#*T-poses while announcing the time and location of your death*

[sincerely-sofie]

PMD2 rewrite where instead of being extremely chill for a divine being who comprehends countless alternate timelines in unison and who knows how and when you’ll die, Celebi is still extremely chill, but when she finally gets fed up with people she releases Dark Prophecies

[newstfionline]

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Millions of Americans lose jobless benefits as Trump refuses to sign aid bill (Reuters) Millions of Americans saw their jobless benefits expire on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to sign into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, protesting that it did not do enough to help everyday people. Trump stunned Republicans and Democrats alike when he said this week he was unhappy with the massive bill, which provides $892 billion in badly needed coronavirus relief, including extending special unemployment benefits expiring on Dec. 26, and $1.4 trillion for normal government spending. Without Trump’s signature, about 14 million people could lose those extra benefits, according to Labor Department data. A partial government shutdown will begin on Tuesday unless Congress can agree a stop-gap government funding bill before then.

Downtown Nashville explosion knocks some communications offline (AP) A recreational vehicle parked in the deserted streets of downtown Nashville exploded early Christmas morning, causing widespread communications outages that took down police emergency systems and grounded holiday travel at the city’s airport. Police were responding to a report of shots fired Friday when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said. Police evacuated nearby buildings and called in the bomb squad. The RV exploded shortly afterward, Drake said. The blast sent black smoke and flames billowing from the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene, an area packed with honky-tonks, restaurants and shops. Buildings shook and windows shattered streets away from the explosion near a building owned by AT&T that lies one block from the company’s office tower, a landmark in downtown. AT&T said the affected building is the central office of a telephone exchange, with network equipment in it. The blast interrupted service, but the company declined to say how widespread outages were.

Powerful mobile phone surveillance tool (The Intercept) UNTIL NOW, the Bartonville, Texas, company Hawk Analytics and its product CellHawk have largely escaped public scrutiny. CellHawk has been in wide use by law enforcement; the software is helping police departments, the FBI, and private investigators around the United States convert information collected by cellular providers into maps of people’s locations, movements, and relationships. Police records obtained by The Intercept reveal a troublingly powerful surveillance tool operated in obscurity, with scant oversight. CellHawk’s maker says it can process a year’s worth of cellphone records in 20 minutes, automating a process that used to require painstaking work by investigators, including hand-drawn paper plots. According to the company’s website, CellHawk uses GPS records in its “unique animation analysis tool,” which, according to company promotional materials, plots a target’s calls and locations over time. “Watch data come to life as it moves around town or the entire county,” the site states. The company has touted features that make CellHawk sound more like a tool for automated, continuous surveillance than for just processing the occasional spreadsheet from a cellular company. CellHawk’s website touts the ability to send email and text alerts “to surveillance teams” when a target moves, or enters or exits a particular “location or Geozone (e.g. your entire county border).”

In other white Christmas news, 74 pounds of cocaine found floating off the Florida Keys (Miami Herald) The Keys sheriff’s office came across some white stuff Christmas week. But it wasn’t the usual kind of snow. About 74 pounds of cocaine were spotted floating off the Lower Keys by a fisherman Wednesday afternoon. The packages were put in a Monroe County sheriff’s patrol boat and turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol. Lost shipments are trending in South Florida and the Keys. In August and September, almost 150 pounds of marijuana were found floating off the island chain or washed up on the shore. In July, more than 50 pounds of cocaine washed up near Grassy Key. Earlier that month, 29 bricks of cocaine came ashore in the Middle Keys city of Marathon, according to federal agents.

Brexit Deal Done, Britain Now Scrambles to See How It Will Work (NYT) For weary Brexit negotiators on both sides of the English Channel, a Christmas Eve trade agreement sealed 11 months of painstaking deliberations over Britain’s departure from the European Union, encompassing details as arcane as what species of fish could be caught by each side’s boats in British waters. But for many others—among them bankers, traders, truckers, architects and millions of migrants—Christmas was only the beginning, Day 1 of a high-stakes and unpredictable experiment in how to unstitch a tight web of commercial relations across Europe. The deal, far from closing the book on Britain’s tumultuous partnership with Europe, has opened a new one, beginning on its first pages with what analysts say will be the biggest overnight change in modern commercial relations. Britain’s services sector—encompassing not only London’s powerful financial industry, but also lawyers, architects, consultants and others—was largely left out of the 1,246-page deal, despite the sector accounting for 80 percent of British economic activity. Negotiators have not formally published the voluminous trade deal, though both sides have offered summaries, leaving analysts and ordinary citizens uncertain about some details even as lawmakers in Britain and Europe prepare to vote on it in a matter of days.

Virus besets Belarus prisons filled with president’s critics (AP) A wave of COVID-19 has engulfed prisons in Belarus that are packed with people in custody for demonstrating against the nation’s authoritarian president, and some of the protesters who contracted the coronavirus while incarcerated accuse authorities of neglecting or even encouraging infections. Activists who spoke to The Associated Press after their release described massively overcrowded cells without proper ventilation or basic amenities and a lack of medical treatment. Kastus Lisetsky, 35, a musician who received a 15-day sentence for attending a protest, said that before he entered prison, he and three bandmates were held in a Minsk jail and had to sleep on the floor of a cell intended for only two people. All four have contracted the virus. Lisetsky must return to prison to serve the remaining seven days of his sentence after he’s discharged from the hospital. He accused the government of allowing the virus to run wild among those jailed for political reasons. “The guards say openly that they do it deliberately on orders,” Lisetsky said. More than 30,000 people have been detained for taking part in protests against the August reelection of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in a vote that opposition activists and some election workers say was rigged to give Lukashenko a sixth term.

Japan bans new entries of foreigners after virus variant arrives (Reuters) Japan on Saturday said it would temporarily ban non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country as it tightens its borders following the detection of a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus. The ban will take effect from Dec. 28 and will run through January, the government said in an emailed statement. Japanese citizens and foreign residents will be allowed to enter but must show proof of a negative coronavirus test 72 hours before departing for Japan and must quarantine for two weeks after arrival, the statement said.

As Virus Resurges in Africa, Doctors Fear the Worst Is Yet to Come (NYT) When the pandemic began, global public health officials raised grave concerns about the vulnerabilities of Africa. But its countries overall appeared to fare far better than those in Europe or the Americas, upending scientists’ expectations. Now, the coronavirus is on the rise again in swaths of the continent, posing a new, possibly deadlier threat. In South Africa, a crush of new cases that spread from Port Elizabeth is growing exponentially across the nation, with deaths mounting. Eight countries, including Nigeria, Uganda and Mali, recently recorded their highest daily case counts all year. “The second wave is here,” John N. Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has declared. In South Africa, the continent’s leader by far in coronavirus cases and deaths, the growing devastation in its medical system has led to the rationing of care for older adults. Last week, officials announced that a new variant of the virus that may be associated with faster transmission has become dominant. With stricter control measures lifted and many people no longer seeing the virus as a threat, public health officials fear that Africa’s second wave could be far worse than its first.

Syria’s bread lines are so long that children have to skip school to wait in them (Washington Post) Every morning, Abu Mohammed and his two eldest sons wake up for dawn prayer in Damascus, then take turns heading to the bakery. They wait for at least three hours, barely making it to work or school on time, he said. Often, the boys miss their first few classes. Sometimes they miss the whole day. Abu Mohammed, who declined to give his full name for fear of harassment by the security services, is among a rapidly growing number of Syrians languishing in seemingly endless lines. The bread crisis is perhaps the most visible and painful manifestation of Syria’s economic meltdown. It has seen the amount of subsidized bread most families can buy reduced by half or even more. Subsidized prices have doubled since October. Outside major cities, the deprivation may be even worse. “The poor man living in the village no longer has gas; he has wood. He’s out of bread; he makes his own,” said a resident of the coastal city Tartous, interviewed over Facebook.

Our Digital Lives Drive a Brick-and-Mortar Boom in Data Centers (NYT) The shift to digital work and play from home, hastened by the pandemic, has wreaked havoc on commercial real estate. But experts say it has also generated one surprising bright spot for the industry: data centers. The growing reliance on cloud-based technology—and the big, blocky buildings that house its hardware—has created greater opportunities for developers and investors as businesses and consumers gobble up more data in a world that has become increasingly connected. “Our houses are connected, our cars are connected, our streetlights and parking meters are connected, and every single one of those connections is passing data back and forth,” said Sean O’Hara, president of the exchange-traded funds division at Pacer Financial, an investment advisory firm in Malvern, Pa. And companies that provide data storage are preparing for even greater demand as new technologies like 5G and artificial intelligence become more widely used.

