[Superfreaks/ACRA] Superfreaks Season 2 #10

Martin Phipps martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Sat May 5 06:03:14 PDT 2007


Michael King, Mary Bailey and Frank Lopez: crime scene
investigators.  John Phelps, Mark Johnston and Tom
Jackson: police officers.  Jack Greenspan and Edward
Bailey: medical examiners.  Alan Russell and Cliff
Murdock: 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 #10

                       TURNING POINTS

                           PART I

9:30 am

  Detective Michael King was in Jake's Jewelry store
picking out a ring when a man in a mask walked in and
stuck a gun in the clerk's face.
  "Give me all the diamonds you have under this
counter here!" he said.
  Michael pulled out his gun and placed it against the
thief's head.  "Pepperton Police," he said.  "Put it
down."
  "You wouldn't shoot me, copper!" the thief said.
  "I'm going to give you the count of three.  One. 
Two."
  "Okay," the thief said as he put down the gun.
  "Keep your hands up where I can see them," Michael
said as he picked up the thief's gun and put it in his
pocket, all the while keeping his own gun trained on
him.  "Okay," he said, "you're under arrest."

10:25 am

  After bringing the thief to Pepperton Precinct One
and formally charging him with armed robbery, Michael
went to the morgue to check on another case.
  "What do we have here, Jack?" Michael asked.
  "I've never seen anything like this," Pepperton
Chief Coroner Jack Greenspan told him.  "This man's
head was cut right off."
  Michael bent over to take a closer look.  "What kind
of weapon could do this?"
  Jack shrugged his shoulders.  "A katana blade. 
Maybe.  But the killer would have had to have used
extreme force."
  Michael nodded.  "So this would have had to have
been a professional killing.  With a katana blade.  We
don't get too many like this in Pepperton."  Michael
saw another body over on the other table.  "What
happened here?" he asked.
  "Harry Paul.  Late twenties.  Tourist from England. 
It would appear he died from food poisoning."
  "No evidence of foul play?"
  "None whatsoever.  A cab driver said he looked sick.
 He brought him to a hospital and he died on the way
there."
  Michael nodded.  "Still, if he's a tourist then he
would have had to have died from something he ate in a
restuarant or in his hotel.  I'll get Mary to
investigate.  Let her know what food you find in his
stomach, if any."
  "Sure."
  "Meanwhile, I'm going to talk to somebody who claims
to be an expert when it comes to ninjas."

1:20 pm

  "Thanks for coming down," Michael said.
  "What's this all about?" Weapon Alpha asked.
  "We found a man beheaded last night."
  "Are you accusing me...?"
  Michael shook his head.  "There's no indication that
the man was killed using retractable claws.  We think
the murder weapon was a katana blade."
  "A katana blade?"
  "Yeah.  You once told me there were ninjas operating
out of Pepperton."
  Weapon Alpha nodded.  "They are usually pretty good
at covering their tracks."
  "Yeah, well, this time it looks as though somebody
got sloppy."
  "What do you want me to do?"
  "Just answer my questions.  Where can we find these
ninjas."
  "I don't know.  We usually just tend to run into
each other."
  Michael raised an eyebrow.  "Really?  See now I've
been living in Pepperton for over ten years and I've
never run into any ninjas."
  "Yeah but I have enhanced senses."
  "So what?  Are these ninjas invisible?"
  "They might as well be.  They disappear into the
shadows.  You could be looking right at them and not
see them.  They almost always operate at night."
  "Fair enough," Michael said.  "If you see any ninjas
then let me know."

2:20 pm (local time in Japan)

  "Master Ninja!"
  "Yes, Watanabe, what is it?"
  "Look at this newspaper."
  Watanabe showed the Master Ninja the newspaper.  The
headline read "Man Killed By Ninjas" and there was a
picture of his severed head.  The article said the man
died in Pepperton.
  The Ninja Master nodded.  "Pack my things,
Watanabe," he said.  "I'm going to Pepperon."

                       PART II

11:10 am

  "Who are you?"
  Mary showed him her badge.  "Detective Mary Bailey. 
Pepperton Police.  Are you Philip Martin?"
  "Yaeh.  What's this all about?"
  Mary showed him a picture.  "Do you know this man?"
  Philip nodded.  "Yeah.  That's Harry Paul.  What
happened to him?"
  "He's dead."
  "Dead?"
  Mary nodded.  "Food poisoning."
  "Food poisoning?"
  "Was he staying with you?"
  Philip nodded.  "Yeah.  We met over the internet. 
On a newsgroup.  Anyway, he said he wanted to come
visit Pepperton and I said I'd put him up for a
night."
  "Did you give him anything to eat?"
  "Just breakfast.  Sausage and eggs.  But I ate it
too."
  "Did the two of you go to any restaurants?"
  Philip nodded.  "Yeah.  The night he came we went to
a pub."
  "What did he have to eat?"
  "The fish."
  "Did you have fish?"
  "No.  I had chicken."
  Mary nodded.  "That could be it then.  Give me the
name and address of this place you went to."
  "Sure."

