on. The girl’s fear still stabbed into the ether, but its edge was dulled. A butter knife instead of a ginsu.

And then they were past him, hustling up the stairs to the second floor.

He waited against the wall, wondering if anyone would notice if he just left.

Stranger was tired of waiting outside the door.

"Hey lady, is everything alright in there?" he said as he entered.

"Everything’s fine. Don’t—" But he was already in the room.

The stark foulness of the room surprised him. He had witnessed similar carnage before in his own mind, but the subtle reality of gore in this room struck a curious cord in his psyche. Waking horror of scenes like this had danced in his mind for most of his life. But here the world of the mind ended and the world of the reality began. He had never smelled this kind of death before. Nor had he ever seen such vivid display of the frailty of the human form. These fine machines of humanity seemed to him like defaced works of art. He imaged the separated pieces of muscle, sinew, and bone being sculpted in marble by some ancient Greek master. Their white-clad shapes stained by violence of that mad creature. Never had he appreciated the beauty of a human being more the now, and it sickened him to think of that animal’s foul daggers slicing through the these helpless masterpieces.

"Remind me never to join PRIMUS," Stranger said aloud, shaking his head in disgust.

Pender suppressed a sigh with some effort. "Let’s talk over here," she said, rising and walking back towards the door.

It was then that Stranger realized just how close he had come to his own death. He had fully expected to die at the hands of that thing, and the creature had nearly obliged him with a single blow. Only his newly found powers had saved his life and the lives of his companions. But these poor souls did not have his advantage. They could not have lasted long against that thing. Each one living long enough to see the death of his or her comrade just before it was their turn. Helpless to do anything but die.

"Who sent these lambs to slaughter?" Stranger asked Pender with anger in his voice.

"I believe we met him already," she replied. "Some more closely than others," she added, looking pointedly at the swath of smooth skin on Stranger’s chest.

"What?! No, wait a minute. I meant who was dumb enough to send these people in here after that thing? Unless it was the thing who had come for them. I mean, this hardly looks like a PRIMUS base of operations, so I am assuming that they came in here after the monster. But even if this is a covert base, who in the hell sent that guy?"

Covert PRIMUS bases in Chicago, she thought, with a touch of irony. We can barely keep the overt one running as it is….

"With all that’s been going on in the past couple of days, I’m sure the MCTs made the decision to come in here in response to—" To what? "This. The building’s condemned; it looks like most of the victims were squatters. Probably Jigsaw was, too. That fits in with—" With the plastic pair’s MO. But she stopped herself. The pieces were rattling themselves together in her head, and she was so preoccupied by thinking aloud that she’d almost forgotten to whom she was talking. "At any rate, it doesn’t look like anyone was ‘sent’ in here except for the MCTs, and I’m sure they thought they could handle it."

Tidy, but none of it explained the girl in the reflecting pool of blood, still breathing and probably insane. The answers were likely imbedded into the asphalt below, piece by piece.

"Ma-a-a-aggie?" Goo insisted, with concern in its voice. "No one ta-a-a-alking."

Maggie snapped out of her telepathic conversation and turned to Goo and DuChamp. "It’s a mess. Theo August is around, and he’s apparently helped Ed and the acting Silver Avenger, Pender. The man’s a firecracker if you ask me, but Ed seems to think he won’t hurt anyone. There’s a girl up there, pretty shaken up; Pender’s trying to help her. And I figure a few corpses. And of course," she waved a hand at the floating ball. "There’s Q-Ball. Eccentric, but certainly useful to have around, no matter how much it costs me to say so."

Goo took in this information. It felt a bit surprised that it was following all of these odd details. Perhaps Goo was smarter than it though it was.

Something to wonder about later, Goo decided.

"Co-orpses?" Goo asked. "Ha-a-appened? Who did?

"Pla-a-astic?"

The woman in the white PRIMUS armor was stepping briskly toward them. "Not plastic—rock. Or some metahuman variant." Her expression was grim. "I am—"

"Agent Jardine," Goo said.

The pilot stared at Goo, then glanced down at the badge attached over her left breast. "Yes. Yes I am."

Oh, Goo thought. The name’s on her badge. It hadn’t noticed that before.

Jardine went on, now keeping her eyes directed away from the glob. "Some of the material scattered around here isn’t pavement—it’s the body of some kind of meta that attacked several people inside. SA Pender says that Theo August—AKA The Stranger—knocked it out, but it’s still dangerous."

