The Dragon 2200 # 13 The Dragon: 2200

# 13

by Brian Campo (bcampo@hotmail.com)
(A bad, bad little monkey. )

This is a work of fan fiction. The Savage Dragon and all related characters are owned by Erik Larsen, and I do not contest
that ownership. This story is in no way official and it should not be taken as such. All characters in this story not owned by Mr.
Larsen are owned by me, though I would gladly loan them out if asked nicely.

Warning: This story may contain graphic violence, sexual situations and harsh language. If you shouldn't be reading it, don't.

Visit the Dragon 2200 home page for back issues and covers (http://www.angelfire.com/or/icffa/dragonifshome.html)

Dan Williams was cursing his luck. He'd been on desk duty for a week because his partner had gone over seas with a bunch of other super powered types to fight some vampires. His boss refused to let him patrol without a Freak partner and insisted that he spend his time catching up on paper work. His partner Maxine returns to work and he thinks he's finally going to get to go out and find some real action. He turns his back for two seconds and she's having some kind of nervous breakdown and runs out of the station, leaving him high and dry and back on desk duty. What had he done to deserve this? he was asking himself. Was there some God he had forgotten to sacrifice to? Some wrong he had committed in a past life that he was being punished for? He looked heavenward and mouthed the word, Why?
He looked glumly at the small pile of arrest reports he had finished and at the much taller one that he still had to go through and groaned miserably. He fell forward and smacked his head into the top of his desk. At this rate, he'd never get done.
"Max, you suck." he muttered to no one in particular.
Deciding he should take a break and kill a little time, he sat up and grabbed the few reports he had finished. Then he pushed in his chair and headed off to the administrative offices to turn them in. If he did it right and took the long route he could kill twenty minutes easy. As he passed the Captain's office he heard Hughes call out to him.
"You getting those reports done, Williams?"
"Sure," replied Dan. "I'm a mowing right through them."
"That's what I like to hear." said the Boss.
Dan walked away quickly before Hughes start asking how many, specifically, he had gotten finished. Maybe a bathroom break might be in order. It wasn't like it would be slacking off if he had to go to the bathroom. And there was a nice quiet single toilet men's room down on the basement level that no one ever went to. He took the stairs down. Elevator's were a little too quick and efficient when you're trying to kill time. Besides, less chance of running into someone on the stairs. Maybe his luck was improving. No one saw him as he was making his way to the men's room. He could probably lock the door, sit on the john and catch a few winks and nobody would even notice he was missing.
Just as he was about to go into the men's room, the elevator doors down the hall opened and out stepped Maxine. She was looking the other way and didn't notice him. Dan was going to yell her name and try to get her attention, but then he noticed that she was acting very strangely. Sneaky. She was looking all around like she was afraid someone was following her. She kept her head down so that if she passed anybody in the hall she wouldn't have to look them in the eye. It was just the kind of behavior that would have roused suspicion if it had been someone out on the street doing it. Wondering just what was going on and not wanting to alert her to his presence, Dan stepped halfway into the men's room doorway, out of her line of sight. When he heard the clicking of her heels as she headed down the hall, he stepped back out and followed at a distance. After a few moments he realized that she was headed over to the evidence locker. As she walked up to the security gate Dan hung back and tried to hear what she would say to the clerk on duty.
"Hello, Chalmers. Whatcha need?" said the clerk. The clerk was inconspicuously hiding a science fiction novel down below the counter. Slacker, thought Dan.
"Hi, Brad. I just need to look at the serial numbers on some guns we confiscated a while back."
"Sure." said Brad. "Just sign in right here on the book and then I'll help you find them."
Max signed the book and said, "Thanks, but I don't need any help. I was just down here the other day looking at them."
"You sure? It would be no problem."
"No, I'll be fine." she said to him, smiling.
The clerk buzzed the gate and Max walked through it. Dan waited until she had gone back into the store rooms and then he approached the clerk. The clerk looked up and said, "Hey, Williams.."
"My partner just went in. Is it all right if I join her?"
"You will have to sign in, too."
Dan nodded and signed the book. Once through the gate he moved quickly through the evidence laden shelves looking for Maxine. He heard the sound of someone moving far in the back and he headed in that direction. A little ways back he caught sight of her moving some boxes around. Coming to a stop one row over from where she was, he peeked between the shelves to see what she was up to.
She was moving some evidence boxes off of shelves and arranging them in a stack on the floor. From the stickers on the boxes, Dan could tell that they were related to a narcotics case. What the hell was she doing? Maxine picked the last box off of that shelf and set it on the pile. She took a couple steps back reached into her jacket,and pulled out some kind of strange looking gun. She looked around, as if to see if anyone was watching. Dan eased over a step, putting some boxes between himself and Max. She didn't see. When he leaned over to peak a moment later she was aiming the gun at the pile of boxes. She pulled the trigger and a bright flash exploded from the gun's tip. Dan was temporarily blinded by the bright light and clutched at his eyes in surprise. He blinked, trying to clear the spots from his vision. As the spots dissipated he could see that the boxes of drug evidence had disappeared. His brow creased with confusion. Just what was the game here, anyway?
Max squatted down to the floor and when she stood back up she was holding what looked like a tiny pile of boxes in her palm. Suddenly it struck Dan what she had done. She had a shrinking ray! What was she doing?! Max put the boxes into her jacket pocket and was sticking the gun back into her other pocket. Dan decided it was time for him to clear out. He walked quickly and quietly back toward the gate. Brad told him would have to sign out.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." said Dan He grabbed the pen and scrawled his name. He could hear Maxine coming this way. Dropping the pen on the desk he turned and hurried away.

