LNH: Dvandom Force #48 - X-Post Facto FINALE
Dave Van Domelen
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'|` PRESENTS DVANDOM FORCE #48
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copyright 1995 by Dave Van Domelen
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[cover is split down the middle with the Earth at the center. On
one side of the dividing line, Earth is shattered by a robotic
hand. On the other side, Earth remains and the hand has shattered
to reveal flesh underneath the metal. A question mark is
superimposed over the Earth. "Final Fate of Dvandom Force!"]
=============================================================================
Cobra was running out of fuel for his emergency thruster pack, but with
Joe not answering radio calls, he had to home in on the tracer beacon with what
resources he had. If that...infocrim...had killed Joe, he'd be a lot more
pissed than he already was. And he already wanted to dismantle the rebel with
a cold soldering iron and some tweezers.
Another two jumps and he should be within sight of Joe. Presuming, of
course, that Joe was near his locator beacon and that he hadn't fallen into a
crevasse of some kind. Cobra wasn't exactly kitted out for mountain climbing,
and he'd already sprained an ankle on a bad landing.
Judging by the locator trace, there was no doubt that Joe had ejected.
The plume of smoke marking where Joe's plane, Steelwind, had landed was over
three clicks away. So he had to have separated from the plane before hitting
the ground. But here above the treeline one can hit the ground pretty damn
hard.
There. The locator flashed red as it could no longer accurately tell
where Joe was, since he was closer to it than its resolution. Cobra pulled on
his heat-imaging goggles and scanned the rough mountainside. A blip.
He scrambled over to the source of warmth and was rewarded by a shock of
red hair peeking out from under a camoflage cape. Carefully peeling back the
cloth, he could see that Joe wasn't seriously hurt, but had fallen unconscious.
Survival training had let him cover up before passing out, but he was too far
out to respond to radio hails. Cobra got out his medkit.
A quick sonic scan showed no broken bones of major internal injuries, so
he rolled Joe over onto his back and injected a stimulant.
"Whu...?"
"Easy, Joe. We got shot down."
"The way you land, you could tell?"
"Hmm, maybe I injected too much of this stuff."
Joe sat up carefully. "Damn, there goes a perfect record. D'ya suppose
this means we won't get those cyberimplants the rebels developed? I mean,
before we hadda keep secret that we knew the tech, but now that we've rounded
them up, I want that *edge*."
"Yeah. This wouldn't have happened if we didn't have the lag time between
thought and action. Still, I wish we could get payback on that damn rebel that
shot us down."
"What says we can't?" Joe pulled out an emergency ration and started to
chew thoughtfully on it. It might be a few hours before they got picked up.
"My ankle, for one, and your mild concussion. We won't be top shape for
at least a week...and if he beat us in top shape, I'm not trying a rematch
injured. But somehow I don't think the boss's gonna let him live long enough
for that, much less the time it would take for us to get those implants. I
just hope we're not too near the rebel's destination."
"Yeah, recovering from nuke-backblast ain't *my* idea of fun. DAMN. I've
spent my entire life trying to be the best damn thing in the air, and a little
bump on the head grounds me for days or weeks. The rebs are cyborgs, they can
spring back like that...well, the ones that aren't dead now." Joe fumed and
bit into his ration bar again. "Amd amubber fing," he said around a mouthful
before swallowing, "having to eat, sleep, crap...all this means I can't be in
the air all the time."
"True. Being able to pull 24-hour missions without rest or food would be
nice, but I don't think even the rebels could do that. They were cyborgs, but
not fully robotic in body." Cobra pulled off his right boot so he could tape
up the sprained ankle. "DeFacto is, though."
"That's right, I am," came a voice behind the two.
Joe nearly choked on his mouthful, and Cobra dropped his tape in turning
around. "Lord DeFacto! I...we deeply regret failing you, the rebel leader
possessed systems we had never encoun...."
"Silence," commanded the time tyrant from the rocky perch he stood on. "I
am aware of my foe's new abilities, and that they represent a significant
imbalance. You spoke of wishing to leave human frailty behind...do you *truly*
desire this? I can replace your flesh and bone with metal and plastic, your
blood with electrical current, your mind with holographic chips. But there
will be no going back."
Cobra, as usual with the pair, was first to speak. "If it will give us
victory over your enemies, we will do it gladly." Joe nodded in agreement.
"Good. Your RoboVectors are being rebuilt at Sci.enne Mountain base as I
speak, and that is where I shall rebuild you. Before the day is out we shall
crush the head of the snake."
