csyphrett

Only 30 days to go. Hold on. \CES

It's the same type map as the Village. House, house, house, store, hospital, stone boat CES

before the electoral vote, Wiscousin said your suit is invalid CES

Imagine the firestorm if Hillary had been elected. They had 11 benghazi investigations that cleared her every single time, and were trying to start a 12th when she started running for president CES

This guy can STFU. If you earned a degree, then you can be a doctor. It's a doctorate for a reason. This requires a Sam Jackson response, but it is forbidden and I don't want to be on the naughty list CES This guy is a bigger DA than Epstein. Where do these guys come from? CES

maybe you're right. I live in Foxx's district and Budd's is the next county over. they're in a safe district for them with a lot of Trump/Pence flags out. They might change if they said Trump needs to go. On the other hand even before this if I saw Foxx had run through a guard rail and into the river, I wouldn't have stopped to call Fire Rescue for her. CES

my other ride is a reindeer CES

Virginia Foxx and Ted Budd. No surprises. The only way they can help the country is to stop breathing. A lot of the names on this list have been all in for Trump, especially Gaetz and King. CES

Fell asleep in the car and had a dream which seemed to be lifted from Call of Duty Warzone where I drove around and shot people up before they shot me up CES

Along with Father Christmas this is one of my favorite christmas songs CES

The guys in Ohio are like Shut up Texas. You don't tell us what to do. Pennsylvania basically said that Texas is a stupid idiot and a rebel for filing this stupid crap, and they need to be put down. Trump just dropped to being worse than Buchanan now, and his party needs to go. CES

The news was reporting that Dueschbanke owns most of Trump and is hoping to sell the debt off to other people CES

This is like the fantastic four movie where they didn't want the fantastic four, or the lone ranger where they didn't want to follow the lone ranger rules. This is a niche character. if none of his fans show up, this movie will bomb CES

It's bad enough to hit one running away, you dont ever want to hit one that's coming right at you CES

Epilogue Tom Kerry and Lucinda Grable sat in Tom Ryan’s office. The conference was considered a win for everyone involved. The various teams had worked together, and they had contacts when they had to go into each other’s turfs. The Warning and Odd were staying on long enough to enjoy some time with their spouses and were holding the rooms rented for them at the Lilly. Nothing was going to stop their vacations now that the excitement was over. “So how did everything shake out?,” asked Ryan. He had read the reports filed through the different liaisons. He wanted to know what his team thought of everything. “The conference went well,” said Tom. “I don’t know if we could get together every year like it’s been suggested, but we worked together pretty good. Everybody seemed to know what they were doing.” “Barry doesn’t seem to have any real experience in the field,” said Lucinda. “I got stuck with him at the zoo. He almost got killed.” “Ojai is nominally Cassidy’s assistant and the information officer for the Deacons in Vancouver,” said Ryan. “A guy named Captain Copper is their team leader in the field. Copper stayed behind to keep things quiet up there.” “So what do we know about Joey Suspect and our mystery fried guy?,” asked Tom. “The guy in the power armor was Jerry Caine,” said Ryan. “He used to be a villain named Easterner. His speciality was egg-shaped weapons. He clashed with Deserta and Pyramid while dealing with Joey. He also knew the Kovacs family. That was how he was hooked in with Pete Kovacs, through his dad.” “So we think he killed Deserta and Pyramid?,” said Lucinda. “There are a couple of lines of thought on it,” said Ryan. “The first is he did it as a favor for Joey Suspetta, the second he did it because he needed to expand his own operation and they were also getting in his way.” “Did you ask the Question Man?,” asked Tom. “Yeah,” said Ryan. “He told Odd that there were a lot of motivations at the time, but he hadn’t left any proof so there was no way to tie everything back to Suspetta.” “Does Suspetta know that?,” asked Lucinda. “I would have to say so,” said Ryan. “He’s been around a while and has been able to make evidence disappear before. I’m going to have to say that anything that was dug up that looked strange in those cases was buried somewhere.” “What can we prove?,” said Tom. “We can prove he sent a goon squad to the hotel even if none of them are talking,” said Ryan. “We can prove he knew Caine from the phone call recorded by Joker Wilde. We were able to get Caine’s phone records thanks to him blowing up in his own yard. We used that to tie the two together. We have him on record solicitating a murder from out of town contract dealers who we are still trying to track down.” “But we can’t get him for the other murders we think he committed?,” said Tom. “That’s right,” said Ryan. “They went out of their way to erase any traces of their involvement in those crimes.” “What did they want with Green?,” asked Lucinda. “That seems to be the moment they threw caution to the wind.” “We think it has something to do with Hue Man tech,” said Ryan. “The best explanation the Question Man could supply is they wanted Green’s body for whatever reason.” “No one knows how any of that works,” said Lucinda. “I talked to Charlie. He said they looked at the kids when they first started up, and the sample they took was unlike anything ever devised as far as he and his partner could tell.” “No one knew how the original worked either,” said Ryan. “Project scientists and researchers have never been able to duplicate what made Hue Man what he was. I looked at the classified files I could get access to before the meeting. No one has ever admitted to being able to duplicate the liquid metal formula that Fitzgerald used to make Hue Man.” “So what did Caine think he was going to do with Green?,” said Tom. “The Question Man said he hadn’t decided but it looked like some kind of life extension was uppermost in Caine’s mind,” said Ryan. “I’m waiting for the autopsy results to confirm.” “He wanted to put his brain in Green’s body?,” said Lucinda. “How? There’s nothing for a human brain to control. The body doesn’t even have a skeleton.” “It makes sense if you have a list of everything he got from Pete Kovacs,” said Ryan. He looked across his desk top and then grabbed a small sheaf of papers paperclipped together. He handed that to Lucinda. Lucinda went through the list slowly, frowning at some of the items on it. She paused at one thing in particular. “You have plans for Mister R.’s braincase?,” said Lucinda. “They’re from when he was captured a couple of years ago,” said Ryan. “He was trying to get a new body together. Odd’s people stopped him by pulling his head off his body.” “So Caine had a way he could control Green’s body if he could make it work,” said Lucinda. “Probably,” said Ryan. “Who’s Mister R?,” asked Tom. “Another forgotten villain from the past?” “This guy designed a way to put brains in jars,” said Lucinda. “He had an accident and had to use it on himself. Once he did that, he needed to build a body. Each body was more extravagant than the one before. He attracted the attention of the masked men in his day, and they put a stop to him for the Project. “A couple of years ago, he hires