Adventures in Parodyverse - Outlaws of the New Law Part 7

    The broadcast was in progress.  Yuki watched it on a monitor of the broadcast booth, and was becoming more and more angry as she saw it - a public execution of some of the heroes and upstanding citizens of Paradopolis, including Reverend Mac Fleetwood, April Alice Apple, and even herself.

    It made her ill not because of the content itself.  Because she could imagine millions of people, beaten down by The Moderator’s takeover, watching that on television and becoming demoralized.  She could practically feel all the hope drain from them, any thoughts toward justice seeping away to be replaced with fear of even speaking their dislikes in public.

    And Yuki Shiro felt she had a part in it.  That saddened her.

    “Change of plan,”  Chiaki arrived abruptly in the broadcast room.

    Yuki turned around and saw Anna carrying an unconscious Liu Xi, followed by LOL INTERNET.  “What’s going on here?”  she asked, casting a threatening glance in LOL INTERNET’s direction.

    “Liu Xi lost consciousness after replacing the explosives,”  Anna replied as she carefully laid Liu Xi on a cheap vinyl couch in the room.  “Zelnitz has pledged to aid us.  Otherwise I may decide to vaporize him.”

    “So what’s the change of plan?”  Yuki tried to keep up with the subject, even as she continued to eye Zelnitz suspiciously.

    Chiaki spoke again.  “Anna has determined that the quantity of explosive was only sufficient to cause a collapse of the facility.  The satellite Zelnitz subsequently disabled was, ironically, on a path away from this location.”

    “So?”  Yuki asked.  “That just means The Moderator was--”  She stopped mid-sentence and looked at the simulated broadcast on a monitor.  “Right,”  she whispered.  “He’s playing games with us.”

    “As I have informed Chiaki,”  Anna contributed, “The Moderator is fully capable of deleting the entire facility wholesale.  He has no need for explosives or satellites.”

    “The removal of both the satellite and explosives was perhaps unplanned,”  Chiaki added, “But the fact that it has been left unchecked brings up the possibility that the decisions about this place have been taken out of the hands of his minions.  Any action he will take, he will do so on his own.”

    “Which means this place gets deleted along with everything in it,”  Yuki guessed.

    There was no reply to Yuki’s guess.  The subject had been suddenly derailed by Liu Xi opening her eyes and stirring.  She sat up abruptly and looked at Yuki.

    “Are you okay, Liu Xi?”  Yuki asked.

    “I...spoke with Manga Shoggoth,”  she whispered.

    Yuki glanced at Anna.  “That would explain the unconsciousness.”

    “No!”  Liu Xi suddenly announced more loudly.  “Manga Shoggoth knows who The Moderator is!  We’re all in danger...we have to get out of here now!”

    “Calm down, Liu Xi,”  Chiaki tried to reassure the Chinese Elementalist.  “We are going to get out of here.  We must wait for the broadcast to end first.”

    “You don’t understand!”  Liu Xi slid off the couch and returned to her feet too quickly, she stumbled from the wave of dizziness that hit her.  “It’s someone we all know.”  She eyed Chiaki and said in an almost chilling whisper, “Someone who knows us.”

    Chiaki’s eyes widened suddenly, something in those words and Liu Xi’s mannerisms communicated something to her that was very basic, sending some thoughts in the back of her mind into motion.  She swung around quickly toward Yuki.  “Where is Lara?”  she asked.  

    “Right here.”  Lara waved her hands as she entered the broadcast center.  “I’ve been practicing moving things out of here.”

    “Practice is over,”  Chiaki said almost coldly.  “We must leave before the broadcast ends.  It may be too late already.”

---

    It’s amazing what facts you can miss when time is on the line.  Chiaki thought that to herself, among other things which raced through her mind, as she rode a bus to their new destination.  She leaned on the handle of her sword, the sheathed point gently resting on her left sneaker, her right foot beneath her.

    Though she was still worried, the plan was so simple that he was rendered speechless.  Especially because of who spoke up and presented it.

