DVANDOM _____ ______ _____ _______ THE CENTURY PACT PART 11 of 12 [ ]__ [ ] [] [ ]__)) [ ] ` [ ]__ #83 - "Face of the Enemy" [ ] [ ] [] [ ] \\ [ ] [ ] copyright 1997 Dave Van Domelen [_] [_]__[] [_] \\ [_]___/ [_]____ -------]==+ <*> +==[------- [cover shows a line of chained net.heroes being led into custody. Dvandom Force is among the captives.] [Author's Note: I picked the title for this issue before I found out that this week's Babylon 5 has the same title. I decided to keep it anyway. And the first scene was written before I read RACC Reviews, but *was* modified a little afterwards. So, all you readers out there, write reviews! You can influence stories! - Dave] Kat knocked on the doorframe. "Hey, Pocky, what's up? Haven't seen you for more than a few minutes here and there the past few days." Algernon paused, then looked up from his computer screen. "Oh, sorry, just got into my 'study trance,' forgot how antisocial that can look. I've been doing some research." "On?" "Guess," Pocky smirked. "The anti-net.hero laws. Trying to find a non-violent way to strike 'em down?" Kat asked. Al's smirk faded. "Well, maybe...although these sort of things always seem to end in conflict anyway. Especially given the bombshell you and Squidman dropped yesterday, about the future cyborg guys being behind it." "So..." Kat asked, leaning into the room, "find any holes yet?" "Yes and no," Pocky frowned. "Some of them are blatantly against the Constitution...I'd almost say intentionally so. Same kind of trick used in the Communications Decency Act a while back. Public back home howls for a law, the lawmakers are smart enough to know the law wouldn't work, so they pass something that has zero chance of passing Judicial Review. They get to tell the voters back home that they obeyed the Will of the People, but don't have to worry about actually *getting* the law they passed." "Tricky devils. And since when did you become a law student?" Kat inquired, now standing over Kid Pocky's shoulder. "Mom went for citizenship while I was in high school, I helped her study," Al shrugged. "Anyway, the problem with some of these laws is that they were passed at the local level, like the one Macroman's having to worry about." "Doesn't the national Constitution override local laws?" "In this case, yes. But with so many layers of appeal between local and national level, a determined city government could keep the law in force for months, if not years before having to dismantle it. Especially if the law is popular, as the cyborgs have helped ensure. Heck, if they keep working at it, they might manage an Amendment, although that would take years." "I have the sinking suspicion they don't mind taking years," Kat murmured. "But you said not all the laws were illegal?" Al nodded, pulling up a web page. "See here, some of the cities and states are simply repealing old laws that give net.heroes greater discretionary powers, bringing back into force the laws against vigilante activity...which are perfectly Constitutional. So net.heroes have to get deputized to act legally, and the city can refuse to deputize at its own discretion. The LNH has some sort of nebulous federal powers, but not all net.heroes are LNHers, and the LNH may lose its powers in this climate as well." There was a delicate pause. Al had noticed Kat's attention starting to drift during his explanation. "Kat...you're not really here to ask about the niceties of Loonited States law, are you?" A cold hand gripped his heart in anticipation of what she might say next. "No, not really." The hand tightened its grip. Al suppressed a shiver. "Then what?" Kat avoided meeting his questioning stare. "The...the dream," she said, without expanding on it. They both knew which dream she meant. The dream they, and most of the area, had shared a while ago [Dvandom Force #77-79 - Ed.]. Al paused...he didn't know if he should volunteer anything or just wait for her to continue. Kat had a keen eye, had she figured out something was "wrong" with him, something which could explain how he found redemption in a dream designed to punish net.heroes? Finally, he broke the silence. "You mean, how did I...?" "No," she cut him off. "If any of us is innocent enough to avoid Dante's trap, it's you...and the VAXX, I suppose." The chill faded, but only a little. Was she being ironic, simply choosing not to reveal that she'd figured out his secret, or did she honestly believe he was an innocent? "Then...what?" he asked, his voice coming close to breaking. "Me. What...what did you see in there?" Kat looked genuinely worried, almost terrified that her inner demons had been paraded about for all to see. And that none of her friends were friend enough to tell her about it. "I was only there at the end..." Al started to protest. "I know, I know," Kat backed away and turned around, hugging her arms close to herself and looking at the ceiling. "But you were there for a little. And you're in love with me...even if I've driven a wedge between myself and the rest of the team, I can tell it hasn't pushed you away." Al could hear his heart pounding in his ears. Normally, she wouldn't even admit to noticing his affection, could he hope that maybe she came to him at least partly because she was starting to return the feelings? The realist in him, the part which remembered the countless setbacks he'd suffered in his old life as Acton Lord, told him not to hold his