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!

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.

I couldn’t get another word out of jerry after I mentioned my parents. He just sat there with his hands twined together on the Formica tabletop, and all he would say was, “Mmm-mmm, I told you, Nemo, I don’t know.”

That’s the same thing he’s told me my whole life. He has no idea who my parents were, or are. And honestly, I never cared. I didn’t have some kids-movie-injected false sense of a perfect mommy and daddy waiting for me somewhere. I’ve never felt like I lived the wrong life. Even though I don’t really have many friends, and Jerry is weird, and I guess I’m kind of weird, I’ve always felt like I was where I was supposed to be.

This is all to explain why I’d never pressed the issue of my real parents with Jerry. I just felt, suddenly, like they must have played a part in all this. Maybe they were even in prison for something they did to JoyTech!

But even now, I gave up on bugging Jerry pretty quick. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know. Aurora did this whole thing last year where she trekked halfway across the world to meet her real mother. It was…really disappointing for her. Sometimes people have good reasons for giving up on their kids.

On the upside, she had a great time traveling and came back with all these politics and causes she wanted to crusade for.

Which is how I got involved in running around in a mask at night trying to save the world from evil corporations. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to try to prove that I’m the one Aurora should be with. Not because I was coerced into it by Jerry and his gang of old farts.

Me. The ultimate weapon against JoyTech? I couldn’t get that line out of my head, it was so kookoo. I couldn’t go a week without getting shook down by the giggling man, injured at the plant, or burned by New Guy, who turns out to be the latest in the long, noble line that is the JoyTech dynasty.

I was definitely feeling attacked from all angles. What could I do? What did great superheroes do if they were being overwhelmed by the opposition? I guess it depends on if they’re traditional heroes, or antiheroes. Do I identify more with Superman or Batman?
Hmm. That’s a tough one. Yeah right.

If I was Batman, this is the part where I would go out and knock down all my enemies one by one until Gotham was safe again.

Check this out.

I realized that in my last post, I didn’t say anything about what Meegan’s situation is. And it’s actually weirdly connected to mine.

Obviously, she decided to find a way to take down JoyTech, but the funny thing is, she didn’t decide what she was going to do until she went to this protest (ring any bells?), and saw this guy in a gasmask start a riot!

Holy *@#!

She said that. Serious. She said that I was who inspired her to take action, and that I was her big hero or something, until she snuck down into the cave and saw me get shot in the foot.

She asked me what I do to train and I said, “huh?” and she rolled her eyes.

And then she made a big point of saying how totally unimpressed she is by me now.

And then we were sitting there staring at each other, and I realized that we both still had our masks on.

Talking to people when you’re in a mask is really weird, because you don’t know if you should take it off or not. It’s strange and kind of embarrassing talking normally when you’re wearing the mask, but you can’t just reveal your identity out of the blue.

So throughout our whole Q&A, we’re both firing questions at each other in these masks, and grandma is puttering around the trailer like nothing unusual is happening.

And then there was this lull. We’re both totally exhausted and I think I’ll probably pass out in two seconds, and I notice that Meegan’s gasmask is a lot more modern than mine.

Mine is, I think, from the Crimean war, but hers looks like it’s straight out of the Gulf War. And I’m checking it out more closely, and I guess I kind of leaned in towards her, because suddenly she raised her hand and made as if to pull off my mask.

My first reaction was to jolt backwards, but she followed me with her hand, so then I caught the strap behind one of her ears, and pulled at her mask.

We both hesitated for a second, like we were waiting for the other one to be ready, and then the masks came off.

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.

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.

Much as I’d like to take the credit, I’m not much of an artist. All these pics were made into cartoons using super simple software.

When is it time to admit that your behavior is getting pointless and obsessive?

Me and Mrs. Brisby have gone back to the JoyTech plant every night this week. And every night it’s the same thing. I jump the fence. I climb across the roofs of outbuildings. At the main building, sometimes I sneak around the outside. Sometimes I hit the air ducts and clatter around in there for a while.

Some nights I find a new room, but it’s always the same thing: computer labs, science labs, offices. Last night, I came across a big room with no lights on, but all the computers were humming, and at every station an employee sat, doing data entry.

