Offices of F.O.R.C.E., City Hall, A.P. (Open RP)

"Have Faith My Friend"

Sid was exhausted after the interchange. He'd trained his entire life to get to this level of physical capability, but keeping up with a super human like Liberty Bill was truly a test of skill. Sid simply wanted to go home to his apartment in Steel and take a shower, but Wille had asked for him to stop by the office and make a report. So, he sat on a bench waiting for Wille to call for him. He stared at the floor tile and tried to focus on something other than the still fresh broken rib and bullet graze on his forearm. He finally found something that angered him enough he could hold his thoughts on it.
"Why the hell can't I call my report in from home?" he muttered to himself.

City Hall was more or less empty this time of night, and his trained ears could hear every clock in every office in the corridor. He heard cars and gunshots outside, immediately followed by shouted battle cries and even louder bangs. Then he went back to thinking about the stinging pain in his ribs. The door opened and Wille motioned him inside. They sat and Wille jumped to the specifics of the scrapper's report.

"Dis exchange went well, ja?" asked FORCE's second-in-command

"Very well."

The controller made a note. "And the two of you did what exactly?"

"We went to Striga Island." answered Sid. "Once there I contacted an informant, and she alerted me to some council activity off shore on a boat headed to Independence Port. We tracked the boat down and defeated it's crew."

"And did you.."

Sid answered the question before Wille could finish. "No casualties to report sir." He said it with careful calmness. no point in loosing his temper over an over-exacting Nazi, but inside he was burning with fury.

Wille didn't trust him, and Sid knew it. The Aryan controller suspected him to be covering up something dark and sinister. Sid had volunteered for the program, and the truth is know one knew why. He'd told the shrink he was seeking to help the men and women involved in this program. He'd even said he was in Paragon to atone, but Wille had a feeling about him. Something that wasn't quite right.

"And what did the two of you discuss during the operation?" continued Zur Macht, unruffled.

Sid thought carefully before answering. They'd discussed a lot, and some of the info wasn't any of Wille's business. So he lied. "Not much. We talked about his enthusiasm for the program, and some of our past misdeeds."

Wille eyed Sid carefully for a moment. "And zat is all? You discussed nothing further?"

Sid smiled, but his eyes were cold. "That is all." His smile grew slightly wider as he noticed Wille shiver.

Wille pursed his lips. He looked oddly uncomfortable. There were plenty of murderers in F.O.R.C.E., but Sid knew sometimes being around him made even the Devil a little uneasy.

"You will report home now ja?" concluded Wille.

"No. I'm going to hit the block and pay a friend a visit. Then I'll go home." Sid tossed his locator on the desk. "I'm off duty. Don't call unless it's important."

Wille watched him disdainfully as he walked out of the office. At the Zig, Sid showed his I.D. and started the long descent down to the section were they kept the truly damned. He finally came to the Devil's cell. He called a greeting. "Hello Handsome Devil."

The horned scrapper looked up from the book and smiled. "Howdy your Eminence."

Sid glanced at the cover. "Hmm.. didn't know you could read."

"Yeah well.. they've got some 'Hooked on Phonics' tapes upstairs."

"Right.. didn't realize Emerson was on the prison reading list."

The Devil shrugged. "Minions of the Morning Star.
In his prowess he exults, And the multitude insults."

The Saint smiled, recognizing the poem quoted. "Daemonic Love. He wrote Celestial Love too, you know."

The scrapper grinned. "Doesn't suit me so well. Whatever. They were all out of Dr. Seuss and Hustler, so I took what was available. So what are you doing in this hole? I figured you'd be home in your nice cozy apartment by now, praying up a storm, your Holiness."

"I would be normally, but I heard you got put on lock-down. Thought I'd pay you a visit. I have some advice for you."

Handsome put the book aside. "Ahh.. sociopath to sociopath huh?"

"Something like that." nodded Sid.

Sid eyed the Devil's nearly healed wounds and smirked. "My advice, be careful of Raindance's games my friend. Shadow knows shadow."

The Devil laughed, touching a still-healing gouge on his left cheek. "Glad to see the scales have fallen from your eyes, padre. Don't you worry. I'll be treading real lightly with our public relations officer from now on."

"I'll be steering clear of you both from now on, thank you very much, Mr. Devil. Oh. One last thing. Something you could probably use."

Devil perked up a little as Sid tossed a small black box through the bars. The imprisoned scrapper caught it neatly, gave Sid a quick suspicious look, and then began opening it.

"Be safe, friend." He heard the Devil's muted laughter from behind him as Sid disappeared into the shadows

On the way home he thought again of Wille and how much the blonde controller didn't trust him. He laughed softly.

((Thanks to JJ for the awesome input and help editing.))
(uuhg.. had to edit that last line one last time.. lol. sorry about the confusion.))

Powerfrost and Wille Zur Macht were interrupted by the buzzing of the intercom.

“Warden. Your ten o’clock is here.”

The ice tanker pressed a button. “Thank you. Have him brought in.”

He clicked off, and looked to his subordinate. “I know your limitations. Whatever you can, all right?”

Wille nodded. “Ja, Herr Direktor.” He moved to the bookshelf next to Powerfrost, facing toward the door.

A dozen guards brought the Devil into the office in full restraints, including mouthguard. Wille flinched slightly as the scrapper locked eyes with him, but then the guards dragged Handsome to the chair in front of the desk.

“As requested, Warden.” said the senior guard. “Should we stay…”

“Leave four men outside, Guard Darshani.” said the commander of FORCE.

Darshani seemed ready to argue the point, but then nodded and departed with his contingent.

It was normally hard to read expression through the mouth restraints, but Powerfrost had no difficulty at all reading the Devil: pure amusement. The tank hit another button on his desk, and the television at the rear of the room sprang on, the black and white security tape from Raindance’s surveillance camera.

“Howdy Pocahontas.” Spoke the tinny recorded voice of the Devil. “You’re looking extra-specially primped today. You doing something different with your hair?”

