Call for Help (Sammy)

[the_next_avenger]

(Immediately following this.)

 

Joe headed down to the garage and got on his bike, kicking the engine to life. He put in his bluetooth and dialed Sammy's number, waiting for his oldest friend to answer.

"Hey, I need you. Something just happened and I need some back-up. You available?" Joe asked as he sped away from the house.

Comments

[agent_timeout]

Sammy slipped between the seconds to walk around the talk, shove the prisoner back down in his seat and his face into the table. Time resumed when she was back behind Joe.

"What would you know about his friend getting stabbed?" she asked, still in her reasonable voice. "You here in prison, with no visitors that we know of. And what are you doing here, anyway?" She tapped her neck to indicate that she referred to the collar. "You should be in the Vault. At least the Raft. Maybe the latest one that's off everyone's radar and under particular directorship."

[the_next_avenger]

Before Jason knew what was happening he was sitting down again and his face was slammed into the table. He yelled in pain and covered his nose, though when he was able, he glared daggers at Sammy.

"You might want to start talking." Joe said. "I'm the good cop. Guess what that makes her?"

Jason, for his part, smirked for the very first time.

"He said you'd come here looking for answers. Demanding them. He was right."

"Who said we would come looking for answers?" Joe demanded, grabbing him by the collar.

"Jason did. He hasn't been here in quite some time. He asked me to stand in for him because you'd be here soon. And he had a message for you: None of you are safe. None."

And then Jason Landon changed into the form of a pale-white skinned mutant with an elongated neck and long slender fingers. It looked like the TV version of an alien, with bulbous black eyes.

"Looks like you guys lose."

Joe looked at Sammy in shock. "Damn it. We've got to get the Colonel on the line."

[agent_timeout]

"Looks like Leavenworth is up for a federal review, with some SHIELD assistance. We'll get him on the line as soon as we're out of here."

She took an un-moment to slam the mutant's face into the table twice more. Once for not being Jason. Twice for being a smart ass about it. How sweet it was to be her and time walk when she didn't want to be seen.

"How long have you been in Jason's place here?" she asked. "And keep in mind I'm the bad cop and I have all the time in the world with no video proof to spend getting the answer out of you."

[the_next_avenger]

When Sammy restarted time, the mutant felt even more pain than before and his nose, such as it was, was truly broken.

"What the fuck?! Okay, okay! It's been about three months! He said if I played along, I'd get out early! All I had to do was sit and wait for this guy to show up." he said, pointing at Joe.

Joe was angry. "Where. Is. He?"

"I don't know! I haven't heard from him! You guys can't do this to me. I've got rights!" the mutant yelled.

"Crap. I should have known it was him behind this." Joe said. Then he cursed.

[agent_timeout]

"Oh no, you're a mutant found impersonating another inmate. That can automatically put you under SHIELD jurisdiction. Once I explain it to the warden and make a few calls, you'll be moved by specialists, with a nice bunk waiting in the Vault."

Sammy wagged a finger at the mutant. "It's not nice to interfere with a SHIELD investigation. It gets you noticed. And documented. And on Joe's shit list."

[the_next_avenger]

"H-hey! I didn't have a choice. Do you know what that guy can do? He killed two of my friends in the yard for looking at him wrong!" the guy said.

Joe just stared the guy down.

"You better hope I don't see you again, pal. Or you won't have to worry about what Landon will do to you." Joe said.

"Come on, Sammy. Let's get back to New York. He could be after...anyone." Joe said, though a few particular faces came unbidden into his thoughts just then.

Roxanne. Sammy. Mom. Dad.

If anything happened to them, any of them, because of him...

Joe turned and left the room.

[agent_timeout]

"Then you'll be safer in SHIELD custody. You can look wrong at all of our other guests and see what happens." The scared look was nice to see. SHIELD should cause fear in the right people.

She followed Joe out, running after him with his long strides. "Three months. That's an awful lot of time to be free and causing trouble. No clue up to now?"

[the_next_avenger]

"No, none. But some of the stuff that happened before you showed up suddenly has a little more meaning to it." Joe said.

"He was out there this whole time, probably watching and waiting. But why hit now? He might have gotten me awhile ago and this whole thing would be over already." Joe said sadly. He was tired of this. Tired of the guessing, the looking over his shoulder.

He was tired of feeling guilty.

"I left Roxanne home alone. If he's watched her at all, he knows what she can do. He might have back-up for that."

[agent_timeout]

You have back-up now, Joe. Little Sammy is watching out for you.

"As soon as we're out, you call her. I'll call the colonel. By the time we get back to New York, we can have some of the prelim done. You better start thinking up every detail you can about Jason Landon for the hacks to work on."

[the_next_avenger]

"Got it. Melissa talked about him all the time, but I know that he's ex -Special Forces. And I know that he can kill people as easily as looking at them but Melissa never let it slip that he was a mutant." Joe said, looking to one of the guards.

"You want to talk to the warden while I bring the car around?" he asked.

[agent_timeout]

"SHIELD has files on mutants who don't even know they're mutants," Sammy said. She nodded. "Go make your calls outside. I'll be out as soon as I make arrangements to ship our friend back to the Vault. Bet that'll make the warden's day. His collars aren't working and he might have more than one prisoner under a wrong name."