Issue 1: March of Mephisto

Jenny was maybe less angry, but that didn’t change the fact that she had nothing to do here.

Maybe I should just walk away.

“Didn’t you say that a judge will judge him? Should someone tie him up so that I can get out? And since you are the officer here I guess it is your job Dirk. So go on arrest him.”

She was sitting on a desk waiting for one of them to mention that it was time to go. She would be gone quicker than anyone could stop her. It might be rude and selfish of her, but the world was a rude and selfish place. She had learned that a long time ago.

“I don’t like what I’ve done here,” replied Renegade, “but if I had tried to find out this information alone I wouldn’t have got near it before being caught. Listen, this is something that could be much bigger than just the law. If you walk away now there might be no chance of stopping this.”

“Maybe the Resistance finally found a way to turn the system off,” retorted Mark, bringing his gun back up to bear.

“Having massed failures of the system does nothing to help PHMA, nor do the criminal acts help the Resistance. Don’t you see, something else is at work here? Maybe it’s something to do with the Hunter Corporation, they are the only mega-corp who actually produces the Inhibitor chips, and that’s strange enough in itself. Or maybe even StarTech, they produce the Enforcer Suits after all.”

“Now you’re just rambling conspiracy theories.” Mark growled. Renegade gave a small sigh.

“Yes, yes I suppose it does sound like that. But does there really need to be more proof than several Inhibited supers acting psychotic? If you need any more, for all I know it’s in the safe behind…”

CRASH! The wall gave way as a massive figure smashed through it. ‘Right on time’ though Renegade, instants before he was picked up and hurled into the opposite wall, collapsing unconscious.

Mark just looked stunned at the new arrival. He had no difficultly in recognising him; Cannon, one of the most famous supers ever. But seeing him here, smashing Renegade into a wall with such… vehemence, and now picking up a large surgical implement to impale Renegade with, it was all wrong. Like seeing Santa Clause hitting a small child, or Dirk torturing someone.

Jennifer jumped off the desk and backed away from the two fighting people. Maybe she didn’t like Renegade before but this didn’t looked like a fair fight, or for the matter for fact right at all.

“Hey big boy.” Yes stupid idea to yell at a strong big guy but her sense of danger wasn’t working since a very long time now. “I’m all for teaching this idiot a lesson, but I think you are doing it the wrong way, where is the fun for us if you do all the punching?”

The juvenile yelling from Jennifer seemed to have got Cannon’s attention. With a dark look he spun on the spot and hurled the long pole he was carrying like a javelin before her.

The sight of Jennifer in danger snapped Mark into action. He leapt towards her, and yanked her down behind the desk. The pole went crashing through the wall behind them and, judging from the sound, the wall behind that.

“Be more careful Jenny,” he spoke, in a voice that was harsh with anxiety, “this isn’t some schoolyard game.”

Mark rolled out from behind the desk, seeing Cannon bearing down on him. There was not enough room to use his grenades, and against Cannon his tazer would be next to useless. That left the injection guns. Most needles these days took super-resistance into account.

Cannon was almost on him when he threw himself to the side, slamming the needle gun hard into his leg, using gravity and momentum to gain more force. Even if the drugs weren’t enough to stop him, they would slow him down. It was a short lived victory. Before he’d a chance to rise to his feet, Cannon had already picked him up, and was now aiming him towards the window.

Jennifer looked surprised at Mark. Did he just safe her?

But why?

It was as if there was a thought on her mind she couldn’t grasp, something she knew but couldn’t put it into words.

“Hey jerk, I never said to attack us.” She threw a fireball at his feet and melted his shoes, hoping it would slow him down enough that Mark could free himself. Jennifer felt dizzy something wasn’t right with her. Something her powers couldn’t fix.

The few seconds it took for Murphy to hand the phone to Scott seemed like an eternity.

"Hello?"

"Scott!" Dirk's relief was palpable, possibly desperate.

