Spanner 15.3: Invocation of the Nation

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Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 15: Start the Violence
Part 3: Invocation of the Nation (Final Revision)

King Patriot of the American Empire stares down benevolently to his faithful followers crying out to him with outstretched arms in the Unknown Tongue. He holds out his arms. Wellspring warns the Bremeloes in the crowd and the Wreckers on the boat, “Be careful, we’re fighting against extremely dangerous people who think nothing of murdering even their own followers.”

“Hey,” Shira replies, “without collateral damage it wouldn’t be America, and we wouldn’t be here.”

“Remember, Shira, these are the superheroes the people chose to follow.”

“Ha! They’re fighting against the people. They’re the super saviors who only make everything worse.”

“Well,” Sparks says, “how come people keep letting these guys do everything for ’em, then?”

“They’re just afraid of getting beat up,” Jennifer replies. “But we’ll deal with that later.”

The mind-melded pilgrims hold hands, sway together, and babble the holy names of the Nation. The wind rides on the sea of one-star American flags swaying above them. Giant flocks of camdrones fly above to send the sight to every television in the Empire, across the globe, broadcasted on every single channel whether anybody likes it or not. The only other option is to switch the signal off, for the media corporations that part-own the American government are themselves determined to worship Jesus America and his anointed king. The always giggling Shepherd Gallagher sledgehammers the head of the obligatory sacrificial liberal, sending bloody chunks into the adoring crowd, to officially open the Ceremony. Supreme Shepherd Mobley steps in front of the bloody altar to the acclaim of his chanting, babbling congregation. The celebrity reporters report it all cheerily to the TV cameras.

Simon calls roll. “Krewe! Call in!”

Jennifer reports: “Team Bremelo: Blonde Phantom, Red Fury, Black Whiplash, Loca Fantoma, Mecha Neko, Ninjette Hinagiku, one borrowed Scope, and the girl with no name!”

Cory reports: “Away Team: Sonny Jazz, Daimajinkaiser, King Hula, Shockwave Rider, El Kabong, Evil the Cat, the Slasher Hunter team, and the one and only Debaser!”

Nick reports: “Cyber Team: Alex Plus, Space Penguin, Deth Pussy, Moé Neko, Raidou-kun [Akane giggles], Weirdboy Jr., the Cockroach Twins, and the Swede!”

“Simon Sez commanding the ship,” Simon concludes, “and PHW present!”

“Plus,” says Sparks, “hardly any civilians and way too many vigilantes.” He has to muscle his way through a crush of ecstatic pilgrims crowding around Martin Lansky to touch his Sayeret Matkal insignia as if it were the Ka’aba, chanting praise for the Holy State of Israel and its King in English, Hebrew, and the Unknown Tongue and spiting anathemas at those Jews committing “treason” against Orthodoxy and the Holy Kingdom to consort in adultery with the whore Reason. Despite his blondness, Connor barely escapes being ripped to shreds by smitten matrons fighting over who will marry him to their daughters. The man called Scope keeps his face hidden under a Melodia Country Music Promotions cap and the camera over his eye focused on the stage. “Hey, any problems your way?”

Lansky shrugs in resignation. “Looks like you’re the point man, J.T. I’m the decoy now.”

“Hey,” Connor asks, “Shira around anywhere?”

Sparks looks around in surprise, finds her gone. “Thomas?” he asks, hiding behind her last name. “Thomas!”

An amorous matron asks him, “What’s wrong, Agent?”

“Partner ran off, ma’am. Hotheaded rookie.”

Terrorists infiltrate the crowd, hide among the pilgrims, swaying and glossolating, waiting for their bosses to say the word. The pilgrims are too preoccupied with the collective ecstasy of their revival to notice.

Away from the congregation, rats scurry and pigeons forage. Copbots chase them, capture them, and eat them bloody raw as camdrones that manage to get away watch from above.