"AND I WILL VOUCH FOR STRANGER," blared an electronic voice. It came from the huge white sphere hovering over them. "HE SAVED MY LIFE, AND THOSE OF ED AND AGENT PENDER, AT GREAT PERSONAL RISK." The sphere rotated slightly. "THE METAHUMAN HE STOPPED IS SOME KIND OF COMPOSITE CREATURE, MADE OF JAGGED, ROCK-LIKE PIECES. HE HASN’T SHOWN SIGNS OF LIFE, BUT THEN AGAIN, WE HAVE NO MEANS OF MEASURING ITS LIFESIGNS. BY THE WAY, GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, MS. THORIN. I HOPE I MAY CONTINUE TO BE OF USE, AS ECCENTRIC AS I MAY BE—SMILEY FACE EXCLAMATION MARK." The electronically masked voice was emotionally flat, so it was hard to tell if Q-Ball was peeved or amused. If those were emoticons he was adding, they were lame, geeky substitutes for normal speech.

"Ta-a-alks funny," Goo observed to Maggie.

"Um, sorry, Q-Ball", Maggie said, a little flustered. Lovely. Telepaths and shotgun mikes, you really don’t have any privacy at all these days… She turned to Jardine. "Mind if I take a look and see what I can find out?"

Jardine walked a few steps away and picked up a piece of black rock, then carefully handed it to Maggie. The piece was about a foot long, half a foot wide, the surface black and jagged. It was an inch or so thick in the middle, but it tapered to a razor edge. She turned it over in her armored glove and saw that the inside surface was smooth and slightly concave, colored a deep, blood red.

Purely mineral beings are always difficult to figure out, but the shape of this thing… Some sort of shell, maybe? But if there was something inside, they’d have noticed. Hmm, I wonder if he had a radio transmitter, and if it survived whatever it was that broke him up.

"DuChamp?"she asked.

"Shit," DuChamp said. He was looking out past the sawhorses, where a Channel 7 News Van was parked. "TV’s here already."

"You never can keep those away," Maggie said. "Have you got the tracking receiver handy?"

"It’s back in the car. I’ll go get it." He started for the car at a jog.

"I’ve got my mine up and running," Heckle said, walking up. The device hung from a strap at his shoulder. "I’ve got two separate pings, both more than fifty yards away. I need someone to triangulate though to pin down the direction."

"PERHAPS I CAN HELP," Q-Ball announced. Everything he said seemed to be an announcement. "WHAT FREQUENCY?"

Heckle looked to Maggie, one eyebrow raised. It was Maggie’s call on whether to use him or not.

Whatever misgivings she might have about Q-Ball—born more out of injured pride and annoyance at the man’s eccentricity than any sort of real concern—they were completely outweighed by the availability of a mobile, airborne receiver platform. "Give it to him," she said.

Pender heard the agents coming down the hallway and breathed an audible sigh of relief. For the first time today, she was pleased to see what she’d expected: Grodenko, Mehldau, and just coming into the corridor behind them, the EMTs with a gurney. "In there," she said, gesturing back into the room. "It’s not pretty. Easy on the girl; she’s on the edge. Sedate her if you can, but try to disturb the scene as little as possible, and don’t restrain her unless things get out of control—you know what I mean. At this point, I’m not willing to put anything past anyone."

Mehldau shone his light into the room and gasped. Grodenko whispered something in Russian that could have been a curse or a prayer.

"And this one’s with me," she added, indicating Stranger with her head.

At first the agents didn’t seem to be listening. They were staring past the doorway. Then Mehldau nodded to Pender, and the two men moved deeper into the room.

When the EMTs reached the door, Pender briskly repeated her instructions and moved past them. She didn’t need to watch every new witness to the carnage go through the same spin cycle of disbelief, horror, and disgust.

"Let’s go downstairs, Stranger," Pender suggested, already starting down the hallway. "I’d like to talk with Dr. Thorin, and anyplace is better than here right now. Do you mind sticking around for the time being? I have some questions for you, if that’s alright."

"Yes that will be fine, just keep everyone calm and the cops off my back," Stranger said as he followed behind her. "I really don’t need anymore trouble."

"None of us do. Excuse me." Pender took out her phone again. "Jardine, see what CPD can do about getting some detectives or a CSU upstairs. We should have photographs of this."

There was a slight delay, and then Jardine came on. "Roger. We’ll be swarming with all the help we need in about sixty seconds. Where do you want Ms. Thorin and her, uh, associates?"

