Author: Island Breeze
Rating: TEEN or YTEEN (about like the show)
Forum: CC
Pairings: M/M, All
The creators and producers of “Roswell,” Melinda Metz, who wrote the books, and Jason Katims, who brought us the TV series, deserve the credit for the Roswell concept, main characters, and events that occurred during the TV series, “Roswell,” which I do not own but merely lead down a path of imagination through the stars of a destiny that might have been.
Anyone who has read the Altered Time Series or any of my other stories knows that they take place after the show ended. I borrowed the wonderful Roswell characters that Melinda Metz and Jason Katims gave us but used little or none of their dialogue or storylines, except as background for my stories, which are otherwise original and contain a host of children, Antarians, and aliens of my own creation.
This story, however, is different. It takes place alongside the TV episodes and is intended to mesh with the plotlines Katims and Metz gave us. Consequently, limited dialogue and storyline from the show will be used or mentioned from time to time in order to show us what the background of the part is… and to mesh the two stories together. Dialogue from the show, when used, will generally be in italics, though not all lines in italics will necessarily be from the show. I do not own anything from the show (except a chair from Jim Valenti’s kitchen). I certainly do not own the characters or the dialogue from the show, and it is not my intention to imply ownership of anything but my own original storyline. The rest is the property of the WB, UPN, Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, and/or whoever else might hold copyright interest in the series and its characters.
With the exception of the fanciful prologue, which can only be explained as a product of my fantasy-and-sci-fi-damaged brain, each part of this story will take place during an episode of Roswell, starting with the pilot. I hope to offer plausible explanations for some of the more baffling quirks in the TV series as well as a plausible and entertaining alternate plotline. So sit back, read, and enjoy!
Codename:TABASCO The Awesome Background
And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin
Prologue – Inspiration On The Lam
She rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head, groaning pitifully… “Go away! I don’t have anything for you. You want too much of me!”
I wasn’t about to let her get away with that… not that easily… so I pulled the pillow off of her head. She glared at me and closed her eyes back in silence. I sat down on the bed, a bit hard, bouncing her… “I need you. My mind is a black tunnel… with nothing going through it! You’re supposed to be there for me when I need you.”
“I’m tired.”
“Goddesses don’t get tired.”
“I’m not a goddess.”
“Oh, don’t split hairs! You’re a Muse! Muses are some kind of goddesses… aren’t they?”
She rolled over and looked at me. “I’m a Muse, not a slave. You don’t seem to have grasped that concept. I have nothing for you. Get used to it!”
I stood up and looked at her, giving her my best ‘I-don’t-believe-this’ look, but it flew right over her. If she’s one thing, it’s consistent…
“I need a vacation.”
“Muses don’t get vacations! They don’t need them!”
She smiled a sort of ‘shows-what-you-know’ smile. “They do if you want inspiration… which I do not have for you… because *** I *** have not had a vacation in three years!”
“Why! Why! Why did I have to get a high maintenance Muse!?”
She rolled over and swung the pillow over her head again.
“All right! Okay! You want a vacation? Fine! You can have a vacation.”
She pulled the pillow off her head and looked at me… “Really?”
“Really. On Antar.”
“Antar? That’s no vacation! You want me to work!”
“No, no, no, no, no! You can relax, swim in the Golden Sea, hit the clubs, eat in the best restaurants, whatever you want. And you’ll get to meet Max, Michael, Kyle, and Alex personally this time… if you want to.”
That did seem to pique her interest… “How am I supposed to get there?”
“Just wiggle your nose or whatever it is you Muses do.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “All right… I guess I could go to Antar. I’m not promising you any inspiration, mind you. But I will try to have a good time.”
“Cute! Just remember that you’re my Muse. I want something awesome and exciting when you get back.”
“I’m a Muse, not a cheap goddess of the night. You need to talk to Bacchus about that. In fact, I’ll speak to him for you.”
“Oh! Funny! I thought you were all ‘inspirationed’ out! It looks like your wit is still sharp!”
She jumped out of bed and opened a drawer, pulling out undergarments and lingerie and throwing them into a suitcase. Then she hit the closet, filling another suitcase.
“What are you doing?”
“Packing… It’s a long trip!”
“You’re a Muse! Muses don’t pack!”
“I’m not a guy, in case you haven’t noticed. I WON’T wear the same clothes for two weeks!”
“TWO WE-… No, no, no! Not gonna happen! You can’t leave me for two weeks! Two days maybe…”
I never actually knew if she heard my objections. She had already snapped her fingers and disappeared, along with two suitcases full of clothes and toiletries and six pairs of shoes…
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>> </center>
On the shore of the Golden Sea, Maria closed her eyes and leaned back in the sand, allowing the Antarian sunshine to warm the front of her bikini-clad body and the warm sand to warm her back. “I am so glad we’re back on our Antar… on our beach… under our sun… with our kids… all together again. Aren’t you, Michael?”
Michael smiled and leaned over to give Maria a passionate kiss on the lips.
“Ahem…”
Maria glanced past Michael at the young woman in the chic wraparound sarong standing behind him. “Can we help you?”
“You can if you’re Maria and he’s Michael Guerin.”
Michael sat up and looked the young woman over suspiciously… “You have us at a disadvantage. You seem to know who we are, but I’ve never met you.”
“Oh you have… sort of… You just don’t know it.”
“No… I think I would remember it if I had met you,” Michael insisted, putting his arm around Maria and pulling her to him, as though to tell this girl… and the world -but most of all Maria- that he was taken, and happily so.
The young lady smiled. “Well, I’m not from Antar… and I need to talk to someone about…”
“Oh! You want our exalted leader!” Michael exclaimed, grinning boyishly, “He’s right over there… with Liz. That would be his wife.”
The young woman nodded. “I know.”
“What’s your name?” Maria asked, “I don’t remember meeting you either.”
“You have… on occasion. But that’s not important.”
“What are you,” Michael asked.
The young woman seemed surprised by Michael’s question. “I’m… a Muse.”
Michael looked at her, puzzled… “What planet is that?”
“It’s not a planet,” said Maria, “It’s a goddess… you know… of inspiration.”
Michael nodded. “Oh, yeah! I heard about them. I didn’t think they were real.”
“Well, I am.”
“Yeah, so I see. How do I know you’re what you say you are?”
The young woman snapped her fingers, and two suitcases fell to the beach, one on each side of Michael.
“Wha-! Where did those come from?”
She opened one of the suitcases and propped the lid up to block the sun, then she snapped her fingers again.
“Where did she go?” Michael asked, looking around.
“Right here!”
Michael looked inside the suitcase. The mysterious girl was sitting cross-legged in a yoga position on top of her clothes, shaded by the open top of the suitcase.
“You’re… little!” Michael exclaimed, bending over to look at the girl who now was about nine inches tall.
“That’s so cool!” Maria gushed. “I wish I could do that! I guess you’d have to be a goddess.”
“You should be able to do it just fine then,” Michael said, grinning.
Maria smiled and patted Michael on the cheek. “Flattery will get you everywhere… when we’re alone. But the kids are right over there… so are Max and Liz. And the others are around here somewhere.”
Michael nodded and his lips rose into a one-sided, impish grin… “Yeah, Max might learn a few things.”
“I was thinking about the kids… but yeah… he might,” Maria agreed, with a wry smile. “We wouldn’t want to corrupt him.”
“Corrupt who?” Max asked, walking up at that moment with Liz. Right behind them were Isabel, Alex, Kyle, Jeliya, Tess, and Rayylar.
“Nobody,” Maria said, grinning guiltily.
“Mom! Dad! Look what I found!”
Maria turned to look at their oldest son, ten-year-old Zorel, who had been wading in the surf. “What is it, Zor?”
“A neat seashell! It’s one I haven’t seen before. Who’s the cute chick?”
Zorel smiled at the little Muse sitting in the suitcase, and she smiled back.
“Zorel, that’s not a proper way to talk to… Muses… I don’t think… is it,” Michael said, admonishing him gently, “Where did you pick up that kind of talk?”
“The Earth channel… on TV.”
“It’s all right,” the Muse said, snapping her fingers and returning to normal size. “At least he thinks I’m cute. The guy I’m supposed to be inspiring wouldn’t notice if I were replaced with a lump of mud!”
“Maybe he’s gay,” Liz suggested.
The young woman snorted then laughed, shaking her head. “No, but I’ll tell him you said that. Maybe it’ll make him pay more attention to me.” She sighed… “But I doubt it.”
“Well, what’s his problem,” Michael asked, “You look very attractive to me.”
The Muse smiled, and Zorel nodded enthusiastically. Maria moved a little closer to Michael and tightened her grip on his arm.
“Of course, I’m totally not looking for… you know… a girlfriend or anything like that,” Michael hurried to add. “Maria’s all the goddess I can handle.”
The Muse smiled… Michael glanced at Maria and noticed a smile on her face, too.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Zorel said, grinning widely.
Maria pulled Zorel to her, putting one arm around him as she kept the other arm locked with Michael’s arm… “Zorel, you’re ten years old. I think you may be just a little young to be thinking about love just yet. Don’t you think, Michael?”
Michael smiled at Zorel then abruptly looked at Maria and nodded vigorously. “Um… yeah… oh, yeah… he’s… too young.” He turned and winked at Zorel, and Zorel smiled.
“How old are you,” Maria asked the young woman straight out, though she did smile amiably as she asked.
“Twelve thousand… give or take a few hundred.”
“Years?” Kyle gasped.
The Muse nodded. “I’m a Muse.”
Maria gave Zorel an ‘I-told-you-so’ nod. “You’re way too young for her.”
“I don’t mind,” Zorel said.
“Well I do,” Maria replied, her voice displaying just a hint of aggravation.
Michael laughed and pulled Maria’s arm off of Zorel and over to himself. “Don’t worry about Zorel. He’s just infatuated. It’s normal for boys… for girls, too, I hear.”
Maria sighed and nodded.
“You’re cute,” the Muse said, leaning over and kissing Zorel on the cheek, “And sweet, too. But I have a long term commitment to a man who thinks I look like mud.”
“Well, that sucks,” Zorel said boldly.
The Muse smiled, and Maria’s eyes opened wide. “Michael, we really need to start monitoring the Earth channel better.”
Michael nodded.
“Just for the record, Zorel,” the Muse said with a wink, “You’re right. Too bad my ‘inspiree’ can’t seem to see it. All he ever wants is inspiration twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
“But isn’t that what Muses are supposed to do?” Isabel asked innocently, “Inspire?”
The Muse sighed. “Well, yeah… but, well… he could notice me… just a little bit… once in a while…”
Michael smiled and looked at Maria, and she nodded understandingly. At that moment, seven-year-old Jayyd Guerin walked up and took her mom by the hand. “Hi. Who are you,” she asked, looking the young woman over.
“She’s a Muse,” Zorel said.
“Oh.” Jayyd nodded, turning back to the young woman… “Say something funny!”
“Jayyd!” Maria exclaimed.
“Well, Zorel said she’s amuse. That means funny in Eluymerian, doesn’t it?”
Michael nodded. “She’s got a point.” He put one hand on Jayyd’s shoulder and smiled at her tenderly. “She’s a Muse… It’s two words. She’s like… Shar’meya… in the Frebel-Ish stories.”
“Oh! Cool!” Jayyd exclaimed, suddenly seeming very impressed by the young woman in front of her.
The Muse smiled.
“Are you here to ‘spire us?” Jayyd asked.