Spanner 15.2: The Ingathering

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Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 15: Start the Violence
Part 2: The Ingathering (Final Revision)

Hiding in alleyways, abandoned buildings, garbage disposals and anywhere else, the terrorists await their chance to attack: Socialist Revolutionary Organization, Earth Revolutionary Front, Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus, Al-Qaeda in America, Black African Revolutionary Front, Free Union of Christian Knights, Screaming Horde of Insane Terrorists, Revolutionary Union of Terrorists, People’s Occupation Party, Citizens United to Nullify Treason and other extremist Patriot factions, even plainclothes special forces from the Property Liberation Army owned by Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited. Chief Becket keeps a close eye on them through the provoker agents he has planted; some factions, unknown to themselves, are all police. His father the Secretary calls him from the basement. “Are the terrorists any trouble yet, John?”

“No, father. Are you all right?”

“I’ll recover. Has any trace of Spanner appeared yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Stay vigilant.”

“Roger!”

Little do they know that hiding among the agents of COPCO and the mobsters Chairman Sparks hired as freelance police, anarchists prepare to divide the house of justice against itself — including the Chairman’s very own son.

Under an umbrella he hopes will stand up to an ever stronger wind, sporting Scotchgarded black trenchcoat and fedora, James Tiberius Sparks feeds the seagulls at Ivar’s, where the KCUF yacht is docked. The Slasher Hunters registered it under their bounty-hunting contract. The rain comes down ever harder. Three dolphin flippers land on the yacht deck. The mermaids have arrived.

The glossolating crowd continues to grow in Westlake Plaza. Will Becket quietly watches the rain pour on them from the stage above the platform while putting on his mask. Brinkman interrupts him. “Will!”

He turns to face him. “Yes, cousin?”

“Don’t be such a chivalrous fool this time.”

Will cocks his head. “You were saying?”

“I know you, Will. We’re not knights in some outlandish fantasy world. We’re revolutionaries. We can’t afford to let sentiments such as mercy weaken us and cloud our minds.”

“What you don’t realize, Walter, is that revolutions have an unfortunate tendency to crash against unchanging human nature.”

“Human nature must change.”

Will nonchalantly dons his helmet. “That’s easy. Just bite.”

Brinkman glares back. “If you weren’t the famous ‘Red Fang,’ I’d kill you for saying that.”

“If Trista finds out you said that, she will be not happy.”

“Just do your duty, soldier.”

“See ya later, Wally.” With a smirk, Will descends with his soldiers.

Offended, Brinkman stares after him. “I told you to stop calling me Wally!”

A hoverboard racer flies overhead. Radica Maxx, perpetual second place behind Loca Fantoma, is on a Challenge. She expects her to pop up out of nowhere any time to steal her glory. She nearly falls off her board when she sees her rival waving from a yacht docked at Ivar’s, stark naked in the rain. She decides the “loca” part is true.

Polly stands next to Shira in a raincoat, looking up. “What’s Radica doing here?”

“Trying to outdo me at something, anything.”

Jennifer follows the girl with the violet eyes up the ladder onto the deck. Polly glares at her. “Well, did you get a nice view?”

The nameless girl leans into her flirtatiously. “I had to reward her somehow.” She winks. Polly returns to the cabin in a huff.

The crewmember from the one city in England’s West Country paces across the deck in tricorner hat and Barbour jacket. “Ahoy, mateys!” declaims captain Simon Remington, waxing Blackbeardian, “let’s give the bloody cunts a taste of what they deserve!”

Polly shouts from the cabin, “People on talk like that in the movies!”

“I’m from Bristol, I talk like that.”

“Three hundred years ago,” Jennifer reminds him, “with an ‘l.’“

His snarky Scouse bandmate Raven Shears yells, ostensibly to Polly, “Aw, he’s only out in the rain for the pretty birds in the buff.”

“Raven!” protests Simon. He storms in after his laughing bandmate.

A sound truck using Alaskan Way as a speedway blares Patriot Metal and revolutionary slogans at deafening volume. Jennifer frowns sourly. “That must be CUNT.”

