Adventures in Parodyverse - Outlaws of the New Law Part 4


    The prison bus stopped short of the camp in Iowa by several miles.  Two other buses pulled along both sides of it.  These new buses had flashing police lights on them, and were colored purple and black, The Moderator’s theme colors.

    Soldiers in black and purple uniforms and black helmets, armed with powerful automatic rifles, filed out of the two intercepting buses and stood two lines deep alongside the road.  Six of what seemed like commander types got off the buses.  They were dressed similarly, only with more medals, and berets instead of helmets.

    They all boarded the prison bus.  The driver stood and saluted them, but they ignored him.  One of the soldiers, the one with more medals than any other, pointed at Lara Night and said, “You.”  And then at Yuki Shiro.  “And you.”

    The other two beret-topped men rushed aboard the bus and grabbed Lara and Yuki violently, forcing them outside still in their shackles.  The occupants of the prison bus watched helplessly, except one...The Psychic Samurai.  She continued looking at the floor.

    That lead soldier produced an envelope and opened it.  He began to read from it out loud.  “By order of The Moderator, the two traitors Lara Night and Yuki Shiro are to be executed immediately, and without delay.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Ready!”  One of the other commanders called out as Lara Night was violently pushed in front of the line of soldiers.  “Aim!”  was called as she was pushed down to her knees.

    Kat Gillespe aboard the bus screamed when the guns fired, and Lara Night fell over dead.  The soldiers then grabbed her and pushed her over the edge of the roadway into the gulch beyond.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Shut up!”  the driver threatened Kat.  He produced a knife and waved it near Kat’s throat.  “I swear, one more sound out of either of you and I’ll cut you!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Ready!”  came from outside.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Eat me!”  April Alice Apple replied angrily.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Aim!”  was heard from outside.

    A small yet strong hand grabbed the driver’s before he had a chance to slit April’s throat.  An angry Asian woman snapped his wrist coldly and took the knife.  The driver began screaming, nearly drowning out the sound of Yuki Shiro being shot by the firing squad.  That screaming was cut short by his neck being separated three-quarters of the way, courtesy of his own knife.

    The soldiers outside realized something was wrong, and rushed aboard the bus.  There were scattered screams as several of them fell to severe or fatal stab wounds.  Finally a few of them beat Chiaki Bushido into submission with the butts of their rifles, and dragged her outside.

    She was forced to her knees in front of the firing squad, and the commander stood between them.  “And for your act of rebellion...for murder of several of The Moderator’s Spam Control Agents--”  He turned around to look at the firing squad.  They raised their weapons in response.

    As he stood aside and turned around, he saw the knife in the Psychic Samurai’s hands.  Before he could open his mouth, she plunged it into her own stomach, pulled it up toward her heart...shuddered painfully and gasped, and then fell over.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“She killed herself,”  one of the soldiers in the firing squad said.  There were confused murmurs among them.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Quiet!”  the commander bellowed.  “One of you take command of that bus.  Make sure the rest get to the camp without further incident.”


---


    The Psychic Samurai was cringing as her eyes were shut.  Dreams had been haunting her every time she tried to grab some much-needed sleep, to the point where none of it was effective any longer.  Her death and resurrection, as convenient as it was, started to weigh on her mind dangerously.  It was just before she awoke that she had a moment of perfect clarity.

    That moment gave her new energy as she awoke slumped in a chair in a maintenance of the Lair Tower.  CSFB! was still wide-awake, he had the contents of his backpack strewn all over the floor, and was checking to see what each one did.  Lara Night was still napping, curled up in the large window sill.  Liu Xi Xian forced herself to remain awake through fear.

    Chiaki stood and passed the spot where Anna disappeared earlier.  The Moderator reclaimed her for some reason, and was able to recall her without knowing where she was.  That could only mean it was too late, and he had already begun to assume the cosmic offices of the Parodyverse.  Each of them would be next.

    And she knew who would be first.  She walked over to Liu Xi Xian, shaking her to make sure she was fully awake.  She handed Liu Xi one of CSFB!’s Rocket Fuel soda pop.  “I need you alert,”  she said.  She then whispered instructions to Liu Xi that seemed to terrify her.  Liu Xi was shaking her head furiously.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You must,”  Chiaki urged her.  “Or we will all die without a chance.”

    Liu Xi hung her head, and then slowly shuffled out of the room.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What’s going on?”  CSFB! asked loudly.  That finally woke Lara up.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s too late,”  Chiaki whispered.  “I can sense it.  The Moderator is being transitioned into the cosmic offices.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“So we’re screwed?”  CSFB! asked distantly.  He seemed uncharacteristically down.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No.”  Chiaki picked up her sword.  “It means we have been waiting in futility for aid.  It also means it’s all up to us.”  She looked at Lara, who was now fully awake though groggy.  “I have set a trap for The Moderator courtesy of Liu Xi.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“So we’re going to go there and kill him?”  Lara asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No.”  Chiaki shook her head slowly.  “Lara, you will search the Lair Tower for surprises.  Anything you find that could defeat us too easily, or any assets we can use, either destroy it or take it.  Meet us in The Moderator’s private quarters.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Gotcha.”  Lara quickly left.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What about me?”  CSFB! asked.  “I’d love to go with her!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You will accompany me.  There are super-powered beings I can’t handle.  You will be my bodyguard.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sweet!”  CSFB! cried out.  “I love your body, by the way.”

    Chiaki ignored him.  “Faite!”  she called out.  “I know you’re here.  You’re always here.”

    There was a gentle breeze through the room, and Faite appeared in her long, flowing robes, seemingly from the shadows.  “How dare you summon me?”

    The Psychic Samurai ignored that too.  “I must know now if I can count on you to fight by my side.”  She bowed deeply and humbly before the Parodyverse aberration.  “I could really use your help...your power...should I succeed or fail.”

    Faite’s frown faded at the elaborate display, and the cool breeze around her subsided.  “Very well,”  she whispered.  Her charcoal robes transformed into a rather stylish dress instead.  “I will aid you...since the situation is so dire.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Moderator!”  CSFB!     called out as they entered the hallway, “You’re about to get ass-raped by girls!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m not certain that’s possible,”  Faite protested as she followed along behind the two.


---


    Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is better than anything I’ve ever seen on television,”  The Moderator stated as he watched a bank of monitors rapidly switching views.  They were picking up psychic signals from those he had trapped in the memories of their own murders.  The powers of his new office allowed him to do that.  He looked at Software Engineer, who was helping him integrate it with technology.  “Is your software going to work this time?”

    Software Engineer cowered at the implied threat as he re-activated Anna.  He was wearing his cybernetic interface, which sent data from his work directly to his brain.  “I...I uh, bypassed her abstract neural network and installed a new software control system,”  he said quickly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Excellent,”  The Moderator cheered.  “Anna was designed, after all, to take on the Lair Legion.”  He looked at the small, unusual android.  “If there is any resistance left, she should be able to eliminate them for me.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, something like that.”  Software Engineer replied.

    Ã¢â‚¬ËœHacker Nine,’  a feminine voice whispered in his mind.  ‘That’s who you are.’

    Software Engineer ignored that, but felt it necessary to explain what he did further anyway.  “Anyway, her mind will go on thinking but it can’t control her body anymore.  The software does that.  And it obeys your commands.”

    Ã¢â‚¬ËœWhat sort of hacker are you?’  Anna taunted in his mind.  ‘One that stoops to the will of the establishment?’

    Software Engineer looked at Anna.  She was still immobilized until he gave the command for her to activate.

    Ã¢â‚¬ËœHacking is about freedom,’  the voice continued.  ‘About bringing down those who would restrict that freedom.’

    Just before Software Engineer removed the cybernetic interface, he heard the words ‘You n00b.  You make me sick.’

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Activate,”  Software Enginneer said.  

    Anna slowly rose out of the chair she had been slumped in.  She looked at The Moderator and said quietly in a metallic voice, “I await your command, Master.”

    The Moderator smirked happily.  “Twist the Software Engineer’s head off.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yes, Master.”

    There was a horrifying scream and a fountain of blood as Anna gripped the Software Engineer’s head and twisted it off.


---


    Lara Night was lost.  She wandered the halls of what was the Lair Tower, only now had been re-written to something closer resembling Herringcarp Asylum.  As in designed by a madman, not the architecture.

    And appropriately enough, she heard a shrill scream echo through the halls.  Perhaps Herringcarp and the Lair Mansion had switched places somehow.  Or...

    A chill ran through her as she realized why things were so rapidly and nonsensically changing around her.  Time was up, and The Moderator had won.  He was changing things to suit him now...and being the small-minded man he was, he didn’t truly understand the intricacies or complexities of the Parodyverse.  Worse yet, he didn’t care.

    She turned a corner and walked into a dark room.  She was still intangible energy, in case someone managed to spot her.  She sensed movement in the room and froze.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Good evening,”  a calm voice with an Eastern European accent bade her.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“The Hooded Hood?”  Lara asked.  She squinted into the darkness...but then there was no need to, as torches suddenly lit the room.  The Hooded Hood was sitting in a golden throne in the center of the room, his eyes glowing green, and his fingers steepled in front of him.  “I thought you were dead.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“As you yourself noted, Miss Night, The Moderator has no understanding of the nuances of the Parodyverse as he makes changes.”  The Hooded Hood leaned back comfortably.

    Lara smiled at that.  “Hah, so he accidentally cancelled your death, did he?”