some mercenaries named the Canines to steal a portable generator for him. Odd’s people got involved and captured most of the Canines and reduced Mister R to a brain in a jar again.” “The Project has it stored away somewhere,” said Ryan. “Above my clearance.” “So we’re guessing that a sixty year old villain decided to capture a living machine so he could extract the machine’s computer brain and put his own inside the metal skull because he was desperate to save his own life from something like cancer,” said Tom. “I think that’s exactly what we’re saying,” said Ryan. “But we don’t know what he was dying from yet, nor do we know what Suspetta wanted for trying to help out.” “Maybe he wanted one of the other kids,” said Tom. He shrugged at the look that got him. “If one of them was trying for immortality, why not both?” “So once they had the bugs worked out of their brain in a jar process, they were going to try to grab one of the other kids to work on?,” said Ryan. “I like it for motivation. I don’t know how well it would hold up in court.” “Luckily, none of this speculation will ever see the inside of a courtroom,” said Tom. “All of Suspetta’s charges stem from the assault on the hotel. I doubt he’s going to admit that he wanted to have a metal kid body to keep control of his empire.” “Some of the charges might not stick,” said Ryan. “We’re gathering as much evidence as we can to tie Suspetta into things. None of his guys are making a deal. They’re claiming they were victimized by the government.” “They were caught on the stairs with firearms,” said Lucinda. “Which some of them knew they shouldn’t be carrying. How do they get to play the victim?” “They were just heading to their rooms in the hotel, and were suddenly attacked by masked men falling out of the sky,” said Ryan. “So Odd cut the cables on the elevator for nothing?,” said Tom. “I guess that’s possible. No one can really see the future I suppose.” “What they want is to expose the attendees who have masks to public scrutiny,” said Ryan. “That’s the Warning, and Counterstrike. The rest don’t have masks and their lives are already open books.” “The Warning seems like he has his ability under control,” said Tom. “I doubt he will have to come to court to prove he saw them coming up the stairs to kill them.” “Like I said, we might have to ask him to come back and testify down the line,” said Ryan. “There’s no doubt that Suspetta’s goons were there to rob someone. All of them pull guns before they try to get out of the stairwell. Seeing them shoot Counterstrike is pretty dramatic in my opinion, but not enough to prove that our guy acted in self-defense.” “They’re claiming they saw a masked man and pulled their guns in self-defense?,” said Lucinda. “Exactly,” said Ryan. “It will be up to the prosecutor to show they had no reason to be at the hotel, no reason to be carrying guns, and no reason to be on a floor that was rented out.” “Still, the process will put some light on Suspetta’s operations,” said Tom. “Wilde will still be out there, axing knee caps. Maybe he will turn up something we can use on one of his ramblings.” “A lot of what we get from him is only admissible due to searches,” said Ryan. “The initial hit he does gets us nothing. It’s the follow up that allows us to get a search warrant that nets the arrests we make.” “I don’t think Wilde cares about that as long as he gets to hurt someone,” said Tom. “Along with hurting people, I have a report that Random chewed a couple of goons’ faces off during the action,” said Ryan. “And a complaint about the damage done to the Caine estate.” “Moser said Random acted to protect him during the action at the Zoo,” said Tom. “He would have been killed if Random hadn’t been on his team.” “And biting is Random’s main weapon,” said Lucinda. She made a face at having to defend excessive face biting to someone else. “Tell him to tone it down,” said Ryan. “The government doesn’t want to pay for plastic surgery to have these goons look presentable at court because one of our guys decided he could chew someone up.” “I’ll ask him to just claw instead of biting,” said Tom. “We could enroll him in some self-defense classes. That might be good for him.” “It’ll be like teaching a wolverine karate,” said Lucinda. “I don’t know if we should give him more tools to commit mayhem.” “And the Caine estate wants to know why their million dollar house was blown sky high,” said Ryan. “The house thing is simple,” said Tom. “If Easterner hadn’t decided to come out guns blazing, the house wouldn’t have exploded, his armor wouldn’t have turned into a crock pot for him, and the city wouldn’t have been threatened by all the missiles I wouldn’t have been able to catch, and Joker Wilde would not be bothering me for a new vehicle to wage his war on terror. I’m putting this down as equivalent exchange and they should be happy they aren’t up on charges for aiding and abetting because I doubt that old man put that armor together by himself in his secret lair.” “He had a secret lair,” said Ryan. “You’re kidding me,” said Tom. “It was underneath the house,” said Ryan. “When you pulled up the floor, you missed the secret entrance to it by that much. Our guys found it during the after action clean up to make sure he didn’t have an arsenal stockpiled under his house.” “So they weren’t getting the house back anyway,” said Tom. “No,” said Ryan. “You were winding me up,” said Tom. “Yep,” said Ryan. “You suck,” said Tom. “We’re thinking about setting up an exchange program between the groups,” said Ryan. “What do you two think about that?” “I can’t,” said Tom. “I still have professional obligations that means I have to travel at a moment’s notice. I couldn’t just drop that to hang out in another city for some undetermined length of time.” “I still have school,” said Lucinda. “Maybe Wilde or Wild Card would like to see how the other half lives for a bit.” “Random is out too,” said Tom. “I didn’t think of that. He’ll be in school, and Sister Anna doesn’t want him to be unsupervised.” “He bit someone’s face off while he was being supervised,” said Ryan. “That was an action,” said Tom. “What we’re talking about is Random going back to being feral and living on the streets again.” “And that’s something none of us wants,” said Lucinda. “I have to agree there,” said Ryan. “Keeping bodies from piling up is a net benefit.” “Is there anything else?,” said Tom. “I have to get going.” “I think we have everything covered,” said Ryan. “I’ll call if Random’s goons want to call. The stuff we’re getting from Suspetta’s office has been gold so far. We’ve picked up a bunch of guys that should know better. It can’t last. Eventually he’ll find the bug.” “That’s why Wilde keeps moving it around,” said Tom. “As long as he’s not caught, the mike will be put somewhere else, and a new battery installed. When Suspetta does find it, he’ll bolt. He won’t want to fight charges when he can just flee.” “Thanks for the head’s up,” said Ryan. “I need to make sure the surveillance people know that.” “See you, Tom,” said Tom. He headed for the office door. “I have to meet some friends.” Lucinda followed. “You’re meeting someone?,” she asked. “The Dorfmans are having a small party at their hotel,” said Tom. “You’re welcome to come along.” “Really?,” said Lucinda. “The Warning and his wife will be there,” said Tom. “I have to go to practice tomorrow so I won’t be there long.” “I don’t have anything to do,” said Lucinda. “I would love to come along.” “Then let’s go,” said Tom.