The nameless girl crosses her arms. “What kind of Conservative would name his militia like that?”

“Well, one’s obsessed with killer whores, the other’s addicted to jailbait.”

Backstage at the plaza, Secretary Becket feels well enough to tower over the king of the Patriot Metal Superstars. Superheroes tend to be quite intimidating in person, but few are as terrifying as the third American Crusader, only intensified by the patriarchal patina of age. “Now don’t you play your old songs of moral depravity, Mr. Nugent. You are here by the grace of Jesus America to sing the glories of Our Nation to the faithful patriots who sustain our dominion over the world. Do you understand?” Not wanting to lose the respect of this too powerful and dangerous man, Nugent nods.

Spanner 15.1: The Calm Before the Storm

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Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 15: Start the Violence
Part 1: The Calm Before the Storm (Revision 4)

5 october 2014.

The vision shifts and shimmers, but presently becomes coherent: the ingathering of the pilgrims to the heart of Babylon, the music of praise for America, the dramatic arrival of the Beckets on the platform, the bringing out of the sacrifice — suddenly it dissolves into chaos...

The spirit of King Patriot rises from the sea of Conservatives who summoned him, holding out his hands to dispell the chaos as the assembled Party cry out in unison and worship him as their sovereign

—but then the chaos assaults the vision with redoubled violence, men and gods and robots die screaming, the altar burns, the arena dissolves, reality warps and cuts like a knife — a lloigor materializes as pure entropy, then spreading darkness, till finally it takes the form of a magical girl condensing into a glowing indigo crystal—

Total chaos — alarms screaming — emergency lights flashing red — legions of burly cops struggle to wrest several writhing screaming precogs, driven irrevocably mad by visions of pure chaos, through the pandemonium and out of the Crime Prevention lab in the Seattle Public Safety Building’s basement, some of them on stretchers, two already dead. In the panic Doctor 6 hurries into Homeland Security Secretary Henry Becket’s darkened office to report. He salutes. “Mr. Secretary! We’re losing precogs at a record rate!”

Dr. Becket stares through him grimly, chilling him to the bone. “He is here. Now.”

Doctor 6 gasps in absolute horror. “Spanner?”

In his top-floor control room, his son Jack, the COPCO Seattle section chief, watches the monitors with his one good eye. His robot cops chase the fleeing homeless out of Westlake Station and the sewers surrounding Westlake Plaza. With Agent Locke Holmes standing by his side, FBI Director Karl Radisson questions him in his Australian drawl, “Do you think your little robot plan will work?”

“Humans are perverse and treacherous,” the one-eyed man replies. “You can never trust ’em. Robot agents do exactly what you tell ’em to do, no more, no less.”

Holmes says, “Your father tells us he’s losing precogs at an alarming rate.”

“So the chaos angel’s here already.” Jack Becket smiles grimly. “We take the battle to him!”

Below them the Secretary stands in the center of the chaos yet remains unaffected. He closes his eyes to block out the light, shifts his focus within to shut out the sounds of chaos: he is the grandmaster, the world his chessboard; in his right hand he holds a white knight, in his left a black queen...

Spanner:
Hello again, America. Did you miss me? Your fear brought me back.

Your leaders are not men. They claim to be gods. They are illusions. They are no more real than the code I am made of, yet they cause damage and violence to the real world all the same. Now they are invading another great American city, rampaging through the skyscrapers like bulls in a china shop.

I am the voice that torments their minds every day. I am the manifestation of their fear and paranoia. I am the chaos within their own minds. I am entropy.

I am already here. You don’t know where, or how. Expect only what you least expect.

Peace out.

The American Crusader attacks in full costume, cape flowing — “You shall not summon the demon!”

The neon outline of Rebel Styles laughs at him. “You are the demons!”

