Everyone walked on eggshells the rest of the day. Even when they were let out of their barracks, a subdued mood permeated the camp. Word about Corporal Weiss spread quickly through whispers and hushed conversations. Speculation and rumours swelled. Corporal Weiss went from being a new guard, to a giant, to an ogre, to a superman within less than an hour, each prisoner taking a bit of information and adding to it.

There was nothing Hogan could do to stop the rumours, or calm his men. At the best of times the rumour mill, with its oft-times outlandish tales, was hard to stop, even when Hogan had definitive proof that the stories were false. But this time, he had no facts. Nothing. Weiss was a mystery to him as well, and his own theories were not far off from the rumours. Was Weiss just a normal albeit very strong man? Was he a Nazi science experiment? Was he even human?

Everyone was on their toes, constantly looking over their shoulder to make sure that Corporal Weiss, with his seeming super-human hearing, was not close by. Though he seemed to have disappeared for the day, his presence and the secrecy that surrounded him and his arrival cast a dark shadow over the camp.

It wasn't until evening roll call that the rest of the prisoners caught sight of the mammoth of a man. There was an audible reaction to him when he stepped out of the guards' housing block to look over the prisoners. The guard stalked over to Klink, who was standing on the kommandantur porch, and stopped at the bottom of the steps. Klink chuckled and stepped down to join him then addressed the prisoners.

"Prisoners! I would like to introduce Corporal Weiss, our new guard. Be warned: though his stay is temporary, he is just as determined as I am in making sure that no one escapes Stalag 13. If I were you, I would not do anything to provoke him. Diiiiissss-missed!" And with that, Klink turned on his heel and marched back into his office.

Weiss took a step forward and drew himself to his full height, looking down on the prisoners contemptuously. After a moment, Schultz timidly approached him, and spoke with him before leading him off, apparently to his new post.

Hogan watched them go then turned to follow his men into the barracks. Inside, he motioned to Goldman and jerked his head to the door. Goldman nodded and cracked it open, peering out to keep track of any goons passing by.

"What are we going to do about this guy?" Kinch asked in a whisper. Always in whispers now. Each one of his men had asked the same question, several times already, and Hogan still didn't have an answer.

"Say, why don't we convince Schultz to put him up in a guard tower? On the other side of camp?" Carter suggested. "He can't get into any trouble there."

"That… is a good idea, Carter," Hogan said. But then he shook his head. "Nah. Klink would never go for it. He knows exactly how to use Weiss against us. Even if he doesn't have superpowers Klink will want him on the ground where he can intimidate us." Besides he wasn't fully convinced that Weiss didn't have superpowers. And, with their luck, Weiss had x-ray vision too.

"We will not let that stupid Boche intimidate us," LeBeau spat hotly.

Newkirk just raised an eyebrow. "Right. Weren't you the one who nearly fainted at the sight of him this afternoon?"

"I did not faint!" LeBeau cried loudly, before covering his mouth. "I did not faint!" he repeated in an earnest whisper.

"Colonel, you don't really think this guy has superpowers, do you?" Kinch asked incredulously. "I mean, sure, he's big. And maybe he has good hearing, but he's just a man, and this isn't a comic book."

Hogan let out a sigh. "No. No I don't think he has super powers," he said in a normal voice, as if to prove his point. Really, what had he been thinking? Superpowers indeed. But there was definitely something not right about him.

"I've got an idea," Newkirk said.

"I'll bet you do," LeBeau grumbled.

Newkirk ignored him and pressed on. "Why don't we let it alone? He's only going to be here a while, and I'm not keen on trying to take down a walking, talking tank."

"Sure," Hogan agreed sarcastically. "We'll leave it. And then he'll get shipped off to another prison camp where they won't be able to deal with him at all. Or, worse, he'll be sent to the front."

"Where he'll make a nice big target for a sniper."

"Why don't we poison his food?" LeBeau suggested.

"No. We can't just kill him. At least not while he's in camp," Hogan said, nixing the idea. "The Gestapo would be on us in a second."

"Why don't we wait until he gets transferred, or takes a trip into town, put a bomb in the car and- BOOM! BANG! KAPOW!" Carter said excitedly. Hogan raised an eyebrow- maybe they were in a comic book after all.

"Let's call that Plan B," Hogan said. "Meanwhile, let's keep thinking on Plan A. The sooner he's gone, the better!"

Hogan and his men brainstormed for a little longer until the lights went out and they turned in for the night. They decided they'd have clearer heads in the morning.

Much later, a sudden noise startled Hogan from his sleep. He sat upright at the lights suddenly turned on. A quick glance at his watch told him it was 0330. Far too early for roll call.