The Secret to Longevity? 4-Minute Bursts of Intense Exercise May Help (NYT) If you increase your heart rate, will your life span follow? That possibility is at the heart of an ambitious new study of exercise and mortality. The study, one of the largest and longest-term experimental examinations to date of exercise and mortality, shows that older men and women who exercise in almost any fashion are relatively unlikely to die prematurely. But if some of that exercise is intense, the study also finds, the risk of early mortality declines even more, and the quality of people’s lives climbs. In essence, says Dorthe Stensvold, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who led the new study, intense training—which was part of the routines of both the interval and control groups—provided slightly better protection against premature death than moderate workouts alone.

[the-furious-redneck]

COVID-19 Panic: 3 Points of Panic During the Epidemic

For the past several months, since it’s origination in China, COVID-19 has proven not only to be a concern for Europe and Asia, but for the world as a whole.  With multiple cases sparking in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres, the World Health Organization has now classified the spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic.  

Schools have been shut down, the DOW has plummeted, and supermarkets and convenience stores are having a very difficult time keeping up with the demand of a population who is scared to death.  And in their defense, who wouldn’t be?  With reports coming in from Italy and China about the forced quarantines and with the United States reporting more cases (and deaths) by the day, people have a right to be terrified.

The primary issue in the United States, however, is the fact that it has been politicized, and both sides of the aisle are at each other’s throats.  The Trump Administration’s initial response to the Outbreak has been lacking, and the argument that precautions should have been taken immediately is a sound point to make.   However, whether it is due to the delayed response to the now-classified pandemic, or due to the Media attention that the disease received once it had reached the states, there has been both misinformation and harmful information released to not only fuel conspiracies, but a general disregard for the disease as a whole.

While panic is highly unadvised, disregard for the virus is unadvised either.  Hopefully below will outline the points and the panic responses I have personally noticed regarding each one.  (Note, some panic responses may be repeated in each 

POINT 1: Why Self Quarantine and Social Distancing is Important

Many people have heard the term “Social Distancing” regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic, or Self-Quarantine.  The reason for these precautions stems from the general methods the disease infects people.  While COVID-19 can live for hours on surfaces, coughing and sneezing is the primary method in which the CDC believes the virus spreads.  While they do also state that spreading of the virus is probably during an individual’s most symptomatic days when they are infected, another deeply concerning issue is the thought of Asymptomatic Infected Individuals, also known as “carriers.” Asymptomatic Infected Individuals/Carriers are people who are infected by a virus and show few-to-zero symptoms regarding the disease.  These are people who have contracted the virus, don’t have indication that they are sick, and therefore go about their lives thinking that they do not have the virus.  They pose a risk to the more susceptible individuals, such as people considered senior citizens and the immunocompromised.  The reason why this is such a concern is that if a carrier of the disease walks into a hospital where there are sick individuals, or a nursing home, the virus may spread rapidly to those who are housed within these areas, and cause a vastly more difficult problem to manage. Social Distancing is important.  If you need to go out, keep a distance of six feet from other people.  If you are sick, if you have a fever, if you are coughing, stay home.  If you are NOT feeling sick, only travel if you absolutely need to.

THE PANIC REGARDING THIS ISSUE:

Masks and Gloves: Masks are sold out, Medical PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is sold out, due to non-medical personnel believing that masks and gloves will protect them from the virus.  In reality, masks and other PPE should only be used if you are experiencing symptoms, or directly caring for an individual infected/suspected to be infected by the COVID-19 virus.  Panic Buying of these items have severely diminished the ability for hospitals, doctors, and medical facilities to have the devices needed to protect themselves while they care for the sick.

Paranoia:  Paranoia on the government response, paranoia on the lack of information, and paranoia as a whole is a danger in ALL instances of disease outbreak.  Paranoia is also the most difficult reactions to an outbreak to dispel, especially when one distrusts government officials or the organizations meant to combat outbreaks such as these.  However, the facts with this is irrefutable.  The disease spreads if we do not take precautions

Indifference:  Indifference usually isn’t caused by panic, however it is a direct response to panic.  People who have a belief that the virus isn’t as bad as other viruses, people who have an misunderstanding on hour infections and outbreaks are caused, as well as people who are purposefully attempting to spread the virus.  Indifference is caused by a multitude of different reactions to an outbreak, such as denial that one is sick, denial that the outbreak can affect them, or assurances that they are healthy and therefor not susceptible to catching COVID-19.  The truth is while there are a multitude of people who have minor symptoms, this virus IS killing people. YOUR minor symptoms do not reflect the whole of those infected.

POINT 2: Stocking and Preparing

Stocking and preparation has been the talk of the Outbreak since it has been announced that COVID-19 is an epidemic.  People rushed to both online and physical stores to prepare for the possibility of self quarantine.  However, the preparations have been... interesting to say the least.  Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, Antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer, any cleaning supply that says “Can Kill 99.9% of Germs and Viruses” was wiped off the shelves- and have remained off the shelves due to a shortage on those items now.  Masks have been sold out since February on both online and location stores., gloves have been wiped off the shelf, and Survival Prepper sites have found themselves swarmed by people who were looking for answers and looking for advice. However due to the “Panic Buying” of these items by common citizens, Health Centers, Hospitals, Doctor’s Offices, and Emergency Services have found themselves unable to find a provider for the items they need.  Reports of excessive hoarding and scalping of necessary supplies have put a burden on both medical personnel and civilian citizens alike. On the other side of the aisle, people are poking fun at both the real panic and fad-panic of people who are prepping.   So what is the perfect balance?

I must admit, I am probably biased in this discussion here.  I have been told by a family that has consistently been a family of preppers that “If you don’t have six months worth of potable water and canned goods, you’re doing it wrong.”  I myself make sure I have a good amount of canned goods and potable water in my house.  However, that just isn’t feasible for some- especially for those who live in apartment complexes. So, here is MY quick guide on proper preparation and stocking.

Have at least 2 weeks to 1 month of canned goods/ potable water.  Potable water can be spring water bottles

Have a first aid kit

Have medicine to treat the SYMPTOMS of the virus, not the virus itself.  Do not hoard these items.  Only buy enough for your family (Fever Reducers, Cold/Flu medication, Cough Syrup/Cough Drops)

If feasible, have a generator- if not, flashlights, batteries, and a hand-crank radio.  In this age, solar-powered chargers are also an option for small devices

Small Camp Gas Stoves (PENDING YOUR LEASE REGULATIONS, DO NOT BREAK THE GUIDELINES OUTLINED IN YOUR RENTAL LEASE) These are good for boiling water/cooking food.

Make your own Hand Sanitizer 

Do NOT stock up on masks or gloves.  Gloves get contaminated just like your hands do, you do not need them if you wash your hands frequently.  N95 masks NEED to be fitted and tested for them to work properly.  If you do not know how to do this, they will not help you.  Those masks are needed by health professionals. 

Do I need a firearm?

Firearms are entirely your choice, I have multiple firearms in my home, however if you feel the need to buy one, ensure that you are making an educated decision, and understand the laws of your state/local principality on the ownership of firearms.  

How do I know what I need to prepare?

The CDC has an interactive list on what you can do to prepare you and your family for self-quarantine.  I can only give you what I would do to prepare for this.  Primarily you want to listen to the professionals, and listen to the people who are hired and trained to deal with incidents like this.  Too often does Hollywood portray outbreaks as anarchy and world-ending incidents of a breakdown of civilization.  The first piece of advice I have is to put those fears and those images aside, and focus on the facts and the reality of the situation.  Primarily, the CDC and the WHO are the ones that should be looked at for guidance.  

POINT 3: Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories

Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories are probably the most harmful when it comes to outbreaks and the panic caused by them.  Whether it is involving the country of origin or the government response of the country you live in, misinformation regarding the origin, the reaction, and the handling of outbreaks such as these can not only be harmful but dangerous.

Discrimination against nationals or a race prominent in the region of origin is common, a fear reaction from the panic that births itself in situations like these.  Conspiracies about the state and origin of the virus is common.  False advertising for miracle cures is common as well, up to and including homeopathic remedies and snake oil sales.  

Unfounded paranoia over the factual information that is received is also a common problem as well.  Most people that believe the misinformation become victims of scammers, grifters, and fringe groups looking to profit off of the fear of individuals, usually rousing their loyal base into actions that would be deemed as irrational.  

Politicizing the pandemic is an issue that has been more than prominent in American politics as well, with both sides of the aisle accusing the other of not doing enough to handle the crisis.  