    Those green eyes flickered a little.  “My death his never been confirmed, Miss Night,”  he said.  “Perhaps I was always alive.  Or perhaps you are not.  Or perhaps you see something which is not here.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah yeah, and maybe I don’t really exist and the universe is just text on some message board.”  Lara shrugged.  “Does it really matter, though?  If we’re talking to each other, we both know the other exists.  And if we can affect things outside this room--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Intriguing.”  The Hooded Hood actually smiled.  “You have quite the grasp of the abstract.”

    She shrugged.  “Jumping across universes and talking to a creator back home will do that,”  she noted.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Indeed.”  He replied.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“So why appear to me now?”  Lara asked him.  “Just to give me hope?  Ask me for a favor?”

    The Hooded Hood paused to steeple his fingers again.  “Much simpler,”  he said.  “To keep you here until the timing is right.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why would you want to keep me here?”  Lara asked.  She felt slightly alarmed.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Every action had consequences, Miss Night,”  The Hooded Hood told her.  “I attempted to warn The Moderator of this...but he did not listen.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Because he thinks he’s got it covered,”  Lara replied.  “That’s why he took those cosmic offices, so he can clean up his mistakes.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“His mistakes, yes.”  The Hood agreed.  “It’s not his mistake which will be his downfall, however.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh?”  Lara asked.  “So why do you have to keep me here?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re here to kill The Moderator, are you not?”  The Hooded Hood asked.

    Lara thought about evading the question, but instead she honestly replied, “Maybe.”

    He took a deep breath, sounding almost like a sigh.  “It is not your place,”  he said.  “But I digress.  You may leave now.  By the time you attempt to kill The Moderator...he will already be dead.”


---


    The Moderator arrived in his quarters to find Liu Xi sitting in a chair by the window looking downtrodden and sad.  That made him smile as he approached her.  “Now aren’t you happy to be the wife of the master of the Parodyverse?”  His face fell when he noticed she wasn’t in the wedding dress any longer.

    And then he turned around, to find a sword pointed at him.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I challenge you,”  the Psychic Samurai said as she held her sword steady.  “And this time there will be no cheating.”

    The Moderator tried to delete her.  Instead, the room shook violently, and a big crack opened in the floor.  He frowned, and growled, “Faite...this is your interference, isn’t it?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And I will continue to interfere as long as you continue to cheat,”  Faite said.

    He tried deleting Faite.  The room shook again, and a chunk of the ceiling fell in.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Continue along this path of action,”  Faite warned him, “And you’ll certainly delete yourself out of a home.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Fine.”  The Moderator willed himself a sword...made of energy.  If he couldn’t cheat blatantly, he’d at least have a weapon that can cut through the Psychic Samurai’s sword, and her person, alike.  To suit his personality, the sword was at least twice as long as Chiaki’s.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Someone’s compensating for something!”  CSFB! declared as he plastered a bunch of Spam Control Agents that just arrived with Silly String.

    The Moderator reached out to delete CSFB!, but then he felt Faite’s eyes on him.  He quickly changed his mind, and hit CSFB! hard with the energy sword instead.  There was a showering of sparks, and CSFB! screamed...and he fell, among the smell of burned flesh, and the faint scent of burned taffy.

    The Psychic Samurai immediately seeked revenge for the attack.  She hit The Moderator hard with her sword, severing his left hand cleanly.  He cried out in pain.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re going to die now!”  he said.  “I don’t care what happens to this tower as a result!”  He reached out and deleted The Psychic Samurai, one molecule at a time, so it would hurt.  

    The building started shaking violently as a battle of wills between The Moderator’s supreme power and Faite’s power of aberration violently conflicted throughout the room.

    And then Liu Xi stood and started to replenish the elements being taken from Chiaki’s body, trying desperately to keep her alive.

    The Moderator gave up trying to beat the combined magic of Faite and Liu Xi, and the shaking stopped.  Her body shaken, The Psychic Samurai collapsed, her blade clanging to the floor.

    He then angrily willed Faite somewhere far away.  It would take her some time to return and annoy him further.  He felt Liu Xi tampering with the elements in her body, and took care of the human Chinese girl the old fashioned way - hit her hard, with all of his willed strength, so she fell against the wall and crumpled in a heap.

    All that was left were himself and Anna, the repurposed android.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Anna, you’re now controlled by a computer, correct?”  The Moderator confirmed.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yes, Master,”  she replied in an obedient metallic voice.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are there any of the rebellion left?”  he asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yes, Master.  One person.  But there is only an eight percent chance they will succeed.”  That distant metallic voice made her words sound emotionless yet vaguely chilling.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh?  An eight percent chance?”  The Moderator shook his head.  “That won’t do.  I need complete assurance.”  He walked over to Anna and looked her directly in the eye.  “Now that I have your complete obedience...give me the name of this person.”

    Anna blinked once suddenly.  There was a high-pitched noise that echoed off the walls of the room.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Me.”  Anna replied fiercely, her voice steady and sure, no longer metallic...and full of anger.

    The high-pitched whine increased dramatically as The Moderator’s mouth opened.  It was only a split second before his eyes, perfectly level with hers, were pierced by a white-hot blue laser, puncturing through to the opposite side of his head, burning through to the other side, even puncturing the wall behind him.  She wrinkled her cybernetic nose, as the smell of burning flesh, brain, and bone was nearly unbearable.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Intriguing,”  The Hooded Hood said as he stepped over the still smoking body of The Moderator.  He looked at Anna, his expression unchanging.  “Through his death you have inherited the title he had just stolen... the Shaper of Worlds,”  he said plainly as his eyes glowed a threatening green.  “And you will serve me.”

    A gunshot rang out, and the Hooded Hood grasped at his abdomen.  He looked up just in time to see who his assailant was - Jay Boaz - before he was shot again, through his glowing green eye.

    

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

>
> Adventures in Parodyverse - Outlaws of the New Law Part 4
>
>
> The prison bus stopped short of the camp in Iowa by several miles.  Two other buses pulled along both sides of it.  These new buses had flashing police lights on them, and were colored purple and black, The Moderator’s theme colors.
>
> Soldiers in black and purple uniforms and black helmets, armed with powerful automatic rifles, filed out of the two intercepting buses and stood two lines deep alongside the road.  Six of what seemed like commander types got off the buses.  They were dressed similarly, only with more medals, and berets instead of helmets.
>
> They all boarded the prison bus.  The driver stood and saluted them, but they ignored him.  One of the soldiers, the one with more medals than any other, pointed at Lara Night and said, “You.”  And then at Yuki Shiro.  “And you.”
>
> The other two beret-topped men rushed aboard the bus and grabbed Lara and Yuki violently, forcing them outside still in their shackles.  The occupants of the prison bus watched helplessly, except one...The Psychic Samurai.  She continued looking at the floor.
>
> That lead soldier produced an envelope and opened it.  He began to read from it out loud.  “By order of The Moderator, the two traitors Lara Night and Yuki Shiro are to be executed immediately, and without delay.”
>
> “Ready!”  One of the other commanders called out as Lara Night was violently pushed in front of the line of soldiers.  “Aim!”  was called as she was pushed down to her knees.
>
> Kat Gillespe aboard the bus screamed when the guns fired, and Lara Night fell over dead.  The soldiers then grabbed her and pushed her over the edge of the roadway into the gulch beyond.
>
> “Shut up!”  the driver threatened Kat.  He produced a knife and waved it near Kat’s throat.  “I swear, one more sound out of either of you and I’ll cut you!”
>
> “Ready!”  came from outside.
>
> “Eat me!”  April Alice Apple replied angrily.
>
> “Aim!”  was heard from outside.
>
> A small yet strong hand grabbed the driver’s before he had a chance to slit April’s throat.  An angry Asian woman snapped his wrist coldly and took the knife.  The driver began screaming, nearly drowning out the sound of Yuki Shiro being shot by the firing squad.  That screaming was cut short by his neck being separated three-quarters of the way, courtesy of his own knife.
>
> The soldiers outside realized something was wrong, and rushed aboard the bus.  There were scattered screams as several of them fell to severe or fatal stab wounds.  Finally a few of them beat Chiaki Bushido into submission with the butts of their rifles, and dragged her outside.
>
> She was forced to her knees in front of the firing squad, and the commander stood between them.  “And for your act of rebellion...for murder of several of The Moderator’s Spam Control Agents--”  He turned around to look at the firing squad.  They raised their weapons in response.
>
> As he stood aside and turned around, he saw the knife in the Psychic Samurai’s hands.  Before he could open his mouth, she plunged it into her own stomach, pulled it up toward her heart...shuddered painfully and gasped, and then fell over.
>
> “She killed herself,”  one of the soldiers in the firing squad said.  There were confused murmurs among them.
>
> “Quiet!”  the commander bellowed.  “One of you take command of that bus.  Make sure the rest get to the camp without further incident.”
>
>
> ---
>
>
> The Psychic Samurai was cringing as her eyes were shut.  Dreams had been haunting her every time she tried to grab some much-needed sleep, to the point where none of it was effective any longer.  Her death and resurrection, as convenient as it was, started to weigh on her mind dangerously.  It was just before she awoke that she had a moment of perfect clarity.
>
> That moment gave her new energy as she awoke slumped in a chair in a maintenance of the Lair Tower.  CSFB! was still wide-awake, he had the contents of his backpack strewn all over the floor, and was checking to see what each one did.  Lara Night was still napping, curled up in the large window sill.  Liu Xi Xian forced herself to remain awake through fear.
>
> Chiaki stood and passed the spot where Anna disappeared earlier.  The Moderator reclaimed her for some reason, and was able to recall her without knowing where she was.  That could only mean it was too late, and he had already begun to assume the cosmic offices of the Parodyverse.  Each of them would be next.
>
> And she knew who would be first.  She walked over to Liu Xi Xian, shaking her to make sure she was fully awake.  She handed Liu Xi one of CSFB!’s Rocket Fuel soda pop.  “I need you alert,”  she said.  She then whispered instructions to Liu Xi that seemed to terrify her.  Liu Xi was shaking her head furiously.
>
> “You must,”  Chiaki urged her.  “Or we will all die without a chance.”
>
> Liu Xi hung her head, and then slowly shuffled out of the room.
>
> “What’s going on?”  CSFB! asked loudly.  That finally woke Lara up.
>
> “It’s too late,”  Chiaki whispered.  “I can sense it.  The Moderator is being transitioned into the cosmic offices.”
>
> “So we’re screwed?”  CSFB! asked distantly.  He seemed uncharacteristically down.
>
> “No.”  Chiaki picked up her sword.  “It means we have been waiting in futility for aid.  It also means it’s all up to us.”  She looked at Lara, who was now fully awake though groggy.  “I have set a trap for The Moderator courtesy of Liu Xi.”
>
> “So we’re going to go there and kill him?”  Lara asked.
>
> “No.”  Chiaki shook her head slowly.  “Lara, you will search the Lair Tower for surprises.  Anything you find that could defeat us too easily, or any assets we can use, either destroy it or take it.  Meet us in The Moderator’s private quarters.”
>
> “Gotcha.”  Lara quickly left.
>
> “What about me?”  CSFB! asked.  “I’d love to go with her!”
>
> “You will accompany me.  There are super-powered beings I can’t handle.  You will be my bodyguard.”
>
> “Sweet!”  CSFB! cried out.  “I love your body, by the way.”
>
> Chiaki ignored him.  “Faite!”  she called out.  “I know you’re here.  You’re always here.”
>
> There was a gentle breeze through the room, and Faite appeared in her long, flowing robes, seemingly from the shadows.  “How dare you summon me?”
>
> The Psychic Samurai ignored that too.  “I must know now if I can count on you to fight by my side.”  She bowed deeply and humbly before the Parodyverse aberration.  “I could really use your help...your power...should I succeed or fail.”
>
> Faite’s frown faded at the elaborate display, and the cool breeze around her subsided.  “Very well,”  she whispered.  Her charcoal robes transformed into a rather stylish dress instead.  “I will aid you...since the situation is so dire.”
>
> “Moderator!”  CSFB! called out as they entered the hallway, “You’re about to get ass-raped by girls!”
>
> “I’m not certain that’s possible,”  Faite protested as she followed along behind the two.
>
>
> ---
>
>
> “This is better than anything I’ve ever seen on television,”  The Moderator stated as he watched a bank of monitors rapidly switching views.  They were picking up psychic signals from those he had trapped in the memories of their own murders.  The powers of his new office allowed him to do that.  He looked at Software Engineer, who was helping him integrate it with technology.  “Is your software going to work this time?”
>
> Software Engineer cowered at the implied threat as he re-activated Anna.  He was wearing his cybernetic interface, which sent data from his work directly to his brain.  “I...I uh, bypassed her abstract neural network and installed a new software control system,”  he said quickly.
>
> “Excellent,”  The Moderator cheered.  “Anna was designed, after all, to take on the Lair Legion.”  He looked at the small, unusual android.  “If there is any resistance left, she should be able to eliminate them for me.”
>
> “Yeah, something like that.”  Software Engineer replied.
>
> ‘Hacker Nine,’  a feminine voice whispered in his mind.  ‘That’s who you are.’
>
> Software Engineer ignored that, but felt it necessary to explain what he did further anyway.  “Anyway, her mind will go on thinking but it can’t control her body anymore.  The software does that.  And it obeys your commands.”
>
> ‘What sort of hacker are you?’  Anna taunted in his mind.  ‘One that stoops to the will of the establishment?’
>
> Software Engineer looked at Anna.  She was still immobilized until he gave the command for her to activate.
>
> ‘Hacking is about freedom,’  the voice continued.  ‘About bringing down those who would restrict that freedom.’
>
> Just before Software Engineer removed the cybernetic interface, he heard the words ‘You n00b.  You make me sick.’
>
> “Activate,”  Software Enginneer said.  
>
> Anna slowly rose out of the chair she had been slumped in.  She looked at The Moderator and said quietly in a metallic voice, “I await your command, Master.”
>
> The Moderator smirked happily.  “Twist the Software Engineer’s head off.”
>
> “Yes, Master.”
>
> There was a horrifying scream and a fountain of blood as Anna gripped the Software Engineer’s head and twisted it off.
>
>
> ---
>
>
> Lara Night was lost.  She wandered the halls of what was the Lair Tower, only now had been re-written to something closer resembling Herringcarp Asylum.  As in designed by a madman, not the architecture.
>
> And appropriately enough, she heard a shrill scream echo through the halls.  Perhaps Herringcarp and the Lair Mansion had switched places somehow.  Or...
>
> A chill ran through her as she realized why things were so rapidly and nonsensically changing around her.  Time was up, and The Moderator had won.  He was changing things to suit him now...and being the small-minded man he was, he didn’t truly understand the intricacies or complexities of the Parodyverse.  Worse yet, he didn’t care.
>
> She turned a corner and walked into a dark room.  She was still intangible energy, in case someone managed to spot her.  She sensed movement in the room and froze.
>
> “Good evening,”  a calm voice with an Eastern European accent bade her.
>
> “The Hooded Hood?”  Lara asked.  She squinted into the darkness...but then there was no need to, as torches suddenly lit the room.  The Hooded Hood was sitting in a golden throne in the center of the room, his eyes glowing green, and his fingers steepled in front of him.  “I thought you were dead.”
>
> “As you yourself noted, Miss Night, The Moderator has no understanding of the nuances of the Parodyverse as he makes changes.”  The Hooded Hood leaned back comfortably.
>
> Lara smiled at that.  “Hah, so he accidentally cancelled your death, did he?”
>
> Those green eyes flickered a little.  “My death his never been confirmed, Miss Night,”  he said.  “Perhaps I was always alive.  Or perhaps you are not.  Or perhaps you see something which is not here.”
>
> “Yeah yeah, and maybe I don’t really exist and the universe is just text on some message board.”  Lara shrugged.  “Does it really matter, though?  If we’re talking to each other, we both know the other exists.  And if we can affect things outside this room--”
>
> “Intriguing.”  The Hooded Hood actually smiled.  “You have quite the grasp of the abstract.”
>
> She shrugged.  “Jumping across universes and talking to a creator back home will do that,”  she noted.
>
> “Indeed.”  He replied.
>
> “So why appear to me now?”  Lara asked him.  “Just to give me hope?  Ask me for a favor?”
>
> The Hooded Hood paused to steeple his fingers again.  “Much simpler,”  he said.  “To keep you here until the timing is right.”
>
> “Why would you want to keep me here?”  Lara asked.  She felt slightly alarmed.
>
> “Every action had consequences, Miss Night,”  The Hooded Hood told her.  “I attempted to warn The Moderator of this...but he did not listen.”
>
> “Because he thinks he’s got it covered,”  Lara replied.  “That’s why he took those cosmic offices, so he can clean up his mistakes.”
>
> “His mistakes, yes.”  The Hood agreed.  “It’s not his mistake which will be his downfall, however.”
>
> “Oh?”  Lara asked.  “So why do you have to keep me here?”
>
> “You’re here to kill The Moderator, are you not?”  The Hooded Hood asked.
>
> Lara thought about evading the question, but instead she honestly replied, “Maybe.”
>
> He took a deep breath, sounding almost like a sigh.  “It is not your place,”  he said.  “But I digress.  You may leave now.  By the time you attempt to kill The Moderator...he will already be dead.”
>
>
> ---
>
>
> The Moderator arrived in his quarters to find Liu Xi sitting in a chair by the window looking downtrodden and sad.  That made him smile as he approached her.  “Now aren’t you happy to be the wife of the master of the Parodyverse?”  His face fell when he noticed she wasn’t in the wedding dress any longer.
>
> And then he turned around, to find a sword pointed at him.
>
> “I challenge you,”  the Psychic Samurai said as she held her sword steady.  “And this time there will be no cheating.”
>
> The Moderator tried to delete her.  Instead, the room shook violently, and a big crack opened in the floor.  He frowned, and growled, “Faite...this is your interference, isn’t it?”
>
> “And I will continue to interfere as long as you continue to cheat,”  Faite said.
>
> He tried deleting Faite.  The room shook again, and a chunk of the ceiling fell in.
>
> “Continue along this path of action,”  Faite warned him, “And you’ll certainly delete yourself out of a home.”
>
> “Fine.”  The Moderator willed himself a sword...made of energy.  If he couldn’t cheat blatantly, he’d at least have a weapon that can cut through the Psychic Samurai’s sword, and her person, alike.  To suit his personality, the sword was at least twice as long as Chiaki’s.
>
> “Someone’s compensating for something!”  CSFB! declared as he plastered a bunch of Spam Control Agents that just arrived with Silly String.
>
> The Moderator reached out to delete CSFB!, but then he felt Faite’s eyes on him.  He quickly changed his mind, and hit CSFB! hard with the energy sword instead.  There was a showering of sparks, and CSFB! screamed...and he fell, among the smell of burned flesh, and the faint scent of burned taffy.
>
> The Psychic Samurai immediately seeked revenge for the attack.  She hit The Moderator hard with her sword, severing his left hand cleanly.  He cried out in pain.
>
> “You’re going to die now!”  he said.  “I don’t care what happens to this tower as a result!”  He reached out and deleted The Psychic Samurai, one molecule at a time, so it would hurt.  
>
> The building started shaking violently as a battle of wills between The Moderator’s supreme power and Faite’s power of aberration violently conflicted throughout the room.
>
> And then Liu Xi stood and started to replenish the elements being taken from Chiaki’s body, trying desperately to keep her alive.
>
> The Moderator gave up trying to beat the combined magic of Faite and Liu Xi, and the shaking stopped.  Her body shaken, The Psychic Samurai collapsed, her blade clanging to the floor.
>
> He then angrily willed Faite somewhere far away.  It would take her some time to return and annoy him further.  He felt Liu Xi tampering with the elements in her body, and took care of the human Chinese girl the old fashioned way - hit her hard, with all of his willed strength, so she fell against the wall and crumpled in a heap.
>
> All that was left were himself and Anna, the repurposed android.
>
> “Anna, you’re now controlled by a computer, correct?”  The Moderator confirmed.
>
> “Yes, Master,”  she replied in an obedient metallic voice.
>
> “Are there any of the rebellion left?”  he asked.
>
> “Yes, Master.  One person.  But there is only an eight percent chance they will succeed.”  That distant metallic voice made her words sound emotionless yet vaguely chilling.
>
> “Oh?  An eight percent chance?”  The Moderator shook his head.  “That won’t do.  I need complete assurance.”  He walked over to Anna and looked her directly in the eye.  “Now that I have your complete obedience...give me the name of this person.”
>
> Anna blinked once suddenly.  There was a high-pitched noise that echoed off the walls of the room.
>
> “Me.”  Anna replied fiercely, her voice steady and sure, no longer metallic...and full of anger.
>
> The high-pitched whine increased dramatically as The Moderator’s mouth opened.  It was only a split second before his eyes, perfectly level with hers, were pierced by a white-hot blue laser, puncturing through to the opposite side of his head, burning through to the other side, even puncturing the wall behind him.  She wrinkled her cybernetic nose, as the smell of burning flesh, brain, and bone was nearly unbearable.
>
> “Intriguing,”  The Hooded Hood said as he stepped over the still smoking body of The Moderator.  He looked at Anna, his expression unchanging.  “Through his death you have inherited the title he had just stolen... the Shaper of Worlds,”  he said plainly as his eyes glowed a threatening green.  “And you will serve me.”
>
> A gunshot rang out, and the Hooded Hood grasped at his abdomen.  He looked up just in time to see who his assailant was - Jay Boaz - before he was shot again, through his glowing green eye.
>
>
>
> 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
>
>