“So many seers slain — their blood is on you!” The Crusader grows to Ultraman size, able to knock down tall buildings with a single blow—

but the neon outline woman is still there on his left! And to his right another giant woman appears, made entirely of shadow; in a whisper that shakes the universe she says: “Only an angel can slay a demon...”

The neon woman replies: “...but which is the angel, and which the demon?”

“I banish you to Hell!” With his mighty hands he grabs their necks—

but the hot red cord that connects their hearts somehow wraps itself around his neck and strangles him — Rebel Styles impales his heart with her giant monkeywrench — the woman of shadow, the prophesied one, tears the glowing violet power crystal from her silver necklace and jams it hard into his third eye—

—and Henry Becket wakes up screaming, convulsing on the floor in the crippling torture of another migraine—



Three gorgeous young women stand nude on the Smith Cove dock at Evergreen Park as the rain begins to fall. Jennifer rubs a special goop onto the trembling body of the girl with the violet eyes; Shira dries it with a portable hair dryer. “The pollution will be worse than usual in Elliott Bay,” Jennifer explains, “so I whipped this up to keep our skin from absorbing it.”

When the concoction is dry, she picks up a little pill jar and a bottle of water; each girl takes a pill and washes it down. The violet-eyed girl muses, “They really think they’re risking nothing...”

“And we’re risking everything. Are you scared?”

“Are you kidding? I live for this!”

Shira says, “To think of all those Corporates barging into Babylon to flaunt their bling and loot the city...”

The nameless girl’s violet eyes twinkle mischievously. “My love, do you have finder’s rights?”

“Huh?”

Jennifer asks, “What’s ‘finder’s rights’?”

“A core Corporate right,” the nameless girl explains. “Basically, the sovereign right to steal.”

“Well!” Shira grins. “Maybe ‘Shira Thomas’ doesn’t, and neither does ‘Rebel Styles’; but ‘Miranda Clayton-Wilder’ sure does.”

The violet-eyed girl gasps; her jaw drops, her eyes go wide, she points: “You’re—” Shira nods gleefully and winks.

They stand side to side, arm in arm, looking in the direction of their destination. The rain slowly and steadily grows heavier. With no humans in the park to scare it off, a deer placidly munches on brush, periodically stopping to stare at them. The violet-eyed girl looks into Jennifer’s eyes and smiles. “Are you afraid to die?”

“Not in the least.” Jennifer winks.

Tears in her eyes, she pulls Jennifer close and kisses her deeply.

Spanner Chapter 14: Plots and Plans (Revision 4)

← Chapter 13

Chaos Angel Spanner — Book 1: Rock City Blues
Chapter 14: Plots and Plans (Revision 4)

King Patriot of America, emperor of the world, has declared holy war on Seattle! Fearing another Spanner Incident — or worse — the people who can afford it do the prudent thing and get the hell out of Metropolitan Seattle as soon as possible, leaving the poor and homeless majority to face the Empire’s wrath.

Now that Team Bremelo have the run of Bangor High and the entire decaying suburb, they can do what they want without the danger of spies like Kelly alerting their enemies. They have three free days to follow their bliss: mass skinny dipping in the pool, showering together coed, loving whoever they want. But this idyll will end soon, so they must prepare for war.

They fight the first battle at home. Team Bremelo join forces with the Slasher Hunters on an antiterror expedition against the property of Oliver Thorwald and the meeting of the Syndicates being held there, involving a blood sacrifice of pit bulls and Muslim virgins, in preparation for a terror attack of their own on the Conservative Revolutionary leaders. Then they join the guerrilla hackers of the Wrecking Krewe to take the fight to the king of the world...

Fasten your seatbelts, faithful readers! The pirate ship Spanner is about to shift into warp drive, and the real chaos is about to begin!