The Devil himself did not turn to see the screen, but instead continued staring intently into the eyes of the Warden.

“Good morning to you to, Subject: Handsome Devil.” The playback continued with Rain’s legal advisory. The remainder played on in silence, Powerfrost and Wille watching, the Devil watching the watchers. Eventually the tank hit another button, ending the video.

The three of them sat in complete silence for five minutes.

Powerfrost took a deep breath. “You’re lucky to be alive, let alone a member of FORCE…”

“No, I’m not.” interrupted the scrapper.

“Care to explain that statement?” the ice tank hissed through gritted teeth.

“My being alive is due to the fact I’m damn hard to kill, not luck.” answered the Devil. “And I’m still a member of FORCE because people want me to be a member of FORCE. Not you or Sgt. Schultz here. You’d boot me right now if you could. I can see that in your eyes. But I’m still here, cluttering up your office, so someone has told you you can’t. Luck is not a factor.”

The Warden looked at his lieutenant. The paperwork to recycle Handsome had come back only thirty minutes ago stamped ‘REQUEST DENIED’. Either the Devil was guessing, or he had reasons to believe outside forces were acting on his behalf. Raindance herself had left several emphatic messages that she was fine and that releasing the Devil from the program at this stage would be 'premature'. He frowned.

“In your statement you said the reason for attempting to murder Rain was…”

“Boredom.” answered the Devil. “That’s the official reason. I was tired of sitting in her office. Cheap furniture put my butt to sleep. So I tried to kill her. Stupid chairback threw me off a couple of inches. Then I was doing the Wild Watusi on the desk until the guards came in and made sweet sweet music on their own with their batons.”

“That’s the official reason? And what would be the unofficial reason you tried to kill Rain?”

The Devil slouched as much as his restraints would allow. “Unofficially, you’ve got a he-said, she-said situation where one of the sayers is a convicted mass-murderer.”

The Warden leaned back as well. “Not like you to have something on your mind and not say it, Handsome.”

The scrapper shrugged, chains clanking. “You got a nice office here, Popsicle. Better chairs than Pocahontas. But I imagine you’ve got a lot of the same acoustics. Makes me a bit more hesitant than usual to just shoot my mouth off.”

Powerfrost hit another button. “Feel less hesitant now?”

The Devil considered. “I oughta take you boys to the Paragon Dance Party. The music is loud, lights unpredictable, and crowding is seldom an issue. But… since you don’t look the dancing type, I’ll just ask: you’ve turned off the surveillance video and audio to this room?”

The ice tank nodded, spoke clearly. “Yes I have.”

The Devil nodded too. “Then I think I should tell you about this friend of mine. He’s a nice guy. Misunderstood. Damn good looking. But, you know, troubled.”

Wille made an impatient noise, echoed by his boss.

Handsome sighed. “Fine. My friend, he gets called into one of his boss’s offices. He’s been working hard lately, figures maybe someone finally noticed. Turns out that boss, she doesn’t like my friend much. Dislikes him so much she’s decided she’s going to get him promoted, all the way to the top maybe. Just so when he gets there she can get him fired. Bad fired. Maybe even involve the cops to make sure when he goes, he’s gone forever.”

Powerfrost folded his hands. “Why would your friend’s boss tell him what she was planning?”

The Devil shrugged. “Who knows why women do what they do. Maybe she’s stupid. Maybe she’s crazy. Maybe she’s real, real confident she can do whatever she says she can do.”

The warden considered. “So what’d your friend do then?”

“Well, he was thinking fast as she went on and on. He knew if he didn’t do something quick, she’d have him over a barrel. And since the first part of the plan called for him to get promoted, he thought he might derail that little train by stirring up a bit of trouble. Not enough to get fired for, but enough to make it tough for his boss to move him around like a chess piece.”

“Maybe your friend should have talked to one of his other bosses instead.” Offered Wille.

The Devil’s eyes narrowed. “Well, you know how bosses are. You never know when they’ll stand by you, or throw you to the dogs and head off together for beers and karaoke together.”

Powerfrost shuffled some paper. “Med reports say Rain is going to be fine. Apparently she feels your pain about her chairs. She’s not pressing charges or initiating procedures to have you recycled from the FORCE program.”

“Imagine that.” The Devil straightened, leaned forward. “And you’d’ve thought she’d be all over this little incident to send my bad self as far away as she could. It’s almost like she wants to keep me around for some reason. Weird, huh?”

The Warden hit the intercom button. “Send Guard Darshani in, please. We’ve concluded the interview.”

He turned back to the scrapper. “The aggravated assault will be added to your standing life sentence. You’re still in FORCE. For now. Lockdown is rescinded. Tell your friend the next time someone is harassing him, find a better way to report what’s going on to the authorities. Because next time things will go very badly for him.”

The guards pulled the Devil to his feet. “I surely will, Popsy. I’m sure my friend will be grateful for the advice.”

The door closed.

Wille sat down, rubbing his temples. “Mein Gott. That one is too much a handful.”

Powerfrost let a long breath go. “For a certainty. You get anything useful?”

In addition to his force field control, Wille was also a talented mentalist. And while covert telepathy was known to be a creation of science fiction, it was sometimes possible to passively receive strong thoughts or emotions. The Warden had hoped his second-in command might be able to read something substantive from the Devil in regard to his recent outburst.

But Wille shook his head. “Being open around the Devil. Iss like… Being bedside at a pornographic movie filming, at a speed metal concert. Very… draining.”

“You think you might have better luck when he was asleep?”

The Aryan shrugged. “Difficult to say. I can try. What do you think of what he... and his friend... said?”

Powerfrost nodded. “Well, it might shed a little light on things. Handsome intentionally tanked his kill-shot. I thought that might be the case. If Rain died, hero-resurrection notwithstanding, authorities would have prosecuted HD for first degree murder and gotten the death penalty. Handsome is too smart for that. He wings her, big deal. A few more years on top of permanent incarceration.”