Although I would think that, in order for the story to progress, it will have to be revealed that all isn't what it seemed. For every move of the heroes, there's been a counter move by the Moderator. And considering the participation of the *current* Shaper in the story up to this point, I'm guessing she's involved as well. I look forward to seeing what comes next.

The Moderator Saga #33: The Mountainside Previous Chapters Author’s Note: Round robins are always hard to close off at the end, especially ones as complex as these. This isn’t a final chapter either, but I hope it helps us move towards a complete resolution. Previous chapters have attempted various solutions but we haven’t yet managed one that draws quite all the themes together. Given that the last few contributions have all offered differing views of where the drama is going I’ve had to make a few choices. I didn’t want to invalidate anyone’s efforts, but it seemed to me that some of what we thought we saw couldn’t quite be what it seemed (for example, I know the Hooded Hood couldn’t actually be there in the flesh, or even be aware of what’s occurring, for reasons I should really get round to writing sometime). Hence I’ve had to be a bit revisionary; I hope not enough to give offence. For the purposes of dramatic fiction I’ve not revealed everything in order. This was a difficult chapter to collate but hopefully it all makes sense by the end. If not, I’ll include a summary at the bottom for authors of subsequent chapters to follow. HH ***     She felt cold. And Zdenka never felt cold.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Something wrong?” someone asked the goddess of the North. She turned round, surprised. Zdenka never got crept up on either.     The man was dressed in hunting outfit, complete with a long bowie knife, but no gun. Zdenka didn’t like guns.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re a long way from civilisation,” she noted.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“A very long way,” the hunter agreed. “I was in the neighbourhood and I thought I’d drop by. I missed meeting you in Paradopolis.”     The goddess of the North furrowed her perfect brow. The wind whipped her long russet hair out behind her in a frenzied dance. “I’ve never been to Paradopolis,” she objected.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Well, not in this version of reality, no,” the hunter agreed. “But the one before, the one where you were born in Candia…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Candia?” The name seemed to resonate inside the goddess. It made her feel uneasy, unhappy.     The hunter hefted his pack off his pack and perched himself on a rock. It was going to be a spectacular sunset from here in the mountains. “In that other reality, there was a kind of narrative divergence in Canada. A bit of the world got fragmented off and evolved differently, and the two bits of geography ended up occupying roughly the same space, separated by a tiny vibrational difference. Drive up a road one day and you’d end up in Winnipeg. Go the next and you could be in Mulch. Candia was mostly sealed off, but there were ways and times to cross over. And in that reality you were incarnated in the Zgrudy Peaks of northern Candia.”     Zdenka realised that her visitor was telling the truth. “How did I ever forget that?” she wondered.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It was a retcon,” the hunter explained. “A retrospective continuity change. A very evil man called the Hooded Hood arranged it, and another wicked man called the Moderator benefited from it – or thought he did. The Moderator suddenly became ruler of the planet.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know of this Moderator,” Zdenka shuddered. “He has an ability to… to black out, to delete those things which displease him. Whatever things displease him, great or small.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Right. Candia was one of them.”     Zdenka Zarazoza turned to regard the hunter more closely. He seemed human enough, a rugged-looking white male with broad, sensual lips and a glint in his eye. “Who are you, that you seek out the goddess of the north in her solitude?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Please, call me Mark,” the hunter invited her. “I’m a tourist.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“A tourist who remembers a world that the rest of the world has forgotten.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I didn’t say I was a common tourist.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And why do you seek me out?”     The hunter looked Zdenka up and down. She was as beautiful as the wilderness framed by the sunset, her fur-clad shape outlined as the wind caressed her. “Apart from the obvious?” he admired. “Well, because I needed someone to discuss all this with. And we never got introduced before you came back north.”     Zdenka had too many questions. “You say I was in Paradopolis? Why? How? And why did I return? How can the world just shift like this? What is going on?”     Mark unwrapped his pack of ham sandwiches and offered one to the goddess. She declined. “You were in Paradopolis with your boyfriend, a hero called Hatman. I don’t know what happened between you for you to leave. I noticed you back then, but I’m not the sort of guy who’d go after another man’s girl.”     The goddess of the north didn’t blush. Usually.     The hunter took a mouthful of sandwich, chewed, swallowed, and went on. “The world has shifted because someone came out of a causal mess left on the west coast of America after a Narrative Bomb went off – the Moderator. He’d been wandering the lesser realities for quite a while, scavenging people and power, and he’d come to make his move. He and his people took on the Lair Legion, hit and ran, then tried to find a way to do to that reality what they’d done to others.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And they took it over,” Zdenka concluded.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Actually, no,” Mark replied. “Here’s the interesting bit. They tripped over an old contingency left by the absent Hooded Hood, and he boosted them to what you see now. Then there was a wager with some higher powers about keeping control for a month – time’s up tomorrow, by the way – and if the Moderator wins then he gets to keep all the marbles.”     Zdenka looked south. “I sensed something,” she admitted. “A long way off. Great forces shifting.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s about the truth of it, yes. This scenario’s brought a lot of big players onto the field. The Destroyer of Tales, desperately trying to bring about end after end to thwart the Moderator. The Shaper of Worlds, supposedly helping the Moderator, supplying him with all the information he needs except for the vital bit. He’s not even sussed that Symmetry used to be in bed with the Hooded Hood, literally, so why’s she being so helpful? The Chronicler of Stories, playing a losing game because sometimes that’s how you win when the games are over. Faite, sliding through the narrative to give it her trademark nudge, not realising that this time she’s leaving her fingerprints behind.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“For a tourist you seem very familiar with some powerful beings,” Zdenka observed.     Mark chuckled. “I am now. I’ve seen them all, what they can do, how they do it. What their limits are.” He flipped the top off a beer bottle with his thumbnail. “Very useful. Want a swig?”     Zdenka declined again. ***     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Ouch,” said Visionary. It hurt enough that he felt justified in saying it again. “Ouch.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you okay?” Samantha Featherstone asked him anxiously. “Do you know who you are?”     Salieri Meng peered over the side of the crater that the possibly-fake man had made where’d he’d landed in Pittsburgh after detonating at 40,000 feet. “I’d ask him how many fingers I was holding up,” the seventh-smartest boy genius in the world noted, “only from what I hear, even fully-functioning Functionary might get confused by that.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s not Functionary,” Vizh said, sitting up painfully. “It’s Visionary. And I’m really me, dammit.”     Samantha hugged him. “Oh, thank goodness! Now we’re saved!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Wait? What?” Vizh swallowed hard as the memories of the altered reality caught up with his normal ones. “How are we saved? Did Donar and Enty and Finny arrive?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re back,” Sam told him. “Vizh, I’ve made an awful mess of things.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s right,” Salieri agreed. “Her, not me. She’s the one who was all ‘Oh Hatman, now we’re saved’.”     Vizh rubbed his forehead. There seemed to be some kind of cap on there. “Um… he checked.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You retrieved then wore the Austernal headgear of the long-lost hero known commonly as the Neglected One,” said a petulant voice from somewhere atop his cranium. “That gave you the power to get the transnuclear weapon away from the city and save everybody.”     Vizh winced as he recognised those tones. “Yeah, I remember finding the confiscated headgear locker. I specifically picked the bull’s head rather than…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Rather that than me,” sulked the Sorting Hat. “Brawn over brains. Typical. But kindly note that it was me who reminded you of who you truly are when Miss Featherstone placed me on your head.”     Vizh wasn’t entirely sure he should say thanks for that, given the circumstances.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Brap brought the Sorting Hat out of there when you kind of blew out the wall,” Salieri explained. “Well, more like blew up the whole tower, really. The Moderator himself had to delete your damage.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I zaw ze ‘at an I knew it was important,” explained the mutated pig-creature.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You were trying to shield yourself from the blast and you grabbed me to hide behind,” accused the Hat.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Visionary,” Samantha interrupted, “I wasn’t kidding. We really need your help. I thought we’d found Mr Boaz and got him on our side. It turns out it was a Mr Boaz from an alternative dimension.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, ‘Atman’s evil twin Skippy Boaz,” Brap summarised. “’E murdered the Yellow Flashlight ‘oo was assisting the ‘eroes, and then escaped to warn ze bad guys that zey were coming.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That we were coming,” Sam told the pig determinedly. “You’re one of the heroes now, remember?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I deed explain ‘ow I was not a very successful experiment in making ze killing machine, non?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“If he didn’t, I’d be happy to list his shortcomings,” offered the Sorting Hat.     Sam bit back tears. “Vizh, people are dying and CSFB! and the others are heading into an ambush and there’s no way to warn them. S.P.A.M. are monitoring all the communications, filtering out anything that we try to do to alert our friends that they’re walking into a trap!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And my mom’s still in that Death Camp in Iowa, accused of being a Space Fandom,” added Salieri. “They’re going to execute her tomorrow, along with all those other prisoners.”     Vizh looked around. “Where’s Helen?” he suddenly wondered. “And whatever that Framlicker/Harper thing was.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“’Elen is wiz ze Purveyors of ze Peril,” Brap replied. “We were supposed to rendezvous wiz zem near ze target.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Until our ride got murdered,” added Salieri. “We’ve got to get there. There are things I need to do.” His eyes burned with mad genius. “Important things.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I can get us there,” Sam promised. “Same way I got us to Pittsburgh. But we need an experienced leader to get us to where we need to be while the Purveyors and the Legion are fighting.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Er, and that would be…?” Vizh fretted.