"With you, for now. I’ll be there soon—I’m sure we’ll all have questions for each other."

"Got it. Also, you should know that the media’s already here—I just saw a Channel 7 truck."

"Thanks." Thanks a lot. "I’ll call Teddy and get him down here. Pender out." By now, the two had reached the garbage-strewn landing, where Ed was standing beside the hole, his back to the wall.

He looked up at them, face pale in the gloom. "That Maggie chick is here. She’s outside with a pudding pop that talks. I told her to tell the cops to lay off Theo, since the only reason either one of us is still breathing is cause he took the hit."

"No one’s going to give anyone any trouble," she assured them, and looked down at the commotion through Stranger’s renovation. It was a pudding pop, after all…. "Just play nice."

"I owe you, August. Whatever I can do, name it." It was pretty obvious that Ed was scared of Theo August, and was trying not to show it. He still cradled a piece of the jigsaw man under one arm.

"How’s the girl?"

"The EMTs are looking after her now," Pender answered. She’ll get the care she needs."

"Yeah, sure she will," Ed muttered. He’d seen a great many of the mental health care systems rejects on the streets of Dallas. Fuckin’ shrinks didn’t have a clue.

Of course, they were like blind carpenters, forever trying to rebuild things that they could never see. So he supposed he should cut them some slack.

"Oh yeah, and there’s a TV van here. I’d rather not have to deal with that."

"We have someone whose job it is to deal with that, so we don’t have to," Pender said, then added, "Usually."

Ed let out a huge sigh, then looked towards the window. "What the fuck happened here? I mean, is this another homeless guy those robots screwed with, or something else? Does shit like this happen here all the time?"

"Couldn’t tell you. My perspective’s somewhat skewed. For me, yes, shit like this happens everywhere, all the time."

He shook his head. "And I thought Dallas was fucked up. These bastards, they tried to open a hole into someplace else up there. Did ya hear about that? It was totally screwed. I thought maybe this place would be calmer, ya know. I’d be able to start over here."

"You may just have the worst timing in the world," she said, refraining to comment on the Dallas incident for the time being.

"But Christ! This is thirty times more screwed than that was."

"You’re handling it better than most, though. Ever thought of working for PRIMUS?" she deadpanned.

He glanced down at the piece of the ‘puzzle’ he carried and shuddered. "I never, EVER want to go inside that fucker’s head."

Pender shrugged and began to dial the cell phone still in her hand. "For all you know, that may be a piece of it. Excuse me for a moment." She half-turned away from them and began speaking with Tina at PRIMUS Chicago.

Ed halfway listened to Pender’s conversation, and halfway kept an eye on Theo August. Pender reminded him of that chick from the X-Files - always trying to keep cool and rational no matter what jumped out of the dark at her and flashed its fangs. Theo reminded him of a semi with its brake lines cut.

She’s good people, Eddie, came Gram’s voice.

"Yeah, I know," he murmured.

And that poor man, he’s gonna need help. You be there when he do, Edward. You hear me?

"Yes ma’am," he replied softly, turning to look out the window at the spectacle in the parking lot. He was feeling more himself again, now that the cops had arrived. And God but he was tired.

As Stranger stood by the landing waiting for things to develop he couldn’t help but wondering about the young man he had just met. The young man seemed quite unsettled with the whole situation. He had assaulted Stranger’s mind in an attempt to help him. This was as personal a violation as Stranger had ever felt, but by the same token it was clear he had not meant to hurt him. Others who had hurt had also had good intentions in mind, but he thought this was different. This was not an therapy treatment based on some crappy experimental protocol. Ed was not trying to further his career and his skills were not learned from a book. Rather, he hard honestly tried to help him in a very unique, but scary, way, and once Stranger told him to back off he did. He seemed like a good kid and he did not want to cause him anymore discomfort.

"Hey kid."

Ed’s head snapped around at the sound of Theo’s voice, and he visibly flinched, then flushed with embarrassment.

Dammit!

"I think I understand what you tried to do back there and there are not hard feeling, just don’t do it again. And as far as I’m concerned you don’t have an attitude problem, you’re alright in my book," he said, trying to put the young man at ease.

"Uh, thanks," Ed managed to get out. "I didn’t really want to the first time. It just happens sometimes." He wondered what was going on behind that mask, in that tower in the center of Theo’s mind. He couldn’t read him, couldn’t see his emotional state through all those defenses, and it was creeping him out. He’d never really encountered someone like Theo August before, a zero. It was like standing next to a dead man.

