And so the one week's break I planned to take was broken, and I did not take it, so now I'm editing Spanner Chapter 1 instead. This time I'm taking my time, since I no longer have a regular posting schedule to worry about and the muse threw at me some great ideas I dare not ignore.
First of all, there's Elle, the background character I fell in love with while editing Chapters 22 and 23 for Revision 4. I realized she's a much better fit than Karen for Chapter 1, so now she's replacing Karen altogether. Where Karen's handle in the flashback sequence was "Genki Girl" (which I settled on while in one of my "closet raver" phases when spinning out scenarios for the Project Notebooks between 1998 and 2001), Elle "takes a handle only a Rocker could understand: Whatsername." You probably already know where it comes from, but I'm setting up a running joke. She now has a full name: Eleanor Kayla Shears: Eleanor after her great-grandmother Eleanor (Nelly) Richter (who for some reason never even made it into Book 1), Shears as in Billy (yes, the guy who was Paul when Paul was dead is her great-grandfather, and he appears in Interlude 8).
Second, I changed the character of Jim Sparks the rogue cop to make him a villain in the first two chapters so I could give him a stronger character arc. Among the Team Spanner heroes, I replaced him with a gung-ho anarchist hoverboarder who races under the handle "Blackflag" and dates the precocious Elle. I'll spoil his fate: just as Neal Stephenson killed off the Cyberpunk Hero in the first chapter of The Diamond Age, this guy's the Shounen Hero I kill off at the end of Spanner Chapter 1. Elle will cry for him (in Chapter 2 and later), but Shira will regain sole possession of the protagonist role. Sparks is my Cyberpunk Hero (named after Akira's Kaneda, even), but he never becomes the protagonist and in fact is pretty much a pinball in Shira's game.
Third, I'm finding a whole lot of places to put references to later themes and plot threads that didn't even exist in my mind at the time. For example, Elle's decision to take the handle Whatsername foreshadows the women with no name at all who first appear in Chapter 12 and whom Leila joins in Chapter 13. For that matter, Elle herself may decide to go nameless eventually, but in Book 2. I also found more places to fit mentions of Kira, and so on.
In the "kill your darlings" department, I decided to remove Jennifer's rant about Ayn Rand and serial-killer fandom from the airplane scene. Sure, it sets up her later stint with the Slasher Hunters, but it stands out a bit too much from that scene. Instead, I had Jennifer and Elle react more emotionally when Shira informed them about her battle with Oliver, possessor of the Travelling Shovel of Death from whom she stole Leila's power crystal. I'll fit that now orphaned snippet of dialogue somewhere into Chapter 2, 3, or 4, since it's still important.
I even found both dialogue and narrative passages to condense. I thought I'd gotten them all by the last of who knows how many Chapter 1 edits in February and March of last year, but no. Turns out Chapter 1 wasn't as perfect as I thought. But doesn't it always turn out that way?
And so the final edit begins...
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
On Spanner Book 1: Thoughts on the Fourth Revision, Plans for the Fifth
I began the Herculean labor that was the Fourth Revision of Spanner Book 1 back in February 2012, jumping the gun on NaNoEdMo that year. It's now April 2013, almost a full month after this year's EdMo ended, and it still seems hard for me to believe I just finished. It proved to be the toughest part of the job, much more difficult than merely writing it. It got even tougher once I got past Chapter 10, where the third draft ended; in places, the fourth draft became a whole lot different from the second, especially when I got toward the end (which was admittedly quite weak in the second draft).
Well, it's done now, and it's much closer to what I want despite all the crazy new ideas my delirious and overworked muse threw in (pretty girls without names, anyone?). Where previous versions were the equivalent of alpha software, this is the beta. The Fifth Revision will be the equivalent of bugfixes.
Before I finally unleash the ebook edition, there's a few more changes I want to make in one final one-pass edit. First, there's the central love arc, which revolves around Shira and Leila but isn't limited to just them. Still, I need to strengthen it so you can feel the full sublime and destructive force of their love from the moment each first appears separately in Chapter 1 until the final poetic stanza, for it's the story's driving force, the irresistible force flinging itself at the immovable object that is the Conservative Revolution. Second, I'll need to strengthen the forces of resistance: Jennifer (a relatively minor opponent, and only in the relationship line), who tries in vain to keep Shira with her and away from Leila and then throws herself into relationships with two other girls only to return to Shira in the end and make the core couple a threesome; Governor Brinkman, her grandfather and clan patriarch, who insists on marrying her off in order to form a political alliance between clans that eventually fails; Oliver, the one she's being married off to, who finds his "Intended" in the arms of another woman, who proves too dangerous an opponent; and the entire school establishment at Bangor High, to whom their love is as dangerous a political threat as the Student Union.
Beyond the relationship arc, there's the School Arc of Chapters 5-21. In Chapter 4, when the Teachers Guild dissidents and Student Union organizers first meet, I need to set up the two sides of the conflict more strongly. We need to get a sense of the kind of threat Peter T. Ross is even before he first shows up in Chapter 6. I have him described as a hedge fund manager who raises horses for the rich on the side. However, financiers have a heroic and magical aura in this series, one I'm playing up for Ross in particular in Chapter 25 (in Book 2), and they find the source of their heroism in Ayn Rand (though Rand herself would have scorned them as unproductive parasites leeching off actually productive companies, a lower form of business type than even her politically connected but still productive villain Orren Boyle). His appearances in the office behind the principal's at Bangor High in Chapters 6 and 21 are the epiphanies of a god descending to earth. Another major player who needs played up more is Henry Becket, particularly after Chapter 15 when his superhero team take over the Party.
There's a few other characters I want to give a more prominent role. Chief among them is Elle, who didn't fully emerge as a character until Chapter 22, after which I fell in love with her. I realized she makes a better player in Chapter 1's Spanner Incident than Karen does. As for Karen, I need to make her more prominent in the Student Union plot thread so as to justify her near-martyrdom in Chapter 19 and the ensuing Team Challenge in Chapter 20.
There's some other things I need to change. Some of the characters need to talk more British, including the Canadian, Australian, and Irish characters; and the Rockers should use a lot more British street language than they currently do. Some of the narration should be less journalistic and more poetic, or vice versa. There's still a bit of filler. And there's the formatting and stylesheet experiments I "pulled my punches" on in Chapter 23 R4 that I'm going to "supercharge" in R5, in not just Chapter 23 but 15 and 22 as well.
This edit will take nowhere near as long as Revision 4 did. After all, I was still throwing in all kinds of new stuff, up to and including the kitchen sink (or, more perversely, the bathroom one). I'm done with the big edit. The rest is just fixing and fine-tuning. And just like last February, I'm impatient to start.
Well, it's done now, and it's much closer to what I want despite all the crazy new ideas my delirious and overworked muse threw in (pretty girls without names, anyone?). Where previous versions were the equivalent of alpha software, this is the beta. The Fifth Revision will be the equivalent of bugfixes.
Before I finally unleash the ebook edition, there's a few more changes I want to make in one final one-pass edit. First, there's the central love arc, which revolves around Shira and Leila but isn't limited to just them. Still, I need to strengthen it so you can feel the full sublime and destructive force of their love from the moment each first appears separately in Chapter 1 until the final poetic stanza, for it's the story's driving force, the irresistible force flinging itself at the immovable object that is the Conservative Revolution. Second, I'll need to strengthen the forces of resistance: Jennifer (a relatively minor opponent, and only in the relationship line), who tries in vain to keep Shira with her and away from Leila and then throws herself into relationships with two other girls only to return to Shira in the end and make the core couple a threesome; Governor Brinkman, her grandfather and clan patriarch, who insists on marrying her off in order to form a political alliance between clans that eventually fails; Oliver, the one she's being married off to, who finds his "Intended" in the arms of another woman, who proves too dangerous an opponent; and the entire school establishment at Bangor High, to whom their love is as dangerous a political threat as the Student Union.
Beyond the relationship arc, there's the School Arc of Chapters 5-21. In Chapter 4, when the Teachers Guild dissidents and Student Union organizers first meet, I need to set up the two sides of the conflict more strongly. We need to get a sense of the kind of threat Peter T. Ross is even before he first shows up in Chapter 6. I have him described as a hedge fund manager who raises horses for the rich on the side. However, financiers have a heroic and magical aura in this series, one I'm playing up for Ross in particular in Chapter 25 (in Book 2), and they find the source of their heroism in Ayn Rand (though Rand herself would have scorned them as unproductive parasites leeching off actually productive companies, a lower form of business type than even her politically connected but still productive villain Orren Boyle). His appearances in the office behind the principal's at Bangor High in Chapters 6 and 21 are the epiphanies of a god descending to earth. Another major player who needs played up more is Henry Becket, particularly after Chapter 15 when his superhero team take over the Party.
There's a few other characters I want to give a more prominent role. Chief among them is Elle, who didn't fully emerge as a character until Chapter 22, after which I fell in love with her. I realized she makes a better player in Chapter 1's Spanner Incident than Karen does. As for Karen, I need to make her more prominent in the Student Union plot thread so as to justify her near-martyrdom in Chapter 19 and the ensuing Team Challenge in Chapter 20.
There's some other things I need to change. Some of the characters need to talk more British, including the Canadian, Australian, and Irish characters; and the Rockers should use a lot more British street language than they currently do. Some of the narration should be less journalistic and more poetic, or vice versa. There's still a bit of filler. And there's the formatting and stylesheet experiments I "pulled my punches" on in Chapter 23 R4 that I'm going to "supercharge" in R5, in not just Chapter 23 but 15 and 22 as well.
This edit will take nowhere near as long as Revision 4 did. After all, I was still throwing in all kinds of new stuff, up to and including the kitchen sink (or, more perversely, the bathroom one). I'm done with the big edit. The rest is just fixing and fine-tuning. And just like last February, I'm impatient to start.
Spanner Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites (Final Revision)
← Chapter 22
Election day, 2014. It was not supposed to happen. The Conservative Revolution was supposed to have liberated America from politics. Governor J. Walter Brinkman, Chairman of the Cascadia Public Management Corporation that owns the government of the state of Cascadia, said so himself.
It’s happening despite his most desperate efforts. Furthermore, what was originally intended to be a high-school anti-bullying rally has exploded into a statewide general strike that threatens to spread throughout the American Empire and beyond.
His solution: destroy Cascadia. Some of the Empire’s strongest supers will do whatever it takes to stop him — especially his granddaughter who erased her name and her lesbian lover Shira Thomas, who came into their powers one month ago and killed King Patriot...
Table of Contents:
For the Fourth Revision, I have made massive changes from the Revision 2 version and even the Revision 3 plan. Many scenes have been not only massively revised for the new continuity, but severely condensed. All song lyrics and some entire plot threads have been entirely removed, while new threads have been added, including a massive multi-character super-battle that acts as a direct sequel to Chapter 23. The entire chapter now takes place on a single day: November 4, 2014.
Original R2 section titles: “Settle for Nothing” (23.1), “Spanner Q&A” (23.2), “No Time This Time” (23.3), “Vote Early, Vote Often” (23.4), “The Fuses Have Been Lit” (23.5), and “I Am the Future” (23.6). The Revision 1 version was never completed; there is no Revision 3 version.
As there are no revision notes for previous versions, here’s the Second Revision introduction:
to be continued...
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...
Chaos Angel Spanner — Book 1: Rock City Blues
Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites (Final Revision)
Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites (Final Revision)
Election day, 2014. It was not supposed to happen. The Conservative Revolution was supposed to have liberated America from politics. Governor J. Walter Brinkman, Chairman of the Cascadia Public Management Corporation that owns the government of the state of Cascadia, said so himself.
It’s happening despite his most desperate efforts. Furthermore, what was originally intended to be a high-school anti-bullying rally has exploded into a statewide general strike that threatens to spread throughout the American Empire and beyond.
His solution: destroy Cascadia. Some of the Empire’s strongest supers will do whatever it takes to stop him — especially his granddaughter who erased her name and her lesbian lover Shira Thomas, who came into their powers one month ago and killed King Patriot...
The end begins here.
Table of Contents:
- Welcome to My Revolution (October 20, 2011, Final Revision 4/15/13)
- Warriors of Rock (October 21, 2011, Final Revision 4/19/13)
- The Television Will Be Revolutionized (October 22, 2011, Final Revision 4/21/13)
- Burn the Polls, Ye Sons of Freedom (October 23, 2011, Final Revision 4/22/13)
- The Fuses Have Been Lit (October 24, 2011, Final Revision 4/23/13)
- I Am the Future (October 25, 2011, Final Revision 4/24/13)
- Interlude 14: The Crisis (May 2, 2013)
- 24.1: School’s Out Forever (The School Invasions Part V) (May 9, 2013)
For the Fourth Revision, I have made massive changes from the Revision 2 version and even the Revision 3 plan. Many scenes have been not only massively revised for the new continuity, but severely condensed. All song lyrics and some entire plot threads have been entirely removed, while new threads have been added, including a massive multi-character super-battle that acts as a direct sequel to Chapter 23. The entire chapter now takes place on a single day: November 4, 2014.
Original R2 section titles: “Settle for Nothing” (23.1), “Spanner Q&A” (23.2), “No Time This Time” (23.3), “Vote Early, Vote Often” (23.4), “The Fuses Have Been Lit” (23.5), and “I Am the Future” (23.6). The Revision 1 version was never completed; there is no Revision 3 version.