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That would be you,” the Sorting Hat said with smug satisfaction. After all, he hadn’t burned up on re-entry protecting his wearer from transnuclear radiation like some headgear he could mention.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And we’re getting to this Death Camp place how?” Vizh puzzled.     Sam held up the object she was carrying. It glowed.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“In noblest hour and direst plight     When evil must be fought by might     When what is wrong must be put right     Beware my flame… the Flashlight bright!”      ***     Liu Xi Xian screamed.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Most excellent,” approved LOL INTERNET. “That was awesome!” He stepped away from his array of monitors and checked the vital signs of the four women strapped down on the VR beds. “You chicks are the best,” he promised them. “The total best!”     The subjects stretched out on the test racks were Yuki Shiro, Chiaki Bushido, Liu Xi Xian, and the android Anna. None of them moved, restrained as they were both by the power inhibitor collars and the fact their minds were currently projected into the virtual realm.     LOL INTERNET was a spotty youth with an intense stare that disturbed people. When he was forced to interact with humans he preferred it to be by texts to one of a series of online identities he’d established. Nobody was allowed to call him Zachary Zelnitz.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“But hey, what’s this?”     LOL wasn’t really comfortable round people (he’d once kept a cat-girl locked up in his sub-basement but she’d escaped eventually). Their emotions and responses puzzled him. So he was particularly disturbed by the reading he was getting off Test Subject 103394.     LOL 2 SRC NGNR, he keyed into his mobile phone. CN U CM 2 LAB?     A few moments later Search Engineer strode into the reprogramming area with a glower on his face. “What now?” he snapped. Every time he died the Moderator insisted on bringing him back in some new host body rather and just let him come back in his own time in his own way. He’d just spent the last two hours escaping back to his proper form.     THS XPRIMNT SUX, LOL texted, gesturing to where the young women lay on the visualisation tables with the VR helmet on their craniums.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Speak to me properly of I shall decompile you,” Search Engineer threatened his employee. “Why have you interrupted me at this busy time?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It… it’s subject 103394,” LOL answered. “Sir,” he added hastily. “I’m getting some completely screwy readings from her.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“The power dampener is working, presumably, since you have unfortunately not been fried to a crisp?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah. And the images are being pumped into her head just as we programmed them. But she’s not responding right.”     Search Engineerer touched the computer console and checked the data. “This is the elementalist girl we captured,” he summarised to himself. “The one we had Anna tell that her friends were dead. The one we woke in the Lair Mansion yesterday. The one Doorman… contained.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That was the master’s brief, sir,” LOL answered. “Make things as familiar as possible for her, and subvert her from there. Then we slipped her into the VR state without any trouble. It was all going fine at first.”     Search Engineer reviewed the readouts. “She accepted the shock of waking up ‘married’ to the Moderator. She accepted the reality of her surroundings – not surprising since we were tapping into her own sensitivity to matter to shape what she was seeing and feeling. She believed what Anna told her about her friends dying.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That Anna is one magnificent piece of kit,” LOL INTERNET enthused. “There’s no way a software patch could affect her without basically lobotomising her. She reacted to the VR telepathyware just like a flesh and blood human would. She believed everything she told the elementalist because we showed it to her first in the virtual realm.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“For all the sophistication of her programming she is still very naive in the ways of the world,” observed Search Engineer. “That’s why we selected her rather than the cyborg or the energy conduit or the samurai. You saw what they accomplished when we loosed them in the virtual realm.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Ch’yeah. The boss got Julienned. He totally had to reboot.”     Search Engineer didn’t point out that it was the reboot that had arranged for the encounter to only be in the imaginary virtual world of false sensory images which were now being fed to the prisoners. There was no need to reveal how close Faite’s attempts had come. She was eliminated from the situation now.     LOL got back to the problem. “Anyhow, it all seemed to be going pretty well. Subject 103394 was becoming more and more distressed as we hit her with all her nightmare scenarios – forced marriage, death of loved ones, loss of freedom, failing friends. She was well on the way to breakdown and surrender. Textbook. But then she changed.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Changed how?” demanded Search Engineer. “I thought we were just replaying the same scenarios with them now, over and over again, each time breaking them down a little more, each in their own separate version of virtual space?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s the workplan, yes sir. But this time Subject 103394 went a different route. She didn’t head in the directions she’d done every other time. She didn’t panic and despair. She went more… murderous.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Murderous,” the Engineer echoed. “How so? And why?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I dunno,” LOL admitted. “That’s why I called you. It’s like she’s suddenly gone psycho-killer. She’s doing all kinds of crazy screwy stuff in her virtual world that we never mapped and I’m having to shunt in data on the hoof. Last thing she did was summon some kind of occult book called the Necronastycon to wake up some guy named Shabba’Dhabba’Dhu.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“She what?” snapped Search Engineer.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I said she wanted to do some voodoo thing with this due names Shabba…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Get her out of that program now,” Search Engineer commanded. “Right now! Sedate her and get her out. Before she can wake that thing up.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Relax, man. It’s only VR. If she destroys the world the worst that can happen is… Oh.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Is that she can break free of the virtual world we made for her, discover the truth, and wake up?” Search Engineer challenged. “Quickly, man, get her…”     Just then Liu Xui Xian awoke the Groper Out of Grossness from his eternal sleep, cascading a change across the VR Parodyverse that changed the very stars and caused the fairly Great Old Ones to awaken. The program crashed. And burned. And the ashes gibbered in a corner. Bits of the system hardware crawled away.     Liu Xi Xian sat up.     So did the others. ***     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you okay?” asked Amy Aston as the Sorceress winced.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Of course,” replied Nyarlurkhotep, currently bound to the body of Whitney Darkness. “Somebody just stepped over my grave. Or the grave of a close friend.”     Amy swallowed hard and trailed along behind the blonde magess until it was time for her to blow through another ancient sealed door. “Is it much further?” she ventured.     They were traversing tunnels deep beneath Gothametropolis, the former home of a clan of Scholar-Ghouls who had roused the Moderator’s ire. Now the charred and blackened caverns were filled with nothing but ash and echoes.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’re almost there,” Whitney promised. “The tomb of Visionatus Improbabalus, founder of the Improbable College. The Shoggoth’s hiding place.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You mean his prison,” Amy corrected her. “The place the Moderator forced you to bind him.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Of course. One more seal and we can get to him.” The Sorceress indicated another carving for Amy to jackhammer away. “These ancient mystic sigils are useless against modern power tools. I’ll have to remember that.”     Amy dutifully shattered the last warding stone. The door to the shadowed tomb creaked open.     The Shoggoth tekki-liid a war cry and burst out, a foaming gelid mass of more dimensions that were good for reality. Sorceress gestured and froze him as he lunged.     Amy opened one eye. “Did we call at a bad time?” she ventured. “I thought this thing was supposed to be on our side? When I catch that midget so-called genius…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh, the Shoggoth would have helped you,” Sorceress admitted. “The Shoggoth would have been a great asset to you. That’s why I was summoned to destroy him.” She gestured and pinned the EEE engineer with the Scarlet Sashes of Saggeroth. “You get destroyed for free, as an entrée.”     Amy had time to scream as the Sorceress’ face turned to a boiling mass of carnivorous maggots. But instead she spat in her enemy’s face.     Then something black and shiny burst through Whitney’s chest from behind and ripped the Sorceress in two.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“W-what?” Nyarlathotep mouthed with sundered lips. “How?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You said it yourself,” came the strangely dual-voiced reply. “Ancient magics are sometimes quite useless against modern science – such as an advanced biotech alien venom symbiote being overridden by two of the greatest intellects on the planet.”     The Scarlet Sashes vanished, tumbling Amy to the floor, and she recognised her rescuer. “Miss Framlicker!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Not entirely,” answered the composite creature. “We’ve not really agreed on a name yet. It’s in committee. But we’re on the same page about a few things, and rescuing you was one of them.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You knew that Sorceress was working for the Moderator?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Please. Geniuses.”     Nyarlurkhotep flowed free of the sundered Sorceress and rose in fury in one of his ten thousand forms. “Dead geniuses now,” he promised wrathfully.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Excuse me,” noted the Shoggoth, “but according to the rules, if you’re bound by a Chak’kathaar Ritual of Congruence and your physical form is destroyed you’re not freed, you’re banished. Bye bye.”     Nyarlurkhotep looked at the Shoggoth with pure loathing. “You didn’t have to remind the universe,” he snapped. Then he vanished.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I really think I did,” replied the Shoggoth.     Amy rubbed her forehead. “Somebody explain things to me. Preferably with diagrams.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’ve saved the Shoggoth as you intended,” Muffy B. Framharper answered briskly. “There’s nothing keeping him down here now. Next we go and find our friends and fight the villain.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And then maybe some Tenchi?” suggested the Shoggoth.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh, we can do better than that,” the composite genius promised. “How about a ringside seat for the Secret Origin of the Moderator?” ***     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What is it?” asked Killer Shrike with disdain.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s a bird costume,” Helen MacAllistair explained helpfully. “We retrieved it from the trophy dump raid. And you like bird costumes.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I like Killer Shrikes, the deadliest predator avian in existence,” Simon Maddicks objected. “I like my lost Killer Shrike uniform, because it comes with razor cuffs and taser loops and titanium claws and all kinds of useful kit. This is a budgie costume.