Anime Mundi: From Bad To Mangaverse

Issue #28, “Anime Mundi, Part III”

WEDNESDAY 26 June 2002

Assembly Chambers, Ravensgate City Hall

U.S. House Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee:

“Please state your full name for the record,” intones the Congressional clerk, sounding as if she’s about to nod off.

“Jean-Pierre d’Aubaine.”

Subcommittee Chairman George Taxmeier, a Republican from Illinois, leads off with, “Mr. d’Aubaine, you are the Publisher of the local newspaper here, is that correct?”

“Yes, sir, I am. Also, I am President and Chief Executive Officer of the Oregon Journal MediaCorp, which owns several radio and television stations, an online news service, and a regional cable network. My company is observing its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the twenty-third of its acquisition of the Journal.”

“I see. And you were in your office the afternoon of the tenth of June?”

“Yes, I was.”

“What happened that day?” Taxmeier asks.

“A former employee—a disgruntled one, I might add—named Victor Charlton called me at 2:26 p.m. to inform me that local authorities wanted to search my sub-basement. He did not specify their reason or whether they had a warrant, and I think he wanted to gloat about a scoop. I’ve been very critical of the local police, with whom Charlton had been very cozy in his coverage for a competitor, and I had reason to believe their proposed illegal search could be act of retribution. This is why I called for extra security from nearby buildings, so that they could assist and observe any illegal activity. Then the cops called COMETPRO, and within minutes the attack occurred.”

“And when did you evacuate the building?”

“Within five minutes. Static-electricity began arcing between the walls—we have an iron superstructure—and it began frying our computers and telephones. We used the sky bridge to the Throckmorton Group building, as the normal evacuation route to our lobby was unsafe.”

“And how much damage did you sustain in the attack?”

“The estimated value of our losses could exceed twelve million dollars.”

MONDAY 10 JUNE 2002, 3:26 p.m. Pacific Time

Somewhere Under The Journal MediaCorp Building:

Nikko Wylde fades out of the visible-light spectrum as she emerges from the wall, right next to a giant magnetic gyroscope. At least that’s what she’d call it. One of the voices in her mind, that of a physicist dragged into the Underground and killed by vampires, informs her that the contraption is a “unified field flywheel.” A police beat reporter who shared the same fate, but years earlier, tells her that the man suspended inside it is a magnetokinetic supervillain named Monkeywrench.

Bluish static-electric sparks fly off the top of the flywheel and upward toward the MediaCorp Building. Four concentric steel rings rotate on four divergent axes, partially obscuring the unconscious form suspended in the middle at a 45-degree angle. Some indistinct electronic device rings the sides and back of Monkeywrench’s head, stopping at the temples. It appears to be hard-wired into his skull, but the flywheel’s four parts rotate so fast that Nikko can’t make out how.

“I can sense a dead person,” sings out a vampire, inhaling loudly. Nikko turns to face the rest of the well-lit, cavernous laboratory. Two vampires crouch near Dr. Patria Morii, but only one is facing Nikko. The other one faces the door to the access tunnel, as do Morii and two young women in chrome bikinis. The two women, a brunette and a redhead, are pointing large rifles—as big as they are—at the same door.

Morii ascends the steps to a control room, behind some smoked glass, and asks, “Shall I activate the ectoplasmic lights?”

“Only if you keep it dim at first,” the vampire blurts out nervously.

Nikko looks about for a place to hide as she passes the flywheel’s control console on her way off the dais. Ahead of her are six steel beds in two rows of three, and behind them is a bank of ten upright tanks filled with a deep blue liquid. Five of them have bodies inside them, all hooked up to wires and tubes.

On the center steel table in front of the tanks is a pile of clothing: a fur-lined blue leotard, a fedora, a black-and-green bodysuit, some underwear… It is the wardrobe of the captured Foundry members.

To Nikko’s right, on the other side of the steel tables, is a massive hangar-type sliding hatch in the center of the floor. Around the laboratory, computer banks or storage lockers line the walls.