breath. But he was where he was now because of a part of him that hoped for something else, and that part couldn't help but keep hoping. Kat turned back and looked him directly in the eyes. "Al, don't lie to me. What did you see?" "I saw Aurora," he started, carefully. "But everyone saw that, up on the rooftop. And we knew about that before." He paused, standing. He hadn't seen any more apparitions, and he doubted there had been more, but that didn't mean he hadn't seen anything else. "Go on...you saw more, didn't you?" "Yes. I...I saw someone haunted by her past, frozen quite literally by the crushing weight of guilt over things she had done and couldn't undo." He took a step towards her, his voice gaining confidence, his words coming more easily. "You've been many things in your long life, too many for any normal human to learn them all. You weren't born evil, you even wanted to be a hero, but it wasn't to be. Too many hard choices, too many decisions you couldn't have made any other way...but which you torture yourself over anyway. Decades spent on the run, hounded by the results of your choices, alone and afraid but unable to admit to the fear, lest you go back on decisions you still knew were right. Too afraid to go back, to afraid to go forward, too afraid to stop and end it." "How...you saw all that...?" Kat whispered. Al shook his head as he gently put a hand on her shoulder. "No, not in the dream. But I saw it over the past several months...Kat, I love you. You know it. Doesn't it surprise you that I'd be watching you enough to see these things in your eyes, in your words, in what you *didn't* say?" he paused as she turned around to face him. "You had a fresh start when you got here, didn't you? No one from your past to remind you of your mistakes, few if any new mistakes here?" Al asked, and Kat nodded. "But redemption doesn't come easily. Even if you get a fresh start, you have to devote your entire life to it, or you'll do the same things all over again. There's too many places where the old ways are easier, or come without thinking...too many times you can slip up." "You've...you've been there, haven't you?" Kat asked. "I can tell, you're not even trying to hide it now, are you? But you're so young...what could you have possibly done that you can understand my life so completely?" Kat asked, eyes shining with uncertain tears. "I hope you never have to find out," Al sighed. Kat wiped her eyes and stepped back, breaking the contact between the two. "Of course...even you can't trust me that far. *I* don't trust me, why should you?" "No, that's not it," Al shook his head. "I love you, and that means I trust you too. But you don't trust me, at least not yet. Would you deny me my chance to keep my past out of things? Nothing in your past could possibly turn me away, but my greatest fear...even greater than death...is that something in my past would turn you away. Maybe I don't stand a chance no matter what I've done, but please...give me a shot at being who I am now, not who I was before. Okay?" Kat was quiet for a few seconds. "Okay. And thanks for the honesty," she said. She started to turn to leave, then whirled and planted a quick kiss on Al's lips before dashing out of the room. "Whoa." Al grinned a little...maybe that hopeful part of him wasn't so stupid after all. But the grin soon faded as he turned to the computer, switching windows away from the web browser and back to what he'd been working on before. Something he now had even more reason to hope he'd never have to use.... -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "Hey, Shane," came a voice from behind. Before he could stop himself, "John Smith" turned to face the person who had called out his real name. "You say 'John?'" he stumbled, trying to cover for the gaffe. Carefully, showing as little nervousness as he could, he pulled out the key to his office. Since the little incident in the diner, he'd been put in charge of security, more for the publicity value than because the trucking company needed net.ahuman help. "No, I said Shane," grinned the red-haired man who was walking towards him. "Shane Boxer, pathetic little rebel," he grabbed Shane by the neck with superhuman speed and strength. "I knew there was something wrong about you, and it was only a matter of time before I put my finger on it. Oh, Dirk voiced his concerns first, but he's paranoid, he's always worried. But hey, let's continue this *outside*!" he smiled, throwing Shane through the door of his office and the exterior wall on the other side. Shane's world turned red for a moment and his body refused to respond. The exterior wall was just fake brick facade over drywall, but it still hurt like Hell(TM). He wondered if anything was broken, but couldn't feel anything specific through the red haze. His attacker stepped through the hole, his features subtly shifting into ones Shane recognized. "J-joe?" he managed to gasp. "Yep, that's the name. Former elite air commander, future ruler. Back when, you were WAY beneath my notice...I was after the big fish, like your leader Iron Eagle [in the alternate future detailed in Dvandom Force #46-48, "X-Post Facto" - Ed.]