12 “We don’t have the brains of the outfit,” said Odd. He brushed off his hat with the back of his hand. “The sun is going down,” said T.K. “I have to make a call.” “I thought you were kidding about your kid,” said the Warning. “You should have seen him before we picked him up,” said T.K. He pulled out his phone and called his missing team member. He hung up after three rings. “Sister Anna has been a good influence on him.” “The guys he ran into might want him to keep working on that,” said the Warning. “What happened to the giant robot armor?,” asked Counterstrike. The thing had fallen over before his cannonball. “Charlie Moser,” said T.K. His phone started singing The Joker in an electronic Steve Miller voice. He swiped it open. “Talk to me,” said Joker Wilde. “We caught all the little fish,” said T.K. “We need you to check the home address and see what you can do.” He gave Wilde the address. Wilde hung up the phone. “Wilde is going over to the guy’s mansion to talk to him,” said T.K. “I’m going to meet him there. Can you guys handle the rest here?” “We got it,” said the Warning. “This guy will want to get away. He might be desperate enough to try anything. Be careful.” “At least one good thing has come out of this,” said T.K. “We knocked this down fast with your help. Thanks.” T.K. jumped into the air. He looked at the line of the city and poured on the speed. He wasn’t as fast as Tachyon, but he was faster than any car on the road. Working with others had been good, but he liked taking care of the villain with his own two hands. T.K. found a street he could use to orient himself. He drifted along until he found the place he wanted. He floated toward the round house, pushing on the front door. It came off its hinges and fell to the floor inside. Where was security? T.K. decided the best thing he could do was look around. Maybe he had missed the big boss. That would be something to have flown across the city and the guy got away because he wasn’t home. He approached the door. It was too quiet in his opinion. He paused at the frame. He thought he heard a whir. He ducked back. The wall where he had stood started sprouting holes through it. That’ll teach him to complain about not seeing the mastermind. He should have brought Wild Card. The other Ace’s ability to generate force walls would have come in handy here. Now he was going to have to go in and see if his telekinesis was faster than whatever was shooting at him. Or he could just punch the wall next to the door and hope he took the watchdog out. He liked that idea a lot better than just charging in and hoping to get lucky. T.K. summoned his power and flung it at the house. Brick and wood blasted out in front of him, carving out a hole big enough for a car. Something had been standing in front of the blast. He felt the weight of it as he kept the beam going. He flew inside. The front of the house was wrecked. The storm he had caused had torn furniture and decorations to pieces before hitting the back doors to the patio and pool area behind the small mansion. Lightning reached for him. He dodged out of the way. It danced along the ceiling in a spray of sparks. “You wrecked my house,” said an electronic voice. “I’m going to kill you.” T.K. ripped up the floor, using that as a makeshift wall. A robot had been posted in the house. He couldn’t tell if it was armor, or a machine. He was inclined to think it was armor. Blasts punched through the defensive wall. None hit him, but he could hear the sound of the projectiles going by. “I’m tired of you masked men getting in my way,” said the robot. “When I’m done, you will all be smears.” T.K. ripped up the floor toward the machine. If he could knock it over, he might be able to pull some of it apart. Then he could concentrate on weak points. The thing hopped out of the way of his assault. It looked like a ball with a tripod of legs on the bottom. An array of cannons swivelled to track him as the egg moved. He dove again as bullets erupted from one of the cannons and cut across his protection. He grabbed the smoking barrel of the machine gun and crushed it. That should take care of some of the problems right there. He had to do the lightning gun next. Lightning reached for him and missed. He grabbed the barrels that formed the lightning and crushed them too. If he could deal with the remaining weapons as easily, he could complete the arrest and turn over the armor to the Project to see if any of it matched what Kovacs had given up. He wondered if there were records in the surviving parts of the house on what was bought, borrowed, or stolen. He would have to ask a team to look for the stuff when they showed up to take over for him. The egg stood up. It seemed to think about what it wanted to do. He had a feeling what it wanted to do was unveil some weapon it had kept hidden from him. What other tricks did it have? The barrels separated to unveil a barrel larger than the ones he had disabled. If a cannonball came out of the weapon, then he had a chance. Anything else would be problems. T.K. caught a whiff of something in the air. He flew back away from the encounter. A jet of flame followed him. He winced as keepsakes caught fire. Of course the egg would have a flame thrower. It had guns and lightning, why shouldn’t it also have a flame thrower? T.K. kept backing up. Fire ran up the walls. He could die of smoke before the robot got close to killing him. He needed something to turn things around. T.K. crushed the flame thrower barrel before the pilot could line the weapon on him. Maybe this was where he turned everything around. He certainly wasn’t going to fly close enough to get grappled. There was no telling if his telekinesis would protect him. That made flying around and trying to collapse the building more acceptable. T.K. headed for a busted window. Once outside, he had more room to maneuver around the egg. Then he could try some of the simple things that he liked to end this fight. The egg sprinted to cut him off. He pushed on it. His telekinesis couldn’t move the armor. T.K. pulled on the roof and tried to bring all of it down. He couldn’t let that thing grapple with him now that he knew he couldn’t move the central mass of it. It would crush him. Heavy beams that once supported the second floor dropped down on the egg. It paused as more and more weight was added to it. It still tried to get out of the pile as the telekinetic took a breather. T.K. wondered if he was going to give himself a stroke fighting the thing. He decided that he could take a minute and fly out on the yard. If it came after him outside, he would have to think of some way to hurt it with nothing to grab and throw. Karen would be so mad when she found out he was dead. He braced himself. He could beat this thing. All he had to do was find the parts that were joined together and pull them apart with his mind power. He didn’t have to take the biggest parts. All he needed were screws that he could yank out. The more fasteners he yanked out, the more the bigger pieces would fall away until it was just him and the pilot. Then it would come down to how fast they were on the draw. The egg crashed out of the ruined house. It paused to check where T.K. stood on the lawn. The top came off to reveal a launcher of some kind. It had avoided using the heavy artillery in the house, but the house was ruined and it had made it outside. It was time to blow this meddler up. T.K. reached out and jammed one of the launchers with his telekinesis. It was the best he could do. The other missiles would fire at him and there was no way he could stop the explosions. He was good as dead, but at least the egg would be fried too. A yellow and green car knocked the gate aside and barreled across the property. The driver jumped out and let the vehicle fly on its path. The missiles launched except for the one T.K. had grabbed and jammed the cradle on. They flew into the car and reduced it to burning fragments. A tire rolled away at speed, fire throwing oily smoke in the air. The top of the egg was blown clear. It staggered under the damage done by its own weapon. Smoke rolled out where the launcher had been. T.K. started taking apart everything he could see, starting with the legs. They had joints, so it was that much easier to pull out any connectors with his mental power. “I loved that car,” said Joker Wilde. He brushed off his checkerboard shirt with a hand. “Do you know how many mobsters I had to rob to get that car and get it street legal with no identity?” “More than one?,” said T.K. He continued taking the egg apart. “You got that right,” said Wilde. “How am I going to move bodies now?” “Hold that thought,” said T.K. “I’m trying to pry this thing open so we can get at the pilot.” “This looks like a grand fighting beast,” said Wilde. “I’m glad we stopped it.” T.K. didn’t point out he had done most of the work until his colleague could drive his car in for a last minute save. Just sacrificing the car was enough in his opinion. “Do you think you can pry him out of there?,” said Wilde. Sirens told him that the police, or the sheriffs, were on the way. He wasn’t quite sure who had jurisdiction on the death scene of his car. “I don’t know,” said T.K. “You might want to take off to avoid the police. I think I got the rest of it.” “I’ll be watching,” said Wilde. He jogged out of the gate and vanished into the night time. The shell of the egg lay on the ground around the central core of an engine and a chair with controls built into it. The pilot was dead. The missile backfiring cooked him inside his armor. Now they had to identify him and see how much of the government’s and other’s property he had stolen to make his armor. That would have to fall on Ryan. T.K. smiled. Maybe they could get Odd Dorfman to call his friend one more time to make sure they had wrapped everything up except for Suspetta. Then they were going to have to arrest him for hiring hitmen to kill a vigilante wanted by the law.