In one corner of her mind, Nikko is aware of the battle in the access tunnel. She calls out to them telepathically: I’m inside Morii’s lab. She has two vampires and two thugs in reserve, and I’m trying to give you a mental picture of what I see in here. Your friends are being held inside these tanks; I’ll try to get them out.

Nikko ducks behind a table as the lights turn a shade of pale purple. The vibe coming off the vampires is that of dread or discomfort. She notices that each table has a lot of sliding drawers, including one that appears to be a built-in console the size and shape of a laptop.

“I know you’re out here somewhere,” trills the first vampire as he circles toward Nikko’s position, hunched over and moving his limbs as if he were a cat on the prowl.

WEDNESDAY 26 June 2002

Assembly Chambers, Ravensgate City Hall

U.S. House Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee:

From his perch on the dais, Hellman Jessup surveys the public gallery, the military COMETPRO suits, the National Guardsmen and the media. Two-thirds of the local media are from d’Aubaine-owned outlets—KOJ, RGCN, The Journal, and MediaCorp stations Louisiana, Nevada and elsewhere in the Northwest. Satisfied that the moment is right, the 20-term Congressman rests his head on his clasped hands, runs two fingers along his Al-Amarja Shrine Temple ring, and swoops in for the kill.

“Mr. d’Aubaine?”

“Yes, Mr. Jessup?”

“You share my assessment of the June 10^th attack. However, I was three thousand miles away, voting on a Homeland Security appropriations bill. You were at the scene. What leads you to your conclusions?”

“Mr. Jessup, you’re asking for a laundry list of items. First, we have had a four-generation history of local police corruption. The Bureau of Police, the forerunner of our current police department, was founded during Prohibition by a mayor who was the biggest bootlegger on the West Coast, and the head of the local syndicate. Seven times in this city’s history, our local gendarmerie has undergone a housecleaning.

“Second, certain interests in this town have opposed reforms since the 1920s, and they have hid beneath the veneer of respectability ever since the aforementioned local syndicate head died in office and was replaced by the current mayor’s great-granduncle. In fact, many of them have appropriated the reform agenda to suit their own ends, thus making interagency cooperation problematical for, say, the FBI or COMETPRO.

“Third, as you and Mr. Gavriel know, our current >>ahem<< ‘reform-minded’ police administration has been a model of corruption, brutality, patronage and infighting. One of its division commanders recently walked into a bar and, apropos of nothing, shattered a man’s kneecap with a .40-caliber hollow-point before arresting him. It wouldn’t surprise me that somebody in that command structure would be in the pocket of a cut-out working for terrorists. Mind you, the cop or cops in question wouldn’t necessarily know they’re working for terrorists, but whoever bought them on the terrorists’ behalf would also get a sympathetic reporter or two…”

MONDAY 10 JUNE 2002, 3:26 p.m. Pacific Time

Utility Access Tunnel, Downtown Ravensgate:

Energon looks at the Daleks with disdain, muttering, “You’re not worth my attention,” as he fires a blast into The Sum of All Fields’ chest. Halitosis exhales a long sideways pillar of flame straight at the seven-foot android, but it stands up to the withering blast: “Thermal sinks engaged.”

“YOU’RE LOSING IT, OLD MAN!!” Energon taunts, adding under his breath, “And your music sucks, too.”

Agent Cazaril charges at the robots, coolly draining the BFG’s battery pack with five rapid shots that obliterate two and damage the rest. Energon and The Sum of All Fields trade multiple magnetic repulsor blasts, sending pulverized concrete flying all over.

Brother Knight runs right through all four of the remaining Daleks in a massive looping circuit, bleeding off his velocity by running along the walls. The walls and ceiling vibrate with his released energy. One Dalek falls over in a shower of sparks, its grating monologue fading to static. The others rattle about and shed plating but remain erect.

