Issue 2: "The Case of the Mysterious MacGuffin"

“JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMY!” Harry shouts as he wakes up in a cold sweat on the couch of the living room of Powers Towers to the smell of eggs frying and coffee boiling across the room and Booster Gold watching T.V. on the couch across from him laughing. He rubs the crust out of his eyes and stares at the blinding light radiating off of the large television set across from him. Booster was watching a stupid movie that the team had rented the night before called the Suicidal Squadron about a rag tag team of ex cons and burned out military men joined together on a mission… for justice! Right, like that would ever happen. Booster enjoys it though; in the months the team had lived together in Powers Towers, (a single building, mind you) every movie they have rented had a required amount of at least ten explosions. Harry is starting to fit in though; when they had first started working together everyone raised eyebrows to his strange obsession with the superhero community, his incessant rambling about the finer points of the old sixties T.V. shows based on super heroes, and his never-ending collections of what they considered junk also focusing on superheroes. But now that they had got to know him… he thinks he is starting to fit in. Sure beats living in that crumby little apartment with the leaky facet he tells himself.

Steel walks in from the kitchen side of the floor and sat on the sofa next to the barely awoken Harry and begins to eat his eggs and sip his coffee. “Do either of you know the location of the sugar cubes I purchased?” He asks.

When they had first met, Harry was fascinated by Steel; he was not only the son of the original Steel, but also half android… or something. Steel looks around agitated and takes a sip of his bitter coffee. His face contorts in his mild disgust. He takes another and this time shakes his head along with his distorted face. He looks over at his two comrades and raises an eyebrow, the lack of answers frustrates him and he asks again.

“Booster, do you know the whereabouts of my sugar cubes?”

“Ummm… Nuh uh.” Booster mutters quickly still fixated on the pretty colors and blasting noises. Booster shoves chips in his mouth and the crumbs spit around the room. “I think I saw it in the trash, man.” Booster was a nice guy too, a tad rambunctious at times but generally he had a good heart.

“But I specifically…” Hank says lowering the coffee mug from his upper lip as he tilts his head to the side.

Booster cuts him off and raises the volume trying to drown out the voice of his partner.

“Yeah dude, I know, you wrote your name it. Do you have to be all anal about that stuff? I don’t get all upset when you used all the laundry soap the other day.”

“Not, only was that my detergent, but you were the one who used it all, Booster.”

“Didn’t have your name on it, Hanky.” Booster smirks, “Hey weren’t we supposed to start that mission soon?”

“Nine something, I think” Airwave says softly as he scratches his hair, “Wasn’t it some kinda special mission?” Small flakes of dandruff fall off onto his soldiers and he dusts it off to no avail.

“Nine thirty, we have approximately fifteen minutes, I was delayed by my lack of sugar.”

”Approximately? You mean, Mr. Know-it-all doesn’t know the exact amount of time till we are supposed to start our mission?”

”If you are referring to me, no I don’t, I was delayed by my…” Steel says with still a slight tint of sorrow in his monotonous voice.

“Yeah, yeah yeah, your sugar whatever.” Booster retorts with a complete lack of emotion. Suddenly his eyebrows raise and he asks, “Hey don’t we have a briefing today? What was that mission?”

“No briefing today, we received a file explaining what our agenda is today.” Steel raises his head from his bitter coffee and answers matter-of-factly.

“Oh yeah what is that?” Airwave still shaking the sleep from his eyes asks waking up questions his now irritated partner who seems to be the only one in the room who knows what is going on. Airwave looks back and forth between Steel who is finishing his eggs and Booster who is raising the volume of the TV to drown out the conversation. Harry bites his lip looks at his watch and watches the TV which is breaking up the awkward silence lurking over the room. He looks up at the clock and looks back at his own. Two minutes off, his watch is early. Had he fallen asleep in his room, he’d have been up for an hour but it was late the night before and he tried to spend more time getting better acquainted with the rest of the team. Prysm’s mom took her home early, (something about loose women in tights being a bad influence…) Steel was lights out at 9 o’clock, Looker said something about beauty rest, Power Girl was next and not too far behind, (though she someone said they saw her fly away not too long after, she’s weird like that) Mr. Miracle still wasn’t back from his “training” at the county prison, Vapor fell asleep on the couch too but was gone in the morning along with Harry, Booster… well if Booster DID sleep or leave it would be news to everyone in the room.

Harry looks up again, wipes his nose and asks again, “Do either of you know the mission then?”

“Didn’t either of you two read the file we received on your team email account?”