11 The Maven Zoo was one of the dozens of animal exhibitions that dotted Clark County. It wasn’t famous, and didn’t attract a lot of attention from tourists. Green walked the exhibits with Charlie Moser and Random in tow. “What are we doing here?,” asked Random. “We’re waiting for some people to try to kill us and take Green,” said Moser. “We’re bait.” “I hate being bait,” said Random. “I’m not thrilled with it either,” said Moser. “The others are here. When things go down, I guess we’re supposed to sit back and let everybody else handle it.” “I’m not doing that,” said Random. “If I have to come down to a zoo to be bait, I’m hurting someone.” “Animals are cool, bub,” said Green. He paused at a large tiger pit. He examined the area closely as Charlie and Random waited. “They are naturally gifted.” “I don’t really care about animals, much less tigers,” said Random. Charlie’s phone buzzed. He checked the text message on the screen before putting it back in his holder. “Looks like they’re here,” said Moser. “Where do you guys want to go next?” “The monkey house, bub,” said Green. “Why do you always say bub?,” asked Random. “Brain damage, bub,” said Green. “Why do your ears change shape?” “You’re a machine,” said Random. “What kind of brain damage?” “Ears first, bub,” said Green. “I’m listening for people closing in on us,” said Random. “My ears changed to let me hear better.” “Green is interested in changing his own shape,” said Moser. “Let’s go this way. The monkey house is on the other side of the snake exhibit.” “You’re a hunk of metal,” said Random. His coat flapped around him as he waved his arms. “You don’t need to change shape.” “I want to, bub,” said Green. “It would be nice to have another trick up my sleeve.” “I don’t think that’s something you can just pick up,” said Random. Green stared at him with blank green eyes. “I can’t teach what I do,” said Random. “It’s just something I can do. Something big is coming through the park.” “There’s the monkey house,” said Moser. “Come on, boys.” “You’re not the boss of me,” said Random. “T.K. said to tell the penguin if you don’t go along,” said Moser. “I’ll snitch on you so fast, it’ll part your hair.” “Snitches get stitches,” said Random. He held up a hand. Claws extended from his fingernails. “Let’s go, bub,” said Green. “It’s part of being bait.” He held up a metal hand. Stubby claws extended out of his hand for a second. They retracted just as fast. “Did you change your hand, Green?,” asked Moser. “It didn’t want to stay,” said Green. “I could almost feel it in place.” “Maybe you need to practice on it,” said Moser. “Inside.” He held the door open for the boys. The trio walked through the house. The individual rooms were big as apartments. Different types of trees and platforms had been put in to give the primates things to play on. They paused in front of the chimpanzees for the boys to watch the animals at play. Moser stepped back, glancing at the door for men to rush in and start shooting. He looked at the reflection and the chimp on the other side of the glass. He squinted. All three had the same expression. Green and Random both looked like hairless chimps. “Let’s keep moving, boys,” said Moser. The chimpanzee waved his butt at them. “I think the chimp thinks you’re mocking him.” “Why would he think that, bub?,” said Green. He watched the chimp as he walked down to the next exhibit. “The two of you looked just like chimps,” said Moser. “I think a little practice, and you will be able to change shape at will like the others, Green.” “Others?,” said Random. “I have three brothers, bub,” said Green. “Red, Whitey, and Blue.” “You named them after colors?,” said Random. “Couldn’t you think of something else?” “We didn’t name them,” said Moser. “They named themselves. We just brought them to life to save the city. And we kind of stuck together.” “They’ve been cool dads so far, bub,” said Green. “Our real dad is not around.” “I don’t understand,” said Random. “Wait. The other door is opening up in front of us.” “Take cover, Mose,” said Green. His voice was quiet. “Let’s see what they think they can do.” “I’m taking the right,” said Random. He pulled off his coat and threw it to Moser before scuttling down a sidepath. Green went down the left path, green skin blending in with the shadows cast by the dim lighting. A boom drifted into the monkey house and upset all the primates. The artificial thunder sent them scrambling for cover. Moser went down the left hand path. A scream sounded in the exhibit. Demands to get it off followed. Moser wondered how much damage Random was doing to the bad guys on his side of the building. He followed the sounds of buzzing. They weren’t shooting bullets at Green. What had they brought? Green punched one of the men in the face. His metal hand was a club that hammered flesh like a bat. His enemy went down as the rest tried to line him up in crosshairs. He ducked along a glass for a room of macaques. The buzzing from their rifles put the lights out in the room. Moser picked up the rifle from the fallen man. He took aim and fired at the rest. The buzz did nothing to the gunmen. Their weapons sparked and quit working. They saw him standing there. He decided it would be a good time to run the other way. He took off. The gunmen chased after him. He ignored their shouts of stop. Being used as a hostage seemed like a bad idea. They caught up with him at the branch where the group separated. “We don’t need you,” said one of them holding Moser down. “It looks like it’s over for you.” He screamed as a human wolverine exploded out of the other hall and wrapped around his head with a tearing of skin and blood flying. The men with him tried to back up from the fury in their midst. Green came out of the first hall. His hand was a solid mass of metal. He brought it down on the back of the leg of the closest man. When the man’s head dropped down to his eye level, he brought his hand down on the back of the human skull in front of him. The last guy looked at Green, then at Random slicing into his comrade. He turned and started to run back the way he had come. That triggered Random to give chase with a growl sounding like a thousand buzzsaws coming to life. “Don’t kill him, Random,” called Moser as he got to his feet. “Thanks for the save, Green.” “You saved me first, bub,” said Green. He looked at his hand. It separated out into fingers again. “They were using magnetic guns. I could feel the waves when they started shooting at me.” Moser frowned. He didn’t know what magnetism would do to Green’s brain, and he didn’t want to experiment with it either. He didn’t have any way to fix something wrecking the tube and chip that powered the liquid metal boy. “Let’s get Random and circle around,” said Moser. “The trap is sprung now.” “Don’t forget his coat, bub,” said Green. “He seems cranky.” “Tell me about it,” said Moser. He picked up the coat and slung it over his shoulder. They walked to the back exit. They found Random standing next to the door. He looked out with the frame acting as cover. He wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand. It smeared across his skin like war paint. “You can wash your face in the bathroom, Random,” said Moser. He pointed at the signs on the wall. “Go ahead. We’ll wait on you.” “They brought a giant robot,” said Random. “I was trying to think how to get the pilot.” “Don’t worry about that,” said Moser. “I have the perfect solution. Watch the door, Green, until Random gets back. I will be right back.” Moser handed Random’s coat to Green before he went back to where they had dropped the magnetic guns. He returned to the door. Random had washed his face, and the boys watched what was going on outside. “Give me some cover, Green,” said Moser. “Watch for anybody trying to sneak up on us, Random. Let’s see what this baby will do.” They pushed out of the back of the monkey house. Green went forward and made sure no one could shoot at Moser as he followed. The robot, exoskeleton, loomed in a central square with exhibit houses and a concession kiosk standing around it. It seemed to be having problems moving. Moser took aim and fired a pulse at the exoskeleton. He watched as the machine fell over. He lowered the rifle. “Looks like we did the heavy lifting, boys,” said Moser. “Let’s hold what we got until the others can round these posteriors up.” “Posteriors?,” said Random. “Pack and I are trying to watch our language,” said Moser. “Apparently our liaison at City Hall got a complaint that one of our boys decided to answer a complaint with some foul language.” “Snitches get stitches, bub,” said Green. “He’s right,” said Random. “Snitches do get stitches.” “And telling some grandma that her cat can do things that cats can’t do is bad for our business,” said Moser. “Since no one came forward, they all got grounded.” “What does that mean?,” said Random. “They’re machines.” “It means no games, internet, movies, television, or looking at the street, for a week,” said Moser. “Machines that can’t sleep get bored after two days.” “Solitary confinement for robots,” said Random. “Who get on each other’s nerves,” said Moser. “Who did it, Green?,” asked Random. “We know who did it,” said Moser. “The rest of the boys got punished because he didn’t come forward.” “Snitches get stitches, but never take the blame,” said Random. “What?,” said Green. “You got a week for someone else,” said Random. “Don’t do anything that stupid again.” Green studied him with his blank eyes. “You savvy?,” said Random. “I think so, bub,” said Green. He held up his hand. Claws extended. They remained until he told them to retract. “All right, boys,” said Moser. “Where do we go next?” “The aquarium,” said Green. “Why would you want to look at some fish?,” asked Random. “I want to learn how to swim, bub,” said Green. “You have to be the craziest toaster I have ever came across,” said Random. “Trying to improve myself, bub,” said Green. “We can look at the fish,” said Moser. “Let’s wait until the clean up is done before we wander off.”

