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.”

FYI - All images are pics I took, then made into cartoons with Toon-FX. They’ve got some cool free stuff on their website you should check out!

Recap: here’s everything I know about Kevin Joy, a.k.a. New Guy

He started at Ring City High at the beginning of the year, right around the time that JoyTech moved their corporate HQ to Ring City and opened the new plant.

He was rich, he had a nice car, he was instantly six million times more popular than I was. He threw huge parties, all the girls LOVED him, of course, but instead of going for some braindead cheerleader, he hooked up loudmouth activist extraordinaire, my best friend, Aurora Lively.

He then proceeded to argue with her about everything she believed in, tried to stop her from organizing action against JoyTech for their crooked environmental policies, and he made anyone who disagreed with him look like a crazy person.

I made the mistake of just assuming he was a rightwing douchbag. We got in a couple of fights. Whatever.

His ‘mom,’ who is young, and blonde, and suspicious as hell, came and talked to Jerry about our ‘scuffles.’ She said some threatening stuff, and actually implied that she knew things about Jerry’s past that could get him in trouble.

Then I discover that for some reason, his family is VERY interested in ME. Like, taking surveillance photos interested in me.

Then I get shook down by the giggling man, a JoyTech enforcer who tells me to stay away from New Guy, aka Kevin Joy – the guy is actually part of the royal JoyTech family!

So it now seems obvious that Kevin wasn’t just some right-wing-capitalism-is-great nutjob.
He was actually speaking for JoyTech, trying to make everybody at Ring High just as Joy-ful as he was!

And now that Aurora is in the hospital, he’s suddenly gone. Nowhere to be found, no traces left behind. Except I figured out exactly how to find him.

I got up this morning and realized I could walk pretty easily on my shot foot, so the plan of the day was to go see Aurora. She’s still in the hospital. Still in a coma. No change, which is getting to be worse and worse news.

Usually if someone doesn’t come out of a coma within the first couple of weeks, they stay that way.

I felt guilty for not visiting for so long. Aurora’s mom even called, if only to ask me if I knew why New Guy wasn’t coming around. I almost shouted at her, “He disappeared because Aurora found him out for the fraud he is!” But I restrained myself, and I promised her I’d be around soon.

I was heading out the door when Jerry reminded me that I was supposed to be going down to the cop shop to give a statement. About Aurora’s ‘accident.’ But what was I supposed to say? “Oh yeah, officer, it was someone I call the giggling man, who hit her to punish me for fucking with JoyTech, or maybe to punish me for messing with her boyfriend, who was secretly a JoyTech spy. You see, this all started because I’m in love with a girl who will never hook up with me…”

And then I didn’t want to go to the hospital anymore. I didn’t want to sit there with Aurora in a hospital bed while whoever had hit her was roaming around free. And I didn’t want to talk to the cops about something they would never understand.

Suddenly, I felt more than just guilty. I felt massively, unbearably guilty. I should have been doing more for Aurora. Focusing on protecting her instead of getting all caught up in this fight with a company that I couldn’t even make a dent in. Going there, thinking I would, what? Storm the ramparts, draw the giggling troll out of its lair, and destroy all evil?

Trying to somehow punish JoyTech for what happened was like hitting my head against a brick wall. What I really needed was a soft spot. Somewhere I could apply pressure, somewhere I could pour out all this fucking guilt, and frustration, and ANGER…

If I wanted revenge, if I wanted to draw the giggling man out, there was only one thing I could think of that fit the bill, and that was stupid Kevin Joy’s stupid face.

Look out, New Guy. You’re about to become un-disappeared.

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.

(If you’re lost, check out my last tooned note here.)

“Here is my proposal to you, Suspect 7. You continue to attempt to thwart corporate evil. I will continue to spin your efforts into dazzling PR for my employers. All will continue as before, save for one small thing

“In exchange for your freedom, you will leave young Kevin Joy and his family ALONE.” The last word came out shrill and screaming in my ear and I cringed away from him.

He smiled, then rose to his feet, dusting off his knees and tittering to himself. I could feel Mrs. Brisby trying to burrow deeper into the depths of my pocket.

It was now or never.

Ignoring my pounding head, I sprang to my feet, still partially tied to the chair. Mr. Giggles’ mouth opened in a round O of surprise as I barreled into him, shoving him towards the thug with the gun.

As the other thug reached for me, I reached up to grab some manacles dangling for the dungeon ceiling, and I used the guy’s body to pull myself up and over him, swinging out through the door into the hallway beyond.

Then it was time for my patented superhero move: running like hell.
I ran blindly, not sure if I was getting out or trapping myself deeper in the building.

I was still half-drugged and out of it when I burst through a set of doors to the outside. Suddenly I was in the brightness of early morning, on a busy downtown street in front of a totally unassuming highrise.

I pulled off my mask as passers-by looked at me strangely.

A taxi honked at the traffic in front of me. A bum asked me for a quarter.

The whole scene was so surreal that I had to force myself to get moving. Not that anyone followed me out of the building.

I started to walk, looking for some familiar marker to orient myself. But I couldn’t focus. All I could think was: Kevin Joy. Kevin. Joy. Kevin Joy.

New Guy, who had shown up at school at the same time that the JoyTech Global Improvement Company set up headquarters here in Ring City.

New Guy, who was always telling Aurora to stop worrying about JoyTech.

