Outlines (Episodes 5-8)

## Off The Deep End

##### Opening Scene

The episode begins with Sif on a moving gurney with about 4 alien medics surrounding him. Sif looks entirely bloody, with a busted face and clearly broken bones all over his body. They tell him to hang in there as we transition into a white flash. We go back all the way to 2007 where we transition into... a flashback. It's Sif, who is in a car with his uncle. We hear the song nobody wins on the car radio. Sif is seen looking very monotone as his uncle is seen with a subtle smile, nodding his head to the song. He reaches his hand out on the radio and makes the song louder. Sif turns to his uncle and says "Can you turn it down, please?".

His uncle smiles even moreso and starts to sing along, which makes Sif turn off the radio entirely. His uncle turns to him and says "Sif, come on". He puts the radio back on to a lower volume and says "This'll cheer you up". Sif turns to him and in an angry tone says "I don't need cheering up". After some awkward silence, his uncle says "Do you know that what you did was wrong?". Sif says "Why is it wrong? He picked on me and my friends and he wouldn't stop". His uncle says "So hitting him is the right answer?", to which Sif says "He wouldn't leave me alone unless I did".

##### Act I

Sif wakes up in an all white glowing room. He sees that he's wearing the usual clothes he wears instead of the prison wardrobe he had, as he gets up not feeling as much pain. He still has subtle back pain though, as he limps towards the door that is in front of the room. As he walks towards the door, he sees a little cube-shaped device that is sensor activated. It then opens up a hologram of Sif's entire body, looking exactly like how he looks like now. Sif turns around and faces the hologram, noticing a lot of bruises on his face. Sif sighs and says to himself "Murphy's gonna kill me when he sees this". He then opens the door, to find a large room.

The room has a chair and a table in the middle, with holographic screens in the back. Behind the table is a large pink alien named Geza. He says "Good morning, Joseph Hunderson. Did you have a good sleep?". Sif is taken aback by this, then begins to exhale. He replies with "Few things. Who are you? What are you? Where am I and how do you know my name?". Geza responds with "I am Geza of the Order of Eseraga and a Vokanjara. You are on board a space vessel just outside your homeworld and we have done our research on you". Sif is still entirely speechless, to which Geza says "I'm sure your kind is not used to such things. Sit down, Joseph, i'll explain everything".

Sif sits down on the chair and asks him to just call him Sif, which he obliges to. Sif then asks him to start from the beginning because he has no clue on what's going on. Geza begins to repeat himself, "I am Geza of the Order of Eseraga", to which Sif interrupts him and asks what that even is. Geza tells him that "The Order of Eseraga are a group of many different species that harness a magical power that originates from the spirit, Kammera and protect the galaxy as galactic enforcers, stopping numerous threats that are a danger to society and they work alongside the Galactic Union", to which Sif interrupts him again and asks what that is.

Geza continues by saying "The Galactic Union is a government that expands to 87% of all intelligent societies in this galaxy and keep everything unified and keeps the peace, with a central planet in the center of the galaxy named Metopia, a communal world not just belonging to one single species but countless. Earth would be the exception and part of the 13% not unified". Sif then says "Here's the part that gets me, Mr. Geza, HOW DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?". Geza begins to laugh and say "Oh, it's a built in universal translator. It's in most machinery these days and I wouldn't be surprised if it was in that watch of yours". "Speaking of...", Geza continues.

"How exactly did you get a hold of this device". Sif says "I assume you want the long answer, \*clears throat\*. I was with a really close friend of mine when it happened. I was on a mountain and some rocket thing crashed near by. I found the watch and I learned what it did real quick, but some robot thing came after me and beat me down. I took care of it. Twice, actually. Then a few days later, some robed aliens show up and kidnap me, which I assume to be you since you're wearing the same robe".

Geza responds, "We're sorry about that. We had to make sure if you were truly a threat and we placed you in the prison to test your capabilities. We never meant to harm you or anyone". Sif responds with "Then those are quite hypocritical actions". Geza then tells him "There's something that I must inform you. Have you seen a man with a sword?". Sif pauses and replies with "I saw a sword piercing through an AmpFibian". Geza looks at him in confusion and says "An amphibious alien?". Sif then corrects himself and says "My bad, I meant a sword piercing through a squid alien. AmpFibian is just what I name him. I have one of him in the watch".

Geza tells him "We believe that the watch came to you because the man with the sword sent a homing beacon to your homeworld. This man is Erik Krazinski" as a hologram of him opens up. "He used to be one of us. He was one of the most skilled and determined people I have ever met. He was my friend". Sif responds with, "I have a feeling 'was' is gonna get into play here". Geza continues, "We fought many threats, many terrorists that threatened the Galactic Union for years, but certain laws didn't allow him to execute them. When he took the law into his own hands, he became power hungry. He left us in search for a greater power and we fear he'll be even more dangerous. We cannot trust him with such a power as your watch".

Sif says something like "So am I in danger?". Geza tells him "We don't know. Fortunately, the vessel you are on also acts as a satellite. We are scanning every inch of your homeworld to find Krazinski and bring him to justice. It could take a while. Until that happens, you may keep the device. We've noticed the work that you do and it seems as though you'd make a good fit into The Order". Sif says "Thanks, I guess. But honestly, I think I should be heading home. This is just too much for me right now". Geza says "Very well, we shall transport you home shortly. We thank you for your cooperation and you're welcome to ask us any questions".

The scene then cuts to Sif entering a teleportation chamber. Sif asks "Is this even safe?", to which Geza responds with "Don't worry, there's only a 4% of failure". Sif starts yelling "I'D LIKE TO GO DOWN FLYING, PLEASE!". Geza says "Hang on!" as the teleportation chamber activates and successfully teleports Sif away. The scene then hard cuts about an hour later. It's now at Murphy's nightclub and they're sitting down towards the wall on a booth. Murphy's expression is just pure shock, with his eyes and mouth widened. Sif then says "And afterward, I got teleported. Thankfully in one peace".

Murphy replies with "You know something, I have never in my life considered drinking". He continues, "That's a lot to take in". Sif says "How do you think I felt?". Sif takes a swing of beer and continues, "So, what did I miss?". Murphy says "Other than me worrying to death, there is... a little inconvenience". Sif then says "Little never means little with you, does it?". Murphy pulls up his phone and shows him a news article with the headline "CITY-WIDE ARREST ISSUED FOR VIGILANTE KNOWN AS 'ALIENATED'". Murphy asks what he thinks, to which Sif says "I think 'Alienated' is a stupid name". Murphy says he meant the arrest, to which Sif says "I've already been arrested once. I think I can handle myself".

Murphy asks "What if they find out who you are or manage to capture you?", to which Sif says "Haven't you seen a movie in the past 10 years? I just have to save some people, they'll call it off when they see the good i'm trying to do". Murphy tells him that "this isn't a movie", to which Sif says he'll handle this. "I've already got enough on my plate. Besides, when did 'Alienated' become my nickname?". Murphy tells him "You made your existence public, like I warned you about. You sparked some unwanted attention I'd say. There's a whole... what do you say, reddit?". Sif corrects him and tells him its Subreddit, as Murphy continues "Yeah, subreddit. People generally agreed your name would be Alienated".

Suddenly, Sif notices some shady people entering the nightclub. These shady people appear to be heading to the restroom, with a waiter going in behind them. Sif interrupts Murphy and points to them, saying "Isn't that a little suspicious?". Murphy then says "Remember what I said earlier? This isn't a movie". Sif then says "It's a little suspicius, don't you think?". Murphy says "I'm sure it's nothing" as they both stare at them entering the restroom. After a few moments, Sif says "It doesn't hurt to check, y'know". Murphy gets up and as he's walking, says "I'm sure it's nothing".

Murphy walks towards the restroom and puts his ear on the door. After about 15 seconds, he walks back angrily. He approaches Sif and says "Bring them hell". The very next scene is of 3 shady men in the restroom pulling out a small ziplock with what appears to be drugs/pills. Since i'm shit at writing dialogue like this, the exchange boils down to: Hey waiter, pass these over and make sure everyone gets hooked tonight. The last person in the restroom comes out of the toilet stall and goes to wash his hands. After looking at the mirror, suddenly, Big Chill's intangible hand reaches out and smashes his face against the mirror, shattering it.

Big Chill then phases into the restroom. One of them pulls a knife and starts slashing, but Big Chill turns intangible and phases back in behind the man. He then grabs him from behind and smashes him to the floor. Big Chill then grabs the other man and goes towards a stall. He shoves him to the toilet and beats him down to the point that the toilet underneath him breaks. Meanwhile, the waiter and the last man leave through the door. Big Chill phases through the nightclub and grabs the last shady man. He levitates up to the ceiling and drops him, breaking his legs. The waiter on the other hand is blocked from leaving by Murphy, who ends up punching him.

The waiter manages to make it outside the nightclub but is grabbed Big Chill and flown up. He then makes a U-turn towards the nightclub and says "I'm gonna enjoy this more than you will" and throws him against the wall, which knocks him out. Big Chill looks around him and notices how badly he hurt them, as we cut to about 30 minutes later. The police and an ambulence have arrived, as the 5 people hurt are hauled over to an ambulence. Sif is seen talking to a cop as they stop questioning him and move on. Murphy approaches Sif, to which Sif says "I'm sorry about the eye", to which he responds "I have never been punched before in my life". Sif then says "If it makes you feel any better, at least it kind of blends in". Murphy says "Excuse me?", to which Sif responds "Nevermind, forget I said anything".

Murphy then tells Sif "As if this wasn't bad enough, I just got a call from Franklin. Another kidnapping occurred last night at the homeless shelter". Sif apologizes that he wasn't there, as Murphy continues "I'm going to fire whoever let these people in here, this is unacceptable". Sif then says "I'm surprised you didn't hound me for going so hard on them", to which Murphy sighs and says "Look, i'm sure it was just pressure. I'm sure you didn't mean to, just try to go a little easier next time". Sif smiles and nods, as a cop approaches and says something along the lines of "If you hear anything, let us know". Sif says "What now?", as Murphy suggests to go home. They've both been through a lot at this point.

-Insert second flashback here-

The next scene is of the PCPD (Paladdin City Police Department). About 30 officers are sitting down in one room as the Police Commissioner stands up on a podium in the very front of the room. He begins to say "Can I have your attention, please! In light of recent events, it seems as though this so-called 'Alienated' is back on the streets. We have every law enforcement agency in the state working to bring down and hit him". One of the officers in the room (the same officer who interviewed Sif and Murphy) speaks up, "Is this really necessary? He hasn't done anything to hurt civilians, in fact i'm pretty sure he brought down some serious heavy hitters we've been tailing for months".

The Commissioner asks "Officer Bradly, have you seen what happened to the criminals attacked earlier today?". Officer Bradly says "I was there, sir". The Commissioner then adds, "Then I assume you've seen the damage he's capable of. We do not allow vigilantes to operate in this city, it's simply against the law. What is to stop 'Alienated' from going off the deep end and killing criminals? Even civilians? I have created a task force that tracks down any movement of this vigilante and to keep track of patterns. We might end up knowing where he'll go next. Am I clear?". Everyone gets up and gets to work, as Officer Bradly looks down, very doubtful.

##### Act II

Picking up hours after the ending of the last scene, Sif and Murphy are home in their living room, finishing up a meal. They're both watching TV and see that there's security footage of Big Chill at the nightclub. The footage shown is of the shady man dropped from the ceiling and the waiter who was flown into a wall. The reporters essentially say "This is the first Alienated spotting within the past 3 days" as Murphy asks if what happened in those 3 days changed him at all. Sif turns to Murphy and says "What do you mean?". Murphy continues, "I don't pay attention to these details but the guys at the club... they came out with real injuries".

Sif tells him "I'm fine. I'm just a little off my game, the last 3 days have been tiring to say the least". Murphy then asks "You told me about the prisoner you worked with to get out, is there anything more to that?" Sif is quick to respond with "No", to which Murphy continues "I just find it a little hard to believe you worked with a prisoner for 2 days and everything went well" to which Sif says "Nothing happened". After this exchange happens, the reporter on the TV starts to talk about the 'Alienated' subreddit and how it's resumed in activity to capture the attention of the vigilante. Sif turns to Murphy, "Should I check it out?".

The scene then cuts to Sif on his computer, going to the Alienated subreddit. Some of the top posts include "ALIENATED SPOTTED AT THE SHOOTING STAR NIGHTCLUB!" and "Who is Alienated?". Sif begins to scroll down until he finds a post titled "Please help!". Sif clicks it out of curiousity to find the post essentially says "There are gangsters living in my apartment building and my sister was attacked! We don't feel safe!" along with the address. Murphy says "I know what you're thinking and I really think you should just rest--" Murphy is interrupted by Sif, "I have to check it out, at least. People could be in serious danger". Murphy adds, "There's no use in convincing you not to go, but please, watch out if you're gonna hurt people". Sif nods and gets out of his chair to leave.

The next scene is just outside of this apartment building mentioned. The area appears to be a really shady neighborhood. Sif activates his Alphamatrix and scrolls past a few aliens. He hits the Alphamatrix core but the scene cuts away before we can see who he turns into. The next scene is of the apartment hallway. We clearly see a man guarding the door with a knife. We then see the inside of the home, where at least 9 gangsters are all playing cards. We clearly see they are armed with handguns and there are some boxes that may contain drugs. We cut back to the hallway, in the point of view of the guard outside. The guard hears some creeping footsteps every couple seconds as the lights begin to flicker.

Suddenly, he sees Ninjace lunging at him at a high speed and crashing him through the door. The 9 men there all get startled and go for their handguns. Ninjace uses his quick reflexes and speed to lunge at one of the gangsters, grabbing him and throwing him at a man reaching for an assault rifle. He then rushes to a gangster aiming at him and grabs his gun, then proceeds to beat him with it and break the gun in half. One of the gangsters is seen holding a large knife and swinging at Ninjace, who gets kicked right in the chest. He falls to his knees and begins to choke, as he gets kicked again straight in the face. Suddenly, a gunshot is heard as Ninjace tries his best to move out of the way of an approaching bullet, but it still manages to graze his skin.

Ninjace looks to his shoulder to see his blood then at the man who shot him, as his hands turn into maces. He lunges at him and hits him with his mace hands right in the chest, which ends up stabbing him. The gangster that Ninjace threw grabs a knife on the floor and tries to stab him, but Ninjace is quick to dodge and slam his face right into the wall. He grabs him again and shoves his face into the wall once more, which knocks him out. The 5 remaining gangsters see that there is no use fighting as they run away. He runs towards them and grabs the leg of one, then drags him into the building and kicks him while he's down.

The 4 remaining gangsters are seen running away in the streets as Ninjace is seen jumping out of the apartment window and chasing after them at incredible speeds. He catches up to one of them and slams his head into a car window right next to him and proceeds to chase after the rest. The gangsters begin to fire back at Ninjace with the weapons that they had, which causes Ninjace to run off and climb the roof of a home and chases after them by running through the roofs of buildings next to them. The gangsters run off into a sea port nearby as Ninjace jumps off the roof of a building into one of the gangsters. He grabs him and shoves him against the wall with full force, which causes him to drop down.

He continues to chase after the 2 remaining, but unfortunately for him, the Alphamatrix begins beeping and times out for Sif, which causes him to run at a considerably slower pace. He rushes to put his hood on and continues to run after the gangsters, but they start firing back. Sif runs in zigzags to avoid the bullets and eventually gets cramps, so he hides behind a pillar. Unfortunately for him, the gangsters end up getting away which causes Sif to get physically frustrated and punches the pillar he's hiding on. We cut to the two gangsters who survived and outran Sif. They're at the end of the sea port and fully out of breath. One of the gangsters says something like "I can't do this anymore, man! I want out!". The other gangster responds with "That's not an option anymore, Garrett".

