Codename: TABASCO

(The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of Michael Guerin)

Episode 101 – Coffee & Tabasco (The Morning After)

Max was sleeping… snoring actually… when I climbed through his window. I don't know how he could be so calm with everything that had happened, but that's Max. Did I say he was asleep? Okay, he was snoring, but he could still hear a pin drop, even in his sleep. He opened his eyes and got up slowly, picking up a baseball bat and a flashlight that he kept near his bed, then he lifted the baseball bat over his head, expecting to smack the hell out of the intruder…

Hold it there! Don't hit me!

Seeing it was me, Max put the bat down. Argument with Hank?

Couldn't sleep.

He laid a sleeping bag on the floor for me and climbed back into bed and sat there for a moment before lying back down. I guess he thought I needed a place to sleep… you know, because of Hank and all. When I made it clear that I was not there to join his snore fest and just wanted to talk, he shrugged. Hey, I was sleeping.

Amazing. He wanted to sleep, and I wanted to talk about our future. I mean, the key to our entire existence was out there, and Max wanted to sleep! Valenti had been hounding Liz all day about what happened in the CrashDown that morning. He showed her a picture of a dead man with a silver handprint on him… like the silver handprint Max had left on her. Kyle got a glimpse of the handprint on Liz, and he told his father, the sheriff. Valenti never saw it himself, but he knew he was onto something; he could smell it. The important thing is, though, that picture proved that there was someone else out there… someone like us… someone who was here in 1959 when that picture was made… someone who would know where we came from, who we were, why we were here, and maybe… just maybe… how to get back to our own planet. And besides, I needed someone to talk to about what had happened tonight, and Max was going to hear me even if I had to prop him up with an ironing board and drop the iron on his head to make him listen. He was the only one I could tell.

"Max, listen! I caught the two guys that shot Liz tonight… I hung 'em on a light pole and called the highway patrol."

"Good for you."

Max lay there for a few moments then rolled over slowly and looked at me…

"You did what? What did you just say?"

"I said…"

"I heard what you said! Michael, are you nuts! Have you lost your mind? You're the one who said we need to stay under the radar, out of sight… and you just invited the feds… and Valenti… into our lives? Why don't you just send them an inscribed invitation! iAliens, at your service. Pick up or delivery anytime! We'll come to you/i

"It's not like that, Maxwell."

"So what is it like, Michael? Tell me."

"I didn't exactly hang around to chit chat with the sheriff when he got there. I left the two corndogs hanging from the pole, and I took off on my bike. By the time Valenti got there, I was long gone."

Max was silent for almost a full minute before he spoke again…

"You caught them, huh… the guys that shot Liz?"

"Yep."

"Well, that's good… That's… that's good… as long as no one knows that we're involved."

"There's nothing to tie them to us, Max… except you healing Liz, that is."

"Don't start, Michael."

"I'm not starting. It's done. I'm working on damage control now!"

"There was no damage. We just have to be careful in the future."

"We've always had to be careful."

"Right. So nothing has changed."

"Everything has changed, Max!"

"How do you mean?"

I leaned against the wall wearily. "I enjoyed it, Max. I enjoyed taking those men down… and hanging them up there on that light pole by the seat of their pants. Every time the lights flickered and sparks fell down into their pants they howled… and I enjoyed it. That's not normal, Max."

Max grinned. "I don't know… I'm enjoying it just thinking about it. I don't think it's abnormal, Michael. You have normal feelings. Those guys almost killed Liz. Hell, they did kill Liz… if I hadn't intervened and saved her. They're scum. They would have hurt others sooner or later. You did the world a favor. So you really put a good scare into them, huh?"

"Yeah… They think there's a superhero out there called The Avenger."

"How very original."

"Yeah, okay, so it's been used before. I didn't exactly have time to come up with an all-original, Maxwell-sanctioned name. It just popped into my head. I was avenging Liz, so… I said I was the Avenger."

"Makes sense."

"Yeah. It does."

"But it's all over now, Michael. The bad guys are in the sheriff's hands… and you're no superhero. We're just two guys in high school… nothing unusual about us."

"Right."

I nodded, but inside, I wasn't sure. I had enjoyed a taste… a very small taste… of something deeply satisfying, and it tasted pretty good, a lot better than what I usually tasted living with Hank. It was a feeling I had never experienced before. I wasn't sure anymore what the future held. Maybe with my alien heritage I was born to be some kind of superhero. Somewhere inside, I knew that I was supposed to protect Max and Isabel, so I was already supposed to be a kind of hero in a way. Why not a superhero? Yeah… Why not? I could do that! But not tonight… I would need at least a couple of hours sleep. In the morning, after my morning coffee… Stirred, not shaken, with Tabasco.

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The next day, things started to get complicated. Mr. Singer, the geometry teacher, didn't show up; instead, this dame named Topolsky pops in. She pretended to be a substitute teacher, but she sucked at geometry. Liz kept correcting her. Then she said she was really a guidance counselor and was concerned about me. The truth is, she was gathering information about me for the FBI. Liz came to the trailer park to warn me after she found Topolsky gathering my records together.

"You're sure it was my records, it was definitely my records?"

"Yeah."

"So she's looking for me."

"I don't know what's going on, Michael. I just thought I should tell you."

"Thanks."

"Did you know they caught the guys that shot me, Michael?"

"Yeah… actually… I think I heard something about that."

"The sheriff told me this morning. He kept asking me if I'd ever heard of someone called 'Avenger.' Best I could gather, the men claimed to have been hung up on a light pole by this Avenger, whoever he is. Could be a last name, I guess… Tom Avenger, Harold Avenger… I've heard stranger names. The sheriff thinks they were just drunk and rambling, though."

"Why would he ask YOU about this Avenger person?"