The Muse grinned. “I’ve done that from time to time… without you knowing it. But I’m mainly here because my evil master, Doctor Crank’n’whine, wants inspiration.”
Michael chuckled. “It looks to me like he’s got YOU inspired… in a manner of speaking.”
The Muse nodded. “He wants me to talk to you guys and find out something about you that no one else knows… something totally radical and… unknown.”
“Us? Michael and me?” Maria asked, surprised.
“Well… or Max and Liz or Isabel and Alex or Kyle and Jeliya… or all of you.”
“So he sent you all the way from Earth to get a story?” Maria asked.
The Muse nodded.
“Is he like… a pizzarazzi or PapaNazi or whatever those guys are,” Michael asked, “The ones always looking for pictures and a wild story?”
The Muse grinned. “Paparazzi. No… actually, he’s one of a number of people who still keep you guys alive since you were… abandoned by the big guy.”
“God?”
The Muse shook her head and pointed downward.
“You mean… HIM?” Maria asked, horrified.
The Muse nodded. “A TV exec… down on Earth.”
Michael shook his head. “That’s old news. They could never cancel us from the memories and hearts of the people who love us. As long as they live, so will we. We are alive and kicking, I assure you.”
“And nobody is happier about that than I am,” the Muse said, looking Michael, then Max, Kyle, and Alex, over wistfully.
“Well… there is one thing you could tell her… about you, Michael,” Max suggested hesitantly.
“There’s nothing that anyone needs to know about me that isn’t already known,” Michael replied, shaking his head.
“Sure there is, Michael! There’s that stuff about your secret life,” Maria urged, “It’s okay to tell everybody now. We aren’t on Earth anymore. Besides, I think the kids would enjoy hearing it. Just keep it clean!”
“I don’t like talking about me, Maria,” Michael mumbled insistently, “Can’t we talk about Max… or Kyle! Let’s tell her something about Kyle!”
“Oh, like there’s anything anybody would want to know about Kyle,” Alex said dramatically.
“I live by the wisdom of Buddha,” Kyle retorted, “They might want to hear some philosophy.”
Alex yawned. “Old news, Kyle. Nobody’s interested. I want to hear what kind of secret life Michael had that I didn’t know about. Now that has promise… knowing Michael.”
Kyle shrugged. “Well, like Buddha said… ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’”
“That was Buddha?” Alex asked, surprised.
Kyle shrugged, “Could have been. Everybody has said it at one time or another. So Michael, what kind of perverted, sick life have you been hiding from the rest of us that I was never told about?”
“Wouldn’t you love to know,” Michael retorted feistily, “Too bad I’m never going to tell you.”
Kyle looked at Michael suspiciously… “Wait a minute… Maria knows, Liz knows… and Max knows? Does anyone else know?”
Michael smiled. “No. And they’re never going to. Too bad, Valenti. You’re outta luck!”
“Oh wait!” Kyle said, looking like the fox that was about to swallow the rabbit, “I know the perfect story to tell her! Yxtiar!”
Michael looked at Kyle suspiciously. “Maria and I spent some time in the hot springs there. But you weren’t there.”
Kyle grinned. “No, but I heard something… about you.”
Michael’s smile disappeared. “What?”
“It had to do with an underwater current in one of the hot springs and your swim trunks… and a ticket for streaking through a tourist area… or something like that.”
Michael spun around and looked at Maria with a look of betrayal.
“I… I didn’t… I swear, Michael! I don’t know how he found out! I would never…”
“What do you want, Kyle?” Michael asked, though the question came with an implied and understood threat. Michael WOULD –absolutely WOULD- dig up something on Kyle to get him back with. It was not a matter of if but when.
“I want to hear about your so-called secret life… the one only Maria, Liz, and Max know about.”
“And you’ll never mention the Yxtiar thing again?”
“Cross my heart.”
Michael looked at Kyle for a long time, until Kyle began to wonder if he had made a mistake. Maybe Michael had some kind of X-ray eyes like Superman and he was burning a hole in him as they stood there. Kyle checked his shirt. No smoke… no holes… at least so far.
“Okay,” Michael said unexpectedly. “I’ll tell. Like Max said, we’re not on Earth anymore. I guess it can’t hurt for you guys to hear it now.”
“Awesome!” Zorel said, plopping down on the sand beside his friends, Danyy Valenti and Alyyx Evans. Maya, JoLeesa, Andya, Jayyd, Kryys, Mareeya, Ceelya, Jiba, Drel, and the other children joined them. The adults sat down on the sand to listen, too, along with the Muse.
Michael took a big breath and shook his head. He really did not like talking about himself. He would much rather be talking about Kyle… if he had anything to tell. And he would… sooner or later…
<center>End of Prologue
tbc…</center>
Last edited by Island Breeze on Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Codename: TABASCO
The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin
Episode 100 – Pilot (The Avenger)
Michael looked around at everyone present and took a big breath… “It started in the CrashDown… that day when Liz got shot. When Liz fell, Max jumped up out of his seat and started towards her, and I grabbed him by the arm…”
Max, what are you gonna do?
Max yelled at Maria to call an ambulance, then he tore Liz's dress open, and we saw the blood. I knew right then that nothing was going to convince Max that what he was doing was wrong. So I tried to keep anyone from getting too close and seeing what he was happening…
Hey, get back!
Max kept telling Liz that she had to look at him. Then he put his hand over the bullet wound and healed it. I was freaked out that Max had broken his pact with Isabel and me about not blowing our cover, and I just wanted to get us out of there as quickly as possible.
Keys! Now!
Max broke a ketchup bottle and poured the ketchup over Liz’s dress. Then he told her to say that she broke a bottle and spilled ketchup on herself when she fell. He pleaded with her not to tell anyone what he had done, but I knew we were screwed. Our secret was out. I was totally freaking. And to add insult to injury, as I turned toward the door, with Max in tow, I collided with Maria.
“Oh great! Your smelly cedar oil is all over me!”
“You made me spill it! You bumped me!”
“Yeah, fine. Send me a bill. MAX, NOW! Let’s go!”
I managed to drag Max out of the CrashDown, but the damage had been done. I wasn’t letting him off without telling him what I thought of his indiscretion, and Isabel wasn’t about to let him off easy either…
I can't believe this Max. You know, I finally feel like I have a quasi-normal existence and you go and blow it all with one random act of lunacy. Michael, how did you let my misguided brother do this? And stand downwind, for God’s sake, Michael! You smell like a damn urinal!
Hey don't turn this around on me. I'm not the one who thinks he's a superhero. And it’s not pee; Maria spilled that stupid oil she carries around all the time on me.
I always wondered what that was.
I’ll be honest, at first, I was ready to leave town and find some other place to live… I was so sure that our cover had been totally blown, especially when Sheriff Valenti stopped us and questioned us in Max’s jeep. But Isabel didn’t want to leave Roswell, and Max… he thought we could just crawl back in our shells like nothing ever happened… So in the end, we didn’t leave. But things did change… a lot more than most people ever suspected…
Max kept saying that he couldn’t just let Liz die, and I understood, but it was my responsibility to keep us safe, and his saving Liz’s life put ours in danger. Not just mine, you see… Max’s… and Isabel’s, too. I was furious about that. But a part of me was glad that he saved her. I’m not sure I can explain that. But what Max did got me to thinking. I still thought he was wrong to put all our lives in jeopardy like that… especially without consulting Isabel and me… but he did it, and that changed everything. Now it wasn’t a question anymore of should he do it or not. He did it. Now the question was can we live with it… with a human knowing our secret…
Have you ever had one of those dreams where you’re being chased or where something’s about to blow up or whatever and you want to run, but your legs just won’t move, they’re like… lead or something? Well, that’s kind of how I felt when Max saved Liz. I wanted to run but I couldn’t.
I think it bothered me more that I was so freaked out about it than it did that Max had done it. I was not supposed to get freaked out; I was supposed to keep us safe… calmly… and efficiently. I didn’t even know who I was back then, but some things were programmed into my DNA or something. Efficiency was one of them. But if efficiency is the main goal, then Nasedo was perfect. He was the model of efficiency. If humans got in the way, he just eliminated them. Simple. No emotion involved. We hadn’t even met Nasedo yet when Max saved Liz, but I already knew that that kind of thinking was wrong. The problem is, the difference between killing humans and letting one die when you could have saved her didn’t seem very big. In fact, it seemed uncomfortably small. It’s just that… I had never given it any thought, so it was a kind of awakening for me when it hit me like that. And it wasn’t an awakening that I took easily. It was like waking up with cold water splashed in your face… or having no Tabasco to put in your morning coffee.
The truth is, I still wasn’t ready to accept it, not totally. It seemed easier to say that what happened to Liz was no fault of ours and therefore no responsibility of ours, so what if Max was head over heels in love with her, he didn’t have to save her, especially since it endangered all of us as a result. It wasn’t the same as killing her, right? But a part of me was saying that it was. And it was driving me crazy. That night I tossed and turned in bed, and my mind kept replaying what had happened in the CrashDown. Over and over, in my dreams, I kept seeing myself drag Max out, and I would look back as we went out the door and see Liz lying there dead and Maria crying her heart out over her body and… and I would feel empty inside… cold… and emotionless. I was the Terminator… no heart, just very, very efficient… I was Nasedo.
Since I wasn’t getting much quality sleep anyway, I decided to go for a bike ride in the dark and clear my head. I sneaked out of the trailer quietly, being careful not to wake Hank, but he had been drinking earlier, so he was probably in a stupor anyway. Once on the road, I drove all the way through Roswell and then headed towards Las Cruces on Highway 285. I remember I passed Madame Vivian’s. I don’t put much stock in fortunetellers myself, but I know some people who do, and I could just hear Madame Vivian trying to explain how I was a robot without a heart and then she would hum that Oz song, ‘If I Only Had A Heart.’ I put some distance between myself and her place as fast as I could. Twenty miles down the road, I spotted a rest stop and decided to pull off and try to relax. It looked dark and relatively deserted, and that suited me just fine. That’s what I needed to clear my head.
I was lucky. There was nobody else there but me. I noticed that there was only one light burning, and it was way out near the highway. The others all appeared to be burned out, so the place was dark and quiet. I could relax in peace… listen to the crickets chirp… whatever… and get my head in order.
Trouble is, nothing ever goes exactly the way you plan it. About forty minutes after I parked my bike and found a nice place to lie down in the grass and watch the stars, an old pickup truck pulls into the rest stop. This thing must have been made by Thomas Edison… or was it Gerald Ford? Well, anyway, whoever made the first car… You know what I mean. The engine was clanking and grinding like it was on its last legs, and if that wasn’t bad enough, these two guys get out and start arguing real loud. I tried to cover my ears, but it was annoying, and I could still hear them yelling insults at each other. I wasn’t paying too much attention to what the insults were about until I heard one of them say, “If that cheap whore at the restaurant hadn’t got in the way and taken your bullet for you, you’d be makin’ love t’ maggots right now. I’ve still got three bullets left. And one of them has your name all over it… unless you come up with that money… tonight!”
Okay, now they had my attention. I lay there quietly, but I was listening now.
“I don’t have the money. You need to give me some more time. That’s all I’m asking, for a couple of days. I can pull a job. If I’m dead you’re not going to get anything.”
“Except satisfaction,” the first man said gruffly, “I might settle for that in your case.”
