-A question I had before I wrote this chapter was who would win the fight Sam (hurt and powerless) vs. Keswick. Let´s see :D-

"Damn, hehehe, hehe headache." Laughed Sam manically as he lay in the gutter in a small dirty alley somewhere in Petropolis. He didn´t remember how he came there but he remembered why. Seven hours ago he was in this burnt apartment building and puked the soul out of his body.

Drake went up to him as he was bend over the toilet bowl. "Are you really okay?"
"Yes I am okaaaaa" Sam´s answer turned into another flood of food leftovers. "That tastes awful!"
"Some people say it tastes better the way out than in."

"They lie! They are all damn liars!" moaned the advisor now lying beside the toilet doubled up with pain in his stomach.
"Yeah they are. But Sam you should really get some help."

"I said that I am okay." Sam tried to stand up from the ground but he was too weak. "I met her once in Lara."
"What?" Drake watched confused how Sam began to roll around on the floor.
"Do not play dice with the squirrels… they cheat."

"Okay, first this is a cliché and second I get a thermometer. You speaking in a feverish delirium!" Drake ran out of the room but the advisor continued speaking nonsense.
"The body is cold! I got three teeth more than you! Satellite and two deaths."

Drake now finally returned with Lou and thermometer in his hand.
"Sam I will take your temperature now. Is that okay?" Drake and Lou kept a certain safe distance because even if they liked him he was something like an animal for them. Ironically right?

And the fact that he was in that feverish delirium made him also dangerous.
"But only in the mouth!" grizzled Sam.
"I can live with that." Drake walked hesitating towards him, put or more threw the thermometer into his mouth and ran as fast as he could back to the place where he stood before.

"Mnmnm…"
"Keep your mouth shut."
And after a minute of silence the thing finally began to beep. Drake sneaked on the same way like he did before Sam and snatched the thermometer out of his mouth.

"41 degree… Sam we have to take you to the hospital. Or you will die!"
"I know." Sam coughed and sat up. "I..I already know what to do. I need antibiotics, my wound inflamed. And I have to do it fast. The bright moments I have between the delirium are getting shorter and shorter."

"And what is your plan?" asked Lou skeptically.
"I am not going to the hospital. If I do the cops will get me and that is the fastest way to decay in a prison cell. But if T.U.F.F. gets me… They will arrest me in their own little detention camp. And under T.U.F.F. arrest I am near to my friend, Dudley."

"And your friend can help you? And where do you want to find a T.U.F.F. agent anyway?"
"My friend will help me. And I will find an agent somewhere. That is my only choice." Sam tried to be persuasive. These two wouldn´t let him go away alone and without a good plan. Sometimes good people can be very annoying. And these were the best examples.

"Well if you think that it´s your only option… We have to let you go. But be careful out there." Said Lou with fear in her voice.
"There is no reason to worry. I always meet good people."

After that his memories were missing. It was like he had sleepwalked to this place. Sam hauled himself up on his feet with the help of a big green trash can that was next to him. On his feet he tried to visualize the surrounding area through his blurry vision.

There was this trash can next to him, some garbage like old newspapers and hamburger wrappings lay on the ground.
"It is a real shame that the people are too lazy to throw their trash in the garbage can nearby." He thought seeing this mess.

The alley was 10 or 15 meters long it was an impasse. The other side led to a wide street on which a lot of cars drove even if it had to be late night. "I am not going this way. Too much people."
Sam leaned his head back and looked at the walls in the alley. On one of them were fireladders attached.

The good thing was that the last part of it was right under the trash can. "Seems like the only way is up. Or I learn to fly. I fly so high, so high in the sky… why have I said that?" Sam climbed on the trash can and from there he reached the ladder and also climbed it up.

On the roof he was so out of breath that he had to stop for a few seconds. As he regained his breath he admired the beauty of the skyline of Petropolis. The few lighted windows in the skyscrapers glittered like stars.

Petropolis skyline once was ranked fourth of the most beautiful skylines of the whole country. Underestimated how Sam always thought. He would have ranked it second.
"Okay. Where are the Agents." Sam pinned his eyes on the street and searched for the T.U.F.F. mobile or the van or some agent he know.

But this night seemed to be crime free. No sirens, no screams, nothing!
"Aww man! You cannot be serious! This city is usually a mess. Why is it so quiet?" So his plan has failed because the crime fighters did their job too good. And now he stood there on the roof while the inflammation of his leg was slowly killing him. A plan B was needed urgently.

