EPIC M&M: Issue 2 (IC)

[Calinon]

"I was a little upset after the mall thing, Carl wanted to cheer me up so he bought me some clothes since he knew I couldn't afford them. I was so exciting I wanted to go out somewhere. I wasn't thinking and I didn't think we'd be missed. I heard some guys in the mall mention this place, so I insisted Carl bring me here. I've never been to a North American Club before, thought what harm could it be if we ditched the rest of the class. People got hurt, I almost got mush for brains, so yea... I'm thinking Big Mistake."

"Wow," says Mendez. "I must have had stupid tatooed on my forehead when I wasn't looking." He tosses Raisa his data pad. It shows, in detail, the route you took once you reached downtown, until you destroyed your tracking device. Carl's pager was still active.

"Which part of clubbing involved the meat shop and the long stop outside the sleezy bar, the five minutes in the alley, the activating of your pager and then my favorite part," he says, reclaiming his pad, "where two under 21 teenagers walked into an obvious strip club!"

"But if you don't want to be honest with me, that's fine. It seems a trend with some of you. So go. My men are already retracing your route you took downtown to find out what actually happened. I can't help either of you if they get to the bottom of this before I do."

He turns and heads for the door. He pauses when he reaches for the doorknob and turns. "How did you get into the strip-club, anyway?" He studies your expression carefully. "Or is there something else you want to tell me?"

 

[Deva]

He turns and heads for the door. He pauses when he reaches for the doorknob and turns. "How did you get into the strip-club, anyway?"

Not even trying to keep a straight face, Raisa crosses her arms over her chest and smirks. "I walked in."

She moves to the door to stand beside Mendez. "Honestly, Detective, it was just a case of wrong place at the wrong time. Now considering I am, as you say, a minor and am being questioned without a guardian or legal counsel present, that's all I'm going to say. Are we finished? I'd hate to miss my ride."

 

[Calinon]

"Honestly, Detective, it was just a case of wrong place at the wrong time. Now considering I am, as you say, a minor and am being questioned without a guardian or legal counsel present, that's all I'm going to say. Are we finished? I'd hate to miss my ride."

Mendez shakes his head. "I didn't know honesty required a guardian or legal counsel," he says, obviously disappointed. "Good luck pawning this load of crap off on Empath."

He pulls the door open and walks out into the hall. "Lets go," he says, pushing the elevator button. "By the way, I'm in charge of the new EPIC junior team. You both just got removed from it."

"But Raisa didn't do nothing!" Carl exclaims. It's the first time you've heard him raise his voice. The walls shake and the air itself vibrates. Many police in the apartment nearby look up.

"She lied to me," Mendez replies.

"Aw man, come on! She was just tryin' to help me!"

"Changing our story from 'Wanted to see her dance naked,' are we?" Mendez asks, still not turning from facing the elevator.

Carl looks torn. "Man, come on. It's just, just..."

"Just what?" Mendez asks, turning around. "Close the door, Mitchell," he says to one of the many cops looking on.

"Tommy G! He's a good guy. He's always been a friend. So when my bro sent a courier to me and said he was actin wierd, I had to go find out what was up," Carl explains hastily. "I didn't want Raisa to come along, but she wouldn't stay. Not like anyone can make her do something she don't wanna do. So I headed downtown and talked to some people I know Tommy knows and they sent us to the club. Then that mind witch and her partner... Heck, you saw what she did to Raisa. She musta been controlling Tommy the whole time he was acting wierd." Carl grabs Mendez by the shoulder. "Come on man, you gotta belive me."

Mendez pulls his hand from his shoulder. "Open your jacket." Carl obliges and Mendez pulls his silencer from the side of the holster. He pockets it without a word. "I should call M-Tac back and have you arrested for reckless endangerment." He walks into the elevator. "Hope you like ethics classes, because you'll be doing a heck of a lot of them before I let either of you put on an EPIC uniform." He pushes a button before either of you can get on the elevator.

"And get your bloody stories straight before you get downstairs," he growls as the doors close and his elevator goes down, leaving the two of you alone in the foyer.

 

[Deva]

Raisa presses the button for another elevator and growls lightly. "I hate cops," she hisses. While waiting she glances over at Carl. "You didn't have to do that. I never figured I'd get on the Wannabe Squad, thought after this year I'd go back to Brazil. Now... I appreciate what you tried to do, but I'm not letting take this fall on your own. I'm not totally clueless, I knew exactly what I was doing. There were a dozen opportunities for me to back out, I didn't, and I'm not going to now."

 

[Agamon]

The med-techs wheel the wounded out on stretchers, taking them down in the elevator. Mrs. Raynes, unhurt now, goes under her own power. As the police gather evidence, Mendez is watching something on his data pad. He turns it off shortly after starting it, pulling Sanjay into the torture room and shutting the rest of you out.

"You saw what's on here I'm gathering," Mendez says to Sanjay, looking at the shattered television. In his hand is a flash hard drive. It doesn't take much to realize what he's getting at. He reads your face and simply hands you the card.

"Toast it. Turn it to air. You never saw it." He grabs your wrist as you take the card. "You understand me? You never saw it. And for gods sake, don't mention this around Empath." He lets you go and heads for the door.

Sanjay takes the card without a word. He looks down at it and turns it to oxygen. "I never saw what?" he says, slight grin playing on his lips.

He leaves the room with Mendez and heads downstairs with the rest of the team.

 

[Calinon]

"You didn't have to do that. I never figured I'd get on the Wannabe Squad, thought after this year I'd go back to Brazil. Now... I appreciate what you tried to do, but I'm not letting take this fall on your own. I'm not totally clueless, I knew exactly what I was doing. There were a dozen opportunities for me to back out, I didn't, and I'm not going to now."