“It can’t be a coincidence that the Devil knew about Rain's plan to eventually dispose of him.” offered Wille. “Someone had to have told him. She may have done so after disabling the audiomikes in her office. Not that I think she would confess if we confronted her now.”

“Doesn’t it seem a bit rash, though? Calling him up, unrestrained, just to taunt him?” The tanker shook his head.

“She may have been counting on the disabling chip to protect her, and miscalculated the recovery time.”

Powerfrost pursed his lips.

“You disagree, Director?”

The Warden turned to his lieutenant. “I think Raindance miscalculates about as often as she kisses and makes up with people who nearly chop her arm off.”

Silence spun out in the small office, both men deep in thought.

“Whatever they are doing, together or apart, we must watch them both carefully, nicht wahr?”

“Very carefully, Wille.”

The Devil crouched on the gargoyle perch on the side of the building over looking the Peregrine Island Ferry. As he watched, she emerged, took flight, and came his way. She would be suspicious, he knew. But he also knew how important it was he convince her with what he had to say.

Noelle Frost of the Storm Knights (Local 23), Handsome Devil’s Project Redemption partner, dropped gently to the tarred roof.

[ QUOTE ]

Noelle Frost: Well, hey there, partner!
Handsome Devil: Howdy howdy. :-)
Noelle Frost: How's things?
Handsome Devil: Ha. I'm out of the slam. Must mean things are good. :-)
Noelle Frost: That does sound promising.
Handsome Devil: And yourself? Fighting crime, pursuing truth, justice, and all that?
Noelle Frost: A little of this, a little of that...
Handsome Devil: So... You gonna ask, or what? :-/
Noelle Frost: I just might... you busy?
Handsome Devil: Shucks no. Just hanging around waiting for ya.
Noelle Frost: So... hi.
Handsome Devil: Hey stranger.
Noelle Frost: I heard you got in a spot of trouble, had to miss our meeting last week.
Handsome Devil: Ha. The official Press Release said I was recovering after a successful test of the 'failsafe compliance system' for FORCE operatives.
Noelle Frost: And unofficially? Or is that classified?
Handsome Devil: The unofficial story is that I nearly killed our PR person because I was bored.
Noelle Frost: ... oh
Handsome Devil: And the real story, well, that's just too far fetched to believe, coming from a degenerate killer like me
Noelle Frost: That so?
Handsome Devil: Oh yeah. Figured sooner or later you'd hear the 'boredom killer' thing. Thought I’d better mention it.
Handsome Devil: I told you before, there's all manner of folks around who want me out, or dead. This was just the first round.
Noelle Frost: Yeah well, I wouldn't mind hearing the real story either. I might believe it. Try me.
Handsome Devil: Well... if I answer your question, do I get to ask one back?
Noelle Frost: That seems only fair.
Handsome Devil: You can't tell anyone. It wouldn't do any good if you did, and might draw you into the same mess I'm in. And them's the rules. :-)
Noelle Frost nods. "Ok."
Handsome Devil: Raindance is our PR person. She called me up to her office to enlist me in a plan to kill or eliminate Powerfrost and Wille Zur Macht.
Noelle Frost: What?
Handsome Devil: Look, I'm a stone killer. She's looking for folks who can do the job, and are easily disposable afterwards
Noelle Frost: But... you have to tell them. Warn them!
Handsome Devil: Tell them what? I have no proof.
Noelle Frost: But... at least they can be warned... I mean, they should know not to trust her!
Handsome Devil: Rain is smart. The video surveillance from the room looks like I tried to kill her. They have no reason to trust me. She nailed the audio, so they couldn't hear what she said.
Noelle Frost: Ok, wait... so you tried to kill her for trying to kill Wille and the other guy?
Handsome Devil: She hit me with this chip in my head. Scrambled my brains.
Noelle Frost: Oh god... are you ok?
Handsome Devil: By the time I could move, she was telling me how she'd sell me out and get me executed. I don't know what I was thinking. Next thing I know, she's bleeding and calling in a million guards with tasers and batons
Noelle Frost: You just... got zapped, and snapped back?
Handsome Devil: I don't know. It's hard to remember. Like getting hit in the head and passing out... kinda. The beating afterward didn't help. Look, I have no way to prove any of this, to Powerfrost, or you, or anyone.
Noelle Frost looks concerned
Handsome Devil: Rain is so damn slick...
Noelle Frost snorts
Handsome Devil: So maybe she wants to use me as a hitter, maybe just as a patsy. I sure look like a maniac now.
Noelle Frost: Well, looks can be deceiving. Anyone who knows anything knows that.
Handsome Devil: And who wants to take a look at me? This book has blood all over the damn cover....
Noelle Frost: Well, so you clean it off, get it shined up. I bet there's a collector out there would love it.
Handsome Devil: :-/ Sure there is.
Noelle Frost: To use your metaphor, of course.
Handsome Devil: I have to come up with something on Rain, something definite that I can take to Powerfrost so he can act. Otherwise, it's a matter of time before something real bad happens and I wind up getting the gas chamber for it
Noelle Frost: Just... be careful, ok? This woman... she seems really dangerous. I don't want you dead.
Handsome Devil: (smiles) I don't want me dead either. Look, I'm sorry for dumping this on you.... It's my mess. I'll figure something out...
Noelle Frost: No, don't apologize. I want you to know -- you can talk to me. Anytime.
Handsome Devil: You start talking to people like me, who knows what could happen. You might start liking me or something. :-)
Noelle Frost grins
Noelle Frost: Yeah, well, I can deal with that.
Handsome Devil: Then it'll be Mr. Gold Lame beating me with a stick for messing where I shouldn't been a-messin'.
Noelle Frost: Hmmm... you know, he does have a temper...
Noelle Frost grins, joking.
Handsome Devil: So, now that I bared my soul and all, mind if I ask a question?
Noelle Frost: Go 'head.
Handsome Devil: Mr. Gold Lame. He's good to you?
Noelle Frost smiles.
Noelle Frost: Yeah. Yeah, he's very good to me.
Handsome Devil nods
Handsome Devil: Lucky man. Darn lucky man. You tell him I said so. :-)
Noelle Frost: I will.
Noelle Frost: Do you.... did you have a girl... before this whole thing?
Handsome Devil: A girl? Ah... Well... Not really. My work... didn't make for romantic attachments
Noelle Frost: What did you do? Before?
Handsome Devil seems weirdly agitated. almost... embarrassed.
Noelle Frost: I'm sorry. I'm prying.
Handsome Devil: Well, before I got tossed into the slam, I was freelance muscle. And, ah... before that... I worked in... ah... erotic film.
Noelle Frost: You can ask me something else, if you want. Tit for tat.
Noelle Frost: I mean.... oh.
Handsome Devil: It's the whole regen thing. Fast healing and a ton of endurance... Look.... it's blushes
Noelle Frost bites her lip
Handsome Devil: I had horns and a tail. I couldn't get a job working retail or waiting tables.
Noelle Frost: No. No, I guess not.
Handsome Devil: So... I took the work, paid the bills.
Noelle Frost: But you... you liked it?
Handsome Devil: blushes more I was a kid. Barely old enough to buy porn, let along be in it. I thought it was pretty cool. For the first while. Then it was just a job.
Noelle Frost: I'm trying to picture you as a kid...
Handsome Devil: Think skinnier. And slightly less red, more pink. :-)
Noelle Frost: Huh.
Handsome Devil: Some of the producers, they knew some people, shady people, they came and asked about doing extra work for extra cash...
Noelle Frost sits to the side and tugs her skirt down a bit, unconsciously.
Handsome Devil: I stopped doing the movies, started doing the other stuff
Noelle Frost: Was that... better? I mean, you were using your powers at least, right?
Handsome Devil: Well, yeah. I felt like I wasn't just a piece of meat anymore. But after you do some of that sort of thing: enforcement, collections.... you're right back where you began. Piece of meat. Only with a sword instead of... well, with a sword. :-(
Handsome Devil shakes his head
Handsome Devil: Now you know why I don't just go to Powerfrost
Noelle Frost: I'm sorry. That sounds... awful.
Noelle Frost taps his foot with her own.
Handsome Devil: It's okay. I'm an awful person.
Handsome Devil: taps back
Noelle Frost: I don't think it's all your fault.
Noelle Frost: Doesn't sound like it, at least.
Handsome Devil: Hey, I'm no mental case. I made those choices. I didn't see where it was going, but I turned down those roads myself.
Noelle Frost: And now you're trying to go down another road. I think that's pretty damn brave.
Handsome Devil: I don't blame PF for being skeptical. Or Rain either for seeing me as an opportunity. It's all in my file. :-(
Noelle Frost: I didn't get your whole file. So that's not how I see you, ok?
Handsome Devil: Ms. Frost, I have to go. I'm late getting back. I'm sorry to ditch like this. But It's more trouble if I stay. I'm sorry.
Noelle Frost: No, go. I don't want to get you in any trouble.
Handsome Devil: See you another night? Right?
Noelle Frost nods. "Yeah, definitely."
Handsome Devil: grins, clearly relieved
Handsome Devil: I'll see you around, Ms. Frost. Stay out of trouble. Until I'm around. :-)
Noelle Frost smiles back at him.
Noelle Frost: Bye, HD.