The COVID-19 Pandemic is a crisis that we can not ignore.  Regardless of your opinion on the issue, follow the instruction of the CDC and the experts that have been trained to deal with a situation like this.  Please keep yourself informed.  Please keep yourself safe. And please, for your safety, remain calm.

Sources Used:

As Coronavirus Panic Heats Up, So Do Sales of Snake Oil Scientists ‘Strongly Condemn’ Rumors and Conspiracy Theories About Origin of Coronavirus Outbreak Lists of Incidents of Xenophobia and Racism During 2019-2020 COVID-19 Outbreak CDC COVID-19: Resources for Households W.H.O.: When And How to Use Masks Misinformation Related to the 2019-2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Is This Timeline of Trump’s Coronavirus Responses Accurate? 

WHO Calls COVID-19 a Global Pandemic R0: How Scientists Quantify the Intensity of an Outbreak Like Coronavirus and Its Pandemic Potential Baseless Conspiracy Theories Claim New Coronavirus Was Bio-Engineered W.H.O.: Myth Busting Coronavirus Claims

[lacommunarde]

Snart and Scofield to the Company Came - Chapter 9: Plans Collide

Chapter 1: A Case of Mistaken Identities

Chapter 2: STAR Labs

Chapter 3: What is Leonard Snart?

Chapter 4:  Safety in Central City

Chapter 5: Meetings and Decisions

Chapter 6: Licence Plate Game

Chapter 7: Utah

Chapter 8: The Van, the Truck and the Bike

Chapter 9: Plans Collide

Fandom: The Flash, Prison Break, Arrow (sort of) Rating: Mature Warnings: Prison Break typical level of violence, (sort of major) character death, Torture, Surgery, Cancer, Child Abuse, Past Child Abuse,

Notes: Spoilers through season 4 of Prison Break, The events of the Flash happen ten years earlier: Len Mick and Lisa are ten years younger but everyone else is canon age, Len is 33, Michael is 28/29 when the fic starts, Linc is 32/33, Mick is 35. Snart Family Feels, Scofield and Burrows Family Feels,

Relationships: Mick Rory/Leonard Snart, Leonard Snart & Lisa Snart, Lincoln Burrows & Michael Scofield, Michael Scofield/Sara Tancredi, Maricruz Delgado/Fernando Sucre, Michael Scofield & Leonard Snart, Michael Scofield & Christina Scofield, Leonard Snart & Christina Scofield, Mick Rory & Lincoln Burrows,

Characters: Leonard Snart, Michael Scofield, Mick Rory, Lincoln Burrows, Lisa Snart, Cisco Ramon, Barry Allen, Caitlin Snow, Sara Tancredi, Fernando Sucre, LJ Burrows, Joe West, Iris West, Maricruz Delgado, Felicity Smoak, Alex Mahone, Paul Kellerman, Bill Kim, Christina Scofield, General Krantz, Aldo Burrows, Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell, Wally West, Lewis Snart, Brad Bellick, Oliver Queen, Axel Walker,

Summary:    When Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows swing by Central City to get a potential plan B for getting to Panama (in case they need it), they are mistaken for Leonard Snart and Mick Rory. Leonard Snart, who is laying low (not in Central City) is mistaken for Scofield. Once their identities are straightened out, Len, Mick and Lisa and the Flash team decide they are going to help the brothers (and Sucre, Sara Tancredi, and LJ) find out why the Company wants them, and the Rogues call in a few favors.

In an office with varnished wood and clunky yellowing computers, someone stuck his head out of an office when a blond-haired agent walked by, scowling at the world around him enough that people got out of his way. “Agent Mahone, we have recovered eighty percent of the data on the hard drive.”

Agent Mahone’s expression melted from one that promised a yelling to whoever bothered him to that of a dog who has just smelled the scent of a bone again and pointed all of its senses and body in that direction. “Good. Keep at it. And print up what you have so far. I want it on my desk in an hour.

The computer guy nodded. “I already have and it is.”

Mahone nodded, impressed. “That’s really great. Agents, somebody get this man a coffee and a donut. He’s given us the first useful advance against the brothers,” he announced to the room, pointing at the computer guy.  “Great job.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He walked off to his office, leaving the computer guy spluttering behind him, and closed the door. Once he was sure no one could hear, he flipped open the phone. “Yes?”

“Hello, Alex,” said the disembodied voice over the phone. Sly and slimy tone. Kellerman. Mahone stiffened.

“Kellerman, I said I’d call when I had news.”

“Do you or should we get someone else on the project,” the voice over the phone crackled in its threat.

Mahone wished he was face to face with Kellerman again, just once, so he could punch him in the face and wipe that tone out of his voice, the tone that said he owned Mahone and they both knew it. As it was, the news he was about to deliver would have to suffice. “Actually, we just had a breakthrough here, Kellerman. We found the brother’s hard drive and we currently have recovered eighty percent of the data on it, plans, what his tattoo means. Now do you have anything else to ask or will you let me do my job?”  

“Excellent news. Keep on it,” Kellerman’s voice sounded pleased. Then again, Kellerman could go screw himself. He considered winging the phone out the window onto the street below.

--

The brown mail-truck pulled up alongside the young hitchhiker, the passenger window on the truck down. The hitchhiker kept his head down under his hat and kept walking, despite the heat. The truck kept pace with him. The hitchhiker felt his heart try to jump through his chest with the thought that he was made, as his dad would put it.

“Hey, kid. You going our way?” said the man for inside the truck.

The hitchhiker stopped, a smile growing on his face as he recognized the voice. He looked up at the truck window. “Dad?” He beamed up at him.

“Hiya, LJ,” Linc greeted him, grinning just as big. Uncle Mike shoved his head halfway in the window as well.

“Miss us?” Uncle Mike joked.

“You bet, Dad, Uncle Mike,” LJ said.

“Come on. Get in.” Linc nodded back into the truck. The door swung open and Uncle Mike and Linc and another guy pulled him in. There was a woman driving that he had never met before. He sat between the other guy and Uncle Mike.

“Hi,” he greeted the other guy and the woman. “I’m LJ.”

--

Kelleman’s phone rang after he had gotten off the phone with the man who had been supposed to keep an eye on LJ. He bit his lip, took a deep breath and picked up the phone. “Mr. Kim.”

“Do you have a report?”

“Dr. Tancredi has unfortunately disappeared. I am trying to locate her again.”

He could hear Mr. Kim’s displeasure in the silent pause. “And the Burrows boy?” Mr. Kim added finally.

Kellerman gave his head a shake and swore under his breath. “Unfortunately, we are trying to locate him as well.”

Mr. Kim scoffed. “You lost him.”

Kellerman winced. “Only a minor setback. I am working on finding where Tancredi has gone and she will lead us to the brother.”

“She had better.”

“Mahone has also found that the data from the hard drive can be recovered. However, we are still waiting on him finding anything in there.”

“Someone had better find something. Otherwise, we will have to put someone else on it,” Mr. Kim said and hung up. Kellerman looked down at his phone and then slipped out the memory card and pitched it into a pond across the park walkway.

--

Diner. Just a sleazy, greasy joint on a southwestern highway where no one in their right mind would stop for a bathroom break or a drink unless they knew what it was. What it was, was the Low Crime capital of the southwest, at least for those that didn’t approve of human or drug trafficking, and didn’t want to keep company with those who did. It was a meetup place for hard working thieves in need of teams or intel. And when Len had been working on jobs around the southwest instead of Central when the heat got too much or when he wanted to keep an eye on Lisa while she was training for figure skating Pros, he’d swung by here often.

He saw the UPS truck outside – fourth license plate, he nodded with approval – and as he swung the door open and took off his glasses, he saw Lisa tilt her head towards the bathroom from where she was sitting, just a girl drinking coffee at the counter. He understood the glance: Michael, Linc, Linc’s son and the man they had brought with them from Utah were in there, likely watching through the double-sided mirror, if they knew what was good for them. He gave her a polite nod – given the rarity of female thieves and the grace and pose she had, it was required that he notice her briefly anytime they played at not knowing each other – met eyes with her to let her know he saw, and turned to the host to request a booth. “Meeting someone here,” he said.

The host nodded to a window booth and offered him a menu. Len knew about the menus in this place and even if he didn’t need anything that was on the back pages, he took it nonetheless and slid into the empty booth.  

The woman and man he had seen driving the SUV walked in, surveying the place, along with a white-haired man who stood on the balls of his feet as though his muscles were comfiest doing so. He surveyed in smoother, calmer motions, eyes taking in everything from each section of the room before they fell on Len.