Garrett says "Please, man, I have kids! I don't want to put them in danger" as the other gangster begins to yell "I SAID THAT'S NOT AN OPTION ANYMORE. YOU CAN TAKE IT UP WITH THE BOSS BUT HE'S JUST GOING TO TELL YOU THE SAME THING I DID. SO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DO AS YOU'RE TOLD". Garrett nods his head, clearly looking terrified. We cut to the next morning, as we see the police surrounding the area. We see Murphy and Sif in their car at the beginning of the street looking at the police going by. Sif begins to groan because of the pain from the bullet that grazed his shoulder. Murphy turns to him and asks if he's okay. Sif responds with the usual "I'm fine. It just sucks how pain carries over".

Murphy asks if the blood that was left can be traced back to him, to which Sif says "How should I know?". Murphy says something like "You couldn't have asked that Gala guy?" to which Sif says "I wouldn't have thought to do so since it hasn't been a problem before". Murphy starts up the car and says "Look, I can't be here all day. There's not much to look around for, I have a meeting". Sif tells him to just drop him off home then. We cut to the officers who are there at the apartment. Officer Bradly walks over to another officer and asks "What's the story?".

The officer responds with "Alienated dropped these lowlife scumbags a visit last night. Things took a violent turn. One of them was stabbed but made it out alive and a fight broke down all the way down to the sea port nearby". Officer Bradly says "Sounds like community service to me". The officer responds with "Funny you say that. We believe that this incident happened because of a reddit post on that one Alienated reddit. Some poor girl had her sister attacked and took it to reddit to ask for help then that very night, Alienated shows up". Bradly says "Community service it is".

The officer turns to him and says "You realize we have to catch him... right?". Bradly releases a sigh and says "I can't believe it. This city's been poisoned and has been for the past 10 years and the one hope that this city gets... we're gonna kill it. Do you think this is right?". The officer says "Hell if I know, Bradly. I do know that the commissioner makes a good point. We don't know who or what he is. We don't control him and that makes him dangerous". Bradly interrupts her and says "Alright, I get it. I'm gonna head over to the sea port, see what I can find" as we cut to the next scene.

This time, it's at the Paladdin City docks. Murphy is seen walking past a bunch of workers to find Franklin, who takes him to a building nearby. He sits him down in an office and says "Good seeing you again, Murphy". Murphy says "Listen, Franklin. I hate to be rude but we need to talk". Franklin nods and says "I know. Everything is being taken care of". Murphy continues, "I'm getting worried. The homeless shelter, it's becoming unsafe. And now it's the nightclub. Are we just hiring the wrong people?", to which Franklin tells him "I'm re-evaluating the staff. I'm doing all I can at this moment but just trust me when I tell you that everything will be fine. I can tell that it's soul-crushing for you to sit back and watch all of this happening".

Murphy tells him "What's "soul-crushing" is the fact that the police is doing nothing about this. But i'll tell you who was there. Alienated. The same person-- errr, thing, that the police are hunting down. Don't you see how messed up that is?". Franklin looks at him with a serious stare, "You can't be seriously praising him. He could be dangerous for all we know. Alright, I can see what you mean. We're all doing what we can, we're just a little tight on resources. I promise you, by the next few weeks, this problem will be fully resolved. Oh, and... i'm sorry about your eye". Murphy looks confused, "Wait what? OH, yeah, thank you. I guess everyone put in a little work to stop the ongoing crime". Franklin smiles, as this scene ends.

We cut to Sif at home, clearly waiting for a message from Anna. He sent her a message along the lines of "Hey! Sorry I haven't messaged you in the past 3 days, I have just been busy! I really miss you!! :)". Sif, on the other hand, is seen messing around with the Alphamatrix and scrolling through aliens, trying to think of names. He goes through "Big Chill... Ninjace, Chromastone" and stops at a pillbug-shaped alien. "I haven't seen this one before", Sif says. The core pops up and right before Sif is about to slam it down, he gets a message from Anna.

"WTF IS UP WITH THIS ALIEN THING" "ARE WE BEING INVADED?". Sif replies with "Probably not! This Alienated guy is actually trying to help". She replies with "How do you know?? Have you met him?". Sif responds with "Me and Murphy saw it attack some bad people at his nightclub". She responds with "My parents say I should stay here until he leaves or somethin", to which Sif begins to slam his arm rests in frustration, which ends up breaking. Sif begins to panic but writes "NO, NO! Don't worry! It could just be nothing, don't worry about it!". She replies with "Oh ok" and "I've gotta go, talk to you soon!!! :)".

Sif looks below to his broken arm rest and says "God fucking damnit". Suddenly, Murphy comes home. Sif yells "DON'T COME IN!", to which Murphy does anyway to find the chair. He voices his frustration, "What did you do to the chair?! Come on, Sif, i'm not made of money" to which he says "Look at the screen". Murphy does indeed do that and says "Yikes". Sif looks at him and says "Why is this happening?". Sif gets up as Murphy says "I don't know anymore. So much has happened in one week that frankly, I just don't have the answers for. And you, you've been through more in this week alone than most people in their lifetime and I know that you're strong enough to get through this".

Sif replies with "Thanks, but that doesn't really help. I think i'll visit the reddit again, see what crimes I can stop today". Murphy tells him that he'll be making dinner, as Sif goes to search through the reddit. He doesn't find much though, as it's just people freaking out over what happened last night. Sif just groans and decides to lie down on his bed, which causes another hallucination.

-Insert hallucination here-

Murphy ends up snapping Sif out of his hallucination by calling his name and telling him dinner's ready, to which Sif asks "HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?". Murphy yells, "2 HOURS. WHY?". Sif starts saying "Oh shit, oh shit" as he checks the reddit again to find a new post and the most upvoted one. The title of the thread is "SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY IN THE DECLANSON SEA PORT, ALIENATED PLEASE READ!". The thread ends up being about the same sea port that was there in the previous fight scene and that there's some suspicious activity. Sif leaves his room and tells Murphy "I'll be back in a few. Looks like I have something to take my mind off it after all".

Murphy's all like "You mean what happened earlier?". Sif nods and leaves the apartment, as we cut to outside the sea port. Sif is seen sneaking around in the shadows. He activates his Alphamatrix to find the pillbug alien and says to himself "Eh, worth a try". This initiates a transformation sequence as Sif starts to grunt, not knowing who this is and ends up falling down on his back. Sif yells "GOD DAMNIT, THIS ALIEN SUCKS!" and tries to get back up as the lights and lampposts around him turn on. We then hear a SWAT van enter in the sea port as armed policemen come out of hiding and aim their weapons at Cannonbolt.

The main policeman approaching says something like "Alienated, we have you surrounded! You are under arrest on the charges of assault, aggravated assault, disturbing the peace, destruction of public and private property, and overall negligent conduct resulting in harm to others!". Cannonbolt stands up finally, "PLEASE, JUST HEAR ME OUT! I didn't hurt anyone--" the policeman interrupts, "Like the people you didn't hurt last night?". Cannonbolt continues, "I didn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. I go after bad people". The policeman then says "Yes, you do. Outside the law. Are you aware of your actions indirectly hurting others?"

Cannonbolt asks what he means, to which he says "The attack on the 14th of April, the explosion of the diner resulted in 3 injured men". Cannonbolt pauses and says "There would've been a lot more had I not been there! I'm not debating this, get out of my way and let me do my job!". "Don't make this harder for yourself! You don't want 'resisting arrest' added to your list of charges". SWAT men then begin to climb on top of shipping containers and surround Cannonbolt in every direction. Cannonbolt tries looking around though his big body is restricting that and says "Consider it added!" as Cannonbolt reaches his hand out, attempting to fire a laser.

And failing. Cannonbolt says to himself "What can this stupid alien do anyway?!", as the policeman says "You've made your stance clear, then. FIRE!" as the SWAT team begins shooting at him. The bullets hit Cannonbolt's yellow bolts, which end up ricocheting off him. Every police officer there continues to fire at him and the bullets continue to ricochet, this time hitting other officers, who fall to the ground. Cannonbolt tries to run away but is too slow, until he says "Alright, you know what? Since everyone wants to push me to this point, have it your way!" and instead transforms into Chromastone. He aims his hand on the SWAT team behind him and starts firing ultra-violet blasts.

The blasts end up burning through the kevlar armor of the SWAT team. He then starts to shoot blasts moving from right to left, burning through more police until the blasts hit a shipping container that's shielding the rest. The rest of the officers try to fire at Chromastone but he seems to be impenetrable to bullets. Chromastone charges up a blast in his hands and hits the floor, causing a shockwave of energy. This shockwave makes everyone in the vicinity fall down. One of the officers runs towards Chromastone trying to hit him, but fails very quickly as with one punch, falls straight to the ground.

The SWAT team behind a shipping container come out to shoot Chromastone then continue to hide, to which Chromastone fires his beams at the shipping containers. At first, they do nothing but as Chromastone focuses more and more, they begin to melt right through and blast the SWAT hiding behind it right back. Suddenly, a helicopter begins to fly by and starts firing at Chromastone whilst also shining a light on him. Chromastone shields his eye whilst shooting at the helicopter, which ends up slowly crashing right down onto a SWAT van. We then see another SWAT van driving straight towards Chromastone, who focuses his fire on the engine of the van and causes it to create a small explosion.

The SWAT officers try to get out of the car but are blasted one by one and taken out. Finally, a team of 3 officers appear behind Chromastone, to which they all get blasted back with one focused energy blast. Chromastone ends up turning to the police officer who initiated the shootout, who is seen holding one of his fellow officers in his hands. He is seen severely bleeding. The officer says "These were... these were men following orders. If you're a hero as you claim, why?". Chromastone says "You started this". He looks at him, "YOU COULD'VE RAN AWAY. THIS DIDN'T NEED TO HAPPEN! THESE WERE GOOD PEOPLE".

Chromastone says "I'm sorry. Don't try following me" as he runs away, looking at all the officers he hurt along the way. We then pan around to see Officer Bradly, who was hiding behind a shipping container the whole time. He ends up following Chromastone in secret, who goes back onto the streets and hides in an alley. He times out, as Bradly starts to enter the alley. Sif, in shock, puts on his hood and hides in the shadows. Sif says in a deep voice, "I told you not to follow me". Bradly tells him "I'm not here to hurt you. In fact, i'm on your side". Sif says "What do you want?". He tells him "I just want to help. I didn't take you for a human, y'know" to which he gets the response "Help me with what?".

"The gangsters you took out yesterday had serious connections to the Paladdin Mafia. The thing is, the police have been rather sloppy with catching them and I believe you're the only one able to stop them at this point", Bradly says. Sif looks at him and says "I'm glad you think i'm doing some good, but... i'm seriously starting to question if even I believe that". Bradly tells him that "I believe it. You can use some work on your manners but I do believe that you didn't want to hurt them. I'm thankful no one died... I think". Sif responds with "I don't think you have a lead for the gangsters and unless you do--" Bradly interrupts him, "I don't have a lead on me but I can get back to you with one tomorrow".

Sif says "Tomorrow at 5 PM. Same place. Remember what happened out there if this was a trap" as Bradly nods. Sif then says in a comedic way "Now, can you please leave. You're blocking my only exit". The next scene is rather somber. We get to see Sif sitting on his bed alone in the dark, just looking real sad. Murphy enters the room and says "I barely noticed you came home". Sif asks him to shut the door, to which he does. He sits on the chair and points it to Sif. He tells him "I saw a little bit of what went down" to which Sif says "Everyone and everything pushed me to doing that, Murphy". Murphy tells him "It's okay. I get it". Sif continues, "You said I was strong. But i'm not. I never was. I wasn't even strong enough to admit my feelings".

Murphy looks at him and says "Hey. Don't talk like that. You're stronger than anyone i've ever met. If you weren't, then you would've died back in Eldridge Park". Sif looks at him and says "If I were strong, I wouldn't be here now would I?". Murphy tells him "The problem is, you're just a man. A young man, at that. Everyone makes mistakes, Sif. Learn from them, don't let them hold you down". Sif says "Thanks, but... that isn't what I meant". Murphy looks at him and says "Let us please not go down that route. Do *not* talk like that". Sif tells him "I didn't tell you the entirety of what went down at the prison".

Sif continues, "There was a prisoner, his name was Shidosae. He helped me stay alive and he helped me escape the prison. He told me to trust my fears, embrace them. He said it would give me power. He was right. I took the advice to heart and I took no chances. You can see how that turned out". Murphy tells him "Fear isn't what gives people power, Sif, it's what helps them survive. It's a... basic instinct. Everyone should know that relying on one emotion can only mean bad things. Everyone has more emotions, you have happiness, you have  sadness, you have trust... you shouldn't listen to what a stranger-- A CRIMINAL no less. Besides, I don't think it helped you at all. Have you looked in the mirror recently?".

Sif begins to smile, "Thank you, Murphy. I keep having to learn that I can rely on you". Murphy jokingly says "Then it looks like you should focus more on your trust rather than your fear". They both start laughing as Sif says "I really need some food in me. Like, right now" as Murphy says "Good thing dinner's been ready for the past hour or so". We cut to Sif and Murphy on the dinner table, as they eat some cooked chicken. Murphy tells him "I almost forgot! This should inject a little happiness into you" as Sif interrupts him and says "Don't overdo the emotions thing, dude" as Murphy continues "Anna's coming home. We had a lengthy conversation and I got to cover your skin"

Sif drops his spoon on the plate and says "I love how you always save me from bad news. Man, I sometimes wonder if *you* should've gotten the stupid thing" as Murphy says "If you remember how I reacted, then you should know I probably would have had an exorcism" as they both share a heartily laugh. Sif then says "You know, I hate to ruin the mood but I forgot to ask you about the kidnappings". Murphy gives him a serious look "Consider the mood ruined. I'm kidding, continue". Sif says "Do you want me to look into it? I asked you before and... y'know", to which Murphy says "Thank you. Anything to find the people who went missing".

Sif tells him "I'll look into it after I go out with Officer Bradly". Murphy says "Uhhh... forgot to mention anything?". Sif says "Oh... yeah, a cop followed me into an alley when I turned back into a human"-- Sif is interrupted by Murphy facepalming and saying "Oh please, no" as Sif says "Okay, wait, no, I can explain!" as this ends the act.

##### Act III

We cut to the very next day. We see Officer Bradly in the alley, waiting around for Sif who levitates down as Big Chill which startles Bradly. Big Chill claims that doesn't care and doesn't have the patience and asks where his lead is. Officer Bradly says "We've had this information for about 3 months now but nothing has been done about it. There's a tire factory in the Ashleyson district that we know is a front for the Paladdin Mafia's weapon stash". Big Chill says "I'm on my way. You have one hour to get there or i'm going on my own" to which Bradly says "You know that the Ashleyson district is only 10 minutes away, right?" to which Big Chill says "You heard me" as he flies away.

Cut to about 20 minutes later, we see Bradly's police car driving by as Sif notices and transforms into Echo Echo. We see Bradly leaving his car with a coffee cup in his hand. Echo Echo says "You said it would only take 10 minutes" to which he says "You gave me an hour, I went for a coffee break". He then throws the coffee cup away as he stands behind Echo Echo, who tells him to "Hold your position. I'm going in" as Echo Echo uses his sonic screams to blast the door open. We see the workers in the factory holding tires suddenly dropping them and going to a back room, running away.

We see one of the workers, pulling a handgun out of his holster but is stopped by Echo Echo who uses his sonic screams to blast him against the wall, which cracks the wall and knocks him out. Bradly then enters the factory with a handgun in his hand, aiming at another factory worker with an assault rifle in his hand and shooting him in the shoulder, which drops him down. Echo Echo and Bradly go towards the back room, which has a locked door. We cut to the inside of the room, in which we see about 15 of the workers/mafia arming up and taking assault rifles from crates and aiming at the door. Suddenly, Echo Echo uses his sonic screams to push back the door which ends up pushing up against a mafioso and going against the wall.

The rest start firing at Echo Echo, who does end up malfunctioning completely and falling down to the floor. Suddenly, about 5 Echo Echo clones start running into the room and sonic screaming at all the mafiosos that are trying to shoot him. We see Bradly entering the room and shooting one of them, then turning around trying to shoot another, but he misses completely. The mafioso aiming at him tries to shoot but his gun seems malfunctioned, to which he gets shot in the chest. We go back to Echo Echo, who has one of his clones completely shot but he quickly clones himself again and sonic screams at the mafioso who shit him.

We see Garrett, who isn't really aiming and is trying to slowly walk away but gets screamed against a crate, breaking it. We see Bradly, who is trying to shoot at one of them but gets shot in the chest instead, to which Echo Echo fires back at the guy who shot Bradly and goes to him. Bradly tells Echo Echo that he's okay and pulls out the bullet from his bullet resistant vest. Finally, the last two mafiosos try to fire but their guns end up malfunctioning, to which Echo Echo just fires back and flings them against the wall. Everyone in the room seems knocked out and injured, though we see Garrett trying to crawl away who gets sonic screamed through the front door and into the tires.

Garrett says "PLEASE! Stop!! I'll give you what you want, just stop!" Echo Echo approaches him ready to scream again, to which Bradly yells "ALEIANTED! STOP! He got the message!". Garrett continues, "Thank you... *exhales* thank you. I can help you both". Bradly approaches, "Help us how?". Garrett then says "I know where the mafia is going next, just please don't kill me! I have a family, I have a son" as Echo Echo interrupts, "We get it! Just please, stop talking about your family and point us to where we need to go". We cut to outside the tire factory, Garrett is placed in the backseat of the police car.

Echo Echo tells Bradly "I'll be casing the sea port, see if he's telling the truth. Make sure to bring him along". Bradly asks why, as Echo Echo tells him "In case they're not there". We cut to about 30 minutes later, as Sif is seen hiding and looking out for the mafia, who are supposed to be arriving right about now. Sif is seen casing the area until suddenly, two black SUVs starts to drive in through the sea port, past some of the debris left behind by the helicopter earlier in the episode. Sif starts to hide behind a shipping container until another black SUV starts to drive in, this time from the opposite side.

Four mafiosos per SUV start to get out. The two SUVs on the right side appear to be the Paladdin mafia while the SUV on the left appears to be the Revilo mafia. A Revilo mafioso approaches the Paladdin mafia and says "Lets make this quick. We don't want trouble with the Alienated guy". A Paladdin mafioso walks towards him and says "I agree. I think it's high time we start renegotiate the terms of our agreement. You people have sold us defetive weaponry" as the Revilo mafia start grabbing onto their handguns in their holsters, "Now hold up"-- he gets interrupted, "Now we here in Paladdin City have to send you people a message".

Every one of the mafiosos start to pull out their weapons and aim it at each other. Sif activates his Alphamatrix and scrolls through some aliens, though the scrolling sounds are heard by the mafia as someone points out "YO, DO YOU HEAR THAT?". Sif then rushes through some aliens and ends up with Cannonbolt as he quickly slams down the core. He turns into Cannonbolt as he turns to the mafia, "You bozos have messed with the wrong city!". They turn to Cannonbolt and fire, to which he puts his arms over his face. The bullets end up hitting his bolts which end up ricocheting back to them.

Though only one of the bullets ricocheted into a mafioso, he only gets hit in the shoulder and survives. The rest hide behind their SUVs until suddenly, Bradly starts driving in through the left side and blocks that exit. He ends up firing at the Revilo mafia and shoots about two of them. Cannonbolt walks over to the Revilo SUV and throws it over to the side, removing their hiding spot. They try hitting Cannonbolt with the butt of their gun but to no avail as Cannonbolt shoves them down to the ground. While this is happening, the Paladdin mafia get in their SUVs and start driving off, to which Cannonbolt says "OH HELL NO!".

Cannonbolt tries running after them, eventually leading him to run on all fours and then instinctively turning into his sphere form, chasing after them. We see Bradly still there, handcuffing the mafia left there and calling for backup. We see Cannonbolt rolling over towards one of the SUVs and driving through red lights around the city. We see a little bit of traffic though luckily, the SUV drives right through. Cannonbolt on the other hand is too large to squeeze through so he ends up instinctively jumping right through the cars. He jumps so high in fact that he ends up right behind the SUV.

We see another traffic jam straight ahead but as the SUV tries to move to the left, Cannonbolt rams right into it and it bounces straight into a wall, breaking the car down. We cut to Bradly, who is chasing after the last SUV in his police car. Though he's much slower, as the two encounter a road block. The SUV makes a sharp turn to the left but as Bradly makes it to that turn, he completely loses sight of where it went. After a few short moments, suddenly, we see the black SUV appear behind Bradly and ramming him right into the roadblock. This stuns and injures Bradly, as the Paladdin mafia step out of the SUV and approach the cop car.

They find the car window of the cop car smashed because of how it rammed into the roadblock as they see Garrett. He sees them and panicks, "I can explain!" as he gets shot right in the head. The person who shot him says "People like you have no place with us". They approach Bradly, who is seen bleeding. Right as they aim their weapon at his window, Cannonbolt appears right behind them and smacks them. They end up hitting his bolt and flying a couple feet straight into the ground. The last two mafia are seen running away as suddenly, a police helicopter shows up! Along with that, a SWAT van arrives.

Cannonbolt looks over to Bradly and slightly nods, to which he nods back. Cannonbolt ends up rolling away, going a lot faster and out of their reach. We cut to about an hour later, as Bradly is seen hauled into an ambulance. The commissioner from earlier approaches him, "Did Alienated do this to you?". Bradly says "No, he didn't, Commissioner Rosswell. He saved me". He ends up nodding as we see in the background the mafia that are there being arrested. We cut to Sif, who is at home with Murphy looking at the Alienated subreddit.

They see the top post, which is of the Paladdin and Revilo mafia being arrested from earlier thanks to the help of Alienated. Right below all of that is more posts about suspicious activity. Murphy says "It looks like you'll be busy for the next couple days". Sif is seen smiling as Murphy walks away and closes the door. After looking at the screen, he is then triggered by another hallucination.

-Insert final scene of hallucination here-

Insert this song for the scene below:

The final scene that takes place here is about a day later. We see Bradly in the same alleyway until Diamondhead shows up at the entrance. "I'm glad you finally came" says Bradly. Diamondhead says something like "I'm really sorry that I couldn't get there in time" to which Bradly says not to worry about it. He then says "I don't know if you heard but the mafia who helped us, he... he got shot". Diamondhead says "That's unfortunate. I'm not sure if he deserved it". After some awkward silence, Bradly asks him "Are you a human?". Diamondhead says "That doesn't matter". Bradly continues, "Are you ever gonna trust me with your identity?".

Diamondhead says "Maybe one day". He adds more, "Listen, if you want, there's still a lot more work to be done. We might make a pretty good team". Bradly laughs and says "I'm glad you said it first" and reaches his hand out, to which Diamondhead says "Oh, uh, you might not want to shake my hand. Crystal and all" to which Bradly interrupts, "I got it. Verbal handshake it is". Diamondhead nods, as Bradly says "There is some work to be done. Have you heard of Black Sheep?" as the scene ends.

##### Stinger

The stinger opens up with Commissioner Rosswell in his office. He seems to be on his phone, as the voice says "I strictly told you to take care of our problem". Rosswell is seen sweating and says "You're forcing my hand here, you're talking about Alienated. You saw what happened out there!" as the voice says "Do *not* fail me again. You really don't want to hear from *V* about this" as the caller hangs up. We see Rosswell, as he's utterly terrified.

##### Notes for CaT

* Bradly would be there at the protests in the flashbacks.
* Flashback has a strike caused by a bunch of businesses, especially Knighttech, shutting down its factories due to a large scale hack (Krystof).
* Ending scene is a flashback.
* Commissioner stinger working with the mafia.
* Garrett, Bradly and Sif work together for the final fight. Garrett dies and his son tries to kill himself the next episode.
* Franklin/Murphy scenes.
* Cue 'Falling Apart' for last scene between Sif and Bradly.
* Cannonbolt's favorite word that he says is "bozo".

## OMA

##### Opening Scene

The episode starts with Murphy, who is seen waiting outside the bathroom. We hear the sounds of pictures being taken. Murphy yells "Can you hurry up already?". We hear Diamondhead*s voice,* "One second!". We then hear Sif transforming back as he opens the door. We see Sif trying to walk past Murphy, who stops him in his tracks. "The phone. Please". Sif says "I gotta upload these first". Murphy then says "Make it quick, will you?". Sif nods as we cut to him uploading the pictures and making a reddit thread titled "The Real Alienated". We see the selfies being uploaded to the thread as we cut to a montage.

The montage begins with Fasttrack, who is seen in an alley trying to stop some gang. Officer Nick Bradly is also seen there, shooting at the gang from behind the entrance of the alley. Fasttrack ends up dodging the bullets and pushing them against a wall, but 3 gang members run out from the opposite entrance and enter an RV. Fasttrack tries to chase after them but ends up ramming straight into a shop directly from the alley exit due to his lack of skill. Bradly gets into his police car and starts driving after the RV. Fasttrack ends up gaining his momentum again and starts running after the RV.

He catches up to the door and pulls it open. He rushes inside and beats the shit out of the 3 gang members, but this is offscreen and only heard. The RV ends up pulling over as the 3 are thrown outside. We cut to a reddit thread titled "Alienated stops local gang in Wright-Roberts!". We then see Sif going over to Murphy and asking him "Do you got a better name than 'Alienated'?". Murphy says "Why don't you just ask reddit?" as Sif says "Well, I tried to, but I keep getting suggestions like 'Alienazi'. We see an eye roll from Murphy.

We then cut to Diamondhead in the middle of an empty boulevard. All we see is a red sedan driving away from Officer Bradly, who is chasing after them in his cop car. We see Diamondhead standing in the middle of the boulevard trying to shoot diamonds at the sedan, which ends up turning right into an intersection. We see Diamondhead turning around to another intersection behind him. We see the sedan driving right out of another intersection, not noticing Diamondhead right in front. They turn around and try to drive away but Diamondhead instinctively creates a small diamond shard out of the ground right in front of the sedan.

The shard ends up tearing straight through a tire as they crash straight into a wall/towards the screen. We cut to reddit again with the thread titled "Gemspade stops local shoplifters in Kross Boulevard!". We see Sif going to Murphy, who is seemingly on the phone and asks "Diamondhead doesn't sound stupid, does it?". Murphy pauses and gives him the "Are you kidding me?" look. Sif continues, "Everyone seems to prefer the name Gemspade but it just doesn't have that ring to it, you get what i mean?". Murphy looks at him and says "Why is this important?". Sif says "It... isn't".

Murphy says "If you like the name Diamondhead, just go with it. Deal with this on your own, I have work to do". We then cut to a seemingly shady building. We see a large dinner table with what looks to be a duffel bag full of the drugs known as 'Black Sheep'. We see Four Arms dodging a junkie, who has a knife. After he dodges his slashes, he grabs him and throws him through a door. We then see another junkie upstairs, who is handcuffed as Bradly is tackled by a muscular man. Four Arms runs up the stairs and grabs the muscular man, then proceeds to shove him down those very stairs.

We then see who is seemingly the leader, aiming a revolver at the two. Clearly unstable, he starts threatening to shoot one of them if they come any closer. After Bradly tells him to calm down, he starts going nuts and shoots at Four Arms, who is knocked back. Bradly then shoots at the junkie in the arm since he was distracted. He falls to the ground as we see Four Arms bleeding, but luckily his skin was tough enough to stop the bullet from entering too far in. He pulls the remains of the bullet out as we see Bradly handcuffing the junkie. Four Arms looks at him and says "Good work" as he starts grunting.

Bradly asks if he's alright, to which Four Arms says in a cocky/arrogant manner "Pssh, nothing can stop me. Much less a bullet". We then cut back to Murphy's apartment. Sif is shown looking at a thread titled "DRUG DEALERS ARRESTED THANKS TO ALIENATED!". Sif is shown with a smirk. The intro starts rolling in.

##### Act I

The act begins with Murphy yelling "Hey Sif, can you come over here?". Sif just says "Yeah, sure" but remains in his chair, scrolling through websites. After a few seconds, Murphy just comes in himself knowing Sif is a lazy prick. Sif turns around with his swivel chair. He says "What's up", to which Murphy responds with "Do you mind coming with me to the party at Franklin's mansion?". Sif says "You want *me* to go to a party?".

Murphy then says "It's more like a social gathering than a party", to which Sif responds with "No thanks, I think i'm good" to which Murphy says "Please, Sif. Take a break from this lifestyle, come get a breath of fresh air without having to be pummeled into the ground. You can enjoy yourself while you're there". Sif then says "That sounds like the clear opposite of enjoyment". Murphy replies with "I want you there and if you don't want me to be disappointed, I would suggest you get ready. Right now".

Sif then lifts up a finger and says "I just remembered, I have to be somewhere right about now. There's a criminal out there and I don't think either of us want someone dangerous out there". Murphy gives a deep sigh and says "If you're being truthful, Sif, I can't stop you. I'm a little disappointed that you can't make it" to which Sif says "Sorry, man. Maybe next time?" but Murphy walks away.

After that encounter, Sif decides to search up his Alienated subreddit. We see the brightness on the screen reflected on Sif's face as he's shown with a smug smile. We then quickly cut to Chromastone, who seems to be in an empty parking lot. There is one large truck shown, as a criminal is thrown straight off. He tries to run away but is tackled by Bradly, who handcuffs him instantly.

Chromastone grabs the driver of the truck and drags him outside. He then says "I'm not gonna ask you a second time, so you better make your answer a good one: Who is selling you Black Sheep?". The drug dealer then says "I'll take my chances!", to which Chromastone shoves him against the truck. His hands start glowing, ready to fire his ultraviolet laser but the drug dealers raises his hands and yells "WAIT!".

He continues, "I DON'T KNOW WHO HE IS BUT I CAN TELL YOU WHERE HE'S AT! 491 Pemberton street, suite 1502! It's a full room, you can't miss it!". Chromastone responds with "Thanks" as he punches him flat in the face and knocks him out. We cut straight to Murphy, who is walking towards the Winters' Mansion. The man at the door greets him, "Ah, Mr. Hollinder! Good to see you've arrived!".

Murphy responds with "Happy to be here. Good to see you again, Nolan", to which he responds "Please, enjoy the party!". Murphy thanks him and walks in to see the mansion full of well dressed and 'classy' men and women walking around, sipping their wine. Murphy walks around trying to find Franklin, which leads him to go up the stairs in the middle of the room.

He finds Franklin, standing in the corner, seemingly talking to his security guard. As he walks in closer, he can hear the words "Make sure that--", which is cut off by the sound of violin coming from downstairs but as he walks in closer, he hears the end of that sentence which was "--in Pemberton". The guard notices Murphy, begins nodding at Franklin and walks away. Franklin then begins smiling and reaches his hand out.

Murphy shakes it as Franklin says "I'm very happy to see you here, I was getting worried the party would be a dud". Murphy starts smile and says "I'm glad you think that highly of me, but i'm not a party man". Franklin then asks where Sif is, to which Murphy responds with "He... got a litlte busy. He couldn't make it". Franklin says something like he wishes he could've gotten to know him better but Murphy responds with,

"Between you and I, I don't think he wanted to come. He's not what you would call 'extroverted'". Franklin says "I know his type, he'll eventually come around". Murphy nods without the smile he had earlier and after a few seconds of awkward silence, Franklin breaks it, "I have some wine straight from the Castello Banfi in Italy downstairs". Murphy says "I assume that means its the best?".

Franklin responds with "Haha, I don't think there is a best. There's a reason why only 2 in 3 sommeliers made it through and the other spent a whole year learning why one wine smelled like the mountains and the other like grandma's garden.". Murphy stands there thinking for a few seconds before saying "Wait a minute, I saw that movie, too!".

They both begin laughing as we cut back to Sif and Bradly.  Sif is shown standing outside near said suite. Sif has his hoodie on, covering his face from everyone. Bradly is shown getting out of his police car and walking towards Sif with a communucator in his hand.He walks up behind Sif and gives it to him, who catches it from behind and starts putting it in his ear.