"Uh...yeah? What's up, Dad?"

"You all right?"

"Yeah."

"Not feeling...weird at all?"

"Um...no? Should I be?"

"Scott, I need to ask you a very important question, and I need you to give me the honest truth. You promise?"

"Um."

"No 'um's, kiddo."

"Yes, sir, I promise."

"This is important. Did your chip ever work?"

Scott paused. "No, sir." Then, quickly, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you but I didn't want to--"

"We'll talk about that later. Now, Scott, be careful, okay, and look after Mr. M--"

Dirk was caught completely unawares as a giant figure bowled past him, knocking him over, causing him to drop his phone which skidded across the floor. He rolled and looked up into the face of a hero.

"Cannon?" Dirk practically squeaked.

Only the most famous real Super in all of comic book history! Only The Cannon! Dirk had even gotten one of his favorite issues signed by John Gunnison himself when he was 13. He was Dirk's hero, the ultimate good guy. No one ever died on his watch, not even the bad guys. He was one of the many reasons Dirk had agreed to the Inhibitor chip and went about a normal life. And now here he was, in all his glory, out of retirement and...

Beating Renegade to a bloody pulp?

As Dirk watched, too horrified to move, it quickly became apparent that Cannon was doing a hell of a lot more than that.

"Wait!" Dirk cried as the Super raised a piece of equipment with which, apparently, he intended to kill Renegade. This couldn't be happening! This wasn't Cannon! This was wrong!

Before he knew it, Dirk was tackling the larger Post-human, bringing him to the ground only with the aid of his powers activating and his momentum. It took a few seconds longer before he realized what a massively problematic move that was.

On the plus side, he wasn’t heading out the window anymore. On the downside, he’d been thrown on the ground instead.

“Ow!”

Looking up, Mark saw Jenny throwing fire at Cannon, while Dirk rather foolishly tried to wrester with him. He couldn’t see Richard, but given the fire, red glows and clouds of dust from smashed walls, maybe that wasn’t surprising.

He took a quick glance at Renegade; still breathing. Good. Then Dirk and Cannon almost rolled over him, not so good. Dirk had the upper hand by being on Cannon’s back, but even with Dirk’s fields Cannon was stronger and probably tougher. Hurting Cannon was going to take some doing. Incapacitating him on the other hand…

Mark yanked out the cable for some important and expensive looking machine, and as Cannon rose, pulling Dirk finally off his back, he looped and tangled the cord around Cannon’s legs, then shoulders. Now if someone would just knock him off balance again…

Dirk shook his head to clear it after being rattled by the impact of Cannon throwing him to the ground. They had to get to the bottom of this! Renegade was still breathing, good. But Cannon was still standing.

Not for long. Mark had tied his ankles with a cable, and the paragon teetered dangerously. Mark was in no position to finish the job. For a second the two locked eyes, and Mark nodded slightly.

Firing off a single beam of energy was hard. His boys thought they were cool, called them laser beams, but it took a lot out of him. He had to concentrate extraordinarily hard to focus the beam, otherwise it could just radiate outward like a nuclear blast or something. Walls were easiest, for whatever reason. It was when the red energy got minute, complicated, specific, that it was difficult.

Not to mention he'd sooner destroy the Library of Congress than an icon such as this man, so he had to do a low power, just enough to knock him over, like a powerful punch in the back of the head.

Zap!

...Or, you know, a gentle shove?

Yeesh. Oh, what the heck. Dirk scrambled to his feet, grabbed a chair, and swung it, striking Cannon in back of the neck.

Cannon wobbled for a comically long time before toppling forward onto his face, unconscious.

Great they have secret nods and shit. Why am I here again? Oh right I’m trapped.

Jennifer watched Mark and Dirk, their nearly not visible nods, their team work, their trust.

It isn’t fair.