Len inclined his head at the man. The man nodded back then tipped his head at the woman and the man. The woman went to the counter, pulling out the stool next to Lisa, likely to survey the diner in much the same way Lisa was doing. The man in the bad suit walked with him then sat down in another empty booth by Len’s table. Neither of them stopped with the host, which meant unfamiliarity with the place. The white-haired man passed him and continued to Len’s booth and gestured at the empty seat across the table. Len pointed at it and inclined his head and did not take his eyes off the man as he slid into the seat.

“Michael,” he greeted once he had sat.

Len inclined his head to the side and met the man’s eyes.

The man surveyed him back. “You aren’t Michael.”

“How bout you tell me what led you to that conclusion and I will tell you if I’m Michael or not,” Len said.

The man’s eyes glittered, but other than that grin in his eyes, his expression did not change. “Your eyes showed no recognition, wariness, horror or anger.”

“Sizing you up,” Len responded, filing away the information that this man had done something to Michael that he considered worthy of Michael’s horror, and recognition meant he had seen him more recently than when he was born.

“You’re colder, a good deal more like Michael and Linc’s mother.”

Len twitched his head to indicate that he wanted more information. “Never met her.”

“She’s… interesting.”

Len met his eyes. The man inclined his head. “She’s supposed to have died of cancer,” Len accused in a dropped voice.

The man inclined his head. “A lot of things are supposed to have happened. I’m supposed to have been a no-good, two-timing drunk who ran off one day out of the blue on a trip to the store to get cigarettes.”

Len squinted, which under his eyelashes gave the impression he had closed his eyes in a grimace while still letting him observed the world around him. “Clearly, she’s met someone I know.”

“Clearly,” the man responded after studying Len’s expression for a minute.

Something moved out of the corner of Len’s eye so he glanced at it from under his eyelashes, and he saw Michael standing there outside the bathroom next to Linc, who had his arms clasped around LJ. Michael’s face spoke of something catastrophic going on with his emotions.

The blonde lady saw them too and glanced at the white-haired man and Len before sliding to her feet, reaching for her gun. Len sighed and counted to five as everyone reacted at once: Lisa drew her gun and had the blonde lady disarmed and in a choke hold before the lady likely knew what hit her; the host had also pulled a gun and had it aimed at her; and the white-haired man across from Len turned around with a frown on his face as something he didn’t calculate was happening around him.

Then, he set eyes on Michael and Linc and nodded. “Jane. Drop it,” he said and glancing at Len, he asked, “Know her?”

“Lisa, wait for Jane to put the gun down then reholster yours. No need to turn her platinum gold today.” Len glanced back at the white-haired man with a smirk. 

Lisa smirked and said to the woman, “Too bad. You get to keep your blonde hair today.”

The white-haired man nodded. “Turn her gold?”

Len inclined his head. “Her hair is offensively platinum,” he drawled the pleasantry, deliberately misunderstanding the question.

The white-haired man narrowed his eyes in recognition that Len knew exactly what he had meant and just refused to answer and turned his body to face Michael and Linc. “Hello again, Linc, Michael.”

Linc shoved LJ behind him. “What do you want, Dad?”

“That’s our dad?” Michael asked in a strange voice. Len glanced him up and down, noting how his hand sought something to grip onto and how his jaw tightened.  

“Yeah, you’ve never met him.”

“Actually, I have.”  

The white-haired man gave a nod of approval. “Knew you’d remember, son.”

Len could see Michael’s knuckles turning white on the back of the chair.

“What? When?” said Linc, turning between the two of them. Michael seemed to just be staring at the white-haired man.

“Michael,” Len prompted.

Michael stepped forward, gazing at the white-haired man. The white-haired man gazed at him, watching his moves until Michael was within a distance where if either had wanted to they could have leaned forward and embraced. Then, in a swift motion, Michael decked him in the jaw.

Linc, LJ and Sucre gasped, and Jane leaned to get her gun. Lisa restrained her again and aimed her gun at her. The white-haired man held up a hand to indicate he was alright. Jane stopped, and Lisa took her target off her. Len met the host’s eyes to let him know that everything was on the up and up.

“When I was eleven, one of the foster parents I was with locked us into a closet whenever social services wasn’t there. He would take us out only to feed us and yell at us.” Michael’s voice had gone monotone, as though reciting a story with no impact on him. Len wondered if having him see Mick’s shrink might do him some good. “Then, one day, while I was locked into the closet, there was a scuffle outside. The door opened and you were there. You picked me up and told me not to look, but I looked and saw that you had shot that foster father in the head.”

The white-haired man gave a slow nod. “Nobody abuses my children and gets away with it.”

“Linc was in there for years. Why didn’t you do something?” Michael shook his head, glancing at Linc and LJ.

“That’s what they would have wanted. They were trying to lure me out,” the white-haired man said.

Len turned to survey Jane’s expression then he turned back to face the white-haired man after having determined the man was probably fairly justified in his paranoia. “Who’s they?”

The white-haired man shut his eyes. “That is a conversation to be had somewhere more private.”

“Somewhere you’ll suggest, I take it.” The white-haired man inclined his head. Len scoffed. “Why should any of us trust you?”

The white-haired man turned to Len and raised his eyebrows. “I’m their father.”

Len gave him a wry and dangerous smirk. “Even if you are, what makes you trustworthy?”

The white-haired man took a few steps closer to Len, like a prowling cat focusing on an annoyance. Len scoffed at the impression and let him come. “I’m sorry. Who are you, again?”

“I’m Leonard Snart, the man your sons hired to get them to safety and clear their names. How do you figure into that? Tell me now. Otherwise, I’m taking them and walking out that door.”

“I’m Aldo Burrows. And you might want to hear what I have to say.”

Len hoped his face looked as bored as he felt.

It must have because the white-haired man – Aldo – continued, “I know of a tape that can clear Linc’s name.”

Len inclined his head.

“How?” Michael asked.

“It is evidence the President’s brother is still alive.” The entire room inhaled. Aldo, seeing as he had their attention, continued, “But you’ll find things are a little more complex than just that.”

--

All of them continued to Aldo’s safehouse, Len on his bike; Aldo, Jane and the man in the suit in Aldo’s car; Linc, Michael, LJ, Sucre and Lisa in Lisa’s truck. On the way to their vehicles, with a nod of their heads, Len and Lisa agreed to notify Mick and Cisco where they would be.

Mick hung up the phone after listening and nodding then nodded at Cisco, who was also finishing on his phone call. “Got the message, Heatwave. I’m tracking them via computer.”

Mick came over to where Cisco was standing by the computers to observe. Cisco glanced up when he noticed how close Mick was to him. Mick saw the alarm in his posture and grinned at him, raising his eyebrows, but did set himself back on his feet to make himself appear as non-threatening as a 6’2” guy with broad shoulders, a shaved head and burn scars can. Whether it was the grin and eyebrow wiggle or the change in posture, Cisco breathed like normal again and turned back to his computer. “See this?” He pointed at a spot on the map. “That’s Cold.” Mick grinned at how Cisco called Len that even when he wasn’t in the area. When he next saw him, he would have to tell him. “That’s Lisa, Michael and Linc. And Lisa’s good. I told her if they ran into anyone of interest to slip a marker on them as well. She must have done it because there’s the last car.”

“Shoes.” Mick nodded, peering at the computer.

“You mean Aldo?” Cisco frowned. “How did you get from one to the other?”

Mick shrugged. “Women’s shoe brand. I went shopping with Lisa a couple times.”

Cisco beamed before he remembered who he was talking to and wiped the glee off his face.

“Snart doesn’t like him. Shoes throws an extra wrench into Snart’s plans. Could potentially screw things up.”

“Did Cold tell you about thtape?”

“He said he was going to hear him out about it. But, judging by how this ass didn’t come forward about it till now, even if there is a tape, there’s a reason he can’t get to it.”

Cisco nodded. “Point. It says here that Burrows was on trial and going through the appeals process for three years, which may I just say is really short.”

“Yeah. There was a guy in one of the prisons when I was in who was going on twenty years of death penalty appeals. Pigs were going to throw him a party when he got there. So yeah, there’s a reason he couldn’t get to it before now, and it ain’t related to him not having a good enough thief to get it for him.”

Cisco turned to survey Mick. “You come up with that theory or did Cold?”

“What’s it matter?” Mick put his shoulder back up.

Cisco shrugged and offered Mick a gummy candy from his desk, which Mick took and popped in his mouth. Then Cisco unwrapped a lollypop of his own and shoved in in his mouth, peering back at the computer as the vehicles turned off the highway. “Hello, where are you going now?” 