* * * *
Joe looked over the rebuilt Steelwind and noted every place where a line
had changed by a millimeter, every alteration in the weapons complement, every
subtle change in the transforming aircraft. And the one big change. The
cockpit was no longer something he would sit in, it was an indentation he would
be *plugged* into.
Cobra made the same observations about his craft, although he had not
named his. He turned to look at his overlord, DeFacto V. "Now what?" was the
question he asked on his face, although he did not voice it.
Without a word, DeFacto started the process. A glowing cone of force shot
out from his eyes, encasing the two pilots and separating them from the outside
world. Joe found the sensation vaguely hallucinatory.
Then DeFacto opened his mouth and a stream of tiny motes of light emerged,
first collecting as a swarm in front of him, then splitting in two and seeking
out the men who were bargaining away their humanity for a tactical advantage.
AGONY!
Every part of their bodies was being simultaneously destroyed and rebuilt
from the outside in...their nervous system was the last to be hit, allowing
them the "luxury" of feeling every painful moment of their ordeal.
CONFUSION!
Old chemically-based memories were being rewritten and dumped into
holostorage, responses were being retranslated for the new "hardware," and
senses went utterly mad as they were crosswired, altered, expanded and
enhanced.
POWER.
Hunger is a part of the human experience. We spend much of our time at
least somewhat hungry in body and rarely ever escape the hunger in our minds.
But the energies that suddenly flowed through the pair as their neutrino sieves
went online made the aftermath of the biggest feast seem like total starvation.
It was like the lifeblood of a star coursed through them, warming them from
within with a blazing fury.
The man who had been known as Joe leapt into the cockpit of his Robo and
plugged in. The systems came online in an instant and he could feel the plane
like it were his own body. "ALL RIGHT!" he shouted in exultation. "I don't
just *run* Steelwind anymore, I *AM* Steelwind!"
Cobra eased into his control seat with less exuberance, but no less joy.
"Indeed. And I am certainly no longer Cobra...I'm something more. And as my
power has increased, my hatred for Eagle has increased a thousandfold of that.
A new name to proclaim that would be fitting. Call me...Darkheart."
DeFacto nodded in satisfaction. "You will also find that the combined
air-battleship mode of your two craft now allows a much greater synergistic
effect, as your two minds can join as one to run the combination. Far more
orderly than the unpredictable interface of flesh and metal. Now, for your
first mission, you will help me recapture the Net.astic Nine and the rebel
leader." DeFacto gracefully floated up into the command center of his
MegaRobo, the Black Widow, and activated its systems.
The huge hangar doors of Sci.enne Mountain opened like the maw of a
leviathan and disgorged its trio of demons into the setting sun....
* * * *
"Okay, Bob, you can set down the Anti-Physics Probobulator now," directed
Mr. Thingy as he closed a panel on the complicated and jury-rigged looking
device in front of him. "Well...son..." he turned to Richard, "everything's in
place. The time.thingy is complete and should work, although we can't risk
testing it before we use it. Flo's all rested up and should be able to deflect
DeFacto's first shot, maybe even his second, giving us time."
"You're a good man, Fred. I really wish I remembered my childhood, it
must have been good with parents like you two. If a little dangerous." He
grinned lopsidedly. "Maybe we can get to know each other a little better if we
survive this."
"Long &*(&%^*ing odds on that, here comes da judge!" shouted Jack Flame
from his lookout post. "Black Widow, Joe and Cobra!"
Mr. Thingy's face fell into a look of concentration for a moment,
forgetting the threat before him. "Now how could those two have recovered so
quickly?" But the withering energy barrage on the mountaintop brought him back
to the matter at hand. "Flo, now!"
The !Visible Woman concentrated and her !visible forcefield sprang up
around the five heroes and their time.thingy as all around the granite of the
mountain was blasted into atomic dust. [Editor's Note: !visible is MUSHcode
notation for 'not visible.] Then the shots struck her field and she fell to
one knee from the pain. Hero that she was, though, she did not cry out.
The shooting stopped.
"We can easily destroy you, Dad," sneered DeFacto. "And I'd been waiting
to tell you about our relationship until your birthday...but NOOOO, Ricky hadda
spoil the surprise. In any case, we can avoid needless pain and destruction if
you simply give up. O-HO! Do I spy a time.thingy there? You of all people
should know better than to try and escape me through time! I am its master,
the keeper of the grains of sand which fall through the cosmic hourglass!"
"Kids t'day," muttered the Thingy, "always tink dere parents're stupid."
