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maxwell-grant · 1 year

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(AO3 link in case you’d prefer to read this there)

(The following text includes excerpts from: Private files and tapes of the A.I Gilbert “Gazebo”’, the field diary of Miss Ion, interviews with the NYU Emancipators Vulturine and Hayato, Yr Fgenar Fgbevr qv Noma Lacri #000-∞, and articles by The Daily Roger.) (FOR DOCTOR SANDRA KIRIGAMI’S EYES ONLY)

--------------------------ACCESS FILES------------------------

DAILY ROGER REPORT: October 13th, 1937 CHAOS AT HARPER MILL! A NEW MYSTERY MAN HOAX? Ongoing conflict between the Harper Mill workers and strikebreakers have escalated, as what was believed to be a surprise terrorist militia among the strikers is now reported, by multiple witnesses, to be instead the work of a single man. Said to operate in masked attire, under the cover of darkness, and with mysterious abilities yet to be determined. Is this a ploy by the Harper Mill strikes to generate fear or sympathy, or is this yet another Manhattan “Mystery Man” emerging? Who is this mysterious figure?

---------------------------------

DR. KIRIGAMI: Thank you all for joining this meeting. I understand that some of you have approached me with concerns regarding the, conduct, of our most recent recruit, and some members of this board have expressed a desire to relocate him to our West Coast facility, or expel him from Emancipator membership entirely. Mr. Bill is willing to accept consequences for his assault on Director Vijgen. He has also expressed rather, colorfully, that he "would do it again" if deemed necessary.

I have called this meeting together so I could offer my viewpoint, as his appointed psychologist, and with the backing of his teammates, as to why I believe he should be allowed to remain a member of the NYU Emancipators, for the time being.

Let us review the facts, regarding the case of

--------------*click*-----------------------

I was, out of commission when he showed up. I reviewed the footage later on the team's cameras and, well, I'd say his name really does do him justice. He shows up quick as a cannonball, bursting through my outer layer and fighting off the bloody things He seemed to have considerable experience fighting them off, and a not so considered regard for his own safety. A total stranger who had underwent a great deal of personal harm and given us enough time and luck to pull a miracle, and give Miss Noma enough time to fix me. I certainly expected no different, of course, but I'm glad the team brought him along. It would be most unseemly to leave him to die on that, awful place.

GILBERT “Gazebo”: Artificial Intelligence, built by former team leader of the NYU Emancipators Andy “Hunk” Huxley. Currently transcribing these files. Hullo!

“Yeah, you could tell this guy was, like, reaally old-school. Prolly took a mammoth to school instead of a bus, right? You know those homemade costume parties you see in family pictures, those really embarrassing ones? He was dressed like that. I didn't even think guys like these, with the underwear and capes and all, actually existed for real, I thought the president or whoever just made em up to sell war stamps.”

VULTURINE: Civilian name Marco Craine. African-American male, 22. New Orleans-based vigilante. Inhuman physiology, liquid-manipulation powers. Claims to be a vampire, possibly part of a concentrated effort in his part to make his powers seem cool instead of gross.

“...I slipped up, should have seen them coming, too many of them coming at us, of course others wouldn't be able to tell in time, cволочь Huxley... Wait, sorry, I, rambling, yes. He, -cough-, Mr.Bill really saved us, just now. I don't know how he went undetected by the morksaya. Me and Noma observed, his readings aren't that different from ours. A little more faint, yes and, they shouldn’t be. His missing teeth and injured ribs don't seem like recent injuries either and… Look I'm, I gotta go back to medical bay, I'm assisting in fixing up the man, making sure he didn't bring anything with him from the canal, and he’s not taking the mask off so they need me to scan for head injuries, can we do this later? K, davai.

MISS ION: Civilian name Kristi Kartoshka. Russian female, 31. Powers include proton manipulation for combat, evasive maneuvers, and healing purposes. Engineering background.

Not-Supposed-To-Be-There. Nowhere-Man. Sad-Man Not-Supposed-To-Be-Here. Ignorant-0F-Himself-Man. Liar-Man No-Place-For-That-Man. Wants-To-Find-Man-Again...Good-Man.

NOMA LACRI: Civilian name and age unknown. Confirmed to have been born human of Italian descent. Has gone by Maria or Lisa on separate occasions, should investigate further You-Will-Not.