--

The mansion they got out at looked like a type like the Santinis loved and the Darbynians thought was too high class for them. Taking a look at Linc’s discomfort with the place and the entrance hallway, Len determined Linc agreed. He took a glance at Michael: the man appeared just as uncomfortable around the mansion, as he, according to Linc at least, had even less familiarity than Linc with this kind of house. Sucre hung close to LJ, who didn’t seem as out of his depth but was still impressed by the house, so one of his friends must have had a place like this or something. Lisa got out and ignored the house, because she was familiar with this style of house from parties during her figure skating years.

Jane and the man in the bad suit walked into the house followed by Aldo with Linc who took LJ – Len could have sworn he heard LJ say something like “This is the same dad who walked out on you?” to which Linc responded, “Things are complicated.” – and Michael took Sucre and whispered something to him. That left Lisa to nod to Len, and Len to incline his head back before they entered the house, laying a hand on his chest pocket as he did.

Once they were all seated on, or in Len’s case lounged over the back of, couches around a coffee table, with Jane and the man in the suit standing guard, and had all been watered, given the June heat, Aldo put down his own glass and leaned forward. “The reason I bailed on you all those years ago was because of the Company.”

“So you’ve said,” Linc replied, “What is this company?”

“A corrupt multinational organization determined to put people in all the right places to get power to continue operating as it sees fit.”

“Bored now. What else is new?” Len said from his couch, tossing the little puzzle ball he’d danced his fingers across on his way past a bookshelf into the air and catching it.

Aldo turned to Len like he wanted to strangle him.

“I’m already familiar with Queen Consolidated, which tried to kill Starling City’s slums not so long ago to make room for a development, with the head of Lexcorp all but appointing himself Metropolis’ mayor – I’d vote for him for President if he runs, if I could vote, but too many times being arrested for felonies, what can you do? – Additionally, STAR Labs in Central City, where Dr. Wells designed a particle accelerator and the thing that was living in the sewers awhile, while presumably paying bribes and blackmail to keep the authorities from looking too close. So, I repeat, what else is new?”

The angry expression dissolved into one that was more interested in discussing politics with Len. “The scale. This corporate conspiracy is global and has amassed enough power to start a war should it choose.”

“United Fruit,” Len pointed out.

Aldo nodded. “Yes, around that level.”

Linc prompted, “How is any of this related to Terrence Steadman? And why is he still alive?”

Aldo sighed. “Two reasons. One, they had to have him disappear and the easiest way was to fake his death. “Two, they wanted to have me come out of the woodwork, but I doubt Steadman or the President are aware of that reason.”

Len asked, “Why did they have to have him disappear? And why would they want you to come out of the woodwork?”

“The Ecofield corruption scandal,” Michael remembered.

“What about it?” Linc asked.

Aldo nodded with a proud, little smile on his face. “How about you tell?”

Michael said, “He was in charge of Ecofield. Information was leaked that it was a very corrupt company, in a large enough way to potentially bring it down if it was investigated. With Steadman killed, they couldn’t ask him any questions in the investigation.”

Linc lunged at Aldo. “You son of a bitch!”

Michael and Sucre caught Linc mid-lunge, and Michael squeezed his shoulder as they returned him to his seat. Linc remained seated but crossed his arms across his chest, glaring at Aldo.

Linc explained, “You son of a bitch. You leaked the information about them and they knew it was you. And I was working there at the time, so not only did they fire me, but they also used me as bait. Just ‘cause you weren’t subtle enough! They used me as bait to get to you!”

Len sighed, “Although that also explains why you couldn’t exactly leak where the tape with the evidence was,” Len summed up. Aldo nodded, adjusted his collar from Linc’s strangulation attempt.

Linc and Michael turned to Len.

Len explained, “If they knew the way he leaked information, they’d be able to track him down better if he handed over additional evidence. Set a trap, that kind of stuff.”

“Still doesn’t mean he didn’t hand over the evidence that made them arrest me.” Linc shot his father a glare.

Len inclined his head. “Yes, he did, and he handed it over in a sloppy enough fashion to let them know it was him. Which may I just say…” Len glanced at Aldo and shook his head.

Linc gave Len a grateful expression.  

Aldo frowned. “Yes, I regret that it was done in such a fashion, but I became aware of what was going on at Ecofield and felt it necessary to let the public know. You were regrettably working there at the time.”

Len leveled a gaze at him.

Aldo shifted uncomfortably under it. “Are you sure you and Michael weren’t switched at birth?”

Len chuckled. “I’m the same age as Linc.”

Aldo nodded. “And there’s no way Christina could have been pregnant with you without me knowing about it.”

Len closed his eyes. “We already did the math and figured that the closest we could be is cousins. But my grandfather was still alive for a few years there and would have mentioned if my dad had any siblings, particularly when he was sick and considering the foster system for us. But as Michael here seems to have found out the hard way, the foster system also sucks.” He leveled Aldo with a gaze.

“Coming with me would not have been safe. They both would have excelled at it, of course, but it would have been no childhood at all.”

Len met Michael and Linc’s gaze, enough to see that they had both guessed that they would have excelled at whatever their father was doing. “You could have stayed with them,” Len suggested.

Aldo shifted from his stance at ease in his own house to one that was a lot more alert, vigilant, and prepared to strike at any minute. Len’s lips curled up in a smirk as he recognized the man as a criminal in another guise, and he inclined his head at Aldo. “That wouldn’t have been an option for me leaving the Company, not with what I knew about them.”

Linc growled, “So you did it to stay alive?”

Aldo turned to him, relaxing halfway back into his at-ease posture. “I did it to keep you safe. If I never showed up there, they wouldn’t look at you two too closely. Which if they had, they would have recruited you in a second, you to be an operative and eventually a hitman, like me; you,” – he turned to Michael – “They would have cut any morals out of and sent you to work with their best and their brightest. You both would have excelled at it, of course. And then they’d get their hooks into you,” – he gestured at Linc then turned to Michael, “And you’d be too invested to ever want to leave.”  

Len caught the puzzle ball again, rotated around so his feet were on the floor and undid the puzzle in his hands, setting it down on the table.

“In what exactly?” Michael asked.

“They employed your mother for a number of years in their science division. Rumor is, she enjoyed it a lot.” Aldo grimaced. Len watched the minute motion Aldo also did where he met Jane’s eyes and then eyed the puzzle box and her slight nod in reply.

Len pulled something out of his pocket. There was a momentary expression of annoyance on Aldo’s face as he – and Michael – recognized it as a little gyroscope toy from an entrance way table. Len saw Aldo’s expression and gave the gyroscope toy a little spin, dancing it from one hand to the other, and gave Aldo a little smirk.

“Did they?” Michael’s voice had gone into that quiet tone that Len imagined was a sign that he was at his most dangerous.

“Yes,” Aldo turned back to Michael.

“She could still see us,” Michael said.

“She wasn’t working as an Operative.”

Len interrupted, “Assuming you weren’t a dirtbag father and just an absent one, oh, all your kids’ lives, how ‘bout you tell us what you been doing since you left, since Operative isn’t really descriptive?” 

Aldo held Len’s eyes with an expression that he was there by Aldo’s sufferance alone, but that as he wasn’t completely useless, he could stay. “There’s a piece of technology held by the Company that contains valuable information on all the people they hold something over on and on all their operatives and operations. If we can get it, we can give copies to the DOJ and the UN and get the Company shut down and many of its operatives, its general and its executives arrested.”

Lisa gave a loud laugh. The others in the room turned to face her. Aldo with annoyance, Michael with a frown, Linc with amusement, Sucre with an interested tilt of his head, LJ still with the same wide-eyed expression he had had when he had first set eyes on her, and Len with a small, mostly hidden but proud smile on his face.

Lisa shook her head and turned to Aldo. “Do you know it actually exists and is not just a McGuffin to keep you running in circles?”

Aldo snapped back at her. “Of course it actually exists. I have it from the Director himself that they were designing something like it. I just can’t figure out exactly where it is being housed.”

Lisa glanced at Len and continued, “Why do you think someone wouldn’t have already extracted this information, someone gifted with a computer?”

Aldo glanced at her with far more interest on his face. “As far as I can tell, it is not connected to any internet. Too dangerous for exactly that reason. Additionally, the design of it is rather complex. It is called Scylla as in –“

Michael replied, “As in the Greek mythological creature with six heads.”

Aldo smiled at him. “Yes, Michael, as far as I can tell, it requires six parts of it to work. Now if only I could find out what the six parts are and where they are being held in addition to the main component itself…”

Len said, “Maybe we can put multiple heads together for ourselves and think up where they could be keeping it.”

