Often enough the justice system fails allowing sick and vile predators
to slip through the cracks. To this end, multi-millionaire and inventor
Michael Holt has crafted an identity to pursue these twisted villains
to make sure justice is served, but he is not alone as others out their
are becoming victims to the cesspool of filth that saturates every inch
of the world. To those who join him in his crusade to make a difference
they are Outsiders.
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Looking Through the Inside
Besieged of Guilt: Part 1-
Looking Back Before Looking
Forward
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| Outsiders#1 - April, Year 3
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by 'Slick Mick' Michael Edwards
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The Outsiders
Mister Terrific
Michael Holt
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Vera Black
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Cold
Cast
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Grace
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Indigo
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Eight Months ago…
The Wayne Enterprises charity ball was being held at stately Wayne
Manor and all the bigwigs in industry were there to try to talk Bruce
Wayne into investing into some project or another. Michael often
wondered why he even came there even though he was invited. He
stood by the punch bowl looking at his watch wondering what was taking
his wife, Angela so long to get there, but of course the weather in
Gotham was anything but pleasant that time of year.
Standing six foot and one inch tall with a build like a professional
athlete, Michael Holt had taken the world by storm; first by winning an
Olympic Gold Medal as a Decathlon runner and later inventing what he
called the T-Space, a Fourth
Dimensional cyber ware system that allowed for infinite storage of
data. Along with that he invented the Holt System, which allowed
the data contained in the T-Space to be processed at a phenomenal speed
for quick access making almost all modern computer systems obsolete.
As the clock kept clicking down, Michael continued to look at his watch
until he finally felt a finger tapping on his shoulder and when he
turned to the person who was standing behind him he realized it was
none either then Bruce Wayne himself. Bruce reached out his hand,
which Michael took and firmly shook.
“Mister Wayne? I apologize if I was being rude. I did not
notice you there behind me. My name is Michael Holt, CEO of Holt
Technologies.”
“It’s quite all right and please call me Bruce.
I’ve been impressed with what I’ve heard about you and your
cyber ware, Michael. I apologize if I had startled you. I
noticed that you were distracted.”
“No, I’m fine. I was just wondering what’s
taking my wife so long, and I didn’t mean to ignore you.”
“I can relate in a way. How is your wife doing by the way,
as I heard that she is expecting?”
“We’re expecting our first child in four months and already
I am a nervous wreck,” Michael said as he smiled weakly.
“I’d imagine that you have nothing to worry about as
you’ve got a lot of great things going for you.”
“I certainly hope so. I just wish I knew what was taking my
wife so long.”
Yet, little did he know that in
route to the mansion…
Angela Holt curses
herself for being late, but she could not help it as her grandmother
wanted to see her before she went to meet Michael at Wayne Manor. As
she makes it to the back roads which lead up to the mansion, she finds
herself surrounded by three cars with two guys on both her left side
and right side using profanity to describe the horrible things they
want to do to her. Angela swerves to the right and left to get the
bastards away from her from, but they keep backing away to avoid her
and peel back in, smashing into her Mercedes Benz causing the indented
metal to tear into the gas line and the motor.
She lets out a
curse of anger as she peels out in front of them only for the car
behind her to smash into her back bumper. Sending her spiraling off the
road and into a tree. Exploding in a burst of flame.
The three cars
peel off after laughing at the destruction they had just caused…
Hours later…
Michael’s head hung low as he looked at Angela’s burnt face
and tears fell from his eyes as he watched them zip up the bag to take
her to the morgue. Off to the side talking with Commissioner
Gordon was Bruce Wayne with a concerned look on his face as he made a
mental note to pay Gordon a visit later. Wayne watched as Michael
walked away and then excused himself from the Commissioner to go after
him.
“Michael! Wait up. Where are you going?”
Michael looked at him impassively and then wiped the last remaining
tears from his face.
“I-I really have no clue, Bruce. All that I know is that I
can’t be here right now,” Michael said as he held his
wife’s wedding ring in his hand.
Bruce looked at him solemnly and nodded his head.
“I understand the GCPD already caught the perps who did it, and
I’m sure you can rest easy now that they will be going to Black
Gate.”
“I hope so.”
Almost Four Months Later…
It took about four months to get the perpetrators of Angela Josephine
Holt’s murder to trial. But eventually the time finally
came and as the criminals were brought in, they looked across the
courtroom with smiles on their face like there was something funny
about the situation that they were in. The District Attorney brought
the jury up to speed on what had happened while the three of them were
brought to sit beside their defense attorney.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury. Before you stand Matthew
“Mutt” Douglas, Frank Nickerson, and Peter Wilkes. Three
twenty year olds who are wanted for drag racing, murder, gambling, and
extortion in almost every state in the north coast. But that is
only the beginning of the charges brought against them,” the DA
said as he walked back to pick up the files on his desk that were fat
and thick with other charges against the trio.
”Every time these three get up here they always get off with out
a single slap on the wrist. When will be the time when we put our
foot down and take a stand? They need to have the book thrown at them
and be done with it, but not just for the victims already taken from
the families who loved them but for the future victims they will take
from you or me or someone else,” he continued.
The Jury watched as the District Attorney sat down and thought about
what he said. While the Defense Attorney walked up to them and
brought up how the G.C.P.D had no evidence against them for any of the
crimes they supposedly committed. Nor that they had criminal
records. Michael clenched his fists, as he looked one of the
punks squarely in the eyes. As he knew they were going to slip
through the cracks again, the look of disgust and anger mounted on his
face.
After both sides told their stories, the judge looked to the jury and
asked for a plea-
“How do you the Jury find the defendants?”
A small, petite woman stood up with the rest of the jury’s votes
and said,” We find the defendants not guilty, Your Honor.”
“Very well… Case dismissed.”