"Bob's got a point, tyrant! You may be a master of time, but *I've* got
the Doctorate. There's a few tricks you don't know, and here's one of them."
Before stabbing down on the go stud, Mr. Thingy paused significantly and looked
DeFacto in the eyes. "And by the way, consider yourself disowned...'SON.'"
The smug confidence fled DeFacto's expression when he felt the time flare
go off and the five net.heroes vanished!
"IMPOSSIBLE! Not only have they pierced my Steel Shutters of Time,
they've done so without leaving a trace I can follow! No matter...their
destination is laughably obvious, for only by preventing my assumption of the
mantle of time can they hope to defeat me. Gather close, my warriors, we're
off to the Spammy City...Sig.Ago 1995!"
The air...no, the very SPACE around DeFacto V's Black Widow glowed and
puckered with the temporal energies he wielded. To travel to the past risked
temporal chaos, but DeFacto knew he had no other choice...his birth MUST be
assured!
And with a rainbow of fruit fla...er, a rainbow of chromatic and chronatic
energy, the trio was gone from 2077.
* * * *
The skies of Sig.ago had seen many strange things of late, not the least
of them being the floating wheel of Cheeez known as the CheeeZeppelin. But to
have a giant robotic spider and two futuristic jets pop out of a whorling mass
of transtemporal discharges was, well...the weirdest thing that afternoon, at
least.
When the giant spider unfolded into a massive humanoid form with the eight
legs weaving together to form two powerful arms, it qualified for weirdest of
the week. Still, this didn't stop some residents from looking up and
muttering, "Not MORE damn giant transforming robots!"
"Activate tracers to my frequency," commanded DeFacto V. "The subdermal
tracers implanted in the Net.astic Nine should lead us to them once they appear
in this time, if they're not already here."
Steelwind transformed to humanoid mode and snapped off a shot at seemingly
empty air. "They're *here* boss! Invisible, but here!"
"Not *invisible,*" started a female voice from out of nowhere, "!Visible!"
Suddenly Iron Eagle materialized with the Net.astic Nine arrayed on his
shoulders and in his hands.
"Before I kill you, how did you break my Steel Shutters of Time?" demanded
DeFacto V.
"We didn't!" beamed Mr. Thingy, who loved it when a plan came together.
"I merely set off a temporal flare while my darling wife rendered us !visible.
You assumed we'd traveled in time and we hitched a ride in your portal. It
ends here, tyrant. We can't let you come into existence."
"You can't stop me either. All of you together couldn't defeat me alone,
and I did not come alone."
"You won't find us easy meat this time, rebel scum!" shouted Steelwind.
"Or any kind of meat, for that matter," added Darkheart. "We're now fully
robotic like DeFacto, and easily your superior."
"You forget one thing, villain!" shouted Mr. Thingy.
"Oh?"
"We're not the only heroes in this town!" Pulling from his belt a flare
gun, Mr. Thingy fired off a signal that had not been seen in this place for
almost a generation....
*******
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******
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* * * *
Cheeez Arrow stepped into the kitchen where Rotanna was fishing a Mr.
Paprika from the fridge.
"Any news on our guest?" asked the cypher sorceress.
"His condition hasn't changed. He's still passed out from the effort of
remembering Acton Lord's involvement. And without some kind of gratuitous clue
from the author, like a blurb for next issue, I don't think you or I are going
to figure it out any time soon."
Rotanna sighed and headed out to the lounge, with Stanley trailing along
after grabbing a drink of his own. "So, when will the rest be back? Mind you,
it's nice not being in their shadow for a bit, but I suspect they'll have
better luck with 'John Q. Smith' than we've had."
"Soon. They left LNHQ a while ago by flight.thingy. Kid Macro's out
running, but he's close enough to get back once they return. And it's not like
he'd have more luck with this mystery than we're having." He heaved a sigh as
he sat down. "Of course, once they do get back, we'll probably get to fade
into the background again. About the only thing I do that Squidman doesn't do
as well or better is be rich. And I don't have to wear spandex to do that. My
one big shot at being the hero of the day I hadda give up to Sig.Lad [see
Dvandom Force #42 - Ed.]."
"Yeah, I know how you feel. I may be the team mystic, but I sure don't
get much on-panel time nowadays. With Sig.Lad being something of a mystic
himself, or at least a know-it-all, it's like the author doesn't know what to
do with me. I think I need a miniseries or something."
"Oh, where's Sidewinder?" asked Stan.