[/ QUOTE ]

The Devil jumped down from the building over to the Talos Transit Station, eventually emerging in Brickstown. A few more bounces, and he was walking up the main entry ramp to the Ziggursky Prison. He passed Everydaymouse and Yukon Tundra whispering quietly from the corner of the gate. Inside, Midnight Fusion was on his way out.

“Hey Devil. You’re back early. I thought you had a couple more hours on the outside.”

The Devil smiled back at his fellow felon. “I got a lot accomplished today.” The smile became a grin. “Didn’t feel like jinxing myself, so I thought I’d come back for an early rub-down and sauna before bedtime. You’re not on rub-down duty today, are you?”

The MFer shook his head. “Dark Proton, I think. And if he takes off his containment suit, remember it’s probably not for better contact with your skin.”

Handsome bowed his thanks for the advice, and continued inward and downward toward his cell, smiling more widely every moment. “I got a lot accomplished.”

As Sid walked up the path towards the door of the Zig he was stopped by several prisoners. They obviously had no idea who he was. After the first punch was swung and dodged it was about two seconds of flashing steel and scarlet. He entered the prison leaving half a dozen men laying on the ground whimpering. He normally would have slipped past them before they could have reacted, but he was driven today. He had a purpose for this visit. Men like Sid were capable of horrible things when they were driven with a single purpose. He didn't feel like bothering with the guards. He stepped into the shadows and seemed to disappear completely. He vaulted over the metal detector and snuck his way into the library. He could move freely now. He checked to make sure that Devil was absent. There sat the only man Sid knew for sure he could trust with what he needed to be done.

"Yukon, it's been awhile." Sid said sitting down across from him.

Yukon Tundra looked up at Sid with a startled expression. "Hey Sid. Didn't hear ya comin down the hall there. I guess no one else did either though." The tanker laughed and Sid smiled softly. He liked Yukon. he was friendly even if a little misogynistic that's why he hated himself for what he was about to do. He forced himself to believe he was asking a favor of a friend and not using someone to save his own hide.

"Listen, Yukon, I'm having a little trouble with some people and I could use a hand." Sid stared directly into Yukon's eyes and didn't flinch. There was no turning back now. Yukon would do what he needed or he wouldn't.