Maxine came out of the evidence room feeling dirty and guilty. She was a criminal now, no better than all the people that she had put in jail. That morning she had been happy that she was returning to work, but this had turned out to be the worst day of her life. And considering all the things that had happened to her over the last 19 years, that was really saying something. If word ever got out- No, she didn't even want to think about that. Just the thought of the look on her dad's face and she had to fight to hold back the tears.
Brad buzzed her out of the gate and she started down the hall. "Wait." he called out behind her.
She froze in her tracks. Did he know?
"You forgot to sign out."
Sighing with relief, she returned to the gate and accepted the pen from him. She leaned down to sign the book and then she saw Dan's two signatures. Panic crawled into her chest. Dan had come in after her? What had he seen?
"You okay, Chalmers?"
"Huh?" Maxine looked up, startled.
"Are you okay?" repeated Brad. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."
"No, I- I'm fine." She hastily signed the book and headed for the elevator. The elevator doors were standing open. Dan was waiting for her inside. For one second she considered turning and running. She knew her strength. No one could stop her if she really wanted to get away.
"Get in." said Dan. It sounded like an order.
Her heart was sinking into her stomach as she stepped into the elevator. He closed the door and hit the button for the second floor. He let it rise for a second and then he hit the stop button. The car shuddered to a halt.
"Now," said Dan. "It's just you and me here talking. What the hell is going on? Don't lie."
Maxine looked him in the eyes and saw only resolve there. There was no talking her way out of this one. He was going to get the truth out of her. She dropped her gaze to the floor.
"There is a man." she muttered. "He has some pictures of me. I have to help him or he shows everyone."
Dan stood quiet for a moment, considering what she had told him. "Pictures of what?" he asked.
"Pictures of me as a kid."
"Doing what?"
"Bad things. With men. Lot's of men."
Dan turned red, embarrassed. He looked a little sick, too.
Great, she thought. Now he's ashamed to know me. You deserve this, Max. You deserve the way he's looking at you. The whole world is going to look at you like that.
"I'm not going to let you do it." he told her.
"I have to." she whimpered. "Don't you see? If people knew. . . "
"No." said Dan. "I'm not letting you throw your life away over some stupid photographs. What ever is in those pictures is not worth what you're doing."
"They'll show everyone what I did." she cried.
"We'll find another way." he told her.
"What? What can we do? There isn't anything else we can do!"
"We'll find another way. First, we're going to return that evidence. Then we're going to see Captain Hughes."
"No!" Max shook her head violently.
"Yes. We'll tell him. Not about what you've done today, but about the pictures and the black mailer. He'll know what to do. I may grumble about what a hard ass he is, Max, but he's a good man and he will help you. I'm not going to give you any other choice. You try to walk out of here with those drugs and you'll have to go through me."
He had her cornered. He knew that she could never bring herself to hurt him. Maxine buried her face in her hands and cried, hard. Her body shuddered with the sobs
"Why is this happening to me?" she wailed. A moment later she felt Dan's hands hesitantly touch her shoulders. She leaned into him and he pulled her close.
"We'll beat this." he whispered.