Bradly tells him "Keep me updated and try not to go alien before finding the supplier. If things go awry, you know what to do". Sif says "You know, I actually haven't done this very much? I usually just 'go alien' as you said". Bradly responds with "Consider this practice, you're gonna need it if you plan on doing this full-time". Sif closes his eyes and gives a deep sigh.

He then proceeds to walk into the building. He goes into an elevator and clicks on the button labeled '15', which takes him to the 15th floor. As soon as he walks out, he finds room '1502' to the right of him, with the door slightly open. Before he enters, he looks around him and notices a few cameras, particularly facing down a flight of stairs. His anxiety starts to kick in, his heart starts pounding faster and faster. He opens the door...

...to find a bunch of younger people, around the ages of 18-20 just partying around and seemingly getting high, who begin to give him strange looks. Sif walks very slowly, with each step being very loud, which causes him to walk slower. He then notices a 15-16 year old kid seemingly crying, but quickly wiping away his tears. Suddenly, Bradly starts talking over the communicator which startles him. Sif puts his hand over his ear and starts talking, "Calm down, man, I'm still looking".

Bradly asks "Have you made it there, yet? What do you see?". Sif responds with "A bunch of millennials who are probably high on this stuff". Sif walks forward even more to find a large sofa with 4 people on it. Sif walks towards them very slowly and starts sweating. He finds a large, muscular man with a mohawk sitting on the far left of the couch, giving Sif a dead stare.

Sif stands in front of him and starts stuttering and mumbling, trying to say "I-I w-would like one". The muscular man stares at him looking very confused and after a good 5 seconds, Sif says "I mean, I... I would like a, uhhh... black sheep". He nods and says "You're looking for The Shepherd, she's sitting right behind you". Sif turns around and finds a transgender woman with white, curly hair sitting next to a coffee table.

Sif walks towards her but before he can say anything, she immediately asks him to sit down, to which he does... albiet very slowly. The Shepherd says "This must be your first time, huh?". Sif nods, to which she continues "You've come to the right place, then. There's just one thing, hand over your wallet". Sif sits there awkwardly, not moving a muscle until she shouts "NOW".

People around the condo start looking toward them, which includes the muscular man from earlier, which causes Sif to hand over his wallet. She opens it up and starts looking through his ID, "Joseph... Marwan? Hunderson". She starts looking at his picture in the ID, then back at Sif. She then says "God damn, Joseph, take off your hood. This is a safe place. I can assure you, no narks".

Sif reluctantly takes off his hood, as she passes over his wallet and ID back, but not before taking about 50 dollars. She then lights up a black cigarette and passes it over to Sif. He nods and says "Thanks". Before he can stand up, she says "My product is the best on the market. Guaranteed to get you hooked instantly. I would know, obviously, I always enjoy watching everyone's first time. Go ahead, light it up".

Sif says "I-I think it'd be best of I did it in the comfort of m-my own home" but she leans over and says "Light. It. Up". Bradly starts talking over the communicator again, "This is your cue to leave, we know who the supplier is, right?". Everyone is seen staring at Sif, as he feels peer pressued. Sif does end up smoking it, though because he's trying to do it slowly, he ends up choking and coughing.

Sif turns around and tries to walk away, but he could barely walk a foot before falling to the ground. Suddenly, his vision becomes darkened as all the lights start to glow vibrantly around him. The music starts to get louder as the words of the people at the party start to become echo-y. Sif gets up slowly and walks towards the bathroom as Bradly is heard yelling "Sif? Sif are you alright?!".

He makes a run for it to the bathroom and starts locking the door. He then throws up right onto the sink. He looks to the mirror in front of him, as suddenly everything around him becomes more colorful and more vibrant. He starts to smile before snapping out of it slightly and starts scrolling through his Alphamatrix. We cut back to The Shepherd, as she's seen laughing with the men on the couch, obviously about what happened to Sif.

Suddenly, Cannonbolt crashes through the walls and starts to growl. Everyone in this party starts screaming and are scared shitless, as the few armed drug dealers try to shoot at him, but hit the yellow plates which makes the bullets bounce to the walls. Most of everyone starts to run out of the building as Cannonbolt walks towards The Shepherd and her guards.

We see through Cannonbolt's PoV that he's a lot more energized. The muscular man with the mohawk starts charging at him, but Cannonbolt is agile enough due to the drugs to shove him against the wall. We then hear police sirens, as the rest of her guards start running out. The Shepherd starts crawling backwards against the wall because of Cannonbolt cornering her.

She starts raising her hands up and says "ALRIGHT, YOU MADE YOUR POINT, I SURRENDER!" as Cannonbolt is about to hit her due to his intoxication. Before this starts happening, we see one of her guards standing at the door and on the phone, looking at them both. We then cut back to Murphy and Franklin, both of them sipping wine and laughing together.

Murphy starts saying "What is wrong with this city" as Franklin replies with "Oregon is the state with the most mentally ill people for a reason. If even our own mayor was a douchebag, I don't see much hope for the city's future". Murphy says "I know what you mean. The year just keeps getting crazier. I mean look who we have running as president?". Franklin starts laughing a little bit before finishing his glass of wine.

He places it over the bar table and asks "You know, how come I've never seen you with a date?" Murphy breathes in heavily and says "I just... haven't found anyone yet. I mean, I don't judge people so that should make it easier, but... I don't know". Franklin smiles and says "I know your type as well. You're not in a rush is what you're trying to say", to which Murphy says "Yes. Pretty much".

Franklin pauses for a moment then says "How would you like to go out for coffee tomorrow?". Murphy puts his wine aside and says "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were asking me out". Franklin is quick to respond with "You're a smart man, aren't you?". They both smile at each other before Franklin's bodyguard starts running over to him and whispers in his ear. He's shown with a look of shock and fear on his face.

Murphy asks what's wrong, before masked men in suits, carrying around submachine guns start firing at the mansion. Franklin grabs Murphy and brings him down into a hallway as his bodyguard pulls out a handgun and starts following them. Franklin and the bodyguard stop at a grandfather clock, before moving it to the side to reveal a saferoom. Murphy asks what exactly is happening, but...

...Franklin grabs him and tells Murphy to look at him. Murphy nods and goes inside. The bodyguard begins shutting the saferoom doors, which causes Murphy to yell "FRANKLIN, ARE YOU COMING IN HERE?" but gets no response. He starts to hear more gunshots, albiet faint due to the thick walls of the saferoom. The gunshots continue for a solid minute before suddenly... nothing. We see Murphy's face, who is obviously very scared.

We hear faint police sirens as we cut to several hours later, early in the morning at this point with the sun rising. We see Murphy giving out a police report, but everything is silent. Murphy ends up going home to find nobody there and we see a glimpse of his phone, showing that he's sent Franklin about a dozen messages asking him if he's okay. He ends up going to bed, falling right asleep.

##### Act II

Act 2 begins and we see and hear nothing, since we're in the point of view of Murphy. Suddenly, we hear Sif, as he's yelling "OH, GOD DAMNIT!". Murphy starts groaning and gets up to check his alarm clock, which reads about 2:30 PM. He gets up and heads towards Sif's room, where he finds Sif on his computer straight-up drinking coffee from a coffee decanter.

Murphy says "Sif, what in the world are you doing right now?". Sif's just like "Oh, you're up finally". Murphy does a facepalm and says "Why are you drinking coffee like that?". Sif responds with "It... helps with my withdrawals". Murphy lets out a "WITHDRAWALS?!". Sif's like "Nevermind that, people are fucking nuts! I just busted a major drug ring and people are mad that I... may have beat up some feminist icon".

Murphy gives Sif a "Are you kidding me?" look and says "Do you even know what happened last night?". Sif responds with "Yeah, yeah, I read about that but people are actually saying *i'm* the piece of shit, it's not fair!". Murphy says "I figured that I wouldn't hear an "Are you okay?" out of you". Sif says "Of course I care, but you're alive, aren't you? These people are insane! They think i'm actually targeting feminism!".

Murphy says "What does it matter? "You're alive, aren't you?"". Sif says "Very funny". Murphy responds with "It really seems to me that this fame has gotten to your head, 'Alienazi'." Sif lets out an "NO, it hasn't! It's just... I do all this work and they don't care, they're all focused on hating me because I hit some trans dude". Murphy turns around and leaves whilst saying to himself, "You don't even drink coffee, as well".

We cut from that to PCPD, where Bradly walks into the building looking a little tired. He walks over to his desk where we see the officer from the last episode, Officer Jacqueline, is sitting on the opposite side. Before sitting down, he tells her "Hey, uh, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the Winters Mansion last night. My hands were tied on the Pemberton incident".

She looks at Bradly and says in a very cold way, "Chief wants to see you. His office". Bradly groans audibly and asks "Can it wait, Jackie?". She responds with "He sounded pretty serious". Bradly gets up as she says "Winters Mansion was a mess anyway, you're lucky, honestly".  He nods and walks over to the Chief's office to find him at the door. Looking at Bradly, he says "My office".

Bradly mutters to himself "Yeah, yeah" as we cut to the both of them sitting down. The Chief says "Did you get enough sleep? You seem tired". Bradly says "It was a long night. All that paperwork, it was a nightmare". The Chief says "Well, I wanted to thank you for bringing an end to that drug ring in Pemberton, we always suspected something was going down there".

Bradly says "Yeah, no problem. Just glad we caught the son of a bitch". The Chief is quick to respond with "Actually, this 'Gideon Johnson' person, he's not our guy". Bradly says "Wait, he said himself that he was The Shepherd! The... alien guy exposed that!". The Chief cuts him off and says "That's also what I wanted to talk about. Your relationship with this 'Alienated'. It's as clear as day you two are working together".

Bradly says "Wait!" but is cut off, "You're not in trouble yet, which is why it needs to end. Now. Before all our jobs are at risk. In fact, I'm going to assign you a partner. You and Officer Jacqueline seem to have a working relationship already". Bradly pauses for a moment then says "If you know i'm working with him, why aren't I in trouble?". The Chief gives a subtle nod and says "Don't ask too many questions. You're free to leave, now".

Bradly gets up and heads for the door but not without saying "What about this Gideon person? How do you know he's not our guy?". The Chief says "Oh, uh, there's no evidence suggesting he *was* The Shepherd or doing anything illegal. His lawyers dropped by earlier today, he'll be free to go". We see Bradly, as he's clenching his fists with anger. We cut from that straight back to Sif and Murphy.

They're both in the middle of a conversation as Murphy asks "So, you found some drug ring, became an alien... then what?". Sif replies "I don't know, man. Last thing I remember was being Cannonbolt". Sif stares blankly for a moment then leans forward. After he starts sipping coffee from an actual mug, he says "Okay, I became Cannonbolt and I think I started kicking some serious ass!".

Murphy gives him an are-you-kidding-me look to which Sif responds with "I don't remember all that much, man, I was kinda high!" Murphy gives Sif another of the same look to which he responds with "I get it!". Sif trying his hardest to think about what happened last night, lays back and starts to rub his eyes together until suddenly, he begins hallucinating. He starts seeing the room itself with Cannonbolt right in front of him, approaching The Shepherd.

Sif himself stands up as she tries to run past Cannonbolt but he starts pinning her to the ground. He looks up for a split second when suddenly, he notices the same teenager who had been crying earlier aiming a gun to his head. Though he notices Cannonbolt looking at him and begins running away. Soon after, Bradly enters the room with a handgun on him. Sif himself starts to walk forward when his leg hits something seemingly invisible.

Sound starts to become more muted as he looks down wondering what is going on. Suddenly, Murphy places his hands on Sif's shoulders which jolts him back into reality. Sif notices that he had hit his leg on a table and starts sitting back down. Sif says "S-sorry, I uh... I wasn't all there for a second". Murphy asks "Have you been seeing things again?".

Sif completely avoids the question and says "I saw this kid... he was about to shoot himself but he ran away. I wish I knew who he was". There's some awkward silence in the room but Murphy breaks it, "And you said all of this was taking place in Pemberton?". Sif nods. Murphy responds with "I may have overheard Franklin and his associate talking about some business there. It sounds like a coincidence and I hope it is but something tells me it's not".

He continues, "After you take down that drug ring, the Revilo mafia start attacking the mansion. It doesn't seem like a coincidence to me". Sif replies with "That sounds serious and all but who's Franklin?". Murphy gives him that very same look again and says in an angry tone, "The man I work with". Sif says "Ohhhh, that guy! Wasn't he gonna hook me up with some big time producers or something?".

Murphy says "Yes, him. For both our sakes, i'm hoping I'm just looking too far into this, but... I don't think I am". Sif asks "Is there anything you want me to do?". Murphy responds with "Not you. I'm thinking about maybe your police officer friend looking into him, making sure he isn't...", to which Sif says "I'll talk to him". Murphy continues, "Have him look into Franklin's bodyguard, he might get more answers there".

Sif asks if he has a name, to which Murphy says "One second!" as he pulls out his phone and begins calling Franklin. As the phone rings, he starts to walk to the corner of the room. Murphy waited nervously as the phone rang. He wasn't entirely convinced Franklin was involved in all this, and the thought that he might be was a fairly chilling prospect. After a few moments, there was a click on the other end of the line as Franklin picked up.

This exchange occurs:

“Murphy, my man, good to hear from you!” Franklin said in his usual smooth manner. “I was a bit worried about what happened to you after that shootout last night. You doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m, uh, doing fine, thanks.” Murphy replied, trying to sound casual. “What about you?”

“It’s all smooth sailing over here.” Franklin reassured him. “Now, I assume you didn’t just call to swap pleasantries about gun violence. What’s the situation?”

“Actually, it’s kind of related to that.” Murphy said. “Well, someone experienced with guns, at any rate. I was wondering who your bodyguard is.”

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of hiring him yourself.” Franklin half-joked. “He’s provided me with quality service, so you’ll have to work a miracle to outbid me on his employment.”

“Not exactly.” Murphy forced a small chuckle. “I just wanted to poke around and see if anyone in his general circle of work is available.”
“Shootout got you thinking of personal security, huh?” Franklin asked. “It is a dangerous world out there.”

“Yeah, it really is.” Murphy cleared his throat. “Anyways, the name?”

“Yes, right.” There was a shuffling sound on the other end of the line as Franklin looked through some papers. “Alright, here’s his contract. I usually just call him Jeff, but his full name is... let’s see here... Jeffrey Misimović”

“Jeffrey... Misimović” Murphy repeated the name out loud while writing it down on a small slip of paper. “Okay, I got it. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Franklin casually responded. “Before you go, are we still on for coffee tomorrow?”

“Yep.” Murphy affirmed. “I gotta go for now, but I’ll see you there.”

“Sounds good!” Franklin replied as enthusiastically as if he had just closed some sort of business deal. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Murphy hung up but as he did, we see Fasttrack in a blue blur grab the note Murphy wrote Jeffrey's name in and leave. Murphy mutters to himself, "...Alright then". We cut back to Officer Bradly, who is seen walking just outside and towards the precinct with two cups of coffee in his hands until suddenly, Bradly is seen being taken to an alleyway nearby in a matter of seconds.

Bradly shouts from the shock and drops one of his coffee cups, but luckily Fasttrack picks it up in a flash and attempts to sip on it, but it ends up spilling on his mouth. Realizing his mouth was covered up by his full body armor, he says to himself "Duh". Bradly exhales and says "That... wasn't meant for you". Fasttrack responds with, "Yeah, sorry, instinct".

Bradly responds with "That doesn't matter right now, I'm *this* close to being in deep shit. People are catching on to our partnership". Fasttrack simply says "Yeah?", to which Bradly reponds with "...You're a wanted fugitive". Fasttrack says "Oh". Bradly continues, "If we're gonna continue to work together, we're gonna need to be a little more... discreet". Fasttrack says "Yeah, totally, that makes sense! So... what's the plan again?".