She actually considered leaving Mark and Dirk fight with the crazy strong moron and she could disappear, but…

“Seriously I had a normal day, I got up, was planning on making some good money to stay low for at least a month and I ended here. This day sucks and can’t get any worse. The bad guy and the confused suddenly bad guy once good guy are all knocked out can I go now?” Jennifer didn’t understand why she was asking for permission. She never had to do this and here she was asking if she could go.

“Believe me Jenny, this day can get much, much worse. I think we have our proof. No way in Hell Cannon would act this way. So that’s, what? World-wide mind control of supers?”

A little bit of his mind was chewing over what she had last said, the fact she wanted to leave.

“And why would you want to go? We’ve finally met up after all this time. And besides, think about the consequence of this. This is too big to just turn your back on. I thought I’d raised you to be a hero.” As soon as he said it, Mark regretted it. First, Jenny bristled, which given he hadn’t been around for almost half of her life was possibly understandable. Second, Dirk could have heard. That would be embarrassing.

Suddenly a voice broke over the PA, smashing Mark’s thoughts. An all clear alert. Which meant the cops would be moving in as well.

“Right, we need to get out of here. I’ve got a good place to hole-up and lie low for a bit. Can someone open that safe? Maybe Renegade was right and there is something important in there. And what do we do with out two sleeping beauties?”

This day was getting worse, Mark doesn’t let me leave. I managed to stay away from you for all this time.

Without realizing it Mark was dragging his daughter along against her will.

“I’m not saying I’m turning my back on it. I’m just saying I’m not a very good team player, that’s all.” She said teeth grinding. It was difficult to control the anger. Why was he pretending in front of Richard and Dirk to be the loving father? It was hideous and really annoying, she didn’t need him when she came back and she clearly didn’t need him now. And she did want to through this at him, but somehow she didn’t. Somehow she was a little bit curious how far he would go, what he would ask her, if he was sorry at all for the way he treated her, and where was Amanda.

“I can try to open it.” She pushed Mark rather rough out of her way and created a fire that should melt the bolts of the safe, she had to be careful in case that there was something in it that could catch fire. It calmed her down at least a little bit. Without fear she touched the red glowing safe door and pulled it open.

“There we go, don’t touch the red steal it’s hot.”

She sat down on one not broken chair, played with a fireball and waited. Planning in her mind to give Mark and Dirk a piece of her mind about what she really thought about them and that she would for nothing stay with them.

Dirk chewed his lip.

World-wide mind control of supers.

Joan...

"We need answers," Dirk mused. "We need Renegade. Let the authorities deal with Cannon--I think that's the way he'd want it." He pulled a strip-tie from his pocket and secured the unconscious man before hoisting him over his shoulder.

"Where's your car?" he asked Mark, who was rummaging through the opened safe.

“The car, it’s in the rear car park. Quickest way would be the window at the end of the hall.” Mark to a quick flick through the files in the safe. Distribution documents for the chips, though some of the locations looked out of place at best. Some official documents marked by both Hunter Corporation and PHMA, those looked important. And some personnel files for Furtura Industries, now that was a surprise.

There were a couple of Inhibitors chips as well, at least that was what the case said. Mark pocketed them as well. Taking his head out of the safe Mark saw Dirk carrying Renegade. He tutted loud and almost conically, before walking out of the room. He returned a moment later with a gurney.

“Taxi for one?” he asked in a sarcastic voice.

Jennifer felt more trapped than she had the entire time in the locked down hospital. There was no way Mark would let her go. Not now when he got his favorite punching ball back. She was wondering again why Mark was at the hospital alone. Where was Amanda?
Dirk and Richard lifted Renegade onto the gurney which took some time and Jennifer used the moment to ask calmly, which even surprised herself how calm.

“What were you doing here in the hospital? For once without Amanda?”

Mark looked up, he shifted a little uncomfortable. "Your mother and I aren't... nevermind, i'll tell you later."

Now he got Jennifer's attention, she had a couple of questions she wanted to ask him, so she would at least stick long enough around to get all the answers.