“I know, I know, superhero stuff but, it's weird, it's, dude that's, that's Cannon freaking Bill! He's like this old, old guy that my grandpa used to fight with, and part of the team now. Man he's, shorter than I expected and, oh he just saved our as-butts, my bad, by barreling through a wall and wrestling those weird mech-zombies trying to kill us. Like, whaat? It's crazy!...Kinda sus that he was in the Deep Shit Canal* in the first place tho, I mean -”

HAYATO: Civilian name Jeremy Axton. Japanese-American, 24. Millionaire crimefighter based around Lexington, Kentucky. Wielder of the Inkpot Staff and it’s varied magical abilities. Passed out from exertion after giving this statement.

(*"Deep Shit Canal" refers to the uncharted location colloquially known as Desert Snow Canal. Mr.Axton and Mr.Craine both claim innocence in coining that particular variation.)

—----------*click*------------------

DAILY ROGER REPORT: May 24, 1938 CANNON BILL STRIKES AGAIN! The masked terrorist known as Snake Mist was apprehended this morning after a bombing attempt, along with most members of his cult, one of which was revealed to be Senator Jim Vijgen. Press statements reveal that Snake and Vijgen were apprehended by a local masked hero known in the neighborhood as “Cannon Bill”. He was last spotted during the arrest of legbreaker Bart Langley, and has been spotted operating within Morrisania, Little Brazil, Bronx, and even on Staten Island. Cannon Bill spoke briefly with the press and promptly hailed a cab away from the scene. Local police suspect that Cannon Bill might not have been acting alone, as the bomb defusion and Snake’ss apprehending were executed within minutes and at considerable distances from each other. It is unknown whether this Mystery Man has any affiliation with the likes of The Stygian Ant, Colleen Dice or Father Hatchet.

DAILY ROGER REPORT: October 16, 1939 BODYCOUNT RISES AS MONSTER ATTACK CONTINUES Father Hatchet disappeared from his cell last night as his gang, led by a mysterious new lieutenant only known as Frère Jacques, continues to run rampant throughout the Seventh Avenue. Frère Jacques, who appears to be a 10-feet-tall Frankenstein-esque being in friar clothing, appears immune to gunfire, and has reportedly even defeated local hero Cannon Bill in combat. Cannon Bill’s current whereabouts are unknown, as he was retrieved by a passing car quickly after falling from the top of an 8th story building where, reportedly, Hatchet and his gang where holding out.

—----------N-O-M-A-----------------

Doesn't-See-Me-Like-Monster. See-Himself-Like-Monster. Monster-Took-Him-Away.

—-----------*click*----------------

DR. KIRIGAMI: The Emancipators were performing a rescue mission on realm WN-34, at the Desert Snow Canal, a dangerous and hostile river surrounded by broken remnants of a bygone civilization. Said river is made up of a black powder that falls from the skies, concentrated within the canal. It isn’t harmful to human touch, but it has pitfalls, and it hides the real danger of these lands: The “Chrono-Cadavers”, as Gilbert calls them, you’ve all received reports on the cadavers and how they function, what seems to be their origin or leader. Our limited understanding of how these creatures function was a problem for the eventuality of having to face them, and part of the reason Huxley volunteered to go.

The Emancipators had traveled to dimension WN-34 in order to rescue their team leader, Andy Huxley, who had been stranded there on a recon assignment and sent a distress signal. We now understand that this was part of a plan.

As you are aware, your fellow board member, Director Vijgen, and Huxley had worked out a ploy together to ensure that the team's trip to the Desert Snow Canal would go awry, that the team would be caught unprepared and face a potential catastrophe that would only be averted through a last-ditch rescue from Huxley, who would reappear fending off the creatures with the Mark H battlesuit. The built-in cameras and microphones within the ship would have recorded said events and stored it in our database.

Capitalizing off the tragedy, it was Huxley’s intent to outfit the team with Mark H battlesuits and use them to test said suits, before inevitably mass-producing them and lending them out to V.A.P.O.R field agents, and from those, to the US military, or whoever paid the highest bidder. In order to kickstart this, Vijgen would have used this incident to push for more urgent measures within this board of directors, and if voted otherwise, said footage would leak to the media. Positive press for Huxley and the suits, negative press for anyone who vetoed against their usage, public whipped into a frenzy at the sight of a horrid threat only a new super-weapon could stop.

