THE THROTTLER, as she calls herself, took me back to her place. She lives with her grandma at a trailer park just up Blood River from the JoyTech plant.

She berated me the entire time for complaining about my foot, then she handed me over to her grandma, who rips off my shoe, pulls the slug out with a pair of pliers, then pours about an entire bottle of rubbing alcohol over the hole.

And the whole time I can’t even wince without the grandma saying sharply, “nothing broken, boy!,” and THE THROTTLER muttering insults at me for being, in her words, ‘a huge puss.’

To top it all off, somehow this chick gets her hands on Mrs. Brisby, and that traitorous rat just lies in THE THROTTLER’s lap like she just died and went to heaven.

So I’m lying on this family’s kitchen table, trying to catch my breath, and then suddenly my savior/captor is firing questions at me. “Why do you wear a mask?” “Why were you at JoyTech?” “Why did you attack the scientists?” “Why don’t you carry a weapon?”

I finally proposed a trade-off. I’d answer her questions, if she’d answer mine.

So check out these little factoids:

Turns out THE THROTTLER, whose real name is Meegan, is part of this tiny “non-recognized tribal nation” of American Indians that used to live in the area where the JoyTech plant now resides. They were politically autonomous until the whole Conurbation thing happened, and then they slipped under the Conurban Council’s radar, which is how JoyTech was able to buy their land.

The only thing Meegan’s tribe had going for it (her words!) were these Coal Mouth hot springs, that were originally discovered when the tribe sold the land to a mining company. But when the hot springs caverns were unearthed by digging, the tribe got all pissed off, said the land had some spiritual value or something, and took it back.

They were able to do this because all the miners had been hired by the mining company from the tribe, so they just kind of revolted. Meegan’s pretty proud of it. Her grandfather was one of the leaders or something. (Check it out: she let me toon his pic!)

Even since then, they’ve been sort of guarding it and keeping it a secret. No one knew about it because it never got put on a tourist map or anything, but apparently, JOYTECH knew about it, because they booted Meegan’s tribe off the land (literally, like, with giant booting machines), and set up some experimental geothermal lab down there.

Now, according to Meegan, her tribe’s been petitioning the Conurban Council to get their land back, to no avail, and the kicker is that they can’t even get it listed as an ecological preserve or anything, because no one knew about it in the first place. Again, according to Meegan, the whole area was covered in indigenous species of plants and animals that are on the brink of extinction, but JoyTech has all the power now and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.

Sound familiar? How do they get away with this stuff?

It’s a credit to how easy Toon-FX is to use that I managed to post this while shot in the foot.

With one eye on the Shovel and Burn bozos (wish I had more pics to toon of THEM!), I ventured deeper into the caverns that formed the base of the JoyTech smokestacks. There were maybe a dozen pools in all, some bubbling, some still.

I’d already guessed that this must be some sort of geothermal energy project. Halogen lights were strung up along the ceiling like someone had put time and effort into setting them up like that. Each pool was equipped with pipes and sensors going in and out.

Actually, they kind of reminded me of Aurora there, in that white hospital bed, all hooked up to machines and tubes.

The other thing I couldn’t help but notice was this rumbling noise, and a vibration coming from beneath me. I figured there must be levels below this one, but then, at the far end of the cavernous area, I came to a truck supporting some kind of machine. I can only describe the machine as looking a hell of a lot like a drill, only small and futuristic, like something out of Armageddon (lame ref, I know!).

I was still staring at the drill when the GeoTherm team clocked in. All of a sudden, a sliding metal door at the far end of the cavern opened, and a team of science-types in white lab coats spilled in, arguing noisily amongst themselves.

Not wanting to waste the element of surprise, I ran at them, reaching into my jacket as I did. Suddenly, I had six scientists calming pointing handguns at me.

Now I know why the Shovel and Burn guys are so jumpy.

I skidded to a stop in front of the group, producing from my pocket one very scared white lab rat.

That got their attention.

“Where did you get that rat?” One woman demanded, and then they were all talking very loudly, firing (excuse the pun) questions at me and arguing with each other. Who in their right minds would give these people guns, I wondered.

Then one man’s voice stood out among all the others. “On the ground!” he was screaming. “Get on the ground!”

Ah crap.

Mrs. Brisby began scrambling up my arm towards my pocket. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t let these scientists take me down, or get their hands on Mrs. Brisby. I needed answers, but how could I fight six hysterical people with guns?

“Hit the dirt!” yelled the guy who watched too many movies. He glared at me fiercely through his safety goggles.

I shook my head, “Can’t do it.”

That’s when I got shot in the foot.