"He went out for pizza, I think."
"That was two days ago."
"Well, yeah...."
Suddenly, just before the house ad was to arrive, Cheeez Arrow caught a
glimpse of something out the window. "Look at that, Rotanna!"
"What? A big '9' in the air? What about...waitaminnit!"
"Yeah! The rallying signal of the Net.astic Nine! They must be back in
reality somehow! We gotta go find them, maybe Mr. Thingy can cure Sig.Lad
yet!"
"I certainly hope so," agreed the armored Sig.Lad as he entered the lobby
with Squidman and Kopikat. "Those Cheeez Wedge Fighters you ordered from
Sharper Cheeezage come in yet, Stan?"
"In this morning's LPS [Loonited Parcel Service - Ed.] shipment, they're
up on the roof."
"Right! Let's get over there and find my father...and whatever it is he's
fighting that made him signal!"
* * * *
"John Smith" woke up from his strain-induced unconsciousness to the smell
of...pizza?
"Hi," said a costumed figure standing over his bed with a pizza box in one
hand. "Where'd the others go? Oh, want some pizza?"
"Um...okay. Do you know where Sig.Lad is?"
"I was hoping you knew. Still, he should be around here somewhere. I
guess. Oops, almost forgot my manners. I'm Sidewinder."
"Hi."
* * * *
Iron Eagle had a plan for dealing with the overwhelming opposition. It
was called "running away." The others wholeheartedly supported him on it, and
for the last minute they'd been dodging or deflecting numerous lethal attacks
aimed at them. They had to play the dangerous game of being neither too easy
nor too hard to hit. Too easy and they went down in flames. Too hard and the
baddies would break off the chase and simply go to the Dvandom Force HQ.
The Walking Argument had found Darkheart too rational to be affected by
his flames and DeFacto simply too powerful. But he was successfully keeping
Steelwind from getting off an accurate shot.
"You &*$%ing Go-Bot dweeb! You couldn't hit the bottom of the barrel they
scraped your ^&*(*( sorry hide from!"
"Shut UP!" shouted the elite pilot.
"Steelwind, you're letting him get to you!" shouted Darkheart. "Merge to
form Steelheart, on my mark!"
The two jets folded partially in half and joined together with a burst of
speed lines and panchromatic light, forming an aerial battleship which was far
more maneuverable than its configuration seemed to allow.
"&^%&- &*)%&*^& %##@(*!" cursed Jack as they group's only effective
ranged attack was neutralized by the far-harder-to-enrage group mind formed by
the two.
Just as things seemed hopeless, six yellow specks appeared on the horizon,
rapidly growing into Cheeez Wedge Fighters. Dvandom Force was here! CHEEZAR
[Coherent Halo-Effect Energy from Zany Acronym Rationalization - Ed.] blasts
shot out from the lead trio to momentarily stun and repulse Steelheart.
"These guys MACE?" asked Sig.Lad as he put his fighter down and activated
his armor's flight systems, allowing one of Iron Eagle's passengers to take
over the craft.
Kopikat shook her head as she turned her fighter over to the Thingy.
"Nope...the design seems strangely familiar, but they aren't anyone I know."
Mr. Thingy, having built himself a jetpack out of parts he stashed in his
pocket while building the time.thingy, launched into the air and grabbed
Sig.Lad's wrist.
"Dad?"
"Yes. But there's no time for that now! THIS," he pointed to DeFacto's
menacing form, "is your future if you let Kopikat cure you while you wear that
suit!"
"Wait...Kopikat can cure me?"
"Yes, yes...but there's no time to repeat the scene from issue 45, no
matter how moving it may have been. It's vitally important you get away from
here before DeFacto V can...."
"IT'S TOO LATE, DAD," boomed DeFacto as his giant robotic claw grabbed
Sig.Lad. "IF KOPIKAT WON'T INFECT HIM, I WILL BE FORCED TO. THERE *WILL* BE
ORDER IN MY FUTURE!"
Iron Eagle tried to move to slash at the Black Widow's arms with his
sword, but found himself blocked by the combined Steelheart.
"You owe us a rematch," he said in an eerie combination of the two voices
of his components.
Meanwhile, the remaining Cheeez Wedge Fighters blasted at DeFacto to no
visible effect. He devoted a moment of his concentration to them and multiple
bursts of energy swatted them down like flies.
Sig.Lad used that moment of concentration to pop open the seals on his
armor. "If I'm not in the armor, you can't transform me into you, DeFacto!