Someone shouted in the common room and Hogan jumped off his bunk, and rushed to the door. In the common room, he found his men up and out of bed. Corporal Weiss stood in the middle of the room with two other goons.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on here?" Hogan asked, sounding more annoyed than alarmed. "I was right in the middle of the best dream. Two blondes were feeding me grapes under the shade of-"

"Colonel Hogan, I am here to inspect the barracks," Weiss barked.

"Look at that, not here one day and already trying to win the guard of the year award," Carter joked, earning him a bit of laughter from the other prisoners. Hogan smirked. If Weiss thought he was going to run roughshod over the men in Barracks 2, he had another thing coming.

Weiss growled. The men exchanged a look, and Hogan saw Newkirk wink knowingly. So, they were going to see just how far they could push Weiss. Hogan was game, but he hoped they didn't overdo it.

Turning to the other guards, he ordered them to begin searching.

"Blimey, I just made that bed mate," Newkirk protested loudly.

"What exactly are you looking for, Corporal Weiss?" Hogan asked. "Maybe we can help you."

Weiss just grunted and joined the other in the search, throwing things off of shelves and stomping on various spots on the floor.

"Probably thinks of our barracks as a catalogue- browsing until he finds something he likes," Olsen suggested with a shrug.

"Anything you want you can probably find for pretty cheap in the Sears catalogue," Goldman said. "My kid brother delivers them. If you let me go home, I can send you one from the States."

Weiss turned a dangerous eye to Goldman. "Shut up!"

"Blimey, how do you like that? We're just trying to help the man," Newkirk sniffed.

"Oui, that is not very nice," LeBeau said darkly, glaring up at Weiss. It reminded Hogan of a little dog staring down a bear, with every expectation of winning.

"Someone didn't learn his manners in kindergarten," Kinch said dryly.

Something flashed across Weiss' face and he stopped what he was doing. He suddenly turned red and began to shake and Hogan took a small step forward, ready to step in between him and Kinch if he had to.

"I told you all to shut up," Weiss growled. He turned his attention to Hogan. "Where is it?"

"So now you want our help?" Hogan quipped lightly, knowing that he was pushing it too far. Oh, who was he kidding, they had crossed the line five minutes ago. Now he was begging for trouble. "Well, I'll be the bigger man: where's what?"

"The poison! The bombs! The tunnel!" Weiss cried, moving closer to Hogan until he towered over him.

Hogan quirked an eyebrow and stared back up at Weiss. "Poison? Bombs? Tunnels? We're prisoners!" he insisted. "Why would we have any of that? I mean, well, maybe the tunnel would make sense, but we learned a long time ago that no one escapes Stalag 13, so what's the point?"

Weiss glared down at him and Hogan's expression hardened as he glared back. But then he noticed something. Weiss was sweating. Breathing heavily. And, if Hogan was not mistaken, he looked somewhat pale. All this despite not doing anything overly physical. For a moment, Hogan thought the huge man just might faint.

"Are- are you okay, Corporal Weiss?" Hogan asked, surprising himself by even asking.

Weiss sucked in a breath and clenched a fist, bringing it up as if to strike Hogan. Then, suddenly changing his mind, he turned around and grabbed the common room table. Lifting it as high as he could without hitting the ceiling, Weiss brought it crashing down on Olsen's bunk. The table and bunk splintered and came crashing down, spraying wood chips everywhere.

"I will find it all, Colonel Hogan," Weiss promised before motioning for the other guards to join him as he left.

When he had gone, the prisoners let out a collective breath.

"What the hell was that?" Kinch asked.

"I think we pushed him too far," Newkirk said in shock.

"Oh, you think?" LeBeau scoffed.

"He destroyed my bunk!" Olsen gaped.

"Where are we going to sleep?" his bunkmate, Private Fuller, added.

"That is what you are worried about?" LeBeau cried.

"Well, I guess we can confirm his super hearing," Carter said slowly. "And strength; he lifted that table like it was nothing."

"Well at least we can cross x-ray vision off the list, otherwise he would have found the tunnel for sure," Kinch said.

"Yeah," Hogan said slowly. "But did you notice how winded he was? He looked like he was going to faint." His men looked at him, suddenly realizing he was right.

"But what does that mean?" LeBeau asked.

"I don't know, LeBeau. Not yet." Hogan furrowed his brow and went through everything that happened. "One thing's for sure, he's a nasty piece of work," he said finally, shaking his head. There was a chorus of agreement. "All right," Hogan sighed. "Let's clean up. I'll go see Klink in the morning."