10 They loaded Green up at the end of the work day into Moser’s car. His bodyguard was Random. The spikey haired boy sulked about missing all the action so far. Green assured him that there would be enough action to go around. Moser pulled away from the curb and out into traffic. “That’s Random?,” said the Warning. “He looks harmless. Does he have a super power?” “He bites people’s faces off,” said T.K. “We got him a keeper so he doesn’t bite people he comes across now.” “That makes me feel so much safer,” said the Warning. “Don’t worry,” said T.K. He grinned slightly. “We gave him a raw steak to keep the biting manageable.” “I really feel much safer now,” said the Warning. “Moser just picked up a tail,” reported Mike Plumb. “I can see two cars moving along behind him.” “They won’t try anything before the kids get to the zoo,” said the Warning. “They’re probably trying to figure out which one Moser is going to.” “All right,” said T.K. “Let’s get started.” He wrapped his telekinesis around the Warning and Counterstrike and took to the air. The sun was still up, so they would be without Wilde, but Random should be able to handle any close in threats with his abilities. Moser was the one that was at the most risk. He was Green’s handler. Threatening him might make the robot compliant enough for things to be settled. There was no telling how Green would react if he got hurt. “There’s Mike in his squirrel suit,” said Bodie. He pointed at the gliding shape in front of them. “Mike said he would have to switch up once away from the Strip,” said T.K. “The gadget doesn’t allow him to stay in the air indefinitely.” “It’s a neat power,” said Counterstrike. “At least he doesn’t have to worry about using it by accident.” “It quits if he hits something too hard,” said T.K. “What do you mean?,” asked Bodie. “He told me that the suit only works if he can jump high enough, but he can’t hover, and he can’t hit anything in midair,” said T.K. “If he hits a bird hard enough, the suit will vanish and he has to try to grab something out of the stream that will help him avoid any impact.” “That sounds like a big drawback,” said Bodie. “Maybe,” said T.K. “But he has enough control to dodge them if he sees them first.” Wayne pulled out his phone and waited. It rang in his hand. “Hello, Shelly,” said Wayne, smiling. “Still working the case. I’m flying through the air with Bodie and T.K. We’re on the way to deal with some tech thieves. They wanted to steal Green all along.” He nodded at the reply. “Robot boy,” said the Warning. “We sent him ahead as bait so we can round the thieves up so WE can enjoy ourselves.” “Shell says hi, Bodie,” said the Warning. “The police raided Roxanne’s strip club.” “I haven’t talked to her,” said Bodie. “I felt kind of used.” “Hold on, Shell,” said the Warning. “Why? She didn’t know you were Counterstrike. She just saw you as some man love. Did you expect some commitment?” “Yeah,” said Bodie. “Did you tell her that?,” asked the Warning. “No,” said Bodie. “Were you going to commit, or were you just going to be a friend with benefits?,” said Wayne. “If you weren’t going to, you can’t be down because the girl didn’t want to either.” “We’ve been dating for a bit,” said Bodie. “I thought we were hitting it off.” “Maybe you should ask her what she wants,” said Wayne. “You know talk about things.” “Is that what you and Shelly do?,” said Bodie. “Yep, except for the times I edit things to make me look better,” said Wayne. “Bodie wants to know how Roxanne is doing.” “He’s scared of the future,” said Wayne. “I am not,” said Bodie. “Shell says she will get Roxanne to call you,” said Wayne. “Apparently they are as thick as thieves.” “They’ve only known each other two days,” said Bodie. “If you had brought your other girlfriends around, she would have warned you about the trouble they were,” Wayne said. “He is properly chastened by his lack of judgement, honey.” “I wouldn’t go that far,” said Bodie. “We’re doing the raid, honey,” said Wayne. “The plan is to throw Bodie at them.” He smiled, then put his phone away. “She told us good luck storming the castle,” he said. “You use your warnings to deal with Shelly,” accused Bodie. “Not all the time,” said Wayne. “Just enough to nip possible problems in the bud. I do admit that we do butt heads sometimes over things, but not every marriage is perfect.” “Roxanne blindsided me,” said Bodie. “I don’t know if we can fix things.” “If you can’t, tell her and move on,” said Wayne. “Make a clean break, and not a lingering process that takes years. We’re in a dangerous business, Lewis. You might not have the time.” “What do you think, T.K.?,” asked Bodie. “I am crap at relationships,” said T.K. “Matter of fact, you have already met most of the people I know in the last two days. I think you should think about what you want, and ask this Roxanne what she wants, and maybe you can get it together.” “If we can’t?,” said Bodie. “Figure something out where you’re both happy,” said T.K. “Just don’t let it make you bitter.” “Beating up bad guys is a lot simpler than figuring out women,” said Bodie. The Warning smiled under his scarf. Shelly still surprised him after years together and raising two kids. The future changed as you looked at it. T.K.’s phone rang. He answered it as he arrowed for the trap zone. “Thanks, Card,” said T.K. “How many are there?” “Right,” he said. “We’ll be dropping down in a second behind them. Then we’ll see how things go.” He put the phone away. He frowned at the city passing by underneath them. “What did Wild Card say?,” asked the Warning. “More than two cars rolled into the lot of the zoo,” said T.K. “They brought some exotic weapons and an exoskeleton.” “I’m not any good against pure energy,” said Bodie. “I can maybe take an exoskeleton if he hits me first.” “They’re moving into the Zoo,” said T.K. “We’ll see what they have when we land.” “Will your telekinesis work on exotic weapons?,” asked the Warning. “Only if they shoot solids,” said T.K. “I need something to grab.” “Unknown weapons and a suit of armor,” said the Warning. “They must think Green is more dangerous than he looks.” “Random definitely is,” said T.K. “The others will be able to handle this before we get there.” “All right,” said Bodie. “It looks like they have a rear guard.” “They don’t want to disable their machine in the middle of a zoo and not be able to get it away before someone responds,” said the Warning. “This is a heavy duty risk they’re taking.” “I don’t see the boss anywhere,” said T.K. “He’s the one we really want.” “Let’s deal with these minions,” said Bodie. “Drop me.” “Are you sure?,” asked T.K. “Just make sure I hit a car on impact, or something,” said Bodie. “All right,” said T.K. He flung the Ranger away from him. He watched as Bodie hit the roof of a car and bounce off. Sparks danced around the ex-boxer as he got to his feet. A glowing fist punched a car and it flew through the air at the men trying to use it for a shield. “Okay,” said T.K. “That was a good opening shot. Let’s see if we can follow it up before they get their act together.” “The guy on the right is going to start shooting lightning at us in a second,” said the Warning. “No, he won’t,” said T.K. He reached down and crushed the gun with his mind. “I’m going to have to let you drop so I can deal with this.” “No problem,” said the Warning. T.K. released his mental grip and let the other Ranger drop in some trees around the edge of the lot. He floated above the lot and crushed weapons as he looked at them. Mike Plumb appeared in a blue coat. He threw ice balls at anyone who looked like they were threatening him. Struck targets froze in place. Counterstrike sent the sentries on his side to the ground with careful punches. The glow around him diminished with each punch. “It looks like we’re done here,” said Mike. “Let me put on some temporary restraints so our victims don’t try to run away,” said T.K. He concentrated and damaged weapons became cuffs around the guards’ limbs. “Lift me up, T.K.,” said Counterstrike. “I would like to take a run at this exoskeleton.” “All right,” said T.K. He and Bodie started floating again. “We’ll take the low road and try to catch these guys from behind,” said the Warning. He adjusted his hat. “You two attracting all the attention may give us more openings.” “And he’s a lot sneakier than he looks,” said Bodie. “We’ll see you when we get done with things,” said T.K. He floated over the fence and sped toward the heavy fighting in the zoo. “Let’s see what we can do about the rest of this,” said the Warning. “Nice coat.” “You like it?,” said Mike. “I got it at the Goodwill for cheap.” “I think we should work our way around the bottom of the clock,” said the Warning. “Cassidy and Ojai need us more than Kitty Dorfman.” “She has some fast hands,” said Mike. He walked toward the gate. “I don’t think Odd knows what he has,” said the Warning. He followed the bigger man. “I think he does,” said Mike. “He just likes to live dangerously.” “A broken face is the least of his worries then,” said the Warning.

