Marvel 2000 Proudly Presents...

# 11
Written by Anthony Crute

The Offices of Doctor Leonard Samson…

“Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!” Amadeus bobbed side to side as he walked through the door of Samson’s practice and waved to Louise Grant Mason AKA the Blonde Phantom who looked up at him and Arlette Truffaut AKA who just didn’t bother.

Amadeus switched off his music and pulled out his headphones stuffing them into the outside pocket of his green jacket which he began taking off. “You know I can think of nothing which denotes masculinity more than a teenage boy surrounded by women singing Elton John classics,” Murmur shrugged. She again didn’t bother to glance up from whatever magazine she was reading.

“It’s Saturday and it seemed appropriate,” Amadeus shrugged, blushing lightly. The mocking of his teenage crush always had this effect on him. “Anyway I can’t think of a better way to spend my Saturday here. Ah, sarcasm, my one true friend.”

“That is why you don’t have a girlfriend,” Murmur deadpanned. She was wearing a low cut T-shirt, her long hair hung across the front of her face as she flicked through the magazine.

“There is nothing wrong with having a Saturday job, it builds character.” Louise smiled up at the two young ones not realising she had just sounded her true age (somewhere in her 80’s though she only looked in her late 20s). She was dressed as ever in a classic style. This one was a dark red dress that fastened across the front. Her blonde hair curled over her forehead from one side to the other.

“I know you could have called in sick today and spent the day inventing something which would make a billion dollars,” Murmur smiled at the thought.

“Anything I invent S.H.I.E.L.D have first dibs on,” Cho shrugged, ‘Such is life’ he thought.

“Not if you let me patent it, I could do with a billion dollars.”

“Go on a date with me and I’ll do that tomorrow,” Amadeus leaned on the top of Murmur’s desk. She now looked up from her magazine. She glanced to Louise who was fighting to stifle a laugh.

Truth be told Murmur liked Amadeus but not in the sense he wanted, he was much like the other people who worked for Samson. Intelligent, funny and confidant enough when he needed to be…he also seemed to show a distinct lack of fear for anyone and anything. He was cute too…for a child. He was just a good 6 or 7 years too young for her…and the prison sentence she would get also wasn’t exactly a selling point. “Not worth it.”

“What if I told you I was already a Billionaire…as soon as I turn 18.”

“I’d say call me when you’re 18,” Murmur smiled. She’d thrown the kid a bone.

“It’s a date,” Amadeus grinned. This did make Louise burst out laughing. Amadeus was often shy and easily embarrassed it was good to see him joking about something he was sensitive about. “How is my glorious guiding mentor today? He still a bear with a bad head?”

The question was asked before Louise could open her mouth as the door to Samson’s office opened. The giant green haired behemoth stood in the doorway. His face looked gaunt and pallid, the skin seeming to hang loose. He looked like he had been up all night…well with his superhuman stamina it looked like he had been up all month.

“Morning, Amadeus,” he grinned briefly and moved towards Louise while still talking to his young protégé “Did we have an appointment today?”

“Er…not officially. You asked me to come in this weekend to beef up the computer security.”

Samson looked at him briefly and nodded as if the memory had just came back. He rubbed his eyes. “Sorry,” he sat down on the edge of Louise’s desk crushing her phone with his hand as he leaned back on it. He barely seemed to notice. The blonde glanced up at Murmur who looked back at her with concern. “I’m feeling completely off today, just so tired and…foggy,” he shook his head tossing his green hair around like he was trying to clear the fog.

The effects of no sleep, heavy hypnosis, psychotropic drugs and his body fighting the venom from the villain known as Slither was taxing even his body to the maximum.

“Maybe you should take the day off today again. I don’t think it’d be wise for you to see any patients,” Louise walked into his field of vision looking concerned as she spoke. She was always playing ‘mother’ to those around her.

