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Mob Rules, part 7 Tuesday, 21-Sep-1999 11:25:43
Chapter Seven Masamune watched the tape intensely and swore. That was definitely Jarvis leaving a deli with Alexander Krovinoff... the newest head of the Russian crime family. That could only mean double-cross. “Where did you get this?” she demanded to the Yakusa member who had brought it to her attention. “It was left on the bar downstairs” he replied, referring to Masamune’s Karaoke Sushi Bar, “with a note reading ‘a favor from a friend’.” Akiko scowled. She liked receiving mysterious favors almost as much as she liked mysterious friends. She was a very lonely woman, but then that came with the job. “So the Legionnaires think me a fool, eh?” she hissed to herself. “I think I’d very much like to talk to Mr. Jarvis... Yes, we’ll definitely have to arrange a meeting.” A goon who was casually leaning against the wall watching out the window suddenly sucked in his breath. “I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.” he said ominously. “So how were you planning on handling this?” spiffy asked casually as the Legionnaires strode purposely down the center of the street towards the sushi bar. “Tactfully” Visionary replied levelly. “I imagine a certain amount of diplomacy is called for.” “Really?” spiffy asked skeptically. “Absolutely” the man masquerading as Jarvis answered as they stopped outside of Masamune’s establishment. Banjooo, Donar, Space Ghost, and DarkHwk drew up behind them. “In fact, I thought I’d knock to let them know we’ve arrived.” “Well... that would probably be...” spiffy began as Visionary raised his fist holding the pendant towards the door of the building. There was a sudden rushing intake of air and then the entire front of the building exploded inward with a deafening roar, denigrating brick to sand in the blast. “... for the best” spiffy concluded lamely. Masamune could now be seen staring down in astonishment at them from a second floor meeting room. With a thought, Visionary enveloped himself in a field of energy and launched himself into the air, leaving his shocked troops standing dumbfounded in the street behind him. “Where is she?” he demanded coldly. It took her a moment to gain her wits, but then she snapped her gaping mouth shut. “Mr. Jarvis... just the person I wanted to see.” She shook the tiny remnants of her building’s facade out of her jacket. “Do you realize you may actually be the stupidest individual it has ever been my misfortune to meet?” “I won’t ask again.” Visionary answered dangerously. “I mean...” she continued on, ignoring his interruption, “I took the time to sit down and actually *explain* what should have been perfectly obvious--even to you--and yet you *still* thought a double cross was possible?” Visionary gave her a dark look. “What the hell are you...” “Uh... Jarvis?” spiffy called from the street. Visionary never took his eyes off the mob boss. “Can it wait, spiffy?” he asked irritably. “I’m kinda in the middle of something, here...” “Uh... it *is* kind of pressing...” With a scowl he turned to glance at his fellow Legionnaires. “What is...” he began, then froze. “oh.” The streets, alleyways, rooftops and skies were deserted of civilians, and instead were filled with scores of men in Manga armor. Some were nearly two stories high, some seemed part humanoid, part jet, all seemed to have very large guns, and all of them were trained on the Legionnaires. Masamune walked over to the edge of the floor. As she walked, she pressed a button on her watch. Quickly and efficiently, overlapping metal plates appeared to completely encase her body. In seconds she was decked out in a streamlined, pink armor. “I told you before, Mr. Jarvis” she said calmly, her voice broadcast from her helmet. “Nobody crosses us.” She looked down at her troops. “Kill them all-- and make it *very* painful.” Tina looked over to where Lisa was unwrapping her splint. “Shouldn’t you just leave it be?” she asked. Lisa gave her a wicked grin. “I didn’t really need it” she said. “I just needed something to occupy my mind until you guys showed up... and those paramedics *were* awfully cute.” She flexed her wrist and managed to avoid an outward wince of pain. Okay, so it wasn’t entirely true... but there was no way she was going to sit on the sidelines during this. She took it rather personally how that pink mobster bitch could abduct her friend right out from under her nose. Of course, those machine guns they had helped... Tina fiddled with the communications array. “NTU should have gotten to Hallie’s mainframe by now...” she said worriedly. “He probably stopped to build a particle accelerator out of pop bottles on the way.” Lisa reassured her. She flipped the television to CNN. “Besides, what could have happened to him? General war hasn’t broken out downtown, yet...” Tina gave her a concerned look. “You don’t think Vis...er, Jarvis... would...” Lisa chuckled. “You don’t know him very well yet, do you? Hell, teaming spiffy, Banjooo, Donar, DarkHwk and Space Ghost alone is a disaster waiting to happen...” she turned back towards the television. “With JarVizh leading them, they’re bound to...” she broke off as the regular programming was interrupted and the words ‘special bulletin’ were written across the screen instead. “Ah, here we go. I’m betting they call it ‘Crisis in Parodiopolis’... or maybe ‘Operation: Manga Storm’.” Suddenly Zebulon jumped between her and the television. “For HIS glory!” the little elf squeaked, training an AK-47 on them. He pulled the trigger, but the recoil sent the shots high. With a noise suspiciously like a one a Ginea pig might make if it happened to be strapped to a jackhammer, the little man was flung from the room. “Hey” Lisa called, not taking her eyes off the television. “If you’re going to the kitchen, could you get me a Diet Coke?” The only reply was the sound of the little man squeaking like a dog toy as he bounced down the stairs. “Um...” Tina began. “I think Zebulon just tried to kill us.” “Sure seemed that way.” Lisa answered, nonplused. “Didn’t do a very good job, though. Ha! What’d I tell you...” she exclaimed, pointing at the television. “...