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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:20:57 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:22:13 GMT -5
The Flash
Issue 3: "Time Flies: A Conversation with my Predecessor..."
Written by Charles HoM
Cover by Charles HoM
Edited by Brandon Herren |
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:37:06 GMT -5
“I didn’t… I didn’t… I didn’t kill them!”
James jerks up in his cot, and looks around the dull cell in the Iron Heights penitentiary. He checks the date, smiles slightly, then falls back onto his bed, and frowns, a tear slowly forming in his eye.
“Jesse. You’re free to go.” Stirk smiles at the door of his cell, and unlocks it himself. “Good luck on the outside.” He laughs slightly, and then opens the door.
James Jesse walks out of Iron Heights’ prison, to the screams of the protesters outside.
“He killed our children!”
“I didn’t… I didn’t… I didn’t kill them!”
James Jesse, formerly known as Giovanni Giuseppe, jerks up in his cot, tears streaming down his eyes.
The guard rattles his baton against the bars of the cell, and smiles sinisterly. “Giuseppe! Get dressed! You’re getting out!” He unlocks the cell door, and waits.
Jesse shakes his head slowly. “I… don’t deserve to be out of this place…”
“Some judge thinks otherwise. Now move it!”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:37:42 GMT -5
“You’re… You’re The Flash!” Barry stumbles back, into the wall.
“And you’ve taken my name.” The Flash of the 40s motions forward. “I want to know who you are, and why guys in parkas are coming after me.” He clenches his fist. “I’m supposed to be retired! I don’t appreciate ‘Captain Colds’ coming after me! I’m assuming he’s one of your guys…” He relaxes slightly, a wave of realisation hitting him. “God… I’m sorry… I’m just having a bad day, you know? I know you know because you’ve obviously had a bad one too, by the looks of you…” He smiles slightly. “Anyway, it looks as if you’re a nice, trustworthy guy, I’m Jay Garrick. And you are?”
“B-Barry Allen…” Barry pauses for a moment and then puts his hand to his mouth. “I…Uh. Damn.” Jay nods slightly.
“Well… I was saying that jokingly… But if you want to entrust me with your secret identity, I’m easy. I have enough to remember… Wildcat… Green Lantern… The gosh damn Spectre… heh…” He looks around. “Do you want to go somewhere? Somewhere we can talk?”
“Any thoughts, sir?” Barry helps himself up and then looks at the man who inspired him.
The man scratches his greying hairs, and then tips his hat down slightly. “I have one or two. Try and keep up, eh?” He runs, and a trail of dust and lightning appears after him. I slow my perceptions, and follow his lead, and to my surprise… I out pace him. I look over to him, and he gives me a tip of his hat, and then accelerates off, before coming to a stop god knows where. He looks around, smiles slightly, and sits down in the stands of a football ground.
“This… This is where I used to study.” He motions towards the complex across the parking lot, and takes a deep breath. “And where I gained my powers…”
Barry looks around. “Here? How?”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:38:17 GMT -5
1937.
“Lead foot! Lead foot!” The crowd chants. I look around, and see their mocking faces, hear their belittling tones. I shake them off, and I run. But, as always, I run too slow, not enough pace, not enough stamina… I’m outpaced, miss the pass, and I hear Coach throw his clipboard at the ground and tear off his cap in rage. “Get him off! NOW!” Jay Garrick shakes his head and unbuckles his helmet, and walks into the changing rooms, much to the delight of his team mates. He removes his uniform and goes into the shower, leaning against the wall as the water sprays down onto his head.
“Never again.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:38:37 GMT -5
“Lead foot? They called you ‘Lead Foot’? YOU?” Barry smiles slightly, confused at this little revelation.
“Yup, son. Lead foot. I wasn’t the best football player on the team… But let me finish my story, ok?”
“Sorry.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:39:15 GMT -5
I go back to the labs. My second home. And as always, working away at the equipment, was my mentor, Edward Clariss.
“Hey, Professor.”
Clariss turns, smiling. “The game over already? Or…”
“I think you know why I’m here, sir.
Edward nods slowly and smiles. “You got taken off… Hmm. I wonder why you even bother with all this… Sports are not especially your strong suit, no?”
“My dad…”
“Ah yes… Pressure from your parents. I understand. Now don’t just stand there, get your lab coat on, and help me with this!” Clariss smiles and passes me a rack full of test tubes, which I place beside me.