He smiled briefly before running both hands across his face and eyes. “I’m one step ahead of you. I rearranged a few appointments till next week or the week after. I’m not seeing any patients today just touching up some of my notes and trying to get the book finished for Sarah, she’s driving me crazy.”

“A day off does not entail work,” Louise shook her head as she moved towards the filing cabinet.

“I need to keep busy,” Samson said with a shake of his head.

“I think you need a rest too Doc, do I have to tell you the effect on your body and brain with too little sleep. I bet your ATP ratio is already down by 30-35%. What were you up to last night anyway?” Amadeus dropped down behind the screen of his computer and began to type.

“I was…” he crinkled his brow with thought for a moment or two as he grasped to remember anything before he arrived for work this morning in the same thing he had been wearing yesterday “…eh…I think I just did some reports and then turned in.”

“You can’t remember?” Amadeus was compiling the information his massive brain powered by fat and sugar from as much junk food as he could eat was gathering. He was searching through his vast knowledge and deductive reasoning to come up with some kind of explanation for his friends behaviour. Tired, pale, rundown, groggy and confusion, he was already deciding that the list was too long without additional information. Samson could be currently suffering from anything between a flu to radiation poisoning. Given Samson’s nature as a radiated superhero opened up a whole new mass of explanations from freak sunspots affecting his Gamma charge to some nefarious super villain plot.

Amadeus was just about to question Samson some more when the door to the office swung open. Everyone turned to look as the two women walked in.

They were both dressed similarly. White shirt, plain slacks and a smart but casual trenchcoat (feminine cut). They were Stacy Dolan and Dakota North respectively. One was the hard bitten but beautiful cop girlfriend of Leonard who wasn’t in the best mood with him at the moment over his current obsession with the seemingly innocent man previously known as Doctor Faustus…not helped by his unwillingness to admit she may have been right and he may have been wrong.

The second was the hard bitten but extremely beautiful ex-model turned detective ex-girlfriend of Leonard Samson who wasn’t in the best mood with him at the moment over his current obsession with the seemingly innocent man previously known as Doctor Faustus.

The two women despite being so similar (though this was probably actually the reason) did not get along well if at all. It was definitely strange to see them together. “We arrived at the same time,” Dolan defended as she saw the surprised look on the faces of the assembled group.

“Serendipitous huh?” Dakota raised her eyebrows. She of the two women was the more relaxed and was the one who didn’t really have a problem with the other, she was just in the habit of returning hostility directed at her.

Dolan shot her a withering look, Dakota did not wither, it was not in her nature.

“What brings you both here?” Samson asked. The tone in his voice which he was trying to hide indicated that this was both surprising and a little taxing for his current cognitive ability.

“I’ve come to let you apologize and ask me to give you a second chance, that is if you’re over your damn ego-trip based obsession over the other psychologist to superheroes?” Dolan placed her hand on her hip and raised her eyebrows in expectation. “If not I’m going to kick you in the gamma irradiated nuts.”

“I’m here to talk more about the case,” Dakota added almost off hand.

Samson rubbed his eyes again and shook his head slowly. He sighed heavily. “Dakota, I was wrong. Fennhoff seems to be reformed and just using his art exceptionally well to treat his patients. Just wrap up and pay off whoever you need to and I’ll cut you a cheque.”

He sighed heavier now. “Stacy,” he looked up and stared her squarely in the face. “I am sorry for everything I put you through yesterday. I was out of line and wrong. I’m man enough to admit it. I hope you’ll agree to dinner tonight when your shift is over.”

Dolan smiled gently. “Right,” Samson continued. “Louise you were right too. I’m not in any shape to work at all today. I’m going to take the day off and put my feet up at home and rest.” Samson nodded. He grabbed the jacket from just behind his door and slid it over his massive frame.

He moved to Dakota and Dolan. He kissed Stacy gently on the cheek. “I’m hoping you two will take advantage of this serendipitous situation and at least decide not to shoot one another.” He waved gently and breezed from the office, the weight seemingly lifted from his shoulders now he had aired his apologies.