A fist attached to a twenty-foot-long arm decks one of the merfolk, then the arm retracts to its normal length at the end of Jeopardy’s shoulder. The merfolk Agent Cazaril decked gets back up, but an eye on a serpentine elongated stalk mesmerizes it. Nodding with understanding, it turns to water form and disappears down the tunnel.

Pyro fires a bright blue stream of flame into Halitosis’ back, prompting the painted-faced rocker to yell out, “OH YEAH!! THAT’S THE KINDA SUGAR POPPA LIKES!!”

MONDAY 10 JUNE 2002, 3:27 p.m. Pacific Time

Somewhere Under The Journal MediaCorp Building:

The Ghost of Nikko Wylde sidesteps the fumbling vampire. He looks away, making it obvious to Nikko that he can sense her presence somehow but cannot see her. Nikko floats over to the computer console to the right of the tanks, catching a glimpse of the screen. The caption executing subroutine energon03 appears above five sets of graph readings that resemble EKG patterns. Those readings send a chill through Nikko; they remind her of the night she died.

Sensing the need for immediate action, Nikko flies over toward Patria Morii as she returns to her covering position next to the two women. Her body merges with the doctor’s, and she feels her own consciousness pushing Morii’s aside. It’s a struggle, and it causes the vampire standing nearby to turn and face Morii/Nikko with a look of both puzzlement and concern.

“Number One and Number Two,” Nikko ordered in Morii’s voice, “engage the enemy! You,” she adds, pointing to the second vampire, “cover them.”

Morii/Nikko watches as the two Cleaners bolt out into the hallway in a leapfrog cover formation, then the second vampire closes the door. She looks at the hands of the body she’s just inhabited and feels exhilarated at the prospect of being tangible again. Then the feeling fades as Morii attempts to exert her own willpower; Nikko’s is stronger: Evil is weak, Doctor, because it chooses to abandon self-control.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” sings the first vampire, sniffing around the rows of steel tables.

“Knock it off,” Morii/Nikko snaps at him. “Go guard the door.”

With great effort, Nikko forces Morii toward the dais with the flywheel. She ascends the steps to the control console and locates a switch marked override. Morii/Nikko flips the switch, revealing beneath it a red button that she presses without hesitation. A buzzer rudely responds, the flywheel keeps spinning, and a message pops up on the center monitor: please input access code. Nikko extracts it from Dr. Morii’s mind, forcing the doctor’s graceful fingers over the appropriate keys, but it is to no avail: access is denied. it is assumed that you might be under the mental control of jeopardy from the foundry. this process cannot be reversed until completion is achieved.

With Morii’s vocal cords, Nikko lets out a frustrated yell and grabs the energy whip from Morii’s belt. She flails away at the console and the flywheel.

MONDAY 10 JUNE 2002, 3:27 p.m. Pacific Time

Utility Access Tunnel, Downtown Ravensgate:

Agent Cazaril, The Man From COMETPRO, calmly reloads the BFG as energy bolts fly all around him. One puts a hole in his duster and singes his left side, but he snaps the fuel rod housing into place and fires nearly point-blank into red-headed Cleaner #1. The bolt dissipates throughout her bikini top, much to Cazaril’s amazement.

Over the VoxDot, Jeopardy informs Pyro and Energon, “I’ve lost my mental link with Nikko. Do you still have yours?”

Raven-haired Cleaner #2 flattens Brother Knight with a rifle blast, then turns her attention toward Halitosis. Halitosis roasts The Sum of All Fields with his namesake breath, and the android falls to the floor: “Thermal sink failure…”

Ever the cheerleader, Energon blurts out, “NOW THAT’S MORE LIKE IT!!”

Pyro and Energon simultaneously respond to Jeopardy, “Negative.” Jeopardy intones, “This is not good.”

Cleaner #1 snaps to attention as an eye pops back into Jeopardy’s head thirty feet away. She pivots on one foot and trains her rifle on Cleaner #2.

