J. Wyatt Ferral sat behind his desk
in the cell block of the Freedom Squad headquarters, and couldn’t help feeling
like an idiot. It wasn’t the stupid costume or the idiotic cape he was
wearing; he had long ago gotten used to those. It was the atmosphere here. It
was… stifling. Smothering. The prisoners, which filled the cells he was
supposed to be guarding, weren’t helping matters. But mainly he felt trapped
because of his employer. He didn’t enjoy working for the Freedom Squad
anymore. In fact, he was getting tired of the whole superhero thing.

Of all the jobs the team saddled
Wyatt with, guarding prisoners was the worst. He was stuck in the holding area
at the Fortress of Liberty, all alone. As usual. It was so terribly boring
and deserted down here in the bowels of the building. Alone and silent. Well,
that wasn’t true. He wasn’t ENTIRELY by himself; that nutcase The Poacher was
here too.

There were a lot of annoying
super-villains. Wyatt should know, as he’d encountered almost
all
of
them in his years as a superhero. But Poacher was among the MOST annoying; a
loud, crude, violent, aggravating individual without any redeeming qualities or
charm. The man had been arrested while trying to rob an art gallery, using a
pride of lions as a weapon. It hadn’t gone well. He was finally subdued and
taken into custody, and now he was in the Freedom Squad lockup awaiting
transfer. As a result, Wyatt was stuck here as well. All. Day. With
Poacher. The man was possibly the most
annoying
human being ever to walk
the face of the Earth. In fact, that was probably selling him sort, as there
were sure to be entire GALAXIES he was more annoying than. Wyatt was going to
ask for hazard pay for this assignment.

The man in question looked down at
the meal tray the guard had just given him. “What the hell is that supposed to
be?”

Wyatt rolled his eyes and sank
lower into his chair. “It’s called
salad
.”

Poacher shook his head defiantly,
as if Wyatt was a German officer asking him to rat out his friends in the French
Resistance or something. “Well, I’m
not
eating it.”

Wyatt shrugged. “Whatever.
Starve. I don’t care.”

Behind him, the door to the cell
bay flew open and his brother strolled in with his typical self-confidence; a
wide grin on his face. “Hey Bro! How’s life?”

Wyatt smiled. For some reason, the
board kept scheduling them on different shifts, so Peter had escaped guard duty
today. “Hey Pete.” He gestured towards the cell. “Just watching Poacher
until the cops come pick him up and take him to SeaCastle Asylum.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Peter nodded
disinterestedly, sounding like he couldn’t
possibly
care less about that
news. “We can only hope they get here soon. God help us all and all that.”
He raised his voice. “Hey Poacher!”

Poacher’s head whipped around. “What’s
up, Continuum? Haven’t seen you since that zoo thing.”

Peter nodded. “Well, I been busy.
But that was a good plan, man! You almost had us with that one!” He grinned
and refocused on Wyatt. “I
like
him. Tough exterior, but heart of
gold. That one? Salt ‘o the Earth.”

Wyatt made a disbelieving sound. “Yes,
I’m sure his
victims
agree. So, was there a reason you’re down here?”

Peter waived a dismissive hand. “Oh,
that can wait.” He gestured towards the guard handing out meals. “Say… Who’s
the
new
girl? She’s pretty, don’t you think?”

Wyatt turned to look at the woman
and then nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”

Peter laughed. “You know I have a
thing for the dark haired ones.”

Wyatt frowned. “Since when?”

“Since I first saw THAT exquisite
creature walking around this awful place.” Peter nodded and headed towards the
door. “I find her attractiveness…totally
distracting
. Don’t you? You
should talk to her. I bet she’s nice.” He looked over his shoulder. “Later,
Poacher.”

Poacher waved a hand. “Wait!
Don’t leave me with these assholes, Continuum!”

Peter left the room, his happy
laughter echoing through the door. Wyatt sighed and continued absently
watching the guard hand another prisoner a meal. The girl must be new, as he
didn’t recognize her. She was a pretty little thing though, probably barely in
her twenties. What was she doing HERE? What had happened in her short little
life which had brought her to THIS hellhole? Stuck here in this sewer,
surrounded by the scum of the Earth? The poor girl. She should really get out
of here while she could. The Fortress of Liberty was BOUND to be attacked by
at least a villain or two within the next couple hours, and the security detail
usually took the brunt of the damage. Wyatt was positive he could handle
anyone the Consortium of Chaos threw at him, but adding an innocent into the
mix was a complication.