“Come on, man… a day! Just gimme a day! I’ll pull a job… I’ll go back to Roswell… knock off that restaurant we were at. They won’t be expectin’ it, not after that little waitress got it this morning.”
“What if you get caught?”
“I won’t.”
“How do I know that?”
“I’ll kill ‘em all… I’ll leave no witnesses. You happy? There’s got to be enough money in that place to cover what I owe you… MORE!”
The first man nodded slowly, thinking it over. “Alright… but you take care of ‘em good. I don’t want no surprises.”
“No surprises,” the second man promised.
“Would this count as a surprise?” I asked, stepping out of the shadows behind them.
Both men spun around and stared at me. Alright! I know! I said that we shouldn’t get involved in human affairs. I said that we shouldn’t blow our cover. I said a lot of stuff. But fate or something just wasn’t going to let me have it my way.
“Buddy, whoever you are, you just bought yourself a one-way ticket to hell,” the first man said, pulling out his gun. I raised my hand at the same time as he pulled the trigger, and the bullet exploded in the air. This apparently shook them up. I guess it wasn’t what they were expecting. The man with the gun fired off two more shots at me, emptying his chamber, but again the bullets exploded as soon as they left the gun barrel, just like the first one had. Panicked, the other man ran and jumped into the truck. Apparently, he no longer felt that it was necessary to wait for his ‘friend.’ Thanks to a little electrical interference, though, the truck refused to start.
“Who are you?” the man with the gun yelled.
I had pulled my T-shirt over my head to disguise myself. It wasn’t much, but I had to do what I could do with what I had… and the pants weren’t coming off! I guess I did look weird; I definitely felt weird, looking through the arm of a T-shirt with the shirt pulled down over my head, but it protected my identity, you know… It protected US. So I said…
“I’m the Avenger.”
I don’t know where that came from actually. It just popped out. I think I thought that I was avenging Liz… and what they had done to us, to Max and Isabel and me, and I just said I’m the Avenger.
“Avenger? What… you’re like some kind of superhero or something?”
“Something, yeah.”
“Come on, man!” the second guy yelled, “Let’s get out of here! This guy is spookin’ me! I can’t start this thing. It’ll start for you.”
“It’s not gonna start,” I said confidently, “I’ve taken care of that.”
“What did you do to it,” the first man asked.
Without speaking, I raised my hand, and the truck burst into flames. The guy inside dove out the door, then the truck exploded.
“A little of that,” I said, lowering my hand back.
“Who are you,” the first man asked again, looking even more addled than before, “What do you want with us? We ain’t done nothin’ wrong.”
“You used bad grammar,” I said totally seriously.
It’s a good thing my face was hidden, because I cringed as soon as I said it. I don’t know what made me say it. I wouldn’t even try to explain it for all the Tabasco in Roswell. But when he spoke, Mrs. Biederman, our old English teacher, popped into my head, wagging her finger… “Double negatives are bad grammar, young man. If you want to ever be somebody in this world you must not use bad grammar.” I shook my head and put her out of my mind. There would be time for shrinks later.
“So what… you’re like a teacher or something? Bad grammar is a crime now?”
“Shooting a waitress is a crime,” I replied.
The man stared at me, his eyes filling with panic. He knew that I knew. I waited to see what his reaction would be. It didn’t take long… He charged at me, picking up a branch from the ground to hit me with. It wasn’t smart, but I guess he didn’t see any other options at the moment.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
“Sheriff Valenti, Roswell Sheriff’s Office… How can I help you?” Sheriff Jim Valenti listened for a few moments, his eyebrows arching slightly as he listened… “Okay, I’m on my way. We can handle it from here. Thanks for letting me know.”
Valenti hung up the phone and grabbed his hat, slapping it onto his head with a simple practiced flip. “Hansen, get your hat and gun. We got a disturbance out at a rest stop on 285 a few miles outside of Roswell.”
“Is it in our jurisdiction, sir?”
“It is now. The State guys usually patrol that area. They got the call, but they have no one nearby at the moment. It’s close to us, so I said we’d check it. You ready?”
“Yes, sir. Can I ask what kind of disturbance, sir?”
Jim smiled. “Maybe we’d better get there and see for ourselves. I’m not sure I trust the report.”
“You don’t trust the state police?”
“No… yeah… I mean, not them, whoever reported it to them. We’ll probably get there and find out it was all a prank… just some kids havin’ a good time making some crank calls. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Hansen nodded and closed the door behind them.
Jim pulled into the rest stop and looked around. The first thing he noticed was the burning truck, then he noticed that a bank of lights on one of the light poles was sparking incessantly, and he saw the two men… dangling from the arm of the light, thirty feet up, by the backs of their pants. He pointed, and Hansen looked up.
“I guess there was a disturbance after all, huh, Hansen?”
Hansen nodded, his mouth open in disbelief. Jim stopped the car near the pole, and he and Hansen got out.
“See if you can still get a license number off of that truck, Hansen. ARE YOU TWO OKAY UP THERE?”
“GET US DOWN!” both men yelled at the same time, struggling momentarily then becoming still again, fearful that their belts and pants would not hold if they continued to struggle.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Jim yelled back, “How in thunder did you get up there in the first place? Can you climb back down the same way you got up there?”
“We didn’t climb up,” the first man yelled down, “We were lifted up… by some kind of power or force field or somethin’… some guy who called himself ‘The Avenger.’”
Hansen nodded. “There was an old comic book character by that name, I think. Then there was a movie that starred Sean Connery and Uma Thurmond, came out around 1998. Then there was the Toxic Avenger, the Veggie Avenger, the…”
“I get the idea. All right… How are we going to get these guys down from up there?”
The previously ‘burned out’ lights sparked brightly again several times then eerily returned to darkness, eliciting howls from the two men. “Hurry up!” one of the men yelled down, “We’re gonna get electrocuted up here!”
“Sheriff, look!” Hansen bent down and untied a swatch of cloth from around the bottom of the light pole. “There’s something written on it.”
“Let me see. Hold it up in front of the car lights so I can read it.”
“Yes, sir.”
These two planned to rob the CrashDown tonight and kill anyone there. The gun is in the garbage can beside the men’s room. Check it for fingerprints. Check their records, too. It’s the gun from the CrashDown today.
Jim looked up at the two men dangling thirty feet above. Suddenly, he did not feel any hurry to get them down.
“I’m going to make a call from my squad car. You guys… just hang in there… up there… whatever… and keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Sheriff, get us down… NOW! Or I’ll sue you and your whole department!” the first man yelled down belligerently.
“He’s kidding,” the other man yelled, “Please get us down!”
“Hansen, check the garbage can by the men’s room. If you find a gun, be careful not to destroy any fingerprints.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jim walked over to his car and picked up the mike. Several minutes later, he walked back over to the light pole. Hansen was standing there with the gun, a ‘Saturday Night Special,’ wrapped carefully in a handkerchief. He showed it to Jim, and Jim nodded then looked up at the two men hanging from the lights…
“There’s a fire truck on the way.”
“How long till it gets here,” the first man asked impatiently.
“Twenty minutes… maybe. Just hang in there. Oh, and the state police are on their way, too. They think they may know you two. Seems you have some pretty long records… including murder. I’d say they’re going to be very happy to get you down.”
Both men groaned. There really wasn’t much else they could do now, in light of their situation.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
“He glowed! He glowed like he was atomic or somethin’,” the accomplice said breathlessly, as the state patrol officer handcuffed him and shoved him into the patrol car. “And he had this power force field or something. He blew up our truck. And… and he stops bullets… in the air! He stopped Ralph’s bullets! He blew ‘em up as they came out of the gun!”
“Shut up!” the first man said, as the officer stuffed him into the car beside his accomplice. “Don’t listen to him. I never saw that gun before. This was all a setup.”
“Sure,” the patrolman said, pushing him into the car and closing the door before turning to Jim…
“What did you see, Sheriff? Was there another man out here? Could someone else have done this?”
Jim shook his head and blew out a long breath of air. “I didn’t see anyone else. When we got here, whoever put them up there was long gone. But someone had to do it. We owe a big thanks to an individual or individuals unknown somewhere out there it would seem.”
“You don’t believe that plutonium man super hero stuff do you, Sheriff?”
Jim laughed. “Not a chance. They’re trying to set up a case for an insanity plea or something… at their trials.”
The state police officer nodded. “That’s what I figured, too. Good work, Sheriff. I’ll see to it you get some kind of commendation for their arrests.”
“Having them off the street is thanks enough,” Jim replied with a grateful grin, “Take real good care of ‘em.”
“You know we’ll do that.”
As the highway patrol car pulled away with the two men in it, Hansen looked at Jim curiously. “You didn’t tell him about the note.”
Jim pulled the swatch of cloth out of his pocket and held it up to his nose, sniffing it curiously. “No, I didn’t.”
“That wasn’t an oversight… was it, sir?”
Jim shook his head. “This was a piece of somebody’s T-shirt once. I would very much like to know whose. We’re gonna make a date with the lab guys to have a closer look at it… chemically if need be.”
“What do you think you’ll find, sir?”
Jim’s eyebrows arched, and he stopped and turned to face Hansen. “Maybe… The Avenger.”
Codename: TABASCO
(The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin)
Episode 101 – Coffee & Tabasco (The Morning After)
Max was sleeping… snoring actually… when I climbed through his window. I don’t know how he could be so calm with everything that had happened, but that’s Max. Did I say he was asleep? Okay, he was snoring, but he could still hear a pin drop, even in his sleep. He opened his eyes and got up slowly, picking up a baseball bat and a flashlight that he kept near his bed, then he lifted the baseball bat over his head, expecting to smack the hell out of the intruder…
Hold it there! Don’t hit me!
Seeing it was me, Max put the bat down. Argument with Hank?
Couldn’t sleep.
He laid a sleeping bag on the floor for me and climbed back into bed and sat there for a moment before lying back down. I guess he thought I needed a place to sleep… you know, because of Hank and all. When I made it clear that I was not there to join his snore fest and just wanted to talk, he shrugged. Hey, I was sleeping.
Amazing. He wanted to sleep, and I wanted to talk about our future. I mean, the key to our entire existence was out there, and Max wanted to sleep! Valenti had been hounding Liz all day about what happened in the CrashDown that morning. He showed her a picture of a dead man with a silver handprint on him… like the silver handprint Max had left on her. Kyle got a glimpse of the handprint on Liz, and he told his father, the sheriff. Valenti never saw it himself, but he knew he was onto something; he could smell it. The important thing is, though, that picture proved that there was someone else out there… someone like us… someone who was here in 1959 when that picture was made… someone who would know where we came from, who we were, why we were here, and maybe… just maybe… how to get back to our own planet. And besides, I needed someone to talk to about what had happened tonight, and Max was going to hear me even if I had to prop him up with an ironing board and drop the iron on his head to make him listen. He was the only one I could tell.
“Max, listen! I caught the two guys that shot Liz tonight… I hung ‘em on a light pole and called the highway patrol.”
“Good for you.”
Max lay there for a few moments then rolled over slowly and looked at me…
“You did what? What did you just say?”
“I said…”
“I heard what you said! Michael, are you nuts! Have you lost your mind? You’re the one who said we need to stay under the radar, out of sight… and you just invited the feds… and Valenti… into our lives? Why don’t you just send them an inscribed invitation! Aliens, at your service. Pick up or delivery anytime! We’ll come to you!
“It’s not like that, Maxwell.”
“So what is it like, Michael? Tell me.”