Cleaner #2 and the remaining Daleks fire a volley at Energon that stagers him slightly. He fires back at the Cleaner, sending her sprawling.

“Thermal sink re-engaged.” The Sum of All Fields leaps to his feet, but Agent Cazaril jams the BFG’s muzzle into the android’s face: “You are through.”

The BFG’s discharge flattens the android and sends its faceplate clattering end over end down the tunnel: “An error has occurred. An error occurred has. An error…”

Frustrated, Energon lets out a yell and emits a massive electromagnetic pulse. The remaining Daleks explode. The Sum of All Fields begins twitching uncontrollably. The chrome bikinis on the Cleaners assume a duller sheen. Indicator lights on Cazaril’s BFG turn red momentarily, then return to green.

Then the wall next to Energon bursts open in a bright and loud magnetic blast, burying him under concrete and metal.

MONDAY 10 JUNE 2002, 3:27 p.m. Pacific Time

LOCATION UNKNOWN:

Danielle Devereaux pauses in shock long enough to locate Max’s head—and for B.O.B. to nail her with a plasma blast from the ridgeline. It steams away most of her frost coating, but the only injury she suffers is some bruising from slamming into a wall of the forward pillbox.

Dani immediately leaps to her feet and returns fire, sending a jagged ice missile fifty yards away into B.O.B.’s chest. It leaves a trail of frost and condensation vapor in its wake and prompts an explosion of blood in the center of B.O.B.’s torso.

Bob pitches over on his face, driving the icicle out through his back. A small river of blood runs down the ridge.

Dani limps away from the edge of the plateau in despair. Yes, it’s an anime VR, but the pain—physical and emotional—is real. She is still bleeding from Jack’s attempt to crush her, and her head is beginning to swim.

An invisible cat is tossing Vic around like a rag doll, cartoon blood flying everywhere. Dani can hear muffled or strangled screams of pain from the faceless Vic as an unseen set of jaws rips away at his left shoulder. His stomach is soaked crimson, his legs are shredded, and Dani can see the cat’s paw-prints in the massive pool of cartoon blood.

Adrenaline spikes inside Dani as she extends both arms and unleashes a blast of frost at a point in space roughly two feet above those paws. The frost clings to Leopard Prince Jeopardy’s fur and creates an outline distinct enough for her to target with greater accuracy.

Something drills into Dani’s right side, just a heartbeat before she hears the report from Red Doug’s rifle and the tinkle of a freeze-shattered bullet. No bleeding, but the impact still hurts.

Dani hears more sharp reports, and she braces for more impacts. However, the screams filling her ears are those of the cat and Red Doug. She sees the blinking blur of Namor’s fusillade of displaced air as he repeatedly teleports between the two villains’ heads.

Red Doug staggers, but the cat drops face-first into the pool of blood, dropping Vic’s now-limp body.

Then Jack appears out of the shadows under Red Doug.

MONDAY 10 JUNE 2002, 3:28 p.m. Pacific Time

Somewhere Under The Journal MediaCorp Building:

The Ghost of Nikko Wylde, inhabiting the body of Patria Morii, surveys the damage from behind the wrecked console. She is uninjured, as is Morii, because of the cover the console provided. But there is a gaping ten-foot hole in the wall, a matching one in the ceiling, and a dozen buckled and twisted storage lockers inside the laboratory. Monkeywrench’s limp form lay atop the hangar doors forty feet behind her.

She peers down at the energy whip still in her/Morii’s hand, then spots Energon’s still form under rubble in the tunnel when she looks back at the opening into the tunnel.

“Damn.”

Then the first vampire, with a delighted sing-song yelp of “There you are!”, jumps her. She tries in vain to throw him off. Nikko is unaccustomed to the lightning reflexes of her thrall; she finds that Morii suddenly has a futuristic kukri dagger in her hand and has pressed a button in the hilt. The three monofilaments in the kukri’s cutting edge take on a serrated texture and begin vibrating independently of each other.