“What we working on today, sir?”
“I think we’ve made some headway into the hard water formula, but to test it… that would be another thing, son…” He scribbles down more notes, and then shakes his head, smiling. “Never mind. We have from now to eternity! Science waits for no man…” He wipes his brow and places down the notes, and I go over and examine what he’s done.
“Sir… This is amazing… You’ve isolated the formula… There seems to be something missing… Something…” Clariss turns and glares at me for a moment, and I almost feel as if he’s going to lunge at me or something, but no, he smiles that smile of his, and returns to mixing some chemicals.
“I obviously know that there’s something missing there, Jason…” He shakes his head again, and I see his knuckles go white as he clutches the test tube. The stress of all this… It must be getting to him…
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:39:43 GMT -5
“Clariss? Do I know that name? It’s… I recognise it…” Barry shakes his head, wearily.
“He’s integral to this story. You should come to know his name well, Barry. He is the first of our… reverses.” Jay removes his silver hat and places it beside him, scratching his head slightly. “Reverses. Indeed…”
“I don’t understand.”
“Then I’ll continue, Barry.” He passes a soda to Barry who looks down in surprise. “Here. I got some refreshments.” Barry laughs and takes a sip from his cup.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:40:07 GMT -5
The day passes quickly. Clariss goes home, still struggling to discover the secret component to the hard water formula, but I stay, experimenting with samples I have developed, a side project that is intertwined with the hard water concept.
And I have a break through that very night.
I work out that… For the hard water to be successful, Clariss needs to add electricity! A high voltage to electrolyse the molecules, causing them to vibrate, and give off energy, causing a brand new source of energy! I hurriedly organise the equipment, create a sample of what Clariss was developing, and then…
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:40:34 GMT -5
“Then? Then?” Barry taps his leg with his finger in excitement, and then stops suddenly, embarrassed. “Sorry… But can I just say something?”
Jay rolls his eyes, and smiles. “Of course…”
“You were quite impulsive, weren’t you? You made a break through… And then set up an experiment without thinking anything through?”
“Really? How would you know?”
Barry smiles sheepishly and shrugs his shoulders. “Police scientist…”
“Eh heh… Science is always… An equation… in our lives, eh?”
“Please Mr Garrick, continue…”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:41:02 GMT -5
I set off a chain reaction in the molecules. I wasn’t thinking, for sure… But the excitement over took me, and that was my mistake. I was caught in an explosion, and was knocked into a wall, which basically, is the official story of why I was in a coma for five weeks. The hard water solution splashed all over me, and the electrical current passed from the water molecules into MY body, causing my molecules to undergo a major change, which shut down all my unnecessary body functions whilst doing so. Like being awake… Quite unnecessary… Anyway, I was in hospital for a month and a week, while my body underwent a major change… My muscles didn’t begin to atrophy through lack of use, but they in fact strengthened in my body, my bone structure hardened, my skin got thicker… Not to prevent injury as such, but to enable me to run…
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:41:25 GMT -5
“At great speeds! That’s how you got your powers? No lightning bolts to the chest? No skin being burnt off then re-growing? Just a coma?” Barry slaps his head laughing. “I’m sorry, but you got off easy…” He thinks it through, then nods. “Yup, easy. I was struck by lightning in my laboratory, and it burnt me to a crisp. And I FELT it. But then my body knit itself back together, and I felt that to. You have no idea how excruciating that was…”
“Are you trying to outdo me on origins, Barry?” Jay bursts out laughing and slaps his knee. “Oh boy. I’m a member of the Justice Society of America, son! I have teammates whose origin would wipe the floor with yours! But no, come on… Let me finish…”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:41:55 GMT -5
I awaken weeks later, and the doctors are totally surprised. They thought I was never going to wake up, I was totally unresponsive, etc. But lo and behold, here I stand, alive as ever. So I wake up, and the first face I see is Clariss. And he’s angry.
“WHAT DID YOU DO GARRICK?! I HAD THIS DONE! THE FORMULA WAS DONE! WHAT DID YOU DO?”
“I… I finished the formula sir… I knew what had to be done… Like a flash in my mind… I completed the formula…”
“NO! I DID!” Clariss storms out the room, his knuckles white, mumbling to himself. My dad arrives next, and near starts to cry. “You… Jay my boy! You’re alive!” He hugged my harder than I’d ever been hugged by him, and then when mom and Joan walked in…
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:42:18 GMT -5
“Joan?”
