Superfreaks/ACRA: Superfreaks #16
Martin Phipps
martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 17 21:31:01 PST 2006
Michael King, Mary Jones and Frank Lopez: crime scene
investigators. John Phelps, Mark Johnston and Tom
Jackson: police officers. Jack Greenspan, Edward
Bailey and Samuel Leonard: medical examiners. Alan
Russell and Leroy Laurel: lawyers. These are the men
and women who are truly our last line of defense. But
what about the capes whose cases they have to
investigate? Should they be considered a help or a
hindrance?
SUPERFREAKS #16
X-FREAKS
PART I
9:01 am
"Hey! Lady! Ms. Monroe! Look, I know you're in
there! I heard you last night, you and your
boyfriend! Where's my rent, eh? It was due last
week! Okay. We're going to do it the hard way! This
is still my building and I still have a key to your
apartment! You better have something on when I come
in!
"Oh... shit."
10:10 am
"The landlord found the body at around nine o'clock
this morning," Detective John Phelps said. "Apparent
cause of death is asphixiation."
Detective Michael King nodded. "Getting wrapped
from head to toe with plastic will do that," he said.
"From the expression on her face," John said, "I'd
say she was conscious the whole time."
Michael grimaced. "How on Earth did the killer wrap
the plastic around her so quickly that she couldn't
break free?"
"Maybe she was drugged," Detective Mary Jones
suggested. Just then, her cell phone rang. She
answered it. "Hello? Speaking. Okay. I'll be right
there." She closed her phone. "Sorry, guys, but
there's been a shooting at the airport. I have to
go."
Michael nodded. "That's okay. We'll handle things
here."
John looked down at the body and shook his head
sadly. "Terrible way to go."
10:43 am
"So what do we have here?" Mary asked.
Officer Mark Johnston pointed to the body. It was
still in the position it had been when it was found:
on the floor in front of a row of seats. "Small
caliber entry wounds to the head," he said. "No
witnesses."
"Passport identifies him as John Smith from Mountain
Dew, Pennsylvania," Officer Tom Jackson added.
"How could nobody have seen it happen?" Mary asked.
"I guess people were all too busy doing their own
thing," Tom suggested.
"Or perhaps this was a professional hit," Mark said,
"and the killer did it in such a way that nobody
noticed he was even there."
Mary nodded. "Perhaps. If he was sitting down when
he was shot then it might have seemed as though he had
just collapsed."
"Or fallen asleep," Mark suggested.
Mary grimaced. "Alright. There's no reason to
leave the body here. Let's get him to the morgue
ASAP. I'll stick around for a moment and see if I
can't see anything on any of the airport security
cams."
1:23 pm
"Another body?" Jack Greenspan asked.
"Yeah," Michael said. He and Frank Lopez were
carrying the body of the asphixiation victim into the
morgue.
"I'm a bit busy right now with this morning's
shooting victim."
"That's okay," Michael said. "We need to get all
this plastic off of her first."
"Why the hell is she wrapped in plastic anyway?"
"That's how she died. She suffocated."
"My God."
2:01 pm
"Edward?"
"Yeah?" Edward Bailey said.
"These bullets were taken from our shooting victim
at the airport," Mary told him.
"You're kidding."
"No. Why would you say that?"
"There's no gun I know that would use bullets this
small."
"We think it was a professional killer. Could it
have been a customized weapon?"
"Hmm. Professional killer. Customized weapon.
Sounds a bit cloak and dagger. Maybe we should bring
in an expert."
"I thought we were experts."
"I mean Feds. The FBI. This is more in their
league."
"Okay. I'll speak to Michael and ask permission to
get them involved."
2:35 pm
"Michael, we need some help with a case."
"What kind of help?"
Mary sighed. "I want to contact the FBI and have
them bring in an expert on contract killings. We
think a professional killer was responsible for the
shooting at the airport this morning."
Michael nodded. "We'll have two FBI agents here
tomorrow morning."
Mary's eyes widenned. "That was fast. I hadn't
even made the request yet."
Michael smiled. "I contacted the FBI about the
other case we're working on, the Monroe murder. I
wanted to know if any of them had heard of any other
case in which a person was killed by suffocation in
plastic the way she was. They hadn't. So they're
sending a couple of experts."
"Experts?"
"In unusual cases. Apparently they have agents who
seek out this sort of case."
"Who?"
Michael thought for a moment. "Special Agents Lana
Lewis and Oscar Unger."
"Lana Lewis? That name sounds familiar."
Michael nodded. "Yeah. I met her a few weeks ago
in Saint Michael. You know, the town upstate that was
destroyed by Zon."