For some reason, I reached into my pocket for Mrs. Brisby – maybe I did it just to freak them out with my pet rat – but immediately, they both jumped back.

“Don’t shoot us!”

“Shoot you…” Slowly, I pulled my hand out of my pocket, leaving Mrs. Brisby behind. “You guys won’t have anything to worry about, as long as you answer some questions.”

“Anything!”

The guy who had tried to run turned to his partner. “I told them! I told ‘em I wasn’t getting paid enough to deal with this shit!”

“Shh!”

“Shut up!” I realized I had to get control of the conversation fast. “You,” I pointed at the jumpy guy. “Stay shut up. You,” I pointed at the other guy, “tell me what you do down here? What is this place?”

The guy I was questioning raised his hands defensively. “It’s like I told the last one, this is just the Dump. All we do is shovel garbage.”

“Shovel garbage? What are all these pools and pipes for?”

The guy looked guilty. “Would you believe I have no idea?”

Before I could respond, the guy who couldn’t shut up interjected angrily. “We’re not on Geotherm! We’re just Shovel and Burn! I’m not gonna be…throttled again for some business I don’t know nothin’ about.”

“Throttled again?” I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to throttle you if you…wait, who’s throttling you anyway?”

“The last one of you came down here asking questions. What’d she say? That we were ‘violating the sanctity of mother earth,’ that ‘the Coal Mouth Hot Springs belonged to her family,’ and that we was thieves!”

“Thieves,” the second guy echoed.

I took in my surroundings with renewed interest. “The Coal Mouth Hot Springs?”

I’d never heard of any hot springs in Ring City. “Alright,” I said to the jumpy guy, “you talk.”

He glared at me for a minute, then began reluctantly. “All this used to be Indian land before it got absorbed into the Conurbation thing. These here are natural caves, and these pools were like, the Indians sacred area or whatever you call it.”

“So how did JoyTech get their hands on it?”

The guy snorted. “Man, I don’t know why you people don’t come down here when Geotherm is on shift. They’re the ones got all the information you’re lookin for. I told you, and I told the “Throttler” or whatever her name was – we shovel garbage. End of story.”

I decided to ignore the Throttler thing for the time being. “Fine. So when does Geotherm come on?”
“Not for another couple hours.”

I nodded. “Then I’m just gonna hang out here til they show up, maybe poke around a bit. And if you guys try anything stupid, I’m gonna get you worse than…the Throttler did.” I made as if to reach inside my jacket pocket again.

They both jumped again. I couldn’t believe how well the whole fake weapon thing was working. Much thanks to the creepy mask. I stared them down a bit longer til they got back to shoveling garbage. Then I went exploring.

I broke the surface to find myself in a cavernous room that looked like a cross between a spa and a garbage dump.

Pools like the one I had landed in dotted the room, ringed in black rock and piped with columns of snaking copper like something out of Steamboy or LoEG.

Every available inch of ground that wasn’t taken up by a pool was covered in piles of garbage that gave off an awful reek in the heat.

“Hey whatteryoudoindownhere?”

I turned to find myself being inspected by two guys in overalls and goggles. They stood in front of a set of massive copper boilers, and did nothing but lean on their shovels curiously as I swam to the edge of the pool and pulled myself out.

“Did ya fall from fixin’ somethin’ up there?”

I realized I must look like a JoyTech employee in my gas mask and hazmat suit. But I wasn’t in the mood to be sneaky.

I hauled myself out of the water and shook free of the suit.

“I don’t work for JoyTech.”

They frowned at me. One of them muttered something like, “oh dear,” and dropped his shovel, making as if to turn around.

“Don’t move, fella. I’m gonna ask you guys some questions.”

The guy who had made a move froze, and I saw his eyes travel over me nervously.

He was checking to see if I had a weapon.

And believe it or not, this was the first time I ever thought about carrying a weapon. I knew all superheroes have a weapon – it’s either their power, or a magical thing, or a super high tech gun – but I’d never actually had to whip one out before.

My idea of ’superhero’ was turning myself into a cartoon. And the fights I’d been in were all just fighting other kids with my fists. Now suddenly, I was planning on grilling these guys for information, and I had no idea how I was planning on scaring them into talking.

I wonder if I made my last post into a comic so it would seem less real and freaky. Like, if it’s just another crazy adventure of my superhero self, then it’s not a big deal, right?

I’m glad that so many people liked my comic on Friday. But I also feel like I have this huge problem, and I really want to know what you think I should do about it.

To get you up to date: I was snooping around JoyTech, and I overheard some scientists talking about these experiments they were doing on animals, and how all the animals were dying.