12:10 pm

  The Master Ninja was able to get into the crime
scene without anybody seeing him.  He wanted to know
if the ninja responsible for the beheading two days
ago was the same one responsible for a similar murder
that took place a week ago in Odong, Japan and,
further, if the one responsible for these murders was
really one of his students.
  Just then, Officer Tom Jackson appeared on the
scene.  He pulled his gun out.  "Stop right there," he
said.
  "I am not the one you want," the Master Ninja said.
  "I don't know." Tom said.  "We're looking for a
ninja and you're the first ninja I've seen all day."
  The Master Ninja did not want to hurt the man: he
was just doing his job.  Without Tom even noticing,
the Master Ninja took some smoke powder out of one of
his pockets.  He then threw it on the floor.
  "Hey!" Tom said.  The smoke got in his eyes and he
started coughing.  When he looked up again, the Master
Ninja was gone.

1:03 pm

  "Can I get you anything, Miss?"
  "Actually you can.  I'm Detective Mary Bailey of the
Pepperton Police.  Three days ago a customer ate here
and the next day he was dead.  It was food poisoning."
  "Food poisoning?  My God!"
  "So I need you to give me some of the fish you
served him."
  "Fish.  Right.  You know we don't have a lot of
people ask for fish."
  "Perhaps that's just as well."

2:45 pm

  "Well?"
  Edward Bailey was looking through a microscope at a
trace of the fish sample that Mary had brought from
the restaurant.  "This stuff is teeming with
bacteria!"
  "Enough to kill somebody?"
  "Yeah."  He looked up.  "So are you going to shut
down the restaurant?"
  "That's for the health inspector to decide."  She
took out her cell phone.  "I'll give him a call right
now."

9:12 pm

  "You!"  Weapon Alpha spotted the ninja that he had
been trailing since the day before.
  "Now that you have seen me," the ninja said, "I
can't allow you to live."
  Weapon Alpha popped his claws.  "Just what I was
thinking."  Weapon Alpha moved in for the kill but the
ninja was too fast: in one motion he took out his
katana blade and sliced open the hero's chest.  Weapon
Alpha fell to the ground and layed in an ever
widenning pool of blood.  The evil ninja was going to
finish him off when somebody else arrived at the
scene.
  "Yoshida!" he said.
  "Koboyashi!"
  The Master Ninja drew his katana blade and
threatened Yoshida with it.  "This killing must stop."
  "You are going to have to kill me!" Yoshida said.
  "Very well!" the Master Ninja said.
  And so the fight began.  The fight went on for quite
some time, mainly in an effort for the writer to pad
an otherwise sparse story.  Finally, the Master Ninja
struck a killing blow.
  "You were my finest student, Yoshida.  The blood on
your hands is also on mine."
  "Go to Hell," Yoshida told him.  Then he died.
  "I probably will," the Master Ninja said.  The
Master Ninja then went to check on Weapon Alpha.  He
found a pulse.
  "My God," he said, "this man is still alive!"

                        PART III

7:01 am

  Mary Bailey sat up in bed and turned the alarm off. 
She then rushed into the bathroom.  Edward followed
her into the bathroom after hearing what sounded like
his wife throwing up.
  "Are you okay?" he asked.
  "I am now," Mary said.
  "You didn't eat any of the fish, did you?"
  "Of course not."
  "Did you handle any of it without washing your hands
afterwards."
  "Of course I didn't handle it.  Not without gloves
anyway.  It was evidence."
  "Yeah but if you handle something with gloves and
then you take the gloves off and handle the gloves
then you're still getting stuff on your hand."
  Mary smiled.  "It's sweet of you to be concerned
but, no, I didn't get anything on my hands and, yes, I
do wash my hands after taking off gloves."
  Edward nodded.  "Okay.  But perhaps you should go
see a doctor anyway."
  "Sure.  I'll make an appointment as soon as I have
time."
  "You should make time.  Today."
  "We'll see.  Michael already requested a leave of
absense today to go see Lana in Washington.  I'll try
to make time during lunch."
  "Okay.  Fair enough."

