Ricky
Issue 01
This section is a summarization of the final entry of issue 1.
Ricky is a young man, less than twenty, who lives in the Annex. He crosses into Boomtown on a work pass to apprentice at Holman Printing in Lowtown.
Ricky seems to romanticize the struggles in generations past when Six-Gun and the Children of the Revolution fought for the disenfranchised. Ricky and Holman briefly discuss a humanitarian petition being debated within the Institution, but Ricky feels this will not achieve results quickly enough and prints a pamphlet critical of the Institution.
When he sees a dirty, gruff-looking man going toward Midtown without showing his papers to the Keeper at the gate, Ricky follows. The Gruff Man aggressively confronts him, but RIcky escapes harm when the Keeper notices them and sends RIcky back to his authorized locality. Shaken by the encounter, Ricky abandons his mission and heads back to Holman’s, where Holman is already waiting for him.
Holman has discovered that Ricky used the press without authorization, and is angry that Ricky failed to file some of Holman’s reports as instructed. Ricky admits he printed the pamphlet hoping to get Narissa’s attention. Holman makes him burn the pamphlets and his work pass. Ricky is fired.
Ricky arrives home to find the Hangman’s Horde is raiding his slum, setting fires, and corralling the inhabitants. Hank accuses Ricky and the other slummers of supporting the Institution. Ricky shows Hank his undistributed pamphlet calling for a hero to lead a revolt against the Institution. Hank decides to spare Ricky’s life for having “lightened the burden.” The other slummers are massacred.
Later, we learn that Gruff witnessed this visit from the Hangman’s Horde, and is being paid to bring Ricky to Subject. Subject is stunned to learn Hank left a survivor behind.
Issue 02
Sid asks Hank why he spared Ricky’s life, and Hank answers: “He is a herald of the ones inside the walls." Apparently bearing the message that there are rumblings of revolution in the city was a significant contribution to the cause.