Mick’s voice came out of Len’s chest pocket. “Nah. It doesn’t just contain that.”

Michael, Linc, Sucre and Aldo all turned Len’s direction. Len held up a flip phone and shrugged. Aldo’s expression had gone murderous and cold, and he pushed himself to his feet, shifting his jacket out of the way.

Len watched this and made a sound of derision at it. “No need to draw your gun. Aldo Burrows, meet Mick, my partner. Aldo, say hello so my partner can get your voice.”

Aldo did not back down. “Why were you taping this discussion?”

Len shrugged. “Was having him listen in ’cause he’s my partner and should know what’s going on.”

Aldo turned to Linc. “Did you know about this?”

Linc glanced at Len, then at Michael. “I met his partner. He’s a good dude. Didn’t know he called him, but it makes sense.”

Aldo sat back down, though he was still gazing at Len. “He can hear me over that thing?”

“Yeah,” came Mick’s voice.

“Very well, I’ve been doing actual research on this device longer than you’ve been out of elementary school.”

Len raised his eyebrows. Mick scoffed. “Yeah, but you ever seen what’s on it?”

Aldo stared at Len who was gazing back at him with a triumphant smirk. “No. But neither have you,” he said to both Len and Mick.

“True,” Mick answered, “But as a hitter, I wouldn’t keep info on people only electronically. I’d keep it in a safe that would destroy the person if they tried to break into it wrong. I’d also keep an uncertain number of other copies in various other locations. The assholes trying to break into it wouldn’t know how many copies there were. So they wouldn’t gain anything from trying to get at just one.”

Aldo tipped his head. “That’s… a very intelligent suggestion actually.”

Mick made a sound of appreciation. “It’s how I do it.”

Linc turned to the phone. “Who do you got blackmail on and why?”

Mick shrugged. “Various people. Probably the entire KCPD and CCPD. Just in case we need it.”

Len inclined his head. “It was easier back in the day when the entire departments were corrupt jackasses.”

At the emphasis Len put on the last two words there, Lisa straightened up just a little and slid the gesture into reaching forward for her glass of water, and Mick just grunted over the phone. Michael’s eyes flicked over Lisa and Len.

Linc asked, “If that’s the case, what else would they store on this device?”

Lisa turned to him. “What does the Company make exactly?” Aldo turned to her, surveying her. She let him, then met his eyes. “Yes?” she asked.

“You’re dangerous,” Aldo commented.

Lisa gave a small smirk. “We’re all dangerous, Aldo. We’re criminals. It’s what we do.”

Aldo gave a nod. “Not so long ago, I would have snatched all of you up to join the Company. You would have done very well.”

“We prefer to be on our own team.” Len met Aldo’s gaze with his own, leaning forward to pick up his glass of water while not breaking eye contact. Aldo held Len’s vision with his own bristly expression.

“It must be something having to do with what they do, if they are an actual company,” Michael said into the pause, glancing at Lisa. “Are they?” He turned to Aldo.

“They are, but there was a very strict division between the Operatives and the Scientists,” Aldo glanced over at Michael and Linc. “I was never involved with what they were researching.”

“So it’s a science lab then?” Len asked. “Broken into science labs before. Hell, it’s a game I play with a few of Central City’s labs. Break in, take a few things, see if they notice.”

Aldo smirked and then realized what he was doing and wiped any sign of it from his face. Len turned to raise an eyebrow at him.

“They almost certainly have their IP on there then. Wells kept his files on a secret computer in a secret room according to Cisco.”

Len turned to Lisa and raised an eyebrow, tensing up from his previous acting relaxed posture. Over the phone, Mick’s voice said, “Boss, want me to rough him up a little?”

Lisa rolled her eyes. Len smirked and responded, “Nah, Mick. It won’t be necessary with this one. He ain’t Scudder.”

There was grumbling on the other end of the phone, but Lisa flashed her brother a happy, little smile.

“Scudder?” asked Linc.

Lisa winced and responded, “Just your garden variety asshole.”

Linc said, “One you did jobs with?”

Len nodded.

Aldo peered at Len. “Any use to us?”

Len got a weirded out expression on his face and began to shake his head. “No. He’s…” He paused, chewing on his lips while looking at Lisa. “Ain’t actually seen him since the night of the particle accelerator.”

Lisa leaned forward into her hand. “Is that what happened to him?”

“You mentioned a particle accelerator earlier. What was it?” asked Aldo.

Around the room, Len, Lisa and Michael made similar wince faces. “Long story,” Lisa said.

“One of the labs in Central City blew up when its particle accelerator experiment went wrong. The wave hit a number of people making them super-humans with interesting abilities. Most of them, as with most people who suddenly get superpowers, decided to get revenge on either the guy who ran the lab or various people they were pulling jobs with who double crossed ‘em or put ‘em behind bars.”

Aldo stared. “So you got a bunch of supervillains running through your city is what I’m hearing.”

Len smirked. “Yes.”

Aldo gave a nod. “I must admit, I don’t typically care about superheroes and their supervillains. No superhero is going to care about a corruption scandal the size of the Company. They tend to like easy missions: over, done with, photo opp, kiss the baby, fly off into the sunset.”

Len shrugged. “Captain America.”

Linc nodded. “X-men.”

Aldo shook his head. “Actual superheroes. Captain America and X-men are just comic books.”

Len leveled Aldo with a gaze. “Flash’ll give you a run for your money.”

“Flash?” Aldo looked incredulous.

“Central City’s superhero. Kid hates corruption just enough to help out…” Len froze, glancing around the room. “Where did the man in the bad suit go?”

Aldo looked around and met Jane’s eyes. Both of them turned to where the man should have been standing and wasn’t. They both pull their guns out, Aldo out of his back holster hidden by his jacket, Jane out of her hip holster, and go into what Len recognized as job mode. Even in this, Aldo only tensed a little, but he gave off the impression that he was ready to move into quick action at the drop of a hat.

Len nods at Lisa. “Sis, you get Michael, Linc and the others out of here. Aldo, you know the layout better than me; you lead the way.” He pulled his cold gun out of its holster and buzzed her up. “Mick, gotta go on silent, buddy.”

“Got it, boss.”

Aldo nodded at him and then stared at the gun with its glowing blue tip. “One of my acquisitions from one of the lab runs,” Len replied to his unspoken question.

Aldo gestured down for him to follow him and for Jane to go down the opposite hallway. Len did, gun at the ready. Aldo walked ahead of him, footsteps silent on the floor, as Len crept behind him down the hallway, silent as a thief in the night. The hall up ahead was silent, not even the creak in the floor made by their weight, which meant that any warning noise the man in the bad suit might have made on the floor was out. Visuals alone would have to do. Aldo’s stance said he was likely a quick draw, unless he used stance and fists alone to get info out of people, or unless he was a sniper, use to having time to set up the shot. Len found himself wondering who was faster, himself or Aldo, just a little game he played with people in the criminal underworld that tended to work out in his favor.

They turned out of the hallway, having checked the doors – bathroom and a closet – and crept into the living room. There was a faint movement from a door and one of the curtains.

Len had his gun up before Aldo had drawn and had fired his gun by the time the silencers coughed.

The bullet hit the cold field and slowed. Len knew it was still moving and turned to Aldo to make sure he was moving fast enough to get out of the way.

Aldo was standing there with a frown on his face.

Len ran at him and pulled him out of the way.

The bullet skimmed Aldo’s arm, burning his shirt and his flesh underneath it as it went. If Len had not pulled him away the bullet would have struck his heart. Aldo met his eyes for half a heartbeat, long enough for both of them to realize the other one knew it.

Then Len fired his gun full and fast across the room where the bullet and early warning movement had come from.

The man in the bad suit hit the floor, face and chest iced over, though still gasping for breath.

Aldo tensed and his eyes went wide. Len guessed that were he any less controlled, he would have jumped.  

“Left him alive in case you wanna question him. Can thaw him out without permanent damage too if you like his answers. It’ll just hurt like hell till I do,” Len told Aldo.

Aldo nodded. Len could see himself going up in Aldo’s estimation. Not that he cared. Aldo turned his attention back to the man in the bad suit and set his foot atop the ice on the guy’s chest. The guy hissed in pain. Len couldn’t say he blamed him, but as with his crews, the man should have known better than to betray the crew. Aldo aimed his gun at the man, met his eyes, and shot without making an expression.

Jane ran in. Aldo met her eyes, and she gave a curt nod, eyes flicking from the ice on the man’s chest to the gun still fired up in Len’s hands. Len smirked at her and powered down the gun. She lowered her gun as well.