    In the midst of Yuki pacing the broadcast room, trying to figure out how to get beyond the limitations of Lara’s mass teleport ability, the usually quiet Liu Xi suddenly spoke up.  She remembered the black and purple painted tour buses that came and went from the facility regularly...and she offered that she could increase the space inside one so it would fit everyone.

    It wasn’t all that stealthy, which was why Chiaki was a little nervous.  She was in the front-most un-expanded bus with Liu Xi, Lara, and Anna, who was driving.  The second bus, the expanded one, was being driven by Yuki, the only one daring enough to drive such a crazy vehicle.  

    At least it looked crazy form the inside, with a small cockpit, and a doorway that led to a large theater with small tinted windows at each end, and rows and rows of seats filled with saddened and frightened former prisoners.

    The small, yet somehow large, caravan was headed toward a secret government facility that wasn’t too far from the prison.  A former missile silo that had been decommissioned, converted for classified government use.

    Two buses were used because of one simple reason - each one of the women had volunteered to return to the prison facility and aid the resistance upon their arrival.  The purpose of the caravan was to relocate the innocent prisoners to save their lives.  The secret facility had enough food, water, and power to hold them for a while, until the battle was over.

    The buses finally came to a stop at what looked like a small metal shack.  It was the small entrance to the vast facility below.  It had been abandoned since The Moderator forcibly redistributed military personnel to handle citizens.

    “All right, last stop!”  Yuki announced to the prisoners as she opened the doors of the bus.  They stood and began shuffling outside nervously.

    Meanwhile, Anna has taken control of the hidden bases’ security systems, and the door to the massive cargo elevator within the shed opened.  “I believe it will take approximately seven trips to get everyone into the facility.”

    “Fine, get everyone moving,”  Yuki instructed her.  “Which one of us is going to stay here and make sure everything’s working?  Deal with the needs of these people?”

    “I will,”  April Alice Apple said, stepping forward.  She tugged at Kat Gillespe’s arm, encouraging her to volunteer as well.

    “Me too,”  Kat spoke up.

    Mac Fleetwood pushed his way through the crowd gently and offered his aid too, with a simple nod and salute.

    Yuki folded her arms calmly and squinted.  She was about to question their qualifications, but one of them was familiar to her.  Faite’s touch brought back all kinds of lost memories.  “April,”  she said, recognizing the first volunteer.  “I know you.  Do you remember me?”

    April shook her head slowly.

    “You will.”  Yuki smiled and remembered her directive from Faite.  She reached out and gently squeezed April’s shoulder.  It was the first time she’d seen it work up close - the look of recognition in April’s eyes, the surprise on her face.  She took the bluetooth off and handed it to April.  “I’m sure you can handle it from here,”  she said, “But if you need help...any at all--”

    “I can handle it.”  April whispered, her face registering a struggle with a deep sadness, fighting back tears now as she started to process those memories.  Of the Lair Legion, and her lost husband and soul mate.  She nodded, and reiterated, “I can do this.”

    “Are you going to be okay?”  Yuki asked as she moved closer so not everyone within earshot would notice.

    April nodded again.  She gave Yuki a hopeful look.  “Just...do what you heroes do best,”  she said.  “Bring him back to me...you know who I mean.  Or I’ll have to find him myself.”

    “I will.  I promise.”  Yuki replied with a hopeful smile.  She finally turned her back on April and headed to the first bus.  Without saying a word, she boarded it and let Anna drive it away, back toward their inevitable conflict at the Iowa facility.  Yuki felt an overwhelming sadness as she watched April load the refugees into the secret base.

    “What’s the matter?”  Chiaki asked, leaning over from behind Yuki’s seat.

    “I...did what Faite suggested.”  Yuki whispered in response.  She shook her head and added, “She didn’t say it would be this hard.”

TO BE CONTINUED?

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2008 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 

--    reprinted without permission.  

-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow

--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin

--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin