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The Shadow Knows! (Final Update 6/3/04)
- Thread starter The Shadow
- Start date
The Shadow
Hero
Lela said:
Why thanks. I haven't seen the movie, so it's hard to comment on any similarity... I have my doubts as to how heart-warming this is going to end up, though.
At any rate in the short term.You see, I suspect the main character in the movie wasn't a threat to everyone around him if he lost emotional equilibrium...
The Shadow
Hero
No game last night, unfortunately. SP had some sort of crisis going on - I'm not sure what. Hopefully we'll be able to make it up later this week.
The Shadow
Hero
This is just to inform my adoring fans (TM) that we did game last night, and there will be an update soon - hopefully tonight, possibly tomorrow.
I'll say this much: SP proves his rat-bastardy all over again... as if further proof were needed. And let me just say, I'm coming to love that term. He likes it too.
I'll say this much: SP proves his rat-bastardy all over again... as if further proof were needed.
And let me just say, I'm coming to love that term. He likes it too.
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The Shadow
Hero
While I bask in the glow of your approval, Lela, sometimes I do wonder just whose side you're on!
The Shadow
Hero
I said I liked the term, not the reality it represents. As for SP, he wears it as a badge of pride... Anyway, without further ado:
[Don't worry, Gentle Readers! That faint whirring sound you hear is only my head spinning...]
The Shadow sped toward Hal's house. "Call ahead and let him know I'm coming, Carlos." "Will do." "And Carlos... suit up. Just in case." That gained him an energetic "Yes sir!" The Shadow noted with mild relief that the boy's tone was not so much eager as simply ready for anything.
As he landed in Hal's back yard, the inventor gave him an exasperated look. "If you keep driving the cycle that way, you'll have to bring it in within a couple months to be fixed!" "Don't worry, Garrity," the cloaked crusader said with mock cheerfulness, "I'll be sure to bring it in soon for a Lube/Oil/Filter." As expected, that sent Hal into spluttering outrage. "Oil! There's not a drop of oil in that thing, I've got better methods than..."
The Shadow cut him off. "Hal, are the grenades done?" "Of course they're done," came the sulky reply, along with a muttered, "Oil!" "And the detector?" "Well of course, Shadow! You didn't think I'd forget something like that, did you?!" Hal replied with sheepish indignation - a rather neat trick. (After all, he'd had to be reminded once already...) He handed over a sack of twelve grenades and the button-sized detector. "By the way, I did a spectral analysis on the gas..."
"Yes?" "It's unstable. It'll decay soon." "How soon is 'soon'?" "About a month. Call it three weeks to be safe. Faster if exposed to sunlight or great heat." "I'll bear that in mind, Hal, but I don't think it'll matter." "Why not?" The sable sleuth grinned at him mirthlessly. "If I don't have things well on the road to being settled with Legion in the next week or so, I expect I will be dead."
Hal gaped at him, stunned to speechlessness. The Shadow continued, "My work is dangerous, Hal. You didn't think I do this sort of thing for my health, did you?" "Well, yeah - I mean, no! - but..." He was cut off with a gentle, "Goodbye, Hal," as the cycle lifted off at an unapproved speed.
On the way back to the base, Carlos suddenly said, "Sir! There's another Legion-strike going on!" "What's this?" "Same MO - there's two cops missing. Two more are nearby, and they're being told to sit tight until some heavy backup arrives." "Where is it?" He got an address about fifteen minutes away - and only a few minutes away from the flophouse that was another suspected Legion-lair. "How long has this been going on?" "These two failed to report in a little after the first guy did in the other place." "Why didn't you tell me this before!" Carlos replied, with only faintly hurt tones, "It wasn't going out over the band, sir. This is the first I've heard of it." "...Right. Well done, Mr. Castaneda." He could clearly picture the young man's relieved smile as he responded, "Thanks, sir."
It didn't take long to assess the situation - a run-down abandoned motel, a cop car with lights flashing in front of it. Sure enough, the faint heat-shimmer of Legion-traces was emerging vaguely from the building. Only one story tall, the dark avenger mused. Two screamers should cover the whole thing. He placed the devices on the roof, then picked a likely-looking window on the far side of the building from the cops. The Shadow shut down his mental senses as much as he could, then pressed the stud that set the screamers off.
The hellish banshee wail of the things was as bad as he'd remembered, but he didn't let that stop him from lobbing a gas grenade through the window, hoping there'd be Legion-bodies within range. He heard several distinct thuds, then, with a wince, a gunshot. "Sir, the officers there are reporting gunfire." "I know, Carlos. I suspect it was another Legion suicide." "Oh," the boy replied with evident mixed feelings that the Shadow shared.
It was hard to see inside with all the gas fumes, and he dared not get too close - even ten feet away from the broken window, the stuff was making him feel woozy. He flew up to the roof and collected the screamers once they burned out. Meanwhile several more cop cars approached, sirens blaring. The heavily-armed officers who went in quickly came stumbling back out, yelling about gas. It didn't take long for them to arrange for gas masks, while the Shadow stewed on the fact that he hadn't picked one up back at the base. [SP and I decided that a full-face gas mask was too large to be justifiable as a Gadget on the Shadow's person. A rebreather yes, but a gas mask no.]
Soon unconscious bodies were brought out - two of Legion's (both recognizable to the Shadow), and two cops. Carlos informed him that there was a man dead inside of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and that the cops did show signs of being drugged even apart from the gas. The Shadow positioned himself for an unobstructed view of one of the Legion-bodies - a former Red Shiv - and plunged deeply into the young man's unconscious mind.
The memories of the past few days were jumbled, confused, fragmentary. The man clearly had not yet assimilated the bombardment of Legion-thoughts and Legion-memories into his own mind; only traces of his own actions were available, but none of the motivations for or details of them. The most immediate memory was of stirring together carefully-measured amounts of chemicals in preparation for the "experiment" on the police officers. This was in a windowless room within a large building. The Shadow tried to pick up memories of going in and out of the building, hoping for clues as to its location, but they were frustratingly vague - the man had been completely focussed on his goal, and simply hadn't paid attention to his surroundings. Maybe Legion had, but he had not.
Going further back, the Shadow learned how Christophilous had gotten the fourteen people together in the crackhouse. He had approached this young man, flashing a large wad of bills, and promising a yet-larger wad if he and his friends would bring as many people as they could to the house on short notice. The kind of people didn't matter - druggies, street people, whatever. The man had forced some at gunpoint; others he had promised drugs to. Once they were all assembled, Christophilous had frozen them all in their tracks. Those who managed to resist somewhat were shot; the rest were drugged. (Juan Martinez was not present that night, that this fellow could remember, anyway.)
Finally, he searched for any sign of continuing contacts with Legion; he found none, but did get the impression that the man would be quite vulnerable to later re-inclusion in the group-mind at a later date.
Dropping the mental contact, the Shadow went into the building; the gas had dissipated. There he quickly ascertained that there was only one corpse, and that one recognizable as an already-known Legion-body. The gas grenade had, alas, already been picked up by the cops as evidence. [SP: "Good thing you wear gloves, eh?"] With no further ado, he sped back to the base.
There he noted with disapproval that Carlos was only partly into his vest. "Why aren't you ready to go?!" he demanded, and Carlos reacted with surprise. "I thought we were done for the night, so I didn't think I'd need it any more." "On the contrary, we are going to hit Legion repeatedly tonight until there's nothing left to hit." "OK, sir. Sorry." While the boy zipped himself up tight, the Shadow located gas masks and a couple bandoliers in storage, stringing grenades on them. He gave three of them to Carlos, along with a gas mask and two of the eight remaining screamers. "Remember, setting one of these off hurts - you probably more than me, given that you're more sensitive..." "...but it hurts Legion even worse. Got it." "Now remember the rules - you stay out of danger unless I order it; and if I tell you to scram, you SCRAM, no matter the situation. Got it?" Carlos winced, looking very unhappy, but responded with a reluctant, "Yes sir, I will." "Good."
With that, the two of them flew to the crackhouse (the closest known Legion lair) and circled over it a few times. "Anything, Carlos?" Eyes closed, brow furrowed in thought, the young man responded, "Nothing recent, I think. It feels... abandoned." The Shadow nodded. "We'll try the warehouse next, then. The flophouse isn't big enough to account for the memory I tapped earlier."
Once there, Carlos was silent for a time, then said, "I'm not sure. At first I thought there was nothing, but... It definitely doesn't feel like Legion did... It's strange." "Good enough for me." Landing on the roof, the cloaked crusader said, "You stay here. If you get any funny feelings, let me know right away." "I will, sir. ... Be careful." The Shadow flashed him a smile with more confidence than he felt: "Always."
Moving warily, the Shadow encountered only darkness and silence... no, wait, there were some faint sounds coming from behind a door... Something involving glass was being smashed. And there was a light smell of smoke as well. He slipped into the room as silently as possible, but the man happened to look up at just the wrong moment from the vials he was breaking. (The fire was of papers in a wastebasket.) He was one of the Legion-bodies, one of the homeless addicts the Red Shivs had collected. (He looked to have been eating better now than he had then.) "Oh, hi," the man said, and amiably raised his hands.
Oh, hi?! The Shadow crept a little closer, his gun not wavering from the man's chest, and replied sarcastically, "What, no threats this time?" "Nope, not really. A thank-you, maybe." "To whom?" "You." "...What for?" "We're a lot more stable now."
The dark avenger considered that with a liberal helping of skepticism. "Why would that be?" "You got rid of Miguel, Tony, Roxanne, and the rest. Oh, and Christophilous, of course - the really important one. We don't have twelve minds bouncing thoughts around in all different directions any more. Makes things a lot more comfortable. ... Can I put my hands down? My arms are getting tired." "So as of an hour ago, you were scheming to suborn a bunch of cops, and now you expect me to believe that you're just one big happy family?!" "Yeah, that's about right. Our numbers finally got down a manageable level. I mean, you don't see me intoning, 'We are Legion. You are not Legion. You will be Legion.' any more, do you?" (His tone as he recited the words was one of light-hearted mockery, as if he were poking fun at himself.) "Yes, you're quite the sparkling conversationalist." "Gee, thanks." "It wasn't a compliment. If things are all so hunky-dory, why do your former members suicide?"
The man looked surprised. "They do? We thought you'd just killed them. I have no idea why, I feel just fine." "'I'? You retain some individuality?" The Legion-member chuckled. "Yes, of course. Put it this way - I can say both 'I' and 'we'." "Truthfully?" "You really don't understand what it's like, do you?" "No. And I have no desire to." "Right. So how can you judge me?" In glacial tones, the Shadow responded, "I'm perfectly content to judge your actions, thank you very much. Speaking of which, what are your plans now?"
"Well, for right now I intend to destroy this chemistry apparatus and these notes. After that... to be honest, we haven't decided yet. We need some time to back off and think it all through." "How do you feel about OmniMetal?" "Well, let's see. They were willing to employ a maniac like Christophilous, and thereby accidentally created a psychotic group-mind. Speaking as a no-longer-psychotic group-mind, we're feeling very distrustful and a little vengeful." "What do you plan to do against them?" The man shrugged. "Like I said, we haven't decided yet."
"How many of you are left?" For the first time, the man frowned. "Does that mean you intend to keep hunting us?" With acidic mimicry, the Shadow responded, "I haven't decided yet."
He mulled things over, then went on, "Are you willing to provide a hostage against your good behavior?" The man laughed as if the Shadow had just made a funny joke. "Well, personally, I'm quite opposed to the idea, if you don't mind. But I assume you'll shoot me if I don't cooperate?" "I don't have to shoot you." The Shadow pulled out a screamer and continued, "All I have to do is activate this device and you'll be cut off from the others. Then, like the rest, you will attempt suicide." To which the Legion-body responded with smiling, easy confidence, "I don't feel at all suicidal. Things are different now."
The Shadow subvocalized into the commlink, "Carlos, are you getting any of this?" The creeped-out reply came, "Yeah. It's... weird!" Somehow, that helped the Shadow come to an abrupt decision. "You're coming with me." The Legion-body looked a little hurt, as if the Shadow had disappointed him. "This is kidnapping, you know."
The Shadow couldn't help it; he laughed loud and long, while Legion looked yet more hurt. "I thought you were supposed to be a good guy..." "Don't even try to guilt me when I'm the one holding the gun. And you aren't exactly in a comfortable position for righteous indignation, either." Now it was the man's turn to laugh. Not at all defensively, more as if he were sharing a joke, he said, "I haven't done anything, you know." "You're certainly an accomplice, no matter how you slice it." "Ah! Got me! But how would you prove it? And anyway, I could sure argue I was an unwilling accomplice..."
"Save it. We're leaving." "Do you mind if I finish destroying this stuff first?" The Shadow was too nonplussed, his mind racing through different scenarios, to object. "Keep your hands where I can see them." "Oh, sure, of course... Despite the fact that I'm unarmed - and hey, aren't I supposed to be dangerous because of my telepathic abilities?" That got only the gruff reply, "I haven't survived this long by taking unnecessary chances." The man shrugged and complied with the order, seeming amused by the whole thing. Soon the task was finished. "What now?"
The Shadow moved behind him and said, "Put your hands behind your head." "Ooh, just like all the cop shows!" He made no resistance as his hands were cuffed behind his back, only said, "Aren't you gonna read me my rights?" "You have the right to remain silent. Starting now!" Then, as he blindfolded the man and marched him outside, "Wait, what should I call you?" "Call me Matt - it's my name! And hey, are we going to your secret hideout?" (This with all the enthusiasm of a little kid.) "No. Now be quiet."
Carlos had already descended to the ground, per silent orders. The Shadow pulled him aside and said, "The bike won't carry three. Will you be OK?" His tone was one of concern - clearly willing to change plans if the answer was "No." "You want me to go back to the base, sir?" "Yes. Will you be OK?" Carlos considered the matter, then said, "Yeah. I'd better not wear this, though." With that he started shrugging out of the vest, then handed it over along with his grenades and screamers. Then he visibly thought better of it, took one of the grenades back and stuffed it in his pocket. Alex caught and held his eye meaningfully, then silently offered him a screamer back also.
Carlos nodded slowly and accepted it. Alex gripped his shoulder tightly. "Stay safe." "You too, sir!" Meanwhile Matt called, "Hey, do you always take your time when kidnapping people? It's cold out here!" The Shadow ground his teeth and turned back to him, as Carlos loped off warily into the night.
"We're leaving now." "On that cool flying bike of yours? Neato! Only, hey..." he said it just as the Shadow realized it himself, "how am I supposed to stay on?" With grim effort, the Man of Mystery managed to tie the two of them together with Carlos' bandolier. "You could just untie my hands, you know..." "Shut up."
A short flight later, he found a miraculously unvandalized pay phone. (Using it was an interesting struggle, but he managed.) Grace's sleepy-fuzzed voice responded, "Hello?" "I hope you've made all the arrangements." "Who is this?" "Your friend in black." "Bla- Do you have any idea what time it is?! It's nearly three AM!" With patient, careful enunciation: "I hope. You have made. All. Of the arrangements." Suddenly awake, she exclaimed, "You're kidding!!" "No." "OK, uh, take him here, that should be fine." She gave an address in a fairly ritzy suburb. "Got it. Meet me there." "I'll be there!"
It was a long flight, almost an hour. Matt was fairly silent, save for once when he called, "Oh, Mr. Kidnapper Person!" "What!" "I've lost my blindfold. Just thought you'd like to know." Craning his neck around, he saw Matt's grinning face looking back at him. Stopping to hover, the Shadow grimly tied his cloak completely around the man's head, which seemed to amuse Matt no end.
As soon as Grace was in sight, he "beamed" her the news telepathically. There was no response, indeed a conspicuous display of a lack of response, until he landed. Then she burst out verbally, "You have GOT to be kidding!!" "I'm afraid not." Together they hauled Matt into the house, then into a small windowless room. Grace flipped a switch just outside the door, and Matt suddenly twitched as if there an itch he couldn't scratch. "Man! That feels weird!" The Shadow felt it too, though much more dimly, and looked a question at Grace. She replied, "Just a little something to make Funny Boy here harder to track down." Matt informed her conversationally, "Did you know you're an accessory to kidnapping now?"
They removed Matt's "blindfold", restoring the Shadow's cloak. "Can I get my hands undone too?" Matt asked a little plaintively. "Not yet," the Shadow replied, as Grace dragged him out the door for a discussion. Matt shrugged, then sat carefully down on a stool, starting to whistle ostentatiously to pass the time. The cloaked crusader had to wince when he recognized the tune: "Me and My Shadow".
As soon as the door was shut, Grace exploded, "Is it just me, or are things getting REALLY STRANGE?!" "It's not just you. What on earth are we going to DO with him?!" "I don't know! I thought we'd have a murderous Legion-drone to work with, not Chuckles there! I figured we'd try the screamer and see if it worked at all, but we already know the answer to that..." "How long can we keep him here without too many questions being asked?" "Forty-eight hours, tops." Thinking a bit more, she went on, "There's really only three options, once we've got the information we need. One: We, uh, kill him." She sounded rather conflicted about that, an emotion the Shadow shared. "Two: We let him go." They were both at least as conflicted about that. "Three: We use the screamer and take things from there." The Shadow concluded, "We just don't have enough information yet to decide; we'll have to learn more." "And in the meantime?" "In the meantime, he's our honored guest." That remark earned him a look that in a properly-constructed universe would have had him pushing up daisies.
He went on, "Just how are we going to learn what we need to know? Are you going to probe him?" "Are you out of your blessed MIND, darlin'?! And if you try it, I'll slap you silly!" "What, then?" She sighed and thought it over. "I suppose we can drug him and probe him then. That should be marginally safer; I was already thinking of trying it as a last resort for the old 'We-Are-Legion'."
The Shadow nodded. "Very good, then. Perhaps we can take a look at some of the former Legion-bodies in custody, too - that should be much safer. ... I'll take tomorrow off of work, and we can get started on our research." She arched an elegant brow at him. "Would that be the royal 'we' you're using, the editorial 'we', the schizophrenic 'we'... or the dictatorial 'we'?"
The Shadow suppressed a sigh. "Permit me to rephrase myself. I will take tomorrow off of work and then I will begin research, hopefully with your willing and enthusiastic help." She grinned at him impishly. "Nicely grovelled. Count me in!"
