Unsanctioned

The Interview Files 2.1 [Carrie Louise Lynch. Alias: Catharsis]

I am hardly the best at understanding others, but that is fine, as nobody can really understand me.  I am a person who lives in a world full of duality, but with people that like to pretend they can see shades that don’t exist between the black and the white.  Wrong is wrong and right is right, and until people understand the difference I cannot let this city keep dreaming.  My name is Carrie Lynch.  I let newspapers interview me after I solved the first problem in this city, they said I seemed to be doing this for some kind of catharsis and the word stuck.  But I looked it up; it doesn’t mean anything like what I do this for: the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions.  I’m not emotional, in fact it seems like I’m the only one in this city who isn’t letting mine fill up the air like some kind of choking gas.  I can smell it, and taste it.

Sometimes I just have to shut it all out.

When I was born, I seemed ordinary.  I learned to walk and talk very quickly.  I was prodigal.  Naturally, people thought something was wrong and I suppose technically speaking they were right.  Autism is what they said - high functioning.  At the time I didn’t understand exactly what was wrong from the symptoms.  Parents don’t like flaws in their children, though; they like to make their trophies perfect.  I think that was why they paid for the experimental treatment.  I went into the surgical theatre a little confused and came out even more so.

I felt something nagging at me, some sense, like hearing but without any sound.  I couldn’t hear anything, but I knew it was there, it made my thoughts conjure the same measurements as hearing: volume, tone.  But the tone wasn’t something I was used to, it wasn’t high or low.  It was left or right.  Actually for the most part, it seemed to be toward one end of the scale without much variation.  I still wanted out.  I told my parents to let me out, but the people in the hospital told me to stay.  I waited until I was left alone in the room and then broke out.  I wasn’t staying with that noise. The corridor was empty, but I still tried to sneak like from a spy movie.  I got out of the recovery ward and that’s when the trouble started.

It got louder.

I thought it was the same sound, first, but it wasn’t.  It was at the other end of the scale, it swung in my head, left, bad, negative, something abstract.  It hurt my head, it invaded and tried to make me understand but I couldn’t.  I collapsed next to a mourning family who had just been told that their daughter didn’t survive the surgery.  I was washed over by the sound of them.  I hated it; I wanted it to shut up.  I curled, slower than usual, I felt heavy.  I wished I was made of stone.  I looked down, and somehow, I was.

(Source: grandsanction.wordpress.com)

The Interview Files 1.1 [Alberto Richard Ferrin. Alias: Gauss]

There’s maybe six gangs on the East side of Gran San.  I’m not tellin’ you ‘cause I figure on showing off my street knowledge, but anything that aint one of those six is either kids playin’ games or belongs to one of the six.  My name’s Al Ferrin, twenty three, leader of The Word, least of the six but we make do.  I’m tellin’ you this ‘cause if you run into me or mi cadre, we don’t mean you no ills.  If you’re a respectable citizen hell we’d give you the time of day and let you keep your wallet.  We’re just interested in survivin’, and cleaning up the filth that pretends to be respectable.  I used to live outta town.  In fact, ‘til I was sixteen I weren’t figurin’ on comin’ back to Gran San ever.  My parents were gonna send me to military school and I don’t think you need tellin’ that I weren’t ready for that kinda authority.  I came back because I got gave a gift, and I figured I’d come back here to good ol’ G.S. and fix some shit.  You wanna know what I got that’s gonna clear up the stink on these blocks?

Lemme tell you ‘bout the night I died.

I died in my sleep.  I guess people don’t expect you to know when you die, I didn’t figure it out until about ten minutes after I woke up.  I’d been living on the streets for years, so sleepin’ in dangerous places was hardly new to me, but wakin’ up in total darkness and feelin’ like I was a bar of chocolate in the freezer was new.  I started beating at the inside of my box until someone let me out.  I slid upwards and then the guy screamed like he saw a ghost.

“The fuck am I doin’ in here?” I asked, sitting up.  I was practically naked.  I glared at the guy, some doctor, and he mumbled some disbelief or shit as he fell over some metal tables.  I was in a morgue.  “Whose idea of a joke is this?”
“You were dead!” he screamed.
“Well obviously not shitforbrains.  Where the fuck are my clothes?” I held the stupid thin white sheet up to cover me as I stood.  He was tryin’ to escape, and I weren’t havin’ none of that, so I chased him across the room.  He turned on me when he got to his desk and jammed somethin’ into my gut and pressed on it.  Somethin’ tickled, looked like a taser or some shit.  I grabbed his hand and twisted and then pinned the fucker to the wall.  “You aint too good at answering questions, doc.  How’d you pass med school?”
“Please don’t kill me,” he begged.  I laughed, grabbed the taser and threw it aside.  My skin wasn’t tingly where he got me with it anymore, but I didn’t feel so cold.
“Just tell me where my clothes are at and who set this up, I’ll kill them.” I let him go and he crumpled.

