DarkBeast.com :: Forums :: Post New Message :: Board
This message Premiere #19: Error Margin was posted by The Hooded Hood tortures a few characters while setting up the big one... on Friday, May 24, 2002 at 02:20.
Previous issues at the Premiere Archives
Checklist of characters at Who's Who in the Technoverse
Premiere #19: Error Margin
The Red Watchman never tired of the sound of bone splintering. Samuel Wilson, the Falcon, had long since stopped trying not to scream as his captor snapped then reknitted his skeleton or peeled back then regrew his flesh. His new goal was to stay sane long enough to break his tormentor’s neck.
“Things are not going according to schedule in Parodiopolis and Gothametropolis,” Assak Malevi, the matter and energy shaping Watchman noted to the worried man on the vidscreen. “Are you telling me that you are in need of another object lesson, Professor Brudas?”
Still bearing the awful facial disfigurements of the last time he had failed his insane master the science counselor quickly shook his head. “No, master. I swear it! We… we have captured half a dozen more of the indigenous metahumans – Fin Fang Foom, Donar, Banjooooo, spiffy, Messenger, and dull thud. I can have them shipped back to you. They’ll make for interesting dissections. One polymorphing alien, one purported god, a genetically created lifeform, a plant-human symbiote, a supposed angelic being, and a mutated psionic tapeworm parasite inside a clod. We could learn a lot from them…”
“Yes, send them back by all means and I shall give them my personal attention,” the Watchman promised. He glanced across at the bloody red lump of meat that was Falcon. “I’m not sure how much longer my current entertainment will last even though I keep regenerating him. But don’t for one minute think that your little presents will let me overlook what is happening at the Safe containment center for this world’s criminal metahumans.”
Prrofessor Brudas paled.
______________________
Thirteen levels below the White Room in the Science Control Complex of Technopolis was the restricted suite where technicians of the Science Council performed the delicate surgeries that implanted Obedience Chips in their science hero operatives. Inside that, at the very heart of Basement 13, were the operating theatres and psychomanipulation workshops where science villains were once reformed, or at least lobotomized, to make them useful members of Technopolitian society.
Of course, these areas like every other part of Technopolis were now under the absolute control of this department’s greatest failure. When these scientists had worked their surgical and psychological reconstruction on Assak Malevi they had not understood the madman’s willingness to turn his matter and energy manipulation powers even upon himself to resist the effects of his behavior modificatio and then to turn Department 13’s techniques back on themselves. That was the Red Watchman’s first escape from confinement and before Premiere brought him down again three billion people had died along with the continent of South America.
But now Assak Malevi had the Science Council in his power. The resurrection clones they had bribed him to create for them contained genetic restraints that bound them to his will. Beyond his little organic jokes such as Dr Zalas’ disgusting dietary requirements he also enforced an absolute obedience, giving the Red Watchman command over the Technet that controlled the city; and giving him control of Basement 13.
This was Dr Urvan’s domain. The youngest of the Science Council had a passion for order and reform coupled with a genius for psychoanalysis which made her the ideal choice to command the rehabilitation center. Just now she was probing Jackie Robert’s memories about how the captured heroine had felt when her brother had died and as she was slowly transformed into a vampire.
“Stop it!” Amazing Guy shouted, struggling uselessly against the bonds that neutralized his powers and prevented the Protector of the Parodyverse from contacting his mentor for help, as he was wrestled away by Science Police towards an interview with the Red Watchman himself. “You’re killing her!”
Dr Urvan lowered the mind probe and cupped Jackie Rabbit’s chin to stare at her horror-filled eyes. “Of course I’m not. I’m just making her wish I had.” And the Science Counsellor leaned down and ran her tongue along her captive’s cheek, licking up the tears that streamed down Jackie’s face. “Mmmm. Innocent tears always taste the best in my opinion,” she noted.
Joe Pepper, the hero called ManMan, had been a prisoner longer than the others, ever since he had been captured in Las Vegas when the Flamethrower Squads had gone after Fetish Boy. “The Red Watchman did something to Urvan,” he explained grimly. “Addicted her to human tears. She loves to wring them from her prisoners before she modifies us.”
“Then leave Jackie alone!” shouted Pigeonman. “Take me!”
“All in good time,” Dr Urvan smiled coldly, still running her fingers over Jackie’s terrified, tear-stained face. “There are so many depths in this little one yet. Now Jackie, let us see how best to break your heart…”
______________________
Flashfry loosed his superheated plasma arc straight at the hero that challenged him. Trickshot rolled aside and loosed an arrow that sliced straight through Flashfry’s fuel tubes, causing the flame to peter out before the annoying archer could be roasted.
Detonator turned on Jonstantine but the shabby Englishman in the Macintosh scrambled behind one of the many ruins that dotted the edge of the nuclear disaster area that had been Lincoln, Nebraska, correctly reasoning that without line of sight Detonator could not cause him to explode. The Death Squad member swore and scrambled over the broken stonework to catch him.
Natalia Romanza took advantage of the distraction to kick Moodswing in the stomach. The emotion-manipulator had tried to break the SPUD masterspy earlier and she didn’t appreciate it. Her feelings were ragged enough with the unexpected appearance of Trickshot, the other-reality counterpart of her dead husband. Moodswing staggered back and reached for his pain lash. Natalia’s wrists were manacled behind her back from her capture by the science troopers who were scavenging the ruins for spoils so the leather catsuited agent thought it was probably an even fight.