"So this is going to be a reunion of sorts."
Michael smiled. "It's not like we're old friends."
PART II
9:20 am
"So when does the FBI get here?" Mary asked.
"They said they'd be here at nine," Michael told
her.
"So they're late."
"Not too late."
"But still late," Mary said. "Nice tie by the way."
"I always wear a tie in cold weather."
"Uh huh," Mary said with a sly smile.
"They're here." Michael got up from his desk and
went to greet them. "Ms. Lewis, this is Detective
Mary Jones."
Lana and Mary shook hands. "Nice to meet you Ms.
Jones. I'd like you both to meet Special Agent Oscar
Unger."
Michael and Oscar shook hands. "I appreciate you
both coming so quickly."
Oscar nodded. "Shall we go take a look at the
evidence you've collected?"
9:35
"Lana, Oscar, this is Edward Bailey. Edward, these
are Special Agents Lana Lewis and Oscar Unger from the
FBI."
Edward nodded. "Nice to meet you. You're just in
time. I seem to have blown this case wide open."
"Have you?" Lana said.
Edward raised his eyebrows. "I have. I managed to
find a fingerprint on the plastic."
Michael was puzzled. "I thought you said you
couldn't find a match for the fingerprint on the
national database."
"I couldn't. But then I widenned my scope to
hospitals and clinics."
"Hospitals are keeping records of fingerprints now?"
Oscar asked.
"Some do," Edward said. "Mental hospitals for
example. People who haven't commited any crimes won't
have police records but some hospitals keep records of
their patients fingerprints in case they do."
"So the killer's a mental patient?" Mary asked.
"Maybe. He's actually listed on the website of a
private clinic owned and operated by a Doctor Carlos
Javier. There's a picture and a name but no details."
"What's the name?" Michael asked.
"Mylar."
"That's it?"
"Yeah."
Michael nodded. "Then we'll have to go speak to
this Doctor Javier and find out what he knows."
Lana smiled. "I guess we weren't needed after all
then," she said.
"Not necessarily," Michael said. "You're welcome to
come with me to speak to this Doctor Javier. Mary has
another case she's working on."
Mary nodded. "Yeah. Mr. Unger, what do you know
about professional killers who use small caliber
weapons at short range? We had somebody killed that
way at the airport yesterday and it looks like a
professional job."
"Sounds intriguing," Oscar said.
"Oh!" Edward interjected. "One more thing!"
"What is it?" Michael asked.
"The victim in the Mylar case. She's also on
Javier's website."
10:29 am
"So, Doctor Javier," Michael said, "you knew both
the killer and the victim."
Carlos Javier nodded sadly. "Martin Mylar had
difficulty accepting his powers. He didn't see the
ability to wrap things in plastic as a gift from God.
He saw the powers as Satan's work and he was convinced
that others like him were evil as well."
"So the victim also had powers?" Lana asked.
Javier nodded. "Monroe had super hearing and X-ray
vision."
"So it's hard to imagine Mr. Mylar sneaking up on
her," Michael pointed out.
Javier nodded. "She obviously didn't perceive him
as a threat."
Michael nodded. "We're going to need all your
patient records."
"All of them?" Javier asked.
"Absolutely," Michael told him. "Any one of your
patients could be his next victim so the more we know
about them the better."
"Alright," Xavier said, "but it will take some
time."
"You could just give us Mr. Mylar's information for
now," Lana suggested.
"Yeah," Michael said, "we'll have somebody come by
this afternoon to pick up the rest of the records."
11:39 am
"I was able to recover this footage from the airport
security cameras," Mary told Oscar. "See? This man
walks past our victim and then, moments later, our
victim collapses. Dead."
"But you can't see his face."
"Right. But we can identify him from what he's
wearing. Now, look at what we have here on another
camera."
"Can you get a close up of his face?"
"Yeah. How's that?"
"Can you enhance it?"
"Sure. Does he look familiar?"
"James."
"Excuse me?"
"James. Brad James. British Secret Service Agent
Brad James."
"He's a British government agent?" Mary asked.
"What's he doing killing people on American soil?"
"That's what our people are going to have to work
out with their people."
"Work out?" Mary asked incredulously. "What's there
to work out? He's got no right to kill people here!"
"Actually, he does," Oscar pointed out. "He's been
granted presidential authorisation to execute enemies
of democracy anywhere in the world."
"But our victim was John Smith from Mountain Dew,
Virginia. He was no enemy of democracy."
"Apparently he was. We'll need to send all you have
on the victim so the Brits can tell us who he really
was and why James had to kill him."
"I don't believe this," Mary said, appalled. "A man
is dead and you want to investigate the victim."