"It's Wille. As you may have noticed he doesn't exactly trust me. I have to do some things now that may.. Draw his attention. You're considered to be a minimal threat here. They let you move about fairly freely. I need to know when Wille is here, and I need to know when he's away from City Hall. I'll also need to know when Devil comes in for the night. I realize this is a lot to ask, but It's absolutely necessary that I know when they could be out and about." Sid watched his face for any indication of resistence, and he showed none. Sid continued. "I realize that our coms are being monitored. so I have something for you." Sid slid a sleek little phone across the table. "I know that cellular signals are blocked inside the Zig, but I think you'll find that this one works just fine."

Yukon picked up the phone and eyed it suspiciously. "It only has one button." The tank said after looking it over for what seemed like forever.

Sid grinned. "You only need to call one person. That button calls me, and only me." He watched Yukon for a moment before his final sentence. "So... Are you in?"

Yukon grinned up at him. "Sure. This thing's small enough to hide. Maybe if I knew more I could be more helpfu.."

Sid cut him off passively. "I'm not ready to let anyone know just yet. Things could get messy Yukon. If I screw this up, and denial is a great privilege to have with a controller like Wille around." Sid stood slowly as Yukon opened his copy of The History of the Acquisition of the Alaskan Territory.
"We'll talk soon my friend." Sid tossed him a half hearted smile and walked out.

He didn't have to play it quiet now. he didn't have to play at all. The guards were in a frantic circle talking to the warden.

"Sir, whoever did this is completely off of it. The men said he moved like a demon."

"No one's dead are they?"

"Not permanently, but all had to be teleported before they bled to death."

"This is gonna be a media field day if we don't do something NOW!"

"What do you have in mind Warden?"

"You say they were clean cuts?"

"Yes sir."

"Sounds like a sword."

Sid walked right by and wasn't even noticed.

"Bring in Handsome Devil for interrogation. Get Power Frost and Wille Zur Macht here too."

Sid couldn't help but smile as he walked to his destination. he would be clear to take care of more than expected tonight.. he knew enough to know that what he'd done wouldn't hurt anyone other than the six men who more than deserved what they got. Handsome would be cleared in a couple of hours and Wille would immediately call Sid in. He'd call it self defense, and point out that Tommy and his boys all had shivs. This was going to be a good week.

Sid had been running and jumping rooftops for a long time in a perfect daze. he stopped abruptly and realized he'd arrived at his destination. he heard Power Frost's voice explode over the com.

"Devil! Where the hell are you?"

"Easy Popsicle. no need to pull anything. In Crey's Folly, fighting Freak show, patrolling like we enFORCErs do from time to time."

"You're off our locator grid. You mind explaining that?" thundered Powerfrost.

A moment of silence, then the Devil came back through the static. "Well, Commissar, considering my degree in electrical engineering and my intimate knowledge of the Paragon City Telelocation system, I'd have to say I have no rutting idea why you can't see me. Maybe it's the Freak's electricals, or some isotope busy decaying in this muck. Ask someone with a higher forehead, boss. I'm just a monkey with a sword.

You could hear the Warden's teeth grinding over the comm. "Get back to the Zig! Now!"

The Devil laughed. "Aye aye, Cap'n Blye! Headin' fer port, yar!" The comm fell silent.

Sid watched the door quietly, perfectly hidden in shadow on his rooftop perch. It swung open, and the Devil cautiously emerged. The horned scrapper turned back inside, and Sid could hear him speaking.

"Your gnomes can handle my location?"

A woman's voice replied. "By the time you get to the Warden's office, you'll have been in Crey's since your departure."

"Cute."

The woman's voice became more stern. "I could put you in Dallas on the grassy knoll if it suited me, Devil. Now get out of my office."

The sound of noisy blown kisses. Then Handsome Devil emerged completely, and moved off toward his meeting with Powerfrost.

Sid's suspicion's were confirmed. The Devil had just walked out of Raindance's door. Sid had expected it, but he was still shocked as he watched the Devil walk away. He knew Raindance's type, and he knew whatever she'd enlisted Devil for it was big and bad
((thx to JJ and MoonBear for being so damn cool))

(just bumped so it doesn't get lost)

(Indeed... bump... )

Anne stood in the hospital's parking lot listening to the cell phone chirp away at her waist until the rings stopped. She pulled it up to her face and groaned at the call back number. Eschelon. She sighed and called in.

"…Now? ….but…. yes, Slugs… blah blah blah, National Security…Happy Phlogiston. Ziggursky Prison? ……Oh goody ."

As she hung up, a nondescript van screeched to a stop before her, a door sliding open to reveal suited operatives who pulled her in. Space was limited and there was no room for modesty. Her clothes were tugged off and some sort of costume resembling a pharmacist was thrown onto her, and she was plunked into a beautician’s chair. After an hour she looked up and gazed at her reflection, tucking a blond curl behind her ear and patting the tight bun behind her head. Strange blue eyes gazed back at her behind scholarly spectacles.

“So are you straight on the mission objectives?”

“Yes, updates of Happy’s records including his full pharmacological profile, updated photos of the FORCE offices, and photosurveillance of guard strength of the locked ward.”

Slugworth nodded. “Oh and Blaze…” he gestured at her wedding ring.

She just stared at it.

“Take it off “ Miss ” Blaze.”

She winced at the word ‘Miss’. Staring daggers at him and sighing, she took the ring off her finger and slid it onto a long chain around her neck, letting it disappear under her collar.

"I filed the damn papers. You promise you won't hurt him?"

"That was the agreement."

__________________________________________________ _____________________________



She tilted her head slightly and touched the small gold embellishment on the frame of her glasses. “ click...click ”. As she finished taking the photos of the locked ward she lingered, wondering if she could risk checking on Happy.

Deciding against it, she decided to finish this and get out of here. She quickly moved to the Pharmacy, just off of the Infirmary. Sliding her security badge through the lock she let herself in, trying to look nonchalant. She took a deep breath and scanned the room, picking out a tall man behind the Pharmacy dispension counter. She waited until he came out from behind the counter and entered his office. She told him she was from the State Pharmacological Monitoring Board and she had to review records about drugs being dispensed here. She scribbled onto her clipboard, trying to look important.