The five left in the office stood momentarily astounded. “That was odd,” Amadeus summed up.

Dakota North turned with a sly grin to Dolan. “Told you so,” her expression changed to one of concern. Samson was acting strangely. Dolan nodded agreement with a sigh.

That night…

Leonard Samson sat curled in a ball in the corner of his sofa. He had slept through most of the afternoon and awoken feeling better. He was still feeling a little groggy and he still had the fog in his mind he had been experiencing all day but he was feeling much better.

He was currently reading through the stack of articles he had managed to get on Fennhoff…or by Fennhoff would be more accurate.

Fennhoff was a great psychologist and he had obviously made some break through in technique that Samson was blind to previously based on his hate for the man. Now that Stacy had made him see the error of his ways he was open to learning that secret and applying it where he could.

It was certainly strange how quickly his blinkers had been removed. He remembered yesterday clearly, how much he hated the man and his mistrust and yet this morning as he walked into his office it was like the red mist was cleared. He could see Fennhoff for the great man he was and all that mistrust was just gone. It was definitely strange.

RING…RING…

Samson finished the sentence he was on and then dropped the sheets of paper down whilst reaching over his shoulder with the other hand to answer his phone. “Hello…..” he was suddenly silent, his face stoic. “…Yes. I understand.”

He hung up the phone and turned walking directly to his front door. He closed it behind himself and headed down the hallway and into the elevator. Outside of the building he climbed into the waiting car which began to drive.

A car across the road suddenly burst into life and began to follow at a carefully chosen pace and distance. Dakota North had a lot of experience tailing people and if there was one time she needed to do it effectively it was now.

Stacy Dolan sat in the seat next to her. She watched the concerned look on the driver’s face and wondered if she still had any feelings for her boyfriend. She brushed it aside as she caught a glimpse of the three people sitting in the backseat. The Blonde Phantom, Murmur and Mastermind Excello shared the same look of concern, concern for a friend.

40 minutes later, The Second national Bank in NYC…

The large steel door on the vault creaked, then groaned and then screamed as it was gripped with the massive strength of Leonard Samson and Mr Hyde. The two powerhouses were nearly strong enough to match the power of The Hulk and so even with a thin coating of secondary adamantium was not enough to stop the door being ripped from it’s housing and tossed to the ground.

In the back of his mind the images from a similar bank robbery he was part of…perpetrated by The Wrecking Crew which he tried to stop played through his mind. The thoughts of stopping a bank robbery and then committing one were not congruent together with what he believed about himself but somewhere in his mind, these competing beliefs were brushed aside by an order “Steal the money”.

The four present figures of Slither, Shotgun, Mr Hyde and Samson moved quickly into the vault. The two strongest of the quartet grabbed the metal bars that encaged the money within the vault and yanked them clear letting their companions begin to fill the sacks they had with them.

“I think we should call in backup…this is a bank robbery and they need to know.” Dolan spat as she crept forward through the lobby of the bank. Her gun was drawn, her backup was in the shape of two private detectives Louise Mason and Dakota North. They each had their weapons drawn covering her.

The two much more casual figures of Amadeus Cho and Arlette were walking casually behind them. “I’ve turned off the alarm signal and the security cameras so it’s not like anyone is coming. Unless a cop car happens to drive past and see the smashed entrance way.” Amadeus offered helpfully as he tapped on the palm pilot he was carrying. “They’re in the Vault,” he confirmed as he looked at the video streaming from the security camera.

“This isn’t Leonard, Stacy. I say we handle it and then call in the police to sort things out. The last thing we need is a shoot out with him under Faustus’ control,” Louise rationalised.

Dolan bit her lip and nodded. She was repeating to herself mentally that ‘this is not illegal’. She was the cop usually dispatched to deal with superhuman crime so that’s all she was doing…the four civilians who just happened to tag along. She shook her head and ignored that part for the moment.