“My wife. Well… She wasn’t then… She was someone I was always trying to impress… And I guess it worked, eh?” Jay rubs his knuckles and looks up, a distant look on his face. He smiles and nods. “Anyways…”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:42:41 GMT -5
I was examined by the a number of experienced doctors, who then proceeded to give me the all clear, even though they were a bit confused by the increase of muscle mass over my body, but hey, they let it go... I returned to school a week or so later, but was banned from the laboratories (I was dangerous, or something like that, I don’t know), so, with little or nothing to do, I returned to the one place I wasn’t welcome, for the last game of the season against the Ivy Town Leaguers. I was on the bench, as per usual, but when all our other subs were used, and there were no other players left, I had to go on. And what an impression did I make! I was running my fastest, well… What I thought was my fastest, and then I was outside the stadium. Went through a wall and everything. Here’s me, outside the school, and the game still going on, no one noticing my absence… So I put aside my terror and surprise, and sprint back, once again, between blinks. I’m just in time to receive a high pass, and then every one of their players is on me. I nearly wet myself. But then… As I watched… Everyone was slower, their movements heavy and obvious. I easily dodged between them, and scored the winning touchdown for the school. I was a hero, and no one cared to ask me HOW I got so fast. But I knew.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:42:59 GMT -5
“The formula that Clariss and you made?” Barry strains his brain for a moment. “That gave you your speed… A formula…”
“We can’t all be struck by lightning, Barry.” Jay rolls his eyes and polishes his hat with his red sleeve.
“I was doused in chemicals before hand… I never thought before… But… Maybe the reaction of the chemicals and the electricity did it? Like you? The electricity… Or the chemicals… were the catalyst for something greater? Something bigger?”
“Hmm. What chemicals?”
“Nothing that would… Logically… Explain what happened… But I think… In any other day… I think I would have died. The chemicals were deadly. Poisons and such that we use to compare in the lab… I don’t know…” Barry’s voice trails off.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:43:22 GMT -5
I never played football again. I knew what had happened! I knew! The accident had given me powers. Super speed. My body had adapted during my coma so that these powers wouldn’t hurt me when I used them… This was all in theory though… I only proved what had happened to me later on in life, with the help of someone you will meet someday. Richard Hunter.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:43:38 GMT -5
“Richard Hunter? The scientist from Hub City?”
“One and the same. But I shouldn’t tell you anymore. Forget what I said, because right now, I want to finish my story…” Jay motions his head towards the bottom of the stands in which they are sitting, and see a crowd slowly gathering.
“Continue then.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:44:09 GMT -5
I created a friction proof material, something that I had been developing for train wheels, something to make them go faster… But then I realised they’d just slip down the tracks, so I shelved it. So when I had this idea of becoming a big shot celebrity, someone for kids to look up to, I thought ‘Hey, I need a costume.’ So I made one. Even made myself a flashy helmet so you couldn’t see my eyes.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:44:29 GMT -5
“Iconic.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re whole costume… It’s iconic… It inspired me to take up the name of The Flash…”
“Yet you don’t have a silver big ol’ hat?”
“I’m going for the streamlined look, sir…” The two burst out laughing, and then Jay looks down to his sleeve, a small man tugging on the red material.
“Excuse me, but is there a problem here? You’ve just been sitting there for about an hour, and I was wondering if there was a reason for it.”
Jay smiles. “I am recounting my origin to The Flash here.”
“Aren’t you… You look really familiar… My pa once showed me a photo from Time Magazine… Of the World War Two mystery men? Aren’t you the real Flash?” The man scratches his nose, and looks at the two red clad men.
“Yup. That I was. But this kid is the real deal now…”
“Right… Ok… I’ll just tell everyone to go home then. No problemo.” The man turns to go but Jay stops him.
“If you wait a couple more minutes, we’ll come down and sign some autographs…” The crowd below cheers loudly, causing Barry to stagger back.
“Whoa.”
“I know. You’ll get used to it someday, kid…”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:44:49 GMT -5
I became The Flash. I had based myself on this story I once read, about this guy who lived when the west was really wild. Windrunner I think his name was. Hung around with Jonah Hex and Jonny Thunder a couple of times…
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:45:06 GMT -5
“The genie guy? Jonny Thunder?”