The two look at the floor and there eyes avoid Steel’s stern gaze like it was Power Girl’s chest. And last time Booster looked at Power Girls chest she smacked him out the window and into the ocean that Powers Towers overlooks.

Booster raises an eyebrow to the question and shrugs, “You check that?”

“We were to track down the entity known only as Mr. MacGuffin with the aid of this map and the car in the garage.”

“Yeah whatever, will you shut up so I can watch this.” Booster says with his interest meter broken off and raising the volume of the already pretty loud T.V.

”What’s Mr. MacGuffin Hank?”

“That’s the thing, Harold, we have no idea.” Steel zones out and looks up away from his partners.“This very well may be our most dangerous mission yet.”

“And where is everyone else?” Harry asks, since the night before, the team had been together but this morning the ranks had reduced to three.

“Power Girl is on a personal assignment, Looker is doing tapings for her television program, Prysm is attending classes, Mr. Miracle is still in his training-”

“You mean locked up.” Booster chuckles from outside the conversation and raises the volume more again. Seventy five percent away from the left edge of the T.V.

“He’s in prison yes, anyhow, Plastic Man is on a temporary leave of absence after what happened on the last outing, and Vapor is-”

“Out of town right?” Harry chimes in and the others shoot him a “What? She said last night remember?”

“Correct, so our mission is to go out and receive or detain or impede on the plans of Mr. MacGuffin, no matter what obstacles lie in our path.”

Suddenly the television turns and Booster throws the remote onto the table, “So anyways are we gonna get going or what I don’t have all day.”

I memorised the layout of the building. A photographic memory and an inquisitive mind seem to go hand in hand to make my life easier. Left would take me to the canteen, right would take me to the offices, and there’s no way I’m getting out of here through here. This was a mistake, I should have thought it through. Big bad corporations installing super powered teams to gain public credit, only to turn around and bite society in the ass… This is getting worse and worse as I think it through. Secret societies, tax evasion, alien abduction to fund it all…

I shudder to think of the true reasoning behind Josiah Power’s power play.

The Question holds onto his hat as he sprints through the canteen, turning heads as he goes, and smiling beneath his mask as their gaze meets him. Sitting alone in the corner is another one of Power’s soldiers, a burly man, red blue and white costume, all American, powerful… He stands up abruptly as Vic passes, and gives chase.

“You’re not supposed to be here… You’re meant to be in Hub City… I know about you!”

Vic smiles to himself. This one was educated. This one knew things. This one could read… Was Josiah educating the empowered ones now? He runs around another corner and stumbles to a halt. He’d become too enraptured with his thoughts that he’d forgotten to watch where he was going. Dead end!

“You’re The Question. Urban legend. Conspiracy theorist. Sighted in Gotham, Keystone, Metropolis, but mainly in Hub City, but you have been missing for quite some time.” Steel smiles.

“With a face like this, I thought it time to lay low for a while.” Vic smiles beneath his mask, motioning down his sleek face with his gloved hand.

Steel smiles. “That’s a mask. You couldn’t survive without a mouth, nose, eyes etc. A highly sophisticated mask that is bonded to your skin… I’m assuming by aerosol.”

Vic smiles. This was making him giggle. “You don’t know anything. I could be anyone beneath here, I could be a woman, a man, both, and you’re just a wannabe soldier with a hard on for upholding the peace. I read too, Steel, I know everything about you. I know that Booster Gold hasn’t got a driving license, I know that you are the pet project of your granddad, and I know about your history, your present, your future, everything…”

Steel squints slightly. “Are you… Are you intoxicated?”

Vic stands up straight for a moment.

“Excuse me?”

“Past, present, future, whatever… You’re not serious, are you? You must be on something.”

The Question puts his hand to his heart. “I… I feel slightly offended by that remark.”

Steel shrugs. “I’m sorry, sir… But you strike me as someone who is gone in the head…”

Vic nods. “Yes, yes, it’s been said… I’ve come to terms with all that though. That’s in my past.”

“Ok, good for you. We all need to overcome our troubles and move on.”
Vic pats Steel on the shoulder. “I’m sorry about this, it’s just been a big misunderstanding.”

“Sure, Question, sure… You’re always welcome here, if you want to pop in…”

“Thanks, Heywood.” The Question strolls away from the hero and whistles to himself.

“Excuse me, Question?” Vic turns, and is punched straight through a window, and flies into the ocean below. “The name is Steel.” He dusts off his costume and nods. “Threat removed and now to continue with our mission?”

Booster and Harry run into the room and catch their friend punch the masked invader through the window, look at each other wide eyed and slowly follow their teammate to the Powers, Inc. Garage.

