| Jane | 06-29-2004 09:28 PM |
In case you've forgotten, this is a continuation of "Roger the Damned", "Black Forest", "Oh Ye Mortals!", and "In the Circle Cocytus"
Story Board
Angel stumbled through the dark streets of Paradigm. The blood that ran from the wounds in her back had drenched the back of her dress, and the pelting rain that fell relentlessly had soaked the rest. She felt faint and disoriented, but she continued to press forward. It would be better to drop dead on the streets than to be back in Paradigm tower.
Lightning and thunder melded with the noise and light of police sirens as two cars rushed by. Angel watched them as they passed, and thought she saw a familiar face in the lead one. Sure enough, it stopped abruptly seconds later, and Dan Dastun climbed out.
“Angel?” he asked, “Is that you?”
She nodded her head and then fell to her knees in a puddle, splashing the water into glittering points of lights that collided with the falling rain.
“Go on without me,” Dan directed to the men in the other car, “Do whatever it takes, but stop that monstrosity!”
He ran to Angel, pulled off his coat, and draped it over her shoulders. Then, gently, he took her in his arms and lifted her from the pavement. She winced when his arm touched the lacerations in her back.
“We’ve got to get you to the hospital,” he said as he took her to his car and gently laid her in the back seat.
“What about your job?” the words were a struggle, “What’s going on?”
He shrugged, “There’s another giant loose in the city, but it’s all right, Generals are just figureheads anyway. My men can handle it, and if they can’t…”
“Roger’s not coming,” Angel said.
“What?”
Her body shook and she coughed up blood, “He’s not coming.”
Dan put a hand on her shoulder, “You’d better not talk anymore.” He climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
Angel could still hear the rain pounding hard against the windowpane, but in Dastun’s car, it could no longer touch her. She reached back and felt the lines of blood in her back, if it healed, she would be left with a very familiar scar.
***
Roger thought he saw the outlines of a face inside the white light. It was a beautiful face and it looked strangely familiar, although he could not imagine why.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“When you can answer that question, it will finally be finished.” The voice that Roger heard pierced through him. He could feel it inside him, down to the center of his bones.
“Why are you here?” Roger asked.
“To answer your question.” It answered.
Roger realized that he did, in fact, have a question, a question that had plagued him through a thousand lifetimes, but to which he had never been able to answer to his satisfaction.
“Which of my memories are true?” he demanded, “Who am I?”
“Let me answer by telling you of a thing that happened a hundred lifetimes ago,” said the being of light. “At that time a group of entities sought the solution to a problem. There were two options that could work. One had been dubbed Angel (for obvious reasons) and the other, with even less originality, was called Negotiator. Almost from the moment of their conception, a great debate began to rage among the entities that as to which one would be put into place.
“Angel was a more cynical approach to the problem, however, if it worked, it would secure success for every entity. Then again, Angel could only guarantee a semblance of redemption, for in the process the long forgotten concept of “choice” would remain lost to them forever. Negotiator was just the opposite, it could restore to them everything they had given up so foolishly an eternity ago: the feeling of the hot sun, the taste of food, the warmth of an embrace, and the independence of individuality. They could regain all the things that had been left behind when they had discarded their bodies and stepped into the nets to become an ever-present mind.
“In fact, Negotiator seemed to be everything they had dreamt of, except it promised nothing. Because it gave them choice, there was a risk that some might choose incorrectly. Negotiator contained the ever-present possibility of failure, and although failure was a thing they could not now experience, it was not a thing they had forgotten. Memories were their playthings now, their only excursion from an unending existence; memories of what had it been like to love, to hate, to succeed, and to fail. The clearest and the strongest of the memories were passed from mind to mind, perhaps they had become distorted from the union, perhaps they had become clearer, but, whatever the case, it was generally accepted history that it was the great Deis that had been used to turn the world into an inferno, and at the end of it the few survivors feasted on their remains to build a great tower that would transport them away from their dead world into a new and ethereal existence.
“They had been fools.”
***
A black, segmented body slunk through the streets of Paradigm. It moved at an astonishing speed as it undulated through the city, lashing through buildings and slamming across the pavement like a snake whipping through the water. Its bright red eyes cast a crimson glow, and its dark body seemed oily in the mix of rain and moonlight.
The military police were having enough difficulty just trying to keep up with the thing, much less slow it down. The missiles they fired at it bounced off as if they were little more than pinpricks, and their precious tanks were quickly crushed beneath its bulk.
Thus far, most of the damage had been confined to unoccupied buildings outside the domes, but the thing was sidling its way towards populated areas, and the causalities would be enormous.
The thing lifted its head off the ground, gazed across the city, opened its gaping maw, and let out a horrific scream that brought the policemen to their knees desperately clasping their hands over their ears.
In a moment, they were enveloped in a cloud of black smoke. They heard the sound of spinning propellers, and the smoke began to clear. It seemed certain that the robotic snake had done something terrible within the cloud, and as it drifted away they were truly shocked by the sight that was revealed.
The black snake was caught in the grasp of a great red megadeus that was squeezing the thing by the neck as if flailed about violently. It swung its long tail off the ground and whacked the Deus hard across the head, knocking off a chunk of the yellow plate across its forehead.
Inside the cockpit of the great machine, the pilot—Seebach, was laughing. “Do you think you can harm the great Big Duo, you insignificant little worm?”
Big Duo smashed his opponent into the ground, grinding it into the pavement in a manner that sent great slabs of concrete flying into the air, and causing the watching police to scurry back into their cars and tanks for protection.
While the thing wriggled in the dirt, Big Duo flipped his arms upwards and turned its hands into spinning propellers that lifted it from the ground along with the fire that spurted from his elbows.
