Superfreaks/ACRA: Superfreaks Season 3 #1
Martin Phipps
martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 3 06:19:22 PDT 2007
Michael King, Lana Lewis 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 Roger
Roeper: lawyers. These men and women 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 3 #1
"RASPUTIN SYNDROME"
PART I
12:01 am
"Hey, what's a beautiful nubian lady like yourself
doing in a place like this?"
"Not much."
"Heh. Is that your natural skin colour or do you
just tan really well?"
"It's all me."
"I see. So every part of you is the same colour?"
"That's right."
"Even your naughty bits?"
The lady took a sip of her drink.
"I bet they taste like chocolate."
She sighed.
"They say the darker the fruit the sweeter the
juice. So what does your juice taste like?"
"Wouldn't you like to know!"
"I would! You see, years ago I went black and never
went back. Nor do I ever want to."
"That's your choice."
"Choice? Hell, no, it's an obsession! So, what do
you say? Care for a little cream in your coffee?"
"What's the plan?"
"The plan? The plan is for you to come with me and
the two of us find a hotel that rents rooms by the
hour."
"Fair enough."
8:35 am
"The victim was found at seven a.m. by the cleaning
lady," Detective John Phelps said pointing to the body
lying on a bed in a room at the Lucky Star Hotel. The
body had been eviscerated and there was blood
splattered all over the walls.
"Anybody see who he came in with?" Detective Michael
King asked.
"Yeah. An African American woman in her
mid-twenties."
"Is that the best description we could get?"
"No, we can do better than that: there was a
security camera in the lobby. I've already sent last
nights videos down to the lab to be analyzed."
9:34 am
"Hey, Lana!"
"Hi, Edward!"
"I've got something here to show you!"
Edward opened up a small photo album, the kind that
they give out for free at the photoshop nearest the
precinct.
"What's this? More photos of your baby?"
"Yeah," Edward said with a smile. "We love taking
pictures of little Jacob."
"Well, well," Lana said, "look at the proud father!"
"I know! To be honest I wasn't all that enthused
about starting a family but now that Jacob is born and
I'm his dad, I just think it's really cool! I just
wish I could bring him here to the precinct to show
everybody!"
Lana looked as though she had swallowed a lemon.
"Oh no! That's not a good idea!"
"I promise he won't get in the way!"
"It's not that," Lana told him. "We get some
unsavory people coming through here and it's not as if
they come here on their own free will. You might as
well put him in a T-shirt that says 'Take me
hostage!'"
"Ouch!" Edward said. "Maybe you're right."
10:01 am
The Human Spider walked into the common area of the
Extreme Force HQ and saw the last thing he expected to
see.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the Human Spider. Who are you?"
"You're not the Human Spider! I am!"
"Nonsense! You're an imposter!"
"No! You're the imposter!"
Mr. G ran into the room to find out what the
shouting was about. "Hey! What's with all the
ruckus? Wha--? Aw man! Which one of you is the real
Human Spider?"
"I am!" they both shouted.
"I can settle this!" one of them said as he took off
his mask. "I'm Kenneth Kendal! I'm the _real_ Human
Spider!"
The other one also took off his mask. "No! _I_ am
Kenneth Kendal and _I_ am the real Human Spider!"
"Wow!" Mr. G said. "You guys must be twins or
somethin'."
PART II
11:29 am
"They're clones?" Edward asked.
"One is the clone and the other is the real Human
Spider but they're not telling us which is which,"
Michael explained.
"So this is a test?" Edward asked.
"No," Michael explained. "They actually don't know
which one is the clone and which one is the real Human
Spider."
"How could they possibly not know?!"
"The clone apparently has all the memories of the
original."
"How is that possible?"
"We'll worry about that later. You just let us know
which is which." He handed Edward samples marked 'A',
'B' and 'mother'. "The A and B samples are from the
two Human Spiders and the sample labeled 'mother' was
graciously provided by Mrs. Kendal, who would be both
their genetic mothers. Don't mix these samples up or
we'll have to start over!"