“I didn’t exactly hang around to chit chat with the sheriff when he got there. I left the two corndogs hanging from the pole, and I took off on my bike. By the time Valenti got there, I was long gone.”
Max was silent for almost a full minute before he spoke again…
“You caught them, huh… the guys that shot Liz?”
“Yep.”
“Well, that’s good… That’s… that’s good… as long as no one knows that we’re involved.”
“There’s nothing to tie them to us, Max… except you healing Liz, that is.”
“Don’t start, Michael.”
“I’m not starting. It’s done. I’m working on damage control now!”
“There was no damage. We just have to be careful in the future.”
“We’ve always had to be careful.”
“Right. So nothing has changed.”
“Everything has changed, Max!”
“How do you mean?”
I leaned against the wall wearily. “I enjoyed it, Max. I enjoyed taking those men down… and hanging them up there on that light pole by the seat of their pants. Every time the lights flickered and sparks fell down into their pants they howled… and I enjoyed it. That’s not normal, Max.”
Max grinned. “I don’t know… I’m enjoying it just thinking about it. I don’t think it’s abnormal, Michael. You have normal feelings. Those guys almost killed Liz. Hell, they did kill Liz… if I hadn’t intervened and saved her. They’re scum. They would have hurt others sooner or later. You did the world a favor. So you really put a good scare into them, huh?”
“Yeah… They think there’s a superhero out there called The Avenger.”
“How very original.”
“Yeah, okay, so it’s been used before. I didn’t exactly have time to come up with an all-original, Maxwell-sanctioned name. It just popped into my head. I was avenging Liz, so… I said I was the Avenger.”
“Makes sense.”
“Yeah. It does.”
“But it’s all over now, Michael. The bad guys are in the sheriff’s hands… and you’re no superhero. We’re just two guys in high school… nothing unusual about us.”
“Right.”
I nodded, but inside, I wasn’t sure. I had enjoyed a taste… a very small taste… of something deeply satisfying, and it tasted pretty good, a lot better than what I usually tasted living with Hank. It was a feeling I had never experienced before. I wasn’t sure anymore what the future held. Maybe with my alien heritage I was born to be some kind of superhero. Somewhere inside, I knew that I was supposed to protect Max and Isabel, so I was already supposed to be a kind of hero in a way. Why not a superhero? Yeah… Why not? I could do that! But not tonight… I would need at least a couple of hours sleep. In the morning, after my morning coffee… Stirred, not shaken, with Tabasco.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
The next day, things started to get complicated. Mr. Singer, the geometry teacher, didn’t show up; instead, this dame named Topolsky pops in. She pretended to be a substitute teacher, but she sucked at geometry. Liz kept correcting her. Then she said she was really a guidance counselor and was concerned about me. The truth is, she was gathering information about me for the FBI. Liz came to the trailer park to warn me after she found Topolsky gathering my records together.
“You’re sure it was my records, it was definitely my records?”
“Yeah.”
“So she’s looking for me.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, Michael. I just thought I should tell you.”
“Thanks.”
“Did you know they caught the guys that shot me, Michael?”
“Yeah… actually… I think I heard something about that.”
“The sheriff told me this morning. He kept asking me if I’d ever heard of someone called ‘Avenger.’ Best I could gather, the men claimed to have been hung up on a light pole by this Avenger, whoever he is. Could be a last name, I guess… Tom Avenger, Harold Avenger… I’ve heard stranger names. The sheriff thinks they were just drunk and rambling, though.”
“Why would he ask YOU about this Avenger person?”
“I don’t know. It was strange. He acted like it was all a big joke, but it seemed like more than that to me. I don’t know what he’s up to, Michael, but I thought you should know.”
“Thanks… again.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Liz.”
“Yeah?”
“There’s something… you ought to know. You trusted me by bringing me this information. I want you to know I appreciate that. And…”
“Yes?”
“And… I’m going to trust you with something. Can I? You know, trust you?”
“Michael, I would never do anything that would betray you guys, if that’s what you mean.”
“Yeah, something like that. What I’m going to tell you… only Max knows right now… I mean, besides me. You can never tell anyone, unless I say it’s okay.”
Liz nodded.
“I couldn’t sleep last night, so I rode down the highway on my bike and stopped at a rest stop. Those two guys pulled in and started arguing, and I heard them talking about shooting you and that they were going to come back and rob the CrashDown and kill whoever was there so there’d be no witnesses…”
Liz gasped, and her hand went over her mouth reflexively. I think she turned pale, too.
“You see, Liz, I really didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t let them do that… and… and besides, I figured I would be avenging you… and us, too. It wasn’t planned… the name and all. It just popped out. I know it was stupid. The Avenger… that was me. Yeah! Really stupid, I know.”
Liz shook her head slowly, as she processed what I had just told her.
“It wasn’t stupid, Michael. You saved everyone who might have been there in the café… Dad, Mom… Maria… Who knows who else!”
Suddenly, Liz stopped and planted a kiss on my cheek. I swear I never saw it coming. I probably turned red. I know I had a hard time finding my voice again. I knew it was just like a friendship kind of thing… gratitude and all… but damn! I understood why Max had to save her.
“So, uh, now you know, huh…”
Liz nodded thoughtfully. “You know, Michael… that makes you an honest to God superhero. I kind of like it, actually. It’s not stupid at all. You’ve got powers that people here don’t have, so you are a superhero. Well, you are if you use your powers for good, like you did last night. I guess that would be putting yourself and Max and Isabel in danger, though; I mean, if you made a habit of it. I know you guys have to be careful and appear to be just like everyone else and all. I understand that.”
I nodded, but I was thinking about what Liz had said. Hell, I’d been thinking about it ever since last night’s little incident. I liked being somebody special, even if nobody else could ever know it was me. It made me somebody. Being a frikkin’ hybrid alien had never made me anything but wanted before… and not in a good way. It was a curse. I didn’t even know what planet I was from or anything about my people. But being a superhero was something. Yeah, that was something I could do. And it would give some meaning to this freaky DNA I was born with. I still wasn’t sure that I would ever do anything like last night again. It did pose a certain amount of risk to us, and I have enough headaches taking care of Max and Isabel now. Who needs to add more steam to a whistling cauldron anyway? I’ve got enough on my shoulders just trying to find out who we are… not to mention getting us back home someday, wherever that is. But I knew one thing for certain now. The idea would always be there… in the back of my mind.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
Unfortunately, it seemed that Topolsky wasn’t the only FBI person in Roswell these days. An Agent Hart showed up in Sheriff Valenti’s office and said he was on assignment and that the sheriff should just go about his business as usual. This pissed Valenti off, being that the guy was in Valenti’s office, in Valenti’s jurisdiction and all, and wouldn’t even say what he wanted.
See, my problem with that is that having a federal agent sitting smack dab in the middle of my station house isn't exactly business as usual.
My orders are to not leave this chair until I’m relieved.
Uh-huh. Agent Hart, the FBI has no jurisdiction here. Now I’m going to ask you to please get up and leave. And take your folding chair with you.
Valenti kicked Agent Hart out, but the feds were back before the sun could set, and this time they removed all of Valenti’s files from his office and ordered him to forget they ever existed. Yeah! Like that was gonna happen! The problem, for us, was that the picture we wanted to get our hands on was probably in the sheriff’s desk and might be found by those yahoo agents going in and out of his office. We had to find it before they did.
The only way I could see to get in the sheriff’s office without being seen was to go in the window, but it was on the second floor, and a locked grate covered it. No problem for a superhero, I told myself. Climbing up to the second floor ledge was easy. There, I used my powers to open the grate then quickly slid into Valenti's office and started going through his files. Max and Isabel must have arrived at about that time, because they saw the window grate open and knew that I was there. They also saw Valenti pulling into the station.
Max, you get Michael out of there. I’ll keep Valenti out of his office as long as I can.
Max slipped in through the window. I found the picture, and I also found a strange key hidden inside the lid of Valenti’s thermos, so I took it; but when I held it in my hand, I had a vision that made me stagger backwards. The sheriff must have heard the noise, because we heard him coming down the hall, so we got out quickly, and Max sealed the grate back. Then we jumped down into a garbage dumpster. Even superheroes get dirty sometimes.
Told you it was no big deal, Max!
That night, Liz sat watching the stars, her diary on her lap. Next to her, on her bed, lay the afternoon paper, with a short article on the front page about the arrest of the shooters from the CrashDown Café the night before… and the strange rumor of an unknown avenger.
I guess it was a lot to put on her shoulders. She already couldn’t tell anyone that Max had saved her life… or about us, who we really are and all… and now she couldn’t tell anyone that the guy running around Roswell pretending to be a superhero was actually just an alien.
Liz traced a line with one finger through the stars in the sky, as though searching for ‘the one,’ then she sighed and began to write in her diary…
Ever since I found out about Max and Michael and Isabel, I’ve been thinking a lot about secrets… that for everyone who has a secret, there’s someone else who needs to know what that secret is. How sometimes secrets keep people from feeling like they belong, and sometimes secrets make you feel like you do belong. And now even I, Liz Parker, the smallest of small town girls with the simplest of lives… even I have something to hide.
Thanks, Tracie! :D It's an idea I had been playing with for a long time, so I decided to bite the bullet. Once I had written three parts... four, including the prologue, I figured it might actually work and started posting it. It's pretty different from the other stories I've written, so we'll see how it goes. Here's the next part, the last part I have written so far.
Codename: TABASCO
(The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin)
Episode 102 – Cherry Cola Isn’t The Only Thing That’s Sweet (Leaving Normal)
He’s the guy.
Max Evans?
Yeah. He’s the one.
The CrashDown had been invaded… not by aliens but by orthodontists attending an orthodontists’ convention, and Liz had spent most of the evening smiling on demand. Max stayed with her until the CrashDown closed; then they said their goodbyes and Max walked across the street, where he was confronted by a group of jocks who were lying in wait for him.
What's going on, guys?
Evans, right?
Yeah.
Stay away from her.
Who?
The answer came from a barrage of fists that left Max bleeding from a cut over his eye and left bruises on other parts of his face. I knew what had happened as soon as I saw him…
I'm going to kill them.
Michael… No! Michael, listen to me. This is bad. Kyle does something to us. We do something back to him. This kind of thing gets all over school, all over town. Rumors start flying. The whole thing about what I did to Liz starts coming up again. We get exposed.
That's exactly what I'm saying. We go and we shut up those guys right now.
Michael, we have to stick together now… more than ever before. We have to go back into our shells. We can't do anything to those guys. I have to stay away from Liz.
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear from Max. Okay, I agreed that it had the potential to get out of hand. I just didn’t agree about what we should do to avoid the trouble… or maybe I should say, what we should NOT do. Back at school the next day, I “accidentally” bumped one of the jocks on the stairs.
Hey, watch where you're going.
Dude, I'm sorry.
(Yeah, sorry I didn’t do it sooner.) I smiled to myself and walked on. A short time later, I spotted the jock I had touched trying to impress this cheerleader, and he starts scratching inside his shirt and all over as he’s talking to her. First thing you know, she’s looking at him like he’s got fleas… or maybe worse… and her friends are thinking, ‘this guy's a dog! Get rid of him! He may be contagious!’ I grinned and walked on. Some days, being an alien isn’t so sucky. I know, I said I wasn’t sure I would ever do anything like back at the rest stop again, but I never said I wouldn’t enjoy life. You can’t have it and just let them run all over you when you can do something about it. Besides, Max may not agree… okay, he doesn’t agree… but the only way to stop these guys is to humble them. If they get away with it, they’ll just get bolder and bolder. That puts us in danger. I had to put a stop to it. And I did… without hurting them… so, technically, I did not break my promise to Max, because he only said that we could not hurt them back, not that we couldn’t make them itch.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
“Miss DeLuca! Come in! I guess you’re wondering why Deputy Carson brought you here.”