Dirk nodded, seeing everything in order. Thank goodness.

"Okay, everyone. You guys head out the back...uh," Dirk corrected himself, "the back, um, hole in the wall," he coughed.

Mark narrowed his eyes at him. "Where are you going?"

Dirk straightened. "I have a duty to give a full statement to the authorities..."

Three pairs of eyes opened wide in alarm.

"Which I may, according to my duty to serve and protect the public interest, find difficult to recollect accurately. Now hurry. Where's the rendezvous?"

Mark shook his head to clear it and scribbled something on a piece of paper. "The Garage on--"

"On north 4th!" Dirk laughed and shoved Mark in the shoulder. "You mean you were there all the time? I must have gotten a hundred oil changes there and--" noises at the end of the corridor. "Okay, hurry along. Meet you in about an hour."

Everyone else had piled into Mark’s pickup while Dirk headed off. The pickup had two rows of seats, and the back was covered. The floor of the back had some strange devices mounted to it, among which Renegade was rather unceremoniously dumped.

It took longer than normal to arrive, Mark avoiding the main streets to try and avoid the police cordons and patrols around the hospital. They arrived and Mark parked the pick-up round the back of the garage, opening a side door to let everyone in.

The workshop floor was, in all honesty, covered in vehicles. Most were car, in for some repair or service. Others were more classic models, and a few bikes were scattered here and there. Tools were also scattered around, most located on the workbenches on the wall opposite the stairs. Built into the stairs was another door, solidly reinforced, the kind that would take a nuke to smash through. At the back wall was a partitioned office, a desk and computer just visible through the frosted glass.

Jenny looked around the garage and gave the first warm smile since Mark had seen her. It made him smile too.

“Make yourself at home. Most living stuff is upstairs.” Mark headed that way himself. The upstairs was a mess, the main room being a mix of kitchen and workspace. Half constructed devices sat side by side of coffee mugs and cooking utensils. He cleared a space on a desk by shoving everything out the way, then slammed down the stolen documents and started shifting through it. Part of him wanted to head to Jenny, but this, whatever this was, could be far, far more important.

Jennifer let Mark go upstairs, followed by Richard, while she wandered through the garage. There were some real beauties down here. For the moment she enjoyed herself, wondered if this could work her, Mark and Dirk a team.
Jennifer laughed about the idea. She would not stay long just get some answers and be gone before Mark or Dirk can even ask where she lives or what her plans are now. So she followed Mark and Richard upstairs, the two men were standing at the desk getting through the stuff Mark took from the hospital.

“Found anything?” She asked coldly, keeping distance to Mark. Now that they were out of danger he might want to punish her for causing the troubles in the first place. It would not be the first time it is her fault something like this happened, it was always her fault when something went wrong.

“Plenty,” replied Mark cheerfully, not picking up on her cold tone, “Hunter Corporation’s management seems to be pushing PHMA into Inhibiting suspected supers as opposed to proven. So is that to sell more chips, or to make more foot soldiers.”

“Second, the hospital was selling chips in bulk to the black market. Another shipment is due to be delivered tonight. Even if that’s not part of this plot, it’s still trouble.

“Third, well, actually I’m not sure what to make of the third. I’ve some personnel files, but they’re for Futura Industries. No idea what the link is there.” Mark put the files down, not realising the top one had a picture of Dirk’s wife on it, admittedly with different colour hair.”

“And finally,” Mark turned round on his chair, “Renegade said something about StarTech. Now there’s four possible leads here. When Dirk gets back we can make some kind of plan and figure out just what is going on here. Should be fun.”

"DABBY!"

Dirk dropped to a knee and opened his arms as Anna Marie let go of Alex's hand and toddled toward him.

"Hey, Annie, how was your day with Grandma?" he asked, planting a kiss on her head.

"Dood," she replied.

"Hey, buddy," Dirk said as Alex walked up, looking smug.

"Dad, guess what?"