8:02 am

  Weapon Alpha woke up in a hotel room.  There were
bandages covering where he had been cut the day before
by the evil ninja's katana blade.  He took a look
under the bandages: the wounds were completely healed.
 Then he realized that he wasn't alone.
  "I brought some ointments with me," the Master Ninja
said, "and some bandages.  I take it your wounds have
healed up."
  "I would have healed anyway," Weapon Alpha said.
  "Are you sure?  The cut was pretty deep."
  "I've survived worse."  He sat up.  "If you were
worried then you should have taken me to a hospital."
  The Master Ninja nodded.  "I acted quickly to
prevent infection.  The last thing you needed was to
be around sick people when you have an open wound."
  "I don't worry about that," Weapon Alpha told him. 
"I am resistent to infections."
  "So your blood is like some natural anti-biotic?"
  "My healing factor prevents me from getting sick and
thus my immune system is always at one hundred
percent."
  "I see."  The Master Ninja nodded.  "So you're a
mutant?"
  "Yep."
  "The man you fought is dead, by the way."
  "I don't remember cutting him."
  "I killed him."
  "Oh."
  "He was my student."  He offered his hand to Weapon
Alpha.  "I'm Yuuki Koboyashi."  They shook hands. 
"I'm a ninja master from Japan."
  "Weapon Alpha.  I'm a member of the Extreme Force
Six."  He snorted.  "So you trained the guy who almost
killed me?"
  "I thought you said you weren't in any danger."
  "Okay.  Thank you for saving me then.  But why did
you train that guy in the first place."
  "I don't turn away students."
  "Perhaps you should be more selective as to who you
take on as students."
  The Master Ninja nodded.  "I'm actually thinking of
staying here in America.  Do you know any people who
might make worthy students?"
  "I have an idea."
  "Who?"
  "You could try the Legion of Extreme fans.  They
want to be heroes but they have no powers to speak of.
 They'd be perfect for you."
  "Perhaps you could tell me where to find them."
  
12:30 pm

  "So I felt sick this morning and I thought I'd come
and see you and find out if anything is wrong," Mary
told the doctor.
  "Is this the first time you've felt sick?"
  Mary thought for a moment.  "No.  I also felt sick a
couple of days ago but I felt better after I took a
shower.  I didn't throw up."
  "I see."
  "So what's wrong with me, doctor?"
  "I suspect nothing is wrong with you," the doctor
said.
  "But why am I feeling sick then?"
  The doctor smiled.  "I think I know what may be
causing it, but I don't think it's anything for you to
worry about.  You might just have to start taking
things a bit easier, that's all."
  "Eh?"
  "Just come with me and we'll do a simple test,
okay?"
  "Okay."

1:13 pm

  "Ninja training?" Ultimate Man asked.  "I don't need
ninja training.  In fact, I dare say I'm better at
ninjitsu than you are!"
  "I hate people coming here and telling us we need
ninja training!" Mr. Angry said, having gotten angry
for no apparent reason.  "I just hate it!"
  "You can't be a ninja," Adam Evers insisted. 
"Ninja's haven't been active since the end of the Edo
period in Japan.  You must be a fake!"
  "Don't ninjas kill people?" Psychic Girl asked.  "If
you are a ninja then you know how to kill people,
right?"
  "Who needs ninja training when you have guns?" Gun
Guy asked.  "In any fight involving a guy with a big
sword and a guy with a big gun, the guy with the big
gun is going to win."
  "If this guy joins the group does that mean we're
going to update the roster again?" Raymond Heck asked.
 "Because I hate doing that.  I have all these
computer skills and all you ever have me do is update
the roster!"
  Chesspawn grinned from ear to ear.  "Well I, for
one, wouldn't mind a bit of ninja training.  If I knew
how to fight then maybe I wouldn't die every time!"
  The Master Ninja smiled.  He knew he could whip this
group into shape.

9:02 am (the next day)

  "Hey!  Michael!" Mary said.
  "Hey!"
  "So how was Washington?"
  "Great!"
  "I've got big news!"
  "I've got bigger news."
  "Okay.  You first."
  Michael smiled.  "Lana and I are getting married."
  "Really?"  Mary looked shocked.  "How are you going
to make that work with you working here and her
working all over the country?"
  "We talked about that.  She's going to quit her job
at the FBI and come to work here.  John's okay with it
and so are her friends at the FBI.  They're happy for
her.  So what's your news?"
  "I'm pregnant."
  "Great!"  Then he noticed that Mary didn't look
happy.  "That is good news, isn't it?"
  "I just want to be sure that I can still work here
after I have the baby."
  "Of course.  If you want to, I mean.  It's your
decision."
  "I'm just afriad of Lana coming here and taking my
job, especially if she's going to be your wife."
  Michael laughed.  "Look, Mary, Lana isn't going to
be here for a few months and then you'll be able to
take some time off and have your baby.  This actually
works out great!  Even after you've had the baby
you're still going to need to spend time with it so
having Lana here means you will be able to take time
off whenever you need it.  I think this works out
great."
  Mary smiled.  "Yeah.  I guess so."  She sighed. 
"I'm really happy for you and Lana."
  "And I'm happy for you and Edward."

                        THE END

Okay.

The smart thing would be to stop here and give people
a chance to read #'s 1-10 plus Silver Age Superfreaks
#5.  So it's actually a good thing that I don't have
any more ideas at this point.  It's hard to come up
with arcs for this series because everything has to be
grounded in the real world and that prevents me from
doing too much in the realms of time travel or magic. 
But I'm sure I'll come up with something in a few
months time.

Martin

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 



More information about the racc mailing list