“I swear, Sheriff! I didn’t know I was breaking any law. Well, maybe I knew it was wrong, just a little bit, kind of, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just ignore something like that. I mean, what would you do, Sheriff? Wouldn’t you do something? Omigod, I need my cedar oil. Here it is. This is okay, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not, like, illegal, or something, is it… ‘cause if it is…”
Jim sat back into his chair, his head spinning. “You’re not under arrest, Miss DeLuca. Take a deep breath. Slow down. You’re giving me a headache.”
Maria closed her eyes and waved the vial of cedar oil under her nose.
“You know, Miss DeLuca, you would be a whole lot less nervous if you were just calmer.”
Jim thought for a moment then waved his hand dismissively… “Okay, forget I said that. Look, you’re not under arrest.”
“So this is… not about Hillary Lange?”
“No. Is there something I should know about Hillary Lange?”
“Nothing! Nothing! And if she tells you there is, don’t believe her, Sheriff; she lies…”
“Miss DeLuca, please! Sit down and…” Jim ran one hand through his hair. “We’ll get to that later… maybe. I brought you here for a different reason. I want to know what you know about… The Avenger.”
Maria stared at Valenti for several moments before speaking. “The… Avenger?”
“Yes.”
Maria shook her head. “Well, he was some kind of comic book superhero or something… wasn’t he? Or was it a Mafia movie… I don’t know, I never saw it.”
Valenti took a deep breath. “It’s a guy, Miss DeLuca… a guy who calls himself ‘The Avenger…’ here in Roswell.”
“Why would I know?”
“That’s what I want to find out. I have very good reason to believe that you’re his… accomplice.”
Maria’s mouth dropped open, and she fumbled for her cedar oil again. As she fumbled in her purse, she noticed her cell phone and pulled it out… “I need to make a call.”
Jim sighed and nodded.
Maria dialed, then someone answered on the other end.
“Liz! Omigod! Liz! I need you! I’m going to jail!”
Maria? Slow down! What happened?
“The sheriff brought me down to the police station; I mean, a deputy did. They think I’m an accomplice. I’m being arrested.”
Maria, slow… look, do you have an attorney?
“No… Oh God, do I need one?”
Maria, don’t say another word until I get there… and not until you have an attorney present. What did you do? No! Don’t tell me! I’ll… I’ll be right there.
“Liz, would you let Mom know… please?”
Yeah, I’ll… I’ll tell her. Just relax, Maria. Don’t say another thing until we get there.
Jim sighed. “This really isn’t necessary, Miss DeLuca. You’re not under arrest. I just need some information.”
“I’m sorry, Sheriff. I can’t talk until I have my lawyer.”
“And… who would that be?”
“I don’t know… Liz? Can she be my lawyer? She’s the smartest person I know.”
Valenti smiled. “I can’t deny that, but I’m afraid she’d have to go to law school and then pass a bar exam to be your attorney. I don’t think you have time to wait.”
Maria moaned. “I’m going to jail! I knew it! I’m going to jail!”
“You’re not going to jail… unless you’ve committed a crime. Have you committed a crime?”
“But you said I was an accomplice. I’m going to jail, I know it…”
Ten minutes after Maria placed her frantic call, the door burst open and Amy DeLuca stormed in, followed closely by Philip Evans and Liz.
“Jim, what’s the meaning of this? What the hell are you doing arresting my daughter!? You’d better have a damn good reason!”
Jim jumped and put both hands up in surrender. “Amy! Amy! Calm down! She’s not under arrest. I just had her brought in for questioning.”
“YOU’RE INTERROGATING MY LITTLE GIRL!?”
“It’s not an interrogation, Amy! Calm down! I’m just looking for some information. You’re overreacting.”
Before Jim saw it coming, Amy had whacked him over the head. It was probably fortunate that her purse was of the smaller variety, only a small retro hemp bag, and she had recently removed most of the heavier items from it. “I’M OVERREACTING? I’M OVERREACTING?”
“Ow! Amy, please! Just… sit down. I promise I’ll explain this. Philip, help me out here!”
Philip Evans carefully took Amy by the arm and guided her toward a chair, making a point to stay on the side furthest from her bag. “Let me do the talking, Amy. I’ll handle it.”
“You’d better… for Jim’s sake.”
Philip sighed. “Jim, what’s this all about? I’ve known you for years and years, and you’ve never been a rash person. If Maria has done something, I’m sure it’s nothing that can’t be taken care of. She’s a good girl. I can’t believe she would do something that would get her thrown in jail.”
“She’s not under arrest,” Jim repeated wearily, for the umpteenth time. “I just needed to ask her some questions.”
“She should have been advised that she could have an attorney present, Jim. Did you read her her rights?”
“She’s not under arrest! No… I didn’t read her her rights. I’m not arresting her.”
“But you are interrogating her. She should have been advised of her rights.”
“Questioning her… I was just… asking a few questions.”
Philip Evans turned to Amy… “Maria’s not under arrest.”
“Thank you,” a very embattled Jim Valenti mouthed gratefully.
Philip Evans looked back at Jim again… “I’ll be representing Miss DeLuca. Ask your questions, Sheriff.”
“Thank you.” Jim turned back to Maria… “Miss DeLuca, what do you know about a man who calls himself The Avenger?”
“I told you, Sheriff… I don’t know him at all. I never heard of him… except for the one in the comic books.”
Valenti took the swatch of cloth out of his desk drawer and folded it over so that the writing was not visible, then he held it out to Maria…
“What does this smell like to you… Uh, Can I call you Maria?”
“Yeah… sure… it’s my name.” Maria sniffed the cloth and raised her eyebrows just a bit.
“Cedar oil.”
Jim nodded. “That’s what I thought, too. So I asked myself… Who, in Roswell, uses cedar oil? And then I remembered that you do.”
“I didn’t know it was illegal, Sheriff, honest!”
“Cedar oil’s not illegal, Sheriff,” Liz hastened to point out.
“No, it’s not illegal,” Jim agreed.
“Get to the point, Jim,” Philip said, putting one hand on Maria’s shoulder to show his support for her. “Cedar oil is not a drug. It’s not illegal. So what’s the problem?”
Jim opened his drawer and put the swatch of cloth back. “The problem, Philip, is that that cloth was once a T-shirt. The lab confirmed it. It contained minor traces of common dirt, cherry cola, hamburger grease, Tabasco, perspiration… and a rather large trace of cedar oil. And that swatch of cloth was found at the sight of… an incident I’m investigating.”
“So what, Jim? Anyone can buy cedar oil. Like you said, it’s not illegal. What kind of incident?”
“That’s not important.”
“Well, it is if you’re accusing my client of some kind of collaboration in a crime. Are you?”
Valenti thought for a moment then shook his head. “No.”
“My client has stated that she knows nothing about this cloth or this person you’re looking for. So unless you have anything else, Jim, I suggest you let her go.”
“She’s not under arrest.”
“Well, she was picked up at school… in a squad car,” Liz hastened to point out.
“Yeah! You brought her in,” Amy added sharply. “She missed class. She wasn’t asked if she would mind coming in after school or something.”
“That may have been an oversight, Amy. I’m sorry about that.”
Amy narrowed her eyes, and for a moment, Jim prepared himself to be whacked again, but it didn’t happen.
“Well, okay. But Jim, if you want to ask my daughter any more questions, you come to me. I think we know each other well enough, you and I.”
Jim nodded.
Amy motioned to Maria. “Let’s go, baby.”
Maria looked at Valenti, and he nodded.
After they had left, Jim collapsed into his chair, spent. But only moments later, he looked up to see a teenaged girl standing in his door.
“Can I help you?”
“I want to report a crime.”
“Well, this is the place. Let’s start with your name.”
“Hillary… Hillary Lange.”
Jim’s eyes opened wide, and a pain shot through his head.
“Hold on a minute, uh… Hillary.” Jim grabbed his hat and placed it on his head. “HANSEN! Get in here!”
Hansen rushed to Jim’s side. “Yes, sir!”
“Hansen, handle this. I’m going OUT… to patrol.”
“Yes sir.”
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
Hansen carefully wrote the girl’s name down on the complaint form… “Lange… L…A…N…G…E.”
“Right.”
“Okay, tell me what happened, Miss Lange.”
“Maria DeLuca stole my class notes… for the exam… right out of my notebook.”
“Um, I’m not sure that this is a police matter, Miss Lange. Did you tell the school authorities… or the teacher? That’s probably where this should be taken care of.”
“She’s a thief, Deputy! She needs to be locked up… arrested! Are you going to do something or aren’t you?!”
“Well, I guess I could make a run over to the school… talk with the proper authorities there. It’s not really a police matter.”
“Oh puh-leez! She’s a thief! You’re the cops! Lock her up!”
At that moment, as luck would have it, there was a knock on the door, and Deputy Hansen looked up to see Maria, her mother Amy, and Liz standing there. Philip Evans had gone home.
“I’m sorry, Deputy, but my daughter thinks she left her cedar oil here. Could we just look?”
Maria glanced around the office and gasped, as she happened to notice Hillary… slumped in her chair trying very hard to be invisible. Realizing that Maria knew full well what she was up to, Hillary immediately attempted to assume control of the situation…
“There she is, Deputy. Lock her up. It’s your duty.”
Deputy Hansen sighed and sat back down. He was beginning to understand why Jim had left in such a hurry.
“Okay… Miss DeLuca, will you please tell me if you took exam notes out of Miss Lange’s class notebook?”
“Yes.”
“Yes… you took them… or yes you’re going to tell me?”
“Yes, I have them.”
“Would you please give them back then?”
“No.”
Deputy Hansen looked surprised. “If they’re her notes, you’re going to have to give them back. I wouldn’t want to have to arrest you for… well, I don’t know what for… insubordination or something… to a deputy. Just give the notes back and we’ll all be happy.”
“No.”
“Maria!” Liz exclaimed.
Maria shook her head. “They’re not hers, they’re Alex’s. Hillary stole them. I saw her slip them out of his notebook while he was getting his lunch, so I slipped them out of hers later and was going to give them back to Alex.”
“Is this true, Miss Lange?”
“Of course not! They’re my notes. She stole them!”
“Can I see them, Miss DeLuca… please?”
Maria took the notes out of her bag. “Here. They’re Alex’s. They’re not hers.”
“They ARE mine!”
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Hansen said, “I’ll ask Alex if these are his… then, if he says they are, we’ll have our handwriting expert decide who’s telling the truth… and if you are telling the truth, Miss Lange, I’ll lock Miss DeLuca up. But if she is telling the truth, I’ll lock you up. Does that sound alright to you?”
There was a long silence, then Hillary coughed nervously. “You know, Deputy, I was thinking about what you said. This probably isn’t a police matter actually. You’re such a busy man. I wouldn’t want you to have to go to all that trouble on my account. There must be a lot of criminals and bad guys and all that you need to find… or something.”
“Oh, it’s no trouble, Miss Lange.”
“Locking you up will be his pleasure,” Maria interjected, grinning.