"What, Al?"

"I finished the 6th grade math book today, so Ms. Simmons gave me extra computer time and I totally beat the Astro-Destroyers game!"

"Atta boy!" Dirk smiled, holding up his hand for a high-five, which Alex indulged him in.

"Yeah, well we stopped a hostile takeover of the hospital today!" Scott retorted.

Dirk raised his eyebrows at his eldest.

"Aaaand...I'm still grounded, aren't I?"

"Yup," Dirk said, and taking Annie in his arms, stood up to give Mrs. Crawford a hug. "Thanks for looking after the kids, Mom."

"Any time, dear," she smiled softly, her wrinkles crinkling. "How was...the hospital? I saw the news, I--"

"We're fine, mom. Scott's chip is still in, though, and we may have bigger problems on our hands."

He waited for it: she drew her lips together and nodded.

Shoot.

Because when the woman with precognition nodded at "we may have bigger problems on our hands," it was suddenly made "we do have bigger problems on our hands."

"Okay. I'm taking the kids to a friends' house. May be radio silence for a while, but we'll call you as soon as we can. You should be safe, here, I don't think they know--"

"They don't. They need you, honey, you should go."

"Gwamma, my bunny!" Annie cried suddenly, pointing. "Look, Dabby, Gamma builded a dwess!"

"That's nice, isn't it, Annie? Okay, say goodbye to Grandma, guys. We're gonna go visit a friend of Daddy's..."

The car ride was loud, as usual. Alex and Scott were arguing whether Wolverine or Superman would win in a fight, and Annie was screaming that her Barbie's shoe had fallen off and she couldn't reach it.

Dirk hardly heard the noise, instead contemplating how his life had gotten so complicated. Jenny had returned: what could he say to her? He had to get that chip out of Scott before it made him...took over his mind or something, like it had done to Joan. Joan! Maybe she was still out there, still her, and he could get her back...would Annie even remember her?

He was suddenly at the Garage.

"Dad, what're we doing here?" Scott asked.

"It's clearly a cover for a super secret super-hero base, stupid!" Alex shoved himself into the front seat and pointed: "Lookit, Dad, there's a door there in the wall!"

"Alexander, don't call your brother stupid, and put your seatbelt back on."

"Why does Mr. Mark live here?" Scott asked.

"Mr. Mark's dead, stuuuuuu...debaker! Like, before you were born." Alex informed him. "Unless he's a clone, or a vampire, maybe!"

"No, I saw him. He came back," Scott insisted.

"Maybe he's a unicone!" Annie offered.

"I don't think he's a unicorn, Annie. And boys, stop arguing. Mark...well, it appears he never died."

"What about Miss Jenny?"

"I...I'm not sure."

Dirk drove toward the the wall Alex had pointed out. His son had much sharper eyes and, usually, a sharper mind than he did. As soon as he approached it, it opened, and he drove inside, the station wagon looking frankly embarrassing next to the fleet of various tricked out vehicles.

He crossed Annie's diaper bag over his chest, and his go-bag--which included some of the boys' things as well--over his other shoulder. Scott and Alex stopped arguing long enough to get Annie out of her seat. Dirk took her on his hip, and took Alex's hand.

As a family, they walked down the line of vehicles--"Scott, no fingerprints," he warned, from experience--until they met a set of stairs. As they climbed he could hear voices, and shushed his children as he overheard Mark talking--

It sounded like a lot of corruption: people who were claiming to be good guys and actually doing very bad things. He needed details, but those would wait until the children were out of earshot.

"We will make a plan," Dirk said as he stepped into the room where Mark, Richard and Jenny were bent over a table looking at papers, and who looked up in surprise. "But first, introductions. Scott, Alex, Annie; Mark, Richard, Jenny."