[SP sure is one for the sudden plot twist, isn't he? (You should have heard him cackle!) All my sundry thoughts, plans, and schemes for the future have been neatly obliterated - which was his intention, of course. Is Matt telling the truth? Even if he is, is Legion still too dangerous to be permitted to live? Can Alex manage to kill a "mostly harmless" group-mind in cold blood? In any event, what on earth can or should he tell OmniMetal? After all, if Matt is on the level, Legion is now what they would consider an unqualified success...]
[None of those questions have facile answers. To take just one example, if Matt is lying, there's a limit to how MUCH he's lying. Something has plainly changed; whatever else one could have said about Legion before, it sure didn't have much of a sense of humor! And Matt felt different to Carlos, too.]
As for SP, he wears it as a badge of pride... Anyway, without further ado:[Don't worry, Gentle Readers! That faint whirring sound you hear is only my head spinning...]
The Shadow sped toward Hal's house. "Call ahead and let him know I'm coming, Carlos." "Will do." "And Carlos... suit up. Just in case." That gained him an energetic "Yes sir!" The Shadow noted with mild relief that the boy's tone was not so much eager as simply ready for anything.
As he landed in Hal's back yard, the inventor gave him an exasperated look. "If you keep driving the cycle that way, you'll have to bring it in within a couple months to be fixed!" "Don't worry, Garrity," the cloaked crusader said with mock cheerfulness, "I'll be sure to bring it in soon for a Lube/Oil/Filter." As expected, that sent Hal into spluttering outrage. "Oil! There's not a drop of oil in that thing, I've got better methods than..."
The Shadow cut him off. "Hal, are the grenades done?" "Of course they're done," came the sulky reply, along with a muttered, "Oil!" "And the detector?" "Well of course, Shadow! You didn't think I'd forget something like that, did you?!" Hal replied with sheepish indignation - a rather neat trick. (After all, he'd had to be reminded once already...) He handed over a sack of twelve grenades and the button-sized detector. "By the way, I did a spectral analysis on the gas..."
"Yes?" "It's unstable. It'll decay soon." "How soon is 'soon'?" "About a month. Call it three weeks to be safe. Faster if exposed to sunlight or great heat." "I'll bear that in mind, Hal, but I don't think it'll matter." "Why not?" The sable sleuth grinned at him mirthlessly. "If I don't have things well on the road to being settled with Legion in the next week or so, I expect I will be dead."
Hal gaped at him, stunned to speechlessness. The Shadow continued, "My work is dangerous, Hal. You didn't think I do this sort of thing for my health, did you?" "Well, yeah - I mean, no! - but..." He was cut off with a gentle, "Goodbye, Hal," as the cycle lifted off at an unapproved speed.
On the way back to the base, Carlos suddenly said, "Sir! There's another Legion-strike going on!" "What's this?" "Same MO - there's two cops missing. Two more are nearby, and they're being told to sit tight until some heavy backup arrives." "Where is it?" He got an address about fifteen minutes away - and only a few minutes away from the flophouse that was another suspected Legion-lair. "How long has this been going on?" "These two failed to report in a little after the first guy did in the other place." "Why didn't you tell me this before!" Carlos replied, with only faintly hurt tones, "It wasn't going out over the band, sir. This is the first I've heard of it." "...Right. Well done, Mr. Castaneda." He could clearly picture the young man's relieved smile as he responded, "Thanks, sir."
It didn't take long to assess the situation - a run-down abandoned motel, a cop car with lights flashing in front of it. Sure enough, the faint heat-shimmer of Legion-traces was emerging vaguely from the building. Only one story tall, the dark avenger mused. Two screamers should cover the whole thing. He placed the devices on the roof, then picked a likely-looking window on the far side of the building from the cops. The Shadow shut down his mental senses as much as he could, then pressed the stud that set the screamers off.
The hellish banshee wail of the things was as bad as he'd remembered, but he didn't let that stop him from lobbing a gas grenade through the window, hoping there'd be Legion-bodies within range. He heard several distinct thuds, then, with a wince, a gunshot. "Sir, the officers there are reporting gunfire." "I know, Carlos. I suspect it was another Legion suicide." "Oh," the boy replied with evident mixed feelings that the Shadow shared.
It was hard to see inside with all the gas fumes, and he dared not get too close - even ten feet away from the broken window, the stuff was making him feel woozy. He flew up to the roof and collected the screamers once they burned out. Meanwhile several more cop cars approached, sirens blaring. The heavily-armed officers who went in quickly came stumbling back out, yelling about gas. It didn't take long for them to arrange for gas masks, while the Shadow stewed on the fact that he hadn't picked one up back at the base. [SP and I decided that a full-face gas mask was too large to be justifiable as a Gadget on the Shadow's person. A rebreather yes, but a gas mask no.]
