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Chapter Four Sunday, 04-Jul-1999 15:20:05
Chapter 4- Fin Fang Foom An endless palette of white-blue waves spanned from one point to the next, and the next, and the next; creating the illusion of an ocean with no land touching it. Of the few structures which rose out of the Atlantic, the most notable was the tower of Oceania, where an important meeting was taking place. Two men sat in the executive suite at the top of the tower, sipping coffee and sitting across from each other at a circular table. "They call you the last." "The last what?" "The last everything . The last hope, the last honest person, the last...hero." "I suppose that much is true." "It matters not--the time you and your friends spend on this world grows shorter as we speak." "Why do you say that?" "They seem to think that by regrouping, they can prevail--I shall prove them wrong. We're already tracking the dragon, and are getting coordinates on each one, one at a time, as the minutes go by." "Your leaders don't share your confidence--I seem to recall two females who rule Oceania..." "Their confidence will increase a thousandfold once we kill you--continuing the centuries-old tradition of killing the Messenger..." ------------------ The Departed had gone into convulsions moments ago, and writhed on the operating table. NTU-150 and Zip-150 struggled to keep him alive, but the being formerly known as Evil Spiffy was quickly approaching death. "What's going on!?" shouted Dr. Moo. "I thought he could survive with spiffy dead?!?" "He CAN--but he's connected to life through spiffy--and when spiffy died, that bond was just weakened, not destroyed. Now, someone's taking advantage of that weakness--but who?" "Well, it's not ME..." Visionary stumbled into the room, his eyes glazed over. Memories tore at him, memories of a life that couldn't be--the world was so horrible now, his happy memories could have never happened...or so he thought. In truth, a name tugged at the recesses of his consciousness--a name which should have been long forgotten... "If only there was another bond between The Departed and life..." "There IS!!" It was Lisa who'd shouted it--she was gazing at a monitor screen, on which the image of Fin Fang Foom appeared. She, and then the others, remembered how Finny had inadvertantly created Evil Spiffy. "Hey, that's live footage...!" said NTU. Jarvis stepped forward. "He's not alone!" A fleet of fighter jets and superhumans tore after him, closing in for the kill. "We have to do something!" said Fleabot. "What's the use?" asked Jarvis. Years of misery had taken away his once quick-to-action edge. His weathered brow furrowed, and he clenched his fists. "NTU, you still have that jet? With the image inducer?" "Yeah, it's in the third level garage." "Then everybody load up--I've got a plan...!" Seatbelts snapped, targeting computers booted up, controls were interfaced with NTU's onboard systems, and the jet fired out of a nearby rooftop... ------------------------ The Departed coughed as someone laid their hand on him, transferring back a stolen energy. "What...what did you do to me...?" "I merely ensured that your deathbed state would not be seen as a facade." said a horned, shadowy figure. "Now...what...?" "We grab that robot, and get to Oceania before these insufferable heroes do..." ----------------------- "I appreciate the effort, really I do." The Messenger commented. "You should--billions upon billions of dollars have been spent trying to eradicate you." "And the others...?" "We've had to ignore them somewhat, what with our other project." "You mean the true purpose of Oceania?" "Exactly." The Messenger grimaced--he'd come here in the hopes of sorting out this insanity with Zemo, but ran into someone he hadn't expected to see instead... "I take it that since you're not saying anything, you've realized the truth--that you have no hope of escaping Oceania, nor do you have any hope of surviving for another five seconds." The man drew a high-tech gun, made a comment about cosmic energy ammo, and fired. The shot hit right where it was supposed to--kind of. It flew right at the Messenger's head, but was intercepted by a few tons of debris, water, and a giant sea monkey. "MY KINGDOM...WHAT DID YOU DO TO IT? WHY'S IT GONE!?!?" Banjoooo recognized the Messenger, but gazed at the other man for a few moments before realizing his true identity. "You--you're----Vision Girl!?!?" Vision Girl tore her disguise off, revealing her true form as Space Ghost's retconned illegitimate sister. The tower they'd been in was now falling apart, and Banjooo plummeted down through the murky water to destroy the rest of Oceania in a fit of rage, while the Messenger and Vision Girl lunged at each other, fighting for their lives, as death by drowning and being crushed by flaming wreckage became more probable by the second... ------------------------- An artificially-made army of superbeings and a trillion-dollar-budgeted military rocketed in pursuit of Fin Fang Foom, as he flew through the Canadian sky. He didn't understand--were these Zemo's troops, or someone else's? He'd been gone for so long, and the world looked so different... A supersonic blur blasted past his pursuers, as NTU's jet hit Finny with a tractor beam, and he was drawn into the powerful craft. The superhumans took off after it, but NTU's piloting skill won the day, as he managed to avoid their attacks with his jet's fantastic array of weaponry--force fields, homing-beam lasers, shrapnel missiles, sonic cannons, reverse-gravity depth charges, and tons of other gadgetry. "The windshield! OH MY GOD!!!" A grey-skinned mutant clung to the glass, trying to claw his way in--but the windshield heated up, marring his hands until they were black as ash, and a barrage of explosive shells made him fall back to the ground. Missiles flew by them and energy