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This message Premiere #25: No Choice was posted by The Hooded Hood would love to know how people think their characters would react to the events of this episode on Friday, August 30, 2002 at 13:57.
Premiere #25: No Choice
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General Guliermo Terlizzi’s unimpressed face filled the cracked main viewscreen of the downed SPUD helicarrier that listed in the harbor beside the Sheldon shipyards. “So what exactly is the status of your battle force, Colonel Drury?” he demanded.
“We’re about forty eight hours short o’ getting this tub in th’ air again,” the SPUD Director answered. “We got enough Technopolitan grav-wagons to patrol over Parodiopolis and Gothametropolis – about fifteen working vehicles and another dozen in the shop. We got guys from Bautista Enterprises and Turrets Inc and Icarus Inventions crawling over ‘em right now.”
General Terlizzi sniffed. “We at NATO estimate that Technopolis can still field around three thousand air vehicles, Colonel. Perhaps you should call your defense plan Operation Custer?”
“Yeah, and perhaps I should call you…”
“We also have some special operatives in the field,” Contessa Romanza added hurriedly. “They multiply our force capacity significantly.”
Terlizzi flicked through the dossier in front of him. “Yes. I have the casualty lists here. Fin Fang Foom, Nats, Goldeneyed, Falcon, Paste Pot Pete hospitalized. Messenger injured. Banjoooo and Frog-Man dead but recovering slowly. Amazing Guy implanted with an Obedience Chip. Visionary, Lisa, Yo, Cheryl and those JBH people lost in another dimension. Dancer, Sorceress, and Windblossom captured by the enemy. Dark Knight MIA, and now you have lost contact with Premiere’s infiltration team of Ziles, Hunter Victorious, Cobra, and um, ManMan. An impressive team you have there.”
“They’re out doin’ th’ job,” growled Drury. “Whut are you doing?”
General Terlizzi closed the file. “I’m doing my job too, Colonel. The Emergency Security Council meets tonight and I will have to tell them that conventional and enhanced metahuman combat methods have not worked against Technopolitan aggression. I shall recommend to them that they use nuclear force.”
“What? Are you out of your tiny chicken brain? You’ll devastate the country, kill millions of our own!”
Guliermo Terlizzi scowled at the insubordinate SPUD director through the viewscreen. “Colonel Drury, you are ordered to make necessary repairs in the next thirty-six hours and then withdraw with all your mobile forces to our forward base at Midway, by command of the NATO alliance and the UN Security Council under emergency resolution 362. Do you understand?”
There was a crackle of static over the transmission channel.
“I said do you understand, soldier?”
“Yeah, and I said go fuck yourself,” Dan Drury repeated louder for the record.
___________________________________
NTU-150 finished his deep resolution scans of the Lair Mansion. “Clear,” he announced. “There was quite a bit of Technopolis spyware installed but I’m confident I got it all. Er, some of it exploded while I was analyzing it.”
“I can confirm that,” agreed Al B. Harper, but whether he meant the bug-sweep or the explosions he didn’t make clear. “This place is back in business.”
“Great,” Trickshot nodded. “Then we better see what we can do to help our friends. Let’s get the troops assembled.”
Lisette checked the roster. “Cap’s still out with Captain Astounding and his team chasing down those science villains terrorizing the West Coast. There may be no safe way for them to get back fast while G-Eyed’s down, since Technopolis has air superiority over most of the mainland. spiffy’s over at the Phantomhawk hospital getting the remaining Technopolitan refugees installed. Donar and Exile are sifting rubble at Herringcarp for survivors. They haven’t found Phase Shift yet. I have no idea where Hatty and CSFB! have got to. At the moment the unengaged active roster is, um, you Tricky and dull thud. Sorry.”
The archer sighed. “And I used to complain that there were too many heroes about.”
___________________________________
CrazySugarFreakBoy! found Hatman atop the Twin Parody Tower, staring down at the devastation left by the Technopolitan occupation.
“You need to talk,” CSFB! told his friend.
“No. I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. You don’t want to talk, but you need to. So talk.”