There was suddenly a loud hiss. The five looked up, atop the glass partition which led to the employee only part of the bank was Slither. His fangs were bared and he was coiled back ready to strike.

Amadeus looked down at the screen of his mini computer and watched Slither in the vault shift his head flicking his tongue in and out to taste the air. “Oops. There appears to be a delay.”

Murmur grabbed the shoulders of the youth and quickly extricated him to the side of the bank. It appeared to be just in time as Shotgun popped out from somewhere behind the glass and let a flurry of shots loose.

Louise, Dakota and Stacy leapt sideways to avoid the shots. All three rolled as they hit the floor changing the direction so they came up ready to fire.

Slither was already leaping through the air twisting his body as the first flurry from their guns were released. He hit and darted with lighting speed towards Louise. She changed her target from Shotgun to him and fired another volley of rounds which he managed to avoid darting side to side.

His neck suddenly snapped out forward in a strike towards her. Louise tossed her full bodyweight backwards bringing her foot up across the chin of the snake like mutant. She cart wheeled away from him.

Stacy and Dakota watched with some measure of amazement from the corner of their eyes and continued firing at the armed man while Louise used the best of her athletic abilities to distract the snake-man.

“We are screwed when Len and Hyde come through that door,” growled Dakota. She signalled as she did so for Dolan to cover her while she dashed across a space to get a different line of fire from her companion.

It seemed almost like a cue. The second North said those words the two huge figures of Doc Samson and Mr Hyde stepped through the door carrying on their backs the huge bags of cash which they and their companions had managed to collect. They dropped their bags and simply strode through the three inch thick bullet proof glass showering the floor with it’s shards.

“Arlette we have to do something…Doc and those guys will kill them. We can’t just hide here,” Amadeus turned to face Arlette. She looked down at his pleading face and sighed.

“Curse you Amadeus for making me do this thing,” she shook her head and teleported away.

Amadeus turned back to the battle just to see Arlette appear above Samson’s head. She dropped down a few feet and clung to his neck. “STOP!” she commanded him using her mind control power.

Samson reached up over his back and grabbed her by the hair. Arlette let out a cry of pain and teleported herself away. She landed in a rough pile on the floor just behind Amadeus. He turned instantly to check if she was okay. “He’s being controlled by hypnotic suggestion, my powers wont affect him when someone else already is.” She shook her head and gritted her teeth as she tried to deal with the pain racing through her.

Amadeus nodded. He knew what he had to do now.

Stacy dodged behind a large pillar as chunks were blown out of it by the shotgun wielding Shotgun. Her problems suddenly became worse as the hulking form of Doc Samson charged towards the pillar dodging around it with his surprising speed. She managed to avoid him with a diving leap, Shotgun seemed to anticipate this and unleashed a couple of shots which thankfully missed her.

Two of the shells however exploded into the shoulder of Doc Samson causing him to cry out in pain. He stood still for a moment and let out a deep roar of anger while clutching his shoulder.

His face changed briefly as a look of confusion drifted across it and then the cold stare returned. He fixed it on Dolan who had already scrambled to her feet and was running away.

Shotgun cocked his weapon putting a bullet in the chamber and then swung it up ready to fire. A trail of blood shot out from his forearm as a bullet fired from Dakota North blew a hole in his flesh. He let out a scream of pain and crumpled sideways.

“F**k yes,” barked Dakota before tossing her body weight backwards letting the massive fist of Mr Hyde slam into the ground splintering the tiles. She fired again this time at the behemoth who was attacking her. The bullets grazed his flesh and he just kept on coming.

Louise was continuing her flipping and leaping carefully avoiding the snapping jaws of Slither every time he lunged at her. He suddenly seemed to change tack as the figure of Amadeus Cho sprinted dangerously close behind him.

The villain turned on the spot and launched at the teenager. Louise grabbed hold of his tail as it came into reach and gave it a good yank. This was enough to recapture the snake creature’s attention. “They’re under hypnotic suggestion!” barked Amadeus as he sprinted away from her.