Either way, both Huxley and Vijgen would get what they wanted. A rather predictable plan, really, but nobody on the team was onto it.

There was one little hiccup, however: Huxley never showed up.

---------MISS ION-------------

GOD DAMN IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT WAS A TRAP. I WAS SO STUPID, HOW DID I NOT- …..

Breathe, girl, breathe. It’s fine. Everyone is fine. We came back without casualties and all injuries fixed, and we rescued the man who rescued us back there. We averted the unthinkable. Breathe.

……….

The audacity of that bastard. I’m not even sure if we should tell the rest of the Emancipators? I mean, we’ll have to, but I’m scared if any of the other teams still think Huxley’s coming back, or even should come back. I don’t think it’s sunk in for the rest of them how we were betrayed. We’re all still a little shaken over it all.

I don’t wanna be the one to break it to them how it happened, that he did make contact just before the morskaya struck. I didn’t understand it fast enough, when I’d heard him talk to Gazebo and the director over the intercom:

"Sorry, mate. I got a better offer elsewhere."

—------HAYATO AND VULTURINE----------

“I got claws, I got teeth, I can fly, I can suck blood, what else is missing?”

“You don’t even drink blood, first of all, and you can’t be a vampire if you can go out in the sun, bro”

“Yes I can, that just makes me a better vampire.”

“No it - wait, yeah, we gotta focus, we’re doing a thing about Bill”

“Yeah, Bill. See, Bill didn’t give me shit about whether I’m a “real” vampire or not, and I’d only known him for like three days. He didn’t do that thing everyone else does where they’re like, oh hey it’s Kid Dracula hahaha, oh but vampires are not real, oh you’re just LARPing like, dude, shut up. How come all of you go around calling yourself Captain Fantastic Man just cause you dress funny, but I can’t be a vampire cause you don’t think the way I do it counts? Where’s the respect?”

“Oh yeah bro, you’re a real masterclass in respect”

“Zip it, Tweety. Point is, Bill didn’t do that. And, y’know, that was cool.”

“He was going to stake you through the heart the second he woke up and saw you.”

“Well, duh, that’s what the rest of you SHOULD have done, if you took this hero thing seriously.”

—------*click*------

DR KIRIGAMI: Upon his recovery, I assisted Cannon Bill in the process of adjusting to his new environment. Contrary to what his teammates expected, he had his memory intact, and he had jumped forward in time from the 1980s, instead of the 1940s. It seems he was one more victim of the, well, You-Know-What, as reports indicate he was injured even before battling the cadavers.

Our means of temporal travel were damaged, and we needed as much help as possible following Huxley’s betrayal and the pressing need to eventually re-enter WN-34, but we promised Bill to take him back to his time period as soon as possible, an offer he refused. For private reasons, he deemed it important that he stay behind and work with us to fix the problem. The problem being, successions of hundreds of other problems big and small but, one step at a time better than no step at all. That is how Cannon Bill joined the Emancipators. That is how he became my patient as well.

I find it imperative to bring this up because, and it must be stressed, that Cannon Bill joined us entirely of his own volition. That he rejected the option to return home, an option he still has should he so desire, to instead remain here in this strange distant future.

And yes, it goes without saying that his stay here hasn’t been without frustrations.

--------*click*---------

Bill has been rather sturdy, in his resistance to cooperation. All members of the Manhattan Emancipators wear suits wired to my communications hub, standard procedure. No earpieces, those were troublesome, the ear coverings built into the suits take care of that. But... Well, forgive me if I sound petty but, he doesn’t seem to like me very much - “Gazebo”

Sensory overload. Well he, didn’t call it that, the term wasn’t known in his time, but it was pretty clearly what he was trying to describe when I asked him. I can relate, yes, even if ours is different. He gets very uncomfortable with jarring noises as well as having his ears blocked or even touched by anything. He joked that he lost his front tooth making sure a neighborhood bully "got the memo" and that his mikvah took forever just because he kept complaining to the rabbi about getting his ears wet, and his Ma never let him live that down. We're finding workarounds to communicate with him on the field. - MISS ION’s Field Diary