“I can still generate flame without this tech,” Flashfry snarled as he flicked gobbets of superheated plasma in bright searing flares; but always towards the spot that Trickshot had just been. “I’ve taken on dozens of rogue metahumans. A baseline prole like you isn’t any challenge!”
The electroshock arrow caught him right in the groin. Carl Bastion didn’t like Technopolitans anyway, even before they started threatening his never-wife.
He turned round and grinned nastily at the Science Police who had accompanied the metahumans on the simple raid gone wrong. “You’ve got high-tech weapon gizmos from another dimension and I’ve got some sharp pointy sticks,” he growled. “Wanna surrender now?”
Moodswing leered at Natalia. “Lust,” he told her. “You want me.”
“Oh, I do,” the spy admitted, kicking high and dislocating her opponent’s jaw. “I want you so bad.” And she stamped down hard. “but I don’t think you’re in any condition to perform. Too bad.”
Some arachnids devour their mates.
In the ruins Detonator was amusing himself by causing the piles of rubble to explode into shrapnel. “Hey, I know you’re in here somewhere, gomer,” he called out confidently. “Hide all you like. Sooner or later whatever you’re hiding behind is going to blow up in your face.”
“It’s bad news when things blow up in your face,” Con Johnstantine admitted, lighting a cigarette and tossing the match down towards Detonator. The explosion threw the arrogant Englishman off his feet and made Detonator into a human torch. “By the way,” Johnstantine added maliciously, wiping the mud off his face, “We don’t have all that dimension-hopping technology and plasma rifles stuff here, but we can at least recognize a gas main before we start blowing things up. Twat.”
Trickshot and Natalia came running as they heard the explosion. “What the crap?” demanded the archer.
“Detonator blew up,” Johnstantine answered.
______________________
“Aaaaaaaaaaaggghhhh!!” screamed Chronic. He struggled against the webbing that strapped him down to one of the revolving chairs in Ziles’ stealth spacecraft but Lisette had tied him too well. “Does this have to hurt this much?”
“Don’t worry,” Valeria soothed him. “Rick…. Exile is using his energy control powers to isolate the frequencies being used in the control chip the Technopolitans implanted in you. Then we should be able to jam the frequencies on all the control chips in Parodiopolis. That was the whole reason we sent you into the Safe, remember?”
“I remember being personally threatened by Messenger if that’s what you mean. But nobody ever said it would hurt so bad!”
“It doesn’t have to,” admitted Exile. “I’m just kind of pissed that you let our friends get captured.”
“Rick!” scolded Valeria of Carfax.
“Hey, it works for me,” objected De Brown Streak.
Exile just frowned and amped his powers to the maximum. “Got it!” he gasped. “Say goodbye to those control chips, people!”
______________________
Fin Fang Foom was already unconscious but Quake kept on pounding him because he liked the squishy sounds the dragon made where his bone had been pulped. Count Armageddon had Donar trapped in a web of kaos energies and was experimenting to see how long it would take to burn through the hemigod’s spirit and sear his very soul. Technovore was in charge of clean-up operations and was gathering together the pieces of Banjooooo to ship back for autopsy after Blast Zone had got enthusiastic.
“Got a lock on where the other local hero-boys dimension jumped to yet?” Dreamripper asked Dimensionweaver, “Only I hate to leave unfinished business.”
“One of the mythological realities I think,” Dimensionweaver answered. “The Red Watchman says we can shut those down pretty easily once we command the planet. Apparently there are some ‘offices’ or something that can be used to bring the whole network down."
“If you’re so keen on finishing business, honey, how come future boy there had to haul your fat when you took on the rebels?” mocked Blast Zone.
“That’s Mister Future Boy to you, punk,” Quake warned him, stamping down on his Makluan stress-toy.
“No,” the Hooded Hood considered. “I’d say your name was Mud. Or Dead Meat.” He turned to the host of Safe prisoners and now-uncontrolled science heroes he was leading. “Take these interlopers down.”
“The Hooded Hood,” grimaced Count Armageddon, dropping Donar’s limp body to turn his full attention on the new threat. “So you came out of hiding at last. ‘Weaver, plan H.”
Dimensionweaver concentrated and the sky above the shattered supervillain prison shimmered. Then it was filled with Technopolis grav-wagons and Science Villains roughly a thousand Science Villains.
“Crap,” swallowed Balefire.
“You’re not the only one that can pull sudden last minute appearances, Hood,” Armageddon laughed as the vastly outnumbered escaping villains began their struggle.
“So I see,” the Hooded Hood admitted as the fight went against him. His eyes flashed with an eerie green glow. “But I do it with much more style.”
Reality rippled again and suddenly the SPUD helicarrier and its ramshackle armada of grav vehicles flickered in to engage the Technopolitan armada
Premiere floated before them. “One chance only,” he warned the Science Villains below. “Surrender. Or die.”
Notes:
Readers may wish to discover more specifics about the adventures of Amazing Guy and his companions in Basement 13 as recounted in AG’s JBH #5 and JBH #6.
This poster posed from 212.159.1.1 when they posted
Message Thread
Post A Message
DarkBeast.com :: Forums :: Post New Message :: Board