The three of them sat in silence after Max stopped speaking. No one sure what they should say. Captain Hughes looked across his desk at them, his expression hard to read. Max felt sick. Like she was about to fill a waste basket kind of sick. She felt the stares of the two men in the room and wished that she could just curl up and die. What were they thinking right now? What mental images were running through their minds?
Dan had offered to leave while she told Hughes the whole story, but she had asked him to stay. He was her strength right now and she wouldn't have been able to get through the telling if she hadn't had him there. Now, she wondered if that too had been a mistake. He knew it all now. Would he still stand beside her?
"How old were you?" asked Hughes.
Maxine swallowed hard and said, "It ended when I was nine. Before that as far back as I can remember.."
"So you never really did any of those things, did you?"
Max stared at him, bewildered. "I don't know what you mean. I told you, they got pictures of me doing those things." Hadn't he been listening?
"But you were just a little kid. Did you choose to do them? Did you ask any of those men to do what they did?"
"No, of course not but-"
"But nothing." said Hughes. "You didn't do anything. Things were done to you. Big difference. Let me guess. This piece of shit, what was his name?"
"Victor."
"Yeah, him. He'd tell you that you deserved it, right?"
"Yes."
"He'd abuse you to force you to do the things and then when you were done he made it seem like it was your fault, right?"
Max nodded.
"He was programming you from the get go. He kept you in line with fear and guilt. And you're still buying into his bullshit. Still taking the blame for what a loathsome human being did to you. And, you're letting him fuck you over now. Pardon my French. You're giving him power that he doesn't actually have."
What he was saying made sense, but deep down Maxine could feel herself denying everything. No, I'm to blame. I'm the little slut. I liked it, didn't I? Dirty little girl likes it when they do that, doesn't she? Whore. Filthy. She realized that the little voice that was saying that sounded a lot like Victor. She wondered, how much of what made up Maxine Chalmers was actually created by Victor? From the age of nine back as far as she could remember he was he single biggest influence in her life. Since then it had been her father. Which one was she a product of?
"What do we do?" she asked.
"We take his power away from him. He's forcing you to do as he pleases because you are afraid he'll show the world what he did to you. Beat him to the punch. You tell the world what he did to you."
"You mean, just announce it?" She was horrified.
"Announce what, Chalmers? That he's a piece of garbage that preys on children? Sounds like news to me."
"But then everyone would know-"
He cut her off." That he's a piece of garbage that preys on children. They'd know what HE DID to you. That's all. You got nothing to hide or be ashamed of. You don't say something and he gets away with everything. Now, standing by while a piece of shit walks away scott free, now that is something to be ashamed of. This is how we're going to stop him. A lot of journalists have been trying to get a hold of you for an interview about your Hong Kong adventures. I say we pick one and give him an interview he'll never forget."
She looked over at Dan. "What do you think about this?"
Dan shrugged. "Boss man makes a lot of sense."
Max looked back at Hughes. "It's up to you You can hide from this or you can face it." he said.
She took a deep breath, let it out and said, "Ok, I'll do it."
The Captain nodded at her and smiled. "Thatagirl!"
"What about Victor?" asked Dan.
"We bust him." said Captain Hughes. "We take him down hard and throw his ass in jail."
"But, how do we find him? We don't even know where he was. Max was blindfolded when she went to see him."
"I've been thinking about that." said Hughes. "There might be a way. You were on duty when you were taken to him, right?"
"Yes." she replied, wondering where he was going with this.
"So you had your gun with you?"
"Mm-hmm. Until one of the men took it off of me before I got in the van."
"What did that guy do?"
"I believe that he followed along behind us on a dirt bike."
"Good, good. How about you guys take a lunch I've got to make some phone calls."
"Just one thing, Captain." said Max as she and Dan got up from their chairs.
"What's that?"
"I don't want in on the bust. I'm afraid that I would freeze up and get somebody killed."
"Why would you freeze up?" asked Hughes
"Because I'm afraid of him." she said. "Deathly afraid."
"Because of how he used to abuse you?"
Max nodded.
"Don't you think you might be a little stronger now than when you were a kid? You can pick up a bus now."
"I don't want it." said Maxine.
"If it were me I think I'd want the opportunity to be the one to take him down."
"You're not me. I don't want it."
Hughes studied her for a second and then shrugged. "Fine. We'll do it your way."