"Don't worry. I'm very careful!"
"I was just kidding," Michael said with a
nonetheless serious tone.
1:32 pm
"Have you had time to look at the surveilance tapes
from the hotel?" Detective John Phelps asked CSI Terry
Lopez.
"Yep," Terry said. "I was just about to ask you
about that."
"Then you've got something?"
Terry nodded. He moved his computer's mouse and an
image appeared on its screen. "Is this our vic?"
"That's him," John confirmed.
"Then this sexy looking babe is our suspect," he
said.
"Must be. We need to find out who she is."
"Right. I uploaded people's driver's liscence
pictures from the Pepperton DMV and I can a comparison
program."
"And?"
Terry called up the picture he'd found earlier.
"Our suspect is Rebecca Sanders."
"Good work!"
2:02 pm
"You guys aren't supposed to be here," Edward said.
"I want to be here when you tell this guy he's a
clone!" Human Spider A said.
"Don't you mean you won't to be here when he tells
YOU that YOU are a clone?" Human Spider B said.
"Fine. Just don't get in my way." Edward put his
headphones on and cranked up Led Zeppelin. He didn't
want to hear them arguing for a half an hour while
they waited for the results.
2:31 pm
"Okay," Edward said, "I've got the results."
"What does it say?" Human Spider A asked.
Edward looked at the results from sample A. "Which
one of you is 'A' and which one is 'B'?" he asked.
"I'm A," Human Spider A said.
"Okay. You're a clone."
"What?!"
"Ha!" Human Spider B said.
"Your mitochondrial DNA is not a match to your
mother which means that it wsn't her egg that you grew
from."
"There must be some mistake!"
"There's no mistake. I can confirm that your mother
is your mother: she provided half of your chromosomes.
But she didn't provide your mitochondrial DNA and
that is only possible if you are a clone!"
"Check the other results!"
Edward shrugged his shoulders. "Okay." he checked
the results for sample B. "Whoa!"
"What?" they both asked.
"You guys are BOTH clones!"
"WHAT?!"
PART III
2:40 pm
Officers Mark Johnston and Tom Jackson went to the
address listed on Rebecca Sander's driver's lisence
and found her coming out.
"Are you Rebecca Sanders?" Mark asked.
"Yeah. What's this all about?"
"Do you know a Mr. Matthew Philips?"
"I'm not sure."
"You went out with him last night," Tom told her.
"Oh," she said calmly. "Him."
"He's dead," Mark told her.
"I see."
"You don't look surprised," Tom observed.
"I hardly knew the man," she said. "Am I supposed
to be upset?"
"We were under the impression that you got to know
him very well," Mark told her. "You're going to have
to come with us."
"Alright," she said.
2:45 pm
"How can they BOTH be clones?" Detective Michael
King asked.
"I'm not a clone!" they both said. "HE is the
clone! There's been some mistake!"
Michael sighed. "Okay. Let's try to figure this
out. If you're both clones then where is the REAL
Kenneth Kendal."
"_I_'m the real Kenneth Kendal!" they both said.
"This is not helping," Michael said. He thought for
a moment. "How did you become the Human Spider
anyway? Can either of you tell me?"
"It happened when I was working at Goodhead
Corporation," Human Spider A told them.
"Goodhead Corporation?!" Edward asked.
"You were working for Edward Alexander Goodhead?"
Michael asked incredulously.
"That's not quite right," Human Spider B said. "I
was working for the company as a chemist. I wasn't
actually working for Goodhead himself."
"Well, you were," Edward said.
Michael nodded. "It was his company."
"I wasn't involved in anything criminal," Human
Spider A said.
"As far as you remember," Michael pointed out.
"What do you mean?" Human Spider B asked.
"What he means is that Goodhead Corporation must
have not only cloned each of you but somehow managed
to give you false memories so that each of you thinks
you are the real Kenneth Kendal."
"But I _AM_ the real--" they both started to say.
"Please try to accept your test results and help us
figure out what happened," Michael told them. "You
said that 'it' happened when you were working at
Goodhead Corporation. _What_ happened?"