I snooped around a bit more, and I found this storage facility where they’re keeping all their “test subjects.” I didn’t have long to investigate, but what I saw was pretty horrible. All the animals looked rough, and some of them looked…deformed or something.

I don’t really know.

My very first instinct was to rip open all the cages, open the door and get those animals out of there, but I know it doesn’t work like that. I’ve seen 28 Days Later. I’ve seen Free Jimmy (which you should check out, if you haven’t).

Point being, I know it doesn’t work to just free animals from captivity.

According to Wikipedia, most of them are bred specially for testing, and euthanized once the experiments performed on them are over. The animals never know life outside of the lab, and would probably need special care, if they did.

That’s why there are now retirement facilities for chimps that have been used for entertainment or research purposes. They can’t go back to nature, we basically ruined their chance at a normal life, and now we are morally obligated to provide them with a decent home for the rest of their near-human lifespans.

The idea of chimp retirement communities is fine, but all of this seems like a nightmare to me.

I’m going to do some research, present for and against arguments, and you tell me what you think.

Is JoyTech perfectly within its rights here, or do these animals need to get out of that lab? I wish I could talk to Aurora about this…

On the night that I recorded the conversation in my last post, I had to get home before dawn, but I went back last night to have a look at that animal testing facility. I had to know what they were doing that so many animals were dying. And of course, I knew where to look, because I realized I had already heard the noises of crying animals…

I really tried to come prepared. I had my camera, for the purpose of documentation, and I had an old gray horse blanket I found in the basement that I threw over the top of the barbed wire perimeter fence. I took a running start and got up and over fast.

I had to cross a huge parking lot before I got to the first outbuildings, but it was monitored by cameras and floodlights.

I pulled the blanket off the fence and over my head, and I ran for it, trying to stay out of the light and look like a piece of pavement. It was probably the worst part of the whole night, because I had to guess where I was going and I couldn’t tell if there was a whole army of JoyTech thugs chasing me.

Eventually I hit a wall – hard. I ripped the blanket off my head, and rolled behind a row of garbage bins until I was sure no one was coming to investigate.

After all that, when I finally got up to take a look around, it was pretty hilarious. The place was dead. Now that I was out of the parking lot, there was minimal lighting, no cameras, and no patrols or anything.

I jumped up on the bins and pulled myself up onto the roof of the small outbuilding I had run into. It wasn’t very high up, but it gave me an amazing view of the compound layout. The plant itself was at the center, low and squatting like a dull metallic spider, with pipes and smokestacks coming out of every surface.

Even at 3am, the vents and smokestacks were still belching fire and noxious substances up into the night sky. No rest for the wicked, as they say.

All the pipes connected the main plant to about two dozen outbuildings of various sizes. And it really looked like some kind of malevolent creature with all its tentacles reaching out, feeding off the smaller creatures and the earth around it.

Before I could follow that train of thought to a creepy conclusion, I took off down the pipeline that led from the roof of the building I was on towards the main plant.

About halfway down the pipe, I realized that it was heading straight for the wall of either the main plant, or a big building attached to the plant. And it didn’t look like there was anywhere left to go.

When I got to the wall, it looked like I’d have to turn back. I was probably twenty feet off the ground, and the pipe fed into a blank wall made up of panels of some opaque synthetic material.

I sat down on the pipe a minute to think, and that’s when I felt a gust of warm air on my legs.

I hung over the side of the pipe, and saw a vent located just underneath the pipe! Score!

Using the ridges of the piping material for grip, I hung upside down from the pipe and tried pulling the vent off. No such luck. It was screwed on tight. What kind of idiot doesn’t bring a screwdriver on a recon mission?

While I was mentally kicking myself, my legs lost their grip on the pipe and I fell, straight into a giant heap of cardboard. I heard my shoulder pop. Dislocated. Hurt like a b*tch, but luckily I was one of those little brats who was always popping his shoulders out, so I held my breath and slammed it into the wall, jamming it back into place. Don’t try it at home, kids.

Getting out of the compound was no problem. I retrieved my trusty blanket (every superhero should have one) then looped around to a spot I had seen from the roof where there was only a few feet between a building and the fence. Much easier than running across the parking lot.

Only one really weird thing happened on my way out. As I was passing a small building that looked like it was a toxic materials storage shed, I thought I heard this little yelping noise. I stopped to listen, but the sound didn’t come again. Then, though, as I was walking away, I swore I heard this whole series of little squeaks.

JoyTech has a rat problem, maybe?

Anyway, I’ll go back tomorrow or Sunday night, with the right tools this time.