“Do you know who the man in the tube is?” He then
asked the small mutant.
“No, but I know that Dr. Wepp has been troubled
recently about him, saying something about his brother disappearing.
I don’t know why it matters so much to him, but all I know is that
the security has been increased since.” One of her ears cocked to
the left, towards the door, listening for something he couldn’t hear.
“I have to go now, they are coming for you.” She jumped on his massive
forearm and pointed with a small finger to the ceiling. Bear Cat lifted
her up, and she jumped into the opening. She turned around and closed
the shaft shut, and he heard her scuffle away.
“Come see me later,
will ya?” He asked in a hushed voice.
“Okie.” She replied in a whisper.
Footsteps were heard outside his door, stopping in front. Then the
door opened in a sliding motion, grating the bearings as it did. Three
Power Tanks accompanied by a heavy guard stood outside in the corridor.
“Come along, and no funky business, or else you’re dead.” Said the
leading tank as he stood aside to let Bear Cat walk out of his cell.
They brought him to a medical exam room, where a nurse took his blood
pressure, and asked him some questions regarding his health in general.
After which, they escorted him through the main laboratory, where
he once more was able to look upon the reason why he hadn’t leveled
the place yet. Trying to encompass all the machines and pieces of
equipments that was present around the water tank, his eagle eye vision
fell upon a control panel which held the proverbial big red button.
Under it, written on a black and yellow striped sticker, were the
words: Emergency Disconnect.
The escorting party, and Bear Cat in
the middle, reached a set of two stainless steel sliding doors, to
the left of which was a control panel from which one could enter an
encrypted code to enter. The lead Power Tank stepped in front of it,
and much like a regular person in front of a bank machine, tried to
hide his gestures as he composed the opening code. A few seconds after,
the doors parted quietly on a well decorated office, like the ones
company presidents seem to live in.
A dark red carpet covered the
floor, which blended well with the beige and brown sofa chair along
the left wall. In the center, a dark oak table, which allowed seating
for eight was decorated with a huge arrangements of white and pink
exotic flowers, which seemed fresh of the day. Various paintings of
sceneries from different worldwide locations dressed the walls, and
a very life like, and life size painting of the countess Crey, was
located directly behind the red oak desk at the far end of the room.
“Your boots.” Spoke the lead Power Tank.
“What?” Replied Bear Cat.
“Take off your boots, he hates it when we dirty the carpet.” Went
on the tank.
Bear Cat looked at the tank, then at the carpet, then
at the tall man that stood behind the desk in the room. Thin and aged,
about fifty-five years old, with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, he
reminded him of Peter Cushing, the English actor that portrayed Sherlock
Holmes for so many years. As the old man circle about, Bear Cat noticed
that he favored the right leg a little, a limp from an injury was
always easy to spot, even if it was slight. Bending down, he took
off his boots, and heard one of the guards mumble about his feet smelling
as he stood back up. The lead Power Tank then motioned for him to
enter the office:
“No funny business in there, you hear me?” He asked
Bear Cat who simply nodded in agreement as he walked in. The doors
slid closed behind him, leaving him alone with the man he was now
certain he had seen somewhere before. Looking around, his eyes fell
on another person standing in the far right corner of the room, and
his heart skipped a beat. A Malta Sapper stood at the ready, gun aimed
straight at him, he stood silent and still.
“Welcome to Crey laboratory
1203, Mr.?” Spoke the old man from the other end of the room.
“Bunny,
Bugs Bunny.” Replied Bear Cat in a serious tone, and the old man chuckled.
“I am Marcus Wepp, administrator for this facility. And we need to
know why you came here?” He walked in front of his desk, where he
leaned on it, motioning for Bear Cat to come and sit in a chair in
front of him. As the Hunters’ Leader approached, Wepp felt very small
in front of him.
“Canada, I was looking for Canada. I thought it was
south.” Bear Cat answered as he sat down on the chair, which emitted
a groan of complain. Wepp’s features changed from a gentile old man,
to a dead serious look.
“There are many ways for a man to walk out
of here, Mr. Bunny, the choice is yours. But in any case, I will know
the motive of your presence. I will ask one last time: Why are you
here?”
Bear Cat debated the wisdom of challenging this man too much,
after all, and now that he recalled, aside from being a brilliant
scientist, he was also a city counselor with a seat on the ECPC, and
more than likely more powerful than he could fathom. Looking straight
at the aged eyes, he decided on the most unusual strategy he had used
yet, the truth.
“I came here to investigate the presence of so many
snipers in the district, and quite by mistake fell upon your installation.
I don’t know what you’re doing here, nor do I care about it at all.
I am a mercenary working for Winter Industries, they sign the paycheck,
and I was simply following a lead to obtain new technologies.”
Truth
and a half…
“I suspected as much, and since you are not registered
in the super-powered databank, I doubted that you were one of the
heroes. Nevertheless, your presence forces me to decide what to do
with you. Easiest solution is to have you killed and dismissed in
an alley. Another choice is to have you branded and exiled in a place
of my choosing.” He paused, looking at Bear Cat’s face, trying to
find a reaction to what he was telling him. “My third, is to offer
you an opportunity you simply can’t refuse. A job.”
“Doing what?”
Replied Bear Cat.
“I want you to steal for me the Chromium Man suit
Mark IV.” Replied Wepp as he went back behind his desk and took out
a small cell phone from his drawer. “It is simple enough, and since
you are working for Winter Industries, it should be a formality. I
will contact you through this cell phone, you have one week.” He smiled
as he said that last, then pressed a button on his desk panel and
turned his chair around to face the painting of the countess. It was
sliding up to the ceiling to reveal a digital screen, on which Bear
Cat saw himself in the prison cell he had been earlier, along with
Lab Experiment
“So, when the “others” came to break him free, why
didn’t they free the man in the water tank?”
“Oh, that one. He wasn’t
in the big tube at first, he was a friend of Dr. Wepp, it’s only when
they rebuilt the laboratory that he was put in there.”
“A friend of
Dr. Wepp. So why is he in the big tube as you say?”
“I don’t know,
he’s been there for a very long time now, always sleeping. They never,
ever take him out of there, and before he was put in there, they kept
him sleeping.”
The video paused, and Marcus Wepp turned around to
face Bear Cat once more, resting his elbows on the desk and making
the tips of his long fingers touch each other, he said:
“Because if
you don’t, I will kill Turbo Starr.”
Bear Cat stood up straight, understanding
instantly that he had fell into a trap, but it was too late. He felt
his endurance drained entirely, and fell to his knees in a dizzied
state. The Malta Sapper took out a tazer gun and walked straight to
him, to use it on the back of his neck, which sent Bear Cat unconscious
on the floor. Without his boots on, on such a carpet, he was a conductor
for the current that went to his brain, then all the way down to his
toes.
“Leave him somewhere in Brickstown.” Said Marcus Wepp to the
Malta Sapper, who nodded silently. The stainless steel door opened
and the guards carried Bear Cat’s body away.
“Can I have my cheese
now?” Asked a small female voice from under the desk.
“Yes Lab, you
can have all the cheese you want.” Replied gently Dr. Wepp to the
small female experiment