The punch didn’t hurt. It was the landing. She rips through wall after wall, hopscotching across the ground until –

“OOF!

She flies through the wall, dust and debris flying everywhere as she rolls to the floor. Her cape is in shreds, her nose bleeding, and as she looks up to view her attacker, she sighs.

She’s going to be late for work at this rate.

A massive metal pincer crashes through what’s left of the wall, and grabs her round the waist, jerking her up through the ceiling and into the fresh air outside. The thing had hit her unawares, sent her flying half away across the city, and caused her to crash into a small shop near the beach, and as the metal claw raises her up, she sees her enemy at last. It’s a massive robot, all angles and squares, a real retro look on its architecture.

Power Girl has seen robots before, the smooth humanoid type, somewhere in her past, but this… This was a throwback. She winds back her fist and connects hard with the pincer, causing a crack to rush through the arm and joints, and suddenly releasing her into freefall. She lands gently to the floor, and flies up, hitting the device hard in the chin, causing it to sputter back, smoke being released from its mouth. She smiles, cracks her knuckles and presses her attack, punch after punch connecting with it, dents and fractures ripping throughout it, until she cocks back her hand, dives forward, and punches it into the sea with a massive splash. She speeds over to its location, lands on its chest panel and brushes off the dust on the centre. Karen frowns as she pats her hands together to remove the dirt, and she stares down at the swastika, confused.

Swastika. Robot. Giant robot… Who thinks this stuff up?

She looks around, sees a police boat approaching and flies back to the shop she crashed into. The shopkeeper rushes out, his dark hair covered in dust, his face red. “You crashed into my shop! You ruin half my stock! Who’s going to pay for-”

Power Girl smiles.

“First off… I’m up here.” He points from her chest to her eyes. “Secondly… Here you go.” He passes her a card from her belt, and then salutes flying off.

“Josiah Power? Who the hell’s that, her Dad?” The shopkeeper shakes his head, and returns to the rubble of his shop, taking out a cigarette from his pocket.

The sea is cold, and it keeps me alert. The big corporation. Mind control, hallucigens, all linked to this epidemic of crime that has spread across the country. Those three, all prime examples of what’s wrong with the world today. An overreliance on super enforcers to a world order of the big brand control. McDonalds will be providers of defense contracts, specialising in germ warfare… Nike will provide tires… I’m surprised I’m still the only one who sees all this coming but that…

Vic rubs his jaw. “Should have seen that coming.” He walks out of the sea and rolls his neck. “Treated like a guest star…”

But first!--- An afterword by Charles HoM...

Ah, Powers Inc, Ramon’s fan favourite, small time, bi-monthly, rip-off-of-Justice-League-And-The-Power-Company, soon to be a motion picture and spawning a plethora of cash draining merchandise and all round hilarious team book. It’s some good stuff, I tell you, and this guy, Mr Villalobos, he’s a talented critter. He uses pop culture and things that wouldn’t occur to the sane mind to weave a story that is clever, witty and up to date. He spoofs and satires things, twisting institutions on their heads to create one hell of a book. Powers Inc. is satire at it’s best, because it doesn’t take itself too seriously! Sure you can read deeply into it, see each character as a personification of Ramon’s Id, Ego and Superego, but that would be kind of ridiculous. I mean, I can see where you’re coming from, Airwave being Ramon’s Superego, his restraint towards reality, and hindering Steel, his Ego, the most in touch the most with reality and making the most of everything that occurs. And finally, the Id, Booster Gold, who demands immediate satisfaction of his primal needs… *nudge nudge* But that would be stupid to say, because Ramon chose characters that he could shape into whatever served his purpose to make the story funny… “Uh oh, where’s my watch? Oh it’s on my hand!” oh the hilarity of the situation. Haha. The Airwave that we know from the DCU has a habit of being captured and being blown into bits! God Ramon… You’ve given a one-dimensional character FACETS? How dare you? That’s like me taking Joey from Adventures of Superman making him a worthy protagonist… Wait, what? What was that? You’ll see. You’ll all see.

In conclusion to this introspective (bwhahahahaha!) insight into Powers Inc, I can basically sum up my thoughts about the writer by comparing him to Warren Ellis. Yes yes, not a very talented Warren Ellis, but a writer akin to him in style, not quality. I mean, have you read Nextwave? Powers Inc is the DC2’s Nextwave! And any other idea, just think about it… Any idea that Ramon has, please compare it to something that Warren Ellis has done. Violent, disgusting… If Ramon is the Warren Ellis of the site, then who are the rest of us?