"Okay… think. Think." Sam briefly looked around to recognize the part of the city in which he was. "Well… Dudley and Kitty are too far away. The chief lives near to this place but… he got a gun and he is kind of trigger happy and I prefer not to get to know with another bullet. My last opportunity is Keswick. If I remember right, what am I talking of course I do, then his apartment was just two blocks down the streets."

At this point Sam realized the big Problem. He could maybe walk one block on the roofs of the building but he had to walk the rest of the way down on the street where everybody was able to see him. "I take care of that when I´m standing on the edge of the last building." He thought and began weakened to move.

After he had stumbled ten minutes over old pipes, edges and massive layers of guano Sam arrived at the edge. And there was definitely no way to cross the gap between the two buildings except you could fly. But that was an ability he lost with his powers.

Grieving about his missing powers he climbed down the building on the fireladder.
"I am glad that the people here caring about fire protection." Back down on the ground he had to take a break again. The whole action took him a lot of energy. With weak knees he leaned against the red brick-wall next to him.

He knew that he now had to walk and he knew that he needed an idea. "Okay let us see… Oh what do we got here." His gaze fell on a big white piece of cloth that probably fell down from a clothes line which was put up between two houses. "That is maybe the most stupid thing I have ever done but… It could work."

Meanwhile, some blocks further, shuffled Keswick tired down the street. He felt overworked and underpaid. But a 12 hour shift would wear everybody out. All what he wanted know was to fall in his soft and warm bed. Yawning he fished his key´s out of his pocket and opened the door of the house.

He lived on the first floor so there was no need to use the elevator. Just 26 stairs lay between him and his apartment. Keswick had counted the stairs the day he had moved into the. It was mainly the reason why he decided for this apartment.

The other three that were available were as shabby as that one so the stairs were the crucial factor. Keswick hated odd numbers. After he finally forced his door open stumbled into his apartment and threw his coat into a corner he breathed in and whispered exhausted. "Home sweet h..h..home."

But suddenly a peculiar noise made him wide awake. It was like somebody tramped around in his kitchen. Cautiously he sneaked to his kitchen door and got an eyeful. The door of his fridge was open and the pale light shined across the room.

Keswick stepped into the cone of light and eyed the inner of the fridge. On an old package of Salami lay a little folded sheet of paper. "What is t..t..that?" Keswick grabbed the sheet and unfolded it. "Don´t be afraid. I´m coming in peace." Was written on it. What was that?

Keswick had never written this note and it also wasn´t his handwriting. I´m coming in peace, that sounded like some kind of invasion announcing. Maybe it was some kind of message of the mold. Keswick had this one yogurt which stood in his fridge since two years or more.

It may developed some kind of intelligence and learned how to communicate with him. At least that was what Keswick hoped because the other opportunity would be that someone was in his apartment.

"I am not here to hurt you. I just need help." Keswick´s heart beat faster as he heard the voice and he turned slowly around. Behind him stood this tall creature which he just knew from the descriptions of the policeman who found the boy scouts.

"Keep calm. I will not hurt you." The creature walked towards him with his hands up and Keswick also stepped back until he bumped against the fridge.
"What a..a..a..are you?!" Keswick stammered more than he usually did.

"A friend. Call me Sam." the creature coughed and held one of his hands on his forehead.
"How d..d..did you came in here!?"
"That was not so easy. I had to run the last part under a white blanket. The people insulted me and said things like 'hey idiot, Halloween is over.' But luckily nothing else happened. And cracking the lock was just easy." Explained Sam and leaned against the wall of the kitchen.

"And what are y..y..you doing here?"
"I need your help… please I…" Sam wasn´t able to continue speaking. He fell into a fever delirium again. He began to wriggle uncontrolled. Keswick, surprised and afraid of this behavior, rushed to the drawers of his kitchen counters and picked a Taser out of it.

"I don´t k..k..know what the hell is going on here but I´ll s..s..stop it right away." He rammed the Taser courageously into the side of Sam who was in the meantime rolling on the ground. After he twitched a bit more he lay motionless on the ground.

Keswick laid the Taser away and felt his pulse. "Good it´s a..a..alive." he panted and looked at the tall body. "It would be a s..s..shame if such an interesting research object would just die."

-Well the first quarter of the story is done and I´m of course curious how you liked it so far? And what do you think what happens next? Write it into the reviews ;D-