What kind of data entry needs to be done at four in the morning?
I know there’s something going on here that’s way bigger than the recycling thing, and even the animal thing. I’ve just got to figure out what it is…

Except, I can tell that I’m losing focus, for two reasons.

First: when I was leaving the plant last night, I heard a couple of security guards coming around a corner towards me. But instead of ducking out of sight, I kept walking towards them. Mrs. Brisby tried to make me stop by tugging on my ear with her little teeth, but I just paused long enough to make sure the meeting would be surprising.

As soon as they were almost on top of me, I rounded the corner and walked smack into the guards.

“Oh, sorry guys. I didn’t see you there.”

In a split second my hands were behind my back and cuffs were going around my wrists. The guard that didn’t have a hold on me was on his radio, talking rapidly.

“Damn, you guys are good! But I can’t stay. Hang on, Mrs. Brisby!”

Using the guard’s hold on me for leverage, I managed a couple of bouncing steps and then I ran up the wall of the plant, flipping back and over my captor. We both fell down in a heap long enough for me to wrestle away from him and jump up, running.

My recently dislocated shoulder burned from the rotation of the flip, but I had to keep running. As I ran, Mrs. Brisby scurried down my arms and somehow got the cuffs off my wrists. I could hear the guards pounding the pavement behind me. I prayed these guys weren’t part of the gun-toting JoyTech thug squad.

And then I was up, and over the fence. I heard the guards’ radios crackling as they shouted into them, but I didn’t look back. I ran all the way home with Mrs. Brisby chittering angrily in my ear.

Into my backyard. Home free. I grabbed my bedroom windowsill and launched myself up, pulling myself through the window to the safety of my bed, which happened to have a warm body in it.

“Mmmmphhh….Nemo!”

Second reason I can tell I’m losing it: I forgot I had plans with Aurora to go see a midnight showing of the Dark Knight. She had been waiting, for hours, in my bedroom, in a pissed-off state, for my return.

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…

Finally, finally made it back to the plant last night, equipped with some recon equipment, a Phillips head screwdriver and, thanks to a flash of brilliance, some grippy kneepads for keeping myself attached to the pipe this time.

Fast forward to the spot where I was last seen bailing out and murdering my shoulder. This time, I swing down and make sure my grip is strong before I start working on the screws holding the vent in place.

I focus on the work, not the potentially crippling fall, and before I know it, I’m crawling into the JoyTech plant ventilation system.

To start, I’m so stoked I made it in that I don’t really think about where I’m going, or what my plan should be. I decided to crawl ahead a bit and see if I could get a look at anything going on below me without actually getting out.

When I do come to an outlet vent, it takes me a second to understand what I’m seeing. Clearly, the duct that I’m in is attached to the exposed ceiling of a giant white room. But instead of conveyor belts pumping out widgets or sprockets or whatever, the floor is covered with row after row of these long, stainless steel tables, covered in lab equipment.

The place is pretty dimly lit, and at first, it looks empty, shut down for the night, but then I see that there are a few guys left working at little stations. I realize that I must have made a ton of noise clattering up the duct, but no one seems to have noticed.

I watch them for a while, doing whatever it is that mad scientists do, then one of them get a phone call. He listens for a minute, then he swears, BASHES THE PHONE INTO TABLE, stands up, and walks quickly through a pair of sliding glass doors leading out of the giant lab.

Obviously, I need to follow this guy.

I looked towards my left, and I saw there was an intersection up ahead in the duct. So I slithered off down the duct in the general direction of the glass doors, trying not to bang around too much.

Once I got out of the giant lab space, moving was easier because the ventilation system was concealed behind a low ceiling. The outlet vents were beneath me now and I could see the scientist walking down a long hallway with rows of office doors on either side. The vent I was in only led off to every second office, so I prayed he was going somewhere I could follow.

Bingo. He turned to a door with an intersection in the duct above it. Quiet as I could possibly be, I turned the corner and sidled up to where the outlet vent pumped cool air down into a tiny cluttered office. A haggard-looking dude was sitting right below me at a desk heaped with papers.

The guy looked up, and did not look happy to see the scientist. When the scientist opened his mouth, I could see why.

You will not believe what this guy had to say.