"It's politics," Oscar explained. "We need to give
them a chance to explain why he was here and what he
was doing."
"I thought the cold war was over," Mary complained.
"The cold war with the soviets, perhaps, there will
always be work for people like Brad James."
1:03 pm
"This is the address in Mylar's file," Lana said.
"Right," Michael said. "We'll have to split up.
You check that room over there and I'll check this
room right here."
"That sounds like a good idea," Mary said, without a
hint of irony.
A few minutes after they had split up, Michael heard
Lana scream. He ran to the other room and found Lana
wrapped in plastic and suffocating. Michael didn't
have a knife so he quickly took a pen out of his
pocket and used it to make a hole in the plastic so
she could breathe.
"He's getting away," she said.
Of course, Mylar must have just been there. Michael
stood up, took out his gun and looked around the room.
"He got past you," Lana said. "Check outside."
Michael ran out of the room and out the front door
of the apartment. There was no sign of him. He went
back to check on Lana.
"He's gone," Michael said.
"That's okay," Lana said. "He's incredibly fast.
He had covered my whole body with plastic before I
even knew he was there. Do you think you could get
this off of me?"
Michael nodded. "I'll go look for a knife."
1:33 pm
Naomi Chen looked up from her reception desk and saw
Suri Das standing in front of her. "Can I help you?"
"You have to save the cheerleader."
"Excuse me?"
"I had another vision. A cheerleader. She gets
covered in plastic."
"My God. Please sit down."
3:02 pm
"You wanted to talk to me?" John Phelps asked.
Suri Das nodded. "I had another vision. A woman
will get covered in plastic and she will die if we
don't save her."
John nodded. "We had a case like that already. Are
you sure you are seeing the future and not the past."
Suri shook his head. "No. This is a different
woman. I described her to your Mr. Frank Lopez and he
drew this picture of her."
"Oh my God."
"Do you know her?" Suri asked, his eyes widening.
John nodded. "This is a picture of my daughter."
PART III
7:15 am
"You never had time for us before!" John's wife
complained. "Now when your daughter's life is in
danger you want to spend time with her!"
"Susan, come on! You know how much responsibility I
have! I'm the head of the precinct! That's not a
strictly nine to five job!"
"If you're so busy then find somebody else to be her
bodyguard!"
"No," John said, "this case is the precinct's number
one priority right now and I want to handle it
myself!"
"Oh, I see! So it isn't that you want to spend time
with your daughter at all! You just want to solve the
case!"
"Oh God! I want Katherine to be safe! I want all
the Katherines out there to be safe! I don't want a
mad man out there running around killing people!"
"Why can't Katherine just stay home then?"
"Because Suri Das doesn't know when Martin Mylar
will strike. He doesn't even know when it will
happen."
"Suri Das?"
"He's a psychic. He had a vision in which Martin
Mylar was killing our daughter."
"A psychic? You're taking orders from psychics now?
When did the freaks take over? Why are the freaks
telling you what to do?"
John grimaced. "Look. He's a genuine psychic.
We've worked with him before. He's the real deal. If
he says our daughter is in danger then I believe him.
He's not telling me what to do."
Susan nodded. "You're using our daughter as bait,
aren't you?"
"No!"
"You're the one putting her in danger so you can
catch this killer!"
"No! Come on! What do you want? Do you want me to
tell you to leave Katherine at home and not go to
school? For how long? Until we catch this guy?"
"Sure!"
"Now who's taking orders from psychics? Look, I'll
be there the whole time. I'll make sure nothing
happens to her."
Susan calmed down. "You promise me? Nothing will
happen to her?"
"I promise." John sighed. "And, in case you're
wondering, I could have assigned somebody else to the
case, but I want to make sure that she's okay. Okay?
Plus, like you said, I hardly ever see her."
"You're certainly going to make up for it now."
"I wish it were under better circumstances. Now,
look, I'm going to go with her on the school bus and
sit with her in class all day and then come back with
her on the bus this afternoon."
"Why don't you just take her in your car?"
"Because I want everything to appear normal. If
Martin Mylar is going to try to kill her then, yes, we
do want to draw him out. So if Katherine ahs any
plans to go out tonight I want her to go out as
usual."
"He won't attack as long as you are around."
"I'll never be far away. I promise you, we will get
him and she won't be hurt."
"Alright."
8:31 am
"So," John said, "how are your classes?"
"Fine," Katherine said.
"And do you like school?"
"Yeah."
John sighed. "Look, Katherine, I'm sorry I haven't
spent a lot of time with you."
"That's okay."
"Are you sure? What has your mother said about me?"
