Superfreaks/ACRA: Superfreaks Season 2 #14

[Martin Phipps]

Michael King, Mary Bailey and Lana Lewis: crime scene
investigators.  John Phelps, Mark Johnston and Tom
Jackson: police officers.  Jack Greenspan and Edward
Bailey: medical examiners.  Alan Russell and Roger
Roeper: 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 SEASON 2 #14

                        SHRANK

                        PART I

9:57 am

  "What do we have here?" Pepperton Detective Mary
Bailey asked.
  "A guy was being mugged," Detective John Phelps told
her, "and this big guy in dirty old clothes showed up
and beat the mugger to death."
  "A vigilantee, huh?  Did the witness see where he
went?"
  "Nope.  He said it happened too fast."
  "Thanks."
  Mary and her husband, Edward, moved in closer to the
body.  Frank Lopez was there taking pictures of the
scene.  Edward had spent most of his career in the lab
and was only out helping his wife because their boss
was away.
  "Awful lot of blood," Edward said.
  "That's usually how it is," his wife told him.
  "Looks different in photos," he said.
  Mary nodded.  "Smells different too."
  Edward curled his nose.  "I was going to say."
  
10:02 am

  Officer Mark Johnston had just came from having
breakfast in the donut shop when a crazed man ran up
to him.
  "You have to help me!" the man said as he grabbed
the officer's shirt.
  "Now hold on!" Mark told him.  "What's the problem?"
  "I've been poisoned."
  "Poisoned?"
  The man nodded.
  "By whom?"
  "I don't know.  I can guess."
  "Okay," Mark said, "just slow down."
  "I can't slow down!"
  "Why not?"
  "If I slow down then the poison will act more
quickly and I will die sooner!"
  "Okay, okay, just tell me your name."
  "I'm Peter Hanks."
  "Alright, Peter, who would want to kill you?"
  "I'm not sure."
  "Do you have any enemies, Peter?"
  Peter shrugged his shoulders.  "I don't know."
  "Then why would anyone want to poison you?"
  "I don't know!"
  "Okay.  Where do you work?  What do you do?"
  "I work for Goodhead Corporation."
  "Goodhead Corporation?"
  "Yeah.  I'm the one who developed the formula that
gave Edward Alexander Goodhead Junior his powers."
  "Is that so?"
  "Yeah.  Why?"
  "So how come you're not in jail, Peter.  I mean,
Goodhead used those powers to try to kill Harry Roy. 
That makes you an accomplice."
  Peter nodded.  "Right.  I got immunity."
  "Immunity?  How?"
  "I was given immunity from prosecution in exchange
for testimony against Goodhead Corporation."
  "Really?"
  "Yeah.  Why?"
  Mark sighed.  "Don't you see?  If you were going to
testify against the company then people working there
would have motive to kill you, wouldn't they."
  "Hey, yeah!  Yeah!"
  Mark nodded.  "Okay.  I'm going to need you to come
down to the station with me."
  "No!  No!  It's too late for that!  I'll be dead and
I won't be able to testify!"
  "You'll be able to make a statement."
  "You'll have nothing!  There's only one thing left
for me to do!"
  "What's that?"
  Peter wasn't a violent man but desperate times
called for desperate measures: he hit Mark squarely in
the face and knocked him out cold with a single punch.
 The poison obviously had made him stronger!  Peter
grabbed the officer's gun.  He noticed how big it
looked in his hand.  Then he noticed how baggy his
clothes were.
  "My God," he said, "the poison... it's causing me to
shrink!"

11:31 pm

  "Did you examine the epithelials we found on the
victim this morning?" Mary asked her husband.
  "Yeah.  I even ran it through DNA."
  "And?"
  "They're not human?"
  "Not human?"
  "Nope."
  "Then what are they?"
  "They're Neonian."
  "Neonian?"
  Edward nodded.  "Yep.  The DNA is a perfect match to
Extreme himself."

                        PART II

1:02 pm

  "I appreciate you coming in," Detective John Phelps
said.
  "I heard that you had my DNA," Extreme said.
  "Word travels quickly."
  "Yeah, well, I needed to know what it was about
before I'd come down."
  "Alright.  So now that you know why you're here can
you tell me why your DNA was found on our murder
victim."
  "I can't explain it."
  "No?  Are you sure?"
  "Absolutely.  I didn't kill anybody."
  "Then explain to me who would have your exact same
DNA."
  Extreme shrugged his shoulders.  "The only way that
it could be my DNA is... if it came from my clone."
  "Your clone?"
  "My God.  We assumed he was dead.  Killed by the
killer from the Negative Dimension."
  "Who?"
  "Bizarre Extreme."

2:31 pm

  "So did you check the DNA again?" John asked.
  "The DNA is still a match," Edward told him.
  "So how can we tell whether it came from Extreme or
his clone?"
  Edward smiled.  "There's the DNA from the nucleus. 
That's a match to extreme.  But then there's the
mitochondrial DNA.  That's a match to the mother."
  "The mother?"
  Edward nodded.  "Sure.  At the early stages, the
clone embryo grows inside of a living woman.  It is
only when the fetus is viable that it gets transfered
to an incubator, given fast acting growth hormones and
grown into an adult clone."
  "My God."
  "It's the only safe way for Extreme to get an
ordinary human female pregnant.  That and sperm doning
I suppose."
  "Too true," John said, thinking back to that time
Extreme accidentally killed a woman while having sex
with her.  "So our suspect is definitely Bizarre
Extreme and not Extreme himself then?"
  "That's what the evidence tells us," Edward told
him.
  John nodded.  "Okay.  Thanks."