"The accident!" they both said.
"_What_ accident?"
"The lab accident."
"But what exactly happened? What were you doing and
how did it result in you getting powers?"
There was no answer for a few minutes and then Human
Spider A spoke up. "Oh... God."
"I don't remember what happened," Human Spider B
said.
"They just told me there had been an accident,"
Human Spider A said. "I don't remember much before
that."
"Me neither," Human Spider B said.
"You don't remember anything before that because you
had just been born... as a clone," Michael told them.
"They must have used genetic engineering to alter the
DNA of the clones while they were still embryos so
that you would be born with spider powers."
"And since there's only been one Human Spider all
this time, they must have someone programmed a second
clone so that he would have the same memories as the
first," Edward said.
"Which probably means there is a Goodhead spy at
Extreme Force HQ," Michael reasoned. "Otherwise how
were they able to get access to the first clone's
memories in the first place?"
Edward sighed. "So how do we know which clone is
which?"
"We have a more pressing problem to deal with now!"
Michael said. "For all we know, Goodhead
Corporation's cloning of Kenneth Kendal was illegal."
"What do you mean?" Human Spider A asked.
"He means that they might not have gotten Kenneth
Kendal's permission to clone him," Edward explained.
"Exactly!" Michael said. "And now that we can prove
that you are clones then the onus is on Goodhead
Corporation to show that they had permission."
"You need permission to clone somebody?" Human
Spider B asked.
"Of course!" Michael said. "That was the first law
drawn up when the cloning process was perfected: it
was illegal to clone somebody without their
permission."
"Even if you take genetic material from a clone and
use that to make another clone, you still need the
permission of the original donor," Edward explained.
"Indeed," Michael said. "That's why legal precedent
had stripped away any rights from clones to exstablish
individual identities: clones were considered the
property of the original donor."
"Like your hand or your foot," Edward explained.
"And, of course, this never seemed a problem at the
time because clones were made to be about as
intelligent as a well trained dog."
"Which is precisely why nobody would have suspected
that either of you was a clone," Edward said.
Michael nodded. "Which is why it doesn't make sense
that Goodhead Corporation would make two of you in the
first place."
2:55 pm
"Mr. Spitz?"
"Yes?"
"We just got a call from our spy at Pepperton Police
Precinct One. They know that both Human Spiders are
clones but they still can't tell which one is which!"
Mitchell Spitz, current CEO of Goodhead Corporation,
laughed. "Excellent! That means that the second
clone is a perfect copy of the first! We can now
begin to build an army of Human Spiders and program
them to do our bidding!"
3:02 pm
Detective John Phelps looked at Rebbeca Sanders from
across the table in the interogation room.
"How did you do it?"
"I don't have to tell you anything," Rebecca told
him.
"True," John said, "but it would make my job easier
if you did."
"You're a detective, right?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"So detect."
John smirked. "How's about you meet me halfway
there. I figure out WHY you did it and you tell me
HOW. Fair enough?"
Rebecca didn't answer.
"Did you do something to piss you off?"
Rebecca laughed.
"Or maybe killing him was the plan all along. Was
it a hit?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"A random killing?"
Rebecca didn't answer.
"I see. So where'd you meet this guy? In a bar?"
She didn't answer.
"You've got something against men who pick up women
in bars?"
"He was a pig," she told him.
"Alright," John said, "so that's WHY you did it.
Now tell me HOW you did it."
Rebecca raised her hands and before his eyes John
saw her fingers grow to twice their normal length.
"They are razor sharp," she told him, "an
unbreakable."
"If you kill me," John told her, "you won't make it
out of here alive."
Rebecca laughed. "I'm not going to kill you.
Unlike him, you don't think of me as a piece of meat."
John laughed. "You're not going to kill anyone
anymore!" he assured her. "You're going to jail for a
long time!"
"I don't think so," she said.
"And why not?"
"Because I have a disease," she explained. "It
feeds off of my mutant powers. I'll be dead in a few
months." She laughed. "That's why I'm not afraid of
going to jail!"
