Medea<br/>Alley of Quincy's<br/>Early Morning<br/><br/>I don't have time to answer her questions immediately, as we arrive at the scene of carnage.  It looks inhuman, and it might be inhuman.  When she points out the one who caused it, my heart jumps into my throat.  It IS him.  "Don't make any sudden or threatening moves towards him, Hellion.  He might react badly."  It answers part of one of her questions.  The Valkyrie Files are supposed to be locked and sealed, and all traces of them erased.  He's one of the traces that didn't get erased....and I can guess why, looking at all the damage he's caused.  Damn these people for thinking they could purposefully make another Doc Manhattan or Ozymandias!<br/><br/>Helping remove the dead body - and they never do tell you how much of a mess they are in the movies, do they? - is one of those chores I really have no love for.  But then he's tumbled out, and this poor bastard is in.  I pitch my voice very carefully to be the sweetest, most soothing it can be.  "Do not be afraid, brave warrior; you may rest easy in our care."  I don't touch him; he might be too dangerous for that, as sedate and semi-conscious as he seems.<br/><br/>I slide into the car next to Hellion and sigh softly, tucking the vial of potent narcoleptizine into my utility belt as I fasten the seat belt.  No need for it now, and in a vehicle it would gas me as well.  "He's the product of a little known government project to design a perfect soldier.  It failed miserably, except in one particular instance, mostly because the soldiers turned on themselves and everyone around them like mad animals.  the exception didn't turn on everyone - only the ones who tried to keep him confined.  He escaped, and...well, you've seen what he does.  He's uncontrollable, but more importantly, he's uncontainable.  So they cover up behind them as best they can."  On the other hand, I have a few advantages; ifI'm very careful, I might be able to get through to him.<br/><br/>"i use the crystals to hypnotize people.  I don't need them - there are dozens of ways i can take your conscious mind and gently suppress it.  But they're flashy and attractive, and no one ever thinks of them as weapons, since they aren't.  The people I deal with aren't typical street thugs or gunmen; I deal with a higher level of crime, in the governments and the corporations."  I glance back at the poor devil behind us.  "I try and keep things like this from happening before they start."<br/><br/>Leaning back, I watch the rain spatter along the windshield, the moisture seeping in through the cracks.  "I'm here because I need to find the person who killed Edward Blake - the Comedian.  Not for justice, but because there is something very personal that he knew that I can't really let become public.  If people find out about it, there will be a second visitation of the Keene's law, or worse, more riots."  Not to mention the mess it would make out of someone's life.  That's the one thing that pushes me onwards.  "It might be as simple as finding out that the killer doesn't know....in which case, he's all yours, or Rorsharch's, or...well, whomever.  If he does know....then he won't know for very long."<br/><br/>It's not easy to utterly wipe a bit of knowledge from someone's mind, but with drugs and skill, you can make it impossible to access.  I don't even need the drugs, anymore.  But first I have to find the murderer.  "It's possible he could have killed the Comedian," I say, glancing back at the moaning heap in the back seat.  "But finding out is not going to be easy - or very safe."