Table of Contents:

1. City in Flight (August 24, 2011, Final Revision 12/26/12)
2. I Choose Free Will (August 25-26, 2011, Final Revision 12/28/12)
3. B Krool 2 Ur Scuel (The School Invasions Part II) (December 31, 2012)
4. When the Cat’s Away (August 27, 2011; Final Revision 1/4/13)
5. His Satanic Majesty’s Request (August 28, 2011, Final Revision 1/7/13)
6. Last Chance for Free Play (August 29, 2011, Final Revision 1/9/13)

Now incorporating a new nested flashback structure invented in homage to the “mid-season clip show” episodes of anime; includes condensed flashbacks to earlier installments and the still unwritten Book 0, backstory flashbacks, and “scenarios” of alternate versions of events.

Original title: “When the Cat’s Away,” now the section title for 14.3; the final title was originally used for 15.1 R2. Original R2 section titles: “Fujoshi Paradise” (14.2), “Optional School Day” (14.3), “I Choose Free Will” (14.4), “For His Satanic Majesty” (14.5); same titles for 14.1 and 14.6. New R4 thread introduced: “The Return of Alice Company.” From the Project Notebooks: the scene where Leila (now “the girl with the violet eyes” as of 12.4 R4) hugs Daisy, now extended to incorporate the new thread; Irina Lanskaya, now appearing one chapter earlier than in R2 and a major character in the new thread (her first scene has been moved and edited accordingly); Shane Chantry, originally to be introduced in Book 3. From pop culture history: a version of the infamous Max Headroom cable hack. Several R1 and R2 scenes condensed or eliminated; the rest have been edited to fit Fourth Revision continuity. There is no Third Revision version.

The original introduction and revision notes to the far less complex First and Second Revision versions:

So far, most of the action following Chapter 1 has been a series of fight scenes that I've had a hard time translating from comics script fragments into unvisual prose. From now on, it's no longer going to be just a series of Challenges in the never-ending "Tournament" that invaded the schools from the streets. Now we leave the high school corridors and go back to the mean streets where the gangsters, terrorists, and cops rule. And the cops have just gotten their bloody hands on the very latest in bleeding-edge law enforcement technology. Expect the crooks to steal it from the cops soon, just like they always do.

So far, the yuri fans have gotten all the fun. Now at last it’s time for them to take a back seat for once and make way for the yaoi fangirls. The girls have gotten to throw themselves at each other since Chapter 3; now the boys get to go at it. Face it: the boys want beautiful Robert Shelley just as badly as the girls do. But to balance this out, I’m going to introduce another of the great clichés of manga and anime, the Evil Bishounen. Arvid Shield is starting to get too ambiguous, so I need a beautiful boy who can incarnate pure hideous evil. So, from the pages of my unfinished prequel Bad Company: A Corporate Terror Story, I bring you one of its major villains.

Scenarios taken from my Project Notebooks of the early ’00s: the Law of Plausible Deniability, the coed shower scene, the band called Gang and their frontman Eddie Evil, the interrupted sacrifice, and the police [correction] Slasher Hunters’ raid on the pit bull fights.

Second Revision Update: The original introduction refers to certain problems with the first draft, and to the still unfinished prequel/trial run Bad Company: A Corporate Terror Story. Other than that, the major changes fit this chapter into the stronger second-edition continuity.

Chapter 15 →

Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...

Copyright © 2012, 2013 Dennis Jernberg. Some rights reserved.

Spanner 14.6: Last Chance for Free Play

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Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 14: Plots and Plans
Part 6: Last Chance for Free Play (Revision 4)

4 october 2014.
The people who value their lives, and who can afford to flee, have fled. The poor look for any shelter they can find in the hope, possibly hopeless, that they can survive tomorrow. The Conservative Revolutionary faithful swarm in the other direction, into the now silent heart of the central city, from the suburbs and from the far reaches of the Imperial Homeland; they crowd the hotels and camp in office buildings as they wait for the King of America, the Party Central Committee, and the president of President Goldman Sachs to pour the holy wrath of Jesus America onto the faithless infidels of liberal Cascadia.