Jay Boaz turned reddened eyes round to glare at Dreamcatcher Foxglove. “And talking will make it alright, will it? Will bring back Whit and Dancer and Windblossom, will it? Will stop me being the man who betrayed his love to a slow cruel death, maybe?”
“Hey, that’s not fair!” objected CSFB!. “You had to make a tough call in a tight spot. Hell, it was the hardest call anybody ever has to make: do I save the girl I love or do the right thing? You saw the Spidey movie, right?”
“Yeah. He saved the girl then he saved the innocents. The scriptwriter cheated.”
“But you didn’t, Jay. You played it straight. You made the call and you saved five hundred people who’d already suffered more than enough. Do you think Sorceress or Dancer would have wanted you to call it differently just to save them?”
Jay swallowed hard. “They might by now,” he breathed. “Dream, you know what that mad bastard the Red Watchman is like. What’s he going to do to them?” Another awful thought occurred to him. “Shit! What’ll he do when he finds out about Dancer’s relationship with Premiere?”
CSFB! grabbed his friend by the shoulders and shook him. “Come on! You gotta snap out of it. Until Finny’s back on line we need you, Hatman! Listen, if you say we saddle up and go charge Technopolis now there’s not a Legionnaire that won’t follow you into the jaws of hell. Donar and Tricky are spoiling for it. If you tell us to play it cool and consolidate what we’ve got here so the city’s safe before we move on then we’ll do it. But you don’t have the time to stand around feeling guilty, right?”
Hatman knuckled his eyes and pulled a hat from his pouch. “Right,” he admitted.
___________________________________
Under the electron microscope the Obedience Chip was a filigree web of circuits and silicon. Dr Wrichards looked up from his examination and shook his head. “This is some clever work,” he reported, gesturing down to the man on the operating table. “This is far more complex than the one I removed from you, Chronic.”
“Yeah go on, make me feel special,” answered the guitarist hunched in the corner.
spiffy looked down at the restrained and sedated Amazing Guy. “Can you get it out, Dr Wrichards?”
“I don’t know. It’s spreading its fibers into surrounding brain tissue, growing all the time. It’s got defense systems to protect itself. If I yank it out there’s a good chance that this man will end up brain damaged or a cripple.”
“You never warned me about that when you operated,” complained Chronic.
“Nobody would notice with you,” snapped spiffy testily. “Damn, I hate life-and-death decisions.”
“Shouldn’t you be asking his next-of-kin?” wondered Xanadelle, re-entering the laboratory, still refastening the straps on her leather tunic. “I’m certified free of Obedience Chips myself, by the way. They did a series of very intimate tests that I don’t usually allow until the third date, but they know I’m not being controlled by a device in my brain.”
“Nobody knows who AG really is,” explained spiffy. “He mentioned having a wife though… and kids…”
Chronic shrugged. “Look, either we pull that thing out and maybe get him back on our side or we leave it and it completely takes him over. The doc said that thing was growing.”
“I also said that there was a good chance of permanent damage if I try to remove it,” Wrichards reminded them. “What shall I do?”
spiffy glanced at Chronic and Xanadelle for inspiration.
“What do you think your friend there would have told you if he was awake and himself?” Xanadelle asked.
“Right,” spiffy said, eyes closed. “Rip it out.”
___________________________________
“What?” NTU-150 asked incredulously as he stared at the viewscreen in the Lair Legion Meeting Room. Behind him Trickshot, dull thud, Lisette, and Valeria reacted in similar ways.
“You heard me,” General Guliermo Terlizzi told them with a burning glower. “You are ordered to arrest Colonel Daniel Drury on charges of treason and mutiny in time of war. Command of the battle group will be transferred to Special Agent Herbert Philip Garrick who is flying out to join you now. You will make preparations to pull out of Parodiopolis and fall back to Midway or to Gibraltar before 2200 tomorrow.” He leaned towards the screen. “Confirm.”
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- Premiere #25: No Choice - The Hooded Hood would love to know how people think their characters would react to the events of this episode - 13:57 on August 30, 2002
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