Michael stormed out of the courtroom with a furious look on his
face. The DA tried to follow him, but the exiting crowd piled in
on him blocking him from following the man who he had been trying to
help for the past four months.
Brooklyn, New York-The Present
The past four months of preparation had been built for what he was
preparing to do. This entire complex built twelve hundred and seventy
five feet underground would serve as headquarters for his crusade to
make sure that not another innocent person suffered. Michael
looked at the costume he had fashioned for himself and recalled his
grandfather telling him the story of how Mister Terrific had saved his
life.
A golden age hero, Mister Terrific had put his genius level intellect
and athletic prowess to use to help his fellow man. Michael found
no better way to honor the man who saved his grandfather’s life
then to take his name and to use it to bring back justice to the people
who had been broken by the lawless. As he slipped on his form
fitting costume, he went through the different options that he had put
into it; such as invisibility to all forms of technological detection,
special lenses that enhanced his visions in a variety of ways, and last
of all his spherical devices that he had dubbed his T-Spheres.
Offensive and defensive devices with a multitude of functions such as
voice recording, video recording, holographic projection, laser
cutters, tazers, tranquilizer darts and specially crafted lock picks
that could be used on almost any lock.
Michael picked up a remote lying by his workbench and turned on the
television to watch the news, wondering what to do next...
“This is NYGN News with an update on the Wright murder
trial. It appears again that the trio of Marks, Daniels, and
Campton has gotten away with yet another murder. As of this time,
sixteen-year-old Sherrie Wright of Brooklyn was a victim of rape and
murder, to which the police and DA have been unable to make a case
stick to the three alleged criminals charged,” the reporter said
as the video feed switched to a screen of her trying to talk to the DA.
“Why didn’t the case stick Mister Kenton?”
“Simply because we only had an eye witness testimony, but no
murder weapon. Then our eyewitness suddenly retracted her
testimony.”
“Is there any further investigation being done on these
criminals?”
“I am afraid I have been warned by their lawyer that any
investigations into their private lives will be dealt with a law suit
against the DA’s office as well as the police department so as
far as we are concerned, unfortunately, this case is closed. “
After the video was done it switched back to the reporter standing side
by side with Sherrie’s family.
”Right now we are with the Wright family and they would like to
express their comments on the recent trial.”
The father of Sherrie towered over the female reporter and his face was
crimson red as he spoke into the microphone.
“This is the kind of results I can expect for the death of my
daughter? This is bullsh*t! I served the police department
for twenty-four years. I busted my @$$ so the people of this
neighborhood could be safe and this how I am repaid?” the father
said. He then turned away as his wife grabbed the microphone-
“If any of you have any heart or sympathy for our
daughter… please make those bastards pay!”
The reporter took the microphone back and looked solemnly at them
before looking back the camera…
“This is Rita Pringle, signing off.”
Michael shut off the television and walked out of the room into a large
hanger bay where an advanced VTOL aircraft waited for him. He
looked at the picture of his wife hanging on the dashboard of the plane.
“This is for you Angela.”
The plane took off through the hanger bay corridor and then rose up
through a secret hatch that was in the middle of a garbage dump.
Once he was high in the sky, he leveled the plane off and headed due
west to where he had tracked down the police reports of the
rapists. He kept wandering through his thoughts about how he
tried tracking down the trio who killed his wife, yet despite his vast
wealth he had turned up nothing in the past four months. No leads
or signs of activity from them in the months since the trial. It
was almost as if they had vanished off the face of the earth.
New York Harbor
It took fifteen to twenty minutes to get to the docks by flying.
After performing some scans via the ship’s sensors Michael picked
up the trace of three men and a young girl in a warehouse on the West
Side. He set the plane down and shifted it into cloaked mode
before descending the access ramp. He activated the special
sensors in his lenses so that he could see the three guy’s heat
signatures and measure how much of a distance they were away from the
girl. He then mentally commanded his T-Spheres to fly around the
corner cloaked to tranq two of the rapists while he snuck up behind the
one who was taking a leak by a large crate. Walking quietly,
Michael snuck up behind the guy and chopped him in the neck causing the
small man to fall forward into his own urine. After he tied them
up, he put them on his plane and freed the girl…
“Who are you?”
Michael looked at the young Asian girl and got down on one knee-
“I am a friend and I am going to take these guys to help
them.”
“How? My mom says bad men won’t change.”
“Well, I know how to make them change.”
He patted her head and wrapped her in a warm blanket before putting her
in the seat beside him. He had a stop to the girl’s parents
to make before he took the creeps for their reeducation.
The Peking’s home, Forest Hills
The young girl ran up to her parents with a huge smile on her
face. They were excited to have their daughter back, but were
clueless as to how she was saved. She tried to point out her
savior, but he already had left to make sure that his first mission was
successful.
The Nest
Twenty miles below a waste reclamation plant the
three rapists were held down on a flat metal table with their hands,
feet, and head clamped down tight. Attached to their heads was a
unique device that Holt designed with the help of Dr. Pieter Anton
Cross to suppress the violent urges of the individual as well as
brainwash them to be more complicit.
Michael noted that they were still asleep from what
the monitors reported. It would not be long before these scumbags
ended up changed men and repent for their crimes.
After making sure their restraints were secure and
checking to make sure Pieter would be in soon, Michael headed back out
for more criminals for their needed reeducation, including the ones who
had killed his wife.
Just the beginning…
NEXT ISSUE: “Besieged By Guilt Part 2: Starting with
nothing and ending with nothing” We delve into why Pieter
Cross, the would be Dr. Mid-Nite is helping Michael In his crusade,
plus we focus on the next member of the Outsiders- the woman known as
Vera Black.
Story © 2005 Michael Edwards and may
not be reproduced without permission.