As there are no revision notes for previous versions, here’s the Second Revision introduction:
At last! After ten months’ delay, Chapter 23 is finally being posted, and Spanner Book 1 is finished at last! And so we come full circle, with the Conservative Revolution facing its first real Populist threat since it saved the American Empire from democracy. Spanner throws himself into the works and even holds a press conference, while the Wrecking Krewe and the rest of Team Spanner pit their souped-up boom trucks to cancel out the Fearsome Foursome’s helicopter-mounted giant sound cannons as the crowds battling the authorities below attempt to turn Brinkman’s sham plebiscite into a real election. And of course the Man declares war against the People and tries to force them back into slavery. For the threat of equality promises the end of sovereign freedom, the divine right of oligarchs. And when the victims withdraw their sanction, the predators perish...
The balance of power in Cascadia is shifting. Nothing will be the same after this. As for Byron Scofield, fanatical Prophet of the Church of America: he has decided that the time for tolerance has ended, and the time for war is now...
And so the stage is set for Book 2, Rage of the Prophets [final title: Love Terrorists], which contains some of my strangest and most interesting plots and characters (particularly villains). Book 1 was just the intro. Now it’s time for the Author to bring his A game. Now we get serious.
to be continued...
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Spanner 23.6: I Am the Future
← ...from previous
Karen kisses her cheek. “I knew all along.”
“What—”
“We have a lot of enemies, and a lot of friends. I almost gave up, but Shira said, let’s bet on the people.”
“Sounds like her!” Mimi, Trishie, and Ruthie join them, and the four girls group-hug their bravest friend.
westlake plaza. Ariel, Taylor, and Melody carefully carry down six exhausted young women on their Repulse fields, naked and sweat-drenched and caught on the border between waking and dreams, into a main city square packed with dancing cheering strikers celebrating their unexpected victory over CPMC. Melody directs the others toward their friends from Bangor High: Student Union leaders Colette, Kio, Courtney, Lorelei, Lorine, and Doug; teachers Sylvia Plame, Yasmin Khoury, Eugene Fletcher, and Ada Paulette; and librarians Sally Hatfield, Kitty Carlisle, and Chrissy Jordan. They scream and sigh, relieved their friends didn’t die in the battle against the superheroes above; they welcome them with arms raised high to receive them. Even before she reaches the ground, even in her half-conscious delirium, Jennifer thinks aloud: “I need to invent some way to beat those guys together... wait, I can’t just do it myself, we need to open-source it so everybody can put their minds to it... yeah, just like science...”
But then the cheering and dancing stop. Everyone looks up and falls silent. Hovering above them, battle-ravaged cape fluttering in the wind, is the Scarab, looking down upon his enemy the people with a terrifying murderous stare that eventually settles on Shira. He tells her telepathically, I hope you’re pleased with yourself, angel of chaos.
I’m not the kind of Player in it for personal glory, god man. You can’t win, but we can still lose.
I told your sister you can only win against them, but she would not listen to me either. Their time is past. They have no future. Neither do you if you choose to go down with them.
Why do you keep prematurely proclaiming victory? Is that an Ego thing? She gives him a beautiful smile. He does not answer.
Ariel, smiling sweetly, seemingly no worse for wear, clutching the briefcase containing the Gospel of the New Genesis, rises up to meet the battle-weary World Patriarch. She tells him, No, you can’t have it, and I won’t leave until you do. The two powerful enemies stare each other down for an endless uncomfortable moment.
He does not respond even telepathically. Reluctantly he flies away to rejoin his Liberator comrades heading across the mountains. Satisfied that he will not return, Ariel lets the people celebrate their victory while they still can and flies off into the west.
“Shutting down your company,” he calmly replies. “Clearly it’s failed.”
The Investors stand up, stare sadly at Brinkman, and turn to leave for their helicopters. “Wait a minute! What are you guys doing?”
The assembled High Corporates stare him down without blinking. Mr. Bhawal says, “We put our trust in you, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Xi says, “We trusted you to suppress the rabble so as to create a stable market for high-end investment, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Antonov says, “However, Mr. Brinkman, instead of disowning a certain rebellious teenager, you created another Spanner Incident.” Mr. Galvez says, “Now you, Mr. Brinkman, have proved you cannot keep the rabble sufficiently in line to keep your property stable.” Mr. Zhi says, “We cannot hedge against instability when you cannot prevent instability on your own property, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Seon says, “We are confident Mr. Bloomberg has reversed Mr. Trump’s failure, whereas you have not, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Vronsky says, “Goodbye, Mr. Brinkman.” And the High Corporates who once kept CPMC stock high leave; on their way to their helicopters, they call their brokers to short-sell.
Martin Becket glares at his cousin. “Walter, you damned fool. You should have disowned the emo little whore and let her ditch her name. Now look what you’ve done. Enjoy being eaten alive... Wally.” On his way out, he takes a moment to glare at Will, who stares back calmly.
Will and Trista enter at last. Brinkman looks at Trista and says to Will, “You lucky piece of shit.”
Will’s ice-blue eyes twinkle. “The word is...” He leans into his cousin and smiles. “...deserving.”
On the monitor behind them, the news channels breathlessly report the collapse of Cascadian real estate prices.
shira’s apartment. They find themselves assaulted by overjoyed hackers at the door. Their favorite Pizza Mafia pizzas await them on the coffee table behind. After pizza, cola, and cake, they take turns in the shower. They’re in no condition to talk after their first real superpower battle, so they call it a night and cuddle together: Shira, Kira, Jennifer, Elle, and the girl with the violet eyes in Shira’s bed; Charlie, Desiree, and their two daughters in the guest room.
“Leave ’em alone for now,” says Hope. “They need the rest. Right now, let’s get ourselves ready for round two.”
And the heart of the city continues to beat. And its urban intelligence, the one known as Em, smiles upon the city and the people who are its life.
technosphere. They are the only ones present, standing on the checkerboard floor in a dark and empty virtual arena, superhero and nudefighter facing each other in superpowered Mexican standoff, mighty arms folded on his mighty chest, gloved hands planted on the smooth curve of her hips, war in his masked eyes, mischief on her unpainted lips. “You’ll never get away with such villainy, angel of chaos,“ the superhero proclaims, cape fluttering like a flag in the silent virtual wind. ”I, the American Crusader, shall make justice prevail.”
“Yet your superhero name is the ancient byword for villainy,” Aya Shibata replies. “The Proletarian called you the villain all the while you were killing him. Why do you keep fighting for his ideal?”
“The world needs a hero. I am the only one standing between the world and those who would destroy it.”
“You are the way, the truth, and the life? You are the dead hand of the past burying the world alive. I am the future.”
“You cannot win, Spanner.”
“You have already lost, hero. Checkmate.” And with a wink and a flash of light, Shira Thomas is gone, leaving Henry Becket alone in an empty world.
to be continued...
Back to Chapter 23 index...
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...
[Revision 4 Final, 4/20/13: R2 scenes heavily edited to fit Final Revision continuity; some scenes condensed, others expanded. New scenes added to complete some plot threads and continue others into Book 2. Revision 4.0.1: corrected one character error.]
Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites
Part 6: I Am the Future (Final Revision)
Part 6: I Am the Future (Final Revision)
downtown bremerton. Sitting with her family in her wheelchair at a table at the edge of Harborside Plaza overlooking the boardwalk, Karen is shocked to find herself hailed as a hometown hero. Saffron pulls her younger sister to her feet and holds her tight, screaming and sobbing in joy; brothers Shin and Sage make it a dancing group hug. Back in her wheelchair, a stunned Polly puts her arms around her. “I had no idea it would get this big...”Nameless Reporter: Almost all the votes have been phoned, texted, emailed, and web-polled in, and now it’s official: 28% in favor of CPMC, 82% voting no-confidence. Better yet, CPMC stock’s falling through the floor!Brinkman: There was no vote! It never happened! There’s only one vote in this state, and it’s mine! I’m the chairman, CEO, and sole owner of this corporation, and... and...Hope Reston: I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the sacrifices you've made, giving up careers and families and sometimes even your lives, to take back our rights and freedom. All credit belongs to you alone. Democracy is our freedom. Democracy is our strength. Long live the people of Cascadia! As long as all of us work together to fight for our freedom and help those who are most in need, the System cannot prevail.Spanner: Do you see the cracks in the castle walls, in the foundation? Corporatism built the citadel of American Empire out of bigotry, power lust, greed, and corruption, on a foundation made from the pure quicksand of evasion and lies. But never let yourselves get complacent. Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile. They have already begun rebuilding. Not only is the fight not over, it’s hardly even begun.debBot: Look at all those state flags down there, daveBot! Where’s the American flags? Do they have it in for America?
Karen kisses her cheek. “I knew all along.”
“What—”
“We have a lot of enemies, and a lot of friends. I almost gave up, but Shira said, let’s bet on the people.”
“Sounds like her!” Mimi, Trishie, and Ruthie join them, and the four girls group-hug their bravest friend.
Six dreamers in a psychedelic borderworld more vivid than normal dreamspace find themselves surrounded by enraged spirits taller than the sky. Jennifer says, “These are the Egos of the Party leadership.”
“We’re gods too,” says the girl with the violet eyes. “They cannot hurt us here.”
“If they try,” says Shira, “they’ll only hurt themselves.”
Kira directs them toward the portal out. “We can’t stay here. People need us.” They redirect their flight toward the portal and through it back into the real world.
“We’re gods too,” says the girl with the violet eyes. “They cannot hurt us here.”
“If they try,” says Shira, “they’ll only hurt themselves.”
Kira directs them toward the portal out. “We can’t stay here. People need us.” They redirect their flight toward the portal and through it back into the real world.
westlake plaza. Ariel, Taylor, and Melody carefully carry down six exhausted young women on their Repulse fields, naked and sweat-drenched and caught on the border between waking and dreams, into a main city square packed with dancing cheering strikers celebrating their unexpected victory over CPMC. Melody directs the others toward their friends from Bangor High: Student Union leaders Colette, Kio, Courtney, Lorelei, Lorine, and Doug; teachers Sylvia Plame, Yasmin Khoury, Eugene Fletcher, and Ada Paulette; and librarians Sally Hatfield, Kitty Carlisle, and Chrissy Jordan. They scream and sigh, relieved their friends didn’t die in the battle against the superheroes above; they welcome them with arms raised high to receive them. Even before she reaches the ground, even in her half-conscious delirium, Jennifer thinks aloud: “I need to invent some way to beat those guys together... wait, I can’t just do it myself, we need to open-source it so everybody can put their minds to it... yeah, just like science...”
But then the cheering and dancing stop. Everyone looks up and falls silent. Hovering above them, battle-ravaged cape fluttering in the wind, is the Scarab, looking down upon his enemy the people with a terrifying murderous stare that eventually settles on Shira. He tells her telepathically, I hope you’re pleased with yourself, angel of chaos.
I’m not the kind of Player in it for personal glory, god man. You can’t win, but we can still lose.
I told your sister you can only win against them, but she would not listen to me either. Their time is past. They have no future. Neither do you if you choose to go down with them.
Why do you keep prematurely proclaiming victory? Is that an Ego thing? She gives him a beautiful smile. He does not answer.
Ariel, smiling sweetly, seemingly no worse for wear, clutching the briefcase containing the Gospel of the New Genesis, rises up to meet the battle-weary World Patriarch. She tells him, No, you can’t have it, and I won’t leave until you do. The two powerful enemies stare each other down for an endless uncomfortable moment.
He does not respond even telepathically. Reluctantly he flies away to rejoin his Liberator comrades heading across the mountains. Satisfied that he will not return, Ariel lets the people celebrate their victory while they still can and flies off into the west.
cpmc headquarters. The boardroom doors open. He is there in his dress blues, tall handsome and intimidating: Commander Will Becket. The beautiful companion sporting long curly brown hair and an elegant sky-blue coatdress is his wife and conscience, Dr. Trista McLendon. Brinkman gasps, “Will! What the hell are you doing here?”Nameless Reporter: CPMC stock has collapsed! The New York Stock Exchange has just announced its intention to delist it along with COPCO...Brinkman: (trembling, growling) You fucking parasites, we’ll take back our rightful wealth and dominion God promised to us and you stole from us. We shall not forgive.
“Shutting down your company,” he calmly replies. “Clearly it’s failed.”
The Investors stand up, stare sadly at Brinkman, and turn to leave for their helicopters. “Wait a minute! What are you guys doing?”
The assembled High Corporates stare him down without blinking. Mr. Bhawal says, “We put our trust in you, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Xi says, “We trusted you to suppress the rabble so as to create a stable market for high-end investment, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Antonov says, “However, Mr. Brinkman, instead of disowning a certain rebellious teenager, you created another Spanner Incident.” Mr. Galvez says, “Now you, Mr. Brinkman, have proved you cannot keep the rabble sufficiently in line to keep your property stable.” Mr. Zhi says, “We cannot hedge against instability when you cannot prevent instability on your own property, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Seon says, “We are confident Mr. Bloomberg has reversed Mr. Trump’s failure, whereas you have not, Mr. Brinkman.” Mr. Vronsky says, “Goodbye, Mr. Brinkman.” And the High Corporates who once kept CPMC stock high leave; on their way to their helicopters, they call their brokers to short-sell.
Martin Becket glares at his cousin. “Walter, you damned fool. You should have disowned the emo little whore and let her ditch her name. Now look what you’ve done. Enjoy being eaten alive... Wally.” On his way out, he takes a moment to glare at Will, who stares back calmly.
Will and Trista enter at last. Brinkman looks at Trista and says to Will, “You lucky piece of shit.”
Will’s ice-blue eyes twinkle. “The word is...” He leans into his cousin and smiles. “...deserving.”
On the monitor behind them, the news channels breathlessly report the collapse of Cascadian real estate prices.
shira’s apartment. They find themselves assaulted by overjoyed hackers at the door. Their favorite Pizza Mafia pizzas await them on the coffee table behind. After pizza, cola, and cake, they take turns in the shower. They’re in no condition to talk after their first real superpower battle, so they call it a night and cuddle together: Shira, Kira, Jennifer, Elle, and the girl with the violet eyes in Shira’s bed; Charlie, Desiree, and their two daughters in the guest room.