“Oh dude he did NOT like Gazebo at all, it was pretty funny. I mean, I'm mostly used to tuning that thing out, but Bill? He spent a couple of training sessions looking like he was gonna pull a Van Gogh on the spot everytime Gazebo gave him directions, or patched him over to someone, or cracked banter in that Monty Python voice he's got. Wish we did city training just so he'd flip a car or something” - VULTURINE

“I think he'd kill me if I said "ok boomer" in earshot” - HAYATO

“Nobody uses that joke anymore, idiot. Besides he's like, pre-boomer, he's gotta be like silent generation or something. Wasn't he middle-aged when your grandpa was active?” - VULTURINE

.”..Actually yeah, he was grandpa's senior, when was this guy born exactly?” - HAYATO

---------------

DAILY ROGER REPORT: November 22, 1940 MYSTERY MEN JOIN THE WAR EFFORT A local coalition has reached the Daily Roger to announce their existence. Consisting of several local “super-heroes”, they have announced the formation of a group in order to join the upcoming war effort and provide assistance to the Allied forces. Calling themselves the “Camelot Circle of America”, the group’s leader has reached out to the press with the intent of transparency with the public, with the hopes of acquiring trust in such difficult times.

Among the super-heroes present within this group is our local bruiser “Cannon Bill”, who makes his first public appearance in over a year, showing what seems to be a full recovery from his battle with the monstrous criminal Frère Jacques. He declined to speak with the press on any affairs.

—-----Gazebo--------------

He did join the Camelot Circle of America along with Mr Axton's grandfather, but after that, very little from 1945-onwards. He wasn't around for the team's disbanding in 1952. Some news reports in the late 40s, 50s, 60s, and nothing in the 70s and 80s until the, You-Know-What, happened. And obviously he was there, no superhero or supervillain at the time, active or retired or even dead, could ignore the call at You-Know-What.

Said You-Know-What seems to be how he wound up in the Desert Snow Canal in costume. I'd heard of some superheroes who survived the event and were found weeks, months, even years later, stranded in locations without memories of how they got there or who they were. But he's been very clear that he remembers everything. That he did join the fight, during You-Know-What, and that he took off from home. He must have known he'd wind up somewhere he couldn't come back from.

Which raises the possibility that he wanted to be there.

—------N-O-M-A---------

"You-gotta-get-up, partner, we-can't-stay-here, gotta-stop-them, we'll-make-it-through-this-I-promise-but-please-get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up…"

What-This-What-You Leave-Man-Alone LEAVE-Past-Alone

----------Miss Ion’s Personal Diary---------

I was actually not that surprised to find out he was a cat guy. You all think it's nonsense when I tell you, cat people can recognize each other, but it's true. I knew that cranky slab of concrete had a soft spot somewhere. I’d say I probably made a lot of progress today in getting him to use smartphones just by showing all the pictures of Miya I can store and look at whenever I feel like it. I joked that back in his day he’d probably have to carry photos in his wallet to do that, and then he just pulled a dusty wallet from his belt with, what else, some cat pictures.

I forgot to write this early but, Bill is actually a veterinarian. Or, was, he’s not practicing now but, from what he told me, way back after the war was over and he decided to retire from superhero work, he wanted to go back to school and “make something out of himself”, get a degree and everything. And so he wound up becoming a veterinarian.

I asked why he didn't become a doctor outright, and he said he didn't think he was smart enough for it, and that he also thinks all doctors with superpowers or super-tech end up going bad. That there's a "pipeline" from getting a degree to costumed terrorism. I, I do get it. I don't think that's universally true (maybe we should ask Dr Kirigami about this next session) but, I get his reasoning all too well.

He did tell me that sometimes he was asked to patch up some heroes who couldn’t get proper medical attention, and he didn’t like it very much, but “them’s the breaks”. I don’t get what that means. He was offered to get his teeth fixed in here and he refused, said it "keeps me smart, keeps me from being too much of a wise guy". Does he think being wise and being smart are opposites? Probably some cartoon expression that makes more sense to English speakers.