Katherine sighed. "Look, Dad, it isn't like that.
I can think for myself." She smiled. "Look, I'm
sorry, I just don't feel like talking. What with
somebody trying to kill me and all."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize. It's not your fault."
"Do you have any idea why Martin Mylar would want to
kill you?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "From what you've told
me, he sounds like a total headcase. Why does he need
a reason to kill anybody?"
12:50 pm
"Some guys have invited me to hang out with them
after school. Is that okay?"
"If I weren't here, would you go with them?"
"Yeah."
"Then do it. That could be when Martin Mylar was
supposed to strike."
4:10 pm
"You're a friend of Katherine?" John asked one of
the girls at her school.
"Yeah."
"You're pregnant."
"Very good. Katherine told me that her father was a
police detective but he didn't tell me how observant
you were."
"So is the father anybody here? I'm just asking as
a father. I don't mean to pry."
"There is no father."
"No father?"
"I'm a lesbian. I'm having a baby with my life
partner."
"Oh I see. So you went to a sperm bank and got
artificially inseminated."
"Actually, I'm carrying her clone."
"What?"
"I'm going to have her clone and raise him while she
goes to college and then when she's finished college
she's going to have my clone and we're going to raise
them together as a family."
"Okay."
"That disturbs you, doesn't it?"
"A bit."
"Because you can't accept the idea of women having
babies without men being involved?"
"Actually..."
"AHHH!!!"
"Excuse me." John ran towards the sound of his
daughter's scream. He found her alone in an alleyway.
Mylar was nowhere to be found. John dug his
fingernails into the plastic and ripped enough away
from her face that she was able to breathe.
"He got away!" she said.
"It's okay," John said. "You're safe."
"But I thought you wanted to get the killer."
"I just wanted you to be okay."
4:15 pm
Mylar had gotten away before the cop could catch him
thanks to his super speed. Suddenly, however, he
found himself unable to move.
Three figures arrived on the scene and stood in
front of him, two men and one woman, all dressed in
everyday clothing so they could blend in with
everybody else. But they weren't like everybody else:
they were different.
"You," he said.
One of the two men, apparently their leader, nodded.
"It's over, Mylar. We're not going to let you kill
us one by one. Jean. Do it."
With Mylar held in place by her partner's power,
Jean viciously struck Mylar with her bolts of
electricity. Mylar's body shook for a few moments and
then his body just went limp.
"Did we have to do that?" the other man in the group
asked.
"Yes, Kurt, it was necessary."
"But Javier wanted us to use our powers for good."
"But Javier also knew that our powers could be used
for evil and that those of us who would choose to do
so had to be stopped."
"We'd better get going, Scott," Jean said.
"Absolutely. Kurt, open a portal for us."
Kurt used his ability to bend space and time to open
a portal that would instantly take them elsewhere in
the city. They walked through the portal and it
closed behind them.
4:59 pm
When John had gotten his bearings after his
daughter's attempted murder, he called Detective
Michael King and told him to come down right away and
take a look at the crime scene.
"I was talking to one of her friends when she was
attacked," he said apologetically, "so I didn't see
him."
"Same thing happened to me," Michael said. "He's
incredibly fast. It's not your fault. I'm just glad
your daughter's safe."
"Me too."
"Did she tell you why Mylar was after her?"
"What do you mean?"
Michael pursed his lips. "I took a look at Javier's
files. Your daughter was one of his patients."
"What?"
"Apparently she's a telepath."
John looked at his daughter. "Is this true?"
Katherine nodded. "Please don't tell mom! I don't
want her to think I'm a freak."
John was sympathetic. "I think you need to tell her
yourself. She deserves to know why somebody tried to
kill her daughter."
FBI Special Agent Lana Lewis walked up to them just
then. "I think you're all going to want to take a
look at this."
5:05 pm
Special Agent Lewis brought them to another alley.
"Does this body look familar to you?"
"That's him!" Katherine said. "That's the man who
tried to kill me."
"Obviously somebody got to him before we could,"
Michael observed.
John looked down at the body. He was a bit
disappointed: he would have liked to have been able to
catch Martin Mylar and have him face justice for what
he did. He stood over the body and bent over.
"You have the right to remain silent," he said.
THE END
Okay.
I think that turned out okay. :)
Inspiration for this issue was mainly NBC's Heroes.
They have a killer called Sylar who is killing people
with special powers and I thought I'd parody that by
having a killer called Mylar who was doing likewise.
I also managed to throw in some X-Men, X-Files and
James Bond references. I also took the opportunity to
show yet another possible use for cloning technology.
:)
Martin
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