As it lifted into the sky, it let loose a downward blast from its eyes that cut through the snake and caused it to let out another earsplitting scream.
Story Board
Angel stumbled through the dark streets of Paradigm. The blood that ran from the wounds in her back had drenched the back of her dress, and the pelting rain that fell relentlessly had soaked the rest. She felt faint and disoriented, but she continued to press forward. It would be better to drop dead on the streets than to be back in Paradigm tower.
Lightning and thunder melded with the noise and light of police sirens as two cars rushed by. Angel watched them as they passed, and thought she saw a familiar face in the lead one. Sure enough, it stopped abruptly seconds later, and Dan Dastun climbed out.
“Angel?” he asked, “Is that you?”
She nodded her head and then fell to her knees in a puddle, splashing the water into glittering points of lights that collided with the falling rain.
“Go on without me,” Dan directed to the men in the other car, “Do whatever it takes, but stop that monstrosity!”
He ran to Angel, pulled off his coat, and draped it over her shoulders. Then, gently, he took her in his arms and lifted her from the pavement. She winced when his arm touched the lacerations in her back.
“We’ve got to get you to the hospital,” he said as he took her to his car and gently laid her in the back seat.
“What about your job?” the words were a struggle, “What’s going on?”
He shrugged, “There’s another giant loose in the city, but it’s all right, Generals are just figureheads anyway. My men can handle it, and if they can’t…”
“Roger’s not coming,” Angel said.
“What?”
Her body shook and she coughed up blood, “He’s not coming.”
Dan put a hand on her shoulder, “You’d better not talk anymore.” He climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
Angel could still hear the rain pounding hard against the windowpane, but in Dastun’s car, it could no longer touch her. She reached back and felt the lines of blood in her back, if it healed, she would be left with a very familiar scar.
***
Roger thought he saw the outlines of a face inside the white light. It was a beautiful face and it looked strangely familiar, although he could not imagine why.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“When you can answer that question, it will finally be finished.” The voice that Roger heard pierced through him. He could feel it inside him, down to the center of his bones.
“Why are you here?” Roger asked.
“To answer your question.” It answered.
Roger realized that he did, in fact, have a question, a question that had plagued him through a thousand lifetimes, but to which he had never been able to answer to his satisfaction.
“Which of my memories are true?” he demanded, “Who am I?”
“Let me answer by telling you of a thing that happened a hundred lifetimes ago,” said the being of light. “At that time a group of entities sought the solution to a problem. There were two options that could work. One had been dubbed Angel (for obvious reasons) and the other, with even less originality, was called Negotiator. Almost from the moment of their conception, a great debate began to rage among the entities that as to which one would be put into place.
“Angel was a more cynical approach to the problem, however, if it worked, it would secure success for every entity. Then again, Angel could only guarantee a semblance of redemption, for in the process the long forgotten concept of “choice” would remain lost to them forever. Negotiator was just the opposite, it could restore to them everything they had given up so foolishly an eternity ago: the feeling of the hot sun, the taste of food, the warmth of an embrace, and the independence of individuality. They could regain all the things that had been left behind when they had discarded their bodies and stepped into the nets to become an ever-present mind.
“In fact, Negotiator seemed to be everything they had dreamt of, except it promised nothing. Because it gave them choice, there was a risk that some might choose incorrectly. Negotiator contained the ever-present possibility of failure, and although failure was a thing they could not now experience, it was not a thing they had forgotten. Memories were their playthings now, their only excursion from an unending existence; memories of what had it been like to love, to hate, to succeed, and to fail. The clearest and the strongest of the memories were passed from mind to mind, perhaps they had become distorted from the union, perhaps they had become clearer, but, whatever the case, it was generally accepted history that it was the great Deis that had been used to turn the world into an inferno, and at the end of it the few survivors feasted on their remains to build a great tower that would transport them away from their dead world into a new and ethereal existence.
“They had been fools.”
***
A black, segmented body slunk through the streets of Paradigm. It moved at an astonishing speed as it undulated through the city, lashing through buildings and slamming across the pavement like a snake whipping through the water. Its bright red eyes cast a crimson glow, and its dark body seemed oily in the mix of rain and moonlight.
The military police were having enough difficulty just trying to keep up with the thing, much less slow it down. The missiles they fired at it bounced off as if they were little more than pinpricks, and their precious tanks were quickly crushed beneath its bulk.
Thus far, most of the damage had been confined to unoccupied buildings outside the domes, but the thing was sidling its way towards populated areas, and the causalities would be enormous.
The thing lifted its head off the ground, gazed across the city, opened its gaping maw, and let out a horrific scream that brought the policemen to their knees desperately clasping their hands over their ears.
In a moment, they were enveloped in a cloud of black smoke. They heard the sound of spinning propellers, and the smoke began to clear. It seemed certain that the robotic snake had done something terrible within the cloud, and as it drifted away they were truly shocked by the sight that was revealed.
The black snake was caught in the grasp of a great red megadeus that was squeezing the thing by the neck as if flailed about violently. It swung its long tail off the ground and whacked the Deus hard across the head, knocking off a chunk of the yellow plate across its forehead.
Inside the cockpit of the great machine, the pilot—Seebach, was laughing. “Do you think you can harm the great Big Duo, you insignificant little worm?”
Big Duo smashed his opponent into the ground, grinding it into the pavement in a manner that sent great slabs of concrete flying into the air, and causing the watching police to scurry back into their cars and tanks for protection.
While the thing wriggled in the dirt, Big Duo flipped his arms upwards and turned its hands into spinning propellers that lifted it from the ground along with the fire that spurted from his elbows.
As it lifted into the sky, it let loose a downward blast from its eyes that cut through the snake and caused it to let out another earsplitting scream.
)