And if you thought I was slippery *before* I started to destabilize...!"
Kopikat jumped from a building roof onto Steelheart's back, wrenching
savagely at his control surfaces. But a gun swiveled up and blasted her in the
gut, sending her tumbling to the ground. Iron Eagle tried to take advantage of
the opening to block the pair's neutrino flow, but found his bubble having no
visible effect!
Meanwhile, the author reeled in confusion from trying to keep track of
multiple running fights.
Taking advantage of the delay in narrative this caused, DeFacto slammed
Sig.Lad's armor shut again. "There'll be no escape for you. This is the
future. I have seen it. I have LIVED it. It MUST be. IT WILL BE."
Down on a nearby rooftop where his fighter had crashed, Cheeez Arrow
pulled his quiver from behind the cockpit's seat. Now was his chance. His
AtomiCheeez Arrow could destroy that hulking monstrosity and save the future.
This was his big chance, his shot at being in the limelight.
He nocked the arrow and pulled back.
And then DeFacto grinned and looked straight at him. "Your puny weapon
might affect me were I alone in this, mortal, but I have destiny and cosmic
RIGHT on my side! You cannot harm..." His face shifted to become perfectly
rendered, like a CAD image of a human face.
"MASTER WORKLOAD!"
Ice shot through Cheeez Arrow's veins and he knew it truly WAS hopeless.
He was just a guy with some tricked-up arrows. This was a cosmic being, for
God's sake! He started to let the string go slack and DeFacto V, fully backed
and empowered now by Master Workload, grinned coldly and turned back to
Sig.Lad.
"Stan! Snap out of it!" shouted a voice from behind him. In a daze, he
started to turn, only to have the bow wrested from his hands by Squidman.
Numbly, he stepped back and said nothing as Squidman aimed his AtomiCheeez
arrow once more at the cosmic villain.
"Sigh. You net.heroes are so pointless in your waste of energy and
resources. You have no more chance of harming me with that foolish sub-nuclear
weapon than its owner did," droned the all-but-emotionless voice of Master
Workload.
Squidman pulled it back the last inch. Beneath his cowl he muttered two
words.
"Forgive me."
Then he loosed the arrow and Sig.Lad was consumed in an atomic fireball.
At the instant of Sig.Lad's death, Master Workload screamed his
frustration. He could no longer power this vessel...his rigid sense of order
might have bent a little at time travel, but could not reconcile itself with
the paradox generated. And so he left. And so the Black Widow had no extra
defenses when the fireball reached it a nanosecond later. The searing energy,
backed by fissioning Plotdevicium, fused DeFacto V to his RoboVector and warped
its surface, buckling several smaller plates. The energies also disrupted
Steelheart's gestalt and the two fell apart, dazed and confused.
"Time...time is denied me! NOOOO! You shall pay for costing me my
empire, heroes!" With that, DeFacto V retreated over the horizon, his minions
following as soon as they realized the tide had shifted against them.
And there was silence, broken only by the clatter of Cheeez Arrow's bow as
it slipped from Squidman's numb fingers and struck the roof....
* * * *
Far to the north, in the harshness of the Alt.ic Circle, DeFacto V and the
two who now comprised his entire army retreated to lick their wounds. DeFacto
had been deprived of great power, not only that of Master Workload, but also
the Sig.Force and the power he had taken from Acton Lord in his original
timeline. For that the heroes must pay. He only still existed because of the
very loose rules the Looniverse had regarding paradoxes, rules he now could
accept since he didn't have the cosmically anal-retentive Master Workload
sitting on his shoulder.
It was possible to time travel without the Master's help, his father was
proof of that. And when he could regain the future, he would assemble his
temporal armies and sweep down upon this time with a vengeance that would chill
the world more than these Alt.ic winds did....
* * * *
Acton Lord turned off the spycam and heaved a sigh of relief. A terrible
fate had been averted today. Master Workload had proven before that he had
nothing but unpleasant plans for the Looniverse [see "Looniverse Adrift!" in
various and sundry LNH titles - Ed.]. For him to have gained any additional
power over the Looniverse would have been incredibly bad.
Unfortunately, Sig.Lad was now quite dead, and it was not Acton Lord's own
hand which had done it. Ironically it was a hero who had killed him. And
worse, the circumstances which had ended Sig.Lad's life did not ease the
terrible gnawing at the core of Acton Lord's being, the pain of having only
part of a soul. For he had lost one alternate today, but gained two more as
these refugees from 2077 found themselves trapped in 1995...one of them a shade
of what might have been his fate.