beams did as well, but NTU managed to stay ahead of them, using the energy-couple on his jet's wings to absorb and discharge the energy back at its originators. Sub-nuclear fusion cluster beams blasted from NTU's jet's underbelly cannons, causing an unescapable maze of near-lethal energy. A round metal orb with holes all over the top of it popped out of the jet's rear engine segment, and NTU plugged his hand into a specially-designed outlet--the repulsors from his palm were channelled to the device in the jet and charged up, at least releasing a hundred foot-wide beams in every direction, stunning their competition. And then, the jet disappeared. After hours of searching for it, a portal opened to Oceania, and the air fleet flew through it--along with an image induced-illusion of one of Zemo's personal bodyguard's aircraft, which in reality was NTU's jet... ------------------------- The Messenger fought off Vision Girl as best he could, and wondered if she was one of Oceania's mysterious leaders--he knew the identity of one, but not the other... While she could alter her density and had a form of solar telekinesis, she was easily manoeuvred into simple fighting moves, as the Messenger side-stepped her, shoving her into debris, exposed circuitry, and other classic traps. He at last grabbed an adamantium spoke of the opening wheel to an adamantium vault, and chased after her with it, finally knocking her out. He did it right as the floor collapsed underneath them, and they fell hundreds of feet down an emergency elevator shaft... ------------------------------ NTU's jet landed safely in the forty-seventh hanger bay of Oceania's vast military complex, and they decided to look around so they could have more of an idea about the giant conspiracy that was supposedly going on. "I don't like this..." said Jarvis. "Where is everybody? We should've run into some guards or something by now." NTU stared off into space for a moment, and then looked at the others. "My sensors are picking up an intraband commwave system, the kind used for internal communication...it sounds like they're under attack--but by who?" "By another of your pathetic allies!" Sersi stood before Jarvis and co., thinly smiling. "You!?!? You've turned against us!?!?" shouted Lisa. "Not at all--rather, you've turned against me." "She speaks the truth!" Baron Zemo stepped out of the shadows, with his trademark Needler gun pointed at Hal Vanderbilt's head. "What's going on here!??" demanded Visionary. "I apologize for these...unfortunate...circumstances, but let me first formally introduce you to... Oceania!!!" said Zemo. "Zemo gave me something the rest of the world never could--a way to have fun for the rest of my life!" Sersi, with a little "encouraging", had reverted back to her old ways, as in the myth where she lived on an island, partying for months at a time. "Conquering the world is easy--KEEPING control of it, on the other hand...well, you need to have an advantage--and that's what Oceania is." Sersi smiled more widely this time. "Oceania uses the most advanced pleasuring techniques in the world--we've measured the colors and styles of the surroundings for maximum psychological pleasing, treated the food with relaxing chemicals, genetically engineered sexual partners...in short, it's paradise. A new Eden." "...don't forget addictive, my love..." Zemo grinned underneath his mask. "Once the world has tasted this place, they'll do ANYTHING to spend more time here--we've already got slaves, who have agreed to work for ten years, in exchange for a month here." "No way, Zemo! You don't care about the current government in place, or about Oceania, or anything--you've got your own agenda!" said Vanderbilt. "Silence, you pretentious wealthy fool!" "This is just the beginning--the North American government and EuroAsian one have far worse plans than ours--we're the 'fun' one!!" said Sersi. "But if you're thinking of attacking us, I'd suggest not--for Vanderbilt is not our only hostage..." A hermetically-sealed series of walls opened, revealing the Shaper of Worlds, with massive, glowing chains imprisoning him. "Meet our own reality-altering power source!!" Zemo backed against a wall, anticipating an attack, but none came--Jarvis merely hung his head in sorrow. Zemo chuckled, and pulled the trigger...but not before he heard a rustle from above him. Vision Girl fell on him, causing his shot to go awry, and the Messenger turned his descent into a jump kick, taking out Zemo. Sersi, distracted and doped up by chemical treatments, couldn't react as fast as NTU, who let out a barrage of pulse bolts, hitting her. But even they couldn't hurt her that much... But something else could. Something cold, and hard, and mystical... Mjalcom clocked her, as Donar returned. But Zemo, still conscious, had a plan. He patched the security camera feed into their propaganda-running television stations, and broadcast the image across the world. He then unleashed his backup plan--the Apostate, The Departed, and NTU's robot came in and surprised the remains of the LL, and the combined military might of Oceania finished the job, leaving only Donar standing. "They think this is the second coming--and I'm not going to disappoint them..." Zemo said. "Donar--surrender your will to Sersi, so that we may use you as a puppet, with which we can lure the citizens of the world to Oceania, and our control shall then be complete--or they die." Seeing no option, Donar was unduly influenced by Sersi, and she mentally prodded him into giving her complete control over him...and with two other sections of government with even larger and more evil plans still our there, things could only get worse... Continued... by Fin Fang Foom |
| Just for the hell of it... a repost of Return to the Parodyverse. (n/t) (spiffy) (04-Jul-1999 15:17:35) |
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