2:45 pm

  "Frank?"
  Frank Lopez looked up from his computer.  "Yeah,
boss?"
  "Frank, we've identified our suspect as Bizarre
Extreme."
  "Okay."
  "He looks exactly like Extreme but our witness said
he had a beard.  Could you draw a picture of what
Extreme would look like with a beard?"
  Frank smiled.  "I can do better than that."  Frank
called up a picture of Extreme on his computer.
  "Okay," John said, "but we want a picture of him
with a beard."
  Frank laughed.  "Just wait."  Frank imported the
Extreme photo into his paint program.  "Now watch
this."  Frank used the software to draw a beard onto
Extreme's picture.  "How's that?"
  "Great.  Can you print it out for me?"
  "Sure."

3:02 pm

  "Thanks for waiting."
  "No problem."
  John showed him the picture.  "We confirmed that the
attacker was Bizarre Extreme.  This is what we believe
he looks like now."
  Extreme nodded.  "That's very thoughtful of you, but
I think I'm going to know him when I see him.  He is,
after all, my clone."
  "Just bring him in for us," John said.  "The mugging
victim says he was only trying to help."
  "I won't hurt him if I don't have to," Extreme told
him.  "Bizarre Extreme is, after all, like a son to
me."

                       PART III

3:30 pm

  "Two murder victims in one day?" temporary
replacement CSI Edward Bailey asked.
  "Some days are like that," his wife Mary, a full
Pepperton City Police Detective told him.
  "So what do we have this time?"
  "Looks like our victim was shot as he was coming out
of his car."
  "Right.  I'll look around for the gun."
  Mary smiled.  "It's not going to be that easy," she
said.  "Killers usually dump their guns in a trash can
or in a river.  They don't make it that easy."
  "Oh really," Edward said as he picked up what
appeared to be the murder weapon.  "Then what's this?"

3:36 pm

  Extreme flew down as soon as he spotted the usually
buff homeless man crouched in an alleyway.
  "Bizarre?" he asked.  "Is that you?"
  "Father?" he asked.
  Extreme nodded.  "Yes.  It's me."
  "Don't take me back.  I'm not a child.  I can help
people."
  Extreme raised his eyebrows: the last time he saw
Bizarre Extreme, he could barely speak.
  "I'm sorry," he said, "but you don't belong out
here."
  "I don't want to go back!"
  "Bizarre, you killed a man."
  "He was a bad man.  He was hurting that man."
  "That may be," Extreme said, "but it wasn't
necessary to kill him."
  "I didn't mean to."
  "I'm sure you didn't," Extreme said.  "You see, you
don't know your own strength: you forget how fragile
these humans are.  That is why you must come back with
me."
  "No!"
  "No!  I won't go!"
  Extreme sighed.  "I'm afraid you're going to have
to.  What you did was a crime.  And even if you didn't
mean to do it, it was still wrong.  You can't stay
here."
  "Yes, I can!  You can't make me come with you!"
  "Actually, I can.  Don't make me do this, Bizarre. 
It doesn't have to be this way."
  "Go away!" he screamed.  "Leave me alone!"
  Extreme sighed.  "I can't do that."
  "No!"  Bizarre Extreme attacked him but Extreme held
him back.
  "I'm stronger than you, Bizarre.  You know how this
is going to end."
  Bizarre got a better footing and managed to put
Extreme off balance and threw him against a wall.
  "I won't go!" he said.
  "Okay," Extreme said, impressed by his 'son's'
strength and determination, "but you're going to have
to kill me then.  Is that what you want?"
  "No."
  "Then release me."
  "I won't go back!"
  "You will go back!"
  "No!"
  "Look, Bizarre, we have people there who can teach
you."
  "They never taught me.  They treated me as a child."
  "They did try," Extreme told him, "but you've
developed since then, haven't you?"
  Bizarre Extreme nodded.  "I'm not stupid.  I'm smart
now."
  "So you are."
  "I'm not a child!"
  "No, and you're not going to act like one, are you? 
You're going to do as I say."
  Bizarre Extreme loosened his grip on his 'father'. 
"Alright," he said.
  "That's better.  Come on.  Fly back with me to
Extreme Force Headquarters.  Can you do that?"
  "Yes."
  "Alright then."

5:01 pm

  "Where have you been?" Detective John Phelps asked
Officer Mark Johnston.
  "Some guy attacked me.  He stole my gun."
  "When?"
  "This morning?"
  "Where have you been since then?"
  "I was knocked unconscious."
  "Nobody took you to a hospital?"
  Mark shrugged his shoulders.  "That's Pepperton for
you.  Nobody wants to get involved."
  "And you just got here?"
  Mark nodded.  "Just came to a half an hour ago. 
Why?"
  John sighed.  "Mark, your gun has been used in a
homocide."
  "No!"
  "I'm afraid so.  It's definitely your gun that was
used to kill Goodhead CEO Joel Byrne early this
afternoon: the bullet matches the bullet that killed
Craig Franklin a year ago.  You know, the
Exterminator?"
  "I remember?" Mark said.  "So what happens now?"
  John sighed.  "I'm going to need your badge," he
told him.  "Pending an investigation into this murder,
you're off the force until further notice."

                    TO BE CONTINUED

Martin


       
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