“Sorry toots. The FORCE program is exempt from State surveys. But don’t you worry your pretty head..everything is by the book.”

“ Damn ,” she thought. “ Nothing can ever be easy …”

She smiled warmly at him, slowly took off her glasses and reached up, releasing her hair from the severe bun, sending it tumbling down her shoulders in cascades of golden waves. She tossed her head and shook it out, giving her best seductive smile.

“So umm…. (she glanced at his name tag) …Stan…. This is my first assignment, I’m supposed to be here all week… what on earth am I supposed to do with my time if I can’t see those records?" She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her uniform. He gulped hard.

She smirked to herself. Too easy …

“You know what I’d like right now?” She leaned in close, running a long red fingernail down his tie as her lips brushed up against his ear.

“….No, ma’am…” he croaked, his voice dry….

Her voice was a throaty purr. “Strawberries….. and whipped cream.” She tugged gently on his earlobe with her teeth and finished the sentence with a kiss that dragged softly down his neck. “Think you can find some?”

He nodded dumbly and backed out of the room, stumbling over a folding chair.

She smiled and shut the door behind him. As the door locked, her false smile dropped and she quickly moved to the computer. After a quick focusing breath she flexed her fingers over the keyboard and incanted….screens flicked by until Happy’s med schedule came up. She downloaded that and his current medical records onto a small data chip and tucked it into her cleavage. Adjusting her uniform and twisting her hair back up into a bun before slipping out, she barely remembered to put her glasses back on.


She spoke softly into her collar. “Objectives achieved. I’m exiting now.”

She moved quietly toward her exit as an arm grabbed her.

Excuse me ma’am, but you’re in a restricted area."

Anne whirled around toward him, flashing a bright smile. “I just got a little turned around darlin.” She smiled sweetly.

Nothing. He looked at her flatly.

Her heart fell into her stomach.

“Please stand here while I check your ID.”

Her thoughts raced. "I have to find the only [censored] guy in this place?!! I have to get out of here..."

With a sideways glance she shot a spark out of her outstretched pinky into the terminal the guard was working on. It crackled and shorted out. As the guard swore and began pounding keys she slipped away going through the first doors she saw, straight into the Mess Hall.


“What now!” she hissed into her collar. “I’m in the cafeteria. And I think my cover is blown.”

“50 yards to the north. There is a fire exit, use your access card, you’re not blown quite yet, but hurry.”

She navigated the room, and her heart sunk again when she saw the last table by the door. Faces she recognized, faces who might recognize her… Yukon Tundra, Handsome Devil….

She steeled herself. Almost out.

“You know what this reminds me of?” whispered Everydaymouse. Mouse, Yukon Tundra, Saint Sid, and Handsome Devil were all sitting at the same table in the Ziggursky Prison mess hall for their ‘delicious and nutritious’ evening meal. Mouse dumped sludgy brownish material of his spoon back to his plate, where it landed on the greenish spongy material masquerading as vegetable. “High school cafeteria food. Contracts awarded annually to the same lowest bidder. Everything looking like it’d been dumped into a mixmaster and served out with a mechanic’s grease gun.”

Tundra laughed quietly. “I remember back, with The People, we’d be living a hundred miles north of the nearest Walmart. We’d head out onto the ice, same as our stone age ancestors, to find food to get us through the hard spots in winter. Bear, caribou, seal. Sometimes, when we were really lucky we’d find a whale, bowhead or beluga, so we’d jump into our boats and reel them in with harpoons.” He spit out something hard, and it clanked when it hit his plate. “Traditions are traditions, so we ate the greasy meat raw, for the spirit of the whale. I’m not sure what this is, but I think its spirit came from a soybean field next to a sewage treatment center.

Saint Sid simply made the sign of the cross and began muttering last rights in latin over his tray.

Handsome Devil barely noticed. What he did notice was the blonde female technician slowly making her way through the crowded dining area filled with felons slowly shoveling the grimy sludge from their trays to their faces. New hire, he thought. Non-crims who’d been here any length of time knew better than cutting through the cafeteria during mealtimes. Still, he noted, she had fine calves, and she negotiated her way along with an interesting combination of boldness and grace, never touching table or inmate as she moved, toward their table and the exit door just behind it.

“What do you think, Devil?” asked Mouse.

“Yeah.” mumbled Tundra. “ What do you think?”

Sid merely finished his prayer and turned to watch the devil with his weird ball-bearing eyes.

She was nearly there. “What do I think?” echoed the Devil. “Well, it’s funny you should ask…” Handsome’s pointed tail slid out into the aisle, intercepting the tech as she ghosted past. A quick ankle hook, and she sprawled neatly into the horned scrapper’s waiting arms. She made a low squeaking noise as she fell, but froze solid when she saw the Devil’s blue eyes and wide grin beaming down at her.

“No need to get grabby, ma’am. Plenty of the Devil to go around.” He smirked at her obvious terror. The occupants of the mess hall hooted loudly at the accident, cheering the Devil on. “Easy now lil’ dum…”. Anne Blaze. Her disguise was good, probably gov: hairstyle and color, glasses, some trick teeth that changed her lip line. But Handsome had no doubt: For some reason a Charter Member of the Alliance of Champions was decked out in a tech uniform and was attempting a covert exfil from the Zig.

The cheers were quieting. This was about to become a predicament.

Handsome quickly set Blaze back on her feet, and pivoted to address the room, blocking her partially from sight. When the scrapper spoke, it was a full-room oratory address voice. “You know what this reminds me of?”

The nearby members of FORCE glanced at each other. The Devil unobtrusively tail-tapped the Alliance hero to move her along as he stepped up from the floor to his chair, to the table-top. “You know what this is exactly like?”

The normal clanking clatter of plates and plastic cutlery came to a halt, and all eyes turned to the Devil. Unnoticed by anyone, Blaze continued toward the exit door as Handsome turned up the intensity to 1938 Berlin.