Soon unconscious bodies were brought out - two of Legion's (both recognizable to the Shadow), and two cops. Carlos informed him that there was a man dead inside of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and that the cops did show signs of being drugged even apart from the gas. The Shadow positioned himself for an unobstructed view of one of the Legion-bodies - a former Red Shiv - and plunged deeply into the young man's unconscious mind.
The memories of the past few days were jumbled, confused, fragmentary. The man clearly had not yet assimilated the bombardment of Legion-thoughts and Legion-memories into his own mind; only traces of his own actions were available, but none of the motivations for or details of them. The most immediate memory was of stirring together carefully-measured amounts of chemicals in preparation for the "experiment" on the police officers. This was in a windowless room within a large building. The Shadow tried to pick up memories of going in and out of the building, hoping for clues as to its location, but they were frustratingly vague - the man had been completely focussed on his goal, and simply hadn't paid attention to his surroundings. Maybe Legion had, but he had not.
Going further back, the Shadow learned how Christophilous had gotten the fourteen people together in the crackhouse. He had approached this young man, flashing a large wad of bills, and promising a yet-larger wad if he and his friends would bring as many people as they could to the house on short notice. The kind of people didn't matter - druggies, street people, whatever. The man had forced some at gunpoint; others he had promised drugs to. Once they were all assembled, Christophilous had frozen them all in their tracks. Those who managed to resist somewhat were shot; the rest were drugged. (Juan Martinez was not present that night, that this fellow could remember, anyway.)
Finally, he searched for any sign of continuing contacts with Legion; he found none, but did get the impression that the man would be quite vulnerable to later re-inclusion in the group-mind at a later date.
Dropping the mental contact, the Shadow went into the building; the gas had dissipated. There he quickly ascertained that there was only one corpse, and that one recognizable as an already-known Legion-body. The gas grenade had, alas, already been picked up by the cops as evidence. [SP: "Good thing you wear gloves, eh?"] With no further ado, he sped back to the base.
There he noted with disapproval that Carlos was only partly into his vest. "Why aren't you ready to go?!" he demanded, and Carlos reacted with surprise. "I thought we were done for the night, so I didn't think I'd need it any more." "On the contrary, we are going to hit Legion repeatedly tonight until there's nothing left to hit." "OK, sir. Sorry." While the boy zipped himself up tight, the Shadow located gas masks and a couple bandoliers in storage, stringing grenades on them. He gave three of them to Carlos, along with a gas mask and two of the eight remaining screamers. "Remember, setting one of these off hurts - you probably more than me, given that you're more sensitive..." "...but it hurts Legion even worse. Got it." "Now remember the rules - you stay out of danger unless I order it; and if I tell you to scram, you SCRAM, no matter the situation. Got it?" Carlos winced, looking very unhappy, but responded with a reluctant, "Yes sir, I will." "Good."
With that, the two of them flew to the crackhouse (the closest known Legion lair) and circled over it a few times. "Anything, Carlos?" Eyes closed, brow furrowed in thought, the young man responded, "Nothing recent, I think. It feels... abandoned." The Shadow nodded. "We'll try the warehouse next, then. The flophouse isn't big enough to account for the memory I tapped earlier."
Once there, Carlos was silent for a time, then said, "I'm not sure. At first I thought there was nothing, but... It definitely doesn't feel like Legion did... It's strange." "Good enough for me." Landing on the roof, the cloaked crusader said, "You stay here. If you get any funny feelings, let me know right away." "I will, sir. ... Be careful." The Shadow flashed him a smile with more confidence than he felt: "Always."
Moving warily, the Shadow encountered only darkness and silence... no, wait, there were some faint sounds coming from behind a door... Something involving glass was being smashed. And there was a light smell of smoke as well. He slipped into the room as silently as possible, but the man happened to look up at just the wrong moment from the vials he was breaking. (The fire was of papers in a wastebasket.) He was one of the Legion-bodies, one of the homeless addicts the Red Shivs had collected. (He looked to have been eating better now than he had then.) "Oh, hi," the man said, and amiably raised his hands.
Oh, hi?! The Shadow crept a little closer, his gun not wavering from the man's chest, and replied sarcastically, "What, no threats this time?" "Nope, not really. A thank-you, maybe." "To whom?" "You." "...What for?" "We're a lot more stable now."
The dark avenger considered that with a liberal helping of skepticism. "Why would that be?" "You got rid of Miguel, Tony, Roxanne, and the rest. Oh, and Christophilous, of course - the really important one. We don't have twelve minds bouncing thoughts around in all different directions any more. Makes things a lot more comfortable. ... Can I put my hands down? My arms are getting tired." "So as of an hour ago, you were scheming to suborn a bunch of cops, and now you expect me to believe that you're just one big happy family?!" "Yeah, that's about right. Our numbers finally got down a manageable level. I mean, you don't see me intoning, 'We are Legion. You are not Legion. You will be Legion.' any more, do you?" (His tone as he recited the words was one of light-hearted mockery, as if he were poking fun at himself.) "Yes, you're quite the sparkling conversationalist." "Gee, thanks." "It wasn't a compliment. If things are all so hunky-dory, why do your former members suicide?"