Hillary danced around nervously like she wasn’t sure what to do for a few moments. “I’ll just… um… you can keep the notes. I’ll… make some more. I think I’m going to be late for class.” She turned and rushed out the door, leaving Liz and Amy shaking their heads in disbelief.
“I don’t think Hillary will be bothering you anymore for a while, Maria,” Liz said, laughing, “She looked like she was about to pee herself just now. It’s a good thing you saw her take the notes out of Alex’s notebook, though. He’ll need them to study for the exam. I guess Hillary will have to learn to take her own notes from now own.”
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
Cherry Cola isn’t the only thing that’s sweet. Sometimes justice is… when you can find it. I figure I just have to help it along a little sometimes. I thought Max would enjoy seeing Kyle struggling to get his locker open after I welded it closed with my hand. After all, he did say that he enjoyed thinking about what I did to those guys that shot Liz. But, no. Max thought I was putting us in danger again by welding Kyle’s locker closed.
You're the one who put us in danger when you saved Liz. You're the one who screwed up, Max.
Yeah, and I'd do it again right now.
Let's hope we can trust her.
We can trust her.
Well, I don't trust anyone these days.
Okay, that wasn’t totally true. I had made my peace with Liz already. And I did trust her… to an extent. Let’s say I believed in her. I believed that she would not intentionally betray us. But it was up to her to show us that we had not misplaced that trust. When I said that I didn’t trust anyone these days, that was not totally untrue. Even Liz, who had proven herself, was still not beyond all suspicion. But I did trust her… more than I was ever going to let Max know. Besides, I had to tell Max that he screwed up, even if I didn’t think so anymore. It kept things kind of equal between us. You see, Max was still doing his own thing, too. Liz’s Grandma Claudia had a stroke, and Max just had to play the hero for Liz and help her say goodbye. The problem is, Grandma Claudia was lying in a bed in a coma… at the very edge of death.
Honeybear.
Grandma!
Liz looked up and saw her Grandma standing there, then she looked back at the bed and saw her still lying in the bed, then she looked back at the figure standing in front of her again.
Grandma Claudia smiled and glanced at Max.
Let me guess… Max.
She made Liz promise to follow her heart… and to trust it, then the monitor flatlined. But she was already gone before that. Max just held time there for a few moments so they could say their goodbyes. We all have to follow our hearts in the end, Max with Liz, Liz with Max, and me with… my search for justice… and protecting them. The tough thing about following your heart is what people forget to mention, that sometimes your heart takes you to places you shouldn't be, places that are as scary as they are exciting and as dangerous as they are alluring, and sometimes your heart takes you to places that can never lead to a happy ending. And that's not even the difficult part. The difficult part is when you follow your heart, you leave normal, you go into the unknown. And once you do, you can never go back.
i just found this. this is great. completely great. totally hysterical. the avenger. i loved that. i have to finish reading i only read the first two parts. dr crank and wine. and they are the results of the writers. so is this your muse?
Roselle
Egyptian Dwelling Silly Sister Techie Connection
If we don't change we don't grow. If we don't grow we aren't really living. - Gail Sheey
My spelling is wobbly. It's good spelling but it wobbles and the letters get in the worng places - Pooh
WOW!!!!!
This is great!!!!
a little different to what you normally write (like you said) but it's nice!!!
Is this a Altered Time Series Sequal????
I think it is funny how you add yourself into the stories!!!!!
You should have the muse interupt Michael's story and report back to her 'master'... I think that would be funny and then let her return so she can hear the next part of Michaels story!!!!!
I think that would be hilarous!!!!
Let's see what is in store for us next on 'Codename: TABASCO - The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin'
It's way different than anything you've written Gerry, but it's the same too. I can tell it's you if you know what I mean. But it's great. I'm loving things from the Michael perspective
and your titles totally have me
It all started with a boy, a girl, and a silver handprint.
Thanks, Roselle, Aligewe, and Tracie! :D Your feedback means a lot! Yeah, this is different. Technically, it's not really part of the Altered Time series, but it almost could be. It's just that it takes place during the series instead of after it. But it still could be. The characters are all the same, so yeah. It could be. I'll have to think on that. And yes, that would be my muse. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it! 8)
Codename: TABASCO
(The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin)
Author’s Note: On the TV series, Roswell, “Monsters” was episode 102 and “Leaving Normal” was episode 103. I have reversed them here.
Episode 103
The Valenti Factor (Monsters)
When you go with your heart all kinds of things can happen. We agreed a long time ago to never let our hearts lead us and to never leave normal… or whatever normal was to us back then… but to live our lives in self-imposed emotional isolation. The problem with emotional isolation is it’s only appropriate for, well… monsters… freaks of nature… genies in a bottle. To some people, that was what we were… monsters. At least, we were sure that’s what people would see us as… if they knew the truth about us. So we had placed ourselves in this bottle that we looked out at the world from. But what we did not know at the time was that leaving the state that we called “normal,” leaving the genie’s bottle, would actually be our first step toward proving that we were not monsters at all but were actually very, very human, at least in an emotional sense.
Liz stole Max’s heart long before he ever healed her that day in the CrashDown, but it was Maria who reached out to us… in her own way… for no reason other than friendship, and already knowing what we were. She had pretty much forced Liz to tell her what really happened after that day at the CrashDown, and then she had freaked out when Liz told her. But like most things Maria, it just took a little time for her to adjust.
And as unlikely as it seems, it was Isabel who reached back… Okay, if you don’t count our lovesick resident “alien” Romeo over there.
Maria was having a bad day at the CrashDown and Agnes refused to work. For Agnes, showing up for work was work. The rest of the day she spent taking cigarette breaks. This particular day, though, Liz was at the hospital with her Grandma Claudia and Maria was taking care of the café by herself… I mean with Agnes… Okay, by herself. And when Agnes announced, between puffs from her cigarette, that the customers would get their food when they got their food, Maria kind of freaked. Then Isabel came along, and alien-human relations took a big leap.
Okay, Isabel, I am going to hate myself for this, but I need to ask you for a favor that will leave me forever indebted to you. I am so dead here. Will you help me wait tables?
You're kidding, right?
Please.
To put this as succinctly as possible, I'm not really a service oriented person.
Wait! Wait! Wait! Liz's grandmother is in the hospital, okay? And if she doesn't think that I can do this, it's just going to give her one more thing to worry about. Please! Look, it's not for me, it's for Liz.
Well, since you put it that way… No.
So that was that, right? Yeah, right! If you think that, you really don’t know Maria! By the way, Isabel, you looked really cute in that little alien waitress costume. OW! Hey! Ouch! Well, it’s true, you did! Anyway, after that, Isabel suggested to Max that he go to Liz… because of her Grandmother being in the hospital and all.
You're the one who's always telling me I have to stay away from her. What are you saying, Iz?
I'm just saying that, you know, if something like this happened to grandma or grandpa, I wouldn't want to be kept away from who I really needed.
And that was it. That was the real start of alien/human relations, dysfunctional as they were in the beginning… if you don’t count our star-struck Romeo and Juliet.
The next day, Maria was driving down the road in her car, singing Genie in a Bottle, by Christina Aguilera --believe it or not-- when she noticed ISABEL'S car broken down on the side of the road. It was being towed… again… and as some perverted quirk of fate would have it, the tow truck had this fake spaceship on the back of it. That made Maria smile, and she pulled over and leaned out the window…
Going home, Isabel?
Isabel was not amused, and the look on her face let Maria know it.
Um, I mean… um… do you need a ride?
Isabel stared at Maria for a moment and then got into the car. Right away, she started to “fix” some little flaws in Maria’s car… stuff like the air conditioning and the stereo… as a friend, you know.
Did I say Maria freaks out easily? Uh, USED TO freak out easily I mean? Well, she did. Then, out of the blue, Maria asked Isabel if her mom knew that she and Max were aliens. “Different,” I think, was the word she used.
You mean horrible disgusting creatures from outer space who sneak into your room at night and perform excruciating experiments, Maria?
Maria turned and stared at Isabel for a moment, and when she looked back at the road, there was a car right in front of her. She slammed on the brakes but it was too late. Did I mention quirks of fate? Well, it was Sheriff Valenti’s car that she rear ended, and he got out and sauntered back to where Maria was slouching down in her seat trying to cover her face with her hand…
Oh my God! Oh my God!
Valenti looked at Maria then at Isabel…
Ladies.
“You’re not going to take me in again, are you, Sheriff?”
Valenti took a deep breath, and Amy must have still been fresh in his mind, because he rubbed his head without realizing he was doing it.
“I don’t think that will be necessary. You do have a driver’s license, don’t you? Please say you do!”
“Oh, yes! That… That is a definite… uh… yes! Definitely!”
“Can I see it… please?”
Maria dug in her purse and produced her driver’s license, registration, and insurance card. Sheriff Valenti looked at them and handed them back with a smile.
“It’s only a minor ding. I’ll just write it up when I get back to the office. I’ll need you to drop by my office sometime, though… soon… and sign some insurance papers for me. The insurance should take care of it. Oh! And, uh… after school will be just fine.”
“Yes, sir… Sheriff.”
Valenti didn’t push things then; but later, he showed up at the CrashDown and ordered a Coke then whispered to Maria that he was there to protect her.
We knew what he was fishing for… something so he could lock us up as monsters… little green aliens… or whatever. And frankly, we were worried that Maria wouldn’t be able to take the heat. I mean, she did have a reputation, back then, for being, uh… um… uh… a nice girl whose naïve… innocence… might be taken advantage of… by a determined person like Valenti… to get information, you know? Everybody in town knew that Valenti’s father had tried all his life to prove the existence of aliens, and we figured the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree, you know what I mean?
Maria did go to see Valenti the next morning, and she stood her ground with him. She didn’t rat us out, and I was proud of her. That afternoon, after school, we all got together, and Liz and Maria were playing around. Somehow, Maria saw this paper in the principal’s office and found out that I had a birthday a few days before, and she and Liz found out that Hank didn’t get me anything. Well, that was no big news flash; he never got me anything. He never even acknowledged my birthdays. Most of the time, I even forgot that I had a birthday. It wasn’t really a “birthday” anyway, you know what I mean? More like a hatched day. Who cared. Not me. But social services put down the day I was found as my birthday, so that was it, officially. Like I said, Hank could have cared less. But Liz and Maria had a little cake and some candles on it in the back of the CrashDown when I got there. Then they insisted on giving me gifts. They hadn’t had time to buy anything, so it was just in fun stuff, you know. Liz gave me a pair of CrashDown antennas to wear on my head. As if! And Maria gave me a CrashDown apron, the one she was wearing. I wanted to say, “No way,” you know, but the truth is, all I could feel was a big lump in my throat. It wasn’t really what they were giving me… that was all just in fun stuff, you know. It was just that they… well, they cared enough to… they thought about… Anyway…
I think I swallowed some salt water while I was swimming. Gets stuck in my throat sometimes, you know.
After I left the CrashDown, I stuffed the antennas into my pocket and looked at the apron. Maria had been wearing that apron. I don’t know why, but I decided to stick it inside my shirt for safe keeping. Well, hey, it wouldn’t fit in my pocket, and I wasn’t going to wear it. And besides… it felt kind of… right… next to my heart. Nobody else ever cared before enough to give me anything.
I decided to go for a ride and clear my head… sort out my thoughts and all, so I rode down to the mall for a while then headed out toward the desert to watch the sunset and be alone. I had a hard time handling feelings back then. I wasn’t… accustomed to it. With Hank, you couldn’t have feelings. You had to bottle them up. If you didn’t, you’d do something you regretted.