Still, though his soul may have been split three ways now, his power was
undiminished...for of all the Richard Franklins, the corruption force favored
him the most in this time. And without Workload's power to wrest it from him,
it remained his.
But another cosmic force had been unleashed today, and apparently it had
not found a new home. The Sig.Force. It had first been attracted to Richard
because it found a synchronization between its own mutability and the effects
of the Super Molder Serum. [Way back in Net.astic Nine #175, "The Babe With
The Power" - Ed.] But now none remained with the Serum in his body. Acton
Lord and his future self had long ago been cleansed of it, and the robotic
pretender had nothing organic for the serum to remain in.
Acton Lord carefully checked the sensor logs of his GIFbanks, but no power
had entered the Sig.Lad he still kept in reserve against the chance of
capturing the Sig.Force after killing his "brother." Yet the power was still
in the Looniverse, that much he knew. It was slippery and hard to pin down, so
he had no idea where it was, but it was HERE. Perhaps it waited for another
suitable avatar or host to come along.
Perhaps it had chosen someone Acton Lord didn't even suspect.
Or perhaps it had gone to Dis.net.land.
* * * *
Take a look at a pile of rocks some time. There's nothing terribly
special about any single one of them, they're all pretty much the same. Oh,
they may vary in color and shape, but rocks are rocks, right? A whole lot of
rocks can provide a formidable barrier, but they'll tumble if you push them
right.
Then look at that reddish rock over there. Yes, that one. At first it
looks just as boring and normal as the others, but what if you took it and
threw it into a searing forge? The impurities would be burned away, leaving
the metal at the core of the simple, plain rock.
After much beating and hammering, the metal becomes a sword. Strengthened
in fire and quenched in tears, the mere stone has transformed into a weapon of
great power.
And as John Q. Smith raised the Dvandomforce banner over the burned-out
shell of the LNHQ on November 23rd, 2078, this once normal "rock" had proven
himself the sword of justice. Earth was once again free....
* * * *
In the background, Kid Macro could be seen filling out the small mountain
of forms required by the Net.vironmental Protection Agency in the aftermath of
detonation of a small atomic device. The Thingy, wrapped in a really big
towel, emerged from the guest quarters chomping on a piece of beef jerky.
"Man, dat felt good. Bein' a Silver Age character may have some benefits
when it comes ta bein' cooped up in a room wit'out a bat'room for months, but I
was gettin' *ripe*."
Kid Macro looked up for a moment. "Mr. Grunion...?"
"Call me Bob, kid."
"Okay, Bob. If the future where DeFacto was created never came to pass,
how come he didn't disappear? And for that matter, why didn't you all snap
fully back into history and all that?"
Bob scratched his somewhat blurry head for a moment. "Wahl, we been on
lotsa dese time travel adventures, and the only ting y'can be sure of is dat ya
can't be sure uv anyting. Fred explained it dis way once, it's like the old
'possession is nine-tenth's of da law,' saw. BEIN' dere is all th' right ya
need ta stick around. Dis Looniverse ain't exactly whatchacall causal, eh?
People spring up wit'out backgrounds allatime, so what's new about DeFacto V
popping up outta thin air now, complete wit memories uv stuff what never will
have happened? Oh, *sometimes* it matters. Master Workload's such a noodgnik
about order that it mattered ta him, so he left. Or pull someone outta time
and things might get ugly."
"Tell me about it," sighed Kid Macro [see Retcon Hour - Ed.].
"But bein' LOGICAL ain't zactly a requirement fer workin' in dis crazy
mixed-up woild. Oh, dere might be a *reason* fer DeFathead and Iron Eagle
stickin' around in dis time, but it's more likely ta be drama-driven den
science 'r logic driven."
Kid Macro nodded. "So, what are you guys going to do now?"
"I figger now dat DeFaced ain't able ta meddle in da timestream anymore,
we'll go look fer th' five members we lost dere. But da big question is
what're YOU gonna do?"
"Well, I've got these net.vironmental impact forms to..."
"Naw, I mean in th' angst department. Ya jest had yer leader blown inta
mesons ta save th' future. Dere's gotta be some kinda reaction ta that."
"I suppose. But...Sig.Lad was always kinda distant from me. Maybe he
blamed me for putting him through the wringer in the dreamscape I pulled him
into back when I was banished to another universe, or maybe he just didn't have
the knack for getting close to the supporting cast. I mean, I'm sorry he had
to die, but I don't feel much of a loss. Besides, there's so many clones of
him out there, the odds are *some* version of him'll be back soon, right?"