“Different guy. Cowboy.”
“Ah… Uh… Obviously…”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:45:29 GMT -5
Yeah, Windrunner. But I didn’t want to use that name, because, well… I wanted to be my own person, so I called myself The Flash. After the big white one I saw then I got electrocuted… The Flash. I was going to make it big, but I realised… I have these powers that make me someone with real… responsibility I guess… so I became one of the first mystery men. Mystery men. I loved that term. We were like a little league of heroes… Doing good in our own cities, and making a real difference… Green Lantern, Wildcat, Atom and Wonder Woman… All those and more… All making a difference. I was this 17 year old kid running around in a red shirt with a lightning bolt on it, and fighting crime. It was the American dream! So anyway, I wanted to learn more about my powers, so I went back to the lab, and was surprised to see Clariss working away at the formula still and trying to refine the process.
“Garrick! You look much better than when I last saw you!” I look into his eyes and I see nothing but hate for me, but what happens next truly surprised me. He had palmed a syringe, and stabbed me in the arm, drawing out a sample of my blood. I pushed him back and got out of there as fast as I could, but still… I realised later what he had done.
Clariss had deduced my identity as The Flash. He knew that the accident had given me the speed powers. So he wanted his own. It was his formula to begin with, so he decided that I didn’t deserve the gift I received. It took him three weeks to refine a new formula from my blood sample. Another five to figure out electricity was needed, and then five years to come out of the coma. And when he did he was pissed.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:45:46 GMT -5
“Whoa.”
“Yeah, I know. Five years…”
“No, Jay… you swore…”
“Ha. Yeah, I sometimes, rarely, do that.” He chuckles to himself and looks over at the school, lost in his memories.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:46:05 GMT -5
He created a costume out of some of my own stolen material. Made it a darker version of mine, and then went on a violent spree of robberies.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:46:47 GMT -5
1942
“Who are you?” I run fast, trying to catch up with the man dressed in a shadowy version of my costume, his gangly frame like a scarecrow, little or no body fat covering him... He laughs manically and takes off his helmet, flinging it back at me like a Frisbee, the spinning piece of head wear cutting at my shoulder, blood trickling into the slipstream that we were running in. I pick up the pace, and start to catch up on the masked villain. “I don’t know who you are, but you shouldn’t have dressed up as me and started hurting people!” I grab his shoulder, spinning him around in the speed vortex, then smash him forward with a super accelerated fist, sending him flying forward, and coming to a stop in a brick wall. I slow down, and pick him up by his collar, and rip off his black mask. “Clariss?!”
“Hhk… Who… Who else, Garrick?” He spits blood at my face and I turn away for a moment. “Who else but the kindly college professor whom you screwed over and left for dead?” I look at him, confused at these words.
“We were both in that explosion, you and I! But you left me! Left me in that coma! I’ll kill you for it! I’ll kill you!” He waves his arms around, but I easily dodge the blows.
“Edward. Sir… You tried to… We weren’t in the same explosion… I… You’ve confused yourself…”
“Liar! Lying commie bastard…” His arms fall loosely from his sides and I look at him. This was the man who I respected more than my own father. His mind has become fractured, his brain broken into shards… Making up false truths just to satisfy his craving for power? This is not the Edward Clariss I knew. Not by a long shot. I put him down slowly and then blinked, but then I’m on the floor, my legs swept from beneath me. I look up at Clariss who smiles sinisterly. “I’ll race you then, if you believe you’re so right. Race you till the pretender runs out of juice! Then we’ll see!” He starts running, but by the time he’s gone three meters he stumbles, his limbs start to stop moving, and whatever left of his speed starts to fade. I watch as his face contorts in agony, the effects of the friction overwhelming his body, as smoke starts to spread over his exposed skin. He finally falls to the floor, his face scraping across the rubble, his body a wreck. I stand up, and look down at his decimated body. He motions to get up, his spindly body twitching.
“You… You… You… Tripped me… I can’t… Why can’t I move my legs?” He looks me in the eye. “Who… Who are you? Why can’t I… Are you the fireman? I smell burnt meat… I just…” He faints, and I tip my hat up, wiping my brow. The cut in my arm has healed, but as I turn to watch the trail of destruction we had created, I near shed a tear. This poor, deluded man had done all this damage, and now… The public had paid a price it shouldn’t. When those who are above men bring their fights down to the mere mortals… Is this what happens? I pick up the broken villain, and take him to the nearest hospital.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:47:14 GMT -5
“Whatever happened to Clariss then?” Barry is gripped by the story, as are the gathered crowds.