“You just don’t get it,” Carl says as you walk into the elevator. You feel him shove you and stumble forward. His hand clamps painfully onto the back of your neck and he presses you into the wall uncomfortably. His grip makes it hard to breathe or move, despite your enhanced strength.

You feel something cold and metallic press against your back, just below his hand, and hear the hum of an energy blaster. “You saw some of me today,” Carl says, trying to sound frightening, but a faint waver in his voice makes it less convincing. “I’m Whisper; mob enforcer. I hurt people for a living. I’ve even killed a few times. I could probably kill you,” he says unconvincingly, but he doesn’t let you up for a good 30 seconds.

He helps you gain your feet, turning you around as he does so, and as you catch your breath. You are pretty sure that’s going to leave bruises. “I’m not who you think I am. I’m not a nice guy. I’m not your friend,” he says, turning away from you and pushing the main floor button. “You don’t want to be like me. I don’t want to be like me. Empath is trying to help me put Whisper behind me. I want to be part of EPIC, and so should you. This is your shot to do something with your powers, something useful, and put that petty crime garbage behind you. Unless you want to go back to Brazil and be a seamstress like your mother. Or maybe that bang up career as a stripper.

“So just tell Mendez you didn’t want me going off alone. I’ll tell Empath everything when she gets back. I’ll get you out of trouble. I have to, since you seem to want to be in it so badly.”

You wonder how much of his little speech was real and how much was just to get you to get out of the trouble you were in and convince you, or scare you, to do what he thinks is sensable. Despite his effort, he didn't pull off his hard-nosed assassin act too well with you.

 

[Deva]

Raisa rubs the back of her neck, glaring at Carl a moment after he finishes. "Don't do me any favours, I can take care of myself. I don't need you getting me out of trouble."

As the elevator descends to steps up to him, leaving barely an inch between the two, and tilts her face to look up into his. The expression on her face leaves no doubt about the sincerity of her words."But you're right, you're not my friend. And if you ever touch me like that again, what I did to 'Bob' in the alley will look like a walk in the park when I'm done with you."

She backs away from him and doesn't say another word. When the elevator stops and the doors open, she exits to join the others.

 

[Calinon]

EPILOGUE
[size=+0]"If it weren’t for the actions of those young students from EPIC, I’m certain I would have been killed.”[/size]

The holographic news footage of the Raynes interview played out before those gathered in the great hall. Around the table, some watched with interest, some with disdain, as footage from closed circuit security cameras showed clips of the combat, both at the mall and downtown at both the club and in the main foyer of the apartment.

The heroic efforts of these few teens certainly saved the life of beloved philanthropist, Martha Raynes. But the battle was not without its casualties, as four members of the rescue party are currently en route to Bush Memorial Hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries. Thanks to the action of one of the mutants with healing powers, most other injuries were treated on scene.

Despite the success of their mission, not everyone is supportive of their actions.

The scene cuts to various interviews with patrons of the strip-club, terrified and injured when things unexpectedly turned violent. Many mentionings of giant spiders is heard, and the general consensus is that without the timely arrival of Titan, things would have been much worse. A building mechanic is interviewed, irate about damage done to his helicopter.

"She just came up and destroyed the rotors!” he exclaims, and camera footage shows Michelle doing just that.

Skylar Holten, building manager and a mutant himself, had this to say.

"When that one bug-eyed goat-like boy charged in, making demands and threats against me, I feared that a gang of huligans was going to cause trouble. But I certainly cannot argue with the rescue of such a wonderful woman as Martha Raynes. This “B” team of EPIC needs a new spokesman though. That boy had the social skills of a slug. Despite that, I certainly am glad they took care of that frightening man with the axe, and saved the life of my co-workers and myself.”

The police are being tight lipped about the incident, especially this.

The scene zooms in on the discs on the roof and the spiders in the lobby, as well as the blood sample taken from Raisa in the club.

It seems whoever is behind this is part of the agenda of a few weeks past, where a world-wide initiative was taken by unknown individuals to take blood samples of various mutants. I’ll be continuing to cover this story as it develops.

For CNN, I’m Theresa Soulsmith.

At the head of the table, the man veiled in shadows sits, hand resting atop a wine goblet, Xavier just behind his chair. He watches a seething teenager in a chair nearby. As he knew he would, the teen leaps to his feet.

“He was supposed to die!” Kevin York screams, slamming his hand into the table in anger. “I’m supposed to be the original. Not him! Me!”

“Calm yourself,” a wispy voice hisses softly. “It simply means you will have to kill him later.” A ghostly figure of a man appears and floats through the table, settling in a seat next to Kevin.

“You promised me,” Kevin complains. Several people around the table chuckle.

“And you promised me you would secure the rest of the blood samples I needed. All of them. Yet I find myself short by five,” the shadow cloaked man says warningly.

“Those punks from EPIC interfered,” Kevin says quickly in explanation. “It wasn’t my fault!”

“An excuse. Foolish,” the shadow cloaked man says, a faint hit of a dark smile playing at the corner of his lips. “And unnecessary. You did better than I could have ever anticipated.

“I promised you two things; the opportunity to become the original, and a place in my service. You have earned the latter. The former will come in time. Ghost, take our newest member to Tank’s workshop. I have a gift there for him.”

As the two are leaving, the man calls out, “And hurry back. I think it is time to remind the world that Anarchy is still around.” Those seated around the table share some excited chatter over that announcement.

Xavier grips his tray tightly, knuckles going white, but says nothing. The shadowed man notices and laughs. “It bothers you doesn’t it,” the man asks rhetorically. He waits a long while, matching stares with Xavier. The butler doesn’t back down.

"Good. Hatred. I can use that," the man says, chuckling. He walks to the end of the hall, leaving those at the table to their conversations and stares into the fire crackling in the hearth.