Gerry stepped back and considered his stock from the customer side of the bar. The Merchant was a small bar by Hudson City standards; old school décor, lots of dark wood and brass, scents of mahogany and pipe smoke. It was nothing at all like J/T, where Gerry last worked. No, the Merchant wasn’t trendy in any sense of the word and that went doubly for its stock of liquor.

Dear Soldier Boy,

 As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today! How can I make him stay away?

Sincerely,
O. Gnash

Soldier Boy Sez...

I'm not really sure what the fuck you're talking about, but if you keep going on like that you shouldn't have any trouble keeping people away from you, you damned freak.

 It was no bigger than a golf ball, but Soldier Boy had seen the damned things explode. When the timer ran out, a little more than a minute from now, the explosion would bring the entire museum down on him. If that were the only problem, he could deal with it, but trapped in the basement with him was an entire class of seven year olds and their teacher on a field trip.

“Can’t you do anything?” the teacher asked. Her voice trembled and her eyes were wide with terror. She was actually doing a fair job of holding herself together, but just barely.

Dear Soldier boy,

I have this friend who drinks too much, swears too much, and fornicates constantly outside of wedlock and without the goal of procreation. How can I help this friend see the error of his ways and the path to salvation?

Yours in Christ,
Soul Samaritan in Salt Lake City.

-----

Soldier Boy Sez...

Does this guy you're talking about also beat the living shit out of any prissy little wise ass who tries to get smart with him? If he does, I think I know the guy. My advice to you is to never, ever, poke the bear.

Also, thank you very much for providing me with the name of your home city. Start running, bitch.

Dear Soldier Boy,

There's this kid at school who keeps bugging me. I think he'd quit if I fought him, but my dad says violence never solved anything. What do you think?

Pestered in Poughkeepsie
-----

Dear Pestered,

As far as the world was concerned, in 1991 the Soviet Union slowly collapsed beneath the weight of seventy years of bad economic and social policy. The truth, however, was far more interesting. On three occasions that year the world was just a heartbeat from destruction. Operatives on both sides, both human and metahuman, scrambled for a piece of the crumbling empire. It was a wild time in which anything could happen. At one point there was even a dragon involved in the drama. Nobody has ever been able to explain the dragon. At the end there were winners and there were losers. Yuri Kasov was one of the losers.

The younger of the two detectives looked more like a model than a cop; tall, attractive and dapper as hell. The older man on the other hand was unmistakably a cop. It was something about how he wore the suit. He somehow didn’t look dressed up. The older man smiled and extended a hand to Ophilia.

“Good morning, Ms. DiSantiago. Det. Carl Ferris, HCPD. This is my partner, Detective Zachary Chippe.”

"Good morning detectives." Ophilia returned with an easy smile as she shook his hand. Only the large mahogany desk separated them and she was quite curious as to why they were there.

She took a moment to sit down and gestured for them to do the same.  "How can I help you today?"

The bustling Friday night traffic in Hudson City did nothing to slow Nemesis and Soldier Boy as they raced towards Lafayette.  The updates were few and far between over the communicators, but it was clear that whatever was happening in Fayettenam, was more than Paladin, Avatar and Heatwave could handle on their own.  The hypercycles slid in and out of traffic, onto and off of the sidewalks and even skimmed over the Stewart River to land on the banks of Crown Point.

Danny raised his hand to knock on the door, then hesitated. She was his cousin. She liked him. They got along. But would she listen? His arguments were good ones, but he was up against a legend here. And despite having been on the team for nearly half a year, he was still considered to be the new kid.

Ah well, he thought, nothing for it.

He knocked once upon the oak-paneled office door, then opened it and stepped inside. He knew she was in there; he could smell her.  "Cheers," he said brightly as he stepped into Ophilia DiSantiago's office. "Do ya have a moment or two?" 

NOTE: This meeting takes place AFTER the events in the Chimera plotline

"You like these, don't you?"

Jag opened his eyes and gazed up at a sweet pair of breasts, cupped in the skilled and nimble fingers of a girl named Amber. Or maybe it was Anna? Alicia? Something like that anyway. She was riding him slowly, expertly: the way he liked it. The way his second wife had done so that time in an old adobe hotel in Rio, Carnival going on in the streets below their room, a cinnamon and honey scented breeze filling the air, mingling with the scent of their sex.