The Consortium of Chaos was a coldblooded
criminal coalition, committed to conquering creation, and it wouldn’t let one
innocent girl get in the way of its plans. She could get hurt. He made a
mental note to watch out for her, just in case. If this went bad, which was
BOUND to happen, he would have to make sure she made it through this okay. He
didn’t want her falling into someone like Poacher’s hands. He’d probably rape
her, then eat her. Or eat her, then rape her. Or do both concurrently. The
man was a monster, a soulless villain through and through.

Poacher tossed his meal into the
aisle in front of his cell in protest. “Hey…
Guard?
” He whistled at
her. “Move that sweet little ass back here a second, and let me get a good
look at you.” His amused smile widened. “My, my… What a pretty little uniform
you’re wearing,
Guard.
You kinda look like this one girl I used to know,
before she got big ideas about an education and left us all behind.”

Wyatt’s eyes narrowed. “Hey!
Knock that off right now, Poacher!
Leave the girl alone!”

The female guard readjusted her cap
and looked over at him. “Thank you, Fabricator. These villains…” She
swallowed, a look of terror passing over her delicate face. “They scare me.”

Poacher let out a bark of laughter.
“Oh, give me a fucking
break!
Laying it on a bit thick aren’t we…” He leaned
forward to read the nametag pinned above her breast, the curves of which Wyatt found
himself staring at. The woman really did have an amazing body. “…
Guard
Malkin
?” Poacher smiled. “Interesting name, by the way.” His smile
widened. “What’s it
mean?
”

Wyatt slammed a boot against the
bars making a loud banging sound. “What did I just say, huh!?! Leave the girl
ALONE!
”

Poacher rolled his eyes.

Guard Malkin beamed. “Thank you,
Fabricator. I can take care of myself though.” She hesitantly walked over to
him, her pretty face looking concerned and hopeful. “Would it be
too
unprofessional if I asked for your autograph?”

He smiled. He hadn’t expected her
to be a fan. “Not at all. Not at all.” He pulled out a pen. “Who shall I
make it out to?”

She smiled. “My dad. His name’s
Carl, but people always call him Harl… for some reason. Yeah. Can you put
like; “
To Harl, my number one fan
” or something? That’d be so cool!”

He obediently started writing out
her souvenir. He should have known that SHE wasn’t HIS fan. He never got the
pretty fans. Captain Dauntless got the pretty fans; he just got the nerdy
college guys and the eight year olds. It was cosmically unfair. The pretty
ones always ignored him completely. Pity.

He paused, trying to figure out
some way to strike up an actual conversation with the girl and passed her the
autograph. “So… How long have you worked here?”

She gingerly took the sheet of
paper form him, like it held life-altering atomic secrets or something. “…Umm
…About a month?” It came out sounding like a question.

Wyatt nodded. “Funny, I don’t
remember seeing you around before.”

She laughed, her eyes twinkling. “Well,
they don’t let me out much.”

He shifted in his chair, suddenly
feeling awkward. “So, you live in the city then?” If she lived in the city,
then this could be her regular gig here. He could sign up for guard duty more
often and see her all the time. Maybe ask her out at some point. He’d need
some sort of “in” though. Hmmmm… Maybe he could offer to introduce her to
Dauntless or The Honey Badger or one of the more popular heroes here? Women
loved that. Or so Wyatt was
guessing
anyway. He’d never actually
tried
it before, but there was something about this girl. She was…
special
.
He just met her a second ago and even he could already see that.

Poacher’s eyes narrowed at Wyatt. “What?
You plannin’ on asking her out on a date or something?” He grabbed the bars.
“Maybe I should be the one warning YOU to stay away from the girl, you perv.
Leave. Her. Alone.
She’s just a kid!”

Wyatt pointed a finger at him. “I’ve
just about had it with you, Poacher. One more word, and I’m gagging you.”