The man looked surprised. "They do? We thought you'd just killed them. I have no idea why, I feel just fine." "'I'? You retain some individuality?" The Legion-member chuckled. "Yes, of course. Put it this way - I can say both 'I' and 'we'." "Truthfully?" "You really don't understand what it's like, do you?" "No. And I have no desire to." "Right. So how can you judge me?" In glacial tones, the Shadow responded, "I'm perfectly content to judge your actions, thank you very much. Speaking of which, what are your plans now?"
"Well, for right now I intend to destroy this chemistry apparatus and these notes. After that... to be honest, we haven't decided yet. We need some time to back off and think it all through." "How do you feel about OmniMetal?" "Well, let's see. They were willing to employ a maniac like Christophilous, and thereby accidentally created a psychotic group-mind. Speaking as a no-longer-psychotic group-mind, we're feeling very distrustful and a little vengeful." "What do you plan to do against them?" The man shrugged. "Like I said, we haven't decided yet."
"How many of you are left?" For the first time, the man frowned. "Does that mean you intend to keep hunting us?" With acidic mimicry, the Shadow responded, "I haven't decided yet."
He mulled things over, then went on, "Are you willing to provide a hostage against your good behavior?" The man laughed as if the Shadow had just made a funny joke. "Well, personally, I'm quite opposed to the idea, if you don't mind. But I assume you'll shoot me if I don't cooperate?" "I don't have to shoot you." The Shadow pulled out a screamer and continued, "All I have to do is activate this device and you'll be cut off from the others. Then, like the rest, you will attempt suicide." To which the Legion-body responded with smiling, easy confidence, "I don't feel at all suicidal. Things are different now."
The Shadow subvocalized into the commlink, "Carlos, are you getting any of this?" The creeped-out reply came, "Yeah. It's... weird!" Somehow, that helped the Shadow come to an abrupt decision. "You're coming with me." The Legion-body looked a little hurt, as if the Shadow had disappointed him. "This is kidnapping, you know."
The Shadow couldn't help it; he laughed loud and long, while Legion looked yet more hurt. "I thought you were supposed to be a good guy..." "Don't even try to guilt me when I'm the one holding the gun. And you aren't exactly in a comfortable position for righteous indignation, either." Now it was the man's turn to laugh. Not at all defensively, more as if he were sharing a joke, he said, "I haven't done anything, you know." "You're certainly an accomplice, no matter how you slice it." "Ah! Got me! But how would you prove it? And anyway, I could sure argue I was an unwilling accomplice..."
"Save it. We're leaving." "Do you mind if I finish destroying this stuff first?" The Shadow was too nonplussed, his mind racing through different scenarios, to object. "Keep your hands where I can see them." "Oh, sure, of course... Despite the fact that I'm unarmed - and hey, aren't I supposed to be dangerous because of my telepathic abilities?" That got only the gruff reply, "I haven't survived this long by taking unnecessary chances." The man shrugged and complied with the order, seeming amused by the whole thing. Soon the task was finished. "What now?"
The Shadow moved behind him and said, "Put your hands behind your head." "Ooh, just like all the cop shows!" He made no resistance as his hands were cuffed behind his back, only said, "Aren't you gonna read me my rights?" "You have the right to remain silent. Starting now!" Then, as he blindfolded the man and marched him outside, "Wait, what should I call you?" "Call me Matt - it's my name! And hey, are we going to your secret hideout?" (This with all the enthusiasm of a little kid.) "No. Now be quiet."
Carlos had already descended to the ground, per silent orders. The Shadow pulled him aside and said, "The bike won't carry three. Will you be OK?" His tone was one of concern - clearly willing to change plans if the answer was "No." "You want me to go back to the base, sir?" "Yes. Will you be OK?" Carlos considered the matter, then said, "Yeah. I'd better not wear this, though." With that he started shrugging out of the vest, then handed it over along with his grenades and screamers. Then he visibly thought better of it, took one of the grenades back and stuffed it in his pocket. Alex caught and held his eye meaningfully, then silently offered him a screamer back also.
Carlos nodded slowly and accepted it. Alex gripped his shoulder tightly. "Stay safe." "You too, sir!" Meanwhile Matt called, "Hey, do you always take your time when kidnapping people? It's cold out here!" The Shadow ground his teeth and turned back to him, as Carlos loped off warily into the night.