About halfway through the last trial of Apollo as the humanized Apollo and Meg take on Nero. CES

isn't that the telescope where they filmed Goldeneye CES

Otaku Onsen is a vast power drawing on characters from his favorite mangas to baffle the authorities CES

Rose is a young woman born ten million years ahead of her time. She is a mental marvel capable of psychic and physical feats that no one has ever thought a ten year old could do. CES

9 The group gathered back at the Diamond Lilly. They left a group of agents with the technician to record everything the planted bug picked up. So far Joey Suspect hadn’t looked under his desk and spotted it. Or if he had, he didn’t mind incriminating himself with the orders he was giving. The foremost was find Joker Wilde and kill him as soon as possible. No masked freak clown should be able to live after breaking into his home. He had called a couple of brokers and put out an open contract with them. Hitters from all over the country would know about the bounty and be on the way. That was out of the alliance’s hands. Most of them would be flying home when they had the immediate problem wrapped up. That might wrap up the contract problem too. Odd spent most of the morning asking questions of his friend, Quin. He had secured the white board from the conference room and used that to fill in the answers as best that he could. Ryan secured pictures from the federal databases the Project had access to as part of its superhuman enforcement. The answers weren’t admissible in any court of law, but they were enough to direct an investigation. The Warning checked in with his group. They were still wrapping up their own cases and the fallout from Roxanne. Shelly said she understood what he went through now. Renovating houses was so much easier. Moser called home to let Pack know that Green had been the target, and he should keep an eye on the rest of the kids. He wasn’t worried but he wanted to make sure that his partner took it seriously enough to lock everything down. Green hadn’t shown any power other than his strength. Running into Red, who was basically a flying flame thrower, probably had been considered and discarded for obvious reasons. The last thing they did before they held their briefing was invite one of the file clerks down to look at things, maybe gamble a little in the casino part of the hotel when they were done. The file clerk, Pete Kovacs, spotted his name and picture on the whiteboard and turned to run. Kitty Dorfman had been standing by the door when he did. The edge of her hand caught him in the face and he fell back into the arms of Calvin Cassidy who dropped him in a chair. “It’s all in the reflexes,” Kitty said with a smile. “We have some questions for you, Pete,” said the Warning. “And we would like some clear answers, or we might just leave you in the same room as Bomb Girl and let her do her thing.” “Not threatening enough,” said Cassidy. “You have to be more intimidating.” “Go ahead,” said the Warning, gesturing with an arm. “We’re going to bury you in the desert unless you give us what we want!,” shouted Cassidy. He had a grip on Kovacs’s shirt and was shaking him like a maraca. “Do you hear me, boy?” “I don’t know anything!,” shouted Kovacs. “I don’t know what’s going on.” “We should give him to Joker Wilde as soon as he’s back on the scene,” said T.K. “You can’t do that,” said Kovacs. “He hurts people.” “You have to be kidding,” said Cassidy. “You went in with a mobster to steal a piece of technology that no one understands. You’re going to be hurt no matter what. The only distinction is do you get something that’s going to last the rest of your life, or prison. Better make your mind up which one you want.” “I have to admit Joker Wilde is looking good as an option to me too,” said the Warning. “The only bad part is we would have to wait until nightfall before we can use him,” said T.K. “I don’t know if we want to wait that long.” “What part of the body does he break the most?,” asked Kitty. “Knees,” said Ojai. “How do you know that?,” asked Odd. “I plugged into the database for the project when we got down here,” said Ojai. The shorter Canadian held up his phone. “Everyone that Joker Wilde has hurt is plugged in by the local hospitals.” “So he breaks the knee the most?,” asked Kitty. “Yes, ma’am,” said Ojai. “That ain’t no ma’am, that’s my wife,” said Odd. “Don’t mind him, Barry,” said Kitty. She waved them off. “Which knee do you want to keep, Pete?” “Are you serious?,” he asked. “We can’t wait for nightfall to let Wilde have his fun,” said Kitty. “So I am going to do what he does, hopefully in a neater, cleaner way. I’m going to let you decide which knee, but if you can’t give me an answer, I am just going to pick one. There’s a fifty/fifty chance I will pick the wrong one, but that’s the breaks.” “That’s against the law,” said Pete, looking around. “You can’t do that.” “You’re in a room full of off the books operators, Pete,” said Cassidy. “I personally would love to see a clean break on a knee. There’s always some kind of collateral damage.” “Don’t look, Green,” said Moser. “This might be too much for you.” “All right,” said Pete. He held up his hands. “I was just asked to track the robots. When I saw one of them was coming to the conference, I passed the word along.” “But you didn’t tell them about the rest of us, did you?,” said Cassidy. “Why would I?,” asked Kovacs. “That wasn’t part of the job.” “I’m surprised you’re still alive,” said Cassidy. “What?,” asked Kovacs. “You sent your employer’s partner into a hornet’s nest,” said the Warning. “There might be some blowback for you personally.” “I just told him where the robot was,” said Kovacs. “I did what he asked.” “But you didn’t tell him about the rest of us, Pete,” said the Warning. “You didn’t tell him that the robot would be on the floor with a bunch of other masked men who would take offense at the theft.” “And that they would burn him down in retaliation,” said Cassidy. “He probably knows that we know about you already. Even if we did put you in prison, you might wind up dead because of this.” “Do you have any family, or friends?,” asked T.K. “No,” said Kovacs. “Why?” “Because we might be able to place you somewhere else as a witness,” said T.K. “I think that would be the best for you right now.” “You’re going to have to give a full deposition of how much harm you’ve done the Project,” said Ryan. “What else do you know?” “How much other technology have you allowed to be stolen?,” asked Odd. “I think that’s a better question.” The group knew the Stranger had hit the mark by the way Kovacs’s face twisted. “We’re going to need a list,” said Ryan. “And you better not hold anything back. We’ll call Odd’s friend and have him double check your answers.” “Quin has trained you well,” said Kitty. “I know, right?,” said Odd. “I was like all they care about is Green, or maybe all of Hue Man’s kids. Then I thought they had a perfect leak to what they wanted. Why would they have stopped at one thing? And then I saw the word syndicate on the board and knew he had given them other things like the power generator Mister R. wanted back.” “What does that leave us?,” asked Moser. He looked at the flowchart on the whiteboard. “I think it gives us a perfect shot,” said Mike Plumb. He rubbed his bristly mustache down as he grinned. “Doesn’t it, Pete?” “I don’t understand,” said Kovacs. His face said he did. “I think to mitigate any jail time and broken bones,” said Plumb. “You should call your chum and tell him where to find Green in five hours, or so. And then we will put you in Witness Protection, barring where you have to testify in court to what you did.” “I don’t think I can do that,” said Kovacs. “Which knee gets broken, Pete?,” asked Kitty. “I’m still ready to go.” “All right,” said Pete. “What am I supposed to do?” “Just call him and let him know that Green is going to be somewhere,” said Mike. “The local zoo, bub,” said Green. “Sounds good to me,” said Mike. “Then we’ll hand you off to the Marshals and the prosecutors and put you through the process.” “Don’t blow this, Kovacs,” said Ryan. “We need the patter to be perfect.” “Don’t worry,” said Kovacs. He pulled himself together with a shrug of his shoulders. “Let me have my phone to make the call.” Kitty handed over the phone she had taken from him when she had cracked his face. She smiled at him. “Don’t think about screwing this up, Kovacs,” said Ryan. “I might not be able to break your knees, but I can still rail you.” “Just let me make the call,” said Kovacs. “I’ll have to leave a message. Then he’ll call me back to get the information.” “Then you hand off the information?,” asked the Warning. “Yeah,” said Kovacs. “He doesn’t like being on the phone long. They’re too easy to listen to if you know how.” “Go ahead, Pete,” said the Warning. “The faster we do this, the better everything will be for you.” Kovacs dialed a number. Cassidy wrote it down as evidence they could use to nail everything down. “It’s Kovacs,” said Kovacs. “You still want the robot? Call me back.” He hung up and put the phone down. “Now we have to wait for him to call me back,” said Kovacs. “I don’t know how long that will be.” The phone started buzzing. Cassidy looked at the calling number. “It’s our guy,” he said. “Kovacs,” said Kovacs. He waited for the question from the person on the other end. “It’s supposed to visit the local zoo. How should I know? I just lucked out and found out about this. It’s a green robot. How hard could it be? As soon as the conference ends. Ryan got it a pass.” Garbled words came out of the phone. “I guess it wanted to be alone in the zoo,” said Kovacs. “If you want, I will call its room and ask it.” More words came out about the lack of information. “I don’t know,” said Kovacs. “All I know is the one pass. Maybe that’s for its handler.” The phone went silent. “He hung up on me,” said Kovacs. “Now we have to see if he took the bait,” said Mike. “He did,” said the Warning. “He didn’t believe Pete about Green being there alone. He’s going to show up with extra help.” “Good job, Pete,” said Kitty. “You get to keep your knees. Phone.” He handed over his phone without complaint.