She sighed heavily. This meant it wouldn’t be right to shoot them.

Amadeus continued his sprint across the massive lobby. In his hands he held his palm pilot mini computer. It only took him a few seconds before he was sprinting up behind Leonard Samson.

Dolan had already begun to scream obscenities at him as she saw him coming up behind their friend.

“Doc!” he screamed. He waited for a second his heart almost in his mouth.

The massive figure turned to stare down at him. “Doc, I know you can hear me…but you can’t. Faustus has put some idea in your head.” Amadeus was walking backwards slowly away from his friend. His friend was following showing no sign that the teenagers words were getting through to him. “I believe you wouldn’t hurt me…he can’t make you. It’s like a survival instinct, hypnosis wont let you do something you’re really not comfortable with. You can’t kill yourself and you can’t kill someone you care about.”

Samson swung his fist towards him. Amadeus chucked himself to the floor as he hit he could hear the yell from behind Samson as Dolan screamed for the teen’s safety. Amadeus grinned as he lay on the floor beneath the behemoth. He launched his foot upwards right into the testicles of the giant.

Samson let out a shout of pain and anger. He wobbled sideways and shook his head.

Dolan understood now what was happening. Amadeus had been expecting Samson’s positive feelings to override the programming he had been given by Faustus. She also understood why it wasn’t working.

If there was one emotion which would snap Samson out of it; it’d be anger. He was gamma irradiated and all of those Hulk-types wore their hearts on their sleeves no more than when they lost their temper. Samson had to mediate and pray at least twice a day to keep the temper which raged within him under his complete control. It was time to unleash the beast. “Piss him off!”

Amadeus grinned passed Samson’s legs to the face of Dolan. “Way ahead of you.”

Arlette appeared above the head of Samson again and came hurtling down on top of his shoulders. She jammed the large pair of headphones across his ears and then ported away again before he could swing at her.

Amadeus hammered a button on his palm computer and then Samson let out a scream of pain. His hands moved to his ears but another swift rising kick from Amadeus to his sensitive area brought them back down.

Dakota was now forced up against a wall. Mr Hyde roared and brought his arm back to it’s full position before launching his fist forward. North closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. She opened them after nothing came. Hyde was gone.

The resounding noise across the hall drew her attention. Hyde stood there with Arlette clinging to his back. He had just launched his massive fist into the face of Doc Samson rocking him back into the thick concrete and metal walls.

Arlette vanished, reappeared next to Amadeus, both vanished. The duo appeared by Dolan who joined them in their vanishing act before the three appeared right in front of North.

They leaned forward on their hands. Their eyes fixed on Samson as he screamed angrily and launched his own fist into Hyde sending the massive figure arching back through the air.

“One more,” sighed Arlette as she disappeared. She reappeared with Slither just above the two battling monsters. She released him and teleported herself out of harms way again.

The snake creature landed on Hyde who swung his fist up to meet him in a rage. Slither responded by snapping his neck back and forth sinking his fangs into the body of Mr Hyde.

Samson reached forward and hauled Slither off of Hyde. He held his tail and swung him sideways around one of the pillars. The snake mutant’s head lashed around the pillar twice before slamming into it with a sickening thud.

Doc Samson was rocked back again by the rising fist of Mr Hyde. He rocked back with another fist of his own as the two massive figures began to trade blows.

“What’s going on?” Louise asked as she moved towards the four who were pressed against the wall.

“He’s hulking out,” Amadeus nodded. He was amazed by the amount of strength that both of the men were putting out as they slammed one another around the room into the floor and the walls with punches and kicks. The building was shaking.

Samson roared. His muscles seemed to bulge more than ever before. His hand was tightened into a fist, veins visibly pumping green up and down. He tossed the massive sledgehammer like fist forward across the face of Hyde.

The thick strong bones of both his hand and Hyde’s skull could be heard cracking down the street. The thump Hyde made as he hit the floor was no less resounding.