I do think it's upsetting that he downplays his intelligence like that. I've seen him on field, when he stops throwing himself at problems and actually listens and thinks, he is very quick on his feet and good at counter-planning. But even besides that, didn't he create the alkaline formula that gave him his powers? He seemed rather confused by my questions and I left it at that.

He doesn't ask me invasive questions, least I could do is return the favor.

—-----HAYATO AND VULTURINE-----------

“We did find common ground on one thing: The costumes. They suck! I mean, YOU can afford bulletproofing those giant shiny wings to fly around in, but me and the girls have been stuck making do with drab pajamas for way too long and hey, turns out even the dinosaur agrees with me on that. I'm a vampire! Not dressing up in style’s practically a death sentence”

“It’s not like we all dress up the same, bro. I don’t know what it is with you and Ion, Noma never complains about her uniform.”

“Dude, Noma IS her uniform, kinda, and come on, you think anyone’s gonna try and enforce dress code policy with her?”

“You make her sound too mean sometimes, bro.”

“She’s awesome! Really, I don’t think she’s mean enough, for someone who can just eat her problems away.”

-sigh- “Well anyway, at least you got something with him. It’s, he really just doesn’t have much patience for jokes, and I get with yours, as a comedian you make an excellent mortician, but-”

“Comedian AND mortician, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“-I mean, look, I get that some of this modern superhero stuff is not his speed but, come on, you really gonna tell me he didn’t crack one-liners back in his day? That he wasn’t pulling out zingers while punching Capone’s face in or whatever?”

“I think those guys had more serious catchphrases, like, “The milk of crime spoils fast! And the bill of evil doesn’t come cheap! So says Cannon Bill!” and then he just shoots everybody while they’re confused.”

“Ooooh wait, we haven’t gotten around to making bill-based puns with him! Yeah, guarantee he’s not gonna resist pulling one of those eventually.”

“You know how old people are, they like their jokes like farts in an elevator. You never see it coming and you can’t escape it once they do.”

“TMI, bro. But, yeah, I was getting to that, he knew my grandpa. Grandpa loved his one-liners, and so did a lot of those other Camelot dudes he hung out with. I just, you’d think a guy dressing up in circus colors would be a little less moody. I’m not criticizing him! Really, I’m not, I just, don’t like seeing people down.”

“See, this is why you get picked for team leader, because you take a look at all this and you think, “Well, I say! There’s not enough clownery in this circus! I’ll get the octagenarian to laugh at my fart jokes or die trying! Die trying is my middle name!”

-laugh- “Eat shit, bro”.

—-------*click*-------------------

DR. KIRIGAMI: However, it must be emphasized that, over the past couple of weeks, Cannon Bill has made progress, in regards to adapting to modern times, the demands of the job in regards to his duty as an Emancipator, and to his teammates. He has adapted to us, and we have adapted to him, as it should be in any collaborative effort.

He dislikes the suits, but he works with them, and we make some accommodations for his discomfort. He dislikes comm links, but together we devise other ways of communicating. He’s not used to informality and humor, but he’s adapted to it. From our sessions, it even seems to be having a positive effect on him. He’s having some difficulties still, and he still has never unmasked before me or his teammates. We all respect that, and so will you.

I bring this up as part of my plea. You gentlemen must remember that the Emancipators started, first and foremost, as an initiative to redeem and uplift. A group that took in heroes, and even villains willing to sincerely redeem themselves, and through careful education and training, we allowed them to make better lives for themselves. The Emancipators were never designed to be the next Pantheon of Aegis, the next Kamigata Dynasty, it was never a competition for ratings or money or whatever carrot you dangle before yourselves to do anything. V.A.P.O.R has spent the past decades trying to groom us into becoming the next Vanguard and, well, you must forgive me for once again expressing what a terminally idiotic idea that is. I simply have to, when said mindset was what led to the catastrophe before you. A catastrophe that was indeed averted, by the man you’re trying to get rid of.

Still, you did demand to know which member tagged along with him, when he marched up to Director Vijgen’s office, and no platoon of armed officers could stop him. I will be delighted to inform you, actually:

—-------HAYATO AND VULTURINE-------

“…Don’t tell me you’re thinking about going back there, dude.”

“I’m not! I’m not, it’s just. Look, I don’t wanna be like, I’m not running off on my own, and I know it’s not my grandpa in there. But…man, what if it’s someone’s grandpa still?”