PART IV
9:15 am (the next day)
"It's true," Doctor Javier told Detectives Michael
King and John Phelps. "There's a disease affecting
mutants, feeding off of their very powers. Once a
mutant develops the disease, he or she only has a few
months left."
"Why is this the first we heard of this?" Michael
asked. "The public needs to know about this!"
"Why?" Doctor Javier asked. "So they can come to
hate and fear mutants? Just look at the way people
shied away from homosexuals when people became aware
of AIDS. They assumed that all homosexuals had the
disease and were going to pass it on. So far, it is
only mutants who have been affected."
"But the disease itself could mutate," Michael
argued. "It could pass to the general population and
we could be facing an epidemic!"
Javier nodded. "The CDC was informed about the
disease ever since I first diagnosed it. They have
agreed to keep the matter out of the media. I would
ask you to please show the same degree of restraint."
"_You_ were the one who first diagnosed this
disease?" John asked.
"That's right."
"Who was patient zero?" Michael asked.
"Kurt Rasputin. He died a few days ago. The
funeral is this afternoon."
2:55 pm
The entire Extreme Force Six -including two Human
Spiders- attended Kurt's funeral, in honour of the man
who fought alongside them a year ago on the
Beyonitor's Battleworld. Water Lord made a point of
talking to Scott Grey.
"I know he was your friend," Water Lord said. "I'm
sorry for your loss. How's your baby, by the way?"
"The baby's not feeling well," he told him. "That's
why Jean didn't come. She's looking after him."
Water Lord nodded. "You'd better go then and make
sure he's alright."
3:23 pm
Scott Grey got home to his wife, Jean, and son,
Nathan. Nathan was barely breathing.
"He's getting worse," Jean told him.
Scott sighed. "Alright. We'll take him to Doctor
Javier right away."
4:11 pm
"Doctor, what's wrong with Nathan?" Scott asked.
"Is he going to be alright?"
Javier sighed deeply. "Your son has Rasputin
Syndrome. There's nothing I can do to save him."
"NO!" Jean screamed.
"Are you sure there's nothing you can do?" Scott
asked.
Javier nodded. "If Nathan had been an adult then he
would have only a few months to live but as he is only
a child I would estimate he has only a few weeks."
"NO!" Jean said.
"I'm sorry."
"But we saw Nathan as an adult!" Jean said. "He had
come back from the future!"
"Perhaps that was an alternative future," Javier
reasoned.
Javier's nurse spoke up. "There are no alternative
futures!" she said. "There is only one possible
future!"
"Michelle," Javier said, "please. Do you mind...?"
"I know there is only one future because _I_ come
from the future."
"WHAT?" Scott asked.
"I came from the future to take Nathan and bring him
to the future so that he will be cured so that he
would then grow up to become history's Pepperton
Protector!"
"If you can cure him then why don't you just cure
him here and now?" Scott asked.
"Because to cure him we need to use a technique that
hasn't been invented yet in your time. Bringing him
to the future is the only way to save him!"
"So you will take him and cure him and bring him
right back?" Jean asked.
"Actually," Michelle said, "he will be returned to
you in a few months of your time."
"No!" Jean said. "If you are going to take him then
take us too! Do not separate us!"
"I'm sorry but I can only carry Nathan back with
me," Michelle explained. "Besides, I must do things
exactly as they are described by our history."
"Whatever happened to free will?" Scott asked.
"There is no genuine free will," Michelle told him.
"That is the logical consequence of there only being a
single timeline."
"Then I guess I don't have a choice either," Scott
said as he handed his son to Michelle.
"NO!" Jean screamed.
"I don't have a choice!" Scott said. "If I don't
give her Nathan then he'll die."
"You made the right choice, Scott, the only possible
choice, the choice that you made in fact decades
before I was even born."
Michelle and Nathan disappeared in a flash of white
light.
"NO!" Jean screamed. "What will I do without
Nathan?! What will I do without my son?!"
NEXT: Dark Jean!
Martin
____________________________________________________________________________________
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