“Leave ’em alone for now,” says Hope. “They need the rest. Right now, let’s get ourselves ready for round two.”
and in a bankruptcy sale the Wilder Foundation acquires a Capitol Hill loft building at shockingly low cost and a bright-eyed reporter with no name takes a brightly sunlit loft which she prepares for the arrival of her new companions:fallout
actions have consequences:
yet another heavily hedged and leveraged Owner bank snatches CPMC out of the greedy clutches of Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited and announces plans to resurrect them through the usual austerity nostrums using the same CEOCOPCO fires “One-Eye Jack” Becket as Seattle section chief and replaces him with not the compromised genius detective Locke Holmes (no administrator) but the overzealous South African, Michael CorsonAdmiral Reynard S. Currie, not impressed, announces his intention to use the United States Police Force, Bringing Home The War On Terror™, to restore the Revolutionary hierarchy to powerthe brought-back Lady Penner who lost a life over an iPod is released from Naval Hospital Bremerton only to find to her horror that not only is there no more Student Council but no Bangor High eitherOliver Thorwald leaves the resurrection facility alarmed to find his chosen princess Christian Becket Fleer, pop-idol hitwoman Bunny Strakeljahn, and pet mad scientist Mina Tatsumi engaging in pitched battle royal over who possesses himRaylene Forster and Saxon Mobley wake up in new bodies of their own in Holy City, surrounded by their Liberator comrades in High Corporate dressDr. Jenna Hunter dissolves the Teachers Guild’s Seattle Local and declares her intention to reorganize the bankrupt SPEC around a series of commercially oriented “Cool Schools”Nolan Robson flees Cascadia for Arizona in the Kingdom of Texas as soon as he takes a new body (cursing Falconer even as he emerges) in order to take an executive position in the Prison-Industrial ComplexHope Maureen Reston finds herself named interim governor and will be greeted by a sea of green-white-and-blue state flags as soon as she moves to the governor’s mansion to carry out her plan to reorganize the government around the Worker Guilds’ successful rank-and-file strategyByron Scofield shoots Luke Everson between the eyes in the door of the Shepherd-Mayor’s Enumclaw mansion
plus the five-year-old girl who came with the loft, name of Flower, the daughter of a Corporate couple who used to have some difficult-to-pronounce Eastern European surname the Conservative Revolution changed to Omni-Consumer, not that she is old enough to recognize; and four cats relieved to be fed after a month of neglect by disdainful Corporate neighbours. Though Flower likes that her beautiful new adult friend likes to go naked in the house, she is shocked to find out she doesn’t have a name at all; the bright-eyed girl happily takes the opportunity to begin Flower’s education in the way of the anonymous beauties. Jennifer’s new lab waits for her to set it up to her liking. The building’s remaining Corporates either leave in a huff or get evicted. Hotel Bremelo waits for its Team to move in, inside the wounded heart of the city from which they draw their strength.a nameless teenage nude model with violet eyes and silky black hair now shoulder-length and the one with the highest-level superpowers;a fallen princess new to this freedom thing who exercises her family right to erase her family names and becomes comfortable wearing only a tiara;an eight-year-old girl so precocious she already erased her name (given by a gangster), child lover by force of will;her sweet cousin, the precocious twelve-year-old redheaded beauty;long-lost twin sister Kira Amanda Thomas;the shared love of their life, Shira Miranda Thomas, Governor Reston’s point woman and youngest daughterand her adoring K-9, Catalina
And the heart of the city continues to beat. And its urban intelligence, the one known as Em, smiles upon the city and the people who are its life.
technosphere. They are the only ones present, standing on the checkerboard floor in a dark and empty virtual arena, superhero and nudefighter facing each other in superpowered Mexican standoff, mighty arms folded on his mighty chest, gloved hands planted on the smooth curve of her hips, war in his masked eyes, mischief on her unpainted lips. “You’ll never get away with such villainy, angel of chaos,“ the superhero proclaims, cape fluttering like a flag in the silent virtual wind. ”I, the American Crusader, shall make justice prevail.”
“Yet your superhero name is the ancient byword for villainy,” Aya Shibata replies. “The Proletarian called you the villain all the while you were killing him. Why do you keep fighting for his ideal?”
“The world needs a hero. I am the only one standing between the world and those who would destroy it.”
“You are the way, the truth, and the life? You are the dead hand of the past burying the world alive. I am the future.”
“You cannot win, Spanner.”
“You have already lost, hero. Checkmate.” And with a wink and a flash of light, Shira Thomas is gone, leaving Henry Becket alone in an empty world.
The vision begins in chaos: a burning city, large crowds battling Imperial forces, flying drones committing mass murder, the screams of the Chosen — but the longer it runs, the clearer it gets, and all the combined visions focus increasingly on one man: from the moment he seized power after the death of his father, Henry Becket fails to save an empire that was dying long before he became its superheroic savior, and he collapses into madness, and into silence — and the darkness he dedicated his life to banishing forever, draws itself around him like a blanket of blackest night and consumes him.
And then the darkness dissipates, and the sun reappears — but the world has browned out, and only one forested oasis is left...
Braving the flickering shadows of her own darkness that bear away her name into oblivion, the girl with the violet eyes stands in the center of a grove of ancient cherry trees in full bloom, beautiful pale body bare, strong wind caught in her long black hair, shining sun caressing her with its warmth. The girl with cinnamon skin (which twin? both combined) flies down to her from the blue sky above, beautiful and nude, a demon descending on long bat wings matching her wild red hair. She lands before her and gives the command: “Suicide angel, stretch out your wings.” Slowly, sensuously, the black-haired girl stretches out her beautiful black angel wings. The wind caresses the soft feathers.
They pull each other into a lover’s embrace. They share a long, sensuous, increasingly violent kiss. Then they turn their faces to look into you, subtle smile on their faces, a twinkle in their eyes, speaking without need for words: if you do not understand, you have already lost.
They turn around and leave the ground, into the blue sky above; hearts entwined and powers combined, ready for one final job. Together they fly, willing to die, angel and devil in love; together they fly, into the sky, to heaven, where they will slay God.
end series one.
to be continued...
Back to Chapter 23 index...
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...
[Revision 4 Final, 4/20/13: R2 scenes heavily edited to fit Final Revision continuity; some scenes condensed, others expanded. New scenes added to complete some plot threads and continue others into Book 2. Revision 4.0.1: corrected one character error.]
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Spanner 23.5: The Fuses Have Been Lit
← ...from previous
The voice of the Chairman comes down from heaven, amplified by multiple military-industrial satellites. His feral growl reveals him to be closer to full werewolf transformation than he has ever allowed himself to be in front of a public his now intends to destroy.
The Party wants them to surrender and submit. They choose to join together peacefully. Together, some without consciously realizing it, they reject the authority of the all-powerful Conservative Revolutionary Party and all that it stands for.
Yet the Revolutionaries comprehend nothing. They perceive only the Threat From Below that threatens to destroy their carefully planned utopia. They think only of the profit rate falling ever faster toward zero, the System of Free Enterprise speeding toward the singularity. They feel the American Exceptionalism embodied in their Party slipping away. But Brinkman has taken their vengeance out of their hands. They slip to their knees and chant prayers to Jesus America, to Echelon and NORAD, and to the Great White Father who leads their Party. From the sky above Seattle, the Liberators look down appalled.
A million cameras continue to shoot video. Not wanting the professional hacks of the MSM to interpret their own experience for them, they narrate it as if they can pour out their hearts and souls onto the Darknet in the last five minutes of their lives. If they pray to a supernatural power, they pray to a Supreme Being beyond the comprehension of even the Nine-Principled God and his son Jesus America.
But Admiral Currie is not fazed. Enthusiastic as ever, he declares, “We’ve got it in the bag! The Revolution is saved!”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Brinkman grumbles. “I’ve got two daughters in the right position to ruin everything.”
He pats Brinkman’s back. “Nobody can stand up to Nuclear Power, comrade! Once our heavenly sword of justice cuts through your treasonous spawn like butter, we’ll crowd the sky with ’em and end the Communist threat for certain! Just have faith.”
Flying above the Seattle skyscrapers, Shira and Kira spin a double reality distortion field around themselves, their sisters, and their lovers, not so much as to hide them as to distort the images Echelon’s spysats are sending to the NORAD killsat’s aiming system. Jennifer asks, Do you really think we’ve got the power to pull this off?
The girl with the violet eyes flies into Shira’s arms. Shira replies, We killed King Patriot, didn’t we? Kira embraces Jennifer from behind, caresses her breasts, nibbles her ear; with so little time remaining, the three couples begin making furious love in mid-air. Down below, the Rockers aim their sound cannons at the mass distortion in the sky.
The Party censors allow the Great Firewall to keep the MSM channels blue. They don’t want any information to leak through.
Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites
Part 5: The Fuses Have Been Lit (Final Revision)
Part 5: The Fuses Have Been Lit (Final Revision)
The voice of the Chairman comes down from heaven, amplified by multiple military-industrial satellites. His feral growl reveals him to be closer to full werewolf transformation than he has ever allowed himself to be in front of a public his now intends to destroy.
Brinkman: Traitorous Commonist rabble of Cascadia! You have murdered your King instead of obeying him, and you have chosen to betray us in league with the Antichrist instead of fighting against his evil under our command! We fought our Revolution to save America’s sacred Manhood from you! Surrender unconditionally and prepare for punishment and penitence, or we will sentence you to eternal torment! You have five minutes!They stand together on the streets of the cities and towns below, arms linked together in solidarity, forced by the immortals who control the instrument of heavenly wrath to face their mortality and acknowledge their common humanity: Christians, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, Buddhists, unbelievers alike; student and worker, white and black, young and old, American and non-American, insufficiently rich to desperately poor, common mortals faced with sudden death and the realization that they are the enemy the Revolution means to destroy, they are the true target of World War IV. They thought they could force the Owners to give them an actual education or decent pay and working conditions; all they did was enrage a race of paranoid and implacable gods into genocide. For the first time since the death of socialism at the hands of Stalin, it dawns on a critical mass of unspecial ordinary people that the American Dream was always a lie, that to the small élite of Real Americans they have always been the Sons of Satan, and this is only the beginning of the rain of drones the Americans will be raining upon them from one end of the Empire to the other.
The Party wants them to surrender and submit. They choose to join together peacefully. Together, some without consciously realizing it, they reject the authority of the all-powerful Conservative Revolutionary Party and all that it stands for.
Yet the Revolutionaries comprehend nothing. They perceive only the Threat From Below that threatens to destroy their carefully planned utopia. They think only of the profit rate falling ever faster toward zero, the System of Free Enterprise speeding toward the singularity. They feel the American Exceptionalism embodied in their Party slipping away. But Brinkman has taken their vengeance out of their hands. They slip to their knees and chant prayers to Jesus America, to Echelon and NORAD, and to the Great White Father who leads their Party. From the sky above Seattle, the Liberators look down appalled.
A million cameras continue to shoot video. Not wanting the professional hacks of the MSM to interpret their own experience for them, they narrate it as if they can pour out their hearts and souls onto the Darknet in the last five minutes of their lives. If they pray to a supernatural power, they pray to a Supreme Being beyond the comprehension of even the Nine-Principled God and his son Jesus America.
But Admiral Currie is not fazed. Enthusiastic as ever, he declares, “We’ve got it in the bag! The Revolution is saved!”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Brinkman grumbles. “I’ve got two daughters in the right position to ruin everything.”
He pats Brinkman’s back. “Nobody can stand up to Nuclear Power, comrade! Once our heavenly sword of justice cuts through your treasonous spawn like butter, we’ll crowd the sky with ’em and end the Communist threat for certain! Just have faith.”
Flying above the Seattle skyscrapers, Shira and Kira spin a double reality distortion field around themselves, their sisters, and their lovers, not so much as to hide them as to distort the images Echelon’s spysats are sending to the NORAD killsat’s aiming system. Jennifer asks, Do you really think we’ve got the power to pull this off?
The girl with the violet eyes flies into Shira’s arms. Shira replies, We killed King Patriot, didn’t we? Kira embraces Jennifer from behind, caresses her breasts, nibbles her ear; with so little time remaining, the three couples begin making furious love in mid-air. Down below, the Rockers aim their sound cannons at the mass distortion in the sky.
The Party censors allow the Great Firewall to keep the MSM channels blue. They don’t want any information to leak through.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Introduction to a Dead Blog, or The Only Post on SpannerVision
Now that Twitter's shutting down Posterous, I'll never be able to post a second entry to the "SpannerVision" blog I had there, which I neglected because I was too busy actually writing and editing Spanner to draw anything. SpannerVision was to be my series-related image blog. It was the companion blog to my alternate main blog, where I put some of the entries linked on the Inside Spanner page. All those, and maybe some more, will be reposted here once I'm done posting Spanner Book 1.
Oh well, maybe I'll have to get that Tumblr account after all...
Welcome to my new blog where I'll be posting images (and eventually music and video) for my (currently a) webnovel Chaos Angel Spanner and its universe. I'll be posting character designs and other Spanner-related graphics here. Some of the images will be not safe for, well, Facebook, where all my relatives are...
At least this gives me an excuse to start drawing stuff for the manga idea I turned into a webnovel...
Oh well, maybe I'll have to get that Tumblr account after all...
Introducing SpannerVision
(originally posted on June 21, 2011)
Welcome to my new blog where I'll be posting images (and eventually music and video) for my (currently a) webnovel Chaos Angel Spanner and its universe. I'll be posting character designs and other Spanner-related graphics here. Some of the images will be not safe for, well, Facebook, where all my relatives are...