Victor was asleep when one of his men came to let him know what was going on. The light in the bedroom where he was sleeping came on and Derek said, "Victor. Wake up. There's something you should see."
"Wha-?" he sat up in bed and blinked in the bright light.
"It's that girl you're black mailing. She's on the Holovid."
"What?!" he threw off the blanket and leapt out of bed. Derek jumped out of the way as Victor rushed passed him into the living room. His other men were standing around the HV, watching.
On the screen was the Richard Queen Live show, a talk show hosted by a crusty old reporter. He was well known in the show biz and politics world for being a fair interviewer. He was one of those rare journalists who wasn't given to ambushing the people he was interviewing to try to embarrass them. In his time he had interviewed everyone from presidents to terrorists to super heroes and showed them all the same kind of respect. The show had been a WNN staple for thirty five years.
Sitting across from Queen at the desk was the girl that Victor knew as Ginny, and an older looking man that he didn't recognize. Queen was just wrapping up the introductions.
"Tonight on our show we have an exclusive interview with Chicago Super-Cop Maxine Chalmers. Also joining us is her direct superior, Police Captain Bill Hughes. Welcome, to both of you."
"Thank you." said the girl, and the Captain echoed her.
"I must say that when we tried to contact you before you were reluctant to do an interview with me, Miss Chalmers Can you tell me why you changed your mind?"
She nodded. "Because everyone wanted to talk to me about the situation in Hong Kong. I don't want to help make a bigger deal out of what I did there than is necessary. But events of the day have put me in a place that I need to have a public venue."
"And what events would those be, Miss Chalmers?"
"I'm being black mailed." said the girl. Victor choked, starting a coughing fit. What was she doing? He suppressed his coughs, trying to hear what she was going to say next. Surely she wasn't stupid enough to rat on him. Was she?
"I'm here to clear the air about everything." she continued. "What I am about to tell you is not the easiest thing in the world for me to say, but I assure you that every word of it is true. I was raised in a child prostitution brothel on the island of New Vegas. For as far back as I can remember until the age of nine I was forced to perform sexual acts for men who enjoyed sex with children There is a particular type of pedophile that prefers freak children and that what I was used for. Photos of me were taken and were distributed as child pornography. I was not a willing participant so they used what is called a Handler, a super powered individual who's job it is to keep me submissive. He did this by beating the bejeezus out of me any time I didn't do as I was told. At the age of nine I was rescued from the brothel by the man who is now my adoptive father. Earlier today I was contacted by a man that I know only as Victor. Victor was the Handler that abused me as a child. He is using pictures that were taken of me as a child to black mail me in to stealing drugs from out of a police lock up." She stopped then and looked to Queen to see if he had any questions.
"You really aren't much for beating around the bush, are you?" he said.
"This has all been hanging over my head for too long. I just want to put all my cards out on the table. Like my Captain here told me earlier in the day, "Victor only has the power that I've given him." I'm taking that power back from him."
"Excuse me." said Hughes. "I wanted to add something here. Should this "Victor" decide to distribute the pictures I want everyone who is watching this to know, if you do anything but destroy them or turn them over to the authorities you can be arrested for the possession of child pornography. You try publishing these in any way, either by printing or electronic means and you'll be slapped with a distribution charge to boot. You will go to jail, and you'll stay there for a long, long time."
"What are your plans regarding this Victor character?" asked the host.
"We're going to arrest him and take him in." said the girl.
"Like hell you are!" Victor shouted at the HV. "You don't even know where the fuck I am, you little bitch."
"We have found a way to track him to his current location (Victor and is crew all looked at each other is surprise.) and we should be arresting him at about the same time that this show plays."
"That's right." said Queen. "I guess I should tell my viewers that part of our agreement to do this interview was that this interview would be prerecorded. In return the Chicago Police have agreed to let WNN follow them as they go to arrest this "Victor" and his men. And, if all goes as planned we should be going to that scene right now, live."
Sure enough, the scene changed to a night time shoot outside of what Victor recognized as the house they were standing in. On the screen, thirty odd cops were surrounding the house with assault weapons in hand..
Craig, the man who had driven the girl earlier ran to a window and looked out. "They're everywhere!" he shouted.
"Kill the lights!" said Victor. "And get the guns."
"Throw down your weapons. Come out with your hands up." someone with a bullhorn called out from outside. The voice came in stereo, both from outside and over the HV.
The house went dark and quiet except for the scuffle of his men getting into position. Someone turned the volume down on the HV but left it on so that they could keep an eye on what was happening outside. Spotlights lit up outside and shone through the windows.
Victor huddled down beneath their questing beams and wondered how things could have gone so badly so quickly.