It wasn’t that Jennifer didn’t like kids and she knew Scott already but seeing that Dirk had three kids nearly scared her. She couldn’t even explain to herself what scared her about the situation. Maybe it was that for a moment she thought it could work with the three of them and now Dirk had three very cute kids and he seemed a very good father, but when he was such a good father why was he never her friend. She never did anything in her live to make him hate her so much.
Jennifer backed away from Dirk (not the kids just Dirk) and Mark. Dirk was blocking the stairs so the only way out was a window but it would leave her with no car to get away.

I have to get out, one of the kids will start crying it will be my fault and… and they get angry with me.

Small sparks were appearing around Jennifer, as always a scared Jennifer would attack before she had to defend herself. But for the moment she would try to stay calm she really didn’t want to hurt the children. She liked children a lot.

“This really isn’t a day care centre!” Mark exclaimed as Dirk returned, mostly of amusement, but partially concerned. The children where soon scampering all across the room, asking excited questions and playing with the devices and tools all around. Alex, for all his intelligence, was still a curious child, and his hand was reaching towards what looked like a small flying robot with a big button marked ‘on’, sitting next to the pile of dishes in the sink. Mark shouted out a warning.

“Don’t touch that, it’s not calibra…” Too late. Alex had already flipped the switch, and the device began shaking and sparking alarmingly. Mark was already out of his chair and pulled the child back. Arc’s of electricity shot out, impacting where Alex had been standing a moment before. Seconds later the device exploded. Mark spun round, shielding Alex. The explosion was small, but a small piece flew and nicked Mark on the cheek. There was a silent pause, then…

“Cool!” exclaimed Scott.

“I told you Dirk.”


"We do not touch things that aren't ours, Alexander Rogers!" It was almost a shout from Dirk, but not quite.

“Yes Sir,” replied Alex dejectedly.

“Now apologise to Mr Mark.” Alex hung his head and turned to Mark, not risking meeting his eye. But a caught from Dirk forced him to.

“I’m really sorry Sir. I won’t touch your stuff again Mr Mark.” He said in a quiet, slightly trembling voice.

Mark waved away the apology.

“Don’t worry about it, kids will be kids. And it’s not ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr Mark’, just Mark.” Mark ruffled Alex’s hair. “The office downstairs should be safe. We can throw them some ice cream or something to keep them quiet in there while we talk about… grown up stuff.”

“You’re going to plan how to beat up the bad guy behind the hospital attack, aren’t you? Aren’t you?” chirped up Alex, now recovered from his earlier shock.

“Nothing gets past you, Kid.” Mark was smiling as he responded.

“Can we stay? Please?”

“That’s up to your father,” Mark replied, setting Dirk up as the bad guy. He looked over, still smiling, towards Jenny.

The smile vanished.

Jennifer starred at Mark. This couldn’t be real could it? She was trembling, fighting not to lose control over her powers.

“You are friggen kidding me right? You hate children, you are not the cuddly dude who gives out ice cream. You are a friggen asshole, the type of father who is always drunk, smokes like a chimney and if your daughter dares to just smile without asking for your permission first you hit her so hard that she can’t move for weeks. You are a hypocrite, what is so different in every other child then me? I tried always to be your perfect daughter and you hated my guts. And you know what why I didn’t come looking for you or Dirk when I woke up in a coffin alone on a parking lot ten years ago? Because I was rather be alone then again with your abusive friggen ass. You beat the grab out of me and all I wanted was you to love me and then this friggen jerk comes along and you suddenly found your dream son…”

Jennifer lost the fight with her powers she suddenly burst into flames.

“You never wanted me, you and Amanda never wanted me! I a friggen mistake you regretted my entire life and now you are pretending to be happy to see me again? The hell you are, I see it in your face you are already thinking about how you can get rid of me. You know what don’t worry about it, I hate you so much I rather be alone for the rest of my live than with you. I hate you. I hate you. I! Hate! You!” She yelled at Mark.