At least this gives me an excuse to start drawing stuff for the manga idea I turned into a webnovel...
Spanner R4 Update: More #amediting Needed on 23.5
Turns out Spanner 23.5 is the most incomplete section of Chapter 23, with the least number of Revision 2 or previous-chapter scenes that merely need editing. 23.6 is the most complete (or was when I started editing Chapter 23), so it's going to post the day after 23.5 regardless.
What's stymieing me this time? (Darling muse, I love you to pieces, but you don't get to take a break until the chapter's over.) By plan, this is the most abstract section in all of Book 1. I'm not so much editing it or even writing it from scratch; rather, I'm constructing it, and construction takes time.
Probably the first thing I'm going to do with the Revision 5 one-pass edit is rework the formatting of Echelon's lines. I kludged the CSS so I could get 23.2-4 posted quickly. 23.5 involves a lot of CSS hacking.
I'm working on 23.5 now, and I hope to get it posted tomorrow. If not, I'll let you know. But I'm finishing Chapter 23 and Book 1 no matter what. 23.5 will post.
What's stymieing me this time? (Darling muse, I love you to pieces, but you don't get to take a break until the chapter's over.) By plan, this is the most abstract section in all of Book 1. I'm not so much editing it or even writing it from scratch; rather, I'm constructing it, and construction takes time.
Probably the first thing I'm going to do with the Revision 5 one-pass edit is rework the formatting of Echelon's lines. I kludged the CSS so I could get 23.2-4 posted quickly. 23.5 involves a lot of CSS hacking.
I'm working on 23.5 now, and I hope to get it posted tomorrow. If not, I'll let you know. But I'm finishing Chapter 23 and Book 1 no matter what. 23.5 will post.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Spanner 23.4: Burn the Polls, Ye Sons of Freedom
← ...from previous
Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites
Part 4: Burn the Polls, Ye Sons of Freedom (Final Revision)
Part 4: Burn the Polls, Ye Sons of Freedom (Final Revision)
Brinkman: To our rebellious subjects: There is no election. You are not the government. The government is CPMC. The government is me! I alone am the Law! My word is the word of God! Obedience alone is of God. All rebellion is inspired by Satan. You will cease your Devil-inspired rebellion against God, or we shall be forced to destroy you all, to the man, root and branch.Suddenly a piratecast interrupts the official announcement: an eight-bit representation of the head of the Statue of Liberty replaces the blue screen, opening and closing her mouth in clockwork fashion; descending red, white, and blue gradients replace Spanner’s rainbow background, speaking in a cheery female computer voice.
Lady Liberty: Good morning, America! I’m Lady Liberty, and I’m here to remind y’all that if you don’t vote, you can’t be free.The computer image of Lady Liberty is replaced by a series of portraits of great American founders and leaders, mouths animated ventriloquist-dummy style.
Litton and the MSM corporate techs finally interrupt the real piratecast, but not before the damage has already been done. Governor Brinkman returns to the screen, angrier than ever, looking less human by the second, venting his sovereign wrath in an escalating rage that distorts his face. (Sparks: “He’s starting to look less human.” Shira: “Good. Then people will see what their owners really are.”)Thomas Jefferson: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...Thomas Paine: These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.Abraham Lincoln: Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable — a most sacred right — a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.Lady Liberty: So y’all better cast your votes and make ’em count! Let’s show ’em People Power! Let’s show ’em that America is We the People! Get off your duffs and make your votes count!
Brinkman: Y’all are traitors! Goddamn liberal commonist Muslim faggot nigger-lovers! I’ll kill you all! I’ll eat y’all alive! I’ve got nukes and y’all don’t! I’ll rip your—Brinkman’s face is replaced with a comic book image of the Wolf Man and the sound of a howling movie werewolf.
Lady Liberty: Not so fast, Fido!The eight-bit image of Spanner appears. This time the famous graffiti tag of badge-shield, crossed wrenches, and Old English “S” is superimposed on his faceplate.
Spanner: People of Cascadia: You are being faced with a choice. The Synarchy are throwing you a Challenge they think you can’t possibly win. Accept it and throw it in their faces. Is America truly the land of freedom and democracy, or a caliphate of corporations subjugating humanity to the cult of Mammon? The choice is yours alone. This is Tournament, and you are the fighters under Challenge. Go forth and win.Brinkman attempts to retake the airwaves as soon as the piratecast ends, but his cousin Martin Becket shoves him aside.
As the smoke and debris from destroyed battle copters dissipates, the strikers make another attempt to take the streets, only to be foiled by smoke and noise bombs thrown by young black-masked vigilantes, mostly male and driven by testosterone. One of them, presumably a leader, uses his phone as a microphone to speak through a hijacked city PA system:Martin Becket: The masked terrorist wants you to forget the evil in the heart of man. Democracy is not only impossible, it leads only to anarchy and chaos. America was founded to prevent democracy, by reserving power for an enlightened oligarchy. We have restored the proper order of things. The men whose virtue God has blessed with infinite wealth support our company’s virtue.Nameless Reporter: (looks at her phone, then at you) Major investors are showing their confidence in CPMC by driving its stock price to four times its previous high!Martin Becket: The Revolution does not need approval from the profane. God himself has already cast the only vote that counts.Nameless Reporter: (points at you) Remember, people, (raises her thumb) a vote for CPMC is (turns her thumb down) a vote against you.Brinkman: The bitch is full of shit!Martin Becket: No, she’s right. A vote against us is a vote against America. God doesn’t like that. (glares at you) Obey God!
Anarcho-terrorist: You pacifist wimps! You think you can destroy the System by marching? You’ve already committed mass suicide! You already surrendered to the Enemy! The only way to freedom is through blood, fire, and revolutionary violence! Burn the polls, ye sons of freedom!Jennifer leaps up and punches him out; the strikers cheer. She steals his phone.
Jennifer: Fine act of government those hotheads just pulled. Didn’t we just have your kind of revolution? They’re not anarchists at all!Listen, people: terrorism is government! The Man’s bullying you to prevent mass self-determination. What is anarchy? No leaders! Democracy without leaders. These terrorists only wanna replace those other terrorists. Don’t follow! Vote against CPMC, and these clowns too. Back to the strike!
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Spanner 23.3: The Television Will Be Revolutionized
← ...from previous
The new Conservative Revolutionary Party Central Committee, the Cold War superhero team known as the Liberators, have released an official statement.
“I fight this way. Wet skin’s hard to hold onto.”
Another says, “Hey, aren’t you one of those radical types who’s got a problem with God?”
Jennifer points upward. “Look up in the sky. There you’ll find God’s chosen, all nine of ’em, ready to pour down his wrath upon the unheroic masses. The real Party leader sits on Heaven’s throne, just so you know.” The MxPxies shy away from her and return to the march.
She hears another gasp. Saida Ibrahim tries to hide behind a local imam with skullcap and neatly trimmed beard. He approaches her and holds out his hand. “Are you the famous Blonde Phantom?”
“How do you know about me?”
“The angels praise you to the throne of God for rescuing innocent Muslims from the Takfiri heretics though you yourself were naked, starving, and in unbelief.”
She reluctantly shakes his hand. “Don’t you know that if they catch you with us, they’ll call this a Caliphate op and smash the city?”
“We too are ordinary people. But we bear the burden of knowing that the only way to liberate our people from the Caliphate is to restore the Empire to all people. True justice depends on it.”
She eyes him suspiciously. “What about the ‘smite the infidels’ part?”
“Look up in the sky. There you’ll find them.”
Saida runs into her arms and holds her tight. “I don’t hate you.”
Jennifer kisses her cheek. “I still love you. It’s just that too many innocent people are getting hurt, and it breaks my heart.” She holds Saida tight and cries with her.
Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites
Part 3: The Television Will Be Revolutionized (Final Revision)
Part 3: The Television Will Be Revolutionized (Final Revision)
i am the lord your god
The new Conservative Revolutionary Party Central Committee, the Cold War superhero team known as the Liberators, have released an official statement.
Naturally, their traditional enemy the Proletarian (the fourth; the Crusader duelled the second to the death in Vietnam) releases his rebuttal from his South American hideout, waving a small burning Imperial flag.The American Crusader: (Party Chairman Henry Becket) This insolent defiance cannot be tolerated.The Scarab: (Lord Richard Becket) Your rebellion threatens to unravel the fabric of reality in Heaven as on Earth.Liberty Belle: (Raylene Forster Becket) You’re destroying freedom!The Super Patriot: (Colonel Tom Becket) To obey your leaders is to obey God. To disobey your leaders is to obey Satan.The Nightwolf: (John Brinkman, Duke of Carolina) We are the chosen heroes of God.The Shape: (civilian identity classified) God raised us above you for a reason.The Streak: (Major “Speed” Thompson) God gifted us with power and not y’all!The Sphinx: (Drusilla Becket AMERICA!) You are defying God himself!Johnny Rebel: (Saxon Mobley) It’s Commonism!The American Crusader: We, the Liberators, shall preserve American Freedom by any means necessary.All: Freedom must prevail!
Jennifer is surprised to find the same MxPx fans Willa loves to complain about marching alongside the strikers and eagerly discussing certain anticapitalist New Testament verses the Party removed from the Book of America. One gasps at the sight of her. “What are you doing without your clothes on?”Proletarian: Freedom for their paymasters, slavery for the masses. It’s the American Way. USA.
“I fight this way. Wet skin’s hard to hold onto.”
Another says, “Hey, aren’t you one of those radical types who’s got a problem with God?”
Jennifer points upward. “Look up in the sky. There you’ll find God’s chosen, all nine of ’em, ready to pour down his wrath upon the unheroic masses. The real Party leader sits on Heaven’s throne, just so you know.” The MxPxies shy away from her and return to the march.
She hears another gasp. Saida Ibrahim tries to hide behind a local imam with skullcap and neatly trimmed beard. He approaches her and holds out his hand. “Are you the famous Blonde Phantom?”
“How do you know about me?”
“The angels praise you to the throne of God for rescuing innocent Muslims from the Takfiri heretics though you yourself were naked, starving, and in unbelief.”
She reluctantly shakes his hand. “Don’t you know that if they catch you with us, they’ll call this a Caliphate op and smash the city?”
“We too are ordinary people. But we bear the burden of knowing that the only way to liberate our people from the Caliphate is to restore the Empire to all people. True justice depends on it.”
She eyes him suspiciously. “What about the ‘smite the infidels’ part?”
“Look up in the sky. There you’ll find them.”
Saida runs into her arms and holds her tight. “I don’t hate you.”
Jennifer kisses her cheek. “I still love you. It’s just that too many innocent people are getting hurt, and it breaks my heart.” She holds Saida tight and cries with her.
Countless phonecams and AR scopes transmit the image of naked hoverboard girls rise on their lifters to the tune of “The Ride of the Valkyries,” ready to take on the black helicopters preparing to assault the people with weaponized Patriot Metal. Elle gives the cameras an enthusiastic thumbs-up and a wicked wink.Will: What the hell, they’re using black helicopters?Pilot: Stealing from their own conspiracy theory, eh?Will: No, it’s that they’re using helicopters. If Debbie’s gone rogue, it’ll be a massacre.
Shira: Up into the sky we go.Kira: To fight the invaders from Olympus!Radica: And earn our Achievement no matter what!All: Up, up, and awaaaaay!
thou shalt have no other gods before me
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Spanner R4 Update: Another Difficult Installment (23.3's Coming Tomorrow)
As I continue to recover from baby week (by now my grandma has seen her new great-grandson), I find I've worked myself into a corner yet again. That baby week was also Al-Qaeda bombing week didn't help, considering how much I loathe the kind of psychopaths who would join that prison gang.
The issue with 23.3 involves structure. This should be no surprise, considering how complex 23.1 and 23.2 turned out to be. I have my scenes and plot threads laid out in handwritten ink on scratch paper laid out before me. The tricky part is putting them in the proper tricky order.
Meanwhile, I inserted a new Revision 4.1 scene into 21.3, in which a frazzled Jennifer finally answers classmate Saida Ibrahim's question in Chapter 5, "Why does everybody here hate Muslims so much?" The answer is: it's Man Rage in its purest form, exactly what nearly trashed Bangor High in the previous scene. 23.3 will have another resolution to that thread as another Arab exile tries to speak reason to her (in the new 21.3 scene, she's acting very much like a typical angry deconvert), because Muslims are fighting against the Caliphate too, to reclaim their homelands from it and its symbiotic enemy, the American Empire.
So 23.3 is my Saturday night project. I'm going to cool down, turn on the music, and structure the thing. I'm posting 23.3 tomorrow. I will finish this thing.
The issue with 23.3 involves structure. This should be no surprise, considering how complex 23.1 and 23.2 turned out to be. I have my scenes and plot threads laid out in handwritten ink on scratch paper laid out before me. The tricky part is putting them in the proper tricky order.
Meanwhile, I inserted a new Revision 4.1 scene into 21.3, in which a frazzled Jennifer finally answers classmate Saida Ibrahim's question in Chapter 5, "Why does everybody here hate Muslims so much?" The answer is: it's Man Rage in its purest form, exactly what nearly trashed Bangor High in the previous scene. 23.3 will have another resolution to that thread as another Arab exile tries to speak reason to her (in the new 21.3 scene, she's acting very much like a typical angry deconvert), because Muslims are fighting against the Caliphate too, to reclaim their homelands from it and its symbiotic enemy, the American Empire.