Maxine stood back with Captain Hughes behind some police barricades and watched as the SWAT teams and 32nd precinct officers rushed the house. Frank Filco, a freak cop with the power to cause anything he touched to vibrate put his hands on the front door and put his powers to work. The door shook on it's hinges and then disintegrated into sawdust. Officers went through the open door with weapons raised. There were loud shouts from in the house as the cops ordered the men insde to drop thier weapons and to kiss the floor. They must have decided to decline. The house lit up and the roar of gun fire erupted out through the door. A full fledged fire fight ensued. Windows shattered and siding exploded as stray bullets exited the house. There was no way to know who was winning from out here. More cops were going through the door to back up their comrades.
The side of the house was tore open, and something launched itself through the hole in the wall. It was Victor. He landed on the yard of the house in a crouch and quickly scanned the immediate area. Someone else came hurtling out of the hole in the side of the house and landed on Victor's back. It's was Jack Palen, the freak cop with feline features and incredible strength. He wrapped his arms around Victor's neck and squeezed. Victor reached up and grabbed a hold of Jack's mane. He yanked forward, pulling Jack of off his back and slamming him to the ground. He slugged the helpless cop in the face twice before jumping to his feet and taking off at a run.
"He's getting away!" shouted Maxine. "Over there." She tried pointing him out to some of the other cops but they were too wound up in the fire fight to notice.
Jack Palen was getting to his feet, but he looked shaky. He took off in pursuit still trying to shake off the punches he had received A SWAT officer noticed Victor running and moved to cut him off.
"Hold it right there!" he shouted, "or I'll shoot."
"Get of the way!" Maxine shouted at him. "He's going to kill you!"
The SWAT officer opened fire on Victor. They were just regular 45 caliber rounds so they just bounced harmlessly off of Victor as he charged at him. Max took off running. It didn't matter how scared she was, she couldn't let Victor kill that man. She jumped over the barricade and the leap carried her twenty feet closer to Victor. She saw Jack closing in on him from the other side and it was clear that he would be able to reach him quicker. She aimed instead for the SWAT Officer, intending to get him out of the way. It was very close. Maxine snatched the man out of Victor's path just a second before he would have been crushed. Quickly, she pushed him towards the safety of the barricades and then turned to intercept Victor.
Jack was jumping into the air, his four inch claws extended. Victor spun with one arm held out and cloths lined the cop, catching him in the throat and dropping him right to the ground. Jack clutched at his throat and wheezed, trying to suck air in through his injured windpipe. Victor turned toward the sound of Max's approaching footsteps and smiled when he saw who it was.
"You've been very bad, Ginny. Time to take your medicine." His fist lashed out like a connonball exploding from a cannon and just narrowly missed Max's face. She went low and came up under his swinging arms, throwing all of her strength into shoving against his rib cage. He was lifted off of the ground and thrown backwards. THUD! He landed on his back and on the back of his head. He rolled and scrambled to his feet as she closed in on him again. He landed a punch that caught her in the left shoulder and turned her arm numb. She answered with a poorly aimed right to his ear.
