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 2-
Starting With Nothing and
Ending With Nothing
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| Outsiders#2 - May, 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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Blackpool, England
The walls of the room were sterile and devoid of any color. The floor
was a ghostly white with an overwhelming smell of bleach. Laying upon
an operating table a woman with blonde hair slowly stirred as the
nurses and doctors finished cleaning up.
“Did it work?” the woman asked as she let out a cough.
“Yes. As you know the process is irreversible and as such I
cannot be blamed for what you have lost.”
The woman slowly lifted herself up and said in a hoarse tone-
“I have no regrets not after what he has taken from me.”
The doctor looked at her with his brown eyes and after drying his
hands, he helped her off the table.
“Vera, revenge is not justifiable and what you are thinking of
doing is…”
“Inhuman…is that what you were going to say?”
“What do you expect me to say Vera? You are like a daughter
to me and no one but I can understand the loss that you have
suffered.” The doctor took a deep breath and looked out the
window before turning back to her with sympathy in his eyes.
”Your brother is dead, Vera. Going after the men who killed
him will destroy what’s left of the beautiful woman I once
knew.”
Vera flexed her hand to test the new strength it possessed and then she
looked at the doctor with a fire burning in her eyes.
“The woman you knew is already dead, Meri. It is for the
best that you forget me and you forget what happened here.”
Vera walked over grabbing the pile of clothes on the chair and left the
room. As she walked down the halls a bunch of male nurses stared
at her naked form as she passed them, but she paid them no heed.
Her destination was a men’s locker room where upon entering she
threw two guys who were in there changing out. Inside of the
locker room, Vera noticed a mirror that reflected the fine curves and
shape of her body. Curious she walked over to the mirror and
started running her hand along her ribs feeling for bone and muscle,
but instead feeling thick plastics and steels. She felt tears
swell in her eyes as she ran her hands across her body wondering how
much of her was human and how much of her was now machine.
She looked at her hands and with a mere thought; they took the shape of
sophisticated guns with miniature armaments layered up to her
elbow. She chuckled at the sweet irony of how her boyfriend Josh
used to rant and rave about her being a stone cold bitch with a body
forged from steel. Now reflecting on what he said she was exactly
what he made her out to be. She pushed her feelings aside and got
dressed as she had much to do. For tomorrow, she would begin her
quest on regaining her brother’s honor.
The Nest
It had been a short ride across the transit system Michael had set up
to get to the inner layer of the Nest. Now it was a matter of
going through the personal screening he had created to continue.
Which, for him was not a problem as he entered his access code to the
locking mechanism of the elevator. Upon entering the elevator,
another screening happened with visual and DNA profiling to keep track
of whoever might enter and exit.
As Michael entered the lab, he saw Pieter hard at work with one of the
patients who had apparently had a stroke.
“What happened?” he asked.
Pieter looked at him solemnly. ”Apparently this individual
had a history of heart problems, which the process caused him to have a
stroke.”
“Is he dead?”
“He might as well be as his brain is totally fried,” Pieter
said as he threw his hands up in defeat.” I tried
everything I could possibly think of to save this man.”
“Well we knew there would be risks when we started this,
Pieter. You even said it yourself that the justice system is too
flawed.”
“Of course, I did, damn it! The men I worked for took my
sight and now I am nothing but a blind man who at best can only see in
the dark with these goggles on.”
“You’re still the man I met three years ago, Pieter, the
one who helped my wife get through her surgery when the doctors thought
there was no way to remove the bone spur that would have given her
permanent paralysis.”
Pieter shook his head and laughed. ” Yeah, those fools were
ignorant of the solution that had been right in front of them, but
still I don’t like seeing people die Michael.”
“I know Pieter, neither do I. Which is why we have to try
to be more careful next time.”
Pieter gathered his bags, as he was finished with his work for the day.
“What are you going to do with him? Since he is dead.”
“I guess the only thing to do is to bury him and I think I know
of a place where I can bury him where no one will look.”
“Where?”
Coast City Memorial
Later that day
Michael and Pieter wiped the sweat from their brows as they finished
burying the man who had died because of a simple mistake. Pieter
wondered if this was really the right place for the man since the
memorial was dedicated to Hal Jordan and the people of Coast City, but
Michael refuted the fact that this could be their way of making amends
for his death.
“Let’s get the hell out of here before we get caught.”
“Oh, now you worry about getting caught,” Pieter quipped as
he followed Michael to the cloaked plane.
Once inside Pieter looked around and a question daunted in his mind-
“What do you call this number?”
