TOC Part 18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JOURNAL ENTRY #19
OCTOBER, 1996 TO
JANUARY, 1997
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You know, I seem to be skimming more the further I get through our history. I guess it's because things seemed so much more important back when we were first starting. They left much deeper impressions. Some things stand out, like those long moments sitting in green fog, watching every breath intently, shining my little light, hoping, praying that somehow it would make a difference, that it would be enough. Other things, they just became too normal to be remarkable. When three very popular and very
American celebrities turning out to be unfrozen Nazi spies becomes just another thing that happened some week or other, it really takes a lot for something to be memorable.
So what did happen during those late months of 1996? Lois and Clark got married. The real ceremony was very private, which wasn't surprising, given that someone calling herself "The Wedding Destroyer" had set her sights on our favorite couple. Still, we were given the privilege of bearing silent witness to the event. The details of it, I'm afraid, will have to be left to your imagination. Like I said, it was private.
Their honeymoon presumably went well. We didn't come close to it, of course. We turned the sensors in their apartments completely off, so there'd be no chance of accidents. We were a little worried when they showed up at the Planet acting strangely, but everything seemed fine when they left. We checked with the computer, just to be on the safe side, and were assured that everything was going according to recorded history.
There was more run-of-the-mill stuff. A machine capable of transferring life energy from one person to another. A new holographic technology (not developed from Wells's equipment — we checked that very carefully). The Quantum Disbander, a military prototype based off of Luthor's Quantum Disruptor (Col. Cash had been arrested, but there were others who shared his views). Little things in need of sweeping up.
Something happened that Christmas, but we're still not entirely sure what it was. It just seemed like a long and depressing day. Lois and Clark had something to do with getting it fixed, but that's about all we're sure of. None of our records from that day make any sense.
In the meantime, we'd been working on a way to break into Cadmus HQ. They were working on something big. We knew that much. We thought it might have something to do with cloning, since Dr. Leek and Dr. Mamba (who had been broken out of jail) seemed to be at the focus of it. They'd even stepped down Intergang's operations (well, we'd had something to do with that, too, in our own quiet way, gathering enough information to seriously hinder their major operations, sometimes directly, sometimes by tipping off the right people). They were being extremely careful about this operation, though. Not even Lin could get past their security.
Then, one day in January, it hit me. Literally. I was just out walking in the street when a white furry ball fell out of the sky with enough force to knock the wind out of me.
"Sorry," it squeaked.
I did a double take, thinking that I must have been hit harder than I'd realized. Rats did not generally talk. Then again, rats did not generally fall out of the sky at high speed, either. Not even in the city. I sat up.
The rat shook its little head. "I don't know what's gotten into me lately," it said.
I looked very closely. Its mouth had not moved. Come to think of it, the words had felt a little strange in my head. After a moment, I was sure. I hadn't heard them. They'd been put directly into my mind. "Who or what are you?"
The rat shook itself again, then looked up at me, as if consciously realizing for the first time that I was there. "Don't mind me. I'm not here. I'll just be going..."
"No, wait!" I called out, though I wasn't sure why. It just seemed like the thing to do. It was hard to think clearly. The voice in my head, I realized, wasn't really speaking in words. There were just ideas that were coming across, and my mind was turning them into words. "Please, tell me. Who are you? Where did you come from?"
Images flooded my brain. It took me a few minutes to sort them out. The rat in my lap had been part of some experiment. It — or, I should say, she — had been hit with some kind of lightning or something. Suddenly, she had found itself with strange abilities. Her mind was faster. Her memory was perfect. She had a much greater awareness. There was more, too. She could fly. She could fly
very fast. She was strong. She couldn't be hurt. In short (although she didn't realize it), she had gotten all of Superman's powers. Later, I traced this to about the time when Alan's brother, Walldecker, had gained and lost those same powers. Powers which, it seemed, included limited telepathy.
At first, she hadn't done much with her new powers. She hadn't really known what to do with them. Then something had fallen out of the sky and hit her. She'd turned to find herself facing one of the deadliest predators known to ratkind. A predator of the same type as the one — perhaps it even was the same individual — who had killed her parents. She'd fought it off, surprised at how easy it was.
It was a key moment for her. After that fateful battle, she had dedicated herself (in her non-food-hunting time) to fighting off others of its kind and to protecting her fellows. She had become, in short, not just a rat, but a superhero. Doing so had earned her a new name in the rodent community — Hawk Master.
The name sent a shock through me. It was the name Wells had let slip way back in the beginning, saying that "he" would be the key to our most important case. We'd speculated about the identity of the mysterious Hawk Master from time to time, talking about it over dinner or during long stretches of monitor duty. None of us had had a single clue. Now, she'd dropped herself right into my lap.
We were never quite sure what had caused the accident in the first place, but it always seemed suspicious that it was right around the same time that a piece of Red Kryptonite had surfaced, causing Superman to lose control of his powers.
In any case, I convinced Hawk Master to come down to the sewers with me and meet the rest of the Shadows. It wasn't easy, given species barriers, but somehow I got the sense across that it was important.
They were stunned, of course. The whole thing was strange and unexpected, even for us. Phillip was the first to recover, and the first to realize what our new member represented. She was small, extremely fast, had a perfect memory, could project thoughts and images telepathically, and, if noticed, looked completely unremarkable, like just another city rat. She was, in short, the perfect spy. She would be able to get into Cadmus HQ, look around, and come back with a detailed report of what she'd seen. She really was the key to what could quite possibly be our most important mission.
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