But far on the suburban fringes of Metropolitan Seattle, a few stubborn stragglers remain. For these past few days, the Law has been nearly absent. These days have belonged to them. Tomorrow, the Law will come down hard upon the prostrate city. This is their last day of freedom. For tomorrow, they will make plans. Other than that, anything goes.

dreamspace. They watch the giant Jesus dressed Uncle Sam rampage through the empty city looking for souls to eat. He smashes his way through the skyscrapers like King Kong through the jungle on Skull Island. The natives throw their spears at him in vain. Melody sings, “He’s heeeere.”

“He’s everywhere,” says Shira, “and he’s hungry.”

Then Jesus America’s eyes catch sight of the girl with the violet eyes—

shira’s apartment. —and she awakens in a panic—Shira’s gone? Her body returns to full awareness and tells her to stretch, but she becomes conscious of someone’s head between her legs. Then she feels a certain familiar sensation deep in her pelvis. Shira is drinking her menstrual blood. She laughs. “So we’re really gonna do it.”

Shira emerges to kiss her. Her mouth is bloody. “Worried you’ll get hurt?”

The nameless girl smiles. “I don’t care about me. I’m afraid you’ll get caught.”

“Isn’t their Ceremony for you?”

“It’s you they’re scared of.”

“They don’t know I’m even here.”

“Echelon told ’em. It knows everything.”

For a long time Shira says nothing. “What about Ariel?”

“No.”

“How come?”

“We can hide. She can’t.” They share a silence more eloquent than words, then they kiss.

In the living room they find Melody sitting in Shira’s favorite chair, already dressed in one of Debbie’s uniforms. “Hurry up, you two, we don’t have time.”

Spanner 14.5: His Satanic Majesty's Request

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Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 14: Plots and Plans
Part 5: His Satanic Majesty’s Request (Revision 4)

thorwald property. BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM pounds Barney SATAN! like a cyborg piledriver. The guitars roar and scream and howl like demons being tortured for the Devil’s pleasure. Eddie Evil, self-infected vampire, growls and yowls in some infernal dialect of the Unknown Tongue.

The music: hate metal, the sound of the criminal underworld; the style: teknoDeth, 300+ bpm piledrive at volumes beyond deafening. No hate metal band more infernal than Gang: Eddie Evil screaming vocals, Elvis and Jesus Hitler torturing guitars, Sikki Sykopath on subsonic bass, Barney SATAN! on drums going BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM.

Below them in the arena, maddened pit bulls rip each other to bloody shreds. Gangland dogfighters cram their pits with steroids, methamphetamine, canine growth hormone, and PCP to turn them into rage-powered murder machines soon to be turned against the Man. The supervillain called the Clown, twelfth of his lineage, presides over this canine Tournament like a depraved Roman emperor. For the leader of all Klownz has come to rally the gangs of North Cascadia to unite to fight the hordes of holy warriors protecting the Party Central Committee and their King. Vince Corson of the Moral Enforcers used his gangland connections to summon him, for the priest of Satan who will restore the lost manhood of sixteen woman-slain Enforcers through the sacrifice of pious virgins, Muslim and Christian. Oliver, Frank, and Christie are not the least bit pleased. “You’re coddling our enemies, Vinnie,” says Oliver.

Corson screams in his face, “I don’t care, Ollie! It’s the only way, or America’s manhood is lost, and our Empire with it!”

“Dead dogs and maidens,” Frank sneers. “Why don’t you just kill the bitches who killed your men!”

“You look like a faggot, Frankie. Maybe I should kill you.”

The canine gladiators fight to the death below as the gangsters crowding the arena scream for blood—the blood of Jesus America and his Party fanatics. When the all-dog Tournament ends, the real show begins: soon the priest of Satan will bring his sacrificial blade for the two beautiful naked Arab virgins, Muslim Saida and Christian Sultana, now trembling in the dungeon behind the arena, clinging to each other, praying to God...

yesterday... Bart, Beck, Rex, and Lance stand over the prostrate Ibrahim sisters begging for their lives when Stan and Vince burst in. Bart asks, “Kill ’em now?”