Bob shook his head. "Naw, kid...never let yerself fall inta that trap.
Life is life an' death is death. Ya can't let the seemin' ease of replacing
lives cheapen them fer ya. Even when they *do* come back, they don't ever seem
ta be quite the same...they really did die in dat respect. Sure, Sig.Lad out,
Iron Eagle in...same guy, right? Wrong. Even clones ain't identical pegs ta
stick inta the holes made when one leaves. Think about it, kid." Then he
walked out to find some clothes that might fit him.
Kid Macro shrugged and went back to filling out forms.
* * * *
"So, what do I do now?" asked John Smith's body.
"That's up to you now, Shane," replied the person known to the man in
John's body as alternately Eagle or Acton Lord. "I'm sorry, but I don't know
all the details you've lost, and I'm not sure it's even possible for you to get
back to 2077 to reclaim your old life. You may even have died in the assault
right after your mind came back here. But Mr. Thingy's probed the timestream,
and DeFacto's Steel Shutters of Time are still in place. That future may no
longer exist, but even if it does it can no longer be accessed from this time.
You could stay here, try to learn to live the life of the body you're now
in...."
"No, I don't want to live a lie like that. If this man has any relatives,
it would be more cruel to pretend to be him than to just let them think him
dead."
"Or, you could go with the Net.astic Nine. They might be able to get you
home, or at least find a time where you can fit in. And they might be able to
help with the holes in your memory as well."
"Sounds good. Will you be coming with me, then? You're a refugee in this
time too, right?"
"I don't know. My past self still lives as a villain, a role I learned to
abandon. Plus DeFacto's now out there somewhere in this time and I'm
partially responsible for the technologies he now commands. No, I think I'll
stay here, hope that this era's Dvandom Force will accept me as a member and
try to clean up some of my messes."
* * * *
"I RESIGN!" shouted an angered Rotanna. "If Squidman won't leave the
team, I *will*. I can't stay on the same team as someone who would murder a
friend and teammate."
"I won't try to make excuses for my actions," began Squidman. "Maybe
there was another way to save Sig.Lad from becoming Master Workload's pawn and
still cure him of his fatal condition, but I couldn't see it at the time. A
while ago, Constellation had the choice of life or death over me, and he chose
life. I've wanted to be able to pay back the universe somehow for that, but my
choice ended up being death. And I'll carry that pain to my grave, knowing
that the way I chose to save billions from death was to kill one of the best
men I've known.
"But neither will I wallow in my guilt or resign in grief. Too many have
given too much, myself included, to keep me in the game. And I'm not going to
betray that effort just because I had to make a decision of such terrible
magnitude." Squidman looked first at Rotanna, then at Kopikat and Sidewinder,
and sat down. "If you can't live with my actions, you're welcome to seek
another group to associate with. You're still a reserve member of the LNH, you
might try to get in with the Legion of Occult Heroes or something. But we've
already lost one to this crisis, I'd rather no one else leave over it."
"I'm afraid at least one will," came Stanley King's voice from the
doorway. He was in a conservative suit, his vandyke beard shaved off. "I'm
just not cut out for this career. It was fun running around in tights for a
while, but when it comes down to the choice of saving the world and saving my
behind, well...you all saw my behavior yesterday."
"C'mon," encouraged Sidewinder, "everyone freezes sometimes."
"No, that was just the last boot to the head needed to get this mule to
pay attention. I'll continue to back Dvandom Force financially...as I told
Rotanna earlier, I don't need spandex to be rich...but at least for now I can't
see myself an active part of the team."
"Neither can I. I'm sorry, but even worse than what Squidman did is the
fact that none of you seem to share my outrage. UBZR." With that, Rotanna and
all of her possessions disappeared from the Dvandom Force base.
Squidman sighed. "This is starting to feel like a more recent Justice
League storyline than an X-plot."
Stan shifted uncomfortably. "Um, sorry to add more bad news, but the
radiation from my arrow affected the Penguin of Goon...oddly. It absorbed the
Liefeldization Energy from BludWulf and is now off negotiating its own comic.
The CheeeZeppelin still works, but there's no more dimension hopping until
either the aftereffects wear off or we find a new dimensional engine."
"So, Dvandom Force is now just myself, Kat, Kid Macro and Sidewinder? How
Avengers-ish," sighed Squidman.
"And Iron Eagle," added Stan. "He wants to join."