." He picked Shane up again, this time by one shoulder, his grasp cruelly tight. "But one of the benefits of my transformation has been improved recall, and I remembered your part in the plan that Lord DeFacto allowed to happen. From there, it was just a matter of checking up on your host body's background, seeing how you radically changed your lifestyle the same day I got stranded in this backwater era," he shook Shane for emphasis, eliciting a grunt of pain which almost covered a slight cracking sound. Joe, aka Steelwind, dropped Shane to the dirty pavement of the alley. "This is no fun. Plus, if I kill you like this, it'll just cause trouble down the line. *I* know..." he shifted his form again, now looking like Squidman in his old Robo Warriors armor. "I'll make you a martyr, just like you always wanted to be. Pity it won't be for a cause you believe in, but that's just me being selfish, eh?" He kicked Shane in the chest, activating the nanotechnological alterations he'd supervised so recently. "NOW I can kill you...in public, no less!" he reached down to grab Shane. Shane twisted away as quickly as his powers let him. The shock was starting to fade, and he could tell that even with his armor activated, he was in no condition to win a fight with the cyborg Steelwind...presuming he would have been if in top condition. "You can't run, you can't hide, why not get out some of that anger by trying to kill me while I'm killing you?" the false Squidman taunted, trying to herd Shane over into the arc of one of the security cameras. But he seemed oddly distracted, like his attention wasn't completely on the fight. Shane took advantage of that distraction. He hadn't lasted so long as a rebel in his home era by being a good fighter...he'd survived because he was good at running away. Raising both fists, Shane brought them down on the pavement, shattering a goodly section of the alley on which both stood. Steelwind reflexively activated flight systems, but Shane let himself drop into the storm sewers he knew (from his brief stint as security head) were under this alley. Within seconds, Steelwind had recovered, cleared the rubble and entered the sewer, but Shane was already long gone. "No problem," he muttered, shifting out of the Squidman disguise, "I'll just activate the homing beacon we placed in...his shoulder. Damn. Dirk ain't gonna be happy about this...." -------]==+ <*> +==[------- As the D-Star streaked north at just under the speed of sound, everyone was watching events unfold on the NNN feed picked up by the jet's communications array. Squidman had even put the jet on autopilot so he could pay attention. "...to repeat the top story of this hour, while Congress continues to debate competing bills about net.hero regulation, the community of Onyx City has acted on their own new law," came the voice of the newsroom anchor. The screen cut away from the studio to show a tape from earlier in the day, with the label "Onyx City Courthouse - 9:32 AM PDT" gracing the bottom of the image. At the center of the screen, a hung-over-looking man with thick sunglasses who was held fast in a giant gear or cog was being escorted up the steps by a woman in a modified police uniform. Behind the two, another officer carried an hourglass inside of which a glowing beer tap was caged. "Onyx City's only native net.hero up until recently, Barman, refused to either join the police department or leave the city limits when Onyx City's City Council passed a resolution removing his limited police powers. Last night, Barman was involved in an act of vigilante justice, an act he was no longer authorized to partake in, so the police department's newest addition, the net.ahuman known as Myst, aided in arresting Barman, also known as Jack Bishop. In the wake of Barman's utter defeat at the hands of the new Acton Lord, his dwindling public support vanished, and there was no protest of his arrest. In fact, as you can see on the tape, some jeering crowd members praised his detention." The picture shifted back to the studio. "And now for TalkBackDraft Live, the hottest news talk show on the air...." Squidman hit the mute button. "This is what we're going to see a lot more of very soon if we can't come up with convincing proof of a conspiracy. On the good side, people want to believe in conspiracies, so it won't take much to be convincing." "On the bad side," Kat continued, "what we have already won't cut it. And to get more means we're about to stick our heads in the blender. Between the information Boxer got to us, some poking around in secure computer systems on my part, and the use of C.H.E.E.E.Z. Corps databases, we think we know where Boxer got his nanotechnological augmentation. Central Wisconsi.net, near the Ctrl-Alt-Dells. Really hilly terrain, good for hiding things in, but close enough to civilization to allow easy transportation." "Understand this," Squidman picked up the briefing, "I can't stress enough how suicidal this mission may be, and I want at least one of you to stay up here with the D-Star in case things get out of hand and we need a rescue...or someone to go get help. The people behind this have had since our defeat of DeFacto V, if not longer, to prepare this base, and must be expecting for it to be found eventually. Given the careful, even meticulous progress they've made so far, it's safe to assume there's defenses in there geared specifically for us, for C.H.E.E.E.Z. Corps, possibly even for the Alt.Riders if that mess in Phila.Delphi.a is mixed up with the 'Century Pact' as I think it might be." "I'll stay behind," volunteered Kid Pocky. Squidman cocked his head. "Really? I was hoping you'd agree to, but