Bradly pauses and says "I can still help and use my resources at the precinct but we can't keep meeting like this. Don't you have a phone?". Fasttrack says "I used to". Bradly responds with "Well, shoot, I can message you personally on reddit, then. 'Need to actually get an account but it's the best option we got". Fasttrack quickly interrupts and says "Yeah, that's all good but I'm gonna need to ask a couple favors".

Bradly says "Okay, shoot". Fasttrack continues, "I have a friend who thinks Pemberton and the Winters Mansion shooting are connected". Bradly leans in, looking slightly confused as Fasttrack says "Something, something, Franklin Winters' bodyguard said something about Pemberton before the shootout". Fasttrack hands him the note with Jeffrey's name on it and continues,

"If you can find out what his connection is to The Shepherd, we'll have this case finally solved!". Bradly lets out an "Ohhhhh..." as Fasttrack asks "What's wrong?". Bradly replies, "Some bullshit, that's what's wrong. Considering you were involved, there was no legal basis to detain her. God knows where she is now". Fasttrack nods and says "We'll find her again, it won't take long".

Fasttrack also says "One other thing, there was a kid in that condo last night. Young, a little chubby, blonde highlights. I remember, he tried to... shoot himself. But then he saw me and ran away right as you came in". Bradly pauses for a moment and says "Yes, I think I did see him. What do you need?". Fasttrack says "Can you, uhh...--", to which Bradly continues his sentence, "Identify him? I'll see what I can do".

Suddenly, the Alphamatrix starts to beep again, signifying his time-out. Fasttrack quickly says "Ye ah, please do and message me on reddit or whatever! I gotta go!" as Fasttrack runs off and disappears, dropping the coffee cup he was holding. It spills completely on the floor as he mutters to himself, "...Alright then". We cut from that straight to Bradly back in the precinct, walking to his office.

He hands Officer Jacqueline the remaining cup of coffee he had as she responds, "Nothing for you?". Bradly responds with a confused "Huh?" as she lifts up her cup of coffee, to which he says "Oh, um... I'm not that thirsty, honestly". She nods and starts sipping, then says "Mmm, we should get from Conoway Cafe more often". Bradly responds with "It's a little far, but absolutely".

After a few moments of absolute silence and awkwardness, Jacqueline looks up at Bradly says "What is it you want, Nick?". He responds with "You know that i'm working with Alienated, right?". Jacqueline chuckles and says "Oh, yes, you made no attempt to try and cover that up". Bradly scratches the back of his head in embarrassment and says "Yeaaahhhh, anyway, he gave me a lead we can work on".

Jacqueline then replies, "So that's what happened to your coffee, I see". Bradly asks "Well?", to which she exhales and says "I'm sure Alienated is trying to do the right thing....". Bradly begins to nod his head in excitement but she continues, "But you need some serious caffeine in your system. Do you even remember what happened today?". Bradly starts roll his eyes,

"I get it, Jackie, it's risky, but he's given me a proper lead", Bradly says. Jacqueline leans forward as he continues, "He thinks Pemberton and the mansion shootout yesterday are linked". He hands her the note that has Jeffrey's name on it and says, "We can start with Frank Winters' bodyguard. And it'll only be us two that are involved". Jacqueline rubs her eyes together and says "Why do I let you rope me into these things?".

Bradly then says, "One more thing, do we have any security footage from the condo last night?". We cut from that straight to Sif, about 30 minutes later. He's seen resting his head on his arm and on his computer, scrolling down reddit. We see comments like "Is it just me or is Alienated really problematic?" and Sif responding to every single one since he really can't help his ego, but his comments are downvoted to hell.

After a few moments of him grinding his teeth, he visits another tab to find that he has a notification. Clicking on it, he finds a message from Bradly that contains a security image of the suicidal kid from earlier running down the stairs. Under that, Bradly's message states "We identified him as one Anthony Garrett Levine. He lives with his mother at 184 Inuvridge Road, Sinclair District. Hope this helps".

Sif quickly minimizes everything, scrolls through his Alphamatrix and transforms into Big Chill. He phases through his room and leaves the apartment complex. Flying around the city, he finally locates the specific street Anthony lives on, only to find him on the roof of his apartment ready to jump down. Big Chill looks down and notices how barely any civilians notice and lands right behind Anthony.

This exchange occurs:

“So, Anthony.” Big Chill spoke softly. “Big plans for tonight, I take it?”

Anthony jolted in surprise and whirled around to see Big Chill standing a few feet behind him. His eyes widened for a couple moments before he resumed carrying a flat, weary expression.

“Oh, you’re that ‘Alienated’ guy, aren’t you?” Anthony turned back away from Big Chill to look down at the streets below. “If you’re trying to take me in for being at that drugfest of a party the other day, don’t bother. I‘m not gonna be a problem for anyone anymore.”

“Yeah, uh-huh, sure you’re not, kid.” Big Chill said flippantly, rolling his eyes. “Now stop being stupid and let’s sit back and tal-.”

Big Chill cut himself off as he noticed Anthony jumping off the side of the building. He reacted quickly, phasing through the roof he was standing on and snatching Anthony out of the air only a few feet into his free fall.

“What are you, crazy?!” Big Chill snapped. “You’re actually going to end up killing yourself!”

“That’s the fucking point!” Anthony yelled, wildly flailing in a futile attempt to loosen Big Chill’s grip. “Let go of me!”

Big Chill wordlessly flew back up to the roof and tossed Anthony down on his back, landing next to him with an annoyed look on his face.

“There, I let go of you.” Big Chill said. “Now, care to tell me what’s going on here?”

“Why would I say anything to you?!” Anthony spat.

“Because if you go through with this, it’s not like anybody else is ever going to hear it.”

Anthony silently glared at Big Chill for a few moments before sighing and pulling himself to his feet.

“Fine.” Anthony stepped back towards the edge of the roof. “But if I tell you, you have to promise to let me do this.”

Big Chill stared at Anthony with an unreadable expression.

“...Sure.” He eventually said, making sure to cross his fingers underneath his cloak. “So, what exactly brought you to this point?”
“You say that like it’s a single thing.” Anthony scoffed. “If I had to sum it up? My life is a fucking wreck.”

“Isn’t everyone’s?”

“Shut up.” Anthony scowled. “You don’t know what my life is like. You have no fucking idea.”

“You’re a druggie from the slums.” Big Chill huffed. “I think I can hazard a guess.”

“You don’t know anything!” Anthony turned around and stormed over to Big Chill, grabbing him by the collar. “You’re a fucking alien! You don’t have a single mother who can barely make rent! You don’t have a baby sister who might not even make it to her second birthday!”

Anthony let go of Big Chill and began pacing, his speech growing faster and less collected.

“You don’t know how it feels to be a human!” Anthony snapped accusatorily. “A human rejected by everyone around him as a freak! A loser! A write-off!”

Sif tried to say something, but was cut off as Anthony continued ranting.

“You don’t know what it’s like to think your dad died when you were a baby, then find out through the fucking obituaries that hey, not only did he just skip out on you all those years ago, but now, he’s fucking dead, so you can’t even get closure on it!”

“Anthony-”

“I looked up to my dad!” Anthony yelled. “My entire life, my mom kept telling me stories about how great he was! About how he was an amazing person! About how much he loved his family right up until the very end! Then three days ago, I find out she made everything up! My dad wasn’t amazing! Turns out he was a fucking criminal! He mugged people! Robbed banks! Shot people he didn’t like! He was a fucking scumbag!”

“Listen, Anthony-”

“So, you know what, yeah, maybe I did do some drugs to get my mind off of all this shit!” Anthony kept talking. “So what if I did?! You’d do the exact same thing!”
“Anthony, please-”

“But hey, as it turns out, drugs don’t last very long, and they end up making you feel even shittier after they wear off!” Anthony threw his hands out to the sides. “So there was no fucking point! There was no point to any of this! There’s no point to drugs! There’s no point to living! So I’m not going to stand here and listen to your bullshit trying to talk me out of-”

“ANTHONY!” Big Chill yelled, unfolding his cloak to display his wings in an intimidating manner. “CHILL OUT!”

Anthony immediately stopped talking.

“...Look.” Big Chill sighed. “Believe it or not, I do understand how you feel.”

“How could you?” Anthony spoke under his breath. “You’re not-”

“You realize I don’t usually look like this, right?” Big Chill pointed to his own face. “I transform. It’s kinda my thing.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“Where am I...is it really not obvious?”

Big Chill tapped the Alphamatrix symbol, causing him to revert back to Sif in a flash of purple light.

“I’m a human, just like you.” Sif held up his arms to accentuate his point. “I just turn into aliens because it turns out superpowers are actually kinda neat.”

Anthony started to say something, but Sif held up a hand to stop him.

“Look, I can’t relate to your situation with the rent and the drugs and everything, but I can relate to being a loser.” Sif sighed. “More than I’d care to admit.”

Sif walked up to the edge of the roof, staring out across the city.

“I can kinda relate to the dad thing, too. Not the exact same situation, but...I know how it feels to suddenly have your idealized father figure torn down in front of your eyes.”

“What happened with your dad?” Anthony asked.
“...He killed my mom.” Sif closed his eyes as a wave of bad memories suddenly hit him like a train. “I still don’t know why he did it. If I ever see him again...I don’t know if I’ll have the wherewithal to ask him before I smash his face in.”

“...Damn.” Anthony looked down.

“Yeah.” Sif paused for a moment before continuing. “Anthony, I get where you’re coming from here. Your life is shit and you don’t really have anything left to live for. You aren’t getting anything but pain out of being around, so you feel like your best option is just...not to be. I’ve been there. It’s shit. But...”

Sif turned around to face Anthony, holding up the Alphamatrix as he did so.

“If I had gone through with it...” Sif tapped the side of the Alphamatrix. “I never would have caught my lucky break.”

The two stood in silence for a few moments.

“So...” Anthony broke the quiet. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“You can either go through with what you wanted to do before I got here, or you can go back home and try to hang in there until things get just a little less shit.” Sif shrugged. “I promised not to stop you either way, but I think you know what I’d personally recommend.”

Sif stands next to the roof access door, indicating he should walk over to him. Anthony stared at the door for a few seconds before turning and walking back to the edge of the building. He looked down at the city beneath him once again, this time focusing his attention on watching the people unknowingly walking past him far below.

After a few moments of this, Anthony stepped backwards and began exhaling. Sif walks towards him and puts his hand on his shoulder, showing compassion. After a brief moment, Sif says "I don't have anything better to do, I can still stick around if you'd like". Anthony nodded and walked towards the roof access door with Sif walking right behind him.

We cut from that to the inside of Anthony's apartment. We hear the sound of keys shaking and the door being unlocked. The door opens up as the two walk inside. Anthony states "My mom's not here and my sister's asleep in the other room", but everything else he says is seemingly muted for Sif, who takes a look around. This suddenly triggers a hallucination.

He hears his uncle, Amar's voice saying "Yalla (come on in arabic), we're home!". He takes a look behind him to find his aunt and a 7 year old version of himself. The room is much more dimly lit as it appears to be his old childhood home. His 7 year old self walks inside and places his backpack on the couch. His aunt asks, "What do you think about your new house?". As he continues to look around, he begins to tear up and eventually start crying.

His aunt and uncle begin to kneel down over at Sif as his aunt asks "What's wrong, Joseph?". Sif says "I want my mom". His aunt and uncle begin looking at each other in clear sorrow for him as his aunt then hugs Sif. She says to him, "Don't be sad! She loved you very much!", but Sif starts to cry louder and shouts "BUT SHE'S DEAD!". She then says "No, no, no, no, shhhhhh" and starts to hug him more tightly.

"She isn't dead, not in here", she says as letting go and pointing to his chest (or heart). Sif stares at her for a few moments, sniffing but then looks downward and continues to cry. Suddenly, Amar puts his hand on his shoulder in compassion. He tells Sif, "She loved you very, very much. She doesn't want you to be sad". Sif closes his eyes and tries to stop crying, but to no avail.

"I just want my mom!", to which Amar hugs him and says "I know". His aunt then joins in and hugs Sif as well, but this hallucination soon ends when Anthony yells "Alienated!". Sif turns around and says "Huh?". He asks if he's alright, to which Sif says "Sorry, I got a little distracted". Sif wipes the sweat from his forehead and walks over to Anthony, who opens the door to his room.

Sif looks around and notices how the paint was peeling off the wall in large flakes, as if the walls had long-since fallen into a state of disrepair. The exposed drywall underneath had turned gray thanks to years of dust and grime building up on the formerly white surface. He also notices how one of the legs of his desk is broken and clearly has a quarter of a brick under it, holding it up.

Sif walks further into the room and looks at his computer monitor which looks like an older model. He turns his head over to the window and notices how its cracked. Anthony breaks the silence and says "I get it, it's a shithole". Sif turns around to look at Anthony and says "Oh, I-I didn't mean to"-- but Anthony cuts him off and says "Whatever. So, do you have a name or?" to which he responds with "Just call me Sif".

Anthony then asks "Is that meant to be an alias?", but Sif says "No, it's actually my name". Anthony then says "At least it's not as shitty as being called Alienated". Sif sighs and says "Come on now, it's not that bad". Anthony responds with a "Mhm", to which Sif then says "It's not like anyone had a better name, I got suggestions like 'Alienazi' for god's sake!".

Anthony then jokingly says "I'd rather go by Alienazi if I were given the choice!". Sif groans and does a facepalm, which causes Anthony to smirk. We cut from that straight to Bradly and Jacqueline in a police car, driving around an avenue in the Kross district of the city. Jacqueline is shown looking at her laptop and reading information about Jeffrey.

Out loud, she reads "Jeffrey Misimović, lives on 215 Roby Avenue in Kross.". She points forward and says "Up ahead, Nick, we're right here". Bradly notices what appears to be his home, as he parks closeby and shuts off the car. They both notice Jeffrey, who is shown standing just outside his home and appears to be on the phone. Jacqueline asks, "So this is our guy?", to which Bradly says "Yep".

She states "I would not want to mess with that guy, he's fucking huge", talking about how muscular he is. Bradly then says "We've messed with bigger; There was Giovanni back in November". She looks at him with an "are you kidding me?" look and states "*We've* messed with bigger?". Bradly sighs and says "Alright, *you* messed with bigger". She smiles and says "There we go".

Bradly continues, "Before Alienated, that was the only time we busted a major Paladdin Mafia ring". Jacqueline states "That's just hyperbole, but I get it". Bradly then says "Is it really? I feel like nothing we do changes anything in this city. If I weren't a cop, I would feel much safer knowing Alienated was around than the police and yet they're wasting our resources and chasing after him. (*exhales*) God, I really wish I wasn't one".

Jacqueline then says "You think I don't get it? It depresses me a hell of a lot more than you think, Nick. But this is more than enough reason to do our jobs, to help people when bastards like Commissioner Rosswell waste their time on chasing aliens. 'Way I see it, the only justifiable reason they have to arrest him is his stupid ass name". Bradly chuckles softly and says "It's not that bad".

Jacqueline turns to face Jeffrey, who is seen walking away from his home. Bradly starts the car again and drives very slowly next to Jeffrey. He turns the corner, into an alley as Bradly tries to drive around the block to the other end. Jeffrey has seemingly disappeared but they do notice Conoway Cafe right near the alley, assuming he likely went inside. Bradly begins to park on the other side of the street.

Bradly asks Jacqueline, "You sure he went inside?", to which she replies, "He couldn't have gotten far, i'm certain he went inside". Bradly and Jacqueline look over at the Conoway Cafe, trying to find him through the window. After a brief moment, suddenly, Jeffrey starts to knock on Bradly's window. It startles him as he turns to face Jeffrey and rolls down his window.

Jeffrey says "Hello there, officers. What can I do you for today?". Jacqueline speaks for Bradly and states "Nothing much, really. We are just trying to make sure everything is safe after last night". Jeffrey nods, which causes Bradly to smile thinking he bought it, to which he says "Do you have some sort of warrant? Any reason to be following me around?", to which Bradly says "Not officially, but..."

