I pulled up a chair and sat down. Kevin squinted up at me, and mumbled something I didn’t catch. I ripped the duct tape off his mouth, taking most of the ‘stach he was working on along with it. “What was that?”

“Please don’t kill me! I’ll give you anything you want!”

It was only then that I realized I was wearing my mask, and he had absolutely no idea who I was. It was almost like i really was just a cartoon superhero, and nothing else.

That was a good thing, actually, but it meant that I would have to choose my words carefully.

“What could you possibly give me?” I asked in a gruff voice, and now I was kind of praying that I could get out of this without him finding out who I was.

He looked desperate, maybe more desperate than the situation demanded. “You must want something!” he babbled. “My parents, they have money, power. They know people. Whatever it is you want…”

“Shut up.” Kevin’s unhinged babbling was starting to worry me. I hadn’t pictured him as such a pushover. “Why do you think I want money, or power? You think those are the only things in the world that have any value?”

“Oh my god, you’re gonna kill me. Oh my god,” he started repeating it over and over. It was ridiculous.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I snapped. “As long as you shut up. Quit being such a baby.”

That’s when he started crying. “You are going to kill me,” he insisted. “I know who you are.”
Woah, wait, what? “Is that so?” I said cautiously.

“You’re Suspect 7!” He blurted out. “You’re the reason we had to move again! They said you were coming to kill us!”

I made sure my voice would be calm and level before I spoke again. “They told you?” I repeated. “Who are they?”

“People that work for my parents! Security people! Oh my god, they told me not to come down but I had to see for myself oh my god no one knows where I am oh my god now you know that they don’t know oh my god…”

“Shut. The. Hell. Up.” This guy was unbelievable. How did Mr. Cool end up being such a wimp? He had his chin tucked into his chest now, and he was sobbing quietly.

“Snap out of it, Kevin. I’m not gonna kill you,” then I added, “if you answer my questions.”

“Anything…anything.”

“Good. You can start by telling me everything you know about Suspect 7.”

He sighed heavily, and then looked up at me. The venomous glare in his eyes was more along the lines of the Kevin Joy I knew. “I know that you’re an escaped mental patient,” he said. “I know that you hate my family for being rich. And I know that you tried to kill my girlfriend, and that’s why we had to move again, because you’re planning to kill us all.”

Visited Aurora in the hospital for the first time today. I tried to go before. I couldn’t make myself walk down that long hallway into her room. She’s in a coma, the docs say, which means her brain is hurt.

But it’s weird. I thought that she would be all cold and still. Instead her lips are almost always moving, at least on the ‘level’ she was in when I saw her. And every once in a while she lifts up her right hand a bit, like she’s about to reach for something.

Her mom told me that the doctors say its good she’s exhibiting signs of awareness. It means she could come out of it in weeks or even days. They say it’s actually pretty rare for people to stay in a coma forever.

Still.

It’s like Aurora’s trapped in some tiny dark space at the back of her mind, and I’m the one who put her there. What was she going to tell me? What if I never hear her voice again.

I have no interest in being one of those superheroes that lives out his days tortured by loss, and motivated by a desire for revenge. Batman, The Punisher, Constantine, Spawn, Elecktra, Swamp Thing, the list goes on and on and it sucks.

I should have listened to New Guy when he said I’d get her hurt.

He hasn’t been to the hospital. He hasn’t been to school this week. Aurora’s mom keeps asking me where her ‘boyfriend’ is.

But now I know that New Guy was right. Maybe he was never anything but a spy for his parents’ company, but he was right. I got Aurora hurt.

And maybe I know I need to back off, but all I can think about is going and doing the one thing the giggling man told me not to do.

I’m gonna find New Guy/Kevin Joy, and he’s going to answer some questions: About JoyTech, about Aurora, about everything.

I could tell Aurora was seriously curious about the origins of the photos from inside the plant, but I tried to divert her attention from the sneaky, sneaky truth of my nighttime adventures by focusing on the problem at hand.

Lucky for me, she’s easy to focus when she gets mad.