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Technically it’s a Pigeon costume,” VelcroVixen snickered. “According to the label, it’s a flight and combat suit once worn by Falcon’s crimefighting girlfriend.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t wear high crotch leotards,” insisted the butcher bird.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“We could tape a mop to the helmet, if that helps,” offered CSFB!     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll borrow the flight harness. That’s it. Later, you all die.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Later everyone dies,” promised Gamona the assassin, with some satisfaction. Her mentor Dark Thugos had taught her that.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I think we’ve assembled everyone who is going to come,” noted Gamma Ray Gary. “D’ur will be here with the latecomers as soon as he can, but we should proceed with the first stage of the Death Camp raid now.”     VelcroVixen took CSFB! by his non-robotic arm and hunkered up to him. “I guess it’s time for you to inspire the troops,” she suggested. “You know, I could use a little private inspiring myself, boss-man. I’m not used to working for someone I haven’t known.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Make an exception, Dr Girlfriend” CSFB! told her. “Okay troops, lissen up. It’s clobberin’ time! Yippee-ki-yay, m*&$#£^$£#!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sound off and go,” VelcroVixen called.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Gamona.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Gamma Ray Gary!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“The… the Mouse.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Professor Manyarms.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Atomic Bumpkin.”          Ã¢â‚¬Å“Twisted Sister.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Fanboy.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Niobe.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Dynamo Dolphin!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Krotch! Hur hur.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Doorman!”     CSFB! swund round as Jay Boaz jogged out of the darkness to join them at the treeline. “You made it, big guy!” he beamed. “Is D’Ur here? How many others did he bring?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, it’s all just fine,” Doorman answered evasively. “And I’ve found the perfect way for you to go. Follow me, people. You just won’t believe this.” He led them off towards the killing zone. “Well, not for long anyway.” ***     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Thing is,” the hunter philosophised, “the Moderator, they’ve not really understood him, any of them. It’s right there in his name. He moderates what happens. If he doesn’t like it, he deletes it, even if it’s happened to him. There’s a strand out there where the heroes rally a scratch team of adversaries to launch a final assault on him, and they get within an inch of doing it – until he deleted that. There’s another where Faite empowers his executioner – until he deleted that. Another where Visionary becomes some kind of Austernal avatar and explodes for some reason known best to himself. And so on. The Moderator’s just playing with them, and if he doesn’t win the level then he reboots and replays until he gets it right.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“There’s no stopping him, then,” Zdenka sighed. “You’re scaring me, Mark, and a goddess doesn’t like to be scared.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Well, I’m a very scary tourist, Zdenka, but I promise you’ll be entirely safe during this scenario. It’s coming to an end now. That bit with the insane robot and the fake Hooded Hood unnerved him a bit, I think.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Fake Hooded Hood…?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh, sure,” Mark nodded. “The Hood’s vanished. Nobody knows where. Him and Xander both. And believe me, I’ve looked for them. The only influence he’s had on this scenario is all just remote control. It’s all just marginal manipulation for that bastard.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“But the Moderator is unnerved.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Getting your brains bashed out does that,” the hunter pointed out. He finished his beer and stored the bottle back in his rucksack. “Point is, he’s set things up now to play out one last time, so he can claim the win and go on to rule forever in a permanently changed world. And his trial runs have basically blocked off all the greater powers’ manipulations and back doors, so it really is down to just the few heroes he’s left running around in his maze.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Like… like Hatman?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You boyfriend Hatman? No. No he got deleted very early on. The guy running around looking like him, Doorman, he’s an entirely different man. A right bastard, and he’s going to get worse. I suspect he’ll be making the transition back to the Parodyverse proper even if the heroes win this one.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“The heroes can win? How?” Zdenka found herself suddenly yearning for people she didn’t even remember to somehow triumph over evil.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Well,” confided Mark, “the Moderator’s set up this death camp, an execution centre. His PR people have got the world whipped into a paranoid frenzy about body-swapping aliens called Space Fandoms, and anyone he doesn’t like gets accused of being one and sent there for ‘processing’.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s evil!” objected Zdenka.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yep. So the Moderator has interred a bunch of people our heroes care about, and tomorrow they’re going into the ovens, on camera so the world can cheer as the nasty shapestealers get what’s coming to them.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“The heroes would naturally go to save them!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They’d try. But Doorman has already murdered one of them, and the others haven’t had a very successful recruitment drive. And Doorman’s most recent trick was to lead half of them right into the high security compound at the death camp where the ‘new’ Lair Legion have set up a kill zone.”     Zdenka bit her lip. “Can I get there in time to save them?” she asked.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“’Fraid not. It’s all down to them now. But the Moderator’s overlooked the detail that could trip him up. There’s a kid called Salieri Meng.”     Zdenka was running out of ways to prompt for explanations. “Who?” she asked despairingly.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Smart kid with a mouth,” Mark summarised. “In the prime Parodyverse he got killed with his parents in the first wave of the Parody War. In the Moderatorverse there wasn’t any such war, or even a Parody Master. The PM’s easy to delete now he’s been beaten for good. But that brought Meng back into play. The Moderator shouldn’t have interned his mother.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What can this ‘smart kid with a mouth’ do?” Zdenka wondered.     The hunter stood up and shouldered his pack. “That’s what I’m waiting to see,” he admitted. “Should be good, either way.” He turned to go, then looked back. “Hey, if the Moderator wins and Hatman stays deleted, or it things click back and it turns out you’re not dating Boaz, can I call you?”     The goddess of the north was rarely asked out on dates. “I still have no idea who you are, Mark,” she pointed out.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s what dates are all about, gorgeous,” the hunter told her. “But if you want to call me first I’m in the phone book under my working name. All phone books. Look up Carnifax. The Carnifax. See you later.” *** And still to come… The Secret Origin of the Moderator! The rescue of the Death Camp captives! The new Purveyors of Peril vs the New Lair Legion Visionary’s last charge! The fateful choice of Salieri Meng! Coming soon to a ParodyModeratorverse near you! *** So Where Are We Now? The Moderator’s deletion power continues to keep him alive and on top. He’s undone the damage Functionary did to the his Trophy Storage Facility and Lair Tower. He’s downgraded Anna’s lethal attack and the events leading up to it to a VR simulation to learn about his enemies. He’s got Doorman leading the Purveyors into a deadly ambush. He still plans mass executions on the morning before his ascent to power. The Purveyors – CSFB!, Gamma Ray Gary, Gamona, the Mouse, Professor Manyarms, Atomic Bumpkin, Twisted Sister, Fanboy, Niobe, Dynamo Dolphin, and Krotch - face the Legion - The Link (Cath Katz), the Scarlet Lawnmower (Bill Reed), Search Engineer, Sigmund the Superlative Simulacrum, Dr Spoon, Pirate Monkey, Partial Man, Dead Boy, and Killer Flea. There’s still an unaccounted-for traitor in the Purveyor’s ranks. I’m tipping that VelcroVixen has already been hired by the Moderator and might be the one working for him (she’s loyal to whoever hires her – whoever hires her first!). But all is not lost. Miss F/Al B, Amy, and the Shoggoth are going to root out the Moderator’s origin. Liu Xi, Yuki, Chiaki, Lara, and Anna are now awake in the deep research labs under the Death Camp. And Vizh, Sam, Salieri, Brap, and the Sorting Hat are flying by flashlight-power to Iowa so that Salieri can do whatever it is he’s supposed to do to turn the tide – but will he, when he realises he might be erasing himself and his family from existence? *** *** Previously: The Moderator Saga #1 by Hatman The Moderator Saga #2: Minions for the Moderator by Killer Shrike The Moderator Saga #3: Captured is the Carpathian! by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga #4: Interview With the Archvillain by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga #5: Lord and Master of All He Surveyed by various posters The Moderator Saga #6: Mouse and Ming by Hatman The Moderator Saga, oh let’s say #7 by Killer Shrike The Moderator Saga #8: One More Day by CrazySugarFreakBoy! The Moderator Saga #9: Let’s Be Bad Guys by CrazySugarFreakBoy! The Moderator Saga #10: With his Hands Tied Behind His Back by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga #11: The Moderator Strikes Back by Killer Shrike The Moderator Saga #12: Acting On a Hunch by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga #13: Something Nasty in the Cellar by the Manga Shoggoth The Moderator Saga #14: My Little The Moderator Tie-In and More Tie-In by L! The Moderator Saga #15: New Players by Hatman The Moderator Saga #16: Meanwhile… by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga #17: Outlaws of the New Law by Jason The Moderator Saga #18: The Impossible Win by CrazySugarFreakboy! The Moderator Saga #19: Time for Genius by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga Part… What 19? by Visionary The Moderator Saga #21: Visiting Time by the Manga Shoggoth The Moderator Saga #22: Armed and Dangerous by CrazySugarFreakboy! The Moderator Saga #23: Check Again by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga #24: Outlaws of the New Law - 2 by Jason The Moderator Saga #25: The Birth (and Death?) of a Hero and #25a by Killer Shrike The Moderator Saga Part 25-odd: Attempting to Restrain Large Felines by Means of the Flexible Appendage to the Torso by Manga Shoggoth The Moderator Saga #27: Too Close For Comfort by the Hooded Hood The Moderator Saga #28: Outlaws of the New Law - 3 by the Jason The Moderator Saga #27 #28? by L! The Moderator Saga #30: Inbetween the Lines by Hatman The Moderator Saga #31: Purviewing the Purveyors by Killer Shrike The Moderator Saga #32: Outlaws of the New Law - 4 by Jason Sorry about the numbering mix-up earlier. All those people who quoted the wrong chapter number were led to believe they were right at the time. I numbered #19 wrongly then missed it off the list. *** Original concepts, characters, and situations copyright © 2008 reserved by Ian Watson. Other Parodyverse characters copyright © 2008 to their creators. The use of characters and situations reminiscent of other popular works do not constitute a challenge to the copyrights or trademarks of those works. The right of Ian Watson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.