"Can we trust him? He used to be Acton Lord, after all. Just because he
led a fight against an even worse villain doesn't mean he totally reformed."
"Hey, I'm a former 'villain' too," noted Kopikat. "Besides, with DeFacto
still out there and no doubt really pissed at us, we could use his power.
Besides, it'll be nice to have another Robo member," she added as she twitched
her tail.
"Fine. One other point...we need a leader."
"I wouldn't mind taking the job," noted Sidewinder, "but I'd end up a
figurehead as usual, ten'll get ya twenty, and someone else would really be
leading."
"I think we already have a leader," noted Kopikat, looking significantly
at Squidman.
==============================================================================
NEXT ISSUE: I have NO CLUE. Aren't four issues in one week enough for
you, you jackals?
==============================================================================
Author's Notes:
Thus ends another 12-issue macroArc. #12 was the big fight against Lord
Ebon, in "I Live, Evil I." #24 showed the end of the Robot Invasion and the
turnaround of Constellation's life (as well as Squidman's) in "Cup and Crow."
"Evolution" ended and Constellation left the title in #36. And now, in #48,
the title shakes up once more. I'm not exactly sure what direction the title
will take for the next twelve issues, but mecha (and maybe MECHA) will figure
prominently.
Rotanna's departure is not meant to be permanent, but I felt that if I
didn't have any real ideas for her I should get her out of the title for a
while. If you have an idea for a miniseries for her or want to include her in
your ongoing title, let me know.
Stanley King, likewise, will probably pick up the bow again eventually,
but he has to grow a little first. I hope to give him some more on-screen time
in future issues as that happens.
Sig.Lad is dead. The Sig.Force is not. And I know where it is, but I'm
not telling.
The Net.astic Nine are now back in continuity, to a limited extent. I
don't plan to write their future adventures, but am open to any offers from
other authors to do so. And I don't know who the other five are either.
Pretty soon now I'll be putting together a RoboMACs sourcebook for the
various characters from X-Post Facto, and will note in there all the various
references drawn on for each character, a sort of mini-annotation with game
stats.
I probably should have saved the letters I got on this arc, since there
were certainly enough to make a decent letters page. So summarize some of the
letters, Jameel officially exploded, Jaelle couldn't contain herself waiting
for the next issue and Chris Meadows's heart rate got abnormally high while
reading it. When you're inducing medical conditions in your readers, you gotta
be doing something right.
Finally, a short timeline bit for ease of insertion into the Official LNH
Timeline.
DF #45 first half
[DF #45 second half] and DF #48 second half concurrent
[DF #46]
[DF #47]
[DF #48 first half]
[DF #48 John Smith 2078 Epilogue]
All in brackets only take place in the alternate 2077 future timeline. The
second half of #45 happens in 1995, the rest in 2077 or later. Perhaps this
can be best done in the timeline post like this:
DF #45 first half
DF #48 second half [footnote]
[footnote] From the last half of DF #45 to the first half of DF #48 took place
in an alternate future diverging from the position of the house ad in
#45.
Robotech_Master
Dave Van Domelen <dva...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> wrote:
>the title shakes up once more. I'm not exactly sure what direction the title
>will take for the next twelve issues, but mecha (and maybe MECHA) will figure
>prominently. ^^^^^
That's M.E.C.H.A. The periods are part of the name. I'm very particular
about that. :)
DAMN good story. Damn, damn, DAMN good. I never expected that *HE* would
be the one who bought it...and once again, I tip my hat to your style of
writing. Only YOU can do a standard "way-the-Looniverse-works" exposition
so often and have it sound fresh and new every time. :) I can't wait to see
what you come up with next...
--
Chris Meadows | Author, Team M.E.C.H.A., Crapshoot & Co.,
CHM...@NIC.SMSU.EDU | on the Superguy Listserv (bit.listserv.superguy)
ROBOTECH@ | Check out the Superguy WorldWideWeb homepage:
EYRIE.STANFORD.EDU | http://www.halcyon.com/superguy/
Dave Van Domelen
Robotech_Master <robo...@eyrie.stanford.edu> wrote:
>In article <3m7etn$4...@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>,
>Dave Van Domelen <dva...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> wrote:
>about that. :)
I know you are. }-> But for those who wish to be purists, I include this
patch kit in the spirit of Captain America's Replacement Nose (Cap #312, same
issue I got a No-Prize in). Simply cut out these dots and place them in your
copy of Dvandom Force #48.
.....
Dave Van Domelen, suffering one MASSIVE case of heartburn. Ow.