“In the early seventies, some high-forehead types paid two groups of thirty college kids to live together over the summer in sealed apartment complexes. Three months. Regular food and supplies were brought in through a connected room, but neither group was allowed to see or talk to the folks delivering. The first group wasn’t told anything else, they were the control. ”

“The other group, they were special. They were the point of the whole show. All the kids had envelopes left for them in the communal living room. Half the kids were given little badges, with the simple message ‘You are a guard.’ The other half got little armbands and were told ‘You are prisoners.’ That’s it. No further instruction, no contact with the outside for ninety days.”

“The first group figured out a cooking rotation, and a cleaning rotation, folks devised their own sleeping arrangements, and pretty much did their own thing. Which was the idea.”

“The second group… Within a month the ‘prisoners’ were doing all the cooking and cleaning. By the end of the second month, the ‘guards’ were withholding food for ‘rules infractions’, like being up past curfew, sleeping in, not getting work done, or excessive complaining, By the end of the third month, beatings were administered by the ‘guards’ for these sort of rules infractions.”

“These were not trained corrections officers. These were not convicted felons. These were college kids making a few bucks by participating in a University-sanctioned experiment.”

“What the lab-coats found most amazing was that by the third month, the ‘prisoners’ stopped talking about escape. They stopped talking about how they were being mistreated. After sixty days the label had stuck, and all they wanted to do was ‘serve their time’ and get out.”

A couple of Cholos gang-members snickered. A heavily tattooed biker laughed out loud. “So?” he called. “So what?”

The Devil smiled. Time for the kill. “Look down at your plates, prisoners. You think folks on the outside would eat that? They put better stuff in their trash. They feed their dogs better than what you got.”

An entire room of harden criminals looked simultaneously down at their plates. You could almost hear the teeth grinding.

“It took sixty days to whip Mr. Big Man On Campus and his Best Girlfriend Cheerleader from civilians to prisoners. How long you been inside, ‘esse? You know the government pays prisons like this one ten to fifteen dollars per inmate for each and every meal? How much you think you got on your plate, White–boy? That look like a Happy Meal to you? Supersized? With an extra toy?”

The serving crew behind the food trays were looking around the room nervously. The guards were all busy whispering into their radios for immediate back-up.

The Devil walked up and down his table like a preacher at a pulpit, getting to the hellfire portion of his sermon. “Listen to me, convicts. This is no prison. This here is a controlled environment. A rehabilitative science laboratory. And on the way in, each and every one of us got an envelope that said ‘you are a prisoner’. So now the man tells you when to sleep, when to wake up, when to go outside and play, when to come back in, when to shower, and when to take a dump. And right now, brothers, the man is putting that tray of goop, sludge the SPCA would be on his butt for if he fed it to his dog, and he’s saying, ‘eat up, prisoner’.”

The Devil wound up and sent four trays flying from the table, food splattering across the floor and walls.

“I AM NO PRISONER!” bellowed the Devil. YOU CAN’T MAKE ME ONE! I AM NO PRISONER!” The scrapper jumped to another table, and kicked more trays aside. “YOU WANNA FEED ME LIKE I’M AN ANIMAL? I’LL SHOW YOU AN ANIMAL!”

Suddenly the cafeteria was filled with trays, mostly flying in the general direction of the serving crew, and a few toward the increasingly agitated guards. There was a sudden roar as fifty, then a hundred hardened felons shoved back their chairs and lept to their feet.

“Take your food and cram it!”

“No man’d eat this crap! Give us some food!”

“You can’t treat us like this! We have rights!”

“Pigs! Pigs! No one treats me like this!”

The press of the mob shifted toward the serving line, but before it could reach it a familiar ‘tonk’ sound cut through the shouting, and plumes of dense yellow smoke erupted in their midst. CN gas. The inmates crumpled as they all began to vomit helplessly.

The Devil stood a moment longer on his table-top, smile undiminished as he glanced back toward the exit. No Alliance heroes in sight.

Then Handsome dropped like a boned fish, the chip in his head sparking and flaring his motor controls into helpless spasm.

************************************************** *********************

Handsome Devil regained consciousness in familiar surroundings: a solitary confinement cell. Even as he struggled to a sitting position, the door rattled open.

Powerfrost.

The tank stood quietly a moment, seeming to consider. “’Incitement to Riot’. That’s a new one for you, isn’t it?”

The Devil shrugged. Or tried to: the straight-jacket was laced extra-tight this time. “Try eating in the prison cafeteria. I’d have done it earlier but I’ve been so busy being a good little fascist earning my Freestyle Bootlicking and Superfluous Public Service Merit Badges, I just haven’t had the time.”

A much longer pause from the Warden. “You’re making it really hard keeping you on the team…”

Handsome found the energy to snarl. “Is this the part where I’m supposed to tell you how grateful I am for your efforts? How sorry I feel because of the embarrassment I caused? Good, because I really hate waiting around for that. If you want me out, drop me. If you can. If you can’t, then accept that you’re stuck with me. For goodness sake, you’re a hero: A little heroic stoicism, please.”

The Ice Tank took a deep breath and turned to leave, but the Devil spoke before he could move. “Have you seen Anne Blaze around recently?”

Powerfrost turned back. “The Alliance member? No. Why?”

Handsome gave another half-shrug. “If you should happen to see her, you know, before I’m out, please tell her that’s it’s been a while since I’ve seen her, but that I hope to again before too long.”

The Warden gave the bound Devil a long, appraising look. “If I see her I’ll mention it.”

Handsome smiled. “Thanks boss. You’re the greatest. Now could you please shut that door? It’s drafty in here and this jacket isn’t nearly as warm as you’d think.”

Powerfrost signaled the guard and the door of the cell clanked secure. Anne Blaze, he thought, walking back toward his office. The Devil never asked for anything innocuous without an ulterior motive or three behind it. The only question then was, was Handsome working an angle on the F.O.R.C.E. commander, or Anne Blaze?