As Jeffrey cuts him off and says "That is a no, then". He looks around and says, "I would appreciate it if this stopped here. If you have any questions, contact my lawyer. Otherwise, have a good day". Bradly gives him an angry look, as Jeffrey walks away. Bradly closes his eyes and exhales but then slams his fists into the steering wheel in a fit of rage. He grunts loudly as Jacqueline yells "Calm the hell down!".

He looks at her and yells "HOW CAN I? THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I'M SO FRUSTRATED! WE GET NOWHERE WHEN IT COMES TO THIS!". Jacqueline then says back "So what, you're just gonna give up?". Bradly says "NO! I'm just... I'm tired of feeling so useless!". Jacqueline then responds with "Compose yourself, Nick. Something will come up, let him get away for now".

Bradly turns to her and says "He is *not* going to get away with this. We aren't done here!". Jacqueline responds with "Well he sure as shit isn't going to lead you anywhere knowing you were following him". Bradly slams his fist into the steering wheel again and lets out a big exhale. Jacqueline leans in closer and says "At least now we know he *is* hiding something. I see it behind his eyes. It's just a waiting game now".

We cut from that straight back to Sif and Anthony. Sif is shown sipping coffee from a small cup as Anthony shows him his sketchbook. Sif notices a lot of dynamic drawings and sketches and compliments them, saying "God damn you know what you're doing! These are pretty good!". Anthony flips through some pages and shows Sif a slightly inaccurate drawing of Four Arms.

Sif says "I hate to break it to you but Four Arms also has four eyes", to which Anthony says "How was I supposed to know, you don't make public appearances that much!". Sif then responds "Wow, it's as if i'm *not* a wanted fugitive of the law". Anthony then says "Man, you call yourself a writer but you come up with the shittiest names. Four Arms? Really, dude?".

"I didn't even come up with Alienated, first of all. And Four Arms isn't that bad, it was the first thing that came to mind". Anthony then says "You just stopped at Four Arms?!". Sif says "I get it, you don't have to keep shitting on me". Anthony then responds with "Apparently, I do". He then goes on to ask, "So, which alien was that last night?", to which Sif says "I think it was Cannonbolt. Not a big fan of that one".

Anthony says "I don't think that was a good alien to crash the party, I would've gone with Diamondhead or something", to which Sif says "I think I left out the part where I was a little bit high during that". Anthony looks at him for a moment and says "Oh my god, you were the dude in the hoodie!". Sif then goes on to say "I was trying to find The Shepherd, it just kinda happened!".

Anthony replies, "I'm sure there were better ways of doing that!". Sif sighs and says "Admittedly, it wasn't the brightest idea. I had to do something at least, even without my alien forms". After a brief moment, Anthony says "Hey, could you wait a sec, I gotta hit the john. I'll be right back". He exits the room as Sif sits on a chair next to his desk. He looks around, flipping through his sketch book.

Sif then notices a drawing of what is clearly a muscular Anthony, with a traditional superhero outfit, a visor and a cape with a big "U" on his chest. Sif begins to smile as he looks up and notices everything to be dimly lit again. Sif drops the sketchbook and looks around, noticing he's hallucinating again and in his old childhood bedroom. Sif notices a younger version of himself on his bed, albeit slightly older.

He also notices an old norse mythology book on a table next to his lamp. He approaches it, recognizing it as a book Amar used to read him. Suddenly remembering what happens next, he turns to look at his younger self to find him waking up from a nightmare and screaming. He hears Amar yelling "SIF? WHAT'S WRONG?" and seemingly running out of his room.

Amar rushes into the room, opening the door and asking again, "What's wrong, Sif? Are you okay?". Sif starts to tear up and says "I had the bad dream again". Amar closes his eyes and exhales, then proceeds to approach and sit on Sif's bed. Sif continues, "My dad was yelling at me again". Amar tries to comfort him, "He's gone now, forever--" Sif cuts him off and says "I couldn't save my mom".

Amar looks down in complete empathy for Sif as he continues, "Mom was yelling at me to help and I couldn't! It's my fault!". Amar hugs him and says "No, no, it's not!" Sif then cries and says "I'm not strong, I can't save her!". Amar puts his arm on Sif's shoulder and says "You are the strongest kid I know, habibi. But not even the strongest kid could have saved her".

Sif then says "I want my bad dream to stop hurting me. I want to be strong but I can't". Amar pauses to think over what he said and responds with "I used to have bad dreams when I was a kid". Sif then asks "Really?", to which Amar takes a handkerchief out of his pocket and gives it to Sif, who proceeds to wipe his tears.

Amar: “When I was a kid, I felt like I was responsible for a lot of things I wish didn't happen. But there’s a difference between making a mistake and trying hard enough to prevent one from happening.”

Sif sniffles and puts the handkerchief on his lap.

Amar: “I was a couple of years older than you when I had something that I believed I could have kept from happening."

Sif: "Did you lose anyone?"

Amar: “You could say that. You know my older brother, right?”

Sif: “The one who gives me free stamps at the post office?”

Amar: “Yup. But do you know why I and he don’t talk as often?”

Sif: “Aren’t you two family? Don’t you love him?”

Amar: “Of course I do, Sif. But he isn’t forgiving me for what I’ve done. Or what he thinks I’ve done. But you know what, I’m not upset with it. Tell me Sif, did you love your mother?”

Sif: “*(pause)* Yeah.”

Amar: “See but that’s what matters, Sif. You *did* love her. Even if you couldn't help her, in your heart you cared. You loved her when she... maybe didn’t deserve it, you loved her while she was alive, even in her brokenness. And you still love her. That’s something I couldn’t bring to myself as a kid.”

Sif: “Why won’t your brother forgive you?”

Amar: “Some things in life are just set to happen the way they do, and I know it’s hard, but we have to accept the way things happen and move on. I don’t mind that he won’t forgive me but I do mind that as a child I wasn’t able to forgive myself.”

Sif: “How did that happen? Did you make a mistake like I did?”

Amar: “No, Sif. I didn’t make a mistake. And neither did you. But yeah... about my brother. I was 17 years old when my dad gifted me my first car. I was excited to drive it after seeing my brother drive his one for the family for years. This one day he needed to get his medication as he was a little late, he had pneumonia. As usual, my brother offered to take him to the pharmacy, even the doctors with the condition he was in. But my father insisted that I take him instead. I accepted the offer even when my brother didn't want me to. He didn’t even wish me good luck before I took my dad in the car. ”

Sif: “I think I know where this is going" *(He starts to rub his eyes)*

Amar: “Well that’s the thing. Dad told me I was capable and so he told me to take me near Wellington. He told me he wanted to go to the park, and although I knew it wasn’t the best idea at the moment, I did it anyways. So I drove through the mountainsides and all he did was sit there and look out the view. At one point, he even fell asleep. This was when I decided to take a shortcut my brother would always use through Wellington, back to the town and to the doctor’s office. Thing is, I wasn’t the best downhill driver, and this wasn’t the safest path. There weren’t proper barriers off the sides, there were just wooden barricades to stop the deer from going through. Or at least, they tried to work when they did, they’d often break and people would go to repair them quickly. Funny enough, we spotted a deer on the way down so I stopped the car, pulled down the windows, woke him up, and showed him.

Sif: “A deer? Those are so hard to find! They always have those dumb warning signs.”

Amar: “Yeah, haha. He smiled and told me that he had not seen a deer in so many years. It really was something. We watched for a bit then left. This was just moments before my father started having a really bad cough. I panicked, I took off his seatbelt and put him on his side. I had to get him to the hospital fast and so I sped down faster and faster, faster than I had ever learnt to go to in the little that I learnt of driving. The signs said 30 and I was going 65.

Sif began to gasp, knowing what was to come.

Amar: "It was at an absolute split-second that I saw I had a sharp turn ahead of me and so I hit the brake, but it skid off the road a bit. I told myself, "hey I made it." I smiled and looked back... but my father... he wasn't breathing anymore, he was... gone. I don't think I'll ever forget the times he took me to Wellington Mountain when I moved here, when we used to plant white lilacs together. His favorite. And this was the last place he was alive in".

Sif: "I didn't know about this"

Amar: “And now you do. You know, if I had just listened to him and gone to the park, I could have enjoyed a wonderful few last moments with him. But I did learn a few things. Sometimes all you can do is try. You have to learn to forgive yourself and to preserve the love you had for the man as if he were still living. I think maybe this is what your mom wants”

Sif: "To stop blaming myself for something I couldn't stop?"

Amar: “I know it's hard but it's best to think about where to move on from here"

Sif: "How do you know what to do all the time, dad? I really wish I was like you"

Amar: "*(shocked)*Dad?"

Amar began to smile and blush. He gave Sif a head pat, but Sif begins to hug him. As this is going on, the present day Sif starts to look downward in a very depressed manner.

This hallucination ends when Anthony suddenly opens the door to the room. Sif walks up to the sketchbook he dropped and picks it back up whilst saying "Sorry, I got a little distracted again". Anthony then asks "Is that a thing that happens frequently?", to which Sif responds with "Kinda". Anthony then says "Hey, as it turns out, my mom's coming home early today".

Sif nods and says "Oh, alright". Anthony continues, "Thank you... for being here today", to which Sif says "You don't have to thank me. You have a purpose here, there's just a lot of shit you have to endure". Anthony then jokingly says "You think I'll ever get an alien watch?", to which Sif states "...Not what I meant by lucky break, but at this point, I don't think it would surprise me".

Sif begins walking out of the room and straight to the front door. He opens it but turns to Anthony and says "Keep out of trouble, alright?", to which Anthony nods. Sif finally leaves and closes the door, which causes Anthony to walk into his mother's room. He looks at his baby sister still sleeping and proceeds to walk into a closet near the baby crib and opens it up.

Anthony then opens up shoebox and grabs a revolver out of it. He pulls up his phone to have it be revealed he was sending text messages to a friend. The messages read:

"Is The Shepherd still in town?"

"Ye"

"I'm hungry for some raw mutton"

"head over 2 onesire bridge at midnite"

We cut from that straight to the docks many hours later. Anthony is shown wearing a hoodie and looking over to Onesire bridge, to find an orange van parking underneath the bridge, right next to the river. Anthony sneakily walks close to the bridge and hides behind walls, as we see The Shepherd again, along with the man with the mohawk again. They both approach each other.

The Shepherd says to him, "Come on, Max, I thought we were done with this. I'm not about to have a repeat of yesterday". Max then says "The police aren't a problem anymore. We had an agreement, V won't be too happy if we don't finish the job". The Shepherd responds with "After what happened yesterday, I'll take my chances!", to which Max says "We'll be forced to sell the product without you, then".

The Shepherd says to Max, "I don't care anymore, I'll deal with this at Woodsbury tomorrow". The Shepherd then walks away, to which Max yells "I SEE YOU'VE DROPPED THE EGO THIS TIME, BITCH", to which she flicks him off as she gets in a car. Anthony watches as it drives off. He begins to hyperventilate and pulls out his revolver from his jacket pocket, as he turns to look at Max and the van once again.

He then begins to notice a few junkies approaching them. As he's focused on looking, suddenly, one of the dealers starts grabbing Anthony from behind and twists his right arm, which causes him to drop his gun. He then drags him over to Max, who says "Who the fuck is he?". The dealer says "I found him with a gun, he was about to rob you!". As they're talking, we hear the loud sound of the Alphamatrix activating. We see them looking around in confusion.

Every drug dealer and junkie in the immediate area suddenly starts hearing a loud buzzing sound, which causes them to drop to their knees. We then see Max being electrocuted and falling to the ground, which reveals AmpFibian. He proceeds to shock everyone who works with him and making them fall to the ground unconscious. Every other junkie who was going to approach start running away.

AmpFibian floats over to Anthony and asks "What the hell do you think you're doing?", to which Anthony asks "Were you stalking me?". AmpFibian responds with "Don't answer my question with another question!" What were you thinking?". Anthony then says "I was thinking that I could finally make a difference and start owning up to my mistakes!".

AmpFibian tells Anthony, "From where I was standing, you were about to die!". Anthony then states "Well maybe I should've, then". There's a slight awkward pause but Anthony continues, "I didn't want to become my dad, I thought maybe I could be like you". AmpFibian then states "There is a clear difference between you and me! I have an armada of aliens, you're just a kid!"

Anthony then angrily states "Yeah, a kid with a gun". AmpFibian says back, "I don't think you had the balls to go through and take their lives", to which Anthony asks "What makes you say that?". AmpFibian replies back, "Because not even I do". Anthony exhales heavily and walks away saying "You know what, you don't have to keep yelling at me anymore, I think I get it now".

Anthony ran away as AmpFibian watched. He transformed back and ran after him. Anthony had seemingly ran behind a nearby a seemingly empty building.

"Anthony, wait!" Sif yelled, running into the alleyway behind him. "Come on kid, don't make me run, I am way too tired for this shit!"

Anthony stopped for a few moments before turning around to look at Sif with an angered expression.

"Why should I?!” Anthony snapped. “I fucked up, I get the point! You don’t have to keep reaming my ass for it!”

“I’m not sure you actually *do* get the point.” Sif panted, pausing to catch his breath. “I mean, you’re probably not going to try shooting up a group of mobsters all on your own again, but you might try some other stupid shit to try and be ‘heroic’ or something.”

“So what?!” Anthony replied. “I’ve read the stories about you! You do stupid shit to be heroic all the time!”

“Yeah, it's not like I have alien superpowers or anything.” Sif grumbled. “Besides, I think it should be pretty obvious at this point that I’m not a very good role model.”

“Then why should I listen to your shitty lectures?!”

“I might be an overconfident asshole, but I’m at least an *experienced* overconfident asshole.” Sif pointed out. “My shitty lectures come from my own fuckups, so I know what I’m talking about. Sort of.”

“So you’re telling me I should listen to you because you’re a fuckup?”

“...That’s the gist of it, yes.”

“That is not a good reason!”

“Okay then, smartass, explain to me *your* ‘good reason’ for thinking you could take out an entire gang with a goddamn pistol and a couple of fingers crossed!” Sif pointed at Anthony accusingly. “Even I wouldn’t do something that stupid, and I’m fucking looney tunes!”

“I don’t know! I just wanted to be like you and do something heroic for a change! I figured taking out some gang members would help me do that!

“How the hell did you come to that conclusion?! What was your thought process?!”

“I didn’t think about it, I just went and did it!”

“Well whoop-de-fucking-doo, look how well that turned out for you!”

“Lay off, man!” Anthony clenched his fists in rage. “Why the hell do you even care?! I know the only reason you’re helping me is to fuel your shitty ego!”

“Hold on a second-”

“The only reason you’re here is to help get rid of your bad publicity!” Anthony interrupted him. “I am sick and tired of you acting like you’re in the right when your only motivation is to make yourself look good!”

“Who gives a shit if I’m just doing this to look good?!” Sif snapped back. “Stalin only helped fight the Nazis because they were bad for him too, and guess what? The Nazis got their asses kicked!”

“Are you seriously comparing yourself to a genocidal dictator right now like that’ll help your case?!”

“Fuck you, I’m not good at metaphors! You get the point!”

“The only ‘point’ I’m getting here is that you’re a pretentious, hypocritical asshole!”

“THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME WRONG!”

The area fell silent as the two stared each other down for a few minutes, neither sure exactly how to proceed from here. After a bit, Sif sighed and broke eye contact, putting his hand up to his forehead.

“Alright, tell you what.” Sif said. “I think I have an idea for how I can help you.”

Anthony raised an eyebrow at this.

“For real, this time.” Sif assured him. “I might not have started helping you out for the best reasons, but I do honestly want to see you turn out alright. Do you trust me on that?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then let me prove it to you.” Sif replied with an air of determination. “Come with me. It’s time we get down to business.”

##### Act III

Act 3 begins within Conoway Cafe with a shot of a professional coffee machine. Two cups are shown being filled with coffee. After a few seconds, a cafe worker flips the coffee machine lever back up and stops the coffee pouring. The cafe worker grabbed the two cups and turned around, revealing Murphy to be waiting in line. The cafe worker placed the two cups on the counter as Murphy grabbed them and said "Thank you.".