‘Mangatown in Crisis’!” “Zebulon did what?” NTU-150 asked skeptically. “Why would he disconnect you?” “I don’t know” Hallie answered bitterly. “I’ll let him answer that before I wring his scrawny little neck with my bare hands!” “Uh... you don’t have hands.” NTU observed. “I could have hands!” the computer insisted. “Gimme a minute to fire up Zemo’s old Movie Gun and I’ll have all the hands I need to rip the squeaky little snot’s head off! Hell, maybe I’ll bypass hands and go straight for tentacles... or claws! I could scoop his little eyeballs out first with claws...” “You’ve, ah... been thinking about this a lot, have you?” “Do you know what it’s like to be totally cut off from the outside world? From all sensory information? Let me grab a caulking gun and fill your eyes, mouth and earholes for two days... see how you like it.” Hallie grumbled. NTU ignored her ranting and began pacing. Why *would* Zebulon disconnect her so thoroughly? He had thought the elf to be totally trustworthy... Tina certainly thought so, and she should be able to tell. He froze. Tina! She and Lisa were alone with... “So if you could help me out by soldering that loose wire, I should finally be able to reroute my comm-line around the fried circuits...” the computer was saying. “After spending the last thirty-odd hours cooped up...” “Er... I have to go.” NTU answered, firing up his boot jets. “What?!” Hallie exclaimed. “Wait! What do you mean...” “I’ll be back to help you as soon as I can, I promise” he called over his shoulder as he took off. As he listened to her lengthy and colorful response, he couldn’t help but wonder where a computer learned such language... perhaps the Internet truly was the cesspool Congress made it out to be... “So... after you pissed off the entire Yakusa family... how exactly did your plan go?” spiffy asked icily as they were all pinned down behind Visionary’s cosmic force field. “I, uh... thought I’d just wing it.” Visionary answered. In truth, this cosmic power wielding was tougher than he thought... Maintaining the force-field was taking too much concentration to allow them to go on the offensive. “Verily, I have had ENOUGH!” Donar roared. “Let the battle be joined!” With a mighty leap, he propelled himself beyond the protective barrier towards his enemies. There was a blinding flash as about four hundred and thirty-seven energy weapons discharged at once. Donar’s crispy form came bouncing back to his fellow Legionnaires. “Donar... sense... tingle...ing.” he declared as he collapsed. “See?” Banjooo said to DarkHwk. “I told him he shouldn’t have gone late to ‘Saving Private Ryan’... the first twenty minutes were very educational.” “What now, fearless leader?” spiffy asked over the roar of gunfire. “Well...” Visionary began uncomfortably. “I, ah... have a confession to make...” he cleared his throat. “I’m not really Jarvis.” The rest of them just looked at him. “Aw, crud-puppies.” Space Ghost said. “Jarvis went loopy.” “I did not!” Visionary declared indignantly. “I mean... he did not. At least, not that I know of...” he gave an irritated sigh. “Look, what I’m trying to say is that Jarvis and I switched bodies early yesterday morning... I’m really Visionary.” The rest of them just looked at him. “I liked it better when you were just loopy.” Space Ghost informed him. “Ouch... that had to hurt.” Lisa said, watching CNN’s live coverage of the fight. “You know, Banjooo told him not to be late for ‘Saving...” “F-f-for... His... gl-l-lory...!” the battered formerly disgruntled elf asserted again, interrupting her. He pulled a rather small handgun on her this time. “Safety’s on” Lisa informed him. “Oh! Er... thanks.” Zebulon answered, carefully flipping the handgun’s switch to its operating position. “Is that better?” “Much” Lisa answered. She pushed a button on the communications console. “Did you find it yet, Tina?” “I think so” she answered over the comm-link. “It was down in the lab. Here... does this help?” There was the sound of something metallic being smashed. “FRAZ-ZUR-UR-URK!!!” Zebulon insisted forcefully as his body convulsed briefly before he collapsed. He lay there in a very jittery state of unconsciousness. “That certainly did something” Lisa informed her psychic friend. “Any idea what it was?” “Some kind of psionic relay” Tina answered. “Someone was using it to boost his hold on Zebulon’s mind from long-distance.” Lisa grinned. “Any chance of tracing the signal back to the source?” “I’m way ahead of you” Tina answered smugly. “Who’s driving?” Visionary |
| Mob Rules, part 7 (Visionary) (21-Sep-1999 11:25:43) |
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