So 23.3 is my Saturday night project. I'm going to cool down, turn on the music, and structure the thing. I'm posting 23.3 tomorrow. I will finish this thing.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Spanner 23.2: Warriors of Rock
← ...from previous
A call the Party Chairman made earlier that morning to Willa, leaked onto the Darknet and just now reaching the official news:
The pirate networks answer with a fleet of flatbed trucks bearing the sound cannons Shane and Oz got off the black market, each one connected through an amplifier and pedalboard to an instrument wielded by a Rocker. In Seattle, Breydon must face the full extended lineup of his old band, the Band with No Name: guitarists Ric Thomas, Jon Angel, Ryuji Suzuki, Rayer Pace, and Simon Remington; electric violinist Willa Richter-Thomas; keyboardists Betty Shears, Mylan Ferris, and Rumour Pace wielding circuit-bent Casios; bassists Raven Shears, Ruby Shears, Tim Drake, Randell Taylor, and Sari Angel; drummers Len Schafer, Paul Angel, and Sheryl Case; and turntablists Shockmaster Rock and Alex Plus.
“Are you advocating anarchy?” snaps Brinkman. “You pay us to protect freedom against anarchy! I’ll liberate this Communist hellhole if it kills me!”
Holmes grins triumphantly. “No, Mr. Brinkman, we’re liberating it from the Communist rabble even if we have to kill ’em all.”
“By any means necessary,” says Everson. “We’re faced with counterrevolution.”
“We’re trying to prevent the return of 1917,” says Currie.
“No, Reynard,” says Litton, “this is 1792. You know what that means.”
Holmes pumps his fist. “Unleash the Terror to save the Revolution!”
Brinkman exclaims, “Let’s open a can of Revolution on their commie asses!”
Suddenly the air goes still. All talk stops. All attention goes to the big screen above the Chairman. He gasps when he sees a grinning Shira, arms strategically crossed, in front of the bouncing-breast eyes and Cheshire Cat grin of Rebel Styles’ emblem. “How are you gentlemen!” she purrs. “Wanna know why you can’t kill me? The reason is simple. Her name is Rebel Styles.” Everyone holds their breath in terror as the terrifying emblem replaces Shira in the foreground and fades into Rebel’s delicate loli head until Shira returns. “She’s a faithkiller, a mind virus engineered to cause horrific death by destroying the mind of faith, MPTP for jihadis.” Gasps and muffled screams answer her.
“You stole my granddaughter, what the hell else do you want?”
Shira answers with video of Rockers stationed next to the surplus sound cannons. “We’ve connected Rock ’N’ Roll instruments to sound blasters all over the city. Never mind what they can do to your precious drones and mechs. Harm me, my friends, or my people, and the Rockers will play, and Rebel Rebel will sing just for y’all. Wanna know what happens when she opens her mouth? Just ask Wayne Tremayne. ’Bye, Wally!” She disappears, and the pretty head of Rebel Styles takes over to open her mouth; just before she can speak, the call abruptly ends and the big screen turns blue.
Dead silence. Brinkman breaks it with a howl of rage.
Along the march route they find the Toymaker’s finest creations, four bombs he believes can annihilate the whole strike. The twins have the computers Dr. Whistler implanted in their skulls; Jennifer and Sparks wear shoe-powered hat computers: they communicate by audiomessage. Sparks: These are some damn complicated contraptions.
Shira: He put some love into ’em for sure.
Kira: He really thinks he can stump us this time?
Only long enough to get rid of us and half the city.
Sparks: Don’t forget, one bomb goes off, all civilians are automatically convicted and the blood orgy begins.
Jennifer: Wait a minute—
The others: What?
I can’t see the electricity through this thing, but I can sure see the pattern.
Shira: Kirlian app!
Okay, got it — whoa baby, sending pictures right now. She sends a series of app-enhanced photos of her bomb with circuits glowing. The twins study it.
Shira and Kira: *gasp* That’s it! They send the others complete disarming instructions, and AEGIS transmits them to the bomb squads in other cities.
The Toymaker calls sobbing, “They ruined my babies, Rocky! They’ll pay for hurting my babies! Harlequinette will make them pay!”
Harlequinette slips behind him and tells him comfortingly, “I have other tools. They are flying in the sky. They will collect our victims and hunt the angel of chaos.” She knocks the Toymaker out and escapes into dreamspace; now just another unused exobody, the wooden girl collapses to the floor with a clatter.
She approaches Holmes only to see him tightly wrapped and hidden inside an eldritch entity, his own Ego. Unable to possess him and direct the destruction of the cities, she finds a COPCO Shirabot in Seattle and slips into it only to find it already infected by the Spanner virus. She prepares to battle it, confident that she can defeat a mere virus; but the virus’ mistress appears as a giant face. One reality distortion later, Harlequinette finds herself in limbo.
telesphere. On all screens, a man in black motorcycle helmet and Minuteman red jacket commands the picture, only he’s not Spanner. His voice is scrambled.
—and the regularly scheduled newsertainment resumes with all network presenters screaming.
Shira finds Talia alone and injured in a hidden nook of an old building. But the first thing Talia says: “Shira! Why the hell are you naked?”
“Fighting right-wing vigilantes, that’s why. If you’re wondering why the Slasher Hunters aren’t joining you, well, you just can’t do revolution by posse. Case in point: every failed Latin American revolution ever, and Jesse James.”
“Shira, you’re in our way.”
“Wrong! Your posse’s in the way of our general strike. Real revolution’s for civilians only, not some vigilante élite. Wild West’s over, girl. The frontier’s closed forever. Now let me call you up some medical attention.” Shira kisses her. Talia sighs in resignation.
Outside, civilian strikers once again flood into the streets to clean the streets of drone debris and the broken bodies of the fallen warriors of crime and vengeance.
“Talia, stop being so defeatist,” Hope replies. “We’ve been preparing for this for two years. We know so much about our opponents now, we cant let that go to waste.”
Shira interrupts. “Hope darling, she thinks civilians are just like Corporates, just like the Corporates.”
“Tal darling, let the people show the world what they’re made of. This revolution belongs to them.” Talia sighs bitterly.
“Plan B’s like ready,” says Moon Roach.
“Plan C is go,” says Evil The Cat.
“CCP’s not that easy, guys,” Shira says. “Better be ready to use Plan Z.”
While thousands of hacked copbots relieve the strikers of cleanup duty, joined by USPF mechs carrying the corpses of their Mech Knight pilots, the naked hoverboarders prepare to launch: Shira, Kira, Liz, Radica, Akimi, and Elle. The bots stop to shake their metal fists collectively at the Black Tower. With one voice, the voice of Spanner, ten thousands Spannerbots shout at CPMC, “You have no chance to survive make your time!”
on to the next... →
Back to Chapter 23 index...
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[Revision 4 Final, 4/16/13: Mostly new material, plus various older scenes heavily revised for Final Revision continuity.]
Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites
Part 2: Warriors of Rock (Final Revision)
Part 2: Warriors of Rock (Final Revision)
A call the Party Chairman made earlier that morning to Willa, leaked onto the Darknet and just now reaching the official news:
In Seattle, Portland, Vancouver; in Tacoma, Fort Vancouver, Victoria; in every significant city throughout the state of Cascadia, people crowd the city centers carrying worker committee banners, Cascadia state flags, and protest signs demanding the ouster of CPMC. They are working people: people reduced to near-slavery, people threatened with near-slavery, people no longer able to work at all because wages are considered uneconomical: and they make themselves heard as they wait for the chance to vote.Henry: How come nobody’s been able to put down your accursed little insurrection?”Willa: (smiles) You won.Henry: That is not an answer!Willa: You defeated the liberals. You destroyed the Democratic Party. You pulled off the Conservative Revolution. Yet not once did you realize that by wiping out the liberal establishment, you eliminated the precious liberal buffer that insulated your class against popular discontent. Now that liberalism is no longer there to serve as a breakwater, you have to face the storms of popular revolt directly.Henry: (stares uncomprehendingly) (pause) You have got to be kidding me.Willa: Congratulations, Harry. You got your wish. You destroyed the Democrats. You swept liberalism into the trashcan of history. Now taste the fruit of victory! Have a nice day, darling! [laughs maniacally, raises her violin, plays — a strange loud noise blows up the phone]Henry: Willaaaa— (punches camera)
Strikers: (chant) Cascadia is free! Dump CPMC!CPMC’s answer blots out the sky above: countless drones, most of them newly shipped from Yoyodyne assembly lines accelerated into overdrive; a new army of USPF Mech Knights hellbent on avenging their fallen comrades; combat helicopters armed with sound cannons ready to assault the city with weaponized Patriot Metal whose Superstar, Tom E. Breydon, awaits Brinkman’s command.
The pirate networks answer with a fleet of flatbed trucks bearing the sound cannons Shane and Oz got off the black market, each one connected through an amplifier and pedalboard to an instrument wielded by a Rocker. In Seattle, Breydon must face the full extended lineup of his old band, the Band with No Name: guitarists Ric Thomas, Jon Angel, Ryuji Suzuki, Rayer Pace, and Simon Remington; electric violinist Willa Richter-Thomas; keyboardists Betty Shears, Mylan Ferris, and Rumour Pace wielding circuit-bent Casios; bassists Raven Shears, Ruby Shears, Tim Drake, Randell Taylor, and Sari Angel; drummers Len Schafer, Paul Angel, and Sheryl Case; and turntablists Shockmaster Rock and Alex Plus.
A “scopevid” from someone’s fashion AR goggles records this exchange between a striker and three nudefighters:Ric: How come Rock ’N’ Roll ain’t been this relevant in ages?Willa: We only got to be Rock Stars and intimidate people.Ryu: (to the crowd) We! are! the Warriors of Rock!
Down below in the subway, unbothered by buses and light-rail trains idled by the strike, a part-wood steampunk robot dominates a deranged hacker (identified by the COPCO system as one J. Freedom Mobley) who abases himself before her because this is no ordinary wood girl but an exobody for Harlequinette the Clockwork Girl. Security video captures them in strange communion, but there is no audio because Harlequinette speaks directly to his bicameral mind. She reminds him that his brothers Anson and Terry are inferior because they are dead; he replies that he too is dead, dead to the world, and he is now only her instrument, the righteous terrorist who bears the superhero name Toymaker, master bomber to the Conservative Revolution.Striker: What the— Why won’t you girls put on any clothes?Elle: (excitedly) The Party are pitting Men’s Rights against workers’ rights, and we’re ready to fight! (punches into left hand)
Locke Holmes: You persist in your traitorous insurrection? I have planted bombs where they will kill the most people. You cannot find them. I won’t tell you where they are or how many. I am confident there are none among you who can comprehend my genius.cpmc headquarters. The Fearsome Foursome are (current lineup) Governor J. Walter Brinkman, Chief Jack Becket, Shepherd-Mayor Luke Everson, and Admiral Reynard S. Currie. They assemble in the vast boardroom of the Salem corporate head office with Holmes, Radisson, Litton, General Patrick Peterson, Drusilla Becket AMERICA!, her Patriot Metal Superstar acolytes Byron Scofield and Jeremiah Light, and the Investors, High Corporates so blessed with infinite wealth they are able to buy sovereign immunity and a place in the hierarchy outranked only by the Houses of Becket and Brinkman. One of them, a Mr. Vronsky, says, “It is indeed as Mr. Buffett said—”
“Are you advocating anarchy?” snaps Brinkman. “You pay us to protect freedom against anarchy! I’ll liberate this Communist hellhole if it kills me!”
Holmes grins triumphantly. “No, Mr. Brinkman, we’re liberating it from the Communist rabble even if we have to kill ’em all.”
“By any means necessary,” says Everson. “We’re faced with counterrevolution.”
“We’re trying to prevent the return of 1917,” says Currie.
“No, Reynard,” says Litton, “this is 1792. You know what that means.”
Holmes pumps his fist. “Unleash the Terror to save the Revolution!”
Brinkman exclaims, “Let’s open a can of Revolution on their commie asses!”
Suddenly the air goes still. All talk stops. All attention goes to the big screen above the Chairman. He gasps when he sees a grinning Shira, arms strategically crossed, in front of the bouncing-breast eyes and Cheshire Cat grin of Rebel Styles’ emblem. “How are you gentlemen!” she purrs. “Wanna know why you can’t kill me? The reason is simple. Her name is Rebel Styles.” Everyone holds their breath in terror as the terrifying emblem replaces Shira in the foreground and fades into Rebel’s delicate loli head until Shira returns. “She’s a faithkiller, a mind virus engineered to cause horrific death by destroying the mind of faith, MPTP for jihadis.” Gasps and muffled screams answer her.
“You stole my granddaughter, what the hell else do you want?”
Shira answers with video of Rockers stationed next to the surplus sound cannons. “We’ve connected Rock ’N’ Roll instruments to sound blasters all over the city. Never mind what they can do to your precious drones and mechs. Harm me, my friends, or my people, and the Rockers will play, and Rebel Rebel will sing just for y’all. Wanna know what happens when she opens her mouth? Just ask Wayne Tremayne. ’Bye, Wally!” She disappears, and the pretty head of Rebel Styles takes over to open her mouth; just before she can speak, the call abruptly ends and the big screen turns blue.
Dead silence. Brinkman breaks it with a howl of rage.
i am the lord your god
Along the march route they find the Toymaker’s finest creations, four bombs he believes can annihilate the whole strike. The twins have the computers Dr. Whistler implanted in their skulls; Jennifer and Sparks wear shoe-powered hat computers: they communicate by audiomessage. Sparks: These are some damn complicated contraptions.
Shira: He put some love into ’em for sure.
Kira: He really thinks he can stump us this time?
Only long enough to get rid of us and half the city.
Sparks: Don’t forget, one bomb goes off, all civilians are automatically convicted and the blood orgy begins.
Jennifer: Wait a minute—
The others: What?
I can’t see the electricity through this thing, but I can sure see the pattern.
Shira: Kirlian app!
Okay, got it — whoa baby, sending pictures right now. She sends a series of app-enhanced photos of her bomb with circuits glowing. The twins study it.