As I was driving into the desert on my motorbike I see this car off the side of the road, and I wondered about it. Someone might be broke down or somethin’ out there. Of course, I couldn’t rescue anyone on a bike. But I guessed if I had to I could go get help for them, you know? So I pulled my bike off the road and looked around. I hadn’t seen anyone walking on the road. I didn’t see anyone off the road either, so I was just about to go when suddenly I hear noises coming from the other side of a big sand dune about a hundred feet away, so I went to check it out. I parked my bike and climbed up the sand dune. It sounded like someone getting hit. I know the sound a fist hitting someone makes…
Anyway, when I got to the top of the dune, I saw this guy beating up on some girl. It looked like he was trying to get his way with her, you know, and she was resisting. He had ripped off most of her clothes and was punching her in the face. I let him have it with a blast that knocked him clean over the other side of the next dune. Then, realizing what I had done, I tried to cover my face so the girl couldn’t identify me. I should have sensed danger, but I let my emotions cloud my senses. As I covered my face, I got tackled from behind… hard… and knocked over the dune. I didn’t stay down, though. I rolled back on my feet, and the two guys that tackled me got a big surprise they never expected. They got thrown over the dune with their friend. When they got up, they all took off running and I heard their car leave in a hurry. Then I looked at the girl again. She was shaking and scared.
“Are you okay? Geez, I’m sorry. That was stupid. Of course you’re not okay. Are you hurt? Bad I mean?”
The girl sniffed and tried to wipe the sand and dirt off her face. Then she realized that she was exposed and tried to cover herself up, but her clothes were ripped too badly. I took off my shirt and put it around her…
“Do you know those guys?”
“They’re from a school in Tucson… Arizona. They’re in Roswell for the game.”
“The football game… at the high school?”
“Yeah.”
“Jocks?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe. Or they may just be in town to see the game. They’re from Tucson, though.”
I thought about it for a moment then nodded. “I don’t want to leave you here by yourself, and I don’t have a cell phone on me.”
“I had a cell phone. One of them took it away from me; he threw it over that way somewhere.”
“I’ll find it.”
I hurried up to the top of the dune and looked around. I guess I was lucky, because I spotted a glint of light in the sand a distance away, and it was her cell phone. I hurried back to her with it.
“I want you to call the sheriff’s office. I happen to know the number by heart. Don’t ask. Tell him you’re six miles east of the city limits on the side of the road. Tell him what happened. But you have to promise me you won’t tell him anything about me. You can’t give him any description of me… at least not the right one. My life… other lives… depend on it. Please.”
She nodded, seeming to understand. I looked at her face, trying to gauge it… to get any feel at all for what she might do. Would she tell him? I couldn’t be sure, but I had a gut feeling that she wouldn’t. I know, a gut feeling is not much to go on, but it’s all I had. I wouldn’t tell Max or Isabel. I can’t stand smug “I told you so” looks, and Isabel is a force to reckon with when she’s furious.
I dialed the number and handed the phone to the girl, then someone picked up on the other end.
“Sheriff’s office. Valenti speaking.”
“Hello, Sheriff? My name is Corinne…”
I stayed with her until I saw a dust trail coming a few miles down the road. Then I used my powers to remove the tire tracks my bike had made and I nodded toward the oncoming car.
“He’ll be here in a couple of minutes. I have to go.”
“Thanks. I won’t tell him about you, I promise.”
I nodded, hoping that she meant it. Then I took off on my bike, erasing my tracks behind me as I went. On the road, I quickly changed the color of my bike with my powers and slipped my helmet on over my head. Moments later, I passed the sheriff heading toward where Corinne was waiting. I knew she would be okay… and several guys were about to get busted by the long arm of the law. Valenti could be a pain in the ass, but you had to give him his due… He took a big bite out of crime in Roswell. He kept things pretty calm, for the most part. I had no doubt that those three guys would be sitting in his jail cell very soon.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
Jim Valenti closed his book and helped Corinne into his patrol car.
“You can’t describe the person who saved you… anything at all?”
“I’m sorry, Sheriff. I was blinded. Those guys rubbed my face in the dirt, and my eyes were blurry… all I could see was a shadowy figure. He saved my life, though, and chased them off. I know that. He’s a hero.”
“So it was a guy then… who saved you.”
“Yes… I think… maybe… or it could have been a girl. It was one or the other.”
Valenti sighed and put his car into gear then pulled onto the road and headed back toward town. An hour later, he pulled up at the station again, after dropping Corinne off at the hospital. Deputy Hansen was there to meet him as he pulled up.
“I heard, Sheriff. Is she okay?”
“She’ll be okay. Just took some hard punches to the face… probably a broken nose. Looked like maybe a fractured cheekbone, too. And her eyes got dirt in them. Clothes were ripped off of her. Three guys… sewer slime… one was battering her and the other two were apparently watching. She had a man’s shirt wrapped around her when I got there, but she couldn’t remember where she got it. I’m heading over to the high school. They’ll be able to give me a starting place where I might be able look for our three new jail residents.”
“Is this the shirt, Sheriff,” Hansen asked, reaching into the car and removing a man’s shirt from the back seat.
“Yeah. When the medics took her out of the car they wrapped a light blanket around her and tossed the shirt back into my car. They thought it was one of mine. I looked at it though. It’s a common shirt… nothing unusual. Thousands of them out there. Could belong to anyone.”
Hansen handed the shirt back to Valenti, and Valenti looked it over again and sighed. Then he noticed a string hanging down, and he tugged on it gently.
“Well, hello! What have we here?”
Something peeled away from the inside of the shirt and fell into Valenti’s hands.
“What is it, Sheriff?”
Jim smiled, holding up an apron and staring at the alien motif emblazoned on it…
“A clue, Hansen. I’d call it a clue. After I throw three pieces of sewer scum into my jail, I’m going to make a little courtesy call at the CrashDown. Somebody there is missing something. Hop in the car. I’ve got a sudden desire to go huntin’.”
“Hunting?”
“For sewer rats.”
Hansen nodded and climbed in on the passenger side of Valenti’s car.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
The administrator at Roswell High laid a list of names down on the counter, and Jim looked it over carefully…
“Is this all the students from Tucson who are here for the game?”
“All the ones who came on the bus, Sheriff.”
“Could they have come on their own… not on the bus?”
The administrator nodded. “Sure. If they did, there’s still a possibility that we can find out who they are, though. There’s a roster of students attending the game. The athletic department has it. Everyone has to get a ticket or a student ID pass to get into the game.”
“You wouldn’t have pictures of any of these students would you?”
“No, sorry. Oh! You know what, though! I’ve got a Tucson High yearbook. It has pictures of all the students, whether they came for the game or not.”
“Beautiful! Can I borrow it? I promise I’ll bring it back.”
“Sure. Take your time, Sheriff.”
Jim took the book and handed it to Hansen. “We’re going over to the hospital… to see if our girl can ID her attackers.”
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
Corinne turned the pages, shaking her head slowly after each one… “No… No… that doesn’t look like any of them. She turned the page again and her breath caught in her throat… “Oh!” She pointed a shaking finger at the picture of a burly-looking boy with a smug smile, as her eyes welled up with tears… “This one… and right below him… he’s one of them, too. And the one beside him is the other one.”
Jim nodded and looked at the names. “Same class all three. Seniors. Looks like they won’t be graduating with their class. Too bad. Now I just have to find out where they’re staying. You did fine, Corinne… real fine!”
Back in the car, Jim made a few quick calls and got the name and room number of the motel where the three were staying, then he shook his head sadly… “What makes three guys, seniors, with their whole lives ahead of them throw it all away and screw their lives up like this?”
Hansen shrugged. “Just because someone made it as far as they did doesn’t mean they got there through charitable works. They sound like the type who would pull butterflies’ wings off and torture puppies and kittens when they were young. They’ve just moved up to people now… people who can’t defend themselves at least.”
Jim looked over at Hansen and nodded. “Their type are always cowards when you get right down to it. They want to hurt others, not get hurt. They think the world owes them everything and that they should get whatever they want handed to them on a silver platter. Well, they’ve got a surprise coming.”
Jim pulled his squad car into the motel’s parking lot and looked for the room number. “There it is. Back me up, Hansen.”
“You got it, Sheriff.”
Jim walked up to the door and knocked on it. A moment later, it opened slightly, and someone looked out. Then it slammed back quickly, but Jim was quicker, kicking the door open before it could be relocked.
“SHERIFF’S OFFICE! YOU’RE UNDER ARREST! GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR! NOW!”
Jim had his service revolver drawn, and the guy in front of him dropped to the floor, his hands over his head.
“Down all the way… on the floor… spread eagle. Where are the other two?”
“I’m the only one here. There’s nobody else. I haven’t done anything. What do you want with me?”
“You’re under arrest for kidnapping, attempted rape, assault and battery… Any of this jog your memory?”
At that moment, Hansen came in through the back entrance, his gun drawn and two wide-eyed young men walking in front of him, their hands over their heads.
“Caught these two trying to make a run for it, Sheriff.”
“Good work, Hansen.” Jim looked at the guy on the floor… “Are these the two who aren’t staying here with you?”
“I want my lawyer.”
“You’ll get one. You two, get down on the floor, too. Spread eagle, beside your friend…
You have the right to…”
Jim rattled off their rights then handcuffed their hands behind their backs, as they grimaced…
“You’re hurting me, Sheriff. That’s too tight,” the first one complained.
“Good,” Jim muttered, putting a finger under the cuffs to test the tightness. “Any looser and you wouldn’t be cuffed. Buck up and bear it. Life is going to get a lot harder for you three in the near future. You might as well get used to it.”
Hansen smiled.
“I didn’t touch her,” one of the two guys Hansen had caught said. “I was just…”
Jim nodded. “Watching? Standing guard? It’s called aiding and abetting… to kidnapping, attempted rape, and assault and battery.”
“You’re wasting your time with us,” the first guy said bitterly. “The one you should be arresting is that monster that attacked us. He probably attacked the girl, too. You should be out there looking for him… protecting the citizens from things like that.”
“Yeah, he’s not human,” the second guy agreed. “He was glowing all over, and he threw us over a hundred feet… without even touching us. No human can do that. That’s who you should be tracking down, Sheriff… instead of bothering some nice guys just minding their own business. You should go find that monster.”
Jim took a deep breath and seemed to think about what the two had just said for an unusual amount of time before answering seriously…
“There are different kinds of monsters in this world… There’s your kind… the kind I’m sworn to defend our innocent citizens from… and there’s… other kinds. I’m starting to have a lot of respect for one of those other kinds… an awful lot of respect. Help me get ‘em into the car, Hansen. We’ll drop ‘em off in a cell then head over to the café… you know the one. Do you have any Tylenol on you?”
Codename: TABASCO
(The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin)
Episode 104
Trust But Verify (Missing)
Sometimes our hearts take us to places that put us in danger. But it was done, and what’s done is done. Once you follow your heart you go into the unknown and you can never go back. So now we had to deal with it. That was where I was now… in the dealing with it mode. Max had done it… I had done it… and Isabel --well, she used her powers “recreationally,” so even she had done it. For genies in a bottle, we were not very good at staying in the bottle. But none of us would admit that he… or she… was the one putting us in danger. It was always the other one. In the end, we were more alike than we wanted to admit. And as surprising as it was, Topolsky --agent Topolsky-- actually pegged Isabel. Topolsky, who claimed to be a teacher but wasn’t. Topolsky, who claimed to be a guidance counselor but wasn’t. Topolsky, the FBI agent, actually saw through Isabel’s tough outer façade… and saw a glimmer of the real inner Isabel…
How well do you think you know yourself, Isabel?