Or a robot.

"And like I said, if you need it and I can get it for you, it’s yours."

Stranger was about to reply when he heard a low rumble coming from his stomach. Then he heard a soft echo coming from the left corner of his mind. As he focused it grew louder and louder until it was screaming in his head: MUST EAT. MUST EAT. He could feel the muscles in his body begin to tighten and his skin started to itch. He noticed that he had been unconsciously scratching his stomach. But something didn’t feel right. He looked down as he ran his hands over the his rippling abdominal muscles. His stomach looked as if it were carved of stone, with every muscle fiber appearing as a distinct strand under his pink skin. He felt his arms and up to his shoulders. Even under clothing he could feel the incredible definition of all his muscles. It was as if every ounce of fat had been removed from his body. He began to feel a little light headed as he tried to understand his new body. Something was wrong. His body had healed itself but it had used all of its reserves to do it. And now it was screaming for more. He must eat, and he must eat right away.

"Do ya like Chinese food?" Stranger said as he stepped closer to Ed. "Wait, I know, how about some KFC? You know anything with really big portions."

Ed paled. "How can you even think about food after… after…" He waved his hand towards the stairwell. "Jesus. If I don’t eat for a week, that’s fine with me."

With an edgy tone he whispered, "Man I am freak’n starving. If I don’t eat something soon I’m gonna… well, I don’t know what I’m gonna do—but you can be sure it’ll involve food."

Ed felt lost in this conversation. Theo August’s mind was shielded from his empathy, and it was like holding a conversation with a wall. No, that wasn’t right. Theo, even with the mask on, still had body language and stuff. Maybe like a cartoon. Yeah, that was it. Ed could hear the man’s words and see him moving his arms, but he couldn’t read the motives anymore.

This must be what it was like for everyone else on the planet. No wonder the world was so fucked up.

"Let’s get through this crap, then I’ll buy you the biggest fucking steak we can find. How’s that work for you?"

"Look man, I’m not trying to make a scene here but if I don’t get something to eat, anything—a burger, a pizza, a bag of flour, WHATEVER, I am gonna start eating my fuckin’ shoes."

Stranger lowered his voice and moved closer. "That monster took a lot out of me, literally. And I need something to replace it. My body worked overtime trying fix what it did to me and I have to put a lot of food in it so it will keep on working. Do you understand?"

Pender snapped the phone shut and stared at the floor. Nothing was going right. Now Teddy Amidon had gone missing too—Tina hadn't been able to raise him on the phone. Sal, at least, had called in. He'd gotten to Raj Pirhu's house and managed to look around for a few minutes—finding nothing, he'd said—before getting the alert about agents down at the schoolhouse. He was on his way to Pender, and should be there in ten minutes. Also, PRIMUS headquarters had called, wanting an update, but in light of the emergency Tina had put them off, God bless her.

"Uh… what now, Pender?" Ed asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets, the piece of the jigsaw man jutting out from beneath his arm. "Can we blow this scene or do we have to play the ‘talk to the cop’ game?"

Pender looked up at him, yanked from her reverie. It hadn't been a good first day for her as Acting Silver Avenger, and it showed.

"I only ask ‘cause Theo’s hungry," he added quickly. "It’s not like I’m trying to be a pain in the ass."

"No, I know, Ed," she replied, softening. She hadn't realized she'd been practically glaring at him. Nothing was going right today, but it wasn't Ed's fault. Not entirely, anyway. "We'll talk to the CPD about some food; they seem to be the crime scene caterers around here. We'll get everything taken care of."

Ed looked back at Theo, then again at Pender.

"I think he needs it now or something." He wondered why he'd become Theo August's translator all of the sudden. The guy fucking creeped him out.

Because he saved your hide, Edward, Gram's voice whispered.

"Oh yeah," he murmured.

"'Cause he had to heal," Ed said aloud. "I dunno, that's just what he said while you were on the phone."

Ed followed her down the stairs, happy to be leaving the slaughterhouse at last.

If he never saw this place again, it'd be too soon.

Heckle told Q-Ball the frequency, and they waited while the big sphere rotated in place. After thirty seconds it announced, "GOT IT."

The sphere stopped rotating. "TWO SIGNALS. ONE STATIONARY, SECOND FLOOR, MIDDLE OF THE BUILDING. THE OTHER ONE IS MOVING, AND IT'S RIGHT... THERE. BUILDING ENTRANCE!"

The group looked toward the old school house as the door opened.

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