“The Tread Skipper.”
“Ah, nice name.” Pieter then shuffled in his seat
before turning back to Michael. “Why do you call it
that?”
“It was the name of a boat that I had when I first met
Angela…”
“Ah… I am sorry for asking,” Pieter said as he
looked away.
“Its okay. I think about her a lot anyway, so it was bound
to come up…”
“D-Do you want to stop somewhere to get a coffee to talk about
it?”
Michael looked at Pieter for a moment as they pulled into the hanger of
his base in Brooklyn.
“I…I guess that would be nice.”
Rio de Janeiro
Making his way through the damp and dark tunnels was Rufus Schultz, an
archeologist researching the fabled Fountain of Youth. But beyond
his understanding he had delved upon something man had no place seeing.
Before him lay, a colorful lake with some kind of religious figure
mounted in the middle and rising above the water. In the
statue’s cupped hands was a large handful of gold and diamond
teardrops. Rufus licked his lips as he thought about the money he
could get for them and started to cross the colored lake when he
suddenly felt bizarre from the water touching his skin.
As he trudged forward towards the statue, he found himself sinking into
the water faster and faster until he ended up totally submerged.
Under the water, he found that a change was coming over him as his skin
washed away and the colors started to attach themselves to his leftover
body. He let out a scream as the panic he was feeling started to
come forward. When he finally managed to pull himself to the
surface all of his clothes were in tatters save for his black
pants. He looked at his purple and orange hands and wondered what
the hell had happened to him?
How did this happen to me?
He looked at the water and all of the color that was once in it was
gone. Rufus wrapped his arms around himself unsure of what to do
next as he had gone through the most bizarre experience in his life.
While his thoughts lingered about his condition, he heard a noise
coming from the tunnel path that he had taken to get in to the cavern
and he suddenly found himself taking the form of sand. As two men
walked in dressed in cameo slacks with matching shirts and vests.
They were armed with thirty-millimeter sub machine guns and four
grenades dangling upon pull pins, which were latched onto their
vests. Rufus moved across the floor and out through the tunnel.
Once he was a safe distance away from them, he made a mad dash for the
exit
Smallville, Kansas
The sky was dark and starry, littered with a thundering crash as a ball
of bright red flames landed in the open fields of Shyster’s
farm. From the erupting fireball that landed a nude blue woman
emerged with her pink eyes scanning her surroundings. As if she
was looking for something, or perhaps someone. The LED read outs
mapped every square inch of small town before the blue woman took to
the air. Her emotionless eyes traced the landscape for some sign
of her acquired target, yet finding none she headed northeast to
continue her search…
Chicago
Strutting across the back streets behind the Alley Cat Bar, a tall
curvy woman in a black mini skirt followed the man who was paying for
her private show.
As she was about to get into his large luxurious limousine, a giant
meteor smacked into it with the shockwave knocking her back. When
she started to get up off her sore rear she noticed a dangling body
slumping out of the meteor and a red rock around the corpse’s
neck. Its bright red energies bathed her until it exploded taking
the head of the corpse with it.
The woman took a long look at the headless corpse with its blood
draining from its neck and she puked right on the ground. A man
came from with inside the bar and helped the woman up. His
clothes were made up of black leather pants and a white tee shirt with
a black cross on it.
“What happened here, Samantha?”
“I think that I’ll need to lay down Frank… I
don’t feel so well.”
“Okay, I will take you up to your apartment upstairs, but
please promise to explain to me what the hell happened here.”
Samantha nodded her head before passing out. Frank then carried
her up the stairs on the side of building to her apartment and sat her
down on her sofa before he his boss called him back to work.
Brooklyn, New York
“That Joe’s Diner has some of the best coffee I have ever
had, but I really must be going now Michael, as I have other patients
to tend to and I will need my sleep.”
“Good night Pieter.”
Michael turned to the computer as Pieter took the elevator back
up. He brought up a file called Back Burn, which contained a hit
list of criminals who were still loose across the world.
He tapped in the name Nickerson, James T, and a large profile of crimes
that he had been connected to popped up on the screen. Running
through the list Michael noticed that he made a pattern of visiting the
same places within two years time. So he would be at his
next heading, would be somewhere around the Seattle area.
Clenching his fists, Michael stood up and made his way to the changing
room.
He now had a planned visit with one of the killers of his wife.
NEXT ISSUE: “Besieged By Guilt- Part 3: Oblivious” Michael
confronts one of the murderers of his wife as the Outsiders slowly come
together.
Story © 2005 Michael Edwards and may
not be reproduced without permission.