Shira and Kira: *gasp* That’s it! They send the others complete disarming instructions, and AEGIS transmits them to the bomb squads in other cities.
Nameless Reporter: Big Brother, watch out! Little Brother is everywhere, and he’s watching you!The people on the street learn about the Terrorist from the Darknet. None of them watch the official channels or even care. They record what they see with the cameras on their phones and AR goggles. Crowdsourced information tells their AR apps where the rallies are and will be, where the authorities are attacking, where the bombs are still being removed, and where the left-wing factions are trying to hijack their collective effort. One fanatical faction leader in a black mask insults the crowd and demands they get violent revenge against the Party. A beautiful naked girl with pale skin, black hair, gangsterskin fighting gear, and no name climbs up and punches him off the platform to the strikers’ cheers.
Nameless girl: Don’t listen to these guys! They’re only vigilantes! They only wanna kill people!Holmes checks his watch. He switches the monitor to all the networks: no terror news? “Why aren’t they going off?”
The Toymaker calls sobbing, “They ruined my babies, Rocky! They’ll pay for hurting my babies! Harlequinette will make them pay!”
Harlequinette slips behind him and tells him comfortingly, “I have other tools. They are flying in the sky. They will collect our victims and hunt the angel of chaos.” She knocks the Toymaker out and escapes into dreamspace; now just another unused exobody, the wooden girl collapses to the floor with a clatter.
She approaches Holmes only to see him tightly wrapped and hidden inside an eldritch entity, his own Ego. Unable to possess him and direct the destruction of the cities, she finds a COPCO Shirabot in Seattle and slips into it only to find it already infected by the Spanner virus. She prepares to battle it, confident that she can defeat a mere virus; but the virus’ mistress appears as a giant face. One reality distortion later, Harlequinette finds herself in limbo.
telesphere. On all screens, a man in black motorcycle helmet and Minuteman red jacket commands the picture, only he’s not Spanner. His voice is scrambled.
The Terrorist: I know you stupid commie faggots. You like to call me “The Terrorist.” In Jesus America’s name, don’t call me the Terrorist! I’m an angel from God.A bat hits and shatters the Terrorist’s faceplate from off camera. The helmeted man who becomes the object of the camera’s attention is Spanner. He hammers the Terrorist in the shoulders and face several more times, then wrestles him into a full nelson and forces the villain to face the camera.
You’ve pissed me off for the last time, you faggots. This is my last offer. You give me all the money you’ve got and your total and humiliating obedience and, hmm, crown me your king and worship me as your god, [camera zooms out] I might spare your worthless liberal faggot lives by not blowing up your butt-ugly commie liberal city. [gestures toward nuke behind him] You’ve got until [checks watch] about five minutes from now. I’m kinda hoping youAAAh!—
Spanner interrupts the bullyboy with his fist, breaking his jaw and then knocking him out with a strike to the left temple. The signal suddenly goes out—Spanner: Well, well, well. I should have known. The Fearsome Foursome are back up to their old tricks again. They even hired a mercenary assassin to destroy the city. His name is... [he wrests the helmet off the man’s head to reveal a steroid-faced Moral Enforcer with a shattered nose] Stanley Green, self-righteous drug pusher!Stan Green: You fu—
—and the regularly scheduled newsertainment resumes with all network presenters screaming.
thou shalt have no other gods before me
Amanda: The heroic Tech Knights are making their move now!The drone fleet descends from the clouds to the city, ready to bomb civilian gatherings and shoot civilians into bloody shreds.
The Rockers’ hands are in position, ready to attack their instruments. The Tech Knights remote their drones into position and await the order. Civilians flee into buildings and subway entrances.Nameless Reporter: The Warriors of Rock are tuned up and ready to destroy!Ric Thomas: (holds out arms) I am the god of hellfire!
The Rockers launch into scorching solos amplified into lethal blasts of sound that shatter windows and rattle the drones before the Tech Knights can start mashing buttons.Admiral Currie: Rock them monkeys to Hell!Willa: Fire!
They scour the sky with their sound cannons; they search for drones to destroy; they target from near and far and devastate the drone-filled skies with weaponized Rock ’N’ Roll. Before long, the drone fleet is destroyed or crippled; shrapnel and machine parts rain from the sky.Ric: Up to eleven, motherfuckers! (destroys dronecam)Amanda: Eeeek!
Nameless Reporter: *sigh* ♥
The leftist factions run out into the metal rain, smash every storefront in sight, throw Molotov cocktails — and get beaten up by Spannerbots.Admiral Currie: Wha— No, that’s impossible! They’re only celebrities!General Peterson: Now it’s my turn.
Shira: Dear vanguardist vigilante elite, you suck. Stop interfering with our strike. Y’all ain’t taking our moment away from us just so you can be the Man by beating the Man. So get your posses out! No vigilantes allowed!The Syndicates launch attacks against the factions and each other. They battle for the love of battle, not caring that they might get brained, and some do. Whatever gangsters remain alive and uncrippled are summarily beaten by hacked copbots.
Shira finds Talia alone and injured in a hidden nook of an old building. But the first thing Talia says: “Shira! Why the hell are you naked?”
“Fighting right-wing vigilantes, that’s why. If you’re wondering why the Slasher Hunters aren’t joining you, well, you just can’t do revolution by posse. Case in point: every failed Latin American revolution ever, and Jesse James.”
“Shira, you’re in our way.”
“Wrong! Your posse’s in the way of our general strike. Real revolution’s for civilians only, not some vigilante élite. Wild West’s over, girl. The frontier’s closed forever. Now let me call you up some medical attention.” Shira kisses her. Talia sighs in resignation.
Outside, civilian strikers once again flood into the streets to clean the streets of drone debris and the broken bodies of the fallen warriors of crime and vengeance.
Amanda: The virtuous men of wealth are voting for CPMC to the tune of billions of dollars!“Mama, it can’t work,” says Talia over the phone to election central.
“Talia, stop being so defeatist,” Hope replies. “We’ve been preparing for this for two years. We know so much about our opponents now, we cant let that go to waste.”
Shira interrupts. “Hope darling, she thinks civilians are just like Corporates, just like the Corporates.”
“Tal darling, let the people show the world what they’re made of. This revolution belongs to them.” Talia sighs bitterly.
“Plan B’s like ready,” says Moon Roach.
“Plan C is go,” says Evil The Cat.
“CCP’s not that easy, guys,” Shira says. “Better be ready to use Plan Z.”
i am a jealous god vengeance is mine
Her red hair wind-whipped like a revolutionary flag, a beautiful and vivacious adolescent girl, nude yet seemingly unconscious of her nudity, scales a platform to inspire the strikers.Amanda: This is amazing! They’re taking time from the strike to clean up the mess left by the drones!Admiral Currie: (angrily, bright red) Those insurgent fools should be lying there with the trash! They’ve got no respect for authority!
Elle: We can’t give up when we’re this close to our goal! Let’s keep fighting till we take back our lives and our freedom at last!Mr. Xi warns Brinkman, “You have no choice but to allow Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited to acquire your company. It is the only thing that will save your property from complete anarchy.”
While thousands of hacked copbots relieve the strikers of cleanup duty, joined by USPF mechs carrying the corpses of their Mech Knight pilots, the naked hoverboarders prepare to launch: Shira, Kira, Liz, Radica, Akimi, and Elle. The bots stop to shake their metal fists collectively at the Black Tower. With one voice, the voice of Spanner, ten thousands Spannerbots shout at CPMC, “You have no chance to survive make your time!”
on to the next... →
Back to Chapter 23 index...
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...
[Revision 4 Final, 4/16/13: Mostly new material, plus various older scenes heavily revised for Final Revision continuity.]
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Spanner R4 Update: Baby Week #amediting Continues, 23.2 Will Post Tomorrow
The nephew is more or less out of the nursery, and I even got to hold him. Since he goes home tomorrow, that's when I'm scheduling Spanner 23.2 to post. I'm taking advantage of the involuntary breather to catch my breath and take a second look at the work I've done on 23.2 so far; sure enough, I've found extra room for improvement, including some things I managed to forget about in my haste, including the by now necessary duel between the Wrecking Krewe hackers and the drone-operating Tech Knights.
Meanwhile, I've begun writing notes for Chapter 1 and various character arcs of what has already transformed from Revision 4.1 into a full-blown Fifth Revision, the reason for this being one Elle Shears, Fourth-Generation Rocker Child (her self-description). All of a sudden during the 23.2 R4 edit, she blossomed from a collection of details into a full-blown character; then she took the opportunity during the current hiatus to start bugging me to retrofit her into more scenes of the final revised ebook and threw in a few surprises. And so I'll be not just retconning but retrofitting her into Chapter 1 R5, and she'll even replace Karen in many of her Chapter 2 appearances (especially those with Shira) in part because she makes a better contrast to Rebel Styles. Now that she's made herself a major character, she's even bringing in a new character (one from the Project Notebooks whom I managed to leave out) who will serve as a secondary School Arc villain and give me an excuse to shoehorn more "Elle, Mel, Belle, and Lil" scenes into the School Arc, among other things. I'm already writing the notes down.
Meanwhile, 23.2 posts tomorrow and 23.3 will follow on its heels on Saturday.
Meanwhile, I've begun writing notes for Chapter 1 and various character arcs of what has already transformed from Revision 4.1 into a full-blown Fifth Revision, the reason for this being one Elle Shears, Fourth-Generation Rocker Child (her self-description). All of a sudden during the 23.2 R4 edit, she blossomed from a collection of details into a full-blown character; then she took the opportunity during the current hiatus to start bugging me to retrofit her into more scenes of the final revised ebook and threw in a few surprises. And so I'll be not just retconning but retrofitting her into Chapter 1 R5, and she'll even replace Karen in many of her Chapter 2 appearances (especially those with Shira) in part because she makes a better contrast to Rebel Styles. Now that she's made herself a major character, she's even bringing in a new character (one from the Project Notebooks whom I managed to leave out) who will serve as a secondary School Arc villain and give me an excuse to shoehorn more "Elle, Mel, Belle, and Lil" scenes into the School Arc, among other things. I'm already writing the notes down.
Meanwhile, 23.2 posts tomorrow and 23.3 will follow on its heels on Saturday.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Spanner R4 Update: Chapter 23 Delayed by New Baby Nephew, Alas
Sometimes real life gets in the way. Case in point: the new nephew, who since being born yesterday has the whole extended family running back and forth and spending most of our time at the hospital and otherwise away from home, leaving us all tired and frazzled. I haven't had time to even touch Spanner 23.2 since Monday, when 23.1 posted. We'll have little time to ourselves until Friday, when the nephew finally goes home with his parents.
I am now re-editing 23.1, and then I will post it on Friday.
I am now re-editing 23.1, and then I will post it on Friday.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Spanner 23.1: Welcome to My Revolution
← ...from previous
4 november 2014.
copco seattle. Doctor 42, Karl Radisson, Diana Shockley, and an injured Locke Holmes look on grimly as five precogs are brought out of the laboratory dead, rigid in grotesque twisted positions of horror as if plastinated. Jack Becket screams at Doctor 42, “Bryce, you idiot! I told you Spanner is already here! You didn’t have to bring your damn precogs right in the middle of a reality storm!”
Doctor 42 shouts back, “We can read any man’s fate, even Spanner’s!”
“Three words: reality distortion field! Spanner’s immune to fate!”
That last word seems to summon his father’s call like an evil spirit. The Party Chairman appears on screen in full superhero costume. “John.”
“Yes, father.”
“I am coming. You are dismissed.”
“What? But father—”
“Brendan Sparks is dead. COPCO has died with him. Only I can save America’s destiny from the Communist threat. The world needs a hero. I alone am that hero. You shall not interfere. In the name of God, go!” And he disappears from the screen.
The security managers assembled in the COPCO Seattle situation room say nothing more.
south seattle. Simon, Alex, and Nick take over the CUNT cell’s former Rainier Beach hideout and move Team Bremelo in. The nudefight girls wear new fighting boots and gloves made from the terrorists’ tattooed white skin. Jennifer: “Why, Stavros’ tattoos look better on you than him.”
“Thanks, my love,” says Shira. “You know what it took to earn ’em.” She embraces her, kisses her, and winks.
The house is a complete mess. The late occupants couldn’t be bothered with even garbage disposal. Three homeless drunks soil the couch. The girl with no name holds her nose but fails to filter out the stench. “What a manky kip. It’s worse than a bloody skip! Can’t you find a better safe house, Simon? This place is shite!”
“You wanna be part of the revolution,” says Simon, ”better accept what you get, even sleeping in skips with the bums. We gotta kip somewheres, luv.”
“Easy for a Rocker to say.”
“So learn to Rock ’N’ Roll.”
Elle sits on the bench at the beat-up old piano. “A revolutionary garret’s a very romantic place.” She winks. The girl sighs and lets herself fall into Shira’s arms, and they kiss. Elle spins, opens the keyboard, and starts playing a jaunty old-fashioned Rock ’N’ Roll tune. The piano’s out of tune, but her skill and youthful enthusiasm shine through.
Jennifer spots an issue of one of the newest Anglophile gangster-fetish “yob mag” titles on the floor. She bends to pick it up, then grins mischievously and stands to hold it high. “Why, look at this! Could it be one of those regularly published instruction manuals, full of National Front propaganda, on how to become a perfectly naff git?”
The girl says, “Cut out the pretty-lady parts, bin the rest.”
“Consider it done.” Jennifer picks up a scissors off the table, snips it twice, and winks.
Polly struggles to keep from vomiting. “I wonder how they even manage to live with all this squalor.”
Akimi replies with contempt, “Gaman makes their otoko-chan feel big.”