“Why don’t we finish the discussion on how we’re going to get this six-part device back in Central City?” Len said.

Aldo glanced down at the man bleeding out on the floor. “Alright.”

[grapsandclaps]

GRAPS AND CLAPS REVIEWS - PROGRESS WRESTLING CHAPTER 76 'HELLO WEMBLEY'!

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Graps and Claps this time taking on a trip to the biggest show of the English wrestling scene as Progress Wrestling took to Wembley for Chapter 76 'Hello Wembley' in front of a crowd of 4750 at Wembley Arena.

Now yours truly might have not been fortunate enough to grab one of the press passes on offer, but I was certainly there fulfilling my duties as your correspondent for what was sure to be a pinnacle point in the promotions history.

Travelling down from Wolverhampton in the morning after two nights of Fight Club Pro (this will be reviewed later this week once I get home), I arrived at Wembley for 2 pm after a two hour trip to the capital filled up with the lukewarm 'Spoons brekkie and a can of gin and tonic to keep me going till I reached London.

After a 15 minute walk to Baker Street, where our group did our best impression of a 10,000 metre walk with everyone chopping and changing positions whilst walking down the street, we took the tube to Wembley Park which coincidentally located right next to my hotel (Premier Inn) that turned out to be the best £51 I had spent all weekend due to the over running of the Main Event, but more on that later folks.

Walking up Wembley way for the first time in my life, I had done a previous trip to the stadium but that was for Rochdale's defeat in the 2008 playoff by Stockport, that time the coach dropped us off round the back of the ground so on the occasion I didn't get the chance to make that fabled walk.

Once in the venue, which was a fairly speedy process we were greeted with the sight of merchandise in front of us with a £5 markup on t-shirts for this show which was expected. Before taking my seat the first of probably 5/6 pints of Heineken was had at a wallet busting £6.50 a pint but is to be expected nowadays at Arena shows.

On first look in the arena itself, the setup was much better than the big ICW Hydro shows which if you were in the tiered seating there you did feel as part of the atmosphere from what seemed miles away. This setup though was much more intimate and the chance for noise to stay compact in a big arena made it a much better event.

Starting at 330pm we began with a pre-show battle royal with some of the lesser lights of the Progress roster and also some returning faces including Stixx, R.J Singh and Warehouse Manager of the Decade - Mad Man Manson who as I have stated before in this blog was the main reason I even started going watching PCW which broke me into the ever lasting journey of seeing britwres.

Early stuff in this match included a few spots with Inflatable Lykos annoying T.K Cooper to the point of T.K losing it and chucking the inflatable one into the 4th row. T.K as well before this conquered the feat of dumping out my boy Big T, which you think sometimes in rumbles it takes at least 8 people to dump out the biggun.

We had a staredown between R.J and Stixx which was a call back to there feud back in the day at Chapter 15 I think it was, but for me it did seem lost on a number of the audience.

As we got to the final 4 of Ridgeway, Trivet, T.K and Chuck Mambo the odds of a 'Escaping the Midcard' Youtube star winning was long odds-on as Ridgeway was dumped over the top rope. Leaving T.K to slug it out with Mambo on the ring apron, it has to be said Mambo found many ways of escaping not getting chucked out.

Spike looked to knock both off the rope and missed, then Mambo I think head-scissored TK who took a bit of a nasty fall on the apron to take him out, leaving it down to Mambo to finally throw out Trivet for his 3rd win in multi-man action after winning two scrambles in Wolverhampton.

The main show started at 4pm with U.K band WARS playing some RAAAARRRR RAAARRRR RAAAARRRGG music to accompany the into to the show instead of the usual 'Started from the bottom' by Drake. Resident compere and all round good egg Jim Smallman then came out to do his usual routine but with extra expletives - my gosh there was more 'fucking' in this than what you see on Channel 945.

With that out of the way we got started on the main card with newly signed NXT Wrestler Matt Riddle taking on Mark Haskins, with the latter earning this match after his losing defeat against Tyler Bate at the last show. I do have to say Riddle's new entrance theme is a good toe tapper which was rare on this evening with some utter bilge in the music department - but this has been covered ad-nauseum so I digress.

A slow opening to this one with an early feeling out process, Haskins did manage to fell Riddle as he kicked his leg from under him, whilst also hitting his customary bounce back dive to Riddle on the floor. Back atop of the ring Haskins hit a huge superplex from the top rope for a two count, Riddle though managed to get back up to hit a knee to Haskins chin and following up with a jumping brostone for a 2 count.

With Riddle looking like he was on his way to victory, he was caught unawares by a destroyer from Haskins which was followed up by a double stomp to the sternum, with Riddle wounded, Haskins locked in the arm submission for which Riddle tried to reverse but he was then hit with the Made in Japan from Haskins for the victory - really good opener that built very well along the way.

Quick pee break and a pint, but whilst standing at the bar I heard the announcement that the next match would be for the Women's Championship which I had predicted earlier in the day to be in its customary 2nd on the card spot which seems to have become a recurring thing for the women which is a shame.

Anyways we had the Champion Jinny defending her title against long time rival Toni Storm and young up and comer Millie Mckenzie. Millie it is to be noted hasn't half put muscle mass on and certainly looks the part even at this stage of her career - the Travis Banks Fitness Regime has done wonders for Millie and Kyle Fletcher.

At ringside we had the presence of the House of Couture who it was certain would get imvolved at some moment, Nina Samuels it has to be said - could crack walnuts with her pins just wow!!

Enough of my gawping, this lasted just under 10 minutes and maybe the shortest match of the night. Early part of the match was all 3 competitors using throws and suplexes to each other with Millie especially coming off best in these exchanges folding up Jinny like an accordion.

On the ring apron though Millie got taken out with a strong zero from Storm, meaning that she was out of the running to win the title. Storm looked to finish off Jinny, but the house of couture got involved on the ring ropes only to be confronted by Storm's mates - Candyfloss and Laura Di Matteo. This is where things took a turn for the worse for Storm as LDM turned on Candyfloss and then on Toni leaving her laying for Jinny to come in and pick up the pieces to retain the Women's Championship.

With LDM posing in the ring with her new cohorts they were then interrupted by Jordynne Grace who entered the ring to a good ovation and steam rollered through The House of Couture to send them packing off to the back.

So it looks like we have a new challenger to the Women's title instead of the usual Toni vs Jinny scenario which has been played put enough now, the heel turn of LDM I guess was needed as her face run fell quite flat given that her feud with Jinny was a hot thing at the time, the part of getting back with Jinny I do find a bit baffling after all the belittling that Jinny did to her in the past - but as ever we shall see.

Next up it was Atlas Title time with Doug Williams defending his title and his career up against Trent Seven, this for some people was the first leg of the Skybet Boost Treble of British Strong Style to win all there respective matches on the card.

Very technical start to this match with both chaps going hold for hold, with Doug showing that he still has moves in his locker even at this late stage of his career. One part that would fit into the latter part of the match, wouldn't come off in the early part as Trent missed a crossbody to Doug instead landing flat on his face.

Doug hit a Chaos Theory to Trent for a 2 count, but not before Trent picked up Soug for an impressive burning hammer (we would see this move on a number of occasions on this evening) for a two count. With Trent in control he hit a back hand fist to Doug's Temple, whilst also trying to put him away with a lariat but Doug was having none of it as he followed up with a Powerbomb while Trent was on the top rope and then a piledriver to get the nearest of near falls.

At a vertical base though, doug looked to finish off Trent but was caught out of nowhere by Trent who hit for the first time ever - a running crossbody for the victory to capture the Progress Atlas Title and to send Doug Williams on his way into retirement for good. There was a nice touch at the end with the locker room filing out to greet Doug, bit of a shame a Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch or Alex Shane wasn't there for that moment given all there history in the FWA. For me, a good match to watch and a good way for Doug to bow out - Thumbs up from me 👍👍

Your Half Time Main Event now with Jimmy Havoc taking that little rotter Paul Robinson in a No DQ Grudge match that was sure to involve lots of blood and violence very much akin to there first battle. The usual white canvas was changed to a clear blue mat for this one as it must have more blood resistant but who knows.

Robinson did get revenge of his own cutting open Jimmy on the outside, back in the ring and once the light tubes got introduced this is where this match took off as Robinson double stomped two light tubes on Havoc's chest to cut him open add in the fact that he had also stapled a t-shirt to Havoc which Jimmy had ripped away.