The Moderator Saga: A Deleted Scene Author’s Note: herein is the original version of a scene I cannibalised for the story above. By the time I came to post it others had already progressed the tale in other ways, so this "never happened" (like the rest did!) But I thought folks might be interested in a "what if" that shows another way the story might have twisted. ***     LOL INTERNET was a spotty youth with an intense stare that disturbed people. When he was forced to interact with humans he preferred it to be by texts to one of a series of online identities he’d established. Nobody was allowed to call him Zachary Zelnitz.     LOL wasn’t really comfortable round people (he’d once kept a cat-girl locked up in his sub-basement but she’d escaped eventually). Their emotions and responses puzzled him. So he was particularly disturbed by the reading he was getting off Test Subject 103394.     LOL 2 SRC NGN, he keyed into his mobile phone. CN U CM 2 LAB?     A few moments later Search Engine strode into the reprogramming area with a glower on his face. “What now?” he snapped. Every time he died the Moderator insisted on bringing him back in some new host body rather and just let him come back in his own time in his own way. He’d just spent the last two hours escaping back to his proper form.     THS XPRIMNT SUX, LOL texted, gesturing to where the young woman lay on the visualisation table with the VR helmet on her cranium.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Speak to me properly of I shall decompile you,” Search Engine threatened his employee. “Why have you interrupted me at this busy time?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It… it’s subject 103394,” LOL answered. “Sir,” he added hastily. “I’m getting some completely screwy reading from her.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“The power dampener is working, presumably, since you have unfortunately not been fried to a crisp?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah. And the images are being pumped into her head just as we programmed them. But she’s not responding right.”     Search Engine touched the computer console and checked the data. “This is the elementalist girl we captured,” he summarised to himself. “She believes herself in the Lair Mansion of the world that was wiped to make way for this one.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That was the master’s brief, sir,” LOL answered. “Make things as familiar as possible for her, and subvert her from there. It was all going fine at first.”     Search Engine reviewed the readouts. “She accepted the shock of waking up ‘married’ to the Moderator. She accepted the reality of her surroundings – not surprising since we were tapping into her own sensitivity to matter to shape what she was seeing and feeling. She believed what Anna told her about her friends dying.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That Anna is one magnificent piece of kit,” LOL INTERNET enthused. “There’s no way a software patch could affect her without basically lobotomising her. She’s reacting to the VR telepathyware just like a flesh and blood human would. She believed everything she told the elementalist in the virtual world. She thinks she’s there.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“For all the sophistication of her programming she is still very naive in the ways of the world,” observed Search Engine. That’s why we selected her rather than the cyborg or the energy conduit. Neither of them would have been a hundred percent safe in there.”     LOL got back to the problem. “Anyhow, it all seemed to be going pretty well. Subject 103394 was becoming more and more distressed as we hit her with all her nightmare scenarios – forced marriage, death of loved ones, loss of freedom, failing friends. She was well on the way to breakdown and surrender. Textbook. But then she changed.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“At 0254,” Search Engine noted from the monitor data. “She suddenly had an entirely different set of emotional responses, including…” He frowned. “She achieved sexual climax?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Eleven times, sir,” LOL admitted admiringly. “I just can’t find out why. And after that she… well, she stopped contemplating suicide and surrender and started planning ways to destroy the Earth.” He pointed to the hasty patch he’d had to make when Liu Xi had wandered into the Lair Library to search for forbidden tomes.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Where was she?” Search Engine asked, more to himself than to Zelnitz since he was already skimming through the VR logs. “Where was she when she became… excited? Ah. A bedroom, of course. Jay Boaz’ bedroom?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Doorman?” sneered LOL. “That doofus?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That doofus flattened Scarlet Lawnmower with a well-placed fire extinguisher yesterday,” Search Engine pointed out. “But I believe the man Liu Xi went looking for would be Hatman.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hatman’s not in the VR program,” LOL INTERNET objected. None of the former heroes from the old reality are. All information about them has been expunged, just like you ordered. In fact not even Dooman’s in the Lair Mansion VR program. Then what the frak happened here?”     Search Engine dug deeper, his eyes unfocussing as he became one with the data. “There,” he pointed to a line of code. “That spike. Something was slipped into the virtual world at that point. Someone gatecrashed.”     LOL INTERNET was checking the video logs of Liu Xi strapped to the programming array. “Hey, there at 0254, where she’s squirming. She mouths a name: Jay.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hatman wasn’t there,” Search Engine said. He drew his conclusions and sighed. “She may have seen him, but that’s now who was there with her.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Then who? How?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Just a theory,” Search Engine replied, “but bear in mind what happened. Before the encounter she was suicidal. After the encounter she was murderous. She wanted to destroy the world to spite the Moderator.”     That meant nothing to Zelnitz. “So?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“So check the file on her ex-boyfriends,” he replied. “We can’t prove it, of course. We may never know. The question is whether this interference and Liu Xi’s post-coital change of mindset have irredeemably damaged her conditioning. Yuki Shiro and Chiaki Bushido are going to die whatever happens, as painfully as I can contrive it, but I had hopes of presenting Liu Xi to the master.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I dunno,” LOL admitted. “That’s why I called you. She’s doing all kinds of crazy screwy stuff in her virtual world that we never mapped and I’m having to shunt in data on the hoof. Last thing she did was summon some kind of occult book called the Necronastycon to wake up some guy named Shabba’Dhabba’Dhu.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“She what?” snapped Search Engine.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I said she wanted to do some voodoo thing with this due names Shabba…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Get her out of that program now,” Search Engine commanded. “Right now. Sedate her and get her out. Before she can wake that thing up.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Relax, man. It’s only VR. If she destroys the world the worst that can happen is… Oh.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Is that she can break free of the virtual world we made for her, discover the truth, and wake up?” Search Engine challenged. “Quickly, man, get her…”     Just then Liu Xui Xian awoke the Groper Out of Grossness from his eternal sleep, cascading a change across the VR Parodyverse that changed the very stars and caused the fairly Great Old Ones to awaken. The program crashed. And burned. And the ashes gibbered in a corner. Bits of the system hardware crawled away.     Liu Xi Xian sat up.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Not again,” said Search Engine as she sprayed the room with searing flame that destroyed everything it touched, and especially her captors. *** Original concepts, characters, and situations copyright © 2008 reserved by Ian Watson. Other Parodyverse characters copyright © 2008 to their creators. The use of characters and situations reminiscent of other popular works do not constitute a challenge to the copyrights or trademarks of those works. The right of Ian Watson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.