“They call themselves ‘Big Swingin’ Dicks,’” says Shira. ”They think if they can handle this, they’re Man enough to handle anything.” With a shudder and a groan, Polly’s already low opinion of macho men descends into the abyss.
The nameless girl notices the drunken men staring at them. She decides to be a tease. She turns her back on them and bends slightly to emphasize the shape of her buttocks. She slaps the left cheek three times and winks. “So you like me pretty arse? I’ll let you look.” She shakes her butt several times. They drool helplessly.
“Stop it!” shouts Liz. “Why do you keep pulling that ‘sex object’ crap? We’re supposed to be feminists!”
“Beauty is power, comrade. Beautiful women possess power over men.”
Shira adds, “That’s what makes Man Egos go evil.”
“We need every weapon to hand.”
Liz sighs. “If you say so...”
The smartwatch under Shira’s right glove plays a ringtone. Elle stops playing. “Hello? You got it, J.T.? Awesome!” To the others: “We got a base, playground at a closed school, right under La Hunter’s nose.” The nudefighters cheer. To Elle: “Kira’s waiting.” She winks; Elle gasps.
central district. Corporates being notoriously paranoid about their blood purity, SPEC investors thought it a natural choice to shut down the “inner city” schools attended by “racial enemies.” like the New Africans. They haven’t yet put this abandoned elementary school on the speculative market yet, so Charlie and Desiree used their powers to call squat and bring in thirty-odd feminists, anarchists, and street kids to camp and train. They wait alongside their nameless daughter, kid sister Kira, and Catalina the K9, for thirteen nudefighters to arrive: Shira, Jennifer, Polly, Daisy, Marina, and the girl with the violet eyes from Team Bremelo; Brandi and Arisa of the Slasher Hunters; hoverboard racers Akimi, Liz, and Radica; Melody, and Elle, who throws herself screaming and sobbing into Kira’s waiting arms to hop around together and kiss her. She wipes away happy tears and says, “You’ve never met each other so, this is your aunt Kira, and this is your niece Melody. Be good to each other ’cuz I love you both.” She pulls Kira and Melody into each other’s embrace so they can kiss.
Morning exercises: run a quarter-mile around the track, wushu stretches, and then the tough exercises. One- and two-armed pushups and pullups; squats, lunges, twists, and crunches; the taisou conditioning system their nameless warrior learned from the Iga ninja and the related systems Jennifer and Daisy learned from combat sambo and tae kwon do. The workout exhausts the feminists. Liz, speaking for them, points at Elle and Melody. “They’re only twelve! How come they can handle it and we can’t?”
“You aren’t doing enough of it,” says Melody.
“Keep it up and never give up,” says Elle, “and you’ll be true warriors like us.” She flexes her arm and winks. The feminists groan at the sight of her biceps.
Sure enough, two shirtless muscleboys in ski masks attempt an attack. Elle calls “I got ’em!” She leaps to take a wooden katana, rolls toward them, pops up into fighting stance.
They laugh. “Ha! naked little girl!” one mocks. “We been fighting for years!”
“Me? Seven years! A woman can never defend herself enough.” Elle hits his knees to sever his tendons, and he falls back; the other guards his face, she crushes his man-weapon before shattering his jaw and sending him flying back. As the awed feminists watch on, she knocks out the first goon with a casual blow to the head. They rush in, pick up the thugs, and carry him to the trash bin.
The battle spreads even to dreamspace, where the American Crusader faces down a chaos with angel wings. “Spanner! You cannot prevail against the power of God, Good, authority, and the Law. It is not possible.”
The angel of chaos replies in three voices: “We don’t need to. You have already lost.” He laughs, splits into three female forms (white phantom, black phantom, neon silhouette), and fades, taking the clouds with him and leaving the Crusader alone in darkness.
Below: the strikers march. Above: drones, mechs, and battle copters block the sky. Inside: Shira, Jennifer, Elle, and the girl with the violet eyes make violent passionate four-way love believing it’s the last moment of their lives. Outside, the pirate-TV sound cannon trucks take their positions and the Rockers mount the platforms.
And above the city of Seattle, the American Crusader hovers between heaven and earth, waiting for the moment to deliver divine vengeance unto man.
on to the next... →
Back to Chapter 23 index...
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...
[Revision 4 Final, 4/15/13: Scenes heavily revised, condensed, deleted, and added to fit Final Revision continuity. The entire title sequence of 23.2 R2, “Spanner Q&A,” is now “Ask Spanner” here. Original R2 section title: “Settle for Nothing.”]
Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 23: Black Panic in the Suites
Part 1: Welcome to My Revolution (Final Revision)
Part 1: Welcome to My Revolution (Final Revision)
When the government fears the people,
there is liberty.
When the people fear the government,
there is tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
The People! [spits]
The People is the Great Beast!
Alexander Hamilton
there is liberty.
When the people fear the government,
there is tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
The People! [spits]
The People is the Great Beast!
Alexander Hamilton
4 november 2014.
The vision begins unambiguously. Crowds of protesters gather throughout the Metropolitan City of Seattle. COPCO strike and robot agents attack them with tear gas, Tasers, and electric whips. Then a man on a motorcycle in a black helmet passes by and throws a Molotov cocktail straight at the dreamer(s)—
—time contracts expands warps, events happen and don’t happen simultaneously, buildings dance jitterbugs, cats rape dog—
—time contracts expands warps, events happen and don’t happen simultaneously, buildings dance jitterbugs, cats rape dog—
copco seattle. Doctor 42, Karl Radisson, Diana Shockley, and an injured Locke Holmes look on grimly as five precogs are brought out of the laboratory dead, rigid in grotesque twisted positions of horror as if plastinated. Jack Becket screams at Doctor 42, “Bryce, you idiot! I told you Spanner is already here! You didn’t have to bring your damn precogs right in the middle of a reality storm!”
Doctor 42 shouts back, “We can read any man’s fate, even Spanner’s!”
“Three words: reality distortion field! Spanner’s immune to fate!”
That last word seems to summon his father’s call like an evil spirit. The Party Chairman appears on screen in full superhero costume. “John.”
“Yes, father.”
“I am coming. You are dismissed.”
“What? But father—”
“Brendan Sparks is dead. COPCO has died with him. Only I can save America’s destiny from the Communist threat. The world needs a hero. I alone am that hero. You shall not interfere. In the name of God, go!” And he disappears from the screen.
The security managers assembled in the COPCO Seattle situation room say nothing more.
ask spanner.
Q: Why do you have it in for our Revolutionary Heroes?
A: Want the list? It’s so long, the whole thing would DDoS Echelon. We released only a small sampling of their crimes. That they always get away with them speaks libraries about your Revolution.
Q: Why do you have it in for our Revolutionary Heroes?
A: Want the list? It’s so long, the whole thing would DDoS Echelon. We released only a small sampling of their crimes. That they always get away with them speaks libraries about your Revolution.
11 september 2001...
Stunned by the horrors of Osama bin Laden’s terror attack, Shira and Kira come up to their father, Ric Thomas. Shira asks, “Dad, why did they have to kill so many people?”
Grimly, Ric replies, “What is terrorism? A supervillain’s declaration that he is now dictator, and the people must surrender unconditionally or be destroyed. Some foreign wacko cult just told us they’re our new government and to obey or else. That’s how terrorism works.”
“We can stand up to those bullies,” says Kira confidently.
“Us, yeah. But will our government let us? They’ve wanted a new enemy since they lost their beloved Soviet Union, and now their fondest wish has come true at last...”
25 august 2012...
On the burning cratered Mall, among the shredded corpses, Kira lies in Shira’s arms, seemingly dying. “Please don’t die on me, Kira!” wails Shira. “Hang in there!”
“Lya...” whispers Kira before she falls unconscious.
Then the cruel merciless armoured soldiers swarm the twins and separate them with their crushing arms. The twins cry out each other’s name. John Cameron Becket, the one-eyed warrior prince, carries their mentor, his victim, Lya Cassir over his shoulder. In triumph he laughs contemptuously at the defeated people...
21 december 2012...
the last liberals imprisoned or converted — the Factor Positives sacrificed for the Transcendental Illumination — all surviving Slender Man proxies killed off to keep the secret — the people vanquished — Roger Steele Becket of Dictel, Incorporated, enthroned as King Patriot of the American Empire — Osama bin Laden laughs in Hell—
Stunned by the horrors of Osama bin Laden’s terror attack, Shira and Kira come up to their father, Ric Thomas. Shira asks, “Dad, why did they have to kill so many people?”
Grimly, Ric replies, “What is terrorism? A supervillain’s declaration that he is now dictator, and the people must surrender unconditionally or be destroyed. Some foreign wacko cult just told us they’re our new government and to obey or else. That’s how terrorism works.”
“We can stand up to those bullies,” says Kira confidently.
“Us, yeah. But will our government let us? They’ve wanted a new enemy since they lost their beloved Soviet Union, and now their fondest wish has come true at last...”
25 august 2012...
On the burning cratered Mall, among the shredded corpses, Kira lies in Shira’s arms, seemingly dying. “Please don’t die on me, Kira!” wails Shira. “Hang in there!”
“Lya...” whispers Kira before she falls unconscious.
Then the cruel merciless armoured soldiers swarm the twins and separate them with their crushing arms. The twins cry out each other’s name. John Cameron Becket, the one-eyed warrior prince, carries their mentor, his victim, Lya Cassir over his shoulder. In triumph he laughs contemptuously at the defeated people...
21 december 2012...
the last liberals imprisoned or converted — the Factor Positives sacrificed for the Transcendental Illumination — all surviving Slender Man proxies killed off to keep the secret — the people vanquished — Roger Steele Becket of Dictel, Incorporated, enthroned as King Patriot of the American Empire — Osama bin Laden laughs in Hell—
Q: Why are you a terrorist?
A: When did you last beat your wife?
Q: I asked you a question, damn it!
A: I asked the same question. Next!
A: When did you last beat your wife?
Q: I asked you a question, damn it!
A: I asked the same question. Next!
Brinkman:rabid old curYou idiots, I ordered you to cease your petulant protests! But noooo, you continued to violate the Law. I warned you your defiance threatens the very order of existence itself! Henceforth, I’m forced to declare martial law statewide, effective immediately. From now on, I’m dictator! The Law is my word alone!Dr. Jenna Hunter:stole the teachers’ pension fundWe don’t need those stupid students who started this chaos, and I’m sure as hell not returning their unearned tuition. I’m putting it where it belongs, in the markets, where it’ll profit only the deserving. I’ll sell to Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited if I have to.Brendan Sparks:isn’t he supposed to be dead?We fought the Revolution to save the world from collectivist tyranny. And now the population of your entire state is committing defying all order to impose the Communism we fought so long and hard to defeat? This is the last straw. Starting immediately, our company will send all the agents necessary to put down this treasonous insurrection. If necessary, we will call on our friends in Russia and China to supply reinforcements.Drusilla Becket AMERICA!:molests her acolytes as a power tripJesus America is the one and only God. Jesus America is not the God of the many. God has chosen the few, the deserving, the individuals. He has gifted his chosen with infinite wealth and fame. Now the many have rejected their place in humble service to God’s chosen and turned as a collectivist mass against Our Nation, the one God. He shall punish them with his wrath, and then he will punish them with supernatural torment for eternity.Richard Becket:ate all Kira’s clonesYou fools! Don’t you realize you’re committing mass suicide? We no longer need unreliable human workers when we can now produce everything we need with machines. We no longer need fickle consumers now that wealth is fully independent of consumption. The System no longer needs you. If in your petty resentment and your greed for the unearned you decide you want to destroy the System, then we’ll get rid of you. We have already entered the posthuman age. Humanity is obsolete. Corporations, not men, are the heirs to the future.Admiral Currie:rips limbs off live muggles for gigglesStupid monkeys! You have defied your betters for the last time. This is our final demand. Surrender unconditionally, or you’ll force to declare the entire State of Cascadia collectively guilty of treason and begin saturation bombing at once. (sparkly grin)Will Becket:pussy-whipped bloodsucker, sparkle-sparkleIf you unravel the very fabric of Western Civilization itself and the Empire falls apart, it’s your fault.Brinkman:sore loser sore loser sore loserThere will be no election! CPMC does not have elections! CPMC is the government! CPMC is owned by me! I’m the sole owner of CPMC! I, and I alone, am the government! I am the president, the legislature, and the judiciary! It’s all me! I am the Law! The Law is my word, my whim! You’re on my private property, you parasites! Stop protesting, and get back to doing what I say! Okay? Please?Henry Becket:humorless super-spoilsportI am coming. Surrender now, or prepare to die.
Q: Are you and Rebel Styles the same person?
A: Are Batman and Catwoman the same person?
A: Are Batman and Catwoman the same person?
Nameless Reporter: (among the strikers) The people are now on strike all across Cascadia! If the Corporates react the way they always have, it’ll spread for certain to the Owners themselves and even Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited.Hope: People all over this state have had enough. We’ve taken to the streets, and we won’t even think of going back to work until CPMC gives up and gives us our state back.Desiree: (burns her superhero costume) My mother taught me that heroes stand above the people and stomp on ’em if they get out of line. Then they started stomping on each other: it’s clobberin’ time, Hulk smash. I realized how much I hate superheroes. The real heroes are in the streets, not the suites.Shira: (surrounded by fellow nudefighters) I know you Corporate man-boys. You gonna send your steroid Man Power legions to rape our corpses? Try it and we’ll take the fight straight to you. That means you, wolfman.Willa: Congratulations, Conservatives. You won. Your Revolution destroyed the liberals. Guess what that means? Nothing left to protect you against the people. Happy Election Day to you.Nameless Reporter: Despite Governor Brinkman’s vow, the people are determined to hold the election no matter what.Hope: We the people will settle for nothing less than our freedom back.Spanner: There is no Law.Amanda: This is not good.