It was then that an amazing thing happened. For her, time seemed to slow down. Details came in to focus. She saw him in crystal clarity. He stumbled. He almost fell. He felt that! she realized. Oh, my god! For just one second she saw something in his eyes. Fear. He was afraid. Afraid of her.
"Heh." she half laughed, stunned by the revelation. So stunned that she almost didn't react in time when he recovered and attacked again. He roared as he threw himself back at her. Rage contorted his face. Max dodged his punch and then caught his wrist as it flashed past. She delivered a doozy of an uppercut to his outstretched elbow and his arm snapped over backwards. Victor squealed, like a stuck pig he squealed. Nothing had ever sounded so sweet to her. She reveled in the sound of him in pain. Max pressed into him, firing off a left to his jaw. The jaw snapped and teeth exploded from the left side of his face. He was going down. She wasn't done with him. She grabbed a hold of his shirt as he tumbled backwards and rode him to the ground. They hit the pavement hard and for a moment she almost tumbled off of him. She used her handhold on his shirt to pull herself into a better position and then proceeded to pounded on his face with her right fist. She went nuts on him, letting nineteen years of fear fuel her attack. He couldn't even defend himself. He was out cold after the second blow.
"You motherfucking, cock sucking son of a bitch, I'll kill you I swear to fucking God, I'll kill you, you goddamn bastard-"
She was able to land about twenty five direct hits to his face before she was hit from the side and tackled off of Victor's prone form. She hit the ground and lashed out, trying to hit whoever had hit her. She caught sight of Jack Palen scrambling away from her.
"Enough!" he shouted at her as he got out of swinging range. "It's over, Chalmers. He's down! You got him."
Max found herself short of breath. She sat still for a moment, trying to catch it. Her heart beat was racing.
"Let it go." Jack told her. "Just relax. It's all over."
She did. She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The rage in her receded, draining out of her a little ar a time. A little dazed, she looked around. There were other cops standing nearby, looking at her in awe. She looked down and saw that she was covered in blood splatters. Victor's blood. What a sight she must have been.
She had beaten him. He had been her nightmare for so long and now it turned out he was nothing. He hadn't even put up a decent fight. She had beaten him. How different would her life be now that her fear of him was gone?
It was quiet. The assault on the house must be over. Her eyes turned that way and she saw cops filing out, some carrying wounded comrades. Jack came over towards her, offering her a hand. She accepted it.

NEXT: The Dragon 2200 Anuual. A double length, ass kicking extravaganza. The Angelican Arrives! (that should be really ominous sounding.)

~Fin-Fan-Fic-Fanatics~Letters and comments from readers. Do I rock or do I suck? Write me and tell me what you think. If you don't want your comments put in this letters column, or if you want them taken out, please let me know.
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No letters this time. I'm not waiting long enough between issues to even get any. See you next time, BCAMPO