((Bump... Expect a Sid story soon. ))

Some people have good timing. Some people have bad timing. And then, some people have the worst possible timing available. Happy, however, gets to fall into a new, previously undiscovered category, one that could possibly pull the Heart of Gold straight out of the Hitchhiker's Guide books and into existance.

He'd actually been allowed to patrol on his own earlier that day. He'd been showing some marked improvement since the interchange began, and appeared to have his episodes completely under control, so the thought was no harm could be done by letting him roam a bit. He was sent to Steel Canyon to help clear out a few of the Outcasts that were roughing up some of the local business owners. However, he was detained at the Zig's gates by a guard who didn't believe they'd let him out by himself, and could only arrive in time to call the paramedics for one of Subgenics sales clerks after a Lead Shocker had blasted him badly enough to send him into cardic arrest, and then had to wait as the only ambulance able to respond had just picked up a patient and was en route to the hospital. The coroner arrived later to take his statement just as the dead man's family showed up to take him out to lunch...for his birthday. All Jake could do was walk over and apologize to the family for not being able to be there in time.

Doing nothing to give the family some closure wasn't an option, so he set out to find the responsible Outcast, and began a search. He found the scumbag, just as a Circle of Thorns acolyte plunged a serrated blade into his belly and disembowled him. Once again, a step too slow.

Trying to get rid of this streak of bad luck he found himself on, he leaped off to take his frustration out on anything bearing the Outcast symbol, and pummelled a few of the gangers into submission, when a loud whistle grabbed his attention. He hurried to the source to find his old fire chief directing heroes on how to put out a fire that had started in one of the skyscrapers, and he walked up and asked if he could help. The chief didn't recognize him at first, and handed him a backpack, told him to fire the stream of water at any fires he saw, and then told him to watch out, as Hellions were making runs at the building and starting new fires.

He smiled, happy to be back in his old line of work in some shape or form, but such streaks of bad luck and timing are not broken so easily. He tried to save the building, but everytime he aimed his water stream at a blaze, a new one would have started up that demanded more attention. Everytime he spotted the new arsonists, it was just after they'd managed to start a new fire. It didn't take long for the already ravaged building to finally succumb to the flames, and when it did, the explosion leveled nearly a city block, putting his former fire chief, several heroes, and a handful of pedestrians in critical condition and into the burn ward at the hospital. He tried to help get people free from the rubble, and the first person he carried to safety was his old chief, who picked that moment to recognize him and panic that someone responsible for the fire based destruction of apartments was near the fire that'd just gone out of control. Just before he passed out, he sent a distress call to the rest of his unit about Jake's presence, and they showed up quickly and suggested that Jake vacate the area before they found a way to blame this on him.

Now he just wanted to get back to his cell, and sleep this off, but he knew he had to eat. He looked at the clock on the wall in the guard station, and noticed that he'd shown up five minutes too late to get the meal they usually delivered to his room to minimize his contact with the other prisoners, so he was forced to go to the dining hall. He took his tray without incident, and had just sat down to eat...whatever this was supposed to be...when he heard a familiar voice speak up, obviously wanting to be heard throughout the room.

“In the early seventies, some high-forehead types paid two groups of thirty college kids to live together over the summer in sealed apartment complexes. Three months. Regular food and supplies were brought in through a connected room, but neither group was allowed to see or talk to the folks delivering. The first group wasn’t told anything else, they were the control. ”

People started to look up from their plates. Some of them probably hadn't done so in this room in years. A few eyes landed on Jake's face, and the people those eyes were attached to elbowed neighbors, with murmurings of,"Hey, isn't that the guy you said what put you in here," and "Him...he's the one!" and "Lookie here boys, I think it's time for a little payback."

“The second group… Within a month the ‘prisoners’ were doing all the cooking and cleaning. By the end of the second month, the ‘guards’ were withholding food for ‘rules infractions’, like being up past curfew, sleeping in, not getting work done, or excessive complaining, By the end of the third month, beatings were administered by the ‘guards’ for these sort of rules infractions.”

More people turned to look at the former hero. "Look...the horned guy's giving us some cover. He gives us a little more, and we move."

“I AM NO PRISONER! YOU CAN’T MAKE ME ONE! I AM NO PRISONER! YOU WANNA FEED ME LIKE I’M AN ANIMAL? I’LL SHOW YOU AN ANIMAL!”

Happy looked up, once again, a second too late. He managed to see the serial number stamped on the bottom of the trey just before it connected with his forehead, hitting hard enough to knock him out of his seat and onto the floor. A second later, he could only register a dozen or so fists with makeshift brass knuckles, forks, and butterknives flailing at him. He reactively tried to activate his fire shields, but the collar that he was forced to wear at all times inside the prison blocked the message from reaching his body, and the beating continued until one of the knife bearing gangers accidentally damaged the collar, and allowed Jake the use of his powers again.

He immediately activated his shields, forcing all the gang members to jump off of him. He looked around, hoping that a nearby guard could come to his aid, but they were all busy with the riot that was ensuing around him. He shook his head to clear it, and saw the gangers rushing back toward him to try again. Out of options, he jumped up above their heads, willed his fire sword into existance, and came down spinning, holding the sword out to hit as many of them as possible. He managed to hit them all, but noticed at the last second that a guard had managed to come over and see what the problem was, and ended up taking the full force of that attack, and he wasn't breathing now.

The gangers were all incapacitated, so Happy dropped his shields, and knelt over the fallen guard and started to check his vital signs. He reached up to the neck to try and find a pulse, when he heard,"The [censored]'s gonna strangle him! Put him down!", followed by the sensations of a half dozen submachine gun rounds, three tranquilizer darts, and a severe electrical discharge at the base of his spine.

Of course, his timing had to work against him one last time, as the electrical charge jolted him to his feet and locked him in place there as it knocked him out, and a few guards took the opportunity to get in a few last shots before his body slumped bonelessly to the ground.