Jay smiles solemnly “I think that’s a story for a different time.” The crowd boo at this remark, and Barry joins in. “You really want to know?” The crowd cheer and Barry nods. “Alright then… another seven years passed, and Edward was in a coma for all of them. His mind was shattered, and the doctors thought that he would never recover. They were wrong. A war ended, the 40s were near an end, and it had been about 12 years since when I received my powers. Clariss awoke on the day I was struck by the
metaphorical lightning.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:47:52 GMT -5
1949
“AGAIN! HE DID IT TO ME AGAIN!” Edward Clariss awakens from his coma at nine twenty in the evening, sparks racking his body. He looks at his scarred hands, the wounds from the battle seven years prior not fully healed. “Putmeinthisplace?Whycan’tIthinkright?What’swrongwithmyvoice…Mybrain?” He clambers out of his bed, decapitates fifteen medical professionals who get in his way with a swipe of a superspeed arm, and heads back to Keystone for a final confrontation. He finds an old costume, and then runs to home, ready to kill any who get in his way. Before Edward reaches the building he has run through seventeen victims. By the time he reaches my home I’m outside, ready. Dressed in a costume I had hoped to take a break from to spend some time with my loved ones. With Joan.
“JayJayJayJayJayJay!I’mback!Backfromthegraveyoudugme!Backandreadythanever.IsuggestweplaycatchupoverwhatIplannedforyou laaaaaaaaaaaaast time. Race ya’.” He shoots off in a red blur, and I follow, my fists clenched. He has killed too many. Gone too far. If I have to… I’ll kill him. I’ll kill a man. He is faster than ever, faster than he had ever been. I doubt my own ability to catch up with him. As we enter the slipstream of speed I see his body ripple, unlike anything I had ever seen before. His body flickers in and out of the tunnel, but when he finally vanishes, I see him next to me, smiling wickedly. “Duck.” He punches me square in the jaw, and I swing back, not letting myself lose much speed. I keep running, and once again, am able to grab his shoulder. “Not this time, student.” He slams his elbow down on my arm, shattering it. I stumble at this, lose my pace, but I’m still on my feet, still running as fast as I can. I break my arm four times when running, and then feel everything knit back together. I heal. And I promise to myself that HE won’t. I try to catch up with him again but he’s out of reach, and I see his body loose…. Matter. He dissolves into reality, and suddenly realises what has happened. Edward Clariss, The Flash’s Rival, has ran himself out of existence. Out of reality. Literally, into the speed. He ran so fast… He became the speed.
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:48:09 GMT -5
“He became the speed?” Barry Allen breaks the lingering silence left by the conclusion of Jay’s story. “Dude… He ran himself out of… Jeez… Wow.” The crowd mutter among themselves, and then applaud fills the football field. “Shall me mingle, Flash?”
“Indeed, Flash.” The two heroes laugh and then jump down to the crowd, and start signing autographs.
Jay looks up at the sky and shakes his head. “Looks like a storm is brewing…”
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Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 22:48:38 GMT -5
“Giovanni Giuseppe, I presume.” James Jesse walks out of the penitentiary, expecting to be mauled by distraught mothers and angered fathers. Instead, a lone limousine sits waiting, and a man in a black suit, umbrella held above his head, stands in the rain, awaiting Jesse to come near. “Or do you prefer James Jesse? My employer did not make it that clear.”
“James will be fine… But who are you?”
“I am Jennings Smith. Butler and confidant to the Walker Estate… My employer, Mr Walker, would like to speak with you.”
“I’d be glad to… But I have things to do… I…”
“Mr. Jesse. Be smart. Your wife left you the first day of your trial. Your child calls another man father and you have nowhere to go, and nothing to do. Please get in the car, because if not, you’ll catch your death of cold.” Jennings opens the car door, and ushers the distraught man into the car. “Good man.”
“What does… What does Mr Walker want me for?”
“What else, Mr Jesse? To make toys!” The limousine rumbles out of the car park and
heads towards Keystone, the rain starting to pour down harder.
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