8 The group spread out once they hit the lobby. Chief of Security Valdez let them have access to the cameras. They spotted more goons in the garage waiting by their SUVs. The attacking goons hadn’t gone anywhere but the stairs and the elevators. T.K., Cassidy, Odd, Moser, and the Warning stood in one corner of the room. “The police have the garage surrounded,” said T.K. “Ryan asked them to stay back so we could take first crack. How do you guys want to do things?” “Kitty wants one of the SUVs for her scheme,” said Odd. “Otherwise, we can send Green down there to show his mettle.” “I think you can handle the goons,” said the Warning. “Then we can see if we can get the mastermind behind this.” “Good pun,” said Moser. “I thought so,” said Odd. “There’s no such thing as a good pun,” said Cassidy. “Let’s stay on track. Whatever we do, we need to make sure Suspetta doesn’t try to target any more masked men in Vegas. If he killed Deserta and Pyramid, we need to make sure he can’t come after us next.” “All right,” said T.K. “Let me go down and deal with the goon squad in the garage. They’re probably nervous as heck with the falling elevator and the lack of communication with the hit team.” “Will Wilde go for phase two?,” asked Moser. “It’s suicidal.” “He loves this type of stuff,” said T.K. “If anything he would insist on being the one sent in just to see how much of a scare he could put in Suspetta.” “That’s what we thought too,” said Cassidy. “Let’s get this show on the road. We’re not going to be able to keep the media out of this much longer.” “Right,” said T.K. He left the room. He flew down the hall to the stairs leading to the underground garage. He paused at the door leading out into the garage itself. He cracked open the door. He established sightlines on three of the four drivers. He slid out the door and looked around. The fourth driver was a little more toward the center of the garage. It looked like he was smoking alone. He grabbed the fourth man and jerked back to the other three. He grabbed all three and made sure they couldn’t move. He didn’t want to be shot in the back. He looked around the garage, but no one else moved. Police came into the garage and put cuffs on the wheelmen. One of the police commented on the penalty of being a felon with a gun. They led them out to cruisers in the street. T.K. checked the nearest SUV. He smiled when he saw the key still in the ignition. It looked like they were in business for the next step. He wondered if some clown breaking in and accusing you of past deeds would go over well. He decided that it wasn’t his problem. Wilde would love it. It suited his sense of humor and the way he liked to do things. The thought that the Project might have a leak in the local scene was a worry he could put aside until they were done. The Project held information on superhumans around the world. A local mobster using that information didn’t make sense unless he was going to use some kind of superhuman threat in the near future. Or as blackmail against the superhumans already there in Vegas. Anybody trying to use Sister Anna against Random got what they deserved. The boy wasn’t likely to go along to get along in that kind of situation. It would be easier to just kill him and try to get someone else to do your bidding. “All right,” said T.K. The others came out of the stairs and looked around. “Mission accomplished. We have control over their cars.” “All right,” said Cassidy. “Let’s get Wilde wired up and send him in.” “No problem,” said T.K. The next few minutes went as fast as they could with Wilde declaring himself ticklish, the technician being scared of him, and the clown hitting on Kitty and Bobbi at the same time. They both turned him down flat. Kitty leaned over and whispered something in Odd’s ear. He shook his head. “You got the plan?,” Cassidy asked. “I think so, Old Man,” said Wilde. A grin covered his golden face. “But I don’t know where I can get a thousand tutus for dancing hippos.” “Try again,” said Cassidy. He didn’t grin. “I go in and engage with Suspetta and ask him what he thought he was doing,” said Wilde. He didn’t grin. “Better,” said Cassidy. “Don’t worry, Wilde,” said T.K. “We’ll be right outside if things go worse than we anticipated, we’ll bust in and save the day.” “Just stay clear,” said Wilde. “I might have to break some bones. That’s not going to go over well with the federales. Joey Suspect is canny. He won’t admit anything to anyone unless I can rile him up somehow.” “Talk to him about his family,” said Ojai. He scrolled up and down on his phone. “Most of the males ran into the Gunsmith during his rampage.” “That’s an excellent motive, Watson,” said Wilde. “I’m glad I thought of it.” “You thought of that?,” said Ojai. “Yes, and the fact he has federal access somewhere, and those of us with secret names might be compromised,” said Wilde. “I thought of all that.” “Can you get him to admit to any of that?,” asked Cassidy. “That’s the question, isn’t it?,” said Wilde. “Let’s see if I can get him to admit to something. All we have are his soldiers sitting in a tank waiting on their phone calls.” “And we won’t have that if they make bail,” said Cassidy. “You ready?” “I don’t see why not,” said Wilde. He started giggling. “Let’s get this show on the road before the sun drives me back in my coffin.” Wilde headed for the SUV. The plan was for him to drive up and use the car to get through the gate. After that, he would have to improvise some way into the house to talk to Suspetta. Cassidy, Ojai, and the Warning were taking the surveillance van with the tech from the Project. They needed it to record everything between Wilde and Suspetta. Odd, Kitty, Moser and Green were taking one of the captured SUVs. Ryan, Wild Card, and Counterstrike were taking a company car and using that as a roving patrol unit. Mike had been able to reach into the red stream and grab a car to drive out of it. He smiled at the red and blue sports car. He and Bobbi had decided to roam around in that. T.K. and Tachyon chose to fly to a perch on a nearby roof where they could see the neighborhood from on high. If things went bad, they could swoop down and strafe the Suspetta property with their powers. Wilde drove up to the gate. He waited for the gate to open. A guard came over to his side of the SUV and tapped on the window. The gatekeeper tried to back up from the SUV. A gloved hand grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged him in front of a fist. His head jerked back from the hit. He turned into jelly. The clown got out of the SUV and used it to jump the gate. He contained himself as he crossed the yard and used some wall jumping to get into an open window on the second story of Suspetta’s house. “He’s in,” said Cassidy. “Let’s see what happens next.” Wilde prowled the house, heading to the study where he thought Joey Suspect did most of his business. He heard movement all around him, but he only moved when he thought no one was around. He reached the study and sat down at the desk. He pushed the big chair away from the desk and line of sight of the windows. He pulled the taped wire off of his chest. He stuck it in the knee hole, taping it to the under side of the desk. He didn’t care if Joey found it. He just wanted to record anything after he immediately left. Anything they could find out would be good in his opinion. He had no idea if Joey Suspect had killed Deserta and Pyramid. He had no idea if he had used Project files to do it. He didn’t care. He did care that the penguin, T.K.’s assistant and her kids, the other girls at Tachyon’s dorm could be used against them and then discarded as another pile of bones in the desert. He knew his nature was more rage driven than before he had changed, but he didn’t mind that so much. It just pointed him at people who needed bones broken. “Get that jeep moved out of the way of the gate, and find out what happened to Sal,” said Joseph Suspetta as he walked into his office. He turned on the lights. “And then call Tony and the boys again. I need to know what happened.” “Your boys at the hotel are in jail, or the hospital,” said Wilde from his seat. “Come on in, Joey. I thought we should talk.” “Kill him!,” shouted Suspetta, backing out of the way for his goons to run in and start shooting. The flying chair put everything on pause before it filled up the door. Then a laughing loon vaulted the desk and used a lamp as a bludgeon. The metal bent under the impacts. “Sit down,” said Wilde. He righted the chair with one hand. He dropped the mangled lamp out of the other. “I just want to talk. I don’t need to hurt you tonight.” He threw the beaten guards out of the office and closed the door. He threw the locks so he had some alone time with his favorite mob boss. “I’m going to kill you,” declared Joey Suspect. “How?,” said Wilde. “A stern look? I would be a lot more worried about how much it hurts to have your head shoved in a desk drawer and then have that desk drawer forcefully closed if I were you. That’s usually the next step where I’m involved.” “You can’t do that,” said Suspetta. “You’re some kind of fed now.” “There are feds that uphold the law and keep things down, and there are feds that do whatever they have to do as long as they can justify it to a committee in Washington, and there are feds that don’t even have to justify what they do,” said Wilde. “Guess where I fall.” Suspetta started looking at the door. “Don’t think help will arrive before I break your legs,” said Wilde. He made sure he couldn’t be seen by anyone trying to look in through the two windows facing the study. “Now I know someone told you about the conference. I want you to give me the name of your informer.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joey said. “A two day meet and greet and your boys try to take it out on the first night,” said Wilde. He went to the desk. He opened and slammed the desk drawer closed. “Now who told you it was happening.” “No one,” said Joey. The desk drawer made another thump. “I’m telling you the truth,” said Joey Suspect. “I don’t know anything about that.” “Then who were you trying to kill?,” asked Wilde. “You knew something was up, you sent a ton of goons.” “Someone put a reward for the robot,” said Suspect. “This about a robot?,” said Wilde. “Pull the other one.” “The guy called me and asked me to get the green robot,” said Suspetta. “He offered some big bucks for it.” “You got his number?,” asked Wilde. “No,” said Suspetta. “He was supposed to call me when the job was done.” “So your friend asked you to steal this robot in the middle of a masked man conference?,” said Wilde. “It looks like he wanted to get you hurt while he got away with the merchandise. When he calls back, tell him I’m looking for him. And he won’t like it when I catch up with him.” “There’s no way you’ll find him,” said Suspetta. “I found you, didn’t I?,” said Wilde. “Finding people and hurting them is what I do. You should know that by now.” Wilde went to the door. He threw the locks. He pulled the door open and stood to one side. The goons on the other side of the door paused to get a clear picture of where he was. That was too slow a reaction time as far as the clown was concerned. He delivered multiple blows in a few seconds before making his way toward the front door and freedom. Suspetta pulled out his phone. He put in the pass and called his contact. He waited for someone to pick up at the other end. His partner had to know about this. Joker Wilde would keep picking at this until he had interfered in deals across the country, or he was dead. Suspetta wanted him dead first. The microphone under the desk kept recording as he relayed the failure of his men and the appearance of the vigilante at his home. It would be up to the other man to try with his own men.