I admit, I went ahead and read Ian's chapter as well before replying, and I like this more as a VR simulation than actual events.

The issue was all the work we did with the other characters didn't matter since a small group solved the whole problem, meaning all the other characters didn't do anything worthwhile at all.

As a VR simulation though, this was entertaining.

A side note, I never intended for Doorman to become the main villain.  This is the Moderator Saga, after all.  He's the big bad.  Doorman will play a part, I'd imagine, but not as the new main villain. 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Big D made it back to the Parodyverse proper to menace our heroes though...

~Hat~

I admit I was confused about who the hunter is supposed to be, since he starts the chapter as Mark and ends up as Mike. Until the reveal he's the Carnifax I was trying to figure out if he was spiffy or Xander.

I am also confused how Samantha and Salieri know that Doorman isn't Hatman. I'm glad to see that CSFB! and company don't know this yet though, as I was hoping we might get some scenes with Doorman playing the good guy, biding his time until he wants to make his move.

Vizh with the Power Bracelet was a nice touch (and I really liked the Oath, nice job), though he'll have to give it back to D'ur when the Parodyverse gets set right.

And good job with the VR stuff. It remains significant but allows the narrative to continue.

~Hat~

The Moderator Saga Part Thirtysomething: The Great Escape

Mouse covered her ears. The loading bay doors to the storehouse that contained the spoils of the New Lair Legion were pried open. The bulky figure of Sigmund the Superlative Simulacrum ripped the titanium plating as easily as a person might tear off a sheet of Reynolds Wrap. To his left stood Search Engineer, his lantern lit and hanging from the end of the brakeman’s switch slung over his shoulder. He touched the brim of his cap and whistled.
“What a mess,” he drawled as he limped forward.

Indeed, the attendants of The Moderator had seen better days. Helen, glasses broken, clothing torn, was cradling the head of her college crush Muffy Framlicker, who happened to be sharing brainspace with another school chum Al B. Harper. The grotesque dwarf Flapjack was lying in a pool of his own blood, seemingly dead, but he did smile weakly when Link came from behind Sig.

“Just couldn’t keep away, huh, babe?”

“Hardly,” the young woman shot back, “We didn’t come here for you. Any of you.”

Brap looked around from the ruins of a sacrificial altar to Buto, “No? Zen why are you here? Surely it iz not to join the revolution?”

/The revolution is over. Moderator is dead./ Sigmund etched the news.

“Then we won?” Helen McAllister said haltingly.

Search Engineer smirked, “I suppose. Though I think you’re going to find the new boss every bit as bad as the old one. For as long as it lasts.”

The villain wove his way through several stacks of boxes to a large shape covered in a tarp, “Here we go. Clear a path, Sig.”

“For as long as what lasts?” Mouse stood and followed Search Engineer, ignoring the crashing sounds as the Simulacrum plowed his way up to the structure.

“This new status quo. It’s only a matter of time before the Deus ex machinas start flying around fast and furious, and I for one don’t want to be here when it happens. Hold these,” Search Engineer handed his accessories to Helen and took hold of the tarp. With a flourish he pulled it away, revealing a London AEC Routemaster, “All aboard the magic bus!”

Mouse watched as Search Engineer took the ring of keys from his belt and opened the door to the double decker, “This…. I remember this. This is the bus the Lair Legion used for its World Tour.”

“In another reality, yes. Which is where we’re going to be taking it. As far from Ground Zero as possible,” Link made her way onto the bus; sitting in the chair she would need to power the vehicle for their journey.

/Miss Link, are you sure you are up for this? That is called the Pain Chair for a reason. /

“I can handle pain, Sig, if it gets us clear from all the cosmic reckonings that the Engineer says are coming. Still, anybody got a Midol?” she joked.

“First rule of long distance travel is not to drive impaired,” Search Engineer said as he slid into the bus’s driver’s seat. He gave Helen a long look, “You know, we’d be willing to let you come along, provided you don’t try anything stupid like grow a backbone again. FramHarper too.”

“The pig stays, however. And so does Brap,” Link said severely.

Before, Helen would have considered it. But now, after seeing the courage her friends had shown against the overwhelming forces of The Moderator, she knew how wrong it would be to cut and run. No matter what came next, “No thanks.”

“Your loss,” Search Engineer swung the door shut and turned the ignition. The bus sputtered to life. It lazily turned towards the open bay doors, gathering speed as it went. Once outside it accelerated even more, until it became a golden blur. Then it was gone.

*****

/Where are we?/ Sig asked as he exited the Routemaster. Judging by the Brubaker Boulevard street sign, they were still in Paradopolis, albeit one that seemed deserted of people.

“I don’t know,” Link admitted, “but it can’t be an Earth I’ve been to before. My powers only let me teleport to where I haven’t been.”

Search Engineer looked around, “So it’s a new setting then. A place for new stories, er, opportunities, I mean.”

/With just the three of us?/ the Simulacrum wasn’t so sure of the possibilities, unless perhaps their number decreased by one.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before others show. Villains to serve. Heroes to fight,” the Engineer said confidentially. He scanned the storefronts until one particular establishment caught his eye, “Until then, I think I have the perfect place to set up shop for ourselves.”

THE END

...but the bad news is I'm out of my element. My last post taught me that the style I'm using is too "Anime" and I'm selling it to a Silver Age-y classic comic audience who doesn't want it. Back when I was writer's blocked and stood aside during part of the Moderator Saga...maybe my first instinct was right. I'm not sure now.

Either way I'm happy I didn't have to lose yet another story to the bit-bucket. I do that enough voluntarily because I don't like the outcome of some of them. It's a little more painful when circumstances force it.

I wish I had a follow-up to it but I'm both unsure of where to go, and a little gunshy to try anything risky.

...Even if I don't get to hear the exposition, it'd be nice to know it all kind of made sense.

Anyway, excellent job of rounding up various threads. Sure, there are some narrative gaps, but if people are overly concerned about them then they can get their no-prize by filling them... There's no rule that says these chapters all have to go in order.

As mentioned above, I enjoyed the framing sequence for its concise exposition. Such methods are necessary in wrangling a huge lumbering story like this in any particular direction. Plus, I'm always happy to see Zdenka, and to get a teaser for this Carnifax guy who will feature in the future.

I also appreciated the inclusion of the sorting hat, and the collection of characters that Vizh has fallen in amongst. We'll see what they can do to save the world... if, indeed, that's young Mr. Meng's plan.

Nicely done!

An intriguing exit, especially because it sets them up for the future. I hope some version of this scene still comes about.

An intriguing exit, especially because it sets them up for the future. I hope some version of this scene still comes about.

For some reason I was expecting the Caphans to turn up (in the deleted scene, at least...). Oh well...

I still think you write the Shoggoth well. I liked the bit about reminding N of the rules...

Why Caphans? Apart from the obvious.


He's one of the few remaining regulars with a very distinctive speech pattern. You could never substitute his dialogue for anyone else's.

I needed to get an overview so people have a template. This is the stage at which many collaborative efforts fall apart - c.f. Gold Coin Killer. They key is to start converging the cast then finishing off the sub-plot story arcs one by one so each gets a satisfying mini-resolution, all the while building up to one final climactic confrontation with the villain.


Which narrative gaps are patricularly gaping? I mean, sure, I completely forgot to put Flapjack in the chapter, but otherwise?


As soon as Jay decided he didn't want Zdenka any more I knew she'd need to have a rebound complication.


Indeed.


It's not my favourite work, but it'll hopefully keep things moving.

The key to these multi-writer story conclusions is to dole out the resolutions amongst the writers, so each micro-cast has a vital bit to play. We may even need to conference over it and assign chores if we can't do it any other way.

For example, Al B. (I think) introduced Salieri Meng. We've focussed on the kid intermittently, set up a drama about his mother's internment, noted that he's about the only character to come in from completely left field (he's not a previous minor player or a different version of an existing cast member) - so from a narrative, dramatic viewpoint he has to be there for some major reason. Question is: what?

Likewise we've invested a lot of time setting up the Purveyors vs Legion stuff. People will feel cheated if that was off-panel. Things need to get "widescreen" there for a while.

And we haven't really explored this concentration camp that some of our cast are in. We maybe need to have a look at what Meggan, April, Kat and even Mrs Meng are up against before we see our heroes come to the rescue.


I hate having to do that too.


There are limitations as well as benefits to these round-robin style stories, especially as we start ticking off the resolutions.

I was thinking that now they've had a taste of possible dire futures and are loose in the basement labs of the Death Camp, Yuki and Co's first concern might be trying to get the prisoners out before they're herded into the gas ovens. You'd need to find some reason why it's harder and more heroic than Liu Xi just void-shifting them away, though.