Murphy turned to the right and walked toward a seat near a window, revealing Franklin to be there as well. He placed the cups on his side of the table and sat in his seat.

“Here’s your coffee.” Murphy said, handing Franklin one of the cups.

“Thank you.” Franklin replied as Murphy sat down across from him.

“What, no tip?” Murphy joked.

“I think we both know I don’t tip.” Franklin laughed.

The two shared a chuckle at this.

“So, how’s Hank doing?” Murphy asked.

“Same old, same old.” Franklin shrugged. “Crashing on our parent’s couch and being a pain while somehow maintaining a metabolism that shouldn’t even be physically possible. Little brothers, ya know?”

“Tell me about it.” Murphy replied.

“Gotta say, I’m surprised you two went to college together.” Franklin shook his head. “A straight-A student like you and a barely-passable student like him...not the most likely of dorm room team-ups, you must admit.”

“Would make for a hell of a sitcom, though.” Murphy said. “Besides, that’s how I ended up meeting you. Granted, it shocks me that you two are even related, but still.”

“I can relate to that.” Franklin chuckled. “I don’t think we could’ve taken more dissimilar paths if we tried.”

“No kidding. You’re a successful businessman and Hank’s potential probably tops out at fast food manager. No offense, of course.” Murphy quipped.

“Now, now, you don’t know him like I do.” Franklin chided in a mock tone. “He tops out at *assistant* fast food manager, thank you very much.”

“My bad.” Murphy laughed. “Say, speaking of fast food, have you seen that new Italian place near Woodsbury?”

“Vito's Cuisine?” Franklin asked.

“Yeah, that.” Murphy nodded. “Seems like a pretty tacky place if you ask me. I mean honestly, what kind of Italian restaurant has a drive-thru?”

“One that’s open-minded about potential new business opportunities.” Franklin replied almost defensively before abruptly recomposing himself.

“Eh, whatever you say.” Murphy pretended not to notice Franklin’s momentary shift in behavior. “I guess I shouldn’t knock it before I try it.”

“Exactly.” Franklin said. “To expose oneself to potentially uncomfortable new experiences is the only way to really live.”

“Ah yes, truly my life shall remain incomplete until such time as I have spilled spaghetti all over my passenger seat.” Murphy replied in a mock-dramatic voice. “How could I have been so blind?”

“Oh, you know what I mean.” Franklin rolled his eyes in amusement.

“Can I tell you something? I never thought I'd ever get to this point. A lot of appointments to keep, a manchild to take care of at home, shootouts, aliens... it doesn't feel real".

“Oh, definitely. Same time next week?”

The two shared a laugh as we pan around backwards to find both Officer Bradly and Jacqueline sitting on the other side of the room. Jacqueline was sipping her cup of coffee while Bradly was resting his head on his arm. Jacqueline decided to break the silence.

Jacqueline: "Hey, Nick, you alright?".

Bradly: "Huh? Yeah, I guess..."

This followed an awkward silence between the two of them until he decided to speak again.

Bradly: "No, I'm not."

Jacqueline: "I'm sorry."

Bradly: "We finally got another chance to catch the bastard. But after that, what then?"

Jacqueline: "...Then he gets prosecuted."

Bradly: "Then what?"

Jacqueline: "Then he's going to jail."

Bradly: "After that?"

Jacqueline: "D-Did you sleep right today?"

Bradly let out an involuntary chuckle as Jacqueline looked at him, smiling.

Jacqueline: "I know what you meant. Honestly, I thought you got out of your angsty phase ten years ago."

Bradly: "Are you just gonna sit there and pretend that all our problems will go away after Gideon Johnson?"

Jacqueline: "Why do I feel like you're about to rant about how the system's rigged?"

Bradly leaned back and rolled his eyes.

Jacqueline: "You're pissed off because Alienated can't do anything to help anymore."

Bradly: "I'm passed that."

Jacqueline: "He's a living superhero and he's right here! In *this* city! He's trying to help and, you know he could."

Bradly: "...But the real world’s a lot more complicated. He *could*, but the government just wants to run in circles--"

Jacqueline: "I'm gonna cut you off and hope you don't try that again."

Bradly: "I just want to help people, it's my job. *Our* jobs. I've lived here my whole life and for the first time in years, I feel like things have improved..."

He leaned forward and let out a deep sigh. Jacqueline had leaned forward and grabbed onto his hands.

Jacqueline: "There was a reason we signed up for the job. It doesn't matter if it was the whole gang or one guy that we bring down, it's about about making a difference. One less guy on the streets is one less person feeling afraid for their life. We didn't have aliens to do that back then and we don't need them now."

Bradly looked down and avoided eye contact.

Bradly: "I don't feel like it's enough."

Jacqueline: "It's enough for that one person."

Bradly had smiled after hearing what she had said. A human-like shadow began to cast over him. He looked up and saw Murphy standing next to him. Murphy asked "I'm sorry, am I interrupting anything?". Bradly nodded no as Murphy asked "Is this Officer Bradly?" to which he responds "I'm guessing this is Murphy Hollinder, we have a mutual friend". Murphy paused and stood in his place for a few seconds before pointing at him.

"Would you happen to be Nicholas Bradly?", Murphy asked. Bradly responded with "Have we met?". Murphy says "I may have seen you around St. Muerte if i'm not mistaken". Bradly realizes he may have met Murphy and responds "Ohh, I knew the name was familiar. It's good to finally meet you!" to which he responds "Likewise. I wish it were under better circumstances."

Jacqueline then asked "How'd it go with Franklin". Murphy exhaled and placed his phone on the table. "All that about the restaurant near Woodsbury and he didn't even mention he owns the place". Jacqueline and Bradly looked at each other dead in the eyes as we cut to the next scene.

The next scene begins at night with Bradly's police car parked outside Vit's Cuisine. Bradly and Jacqueline are seen standing next to each other, with Bradly holding a communicator device that he had earlier. He is shown placing it to a hooded person who turns out to be Anthony. Jacqueline says to him "Remember, if you start feeling unsafe, just walk away."

Anthony responded "I'm walking into a drug deal, what makes you think any of this is safe?". She responded "Good point." as Bradly said "It shouldn't be too complicated, go in, make your transaction and get out assuming if there's any drug dealers here.". Anthony says "Knowing this place, there is.". He turned around to face Vito's Cuisine as Jacqueline tells him "We'll be in your ear and we'll know if it takes a wrong turn".

Anthony sighed and said "Listen closely, these things never go well.". He started to walk towards the Vito's Cuisine and entered. He stood at the door and took a close look at his surroundings. The restaurant didn't seem particularly suspicious though it did have the feeling of being a more low-end kind of place and slightly unsanitary. He turned to face the cashier who was shown resting his head on his arm and reading a book.

He asked the cashier, "Hey, i'm, uh... I'm looking for some mutton..." as he looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. Anthony let out a big sigh and then said "I'm looking for *raw* mutton". The cashier pointed behind him, seemingly at the kitchen door. Anthony nodded back at him and walked towards the kitchen. Out of nervousness, he stood in his place, looking around as the chefs and dishwashers looked back at him.

One of the chefs unexpectedly yelled out "IT'S UPSTAIRS, KID!" in his thick italian accent. Anthony walked over to the right and stood next to the stairway. He gulped from his sheer anxiety and put on his hoodie as he walked up the stairs. Everything was silent for him except his footsteps until he finally reached the top of the stairs. He saw Gideon standing next to a crate and using her phone.

He also saw a few armed men who are clearly Gideon's guards and a few junkies sitting on the floor and passed out with some Black Sheep in their hands. Anthony approached Gideon, to which she looked up at him and asked "Hey, Anthony! You're back already, is everything okay?". Anthony responds "Not really.". Gideon placed her hand on his shoulder and said "I should've guessed. Don't feel too down, buddy, i'm here for you.".

Anthony said "Thanks. I just need some black sheep to take my mind off things". Gideon opened up the crate next to her and grabbed a ziplock bag of black sheep and handed it to Anthony, as he handed her money. Suddenly, a door to the right of Gideon started to open and Max stepped out. Anthony turned to look at him as his eyes widened. Max looked back, slowly recognizing him from last night. Max says "Gideon, do you know this kid?".

We then cut to the point of view of Bradly and Jacqueline as they hear Gideon say "Yeah, I do. What's it with you?". The two look at each other as Jacqueline says "Go, I'll be right behind you". Bradly exited the police car and ran towards the restaurant as Jacqueline activated her police radio and said "Dispatch, we have a 12-99...". We cut from that back to Anthony as Max grabs him and says "This punk tried to rob us last night you idiot! Right before the alien came!".

Gideon looked at Anthony for a few moments and said "Does Anthony look like the type of person who's capable of even holding a gun?". Max then started yelling "You're absolutely delusional! If you won't take care of him, I will!" as he grabbed a handgun from the holster on his belt and aimed it at him. Anthony fell to the ground in shock as Max approached him. Anthony closed his eyes and heard a gunshot.

A few short seconds passed and he slowly opened his eyes to find Max on the ground with a bullethole in his chest. The six armed guards in the room all took out their weapons and shot at the stairway. We cut to Bradly with only a pistol in hand and taking cover from the firing. He then hears someone running up the stairs as he aimed at the bottom to find... Jacqueline with a shotgun.

They both took cover right next to each other. They had both stood there, petrified, as they heard someone coming down the stairs. Jacqueline got into position and aimed the shotgun as the guard walked down. Right as he reached their location, he looked up in shock as he got shot in the chest. Jacqueline was in complete shock at what just happened and laid against the wall. She was clearly out of breath and felt guilty about what just happened.

We cut from that to Anthony. He was still on the ground with the guards not paying any attention to him. He quickly got up and ran into the room Max came in from and shut the door. Two of the guards saw this and ran after him. They kicked the door down to find that he has seemingly disappeared. The room itself was a storage room. There were numerous crates but also containers for food and another door that lead to some stairs.

The two walked together towards the door as we pan around and find Anthony hiding behind a crate. He peeked his head out to look at the two guards. Unfortunately, they had spotted him and aimed right at him. Right before they fire, however, Big Chill's intangible arms started grabbing their shirts and pulled them towards the wall with full force. Big Chill's voice was heard saying "Run, kid!" as he ran out the other door in the room.

We cut back to Jacqueline, who is clearly short on breath. She starts to slowly overcome this and taps on Bradly's shoulder. She tells him "We need to help Anthony!". He nodded as he slowly crawled up the stairs and shot at the remaining 3 guards. They spotted him and shot back almost immediately. Underestimating him, the 3 slowly walked towards the stairs. Bradly crawled back down and took cover as Jacqueline left her cover.

She shot one of the guards approaching, who fell down to the ground. Unfortunately, she had been too slow to hide and had been shot numerous times in the chest and head. She fell down as Bradly looked at her. He heard the remaining 2 guards approaching and with him getting teary eyed, he aimed his gun at the two of them and shouted as he fired.

He had been shot at least once in the shoulder but by then, the two had fell down on top of each other, clearly either dead or close to dying. He was completely frozen, looking at all the bodies that fell down the stairs and more specifically, Jacqueline's lifeless corpse. He falls to his knees and drops the gun as he begins to break down. After a few moments, we cut back to Gideon.

She had listened to Bradly's breakdown and quickly crawled towards the storage room. She got back up and ran towards the back door. As she rushed down the stairs, she left the restaurant through the back entrance and ran out into the streets. She had found a back alleyway and tried to run through and hide in there. She sat on the ground and tried to catch her breath. She heard police sirens coming from the other side of the alley, as she looked over.

Suddenly, Anthony had approached with a gun aimed at her from the other side of the alley. Gideon looked at him and said "I was wrong about you". Anthony asked "Of being capable of holding a gun?, to which Gideon responds with "No. Thinking I could trust you.". Anthony stood there silently, with a depressed expression. He looked at her and said "I'm not the one going to jail.".

After that encounter, we cut to about an hour later. The police have completely surrounded the restaurant, police lines have blocked entrances to the restaurant. A few ambulances are parked just outside, one of them has Bradly sitting on a gurney. His arm is in a cast and he's bandaged up with a blanket over his back, but more importantly he looks to be in a state of shock.

Across the street, we see Sif is standing in the dark with his hoodie on. He could barely look at him. Anytime he tries, he exhaled shakily. He leaned forward and tried to take a step forward, but noticed a large puddle of water caused by the rain and he reconsidered. He stepped backward and pulled the strings on his hoodie, trying to walk away. After only a few steps, he sighed and took a look back at Bradly. He stood in his place, unable to move.

A few hours pass by and we cut to Bradly, walking and limping over to his apartment. Sif was two feet behind him, tailing Bradly to his home. Bradly eventually heard footsteps behind him and turned around, but saw nothing. He continued to stare behind him, hoping to see someone. He took a long breath and turned back around to walk over to his home.

We cut to Sif, who had been hiding behind a large truck that was parked next to him. As soon as he heard Bradly walking away, he peaked his head to watch over him. He opened the front door to the apartment building and entered it. Sif had walked over to the front door and put his hand over the door handle but froze completely still for a minute. He looked through the door and found a vase containing black roses.

He looked down and decided to walk away, with his hands in his pocket.

A day later, we see Anthony sitting down on his bed. He's holding a ziplock bag that has one more dose of Black Sheep. His legs were shaking as he contemplated it. Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door. He quickly hid the bag under his sheets and asked "Mom? Are you home?". He went to open the door to his room and found Sif, standing there.

"Hey, Anthony", Sif said. Anthony responded with "How in the world-- how did you get into my house?!". Sif let out a slight laugh and said "I phased through the door. You mind if I come in?". Anthony walked back and sat on his bed. Sif had stood there for a moment before walking in. He grabbed a chair that was next to his desk and sat in front of Anthony.

Sif: How're you holding up?

Anthony: Like usual.

Sif: ...T-That's not a good thing, is it?

Anthony: You tell me.

*There was an awkward moment of silence in the room.*

Sif: Um, I... I wanted to apologize.

Anthony: Go on?

Sif: It's for the whole 'using you to make me look better' thing, that was, uh... pretty shitty.

Anthony: Uh-huh.

Sif: So... what's on your mind?

Anthony: That officer lady, the one who died. Her name was Jacqueline Ramirez, did you know that?

Sif: I... knew of her, what's your point?

Anthony: Did she die because of me?

Sif: No!

Anthony: Don't bullshit to protect me, was it my fault?

Sif: You're as responsible for her dying as you are... causing World War 1.

Anthony: You still suck at metaphors.

Sif: I mean it, asshole.

Anthony: You were there, you saved my life. Why didn't you save hers?

*Sif stared blankly at the wall, not saying a word.*

Anthony: I didn't mean it like that, I don't think it's your fault.

Sif: I was betting my plan would work, we knock out all the birds with 1 stone. If I got involved, it... my plan would've been for nothing.

Anthony: The Shepherd can't get out of this one, she's going to jail for a long time. That's kind of a success.

Sif: It's not worth it, not for the cost. If I stepped in, everyone would still be alive.

Anthony: Nick's alive, at least. How is he?

*Sif nodded in confusion*

Anthony: Nick. Nick Bradly, the blonde dude with Jacqueline.

Sif: His name is Nick?! *(mutters to self)* Son of a bitch! Uhh, anyway, I-I don't think so. I didn't ask him or anything.

Anthony: Why not?

Sif: 'Same reason I didn't go home, I just... couldn't.

Anthony: You know that doesn't answer my question, right?

Sif: I didn't come here to vent, Anthony.

Anthony: You probably should, though.

Sif: W-Why?

Anthony: I've been where you're sitting, if you don't talk about it, you won't get better.

*Sif was silent, only breathing heavily.*

Anthony: I don't like to talk about my issues, either. But considering this is probably the last time we meet, what do you have to lose?

Sif: Don't say that! You never know--

Anthony: You're not going to hurt my feelings, just don't spew bullshit and we're good.