Guard Malkin sighed dreamily at
him. “
You’re so brave
.”

Poacher rolled his eyes. “
Jesus
Christ!
Knock me out so I don’t have to hear this shit, or
go get a
fucking room!”

Guard Malkin glared at Poacher, her
eyes narrowing in anger. “I’m TRYING to talk to Fabricator here, Syd. Okay?”
She pointed at Wyatt like he was something incredibly important that Poacher
had somehow overlooked. “That’s FABRICATOR.
THE
Fabricator.
So shut
the hell up!”

Wyatt frowned. “Syd?”

She blinked at him, her beautiful
lips pursing in thought. “It’s his name. It’s on… um… his booking form.
Yeah. Booking form.” She brightened. “Hey, Fabricator? What’s he in for
anyway? It must have been something
big time
if they have their
best
hero down here guarding him like this. World domination, planet in crisis
stuff, I bet, right?”

Wyatt leaned back in his chair,
trying to sound casual. He cleared his throat. “You can call me Wyatt.”

She beamed like he had just
singlehandedly brought a puppy back to life. “Okay…
Wyatt
.”

Poacher made retching sounds.

Wyatt ignored him. “He was robbing
an art gallery.”

Surprisingly, the girl started
laughing. “
Him!?!”
Her voice was filled with disbelief. “
POACHER
was robbing an
art gallery?”
To turned to look at the imprisoned man in
amazement. “You an
art fan
all of a sudden, Syd?”

Poacher sank down on his cot in
indignation. “For your information…
Guard Malkin
… I was shopping for a
birthday gift for a college kid I know who’s into all that boring arty shit,
okay?”

She nodded and began cleaning up
the salad he had tossed onto the floor. “Well, I’m sure she appreciates the
effort, even if you did fail
miserably
at it. That was really…” She
stopped and blinked over at food cart. She pointed at it. “Oh my god!
What
is that!?!”

Wyatt sprang from his chair in
alarm and dashed over to the trolley. Sure enough, there was an object
concealed under the top shelf, held on with duct tape. He pulled it free, his
eyes widening. “Shit. It’s a bomb!”

The girl frantically backpedaled
away from it.

Poacher shook his head sadly. “Don’t
you just hate it when that happens? I ordered the
burger
, not the
plastic explosive. Those fuckers in the kitchen fuck you every time, don’t
they?”

Wyatt opened a letter taped under
the bomb and read the single line of text, clipped out of newspaper and
magazine headlines:

Beware
the
wrath
of
Harlot!

He blinked at it for a second
longer in disbelief. Wow. Someone watched too much TV. He looked up at the
guard. “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the area while I disarm
this device. It could be dangerous.”

Her beautiful face was still awash
with fear, and she was obviously too panicked to listen. “Oh my god! Not
Harlot!
NOT HARLOT!
She’s crazy! The worst of the worst! She’ll kill
us all! Run!
RUN FOR YOU LIFE!”

Poacher nodded, his voice completely
deadpan. “Yep. She is
completely
crazy alright. A real psycho nutcase,
prone to overly dramatic stunts.”

Wyatt held up his hands. “Now, try
to calm down. I’ll handle this. You’ll be fine, Ma’am.”

She stopped screaming. “I will?
You swear?”

He nodded, slowly backing towards
the door with the bomb, trying not to jostle it. “Promise. I’ve been a hero
my whole life and never
once
has a villain gotten the best of me. We’ll
make it through this and then everything around here will be fine again. Okay?”

She smiled widely. “Wow.” She
looked over at Poacher. “You see this? Huh?
TOTAL
calm under
pressure.” She pointed at him. “
THAT’S
a hero. Stop the criminal;
save the damsel.” She nodded in approval. “I’m soooo impressed right now.
Truly.”

Poacher got up from the cot and
disinterestedly strolled across his cell towards the bars. “Oh yeah, I may
swoon.
What a man
.” He rolled his eyes. “I think you can do better…
GUARD
MALKIN.
”

She swatted at his hands with her
baton. “Hey! You heard what Fabricator…” She looked over at him again and
smiled shyly. “I mean what
Wyatt
said earlier;
KEEP QUIET!”

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