Mrs. New Guy, waving my picture around.

“Leave Kevin Joy and his family alone.”

As I tried to wrap my head around it, I felt like I was suffocating, like I was drowning and every breath brought in more water.

Mrs. Brisby’s heart beat like a tiny machine gun, in my pocket, against my chest.

After I got over the whole “tooning your mom” thing, I was planning on starting my investigation of familia New Guy with a little recon, like Googling his name, but I realized that I didn’t know his last name, and I didn’t know how to get it without looking…suspicious.

So I followed him home after school.

Turns out – big surprise – buddy lives in Palms Reach – the richest neighborhood in all of Ring City.

Why the guy travels for an hour every day to go to Ring City High is beyond me. Maybe his parents are some of these ‘give the boy a normal life’ types, but I doubt it. They’re certainly not worried about living in the lap of luxury to the point where it’s offensive to normal people.

The house, at the end of a long curving driveway that should have had its own street name, looked like the kind of place they find murdered celebrities on CSI: Miami. There were even guards patrolling the grounds.

Luckily, the row of giant trees winding up to the house made semi-aerial movement an option, and I was able to travel by branch all the way to the circular turnaround in front of the house.

From up in the trees, I got a great look inside the glass-walled house. I saw a maid cleaning an upstairs bedroom, and I saw New Guy and his mom standing around a table. It looked like they were having an argument. Mrs. New Guy was waving a piece of paper around.

I asked Mrs. Brisby (who travels mainly in my pocket these days) if she could get a closer look at the paper. Seconds later, my phone beeped. Image received.

I pulled out my phone. Mrs. Brisby took a great zoomed-in shot of the paper, all right. But it wasn’t exactly a piece of paper.

It was a glossy 8×10 of yours truly.

Believe it.

I timed the rounds being made by the guards, and when there was nobody looking, I dropped out of the tree and booked it to the line of shrubbery surrounding the house. I had to know what they were talking about – why they were arguing about ME.

I was almost under cover when I heard the dogs.

Jesus Christ, were these people the fucking mob?

While my brain was still grinding away at the crazy security measures, my feet turned me around and ran like hell.

One of Jerry’s favorite nuggets of life wisdom: “Never fight a dog.”

I didn’t have the angle to get back to the trees, so I ran for the high brick walls surrounding the property. I focused on getting up the wall in front of me instead of on the dogs behind me, but I could already tell I wasn’t going to make it.

I threw myself at the wall and felt a set of jaws close around the heel of my boot. I said a prayer.

Then there were arms coming down from above, hauling me up, and a whistle in the distance that made the barking behind me cut out like a switch had been flipped.

My body went limp with relief as two sets of arms pulled me over the wall. Then I felt a pinch at the back of my neck, and the last thing I saw was a white, windowless van before everything went blurry and disappeared.

I keep going over New Guy’s last words in my head:

“You’re the one that’s gonna get her hurt, Green.”

“You’re not flying as low under the radar as you think.”

Was he talking about taking Aurora to the movie? Or could he have been referring to my…other activities?

The weird thing is, the whole situation brought to mind another encounter.

I don’t think I ever wrote about this, but after the food fight at the football game, New Guy’s mom did show up at our house to have a talk with Jerry.

It was pretty funny. When Jerry opened the door, it looked like Tommy Chong coming face to face with Heidi Klum.

He just stood there, mouth slightly open, while this uber-fashion plate blonde that didn’t look like anybody’s mom adjusted her garden party hat against the breeze and air-kissed his check.

Then she strolled into our trashed kitchen (hey, what can I say, we’re bachelors), wrinkled her nose and said, “Thank you. I think I’ll stand.”

The conversation basically consisted of New Guy’s mom berating Jerry in an extremely calm, polite voice, while he did his best to look like he had a clue what she was talking about, which he didn’t.

As a rule, Jerry minds his business, and I mind mine. All calls from the school principal go to my cell phone.

The only fireworks came at the end of the conversation, when Mrs. New Guy said something vaguely threatening, to the effect of, “I’m considering this issue resolved. Any further problems will be brought to the attention of the proper authorities.”

Did I mention Jerry hates being threatened?

The conversation when from polite to shouting match in five seconds flat.

The reason I bring this up is because of the way Mrs. New Guy ended it.

She suddenly said, in this real conversational way, “You’ve spent some time in prison, haven’t you, Mr. Green?”

Jerry stopped yelling.

Then she said, “You’re not flying as low under the radar as you think,” and she walked out the door without closing it behind her.

So what is that? Some kind of favorite turn of phrase around the New Guy household?

It makes me think that I should learn more about his family.

All images toonified using Toon-Photo by Toon-FX.

I’ve pretty much been laying low since the protest. You’ll quickly understand why. Anyway, at least it gave me some time to fool around with Toon-FX a lot more.

So who really ruined the protest? Me, or New Guy? He was the one that came barging in, arguing with Aurora and bugging her to leave.

I guess I should be thinking about what I just did, and how pissed Aurora is going to be, but all I can think about is that stupid recycling center full of boxes.

If the center was full of boxes, what’s in the plant? It wouldn’t hurt to get a look at the place. Poke around, see what else they’re up to behind those smokestacks and shiny silver walls.

I don’t like sleeping at night anyway.

(p.s. - Welcome readers from OnlineComics.net!)