Q: If there’s no rulers, who will keep the people under control?
A: Who keeps the rulers under control? What happens when the rulers are out of control?
A: Who keeps the rulers under control? What happens when the rulers are out of control?
south seattle. Simon, Alex, and Nick take over the CUNT cell’s former Rainier Beach hideout and move Team Bremelo in. The nudefight girls wear new fighting boots and gloves made from the terrorists’ tattooed white skin. Jennifer: “Why, Stavros’ tattoos look better on you than him.”
“Thanks, my love,” says Shira. “You know what it took to earn ’em.” She embraces her, kisses her, and winks.
The house is a complete mess. The late occupants couldn’t be bothered with even garbage disposal. Three homeless drunks soil the couch. The girl with no name holds her nose but fails to filter out the stench. “What a manky kip. It’s worse than a bloody skip! Can’t you find a better safe house, Simon? This place is shite!”
“You wanna be part of the revolution,” says Simon, ”better accept what you get, even sleeping in skips with the bums. We gotta kip somewheres, luv.”
“Easy for a Rocker to say.”
“So learn to Rock ’N’ Roll.”
Elle sits on the bench at the beat-up old piano. “A revolutionary garret’s a very romantic place.” She winks. The girl sighs and lets herself fall into Shira’s arms, and they kiss. Elle spins, opens the keyboard, and starts playing a jaunty old-fashioned Rock ’N’ Roll tune. The piano’s out of tune, but her skill and youthful enthusiasm shine through.
Jennifer spots an issue of one of the newest Anglophile gangster-fetish “yob mag” titles on the floor. She bends to pick it up, then grins mischievously and stands to hold it high. “Why, look at this! Could it be one of those regularly published instruction manuals, full of National Front propaganda, on how to become a perfectly naff git?”
The girl says, “Cut out the pretty-lady parts, bin the rest.”
“Consider it done.” Jennifer picks up a scissors off the table, snips it twice, and winks.
Polly struggles to keep from vomiting. “I wonder how they even manage to live with all this squalor.”
Akimi replies with contempt, “Gaman makes their otoko-chan feel big.”
“They call themselves ‘Big Swingin’ Dicks,’” says Shira. ”They think if they can handle this, they’re Man enough to handle anything.” With a shudder and a groan, Polly’s already low opinion of macho men descends into the abyss.
The nameless girl notices the drunken men staring at them. She decides to be a tease. She turns her back on them and bends slightly to emphasize the shape of her buttocks. She slaps the left cheek three times and winks. “So you like me pretty arse? I’ll let you look.” She shakes her butt several times. They drool helplessly.
“Stop it!” shouts Liz. “Why do you keep pulling that ‘sex object’ crap? We’re supposed to be feminists!”
“Beauty is power, comrade. Beautiful women possess power over men.”
Shira adds, “That’s what makes Man Egos go evil.”
“We need every weapon to hand.”
Liz sighs. “If you say so...”
The smartwatch under Shira’s right glove plays a ringtone. Elle stops playing. “Hello? You got it, J.T.? Awesome!” To the others: “We got a base, playground at a closed school, right under La Hunter’s nose.” The nudefighters cheer. To Elle: “Kira’s waiting.” She winks; Elle gasps.
Q: What the hell do you think we are, terrorist?
A: If I am what you just called me, that makes me your mirror image.
A: If I am what you just called me, that makes me your mirror image.
central district. Corporates being notoriously paranoid about their blood purity, SPEC investors thought it a natural choice to shut down the “inner city” schools attended by “racial enemies.” like the New Africans. They haven’t yet put this abandoned elementary school on the speculative market yet, so Charlie and Desiree used their powers to call squat and bring in thirty-odd feminists, anarchists, and street kids to camp and train. They wait alongside their nameless daughter, kid sister Kira, and Catalina the K9, for thirteen nudefighters to arrive: Shira, Jennifer, Polly, Daisy, Marina, and the girl with the violet eyes from Team Bremelo; Brandi and Arisa of the Slasher Hunters; hoverboard racers Akimi, Liz, and Radica; Melody, and Elle, who throws herself screaming and sobbing into Kira’s waiting arms to hop around together and kiss her. She wipes away happy tears and says, “You’ve never met each other so, this is your aunt Kira, and this is your niece Melody. Be good to each other ’cuz I love you both.” She pulls Kira and Melody into each other’s embrace so they can kiss.
Morning exercises: run a quarter-mile around the track, wushu stretches, and then the tough exercises. One- and two-armed pushups and pullups; squats, lunges, twists, and crunches; the taisou conditioning system their nameless warrior learned from the Iga ninja and the related systems Jennifer and Daisy learned from combat sambo and tae kwon do. The workout exhausts the feminists. Liz, speaking for them, points at Elle and Melody. “They’re only twelve! How come they can handle it and we can’t?”
“You aren’t doing enough of it,” says Melody.
“Keep it up and never give up,” says Elle, “and you’ll be true warriors like us.” She flexes her arm and winks. The feminists groan at the sight of her biceps.
Sure enough, two shirtless muscleboys in ski masks attempt an attack. Elle calls “I got ’em!” She leaps to take a wooden katana, rolls toward them, pops up into fighting stance.
They laugh. “Ha! naked little girl!” one mocks. “We been fighting for years!”
“Me? Seven years! A woman can never defend herself enough.” Elle hits his knees to sever his tendons, and he falls back; the other guards his face, she crushes his man-weapon before shattering his jaw and sending him flying back. As the awed feminists watch on, she knocks out the first goon with a casual blow to the head. They rush in, pick up the thugs, and carry him to the trash bin.
Q: Why’s the rabble stupid enough to rebel against God-given authority? Someone has to rule!
A: If you have such faith in the virtue of tyranny, why aren’t you beating your wife?
A: If you have such faith in the virtue of tyranny, why aren’t you beating your wife?
In every city and town throughout Cascadia, the streets are full and all work has ceased. The US Police Force flies in Admiral Currie’s sound cannons on Blackhawks, SeaHawks, and Apaches to try to stop them. The pirate broadcasters’ sound trucks are rolling out to counter them. COPCO sends roboagents, the USPF sends Mech Knights, the Tech Knights send drones, the Conservative Revolutionary Party sends its most fanatical militants.Nameless Reporter: The people of Cascadia are out in force on Election Day, and they intend to vote out CPMC.Brinkman: I’d sooner sell out to Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited!
The battle spreads even to dreamspace, where the American Crusader faces down a chaos with angel wings. “Spanner! You cannot prevail against the power of God, Good, authority, and the Law. It is not possible.”
The angel of chaos replies in three voices: “We don’t need to. You have already lost.” He laughs, splits into three female forms (white phantom, black phantom, neon silhouette), and fades, taking the clouds with him and leaving the Crusader alone in darkness.
Below: the strikers march. Above: drones, mechs, and battle copters block the sky. Inside: Shira, Jennifer, Elle, and the girl with the violet eyes make violent passionate four-way love believing it’s the last moment of their lives. Outside, the pirate-TV sound cannon trucks take their positions and the Rockers mount the platforms.
Q: Why do you hate America?
A: I look at you “Real Americans,” and the rest is easy.
A: I look at you “Real Americans,” and the rest is easy.
And above the city of Seattle, the American Crusader hovers between heaven and earth, waiting for the moment to deliver divine vengeance unto man.
Spanner: CPMC was built on a foundation of quicksand. Now it’s collapsing. But don’t allow yourselves to become complacent. You’ll have to dance between falling stones if you don’t want to get crushed.
on to the next... →
Back to Chapter 23 index...
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[Revision 4 Final, 4/15/13: Scenes heavily revised, condensed, deleted, and added to fit Final Revision continuity. The entire title sequence of 23.2 R2, “Spanner Q&A,” is now “Ask Spanner” here. Original R2 section title: “Settle for Nothing.”]
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Spanner Chapter 22: There Is No Law (Final Revision)
← Chapter 21
Bangor High School has been all but destroyed by its own leaders. The Seattle Public Education Corporation is collapsing. Its chairman is dead. The anti-bullying rally that Peace Committee leader and devout pacifist Karen Kubota transforms into a districtwide student strike against SPEC, quickly joined by the teachers whose Guild rules forbid them to strike.
But rebellious lovers Shira, Jennifer, and the girl with the violet eyes know what even the Student Union and the dissident rank-and-file teachers don’t: this is no mere strike against a predatory corporation, but the beginning of the Populist revolution against the aristocratic Conservative Revolution and everything it stands for — including its eugenics-oriented moralism. Their love, they realize, is itself a weapon against the System. Shira’s sister Desiree joins their love revolution, abandons her superhero costume, takes her own nameless daughter as her lover, and does battle with both her mother and mortal enemy Drusilla and the entire privatized COPCO police force — just as its Syndicate moles go to war within the company, in effect repealing the Law. The girl with the violet eyes duels her unwanted Corporate suitor Oliver on live television, Lord Richard Becket, the World Patriarch himself, is drawn in, Spanner makes his spectacular return in unexpected form...
And the strike of students and teachers against SPEC balloons into a full-blown general strike.
The time of reckoning has come at last.
Table of Contents:
Heavily revised and edited, with many old scenes and threads deleted and new ones added, to fit Final Revision continuity and provide a cliffhanger ending that leads into Chapter 23. Original Revision 2 section titles: “Contradiction Is Truth” (22.1), “Working for the Crackdown” (22.2), “Brinkmanship” (22.3), “Bring the Hammer Down” (22.4), “The Spanner Show” (22.5), “The Naked Killer” (singular; 22.6). There is no Third Revision version; the ending is new to the Fourth Revision.
Because the First Revision version was never completed nor posted, the original introduction is that to the Second Revision and there are no R2 (or R3) revision notes. The R2 introduction:
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...
Chaos Angel Spanner — Book 1: Rock City Blues
Chapter 22: There Is No Law (Final Revision)
Chapter 22: There Is No Law (Final Revision)
Bangor High School has been all but destroyed by its own leaders. The Seattle Public Education Corporation is collapsing. Its chairman is dead. The anti-bullying rally that Peace Committee leader and devout pacifist Karen Kubota transforms into a districtwide student strike against SPEC, quickly joined by the teachers whose Guild rules forbid them to strike.
But rebellious lovers Shira, Jennifer, and the girl with the violet eyes know what even the Student Union and the dissident rank-and-file teachers don’t: this is no mere strike against a predatory corporation, but the beginning of the Populist revolution against the aristocratic Conservative Revolution and everything it stands for — including its eugenics-oriented moralism. Their love, they realize, is itself a weapon against the System. Shira’s sister Desiree joins their love revolution, abandons her superhero costume, takes her own nameless daughter as her lover, and does battle with both her mother and mortal enemy Drusilla and the entire privatized COPCO police force — just as its Syndicate moles go to war within the company, in effect repealing the Law. The girl with the violet eyes duels her unwanted Corporate suitor Oliver on live television, Lord Richard Becket, the World Patriarch himself, is drawn in, Spanner makes his spectacular return in unexpected form...
And the strike of students and teachers against SPEC balloons into a full-blown general strike.
The time of reckoning has come at last.
Table of Contents:
- Interlude 13: This Is Not America (April 5, 2013)
- Teenage Resistance (October 14, 2011, Final Revision 4/8/13)
- Lovecrime Conspiracy (October 15, 2011, Final Revision 4/9/13)
- Fight the Power (October 16, 2011, Final Revision 4/10/13)
- Massive Retaliation (October 17, 2011, Final Revision 4/11/13)
- Total Police Breakdown (October 18, 2011, Final Revision 4/12/13)
- The Naked Killers (October 19, 2011, Final Revision 4/13/13)
Heavily revised and edited, with many old scenes and threads deleted and new ones added, to fit Final Revision continuity and provide a cliffhanger ending that leads into Chapter 23. Original Revision 2 section titles: “Contradiction Is Truth” (22.1), “Working for the Crackdown” (22.2), “Brinkmanship” (22.3), “Bring the Hammer Down” (22.4), “The Spanner Show” (22.5), “The Naked Killer” (singular; 22.6). There is no Third Revision version; the ending is new to the Fourth Revision.
Because the First Revision version was never completed nor posted, the original introduction is that to the Second Revision and there are no R2 (or R3) revision notes. The R2 introduction:
The first edition of Spanner Book 1 never got this far. Why? I left these two final chapters half in outline, that’s why. The plot had collapsed by this point; such things tend to happen in a first draft. Now, for the first time ever, exclusively for the second edition, I bring you Chapter 22.Chapter 23 →
Principal Principal and Vice Principal Falconer are dead. So are Admiral and Mrs Fleer, leaving the Fleer sisters orphaned. Bart Green is a cripple; Team Valiant has been destroyed. Spanner has exposed Mayor Pete Ross and Shepherd Luke Everson as complete and utter fools. Their failure to violently suppress the peaceful protest at Bremerton High School now allows the demonstrations to spread to every single junior high, high, and technical school in the Metropolitan Seattle School District, and from there to every single metropolitan school district in the State of Cascadia. At long last, the Populist majority have thrown their puppet oppressors, the Fearsome Foursome, the long dreaded Public Challenge, and they have two big demands: a free election, and the end of Tournament. The Law, needless to say, responds with lawlessness.
As the crisis snowballs, Team Bremelo race to save Karen from a hitman, the Wrecking Krewe initiate a full-scale Anonymous strike on AT&T and the FCC, the remnants of Valiant and Pretty Teams plot their revenge, Shira flies one last delivery, and Leila takes advantage of the chaos to put an end to the arranged marriage her hated grandfather, the leader of the Foursome, forced her into — with a final Challenge of her own, which only one can survive! And at long last, Spanner makes his first public appearance since the TrumpCity disaster on Revolution Day!
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