"I don't know. It was strange. He acted like it was all a big joke, but it seemed like more than that to me. I don't know what he's up to, Michael, but I thought you should know."

"Thanks… again."

"You're welcome."

"Liz."

"Yeah?"

"There's something… you ought to know. You trusted me by bringing me this information. I want you to know I appreciate that. And…"

"Yes?"

"And… I'm going to trust you with something. Can I? You know, trust you?"

"Michael, I would never do anything that would betray you guys, if that's what you mean."

"Yeah, something like that. What I'm going to tell you… only Max knows right now… I mean, besides me. You can never tell anyone, unless I say it's okay."

Liz nodded.

"I couldn't sleep last night, so I rode down the highway on my bike and stopped at a rest stop. Those two guys pulled in and started arguing, and I heard them talking about shooting you and that they were going to come back and rob the CrashDown and kill whoever was there so there'd be no witnesses…"

Liz gasped, and her hand went over her mouth reflexively. I think she turned pale, too.

"You see, Liz, I really didn't have a choice. I couldn't let them do that… and… and besides, I figured I would be avenging you… and us, too. It wasn't planned… the name and all. It just popped out. I know it was stupid. The Avenger… that was me. Yeah! Really stupid, I know."

Liz shook her head slowly, as she processed what I had just told her.

"It wasn't stupid, Michael. You saved everyone who might have been there in the café… Dad, Mom… Maria… Who knows who else!"

Suddenly, Liz stopped and planted a kiss on my cheek. I swear I never saw it coming. I probably turned red. I know I had a hard time finding my voice again. I knew it was just like a friendship kind of thing… gratitude and all… but damn! I understood why Max had to save her.

"So, uh, now you know, huh…"

Liz nodded thoughtfully. "You know, Michael… that makes you an honest to God superhero. I kind of like it, actually. It's not stupid at all. You've got powers that people here don't have, so you are a superhero. Well, you are if you use your powers for good, like you did last night. I guess that would be putting yourself and Max and Isabel in danger, though; I mean, if you made a habit of it. I know you guys have to be careful and appear to be just like everyone else and all. I understand that."

I nodded, but I was thinking about what Liz had said. Hell, I'd been thinking about it ever since last night's little incident. I liked being somebody special, even if nobody else could ever know it was me. It made me somebody. Being a frikkin' hybrid alien had never made me anything but wanted before… and not in a good way. It was a curse. I didn't even know what planet I was from or anything about my people. But being a superhero was something. Yeah, that was something I could do. And it would give some meaning to this freaky DNA I was born with. I still wasn't sure that I would ever do anything like last night again. It did pose a certain amount of risk to us, and I have enough headaches taking care of Max and Isabel now. Who needs to add more steam to a whistling cauldron anyway? I've got enough on my shoulders just trying to find out who we are… not to mention getting us back home someday, wherever that is. But I knew one thing for certain now. The idea would always be there… in the back of my mind.

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Unfortunately, it seemed that Topolsky wasn't the only FBI person in Roswell these days. An Agent Hart showed up in Sheriff Valenti's office and said he was on assignment and that the sheriff should just go about his business as usual. This pissed Valenti off, being that the guy was in Valenti's office, in Valenti's jurisdiction and all, and wouldn't even say what he wanted.

See, my problem with that is that having a federal agent sitting smack dab in the middle of my station house isn't exactly business as usual.

My orders are to not leave this chair until I'm relieved.

Uh-huh. Agent Hart, the FBI has no jurisdiction here. Now I'm going to ask you to please get up and leave. And take your folding chair with you.

Valenti kicked Agent Hart out, but the feds were back before the sun could set, and this time they removed all of Valenti's files from his office and ordered him to forget they ever existed. Yeah! Like that was gonna happen! The problem, for us, was that the picture we wanted to get our hands on was probably in the sheriff's desk and might be found by those yahoo agents going in and out of his office. We had to find it before they did.

The only way I could see to get in the sheriff's office without being seen was to go in the window, but it was on the second floor, and a locked grate covered it. iNo problem for a superhero/i I told myself. Climbing up to the second floor ledge was easy. There, I used my powers to open the grate then quickly slid into Valenti's office and started going through his files. Max and Isabel must have arrived at about that time, because they saw the window grate open and knew that I was there. They also saw Valenti pulling into the station.

Max, you get Michael out of there. I'll keep Valenti out of his office as long as I can.

Max slipped in through the window. I found the picture, and I also found a strange key hidden inside the lid of Valenti's thermos, so I took it; but when I held it in my hand, I had a vision that made me stagger backwards. The sheriff must have heard the noise, because we heard him coming down the hall, so we got out quickly, and Max sealed the grate back. Then we jumped down into a garbage dumpster. Even superheroes get dirty sometimes.

Told you it was no big deal, Max!

That night, Liz sat watching the stars, her diary on her lap. Next to her, on her bed, lay the afternoon paper, with a short article on the front page about the arrest of the shooters from the CrashDown Café the night before… and the strange rumor of an unknown avenger.

I guess it was a lot to put on her shoulders. She already couldn't tell anyone that Max had saved her life… or about us, who we really are and all… and now she couldn't tell anyone that the guy running around Roswell pretending to be a superhero was actually just an alien.

Liz traced a line with one finger through the stars in the sky, as though searching for 'the one,' then she sighed and began to write in her diary…

Ever since I found out about Max and Michael and Isabel, I've been thinking a lot about secrets… that for everyone who has a secret, there's someone else who needs to know what that secret is. How sometimes secrets keep people from feeling like they belong, and sometimes secrets make you feel like you do belong. And now even I, Liz Parker, the smallest of small town girls with the simplest of lives… even I have something to hide.

End of Episode 101

tbc…