after we left you behind on several other dangerous missions, I'd think you'd be getting tired of it." "I am, but I've been working on...a backup plan. It's not a pretty plan, and I don't want to use it, but it's ready. And if one of us has to be able to get away after a fiasco, at least I'm one who knows exactly where he's going. Do any of the rest of you have a plan?" Kid Pocky asked, looking around the cabin. "Plan A!" the VAXX bellowed, waving a bamboo sword around. "That never works," Anna sighed, taking the sword away before the VAXX could hit anyone. "On the other hand," Sidewinder pointed out, "since you haven't seen as much action as we have, they might not have traps specifically designed around you." "They don't need to, he's not exactly a heavy-hitter...no offense, Al," Macroman said. "No, you're right. Anything designed to take down the rest of you would probably get me too. I'll mind the store," Kid Pocky finished. Sidewinder looked like he was going to say something, but decided not to bother. The weight of history was against him, after all. "Al," Kat said, not quite looking him in the eyes, "this button here activates the D-Star's transformation sequence...most of it was burned out in the fight against DeFacto, but I've been working on restoring it as best as I could. If I come tearing out of there in the Panzer," she said, referring to the small one-person minitank she'd built, "with a giant robot on my tail, hit the button and get ready for linkup. They *probably* aren't playing with big obvious things like giant robots, but we know they have the tech to pull it off." Kid Pocky nodded, staring at the button rather than looking into Kat's face. He didn't want to see if she regretted...well, anything relating to him. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- The D-Star touched down lightly, hover jets still whirring at nearly the power level needed to take off, and let out its passengers. Kat in her one-wheeled minitank took point while the others ran, flew or drove behind her, with the Squidmobile at the rear. That accomplished, it returned to the air in a gust of wind. Doug was visibly chomping at the bit to get at the people behind banning him from Keystroke, but knew they'd be hoping he'd run in at top speed for a recon...and in an unfamiliar setting, he was just slow enough to be trapped. "There's the door, I'm gonna shoot it...hope they expected us to try and be sneaky again!" Kat shouted over the whine of her vehicle's electrostatic Shirow-Ozaki drive. One of the side-mounted rocket pods spat flame and the door disappeared behind a brilliant red and yellow bloom. Before the smoke had cleared, a trio of mostly human figures had run out of the door, shooting back. One carried a gun, another fired energy beams from her eyes, a third seemed to be spraying shards of bone from his fingertips, shards which shattered harmlessly against the Panzer's composite shell. "Can't use teargas, wind's against us," Squidman shouted over the radio headsets they all wore (except for the VAXX, who had dismantled his already). "Sidewinder?" "Web of Diversion!" Sidewinder cried, firing hundreds of monofilaments from the wrists of his powersuit. The filaments stretched over the trio of defenders, and within seconds Sidewinder had pulled them all out of the story, digressed out of action. Unfortunately, that meant he had to stay there to maintain the effect. The Panzer crashed into the hallway, knocking over a fourth guard who had been rushing to help with the defense. The guard's body splattered sickeningly against Kat's windshield, but a quick look in the rear scanners confirmed that the man was a morpher...she hadn't been going fast enough to splatter a normal person, after all. The VAXX was on the morpher before he could recover and reform himself, gleefully stretching the guard's body like so much taffy. "Gack Attack!" he bellowed, letting the pliable flesh drip between his fingers. "The alarm's been raised, we have to move fast before they can destroy any evidence," Squidman warned as Lynk put a finger to the putty-like guard's face and sent him to sleep. "New trick," she explained. "Better for the guard, anyway. Put the nice goop down, VAXX." "Oh, okay...." -------]==+ <*> +==[------- The command center, a small room packed with monitors and communications devices, as well as computer terminals and charts. Kat stepped out of the Panzer, which wouldn't fit into the doorway, and carefully walked into the room. "It's clear, guys. You can come in," she radioed, and within seconds Squidman, Lynk and the VAXX were inside. "Macroman's doing a final sweep for hidden guards or signs that an escape pod or self-destruct system has been activated," Squidman explained on entry. "He won't find any, I bet," Kat frowned behind her mask. "This was too damn easy. Okay, the defenses were credible, if we hadn't been loaded for bear we might have been in trouble, but this smells like abandoned base. They got all the cyborgs they wanted and bugged out, leaving a skeleton crew to make sure no one stripped it for parts." Squidman was at the computers by this point. "It gets worse." "Data wiped?" Lynk asked. "No. Data replaced." He turned the screen so the others could see it. "All the files here seem to point to this being a small-scale operation, run by Dr. Zwarghoff, one of the loose ends from the Team M.E.C.H.A. case." "Maybe he was working for