With Robbo making friends ringside, Jimmy Havoc as a pale white ghost of death made his way to ringside area to start this bloody brawl. One of the first big shots of this match was a whack around the chops from Havoc to Robinson with a frying pan which split open Robinson's head.

Havoc did have a short comeback where he also broke light tubes over Robbo's back and face. Not long after with the finish in sight Havoc managed to hit a footstomp through the light tubes to Robinson and then followed up with the Acid Rainmaker to end a violent war - Robinson you could see visibly that his back was shredded up.

As said this was a violent match but maybe not as good as their first battle just due to the spontinaity of it all back then when both were baddies at the time - still watchable stuff though.

As the clean up operation went on for longer than expected, the break lasted around 30/40 minutes but in that time I met up with the lesser seen on Twitter now - Joe Lemon who it was great see and chat to as he made a last minute decision to attend the evening's action so with him on his own he came and sat with O's for his ears to be deafened by my clapping.

Back from break and a piss in the cramped men's bogs, we returned with the complicated but certain to be fun - 'The Silly Bastard' FKA Thunderbastard Tag Team Gauntlet for the Progress Tag Team Titles. Starting is off we had the team and your current Champions Flamita and Bandido going up against perennial loser in tag team contests - Jack Sexsmith and David Starr.

Along the way they were joined by Mills & Mayhew, The Anti-Fun Police, Aussie Open, Grizzled Young Veterans, CTK and the surprising sight of a bus service running on a Sunday Afternoon with the 198 in operation.

I won't go through all of the eliminations (check @gadget80 on twitter), but it has to be said that the early portion of this match was very much the Anti-Fun Police show and especially Federales Jr. who was hitting dives to the outside and even speaking mexican with his hombres Flamita and Bandido until he was flattened by both of them, it showed how much the fun police shone by the groan once they were eliminated.

One thing to watch back is the dive sequence that everyone did including a huge Spanish Fly bodyslam by Bandido - this was something else folks!

Final 3 we got down to in this match were The 198 (Morgan Webster and Wild Boar), The Grizzled Young Veterans and Aussie Open so you can guess from that line up who the crowd wanted to take home the belts. First to go out of these 3 was the 198 when Davis and Fletcher hit the Fidget Spinner to send them packing back on their bus, with the end in sight though it did look like the GYV were going to win with Mark Davis being sent packing to the outside by both Drake and Gibson.

Sadly though a bit of miscommunication between the Vets lead to Gibson being sent to the outside and Aussie Open hitting a Super Fidget Spinner to James Drake to capture the Progress Wrestling Tag Team Titles in just over 30 minutes.

In closing this exceeded the low expectations of the match before the show which we all know was a series that was too complicated to follow for those who were arsed, but a really fun watch for my liking and it will be great to see Aussie Open have a long run with the belts as they are one of the best teams on the circuit.

Next up and with the time getting periously close to 730pm with 3 matches to go we had up next the battle of 2 of Europe's best with Pete Dunne (Part 2 of the treble) taking on Ilja Dragunov in a hotly anticipated contest. What wasn't hotly anticipated was listening to Ilja's entrance theme which didn't half sound like a knock off of Umaga's theme from back in the day - this was certainly no Command & Conquer Red Alert.

In the run up to this match, Dunne has been hampered by a foot injury since last weekend where he beat Ashton Smith at Futureshock, this injury also struck him from wrestling action at Fight Club Pro give or take a run in on the first night which wasn't too strenuos.

Early part of this contest was Pete dominating Ilja twisting and turning his joints whilst also striking him with sheer precision forearms. On the outside of the ring though Ilja did manage to hit a suplex to the floor outside which must have creased an already injured Bruiserweight.

For the rest of the duration of this 18 minute match it was a back and forth contest with Ilja kicking out of a bitter end and an amazing bitter end tombstone that was so fluid to see in person. CMJ (Ilja's boss in WXW) got involved though by clocking Dunne with the UK Title belt but Dunne somehow managed to kick out at two much to the relief of Dunne's followers.

With Ilja looking primed for victory he did hit a torpedo moscow once which only just dazed Pete for a solitary moment, as Ilja went for another he was caught with a reversal from Dunne who not long after this locked in a Finger Snap arm submission to Ilja who tapped out to end a decent match in the end but for me and few other people it did feel strange to see Ilja lose straight away but one of the problems to this match was to neutrals who don't WXW they didn't have reason to believe Ilja was a threat to the Bruiserweight.

Maybe if they had given Ilja a match or two beforehand say by beating up a Roy Johnson or a Pastor Eaver you would make him look more of a killer, but that is just one minor gripe that I took away from what was a good match.

Creeping past 815pm and with people from the North West clock watching for if they were going to get there last trains home, we followed up with the end to a 1 year feud between Mark Andrews and Eddie Dennis which has been one of the shining lights from a booking and storyline standpoint in the last year and a lot of the credit has to go to Eddie who has been fantastic in his role.

It does have to be said though, that despite this the feud in the last month did lose a bit of steam but it was still one we were looking forward to. Fought under TLC rules and with a title shot at stake - lets get down to business.

Now it has been racking my head of how I should review this match as at the time of last night whilst watching, this felt like complete over booked bollocks at times as a live feeling when it could have been so much else without the stipulation. The story out of this match will certainly be the failure of the tables which massively hindered Eddie and Mark who despite their hard earned efforts it totally took away from the match. I mean one table it took 3 attempts to break without success, it was almost sad to see.

When both were fighting on top of the ladder both trying to catch the contract, Eddie knocked Mark on to a ladder below busting his shoulder open to leave a bloody mark, instead of grabbing the contract and ending the match, Eddie instead climbed down and this is where we had more table sillyness with Andrews jumping on to Eddie below from the top of a ladder, but instead of breaking on impact Eddie just slid off the ultra Ronseal varnish of the table.

Thankfully though when we reached the end of the match Eddie and Mark went a top of the ladder where Eddie finally finished off Andrews with a Next Stop Driver through a table off the ladder, leaving Eddie to climb back up and capture a No.1 contenders opportunity at any time of his choosing in the future, for Mark its back to playing his guitar with wounds to show for this match.

In closing with this, it certainly wasn't Eddie and Mark's fault but it all just felt a bit like TNA/WCW back in the day when matches would have too much in it just for reasons/non reasons. If this had the Jimmy/Robbo stipulation this could have been off the scales in my opinion - but sorry guys and gals this was a thumbs down.

So here we go with the time coming past 840pm and the North West contingent running home for their trains, we bring you the Main Event of the evening with Tyler Bate challenging the mighty Progress Champion who came out to some fancy violin music to send him down the entrance for what was to be a fantastic contest.

In the build up to this match, I have felt Tyler hasn't come across as relatable as a person to ordinary joe public, instead coming across as one of them weekend tossbags in yates's who you want to see get his block knocked off the dad like qualities of Walter.

This match though showed Walter in a great light of getting someone to feel sympathy for somebody in this case Bate who in his defence played the underdog role superbly when he was getting hit with some brutal clotheslines from Walter that sent his soul of into the Wembley orbit. Tyler to his credit showed off great strength when back suplexing Walter and also on two occasions he hit two massive airplane spins which were magical to watch.

To see both wrestlers also having seconds in there corner urging encouragement and in no way looking to interfere added legitimacy to it very much like Devlin vs Walter in OTT.

As we got to the end of this match Tyler hit a Tyler Driver 97 to Walter to come within a whisker of defeating Walter but it wasn't to be with Walter smothering Tyler with a sleeper that as well he managed to lift Walter up only for Walter to fall back any finally submit Bate with the sleeper to end a breathless 30 minute classic that could for me be UK Match of the Year at the end of the year.

So with the clock hitting 915pm, 45 minute past the proposed finishing time, that was it and for me a great success for Progress who managed to pull off a very good show probably a 7/10 show but still a great achievement and spectacle to watch British Wrestling. We had the announcement of Super Strong Style taking place on the 4th - 6th May next year at Ally Pally but nothing about a Wembley return but I do expect them to run this venue once again and so they should.

Show done, we met up with Grappl creator Gareth and his missus as we went to the JJ Moon Wetherspoons which was a 20 minute walk from the Stadium. It was nice to see a few of the others who I didn't see during the day including a customary hug from Taff.

With the pub calling for last orders we made our way back to the Premier Inn, to be met with the sight of Mark Haskins following us in the lift - lovely bloke as well!!

With that said I hope you have enjoyed reading once again. Any feedback, Likes, Retweets are welcome as ever and I will see you next time with reviews of Fight Club Pro's Project Mayhem two shows.

#grapsandclaps

@oggypart3