Spanner Chapter 18: White Riot in the Streets (Final Revision)

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Chaos Angel Spanner — Book 1: Rock City Blues
Chapter 18: White Riot in the Streets (Final Revision)

In the aftermath of the Socialist Revolutionary Organization’s bombing that killed Seattle’s scandalous new Party chief, the Conservative Revolutionaries riot throughout the city. Ambitious Party leaders turn it into a deadly manifestation of Tournament in a battle royal to succeed the slain leader; Party militants use it to crusade against the food riots already ongoing; street criminals use it as the perfect excuse to launch a crime wave.

Shira’s twin sister Kira, long thought killed in the Conservative Revolution, has returned, but Dr. Hiram Whistler finds himself forced to use the latest experimental version of his notorious Whistler Process to keep their powers from killing them. But they survive, and Kira returns home to an ecstatic reunion with the family and friends who thought her dead.

Then the celebrity assassins of the reality TV show called TerrorVision invade Bangor High...

Chaos ensues yet again.

Table of Contents:

1. Rage Against the People (September 19, 2011, Final Revision 3/4/13)
2. Lost Girl Homecoming (September 20, 2011, Final Revision 3/5/13)
3. No Enemies to the Right (September 21, 2011, Final Revision 3/6/13)
4. TerrorVision (The School Invasions Part III) (September 22, 2011, Final Revision 3/7/13)
5. Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas (September 23, 2011, Final Revision 3/8/13)
6. Permanent Riot (September 24, 2011, Final Revision 3/9/13)

Few scenes have actually been preserved from the Second Revision; most of them have instead been replaced by new and Project Notebook scenes better fitting the title. The entire KCUF News sequence is now in Chapter 19, replaced by a new “hitman reality show” sequence incorporating several of the best scenes I wrote as scenarios for the Project Notebooks and now tied into Fourth Revision continuity.

The original Revision 2 section titles: “Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich” (18.1), “Fight Club City Smashers” (18.2), “Rage Against the People” (18.3), “All State Lockdown” (18.4), “Knife in the Back” (18.5), “Chaos out of Order” (18.6). From the Project Notebooks: the Whistler Process (18.1), the hitman reality show (18.4-6), the Patriot attack on the school (18.4), the Yakuza hitman Slice (18.4-5), killer cyborgs Chainsaw and the Gat, Barney SATAN!’s headless rampage (18.5), and the final Shira-Debbie scene at the climax of 18.6. Originally written for Book 2: the interrupted-rape sequence and accompanying flashback in 18.3, and the return of Kira. There is no Third Revision version.

The original Revision 1 and 2 chapter introductions and revision notes:

First Revision Introduction: The reckoning is getting closer. Hope and Karen take their proper place in the heart of the action. (Requiring, of course, that I retcon them back into earlier chapters. But not now...) The villains show their power, yet pull their punches; right now they intend to intimidate, not exterminate. And at last, Bart Green and his Valiant Team throw their Team Challenge out to Team Bremelo [a scene now in Chapter 20].

The time is coming closer. The day of reckoning approaches for Governor Brinkman, Admiral Fleer, Mayor Everson, and Police Chief Becket. They control all the guns, thanks to the Neo-Confederate police of gun control. But the amorphous opposition have weapons of their own, weapons that do not kill, yet destroy. Weapons like popular discontent and the Law of Plausible Deniability. And, as Shira and Jennifer explain, the Old Confederacy was a lost cause because of the ruling slavelord élite’s contempt for the masses led them to lose it to the capitalist-led North. If there’s any ideal that’s pie-in-the-sky, it’s Synarchy [secretive oligarchic dictatorship worshipped as the Ideal].

First Revision Notes: Scenarios from the Project Notebooks of the early ’00s: the redneck gang attack, Shira’s Go-Yo, the Team Challenge (now in its final form) [but now in Chapter 20], Shira's duel with Bart [ditto], her continuing chess game with Dr. Becket, and the Moravec Plan.

The disaster is snowballing. The horror unfolds, but you can’t avert your eyes...

Second Revision Introduction: Suddenly, the Corporate rulers of Cascadia find themselves confronted with the desperate poor rioting for food. But then amoral Corporate youth, starting with a certain high-school fight club, decide to take advantage by having themselves a looting party. Then ethnic gangsters decide they want to loot them, and fight club battles engulf the city. COPCO tries to suppress the fights. The National Guard tries to suppress the fights. The price of the Cascadia Public Management Corporation stock goes down. And the Fearsome Foursome try to overthrow each other...

And Spanner encourages them.

Second Revision Update: As the plot was already imploding at this point in the First Revision (which is why I neither finished nor posted Chapters 22 and 23 [until late 2012]), I’ve decided to write an entirely new chapter under the old name. Parts of the old chapter have been relocated to Chapters 19-21, where they now fit better. And so most of the original introduction is now inaccurate. However, three of the Project Notebook scenarios listed below (the Moral Enforcer attack in 18.4, the introduction of the Moravec Plan in 18.5, and the continuing chess game, none of which made it into the original chapter) are now restored.

To get some of the background behind this chapter, this blog post (not mine) will give you a quick introduction.

Chapter 19 →

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Copyright © 2013 Dennis Jernberg. Some rights reserved.