“Like, whom?”

“I don’t know! But if all those grey things used to people, we should be going back for them. Even…even if we can’t save them, at least give them funerals. Let em die like people, y’know, and not whatever else they've been made into. They gotta have someone waiting for them back home, right?”

“…”

“…Sorry dude, my bad, didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine. It’s stupid, is what it is, but it’s fine. Look it’s, let's just let Dr Kiri and the suits sort out that mess. We gotta start prepping up Bill’s party.”

“Wait, what? Bill’s having a party?”

“Not any party, idiot, it’s Rosh Hashanah. We’re gonna do a Jewish New Year thing for him as a team. Kristi’s idea, really.”

(It was not Kristi’s idea, but Craine had a long-standing policy of never risking embarrassment by admitting to doing anything nice).

“Oh, cool! When?”

“…No idea, actually.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah I, uh, I don’t know when it is.”

“Can’t you just Google it?”

“I keep getting inconsistent dates, I don’t know if those’ve changed since his time, I don’t know when he celebrates it.”

“Can’t we just ask him?”

“Oh yeah, sure, let’s ask the guy when is his own surprise party happening!”

“But how are we-”

(We’re cutting off the tape by this point as the discussion no longer has anything to do with Cannon Bill’s case. It must be stressed, however, that a surprise Rosh Hashanah is a terrible idea, and that it isn't really a party the way Marco and Jeremy presumed, but, they'll figure it this out later with some help).

------------N-O-M-A-----------

"Gotta-try, gotta-try-for, for-the-both-of-us" Irresponsible-Data. Intrusive-Data. NOT-FOR-YOU-Data.

We-Trust-Doctor. We-Trust-Team. Do-Not-Trust-Others.

Many-Others-In-World. World-Hurt-Man. World-Hurt-Team.

ARE-YOU-WORLD?

WORLD-HURT-US

HURT

WORSE

--------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- ---------------------

Kristi’s Personal Diary

We, ended up talking about Petyr.

Everyone on the team knows it, I made it clear as day that I wouldn’t be working with someone who had a problem with it. I guess I just put off talking with him cause, y’know.

I was actually just gonna bring up this theory I had regarding his powers, see if he could confirm any of my notes on how his time desynch works (he might not like that name and, well it’s his power, but I do think it helps to explain, also it sounds cool) but, some work stuff got in the way and I forgot. Only remembered now I was, supposed to bring that up to him. He asked me why I picked my name, why Miss Ion, and then we just kinda, talked.

We ended up talking about things, memories, of sorts, outside of Dr Kirigami’s office. Things we left behind, things we missed, things we were glad to be away from. Scientific curiosity - no, no, stop, do we really gotta look for the worst intentions all the time even from ourselves? Don’t do that to yourself.

From what he tells me, he never married, never even really dated much. He stopped taking in clients a while before departing, left the pets in his care either with their owners or with people he could trust to look after them better. Said he only really missed his cat, but he trusted his niece to take better care of her than he did. He misses his family but, he didn't have much left before he went, and they must have made peace with him being dead, he says he doesn’t want to take that away from them, that he’ll drop by once he finishes the mission. And so he asked me if I had “folks” looking after me.

So, I told him about Petyr. I mean, there’s not much to talk about, I just, kinda explained to him why Petyr wasn’t a boyfriend, wasn’t a relative or whatever. I do love Petyr, Petyr was doing the best he could, but… I was Petyr but Petyr wasn’t me, I told him. And that’s the why I can’t really go back to my “folks” and, I made peace with that. I made peace with Petyr, others didn’t. My family would have preferred to make peace with my death than me living in a way they couldn’t claim. So, I refused to die. I had someone to live for, still.

He says he didn’t get it but, I think he got it. He made an effort, at least. He became very quiet when I told him I had someone to live for. I didn’t ask, but I think he wanted to tell me something important.

He took a deep breath, and he was reaching for his mask when Dr Kirigami called him for their next session.

—------------*click*--------------------

DR.KIRIGAMI: Well, it was me. You certainly did not think I'd sit by and let Vijgen's plan be forgotten, if not tried again, at the expense of my patients. You certainly seem to forget the things that this team is capable of. And I certainly don't think you've forgotten who I used to be, what I used to do, to protect my own.