7 Wayne Ward looked at the paperwork given him by Agent Ryan. He shook his head. It was too bad Roxanne had let him down. He would have loved to give all this to her to sort. He hadn’t been able to talk to Bodie about any of this yet. It bothered him that he didn’t know how invested his friend was, and how he felt about his girlfriend getting into trouble because she flushed a package of drugs without telling anyone. He had already checked in with Shelly. She had given him a picture to remind him of what he could expect when she arrived at the hotel at the end of the week. He shook his head at the thought. Wayne glanced at the television. He had put the local news on out of habit. There might be something he could handle with a phone call if his talent activated. He didn’t like the newscaster going on about out of town tourists being killed at the Lily where he was staying. He especially didn’t like his name coming up in that context. He should tell the others, starting with Bodie. The man could take bullet impacts. That would make him an excellent blockade for anyone coming up the stairs. He had T.K.’s number. He should give the local a call. First, he had to issue the warning so he could get the others moving. Once they had a defensive set up in place, they could worry about the rest. At least the news was helpful in giving him an exact time to when he was going to be murdered. He still had time to change the future. First, I have to get Bodie to help me. Wayne put his phone in his pocket to call T.K. once he had everything else in motion. He opened his door and crossed the hall. He felt the tug of his eyes toward the emergency stair door. That was where the attacks were going to come from. It was a bottleneck if Bodie got in front of the door and blocked it. He gave Bodie’s door a quick rap with his fist. He listened as the ex-boxer came to the door. “What’s up, Wayne,” said Bodie when he came to the door. “Someone is coming to kill us,” said the Warning. “We need to let the others know.” “It’s never a quiet vacation with you,” said Bodie, retreating into his room. He came back with his facemask. “What are you going to do when you’re out here with Shelly?” “Try to ignore the signs,” said Wayne. “We have to get everyone ready to go. They’ll probably know there’s a group of us and sent a bunch of goons.” “Obviously they don’t know who they’re messing with,” said Bodie. Wayne started knocking on doors as Bodie went to keep watch on the stairs and the elevators. He could block one, maybe both with his counter strike. That would be enough for the rest to do what they had to do. The Project had rented a floor for their guests. The Warning and Counterstrike had the rooms nearest the elevators and stairs. The rest were spread out along the hall, separate rooms for everybody but the Dorfmans and Moser and his robot son. Everybody was still up, watching television, using the internet, sitting on their balconies and watching the city below. “So we’re going to be attacked?,” said Odd. He held a long cannon in his arms. He pulled out his phone. “I wonder what these guys are thinking.” “Who’re you calling?,” asked Cassidy, adjusting a bullet proof vest over his button shirt. “The Question Man,” said Odd. He waited impatiently for his friend to answer his phone. “I have a couple of questions for you, Quin.” “Say someone was going to attack my hotel floor in the next few minutes,” said Odd. “Where are they now?” He listened. “A group in the elevator and a group on the stairs,” he said. He lugged the cannon to the front of the elevators. “Anybody else in the elevators?” “Someone open the elevator doors for me?,” Odd asked. Kitty grabbed the doors and pulled them open before anyone else could move. “Way sharp reflexes,” said Green. Odd waved her out of the way. He fired his cannon into the elevator shaft. The twang of snapping cables answered his blast. “They have anybody that can climb up the shaft?,” said Odd. “So they’re stuck. Great.” “Green,” said Moser. “Hit the elevator, and then flank up the stairs.” “Good thinking, bub,” said Green. He walked to the edge of the shaft. “I’m going first,” said Bobbi Hastings. She had changed into shorts and a tank top since coming up from the meeting. She leapfrogged over Green and dropped down in the elevator shaft. A small boom echoed up the shaft. Green stepped out the door and plummeted down to the top of the elevator. He punched through the damaged access hatch in the top of the elevator and then he was inside. “Looks like we only have to worry about the stairs now,” said Cassidy. He held a pistol, ready to shoot anyone coming through the door. “Green should be able to come up behind them,” said Moser. “And he’s bulletproof.” “Bobbi will take care of some of it,” said Cassidy. “If she’s smart, she’ll use him for cover.” “Who do these guys work for, Quin?,” said Odd. “Suspetta? Spell it. All right. Thanks for the hand. I’ll call to let you know how it went.” Odd put away his phone. He had got a name from his friend. It wasn’t admissible, but maybe they could do something with it. Wayne secured the rest of his disguise. He called T.K. to let the local know they were dealing with local trouble. “There’s a local gang guy named Suspetta,” said Ojai, holding his phone in front of him. “He’s suspected in a lot of conspiracy to commit crimes, but he’s always stayed one step removed from the street operations.” “All we have to do is hold the door,” said Cassidy. “Green and Bobby can catch them from the other side. Seems simple enough.” “I called T.K.,” said Wayne. “He said that he’ll be here in a few seconds.” “We won’t need him,” said Cassidy. “Bobbi will have blown most of the goons up by the time he gets here.” “Suspetta has a rocky history with the masked men who operate in Vegas,” said Ojai. “It’s a surprise he’s still alive.” “What do you mean, Barry?,” asked Mike Plumb. His hand kept fading in and out as he reached into the weak stream flowing through the hotel. He would have a better pull if he was at ground level. “His personal history says he’s been implicated in three, or four, clashes with the Gunsmith, two with Deserta, and one with the Pyramid,” said Ojai. “Right now, Joker Wilde has been putting his guys in the hospital pretty regularly.” “Wilde is on the Aces,” said Wayne. “He only operates at night for some reason.” “Gunsmith, Deserta, and Pyramid are all dead,” said Cassidy. “T.K. told me that the Smith went down against the All Caps in the desert outside of town. Deserta was electrocuted in her home. Pyramid was found inside a sealed vault. It looked like he ran out of air.” “Looks like we have a motive,” said Mike. “We look like reinforcements for the Aces to come in and clean out his operation for once and for all.” “How would he know who we are?,” asked Odd. “He would have to have someone inside the Project personnel that told him of the conference.” “But not the liaisons,” said Moser. “Why not the liaisons?,” asked Odd. “Because they didn’t know the Warning would know about the threat,” said Moser. “That suggests that they knew there was a conference, but not who we were specifically.” “Which means they didn’t know anything but teams were being represented,” said Cassidy. “They would have known the Deacons were coming but not which ones.” “He might have believed we were coming in to help the Aces clean out his operation,” said Odd. “I like it.” “Joker Wilde may be on the Aces, but he is an old school vigilante,” said Ojai. “His public history is nothing but beatings for criminals. Some were done in the middle of criminals committing crimes. The rest have only been operating in emergency problems here, but he’s actively hunting targets all night, every night.” “They might have thought he would be here,” said Mike. “No name, no address,” said Ojai. “Maybe they wanted to send a message.” “You don’t back off, I’ll kill your friends?,” said Odd. “A guy like that would never back off,” said Cassidy. “If he’s trawling every night, he’s not going to back off a warning like that. He would just double down.” “Killing us would just make him go into overdrive?,” said Mike. “If he found out the attack was supposed to hurt him in some way,” said Cassidy. “I have dealt with enough of these guys to know threats never work. They don’t have anything to live for, and don’t care if they get killed. If Wilde thought this was a threat to him, he would catch Suspetta somewhere and put him in the hospital.” “I got movement,” said Bodie. “They’re trying for the door.” Bodie waited at the door. As soon as they came in, he could use his power to defend himself. If he had a big impact stored, he could attack first. He hated the fact that he had to take an impact before he could punch back. On the other hand, a big enough impact could let him punch through almost anything. Wayne moved to the back of the group. His forewarning would only allow him to do what he could with his hands. “Open the door, Cee Ess,” said Odd. “Let’s see what happens when I point this at them.” “Right,” said Bodie. “On three.” Bodie counted down and pulled the door open. Odd stuck just the barrel of his cannon out and fired three quick blasts. He stepped back before bullets could touch him. Counterstrike pushed into the stairwell as a rain of bullets reached for the metal door. He took the impacts, lighting up as he headed for maximum storage. He released the energy into the stairwell. Cries of pain answered his punching of concrete and steel as the glow faded from his body. He drew back. He spotted Green and Bobbi coming up the stairs. The fight was over unless they had some way to take out the robot before he took them out. And Bodie didn’t think they did from the way bullets flew around. One big boom brought on silence. “We’re going to have to go down and see if they have anything else in the building,” said Cassidy. “We don’t want any goons trying to kill us while we try to administer first aid to the ones we already put down.” “We need a way to crack this Suspetta,” said Odd. He took off his hat and dropped the cannon into it. “Any ideas? We can’t just trot out the Question Man to testify that he knows the answer to any spoken question.” “I have an idea,” said Kitty. “Let’s go down and see if there are any survivors. Then we can turn our attention to our mastermind.” “They won’t testify if they know what’s good for them,” said Cassidy. “We won’t need anything like that,” said Kitty. She smiled. “All we’ll need is a clown.” She opened the door and hopped over the damage done by Bodie’s punch. She started checking the thugs on the steps, throwing guns over the rails to the next landing down. “Are you sure she’s not one of us?,” Mike asked Odd. “She’s one of us,” said Odd. “She’s the one who keep things going when it looks bad. Let’s tie these goons up and see what she has in mind.” Mike nodded. He followed as they moved into the staircase. They would have to deal with the goons in the elevator next. This was going to be a busy night before things were done.