"We're leaving now." "On that cool flying bike of yours? Neato! Only, hey..." he said it just as the Shadow realized it himself, "how am I supposed to stay on?" With grim effort, the Man of Mystery managed to tie the two of them together with Carlos' bandolier. "You could just untie my hands, you know..." "Shut up."
A short flight later, he found a miraculously unvandalized pay phone. (Using it was an interesting struggle, but he managed.) Grace's sleepy-fuzzed voice responded, "Hello?" "I hope you've made all the arrangements." "Who is this?" "Your friend in black." "Bla- Do you have any idea what time it is?! It's nearly three AM!" With patient, careful enunciation: "I hope. You have made. All. Of the arrangements." Suddenly awake, she exclaimed, "You're kidding!!" "No." "OK, uh, take him here, that should be fine." She gave an address in a fairly ritzy suburb. "Got it. Meet me there." "I'll be there!"
It was a long flight, almost an hour. Matt was fairly silent, save for once when he called, "Oh, Mr. Kidnapper Person!" "What!" "I've lost my blindfold. Just thought you'd like to know." Craning his neck around, he saw Matt's grinning face looking back at him. Stopping to hover, the Shadow grimly tied his cloak completely around the man's head, which seemed to amuse Matt no end.
As soon as Grace was in sight, he "beamed" her the news telepathically. There was no response, indeed a conspicuous display of a lack of response, until he landed. Then she burst out verbally, "You have GOT to be kidding!!" "I'm afraid not." Together they hauled Matt into the house, then into a small windowless room. Grace flipped a switch just outside the door, and Matt suddenly twitched as if there an itch he couldn't scratch. "Man! That feels weird!" The Shadow felt it too, though much more dimly, and looked a question at Grace. She replied, "Just a little something to make Funny Boy here harder to track down." Matt informed her conversationally, "Did you know you're an accessory to kidnapping now?"
They removed Matt's "blindfold", restoring the Shadow's cloak. "Can I get my hands undone too?" Matt asked a little plaintively. "Not yet," the Shadow replied, as Grace dragged him out the door for a discussion. Matt shrugged, then sat carefully down on a stool, starting to whistle ostentatiously to pass the time. The cloaked crusader had to wince when he recognized the tune: "Me and My Shadow".
As soon as the door was shut, Grace exploded, "Is it just me, or are things getting REALLY STRANGE?!" "It's not just you. What on earth are we going to DO with him?!" "I don't know! I thought we'd have a murderous Legion-drone to work with, not Chuckles there! I figured we'd try the screamer and see if it worked at all, but we already know the answer to that..." "How long can we keep him here without too many questions being asked?" "Forty-eight hours, tops." Thinking a bit more, she went on, "There's really only three options, once we've got the information we need. One: We, uh, kill him." She sounded rather conflicted about that, an emotion the Shadow shared. "Two: We let him go." They were both at least as conflicted about that. "Three: We use the screamer and take things from there." The Shadow concluded, "We just don't have enough information yet to decide; we'll have to learn more." "And in the meantime?" "In the meantime, he's our honored guest." That remark earned him a look that in a properly-constructed universe would have had him pushing up daisies.
He went on, "Just how are we going to learn what we need to know? Are you going to probe him?" "Are you out of your blessed MIND, darlin'?! And if you try it, I'll slap you silly!" "What, then?" She sighed and thought it over. "I suppose we can drug him and probe him then. That should be marginally safer; I was already thinking of trying it as a last resort for the old 'We-Are-Legion'."
The Shadow nodded. "Very good, then. Perhaps we can take a look at some of the former Legion-bodies in custody, too - that should be much safer. ... I'll take tomorrow off of work, and we can get started on our research." She arched an elegant brow at him. "Would that be the royal 'we' you're using, the editorial 'we', the schizophrenic 'we'... or the dictatorial 'we'?"
The Shadow suppressed a sigh. "Permit me to rephrase myself. I will take tomorrow off of work and then I will begin research, hopefully with your willing and enthusiastic help." She grinned at him impishly. "Nicely grovelled. Count me in!"
[SP sure is one for the sudden plot twist, isn't he? (You should have heard him cackle!) All my sundry thoughts, plans, and schemes for the future have been neatly obliterated - which was his intention, of course. Is Matt telling the truth? Even if he is, is Legion still too dangerous to be permitted to live? Can Alex manage to kill a "mostly harmless" group-mind in cold blood? In any event, what on earth can or should he tell OmniMetal? After all, if Matt is on the level, Legion is now what they would consider an unqualified success...]
[None of those questions have facile answers. To take just one example, if Matt is lying, there's a limit to how MUCH he's lying. Something has plainly changed; whatever else one could have said about Legion before, it sure didn't have much of a sense of humor! And Matt felt different to Carlos, too.]
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