Calm yourselves. This is not a threat. Anemia endulged in threats. Dr Kirigami merely makes stern warnings. At present, I do not know if any of you were a part of Huxley and Vijgen's plot, and if so, how many. So I lay this warning to all of you: I am not your enemy, and neither is my team. The upper management at V.A.P.O.R likes to think of the Emancipators as just another military branch of the organization. They underestimate how useful that delusion is to us, and so I let them. You, however, are not the upper management, you are the middle men, those who take the blame in situations like these. They would quietly destroy or execute all of you, if reports of Vijgen's role in the incoming crisis reached the public. Because Bill and I got to him in time, he's merely being transferred, more scared than hurt.

In his days prior to the costume and powers, you see, Bill made a habit of letting Pinkertons pick their own teeth off the sidewalk, and making sure everyone could see them do so, to make a point of it. Give them a chance to stop and do good, or see how worse it could get.

It is the chance Bill is giving you now. I would not have been so kind. You’d be surprised at how persuasive a man of so few words can be.

Consider this, when you play your part in deciding his fate.

—--------ACCESS CLOSED—-------------

A combination of his own effort, remarkable luck, and the efforts of his teammates made it so Cannon Bill wound up not being transferred or fired, for assaulting the once prestigious Director Vijgen. Kelvin Vijgen himself would wind up calling the board of directors, insisting that Cannon Bill be allowed to remain on the team, out of fear of consequences from the upper management at V.A.P.O.R if the situation escaped containment, a greater fear of incurring Bill and Kirigami’s wrath again as well as that of the NYU Emancipators, and perhaps, just a smidge of regret.

Cannon Bill had been consigned to a form of house arrest within the Emancipators headquarters and not allowed access to the internet or smartphones, a punishment vastly more effective to 21st century adults than to him. He sits in his room at present now, unmasked and with reading glasses, quietly reading the tutorials Miss Ion left him on how to paint nano-tech costumes. It’s a work-in-progress, but one he's getting the hang of. Unmasked, he looks rather unremarkable. A short, balding, square-jawed old man, packed with muscle. No abs to speak of, but with a strong gut, a weight lifter's gut. Sturdy hands capable of uprooting oak tree stumps held a paintbrush in most delicate fashion. He wanted to get this right. He had to get this right.

Cannon Bill had no idea when he would ever return to WN-34, whether he would be forced to fight hollow mockeries from his past again, and the thought of whether his teammates would survive said excursion eclipsed any fears towards his own survival. He had no idea his teammates were currently busy calling up other Jewish superheroes to learn the right way to throw him a celebration. He had no idea when would he reveal his true name to them, and he paid no mind to such affairs right now.

The seas of time parted open to give him a moment of solitude after so long, and he’d take any breather he could.

By his side, his wallet laid open atop the table he was using to work. Often, he liked to look at pictures of Brick, a big sturdy beast some would mistake for a housecat, to calm himself down, as it was impossible to take much of anything seriously looking at Brick. His niece must have loved her so much, God bless her. But he was looking at a different photo now. Very, very grainy in quality, not preserved quite right, but it was all he had still.

Of two men standing in front of a taxi car, arms around each other’s shoulders. One of these men was a short and stocky man in a suit, wearing a duckbill cap, and he had his eyes closed and a great big smile on his face. He had never been much good for smiling in photos, and so his father taught him this wonderful trick of yelling a dirty word you find funny just before the shot, a trick that did wonders for his insecurities about his missing teeth. His name…well, it remains his. A mystery man is entitled to some mystery, no?

The other man was taller, leaner, and his smile was more reserved, if no less warm. He was dressed in a strange strongman get-up, wearing a skintight yellow bodysuit with blue shorts, gloves and cowl. His name was William Ken Scott, and though his eyes were not visible behind the cowl, he didn’t care he had accidentally ruined the shot, too busy staring at his companion instead of the camera.

“You hang tight in there, partner. I got this far, right? …I’m not quitting on us.”

#my writing #tagging #dan schkade #since this started as a prompt to that idea #superheroes #cannon bill #fyi Bill is Sephardic Jewish #didn't find space to put that in but I thought it was important to clarify

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