 |
| |
ENTRY # : |
23 |
| |
TITLE : |
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS |
| |
ARC : |
N/A |
| |
ENTERED BY : |
Hazardman |
| |
DATE RANGE : |
December 19th - 23rd, 2000 |
| |
HEROES : |
|
| |
PEOPLE : |
Sally Juspeczyk,
Lawrence Schexnayder,
Janey Slater,
Victor Stewart,
Harvey Fain,
Corporal Jimmy Hughes,
Orion
|
| |
OTHERS : |
The Knights of the Coast,
Coast City,
Crucible Inc.,
D'Kai,
The Hero Collective,
Millennium Tower,
Sirenos Inc.,
Stronghold
|
|
| |
ENTRY : |
Re-integrating is proving difficult. To start off, Phoenix (who has stepped
forward in the days since Crucible died to become a voice of direction
to us) has convinced us to hold off on telling Coast City about his demise. "The time is
not right," he argued, "let us give them a happy Christmas and then break the
news."
It hasn't been easy. We have, of course, told the truth to Lawrence, Victor, Sally and Janey,
but even the rest of the Crucible Inc. staff have been kept in the dark, and we've been plied
with inquiries from the media, well-wishers and public officials.
It hasn't helped that we arrived back in town in the midst of a minor crisis. Back on December
16th, Stronghold's security was penetrated and a number of supervillains escaped, including
some villains who were there due to our blood, sweat and tears! Our absence from the scene
did not go unnoticed by the media, and the calls for accountability demanded response from
the traditional spokesman for the Knights of the Coast. The fact that he was dead (I'm still
having problems writing that phrase) proved a... complication, to say the least.
I'd like to put it in the record that not everyone agrees with the silence on the issue. I'm
not terribly keen on keeping this type of thing a secret myself, and it seems to dishonor
Edward's memory that we aren't addressing it up front. I've heard a number of nasty rumors
flying around in my mundane persona that I would love to speak up to quell, but cannot. Sally
in particular has been particularly outspoken against this conspiracy. Although you can tell
that Edward's death (there's that word again) has struck her hard, from a practical standpoint
she feels that releasing the news of Crucible's death would relieve a lot of the criticism
being directed at us for not being around, even if the details how he died cannot be released.
It's kinda odd that Phoenix's greatest ally in calling for silence has been Lawrence, for
reasons he hasn't really shared.
In truth, it has been a tough slog for all of us to get back into the swing of things given
the loss of Crucible. He brought an almost child-like glee to the act of being a superhero,
an innocence that didn't survive him. It just isn't as much fun anymore. We all are dealing
with the uncertainty as to where things go from here as well; Crucible's name is plastered
all over everything associated with the Knights of the Coast, and some of us are staying in
his guest rooms at Millennium Tower. There are also problems for some of us with our mundane
existences; Phoenix is finally getting some long-overdue treatment to help stabilize his
post-Tribunal integration problems, and I won't even get into how I tried to explain to my
family and employers the reasons behind an unexplained month-long silence (I don't think my
boss has quite accepted the Bolivian Snake Plague explanation, but he hasn't canned me yet).
If fitting in is hard on us, I shouldn't neglect to mention how hard it is on P'Reseiho as
well. At least we are home. Considering the promise that Phoenix extracted from the
D'Kai before they sent us back to Earth (that they would leave us strictly alone unless we
contacted them), it doesn't seem too likely that he will ever see his home again.
I don't know how well I would take the type of exile he is stuck with. Certainly not as well
as he has. He threw himself into a study of our written language, and once he had the basics of
reading down began to spend all his time at the library learning our "history, science and
culture". It helps a lot I suppose that Orion of the Hero Collective is also D'Kai, and has
been helping P'Reseiho acclimatize (he has even chosen a mythological handle - Perseus - in
imitation of Orion's).
Thank God that (aside from the public attention) things have been pretty quiet. If there
were to be a concer...
I take that back. Cipher just called; Doctor Stewart has been arrested at his lab at Sirenos.
They are saying that he's responsible for the Stronghold breakout.
|
|
| |
WRAPUP : |
I cannot believe that Doc Stewart had anything to do with the crime but
their timing could not be worse. We have to get to the bottom of this!
|
|