Sif: *(sighs)*I tried following Bradly home last night. I stood out in the rain for 2 hours and I froze every time I wanted to approach him. I wish I could've but it felt impossible.

Anthony: I figure someone at home is hurt by this, too?

Sif: Yeah... this isn't even the first time, either, I've never been good at helping people when they need it the most. It's easier for me to pretend I'm not around. I do care, though, I really do.

Anthony: I get it.

Sif: I thought this watch would make everything better but lately it's felt like more of the same. And in 2 weeks, someone I care about very much is coming back to this city but I don't have the stomach to message her back anymore.

Anthony: Is she in trouble, too?

Sif: No, no, nothing like *this*. Her parents are encouraging her not to come back... because of me. I thought that my aliens would make me... I don't know, it's hard for me to describe. And she's coming back with a close friend of hers apparently, I... *(sighs)*

Anthony: I'm gonna take a wild shot in the dark here and say you like her and you're jealous of this close friend.

Sif: I'm not just jealous, I'm terrified! Yes, I do like her. I can't imagine a world without her and that's why it's hard.

Anthony: Do you think she likes him?

Sif: I don't know, a-alright? This isn't the first time I've been in this position, she's really friendly with everyone and my mind tells me it doesn't mean anything but my heart starts racing and I don't know what to do about it. Nothing happened back then and maybe nothing will happen now, but something in me is refusing to get over it.

Anthony: Sounds like you've got a master's degree in being paranoid. If you've been here before and what you're afraid of happening hasn't happened, it's fairly safe to say it won't happen this time either. 'Course, if you don't make a move yourself at some point, she is going to find someone else sooner or later. You can't stop her from making friends, so stop worrying about that and start working on yourself. Those aliens of yours might change what you look like, but nothing's gonna change who you are except yourself, you get me?

Sif: *(smirking)* Thanks, kid. *(exhales)* I don't know how the hell I'm gonna go home today, man.

Anthony: Your friend needs you right now, *I* don't. 'Ya might not stop him from feeling like shit but let him know that he isn't alone.

*Sif nodded and stood up from the chair. He walked slowly toward the door but Anthony stood back up and cleared his throat.*

Anthony: You think I'm gonna let 'ya walk out of here with a lousy excuse for a name like "Alienated"?

*Sif turned around to face Anthony.*

Sif: You're still on my ass for that?

Anthony: Nah, don't worry, I came prepared this time. What do you think of "One Man Armada"?

*Sif paused for a moment.*

Sif: I like it! A lot, actually. Holy shit.

Anthony: Right?!

*Anthony turned around and looked at his crinkled up bedsheets, noticing the outline of the ziplock bag. He pulled his bedsheets up and grabbed the bag. He tossed it over to Sif.*

Sif: What the hell is this--

*Sif noticed the Black Sheep drug stored in the bag*. He looked back at Anthony.

Anthony: Do me a favor, incinerate it for me.

Sif: I'll be sure to use my special incinerator alien on this one, buddy.

Anthony: You're still an asshole.

Sif: Ohh, yeah!

*Sif turned back around and opened the door but paused when he noticed something.*

Sif: I should mention that I brought you a... house warming present.

Anthony: Like flowers?

Sif: Actually... yeah, kind of.

Anthony: What am I supposed to do with that?

Sif smirked and shrugged as a response to Anthony before he walked out of the room.

We cut to Murphy's apartment. The setting was depressing, with the lights off and the only light source coming from the windows, but it was covered by curtains. Murphy sat on the couch, looking depressed. He had his phone in his hand and was playing the old recording on a loop. The recording was near its end, however, as we re-hear this:

“Can I tell you something? I never thought I'd ever get to this point. A lot of appointments to keep, a manchild to take care of at home, shootouts, aliens... it doesn't feel real".

“Oh, definitely. Same time next week?”

Sif is suddenly shown standing at the end of the living room, right next to the front door. He remarked,

Sif: "Manchild", huh?

*Murphy glanced at Sif but ultimately ignored him. Sif had sighed and walked over to the couch. He sat next to him.*

Sif: Are you okay?

Murphy: I don't know, Sif.

*Sif placed his hand on Murphy's shoulder.*

Murphy: I couldn't get much sleep last night.

Sif: I can tell.

Murphy: I don't even know what to do. I can't go out because I'm afraid something will happen to you... or me.

Sif: I'd like to see something happen to me.

*Murphy gave Sif a confused look.*

Sif: That... didn't come out right.

Murphy: *(Smirking)* You think?

*Both of them sat quietly. Murphy stood up and leaned against a wall. Sif stared at him for a short while before he stood up and leaned against the wall with Murphy.*

Sif: I'm sorry I didn't come home last night.

*Murphy turned his head to face Sif.*

Murphy: No offense, Sif, but that was the last thing on my mind.

Sif: I guess that's fair.

Murphy: I couldn't stop thinking about everyone at the ARIPC. If Franklin isn't the person I thought he was, then... *(softly exhales)*.

Sif: Oh shit, the kidnapped girls...

*Sif quickly turned to face Murphy.*

Sif: Sorry, sorry! It just sorta--

Murphy: I'm not going to berate you for cursing this time.

Sif: Look, if... if Franklin is mafia, then that's another one behind bars. I will make sure of that!

Murphy: I have no doubt. But some of this is on me, Sif. I should've suspected something, at the least. If I had, the officer that d-died, she...

*Murphy placed his hand over his face. Sif had noticed and looked away, he couldn't bare to see his friend being upset.*

Sif: Hey, M-Murphy...

*Murphy placed his hand back down and looked at Sif.*

Sif: There was, um... something I came to show you.

Murphy: Sure, go ahead.

*Sif pulled up his sleeve and pressed on the Alphamatrix button twice. The core popped up. Murphy had given a disgruntled look.*

Sif: Do you mind?

*Murphy nodded. Sif scrolled through the dial counter clockwise four times and pressed down the core. He transformed into Fasttrack. Murphy walked backwards with an instinctual shock.*

Murphy: I'm still not used to that!

*Fasttrack approached Murphy from behind and held onto the back of his neck.*

Murphy: What are you doing?

Fasttrack: I saw it in a movie once. Hold on!

*Fasttrack ran out of the apartment whilst holding onto Murphy. He ran north across the city, approaching Mount Wellington. He zoomed across the mountainside roads and into a large patch of grass. He finally stopped and let go of Murphy. Murphy had fell on his knees and coughed uncontrollably. Fasttrack hit the Alphamatrix on his shoulder and helped Murphy back up as Sif.*

Murphy: How... *(coughs)*how in god's name do you do that everyday?!

Sif: I don't do this every... well, it's not really *me* doing it, I become something else.

Murphy: Is it a weird feeling?

Sif: You bet, there's nothing like it.

*Murphy groaned loudly and rubbed his eyes.*

Murphy: Sif, can you tell me why we came here?

*Sif had paused. He watched Murphy compose himself and waited for him to stand up straight. He then walked closer to him.*

Sif: My grandpa died of pneumonia.

Murphy: I'm so sorry to hear that, Sif. When did that happen?

Sif: Long before me, I never got to meet him. I only heard stories from my uncle. Apparently, he was like a poor Walt Disney, he was eccentric. I don't really remember most of the stories and I hate that I don't, but one always came to mind.

Murphy: Tell me the story.

Sif: I'm gonna butcher it like hell, but I'm gonna try my best. My uncle had an older brother who would always help my grandpa, take him to the hospital and all that. One day, he was feeling sick. He asked my uncle to take him this time. And he did it. They went out, but I guess my grandpa knew he wasn't gonna make it. He wanted to spend his last moments with his son... here.

*Murphy looked around him and began to notice the beautiful cliffsides.*

Sif: My uncle blamed himself because he thought he could've prevented my grandpa's death.

Murphy: Sif, it was out of his control. I'm not sure anything could've prevented it--

Sif: He knew. Later on, I mean.

*Sif reached into his hoodie's inner pockets and pulled out a few white lilac flowers. He kneeled down and started to dig at the ground with his hands as we cut back to Anthony, exiting his room. He approached his living room table and picked up a vase containing white lilac flowers.*

*We cut back to Sif, who had finished placing the flowers. He stood back up alongside Murphy.*

Sif: My grandpa used to plant white lilacs. *(Soflty)*His favorite.

*Murphy placed his arm over Sif's shoulder.*

Sif: You can only try, sometimes, Murphy. And I don't like seeing you this way.

*Murphy nodded in confusion.*

Sif: Seeing you blame yourself for something you couldn't stop. It's hard but we need to think about what to do from here.

Murphy: Then we'll do that together.

*Sif smiled at Murphy and leaned in closer to him. We cut to the white lilac, firmly planted into the ground. The end.*

Notes

* LEAN

## Cross Swords

##### Opening Scene

The episode begins in Erik's spaceship. The lights were dim, not a sound could be heard and a mysterious smoke clouded the interiors. A shirtless Erik is shown meditating on the floor, his back covered in scars. He was inhaling the smoke and his eyes glowed a bright blue with Kammera energy. That glowing had stopped and his eyes returned to normal. He stood up to grab the top half of his armour hanging right behind him.

He's shown suiting up as we cut to him grabbing his sword that was also hanging next to his armour. He walked over to a whetstone table and started to sharpen his sword.

We cut from that to Woodsbury street. A man wearing a tracksuit walks down the sidewalk with his surroundings completely empty. He spotted a homeless man that was passed out and next to him as a plastic cup with money in it. As he was walking, he quickly grabbed onto it without a sound. We cut to another man. He wore a boiler suit with a nametag that read "Ike". He was laying his back against a Vito's Cuisine truck.

The man shown earlier, holding the plastic cup with money had arrived. They man by the truck asks,

Ike: "The hell took you so long, Danny?"

Danny: "Relax, I had to survey the damage."

Ike: "...And?"

Danny: "Would you relax already? Here, take a quarter."

*Danny reached the cup out in front of Ike and shaked it. Ike pushed his hand away.*

Ike: "The fuck am I gonna do with quarters?"

Danny: Any little bit helps with Melissa's Disneyland fund!

Ike: *(Muttering to self)*Disney World, asshole.

*He began to turn around and walk away but Danny held his arm and turned him back.*

Danny: What's on your mind, bud.

Ike: I don't wanna be out here longer than I have to be. Things are defin'ly not right with that alien asshole kicking our asses.

*Danny laughed dryly.*

Ike: He don't scare you or somethin'?

Danny: 'Nah. Think about it, he wasn't here last night, it was only the cops. Frankie's plan worked, he can kick our asses all he wants but we're not going to jail.

Ike: And if he wants to kill us instead?

Danny: It hasn't happened so far, bud.

Ike: *So far*.

Danny: Thinking about what happens later isn't your job, it's Frankie's. Right now, your focus should be on your job.

Ike: Forgive me if I'm not sold on Mr. Futurist to handle our goddamn *alien* problem. It's like y'all forget that detail.

Danny: He bleeds. All he needs is a well placed bullet between his eyes.

Ike: A bullet ain't gonna kill him.

Erik is then shown standing behind Danny. Right as Ike had noticed him, a sword went through both of their chests. They both bled immensely and Danny groaned. Erik gave them a few seconds then pulled the sword out. They both fell down, now dead. We cut to the homeless man earlier, we hear a loud thud that wakes him up. He looked around, confused, but spotted his cup right next to him.

The plastic cup had been filled with more money than was there initially. He picked it up noticing something strange. Two streaks of blood on the sides.

##### Act I

The begin at the Shooting Star nightclub, with the entire place being full. At least a couple hundred people dancing and having the time of their lives with "Gas Gas Gas" being played in the background. We pan upwards to see Murphy and Levi sitting at a table on the second level, looking down at the crowd. He smiled, knowing how many people are enjoying themselves.

Levi: "I haven't seen you smiling in a good minute."

Murphy: Huh?

Levi: "I was worried the overwhelming sense of dread would leave you with a chronic case of frowning."

*Murphy fluttered his lips.*

Murphy: "No, truthfully, I'm glad you got off your butt and came here. I was getting worried you'd make another excuse about fighting crime or whatever it is you do."

Levi: "Don't get used to it, I've been starring longingly for the past hour at that exit sign over there."

*They both shared a short laugh.*

Levi: "The police reaming my ass, sorry, about everything leaves me with nothing better to do. I figure I'll mind my own business for now."

*They both stood silently for a moment. Levi looked down at the crowd and noticed a familiar face.*

Levi: is that... did I just see Sam Carmack?

Murphy: Nope.

Levi: No, I-I think that might actually be Sam! *(He gestures and points over to him)*

Murphy: I don't even need to look to tell you it's not him.

Levi: How would you not know?

Murphy: He moved to Johannesburg years ago!

Levi: What if he came back?

Murphy: Levi, why are you bringing back a 12th grade fling? Why're you doing doing this to me?

Levi: I'm just... gauging how much you still care.

Murphy: I care about everyone, Levi.

Levi: That wasn't really...

*Murphy smiled and sarcastically nodded his head in confusion.*

Levi: You're a d-- I don't really want to get into the fine details of what I meant, you know full well--

Murphy: Yeah, yeah. Look, even if he came back and it all worked out splendidly, I don't think the time's right for something like that. Not in the middle of the chaos, which I enabled by the way.

Levi: I'd like to think of it more as a... collaboration.

Murphy: Riiight.

Levi: Maybe the chaos means it's the perfect time to pursue a relationship. It might make you happier, y'know?

Murphy: So... your hypothesis is that adding *more* chaos into my life is somehow going to restore my happiness.

Levi: ...When you put it like *that*...

*They both shared a chuckle.*

Murphy: You care that much about me, huh?

Levi: Me? Noo, I'm wholly lethargic.

Murphy: Ohhh.

Levi: Quit it! I'm just trying to help.

Murphy: You're erroneous here, Levi.

Levi: How's that?

Murphy: You think i'm unhappy.

Levi: You aren't?

Murphy: I'm really not. I never told you this but I've felt bored. I don't remember anything after February until you put on that ticker. I admire your determination when you use it, I haven't seen you like that in years.

*Levi breathed heavily, unable to respond.* *They were both silent for a moment. Murphy looked down at the crowd then back at Levi.*

Murphy: Would you look at that, I was right. Sam had brown hair, that person's clearly a blonde.

Levi: He could've dyed it!

Murphy: No, I was enamoured with him long enough to know he would never. You're seeing things again.

*Levi turned to face Murphy very quickly.*

Levi: What do you mean? I don't see things.

Murphy: I never said that you did...

Levi: The hell are you--

*A waiter had suddenly arrived to their table, holding a tray with two shots. She placed them on the table and smirked at Murphy.*

Murphy: Thank you, Sadie!

Sadie: Sorry I took so long, it's been a hell of a day. Everyone in this place is bound to have an ethylic coma within the next hour.

Murphy: Not on your watch!

*Sadie smiled at Murphy and walked away. Levi shaked his head, trying to ignore what transpired.*

Levi: I thought she was the bartender. Or is it barista?

Murphy: Barista's just the italian word for bartender.

*Murphy grabbed one of the shot glasses.*

Levi: And front row seats at a strip club is called Perv Row.

*Murphy sighed.*

Levi: Something tells me my 'Fun Facts With Levi & Murphy' script's getting rejected.

Murphy: *(Laughing)*It could use some revisions.

*Murphy had finally downed the entire shot.*

Levi: Hey, I thought you said you don't drink.

*Murphy hiccuped and placed his hand over his mouth.*

Murphy: I thought you said you'd mind your business.

Levi: *(Smirking)*You know what, Murphy, I wasn't gonna say anything but man this music is awful.

Murphy: You *did* tell me not to take Franklin's suggestions.

*Levi and Murphy's smiles quickly faded at the mention of his name.*

Murphy: I'm sorry.

Levi: The song's not that bad if it's any consolation.

##### Notes for CaT

* Sif mentions he likes the song Persons & Machinery

## Fear Itself

##### Synopsis

*With Anna Donovan finally coming home, a dangerous threat arises when a ghostly figure threatens not just the life of him, but everyone around him.*