Aurora’s been working with grassroots activist communities since she was old enough to carry a protest sign, so she called every single person she knew who has any sway in politics or business in Ring City.

Eventually, she got a group together of about six people that could make serious trouble for JoyTech, including a member of the Conurban Council, and a reporter for the Daily Ringer who doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the editor where her cozy relationship with the JoyTech CEOs is concerned.

The group set up a meeting with this guy, John Barr – none other than the pencil-pusher I overheard arguing with the scientist guy the other night!

Basically, they laid all their cards on the table for him: they had pictures of JoyTech’s animal testing facility – never mind where these pictures came from – they were pictures that made the animals’ living conditions seem cruel and unusual, at best. They would go public with the photos unless JoyTech offered full disclosure on what was happening in the facility.

If you remember the conversation between John and the scientist, then you know he already knew that sh*t was about to hit the proverbial fan. He asked for the weekend to speak with the JGIC lawyers and make a decision on how to proceed.

This was on Saturday. At the time, me and Aurora were stoked. We figured there was no way JoyTech could get away with this one.

Once the public saw and heard about what was being done to those animals, the insane experiments would stop, and the plant itself would be run out of town on a rail! Right? Right?

Wrong.

I went to bed last night depressed and thinking it was all for nothing. The story of the mess in the river came to nothing. I was going to have to start all over again. Then I woke up to Jerry screaming at me to come see the early news.

Turns out someone – a nameless informant – came forward and linked the dumped recycling directly to JoyTech!

Woot! Who’s your daddy?

It’s me, JoyWreck. I’m your daddy.

As if it wasn’t so obvious, but with this guy or whoever coming out and saying that he drove one of the dumping trucks, no one can deny it any more!

At least the media can’t. JoyTech certainly can. They released an official statement today saying they had no idea what was going on at the recycling plant.

They claim to have hired outside contractors who were trying to cut corners, and that this ‘tragedy’ was “completely outside the scope of their awareness until today.”

Yeah right. That’s the same thing they said about the whole water treatment scandal in 2006, AND about the huge waste management lawsuit against them in 2002.

Hey Global Improvement Company, maybe it’s time to stop hiring those “outside contractors.”

Anyway, obviously things aren’t so friendly between JoyTech and the Conurban Council now, because the Council made a special announcement on the news tonight that they’re putting together their own group of independent overseers to “monitor standards compliance” at the recycling center for the foreseeable future.

I have to admit that I was hoping for something a bit more spectacular, something along the lines of the entire company crumbling to dust and blowing away on a puff of breeze. But I’ll settle for SO BUSTED.

Not in my city, JoyTech. I’m watching you.

Aurora finally made it over to watch the last episode of Jericho. Ever since she started dating New Guy she’s got zero time. Fine. Whatever. I just wish the night hadn’t ended with us getting in a stupid argument over the message of the show.

The plot of Jericho was simple. A company is contracted to provide support to the U.S. in the event of a nuclear attack. The company makes the attack scenario happen, takes charge of the fallout, and eventually installs itself as the new government.

Me and Aurora both agreed that based on everything we know about how contractors handle humanitarian disasters, this scenario is entirely plausible.

We started to disagree when I said that it wouldn’t really make a significant difference to how this country works if power changed hands in this way. It all comes down to the same kind of people wanting the same kind of things.

But Aurora, doing her whole goddess of the downtrodden thing, said that it did matter how it happened, that we have to believe in the goodness of people and in the potential for change that is ‘non-destructive’ (her word, not mine).

That got us on to the topic of Adrian Veidt’s scheme in The Watchmen by Alan Moore, which we both just read. It is definitely one of the greatest graphic novels of all time.

Veidt basically unleashes a horrible monster on New York, which causes the world to band together against a common enemy. Of course, Aurora thinks that no positive outcome could justify the death and destruction caused by Veidt’s scheme.

You know those people that are so good and trusting and true that they make you feel bad about yourself, but you can’t hate them because they’re so totally beautiful and perfect and amazing?

That’s Aurora.

The last thing she said to me before she left was, “Fine! Why don’t you just go destroy the world, then?”

But that’s not what I want at all.