them?" Lynk suggested. "No, I doubt it," Kat replied. "This is an obvious frame job, try to make it look like the trail ends here with Zwarghoff, and no involvement on the part of the Steelheart duo. And if he'd really been working for them, they wouldn't want to risk him spilling the beans, so they'd have killed him...or set it up so we'd 'accidentally' kill him, thus ending the case." "Right, I got it," Lynk nodded. "And since he's already an escaped convict on the run, he's not likely to come forward and protest his innocence on this matter." "Or be believed if he did," Squidman added. "Anyway, we're too late. We can report this base, might even get a few other dominoes to fall, but it won't solve the larger problem." Macroman zipped into the room just then. "Anything?" Kat asked. "No more people here, lots of places where there might have been experimental setups, but now they're gone, although a few are still here. And a vehicle bay that's conspiciously empty," he finished. "DAMN," Squidman pounded the table. "This is my fault. We just sat around after beating DeFacto, when we should have been out looking for his henchmen, tying up loose ends." "Don't blame yourself," Lynk said, putting a hand on his shoulder which he immediately brushed off. "The Warlord business found us before we could do more than catch our breaths." "Yes, but there was plenty of time *after* that to go after things. We just let them slide, falling into the old reactive habits," Squidman sighed. "And now everyone's paying for it. Hell(TM), we could have at least told the LNH and other groups to watch out for the various escaped criminals, but we didn't." The only response was silence. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "So, we're back to square one," Squidman said to Kid Pocky, finishing his account of what was found inside, while Kat hung up the phone. "Authorities will be here in an hour or so to mop up and take the four mutates into custody pending checks of their criminal records, although they didn't sound too happy," Kat noted. "I can imagine they wouldn't...so close to the base, there must have been an extra dose of propaganda," Kid Pocky mused. "So, what's this backup plan of yours?" Squidman asked. "You won't like it..." Pocky warned. "I've run out of plans I *do* like, Al...let's hear it." Kid Pocky paused. "I...can't just tell you. I have to show you. Tell the others we'll be back in a few hours." "Okay, but where..." Squidman started. "You'll see. Trust me, please?" he asked, specifically directing the final word at Kat. "..." she replied, her mouth open but no words coming out. "All right, I suppose you haven't given us any reason to distrust you," Squidman acquiesced. "Yet," Kid Pocky thought as he took the D-Star up and pushed the throttle to full. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "Here we are, beautiful Andale Atoll, the only tropical atoll in the North Alt.lantic," Kid Pocky said as he brought the jet in for a vertical landing. "Why here? Hoping to find some sort of fiendish device of Acton Lord's to use against the Pact?" Squidman asked. "But the place has been stripped bare, we checked it back when we were trying to figure out the Warlord case." "Not quite...the communications and control center was intact, and I've been connecting to it from our computers recently, seeing if I could find anything useful," Kid Pocky replied, drawing a questioning stare. "It'll all be clear in a few minutes," he sighed as they disembarked and headed into the caverns below the island's surface. "I *was* able to develop one contingency plan, but like I said, you won't like it. And I haven't been able to find anything more likely to be successful, so it's this or wait and try to find another way...and hope that the Pact doesn't get so strong nothing can stop it," Kid Pocky said. "I hope you're not considering time travel...that never seems to work," Squidman warned. "Especially with this group." "No, something far simpler," he replied, an ominous tone in his voice. "We're here, just stand over there while I set things up," Al asked. Squidman looked on suspiciously as Kid Pocky operated the controls with practiced ease. Kat just watched, a slow dawning of comprehension coming across her face. There was a brief hum, and suddenly things seemed dampened somehow. Squidman fell into a defensive posture and reached out...to feel a forcefield barrier. "What's all this about?" he demanded. "I *said* you wouldn't like this, and I can't have you stopping me," Al said, tapping another button. A solid GIF shimmered into existence around Kid Pocky. The image was familiar. Too familiar. Kid Pocky activated the worldwide satellite feed breaker system and looked into a camera, a camera which saw the new...and old...face he now wore. "People of the world, you have labored long and hard for this moment. Some of you not even aware of who you truly worked for. But it was not in vain...for the New Century dawns today! So says ACTON LORD!" ============================================================================ Next Issue: The final chapter of the Century Pact! If Acton Lord's behind the Century Pact, who's going to tell the cyborgs? Never mind, they saw it on TV. But now what? That's a very good question.... ============================================================================ Author's Notes: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!