Jennifer didn’t care anymore that everyone was starring at her that the children heard her outburst. All she wanted was to get away from them but the only three persons in the room she didn’t want to hurt were standing in her way. Mark stood there next to Dirk, he did looked shocked but didn’t say a word which just made Jennifer even angrier.

“You are not even saying anything? I always thought I can’t hate you more but every second I spend with you I hate you even more. All those years before the accident I hope one day you would love me like a father should, but never did and then that day when they wanted to take me away you kicked me out of the house. Told me you never wanted me in the first place. I had nowhere to go and then I… I died and, and you were happy. The day I had the deadly accident was the day you were the happiest man on earth. I friggen hate you! How could you hate me that much, what the hell did I do to you that made you hate me since the day I was born?”

Jennifer was burning, slowly burning the floor around her and she didn’t care when she would burn a hole into the floor.

It was all Mark could do to stammer out a reply.

“What the hell happened to you?”

"I had parents that hated me, then they let me die and somehow two years later I came back from the dead and now no matter what I do I can't die because I heal myself from every friggin injury." Jennifer was close to shrieking.

This was too much. Finally it seemed his life may be worthwhile again, and now, whoever it was standing on front of him, it wasn’t his daughter. Another torturer in his fucked up life. He’d just lost his daughter for a second time. The chance of rebuilding his family again had shattered. He felt, old, and for the first time, truly defeated.

He turned and stormed out. Dimly, he was aware of someone asking where he was going.

“Back to where I’ve been for the past ten years. At the bottom of a bottle. And this time I’m staying there!” He shouted angrily back.

Even though Jennifer said she hated him, in tiny part of her hoped that he would say something like ‘I’m sorry it was wrong what I did’ but nothing. A tiny part of her hoped not to be alone anymore, but he left her. He just abandoned her like he did all those years ago.
No matter that she was a human flame she felt so cold in this moment. Her flames were her safety shield, she already had gotten the control back but as long she was burning no one could hurt her, as long she was burning… Suddenly white powder was taking her breath away. One of the children was using a fire extinguisher on her. She bumped into the desk and fell on her knees, without her fire she felt helpless. “He hates me…” She whispered to herself. She hadn’t noticed the picture that fell down on the other side of the desk. This was not fair why did no one in this world wanted her? Why was there no one just once on her side? She was tired of hating the world.

Alex knew he had promised Mr. Mark he wouldn't touch his stuff but that lady was on fire, and sure, maybe Dad had said she was a nice girl but then he also said she was dead so Dad didn't know everything, clearly, did he?

As soon as she caught fire and started yelling at his Daddy and Mr. Mark (who had cool gadgets and stuff and offered them ice cream), stunning everyone but him, it seemed, into frozen silence, Alex had dragged the fire extinguisher from the wall and coated her with the contents.

There was a second of silence.

Then Annie started screaming and crying. Mr. Mark yelled some bad words and stormed off. Dad was speechless and doing nothing to calm Annie, and that had Alex pretty worried. And now Miss Jenny was on the ground crying, and Alex felt bad, wondering if he'd hurt her, so he swallowed the angry speech he had prepared.

But Scott didn't:

"Listen, lady, you got it all wrong! My Dad's told me the stories! I know you were his best friend and Mr. Mark was the best dad, and either you're lying or you're calling my Dad a liar and no one calls my dad a liar!"

"Scott!" Alex and Dirk shouted together, angry, and Scott bridled back into silence. But this served to wake Dirk up, who shook himself.

"Scott, Alex, come here," he demanded, and Alex dropped the fire extinguisher and ran over. Dirk handed Annie to Alex, who, still screaming, clung to his neck and cried into his shoulder and wouldn't even look at Miss Jenny. "Alex, you take your sister downstairs, okay? You guys can have some ice cream." Alex nodded, picking up on the the-grownups-need-to-talk vibe, and, trying to comfort his baby sister, went carefully toward the stairs.

"Scott," Dirk stopped his eldest before he followed them. "Look after Mark for me, will ya, buddy?"

Scott nodded.