“Your… your belongings are upstairs in holding, but I… I checked your pulse, you were dead!”  I was getting’ pissed at how insistent this guy was.  I grabbed him by the neck and pinned him, flushing with anger as I pinned him to the wall.
“I.  Aint.  Dead.”  I felt my hand tingle, and I saw him twitch for a second before he went limp.  I wasn’t holdin’ him near hard enough to choke him out, and I looked at the taser on the floor.  I aint mega smart but I figured that had to be where the shock came from, like I was some kinda electric’ly delayed freak.  “Shi~it,” I grabbed the taser and made my way out to get my gear.

Let me tell you, getting’ your clothes back from the hospital when they’re sure as shit you’ve been dead for three days aint easy.  Sorry sir, it’s not funny pretending to be the dead.  That’s what she said.  I ended up having to break into the lockup to get my clothes.  My knife wasn’t there, somethin’ I’d need to fix quick if I was gonna get back out on the streets.  And what was stealin’ compared to the rest of my record, anyway?  I thought about that a bit.  Then I went and checked back at the desk, fully dressed, past some statue that I didn’t think had been there before.

“I’m afraid Alberto Ferrin is no longer with us.  Are you a friend?”

I had no criminal record.  I was a clean slate without a name or place in the world.  I spent an hour walking around on the streets confused as all hell.  I don’t remember how I was so out of focus, but I wound up walkin’ right into ganger territory.  Now back then I was just a street kid.  Walkin’ into ganger territory was an invitation to get mugged.  I was by a Chinese takeaway when I noticed these three fuckers followin’ me.  I turned off down an alley but now I kinda knew they had me.  They knew this area – their area.  I turned around instead, facin’ ‘em.  One was walkin’ up casual as you like, knife in his hand.

“Looks like some bumside fucker don’t know his place, guys.”  He circled me.  I had my hand on the taser, just in case.  I could take three.  Their strength was in numbers, they probably had homes and shit.  Their clothes were too clean.  They didn’t live the life, they played with it.  I turned and tasered the shit who was behind me while he was in the middle of another taunt, the others practically shat themselves.

“I cook fuckers like him for dinner.  You boys get it?  Go run to your boss.”  The streets were shit places for people to live, made more shit by fuckers like this trying to pretend like the streets were for them.  But they aint.  The streets are between them.  Those two kids ran, and I stole the other guy’s knife and waited ‘til he woke up.  Whoever this gang was, they were pissing me off.  I prodded him with the taser again and then tried it on myself.  It sparked up and tickled me.  I really was weird.  I spent the wait trying to force the electricity back out.  After a while, I got a spark to show up between two fingers.

“Mornin’ kid.”  The other boy was stirring.  He was probably about the same age as me, but I’ve always looked a little older.  He looked up at me shitscared.
“How’d you knock me out?” he said, shifting away from me along the floor as I flicked the knife around in my hand.  Electricity arced after the switchblade, and I looked at him, grinning.
“I’m a human taser.  When you get back, tell your boss that I can’t be touched, that I can knock any man down with my mind.  Clear?”
“C-clear!” he was shuffling faster, so I walked over to him and stood on his foot.  He let out a yelp.  “I can’t tell ‘im if you don’t let me go!”
“Tell ‘im when you wake up.”  I put my fingers on his forehead and sparked up, and the shit fell over spasming.  It was fucking hilarious if I’m honest.  It felt good being the strongest on the streets, it felt good being bossy.  But mostly it felt good putting down the shits that made my life a misery before I got that weird power.  I felt a little warm, like I’d been standing next to an oven, so I decided I would go find somewhere to cool off and figure out what I was gonna do with my new life.  I chose a bench in a park, tasered myself as I thought about it until the battery was dry, then tossed the little black box aside and thought some more.  Eventually I made a decision.  If I had some kind of superpower then why not try becoming a superhero?  If they could do it in comics, then a street-savvy kid like me ought to be able to find where all the corruption was at.  I’d need allies and a base.  I’d need to charge up, too.  Just tasering people wouldn’t be enough.  I’d need a light show.  I concentrated a bit, holding my hands apart, and eventually a massive bolt arced between the two.  It was doable.

I was going to take over a gang and clean up Grand Sanction.

(Source: grandsanction.wordpress.com)