Cool, Nikko thinks to herself as Morii’s hand lashes out and cuts off the vampire’s right arm below the elbow. The vampire looks down with dismay and leaps onto Morii’s back, trying to bite her head off or break her neck. The doctor’s instinctive movements keep the vampire constantly off-balance as Nikko releases some control—but not of the whip arm or the kukri arm.

The electric whip lashes out at the second vampire as he charges.

Then an explosion in the tunnel leaves the door ajar. Cleaner #1 fires a blast into the second vampire’s back, sending him over Morii’s head, as The Sum of All Fields gets back up. Morii/Nikko instinctively lashes out with the power whip at the Cleaner, who staggers backward. Someone out of view fires a magnetic repulsor bolt directly at Cleaner #2’s head, sending her slumping along the opposite wall.

Morii/Nikko throws the first vampire off her back. He lands with a thud, leaps back up, and charges straight into the path of a vibro-kukri. It severs his head. The head and body fall separately as piles of ash.

Halitosis steps into view and breathes a white-hot ball of flame directly into the The Sum of All Fields’ exposed internal cranium. The internal explosion rips open the android’s exoskeleton. It lands with a loud GONG! several yards away, out of view from the lab.

“NOW THAT IS HEAVY METAL!! SEE YA, DON’T WANNA BE YA!!” Halitosis yells down the tunnel.

Agent Cazaril pivots into the alcove and trains his BFG on Nikko/Morii.

It’s OK, Nikko tells the others, I have control of Dr. Morii’s body. She drops her weapons.

As Cazaril covers, Jeopardy carries Energon’s limp form into the lab and Halitosis picks up the unconscious Brother Knight.

You’ll want to put them on a table over there, Nikko gestures with Morii’s right hand. The doctor calls them “autosurgeons.” Apparently each one is the future’s answer to the ER.

When their comrades lay Brother Knight and Energon on the two steel tables closest to the flywheel dais, those autosurgeons spring to life. At least a half-dozen robotic arms extend from underneath the table and envelop the two unconscious superheroes. The familiar beep of vital-signs monitors emanates from each.

A disembodied voice from somewhere near the tanks of blue liquid speaks up: “We need to get them out of these tanks.”

Jeopardy peers into the tank on the far right: “Hey, this is The Somnambulist. Reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated after all.”

The disembodied voice again: “What if he wakes up?”

I think Jeopardy and I can handle that, Nikko informs the group. Let me see if I can shut down the program.

Morii’s fingers fly over the workstation keyboard next to Jeopardy, but Morii/Nikko is greeted with the same buzzer and error message: access is denied. it is assumed that you might be under the mental control of jeopardy from the foundry. this process cannot be reversed until completion is achieved.

Agent Cazaril elbows Morii/Nikko aside and, snapping “Maybe it’s time for some old-fashioned reprogramming,” unloads the BFG into the workstation terminal and some of the banks of mainframes. They arc, spark, and sag to the floor as molten metal and silicon. But no changes occur in the tanks or any other computers.

We need Energon, Nikko says. Apparently, whatever program this is has something to do with him. It’s named “Energon-03.”

“The program is still going,” Pyro calls out from the workstation at the opposite end of the tanks, “but these four sets of readings do not look good.”

MONDAY 10 JUNE 2002, 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time

LOCATION UNKNOWN:

Jack yells out, “INSANITY OF GLASS!!” Jagged shards of darkness fly off of him and rip right through Namor, the unconscious invisible cat, and Red Doug. Namor tumbles off the plateau, striking the cage floor with a sickening thud, but the mortally wounded Red Doug lands at Jack’s feet.

Dani shudders, gasps, and looks down at the single black shard stuck in her heart. She pitches forward, vacant eyes staring outward, and lands in an ever-expanding pool of cartoon blood.

Jack laughs maniacally and dances about the plateau, leaving bloody red footprints with each step. He leaps into the air, pumps his fist, and screams out, “INSANITY OF VICTORY!!”

TO BE CONTINUED