Samson shook his hand letting out a noise of a wounded animal. He growled as his eyes panned up from his still shaking hand to the five figures who were pressed against the wall watching him carefully.

He stomped towards them. The three armed women got ready to fire should they need too while Arlette went to grab at Amadeus but the little figure had launched forward towards Samson.

He skidded to a halt just before the giant figure. His green hair was now hanging down across his face in a sweaty clump. Amadeus tossed himself around the waist of Samson and hugged him tightly.

Samson looked down at the young teenager and then up at the women in his life. He exhaled slowly. “Where am I? What’s going on?”

Sunday night, Samson’s apartment…

The six figures were sitting around the apartment. “It’s amazing,” Louise shook her head as she looked around the apartment. “Not the hypnotic suggestion and all of that but Fennhoff managed to get a builder out here on Saturday morning to fix the damage Hyde did.”

“That’s a thought, any chance of getting him on that?” Samson lifted his head from the back of the sofa where it had been resting.

Dolan raised her eyebrows for a second. “No,” Dakota cut in “I checked, paid full in cash by a big green haired man. It turns out robbing banks wasn’t all he had you do.” Dolan flashed her a look almost in disbelief that the woman actually thought to check up on that.

Samson tightened his hand into a fist and brought it up to his face shaking his head.

“And you can remember nothing?” Arlette queried.

“No nothing, the others neither,” Samson cursed.

“So he’s going to get away with it?” Amadeus asked. He took a sip from the drink he had in his hand.

“Well he’ll be brought in for questioning but unless he owns up…which is doubtful he’s going to get away scot-free. It’s not like we can blame every Doc whose patients bump up the recidivism rate.”

“So he just gets away with it? That’s not right? We all know he did it…you’re superheroes can’t you just…punish him yourself?” Amadeus tightened his hand into a fist. The big hand of Samson came down on his shoulder and rubbed it gently trying to ease the teens temper.

“That’s not what we do.” Samson sat forward and exhaled “What we do is treat those he’s already hurt. Slither, Hyde and Shotgun are being put into my care. We also watch him, he’ll slip up sooner or later and when he does we’ll be there.” Samson quietened the voice in the back of his mind which told him he didn’t think Faustus would screw up any time soon. “So no-one knows I was involved?”

Dolan shook her head, she didn’t look best pleased with herself. “Amadeus destroyed the video and there was no money gone so once Arlette got you out of there I radioed in that I had come across the scene of the crime and some unknown superhero had already knocked Hyde out.”

“You okay with that?” Samson could already tell she wasn’t.

“What committing a crime? Lying to my superiors? Just to protect you…eh I’d do the same for anyone.” She shrugged with a smile, she ran her hand across his letting him know she wouldn’t have done it for anyone else.

“One thing I have to know, how did you know I was being controlled?”

The group looked at one another. “Please Doc,” began Amadeus. “I’m the 7th smartest person in the world, Louise has 60 years experience as a detective and superhero, Arlette was one of Canada’s finest, Dolan and North are both great detectives. When it comes to figuring stuff out like this…you’re the office idiot.” Amadeus flashed a smile at his mentor which made everyone laugh aloud.

Across town…

Fennhoff sat flicking through the newspapers of the day whilst he drank his tea. He had already had a number of patients be transferred away from him and several TV spots cancelled now that it seemed that his miraculous technique was not so miraculous.

He was comforted by the fact that the money they had already stolen would pay more than triple than he would have got. The massive number of calls he had received to appear on more shows to discuss his disappointment also eased the blow.

He folded the paper and took a drink of tea. He looked down at the list of patients he would be seeing tomorrow and laughed. There was plenty of possibilities for his next batch of ‘patients’.

Life is good. Sometimes crime does pay.

The End

Next Time: Samson and Arlette visit the Pleasant View mental hospital. Where both will learn more about themselves than they’re comfortable with.