Very well.
Then you might be a little surprised by your computer profile. Now, you said in our first meeting that you wanted to be a supermodel.
You work with what you're given.
That's quite a jet set career for someone who puts family first, craves stability and security, and leans towards care giving fields.
Well, I never trusted computers.
Think about who you are, Isabel, and what's important in your life; and don't forget, there's nothing wrong with just wanting to be normal.
For someone who wasn’t a real guidance counselor, Topolsky sort of had Max’s number, too, when she asked the class which person they thought they were most like in a picture she had. Max said he was the guy behind the tree, and Topolsky jumped on it…
That's interesting. That's a hard place to be. I've been behind the tree myself. In college, I barely left my dorm for three years. Then I realized that I had gotten myself into this situation where I wasn't really living. I was just going through the motions, and it was really, really risky to change… to get out there in the world.
But it was worth it.
Yes, it was.
Coming out from behind the tree, huh?
Exactly. You start small. You say, "Today I'm going to do one thing to get out there." Nothing big. Just one thing.
Well, I can’t say that Max had not already done something big. He healed Liz. That was monumental where we were concerned. But Topolsky was basically telling him to come out of the genie’s bottle altogether and live his life… not to be afraid to have a life. If she had known everything she thought she knew about us, I wonder if she would have felt the same way. But the fact is, Max took her advice. He started to get closer to Liz and stopped talking about us needing to keep our distance so much. And that led to a potentially disastrous situation for the three of us… and maybe for Liz, too…
Liz, what's wrong?
My journal's missing.
And?
Maria, I wrote everything in that journal.
Everything?
Things about Max.
Personal things about Max?
Everything.
What… like, where he's from, what he is… I mean, what he isn't?
I mean… everything.
Liz had written all about Max in her diary. I trusted her motives, but I had to make her see that there could be dire consequences… for us. That’s why I pocketed her diary. I only wanted to make her see that what she was doing was unwise, but it started to get out of hand. They suspected everybody… Alex… Liz even suspected her own mom for a while. Max was sure it was Kyle who had taken it. All of them had had the opportunity. Then Topolsky found out that Liz’s diary was missing, and before we knew it the FBI was looking for it, too… not for our benefit, I assure you. The agents even searched Kyle’s bedroom while he was out. I intended to give it back sooner, but well, have you ever heard the expression, “When it rains it pours?”
The door of the CrashDown opened, and Liz and Maria, alone together in the café since some customers had just left, both turned to look. The figure standing in the door seemed to block out all the light. It was imposing. The man lingered there for a moment… looking… seeming to choose his victim, kind of like the scene in “High Noon,” and time seemed to stop. Liz and Maria held their breath.
“Ladies.”
“Sheriff. H-Have a seat. I’ll… I’ll be over in a minute.”
“I’m not eating, thank you.”
“Oh?” Liz replied hoarsely, trying to moisten her rapidly drying throat. “What… uh, what can we do for you then?”
Valenti straddled a chair as though he intended to stay for a while. “I’ve been pondering this sort of enigma for some time… you know… how things can get lost in places where you wouldn’t ever think… and where you wouldn’t think someone had been or should’ve been… and what it means when you sort it all out. Trying to make sense out of a clue that someone dropped in my lap… like a sort of open book, but I had to interpret it.”
Liz stopped breathing and a silent gasp caught in her throat. He’s got it! Sheriff Valenti has my diary. Kyle gave it to him. He knows everything. Oh God!
“Sheriff, you… you can’t jump to any conclusions… whatever it might look like on the surface. We all have fantasies and… and we let ourselves… we let our imaginations… fly off to places where, you know, we could never really go… ourselves. I mean, a girl’s private thoughts can be just fantasies, not, like, real life, and… Where did you, uh, where did you find it, Sheriff?”
“Well, now, that’s the most interesting thing, Liz.”
Valenti pulled out the alien-motif apron and held it up, looking first at Liz then at Maria with an intenseness that seemed as though it might melt steel. Liz actually looked relieved, but it didn’t take a detective to see that Maria was acting guilty, even though she had done nothing at all wrong. She took one look at the apron and staggered, fumbling for her cedar oil. Both Maria and Liz knew that the apron was Maria’s… and both of them knew that there was no point denying it. They also knew who had had it last.
“You found Maria’s missing apron! Where did you find it, Sheriff?”
“In the desert… six miles east of Roswell… on a half naked girl.”
Maria’s eyes grew wide, and her jaw dropped. I’ll kill him.
Valenti smiled, but it was the smile of a cat holding onto a mouse’s tail.
“You see, I was looking in all the wrong directions. I thought one of you was helping Max or Michael, and all along it was the two of you.”
“Excuse me?”
It’s the old Clark Kent disguise… Or what was that movie where Zorro pretended to be gay? Zorro, the Gay Blade! Yeah, that’s it. The one person no one would expect. Nobody would ever expect two girls. What I haven’t figured out yet is how you do it… or why.”
Liz closed her eyes. “I… I… Ay! Ay! Ay!”
Valenti smiled. “How am I doing so far?”
“Like a rocket that’s spinning out of control. I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, Sheriff.”
“Definitely a crashed spaceship… ROCKET! Crashed rocket, definitely,” Maria said, agreeing with Liz.
“Mmm, well, I still haven’t put all the clues together. I guess I could be wrong, but it all makes sense, except for how you did it.”
“Sheriff,” Liz groaned, “What does any of this have to do with Maria’s missing apron?”
“You really don’t know, do you?”
Valenti could come up with some pretty wild theories, but he was a certifiable master of reading faces and behaviors. Liz and Maria’s behavior was telling him that they really did not know what he was talking about. But it also said -loud and clear- that they were hiding something. It frustrated Valenti. He had hoped that even if his far-out theory did prove to be wrong it would addle Liz or Maria one into saying something that would incriminate either Max or Michael, whom he still thought were really the most likely suspects. But everything in Liz and Maria’s faces was saying that they were as clueless as he was.
“Okay, back to theory number one then. I know that somehow, someway, Maria was at the scene of two crimes… or something that she is associated with was at each of those scenes…”
Maria gasped. “I haven’t done anything, Sheriff. I’m innocent. I need to call Mom.”
“NO! I mean…
Wait… just for a minute. I promise I’ll leave. I’m just trying to figure out a mystery that’s been confounding me for a while now.”
Valenti stood up and walked to the door. He reached for the doorknob then turned and looked at Maria… then again at Liz. “I know you know something… one of you does, maybe both of you. I’m not saying either of you has committed any crimes. I’m… I’m kind of leaning in a different direction. Talk to Max and Michael. Tell them they can trust me. Tell them… Well, just tell them that.”
Valenti put his hat back on his head and quickly exited the café, leaving Liz and Maria looking at each other with shocked and puzzled expressions on their faces.
<center> <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> </center>
Did I say that when it rains it pours? Valenti may still have been puzzled over who was responsible for the recent mysteries, but Maria was not…
“I trusted you! I trusted you! I had a birthday party for you… Okay, well, such as it was, but it WAS a party. And you take my gift and go on a CRIME SPREE! And… and the sheriff finds it on a naked… bar room floozy! I was starting to believe in you, Michael. Now… I don’t even know who you are anymore. Maybe all this is normal on your planet, whatever that is… but we don’t do things like that here. God, why do I care!? It probably is normal where you come from. I’ll get over it. It’s none of my business. It’s not like I care or anything… ‘Cause I don’t, you know.”
I tried to calm Maria down, but she was really mad. I let her get it all out before trying to explain.
“It’s not what you think, Maria. That girl… three guys were trying to rape her. I took care of them and gave her my shirt to cover herself up with, because they tore her clothes. Then I helped her call Valenti. You don’t think I could just stay there and tell the sheriff it was me that did it, do you?”
“Why not? If you really saved her, I mean, saving someone’s not a crime.”
“But humans don’t lift people up and throw them a hundred feet through the air… with special powers.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry, Maria. I didn’t know Sheriff Valenti was going to come after you.”
“How did he find my apron, Michael? You said you gave her your shirt, not my apron…”
“I, uh, I had to put the apron somewhere, so I put it inside my shirt. With everything that was happening, I guess I forgot it was there, and it must have stuck to the inside of my shirt when I gave it to her.”
Maria smiled. “You put it next to your heart?”
“It was just… the easiest place to carry it… you know.”
“Of course. I knew that. That’s what I meant.”
“Yeah.”
“Michael, just what are you up to?”
“What do you mean?”
“First, Valenti finds your T-shirt…”
“A little piece of it.”
“Okay, a little piece of your T-shirt… at the scene of a crime, and it had cedar oil on it… because earlier you had bumped into me and I had spilled it on you. Then he finds the apron that I gave you… at the scene of another crime. It’s a lot of coincidences. And there’s that stuff people are saying about some guy the paper is calling ‘the Avenger.’ It’s you, isn’t it?”
I shrugged. The truth is, I didn’t know what to say.
“Omigod, it is you.”
“So sue me.”
“Michael’s trying to help people, Maria,” Liz said, stepping in for me. “He’s not looking for trouble, he just decided to do something about it when he sees trouble happening from now on instead of burying his head in the sand and pretending he doesn’t see it. He’s taking chances… chances that could put his life in danger… in order to do what’s right. But he has to keep this all secret. No one can know.”
“You knew about this, Liz?”
“Yeah… well… kind of. Yeah, I guess so.”
“And you didn’t tell me? Some friend you are.”
Liz looked at Maria with sad eyes. “Do you forgive me?”
“No… Yeah… Oh, I don’t know. Don’t look at me like that! All right! All right! I forgive you already.”
“Hugs?”
Girls! Who can understand ‘em? Can you see me giving Max the pouty look and asking for hugs? He’d die laughing… right after he kicked my ass all the way back to our home planet. But girls, see, they do stuff like that. I remember thinking, maybe it’s an Earth… girl… thing. Then I thought, Naw… it’s probably just a girl thing… Someday, if I ever get back to my planet, I’ve got to check that out. And I was right. It’s a girl thing, even here on Antar.
All things considered, I thought enough had happened already since I took Liz’s diary, so the next day, I gave it back to her…
I had to know the risk… so I had to know what your journal said.
You took it?
I never meant for things to get out of control… It's nice to know we have at least one friend in this town.
Does Max know that you…
No… and you know what would be really great? If you didn't tell him.
But why didn't you just destroy this, Michael… because anyone that found this would know all about you.
No… they'd know all about you, Liz. Thank you for giving me one more reason to envy Max Evans.
Over the next few days, I spent a lot of time thinking… about our lives before Max saved Liz and all this started… how I used to wish that something would break the routine and get me out of this crazy little town and away from my nowhere life with Hank, hopefully back to our own people, only I had no idea who those people were or where to find them… or even what planet they were on. Stepping out of the bottle opened up our worlds unimaginably, but it also confirmed what I already knew… that the bigger your world gets, the bigger your problems get, too. Now I had a choice. To continue to put us in danger… without Isabel’s knowing… or to climb back in the bottle and recork it… try to regain the past. I wondered if that was possible… I wondered if it was what I really wanted.
.....i must have MORE