Stan grins evilly. “Naw, we got better plans.”

Team Bremelo attack, their enemies try to use the sisters as human shields, Saida begs Sana to get away, Sana flees in tears...

Shira sneaks unnoticed to slip firecrackers into the Klownz’ weapons. Their excitement and Gang’s ear-shattering hate-metal apocalypse distract their attention away from the threat assembling beneath the shaking arena stands, but they can’t hide the heartrending cries of dying dogs...

catalina. When the twins’ grandfather gave them the white puppy, it was love at first sight; she grew up with them, outlasted all their romantic flings, helped Shira get over the loss of Kira, even learned to like cats...

Sporting AR-equipped hoverboard helmets and hard soundproof masks, nudefighter gloves and boots, nothing else: Shira, Jennifer, Daisy, Melody, and the girl with the violet eyes infiltrate beneath the platform as Team Bremelo’s advance guard. “Why are we attacking them naked?” asks Melody.

Jennifer answers, “Wet skin’s hard to hold.”

Shira contradicts her. “Gangsters are macho animals. Fanservice is our deadliest weapon.”

“Don’t confuse her.”

Lars appears in their HUD sporting the Slasher Hunters’ pragmatic uniform of black slacks, long-sleeved shirt, winter cap, and fighting boots and gloves. “Shira, are you sure about this plan?”

“Trust me.” She winks; he disappears. She fingers her Go-Yo impatiently.

Daisy asks, “Why are we here?”

“To rescue Sana’s sisters,” Jennifer replies.

“Really?”

“Any Corporate is morally questionable at best. But to become a High Corporate, one must commit an unforgivable act. Whoever masterminded yesterday’s attack wants to sacrifice Sana’s sisters to Satan.,” the nameless girl purrs. “Me, I’m waiting to show the devil man my love.” She caresses her naked katana.

“Then we better crash their party stat,” Shira says.

Rob arrives wearing clothes in ninja black. “So when do we begin?”

The (Re)Making of a "WHAM! Episode": Spanner Chapter 15 R4

Spanner Chapter 14 is completely edited now, with the last two installments posting this week. Now I turn from the difficult to the epic. Chapter 15 will have no flashbacks and scenarios to insert, no backstory reveals to remind you that "everything you know is wrong" (title of a future chapter, by the way). The skeleton of the Revision 1 and 2 narrative will remain intact, including certain pivotal scenes (even if they're not in the same places they were in R2).

However, I'll be changing enough of Chapter 15 for Revision 4 that it'll seem a completely different creature in comparison to the R2 version. In fact, I still find myself throwing in new ideas even as I begin to edit: the central three girls' nude swim to Seattle using dolphin-type flippers in 15.1, the disguised anarchists in 15.2 infiltrating the freelance police COPCO temporarily hired, the video body paint from 10.5 advanced technologically to give Team Bremelo's nudefighters cloaking ability (plus even more new cyberpunk elements added to the originals), Dick Becket actually using his superpowers in rage during 15.5 (his public-domain superhero identity: the Scarab, eighth of his Phantom-type lineage), and so on. I'll be strengthening story elements already present: the concert-style holographic projections of King Patriot's Ego and a 900-foot Jesus America; the hacked copbots actually arresting everybody in range before they start beating each other up; Leila's own newly developing superpowers (which I wrote about over a decade-long span in the Project Notebooks), the end of Amanda's network-reporting career, etc.

My goal for Chapter 15 is the same as that for the aborted Revision 3 version: a genuine "WHAM! Episode" after which nothing will be the same again, either in the in-story politics or the story itself. Of course, looking back, I notice Spanner actually began with a wham (both the Intro and Chapter 1) and is liberally sprinkled with wham throughout; Shira herself is a master of the Wham Line, even if she doesn't use this skill as liberally as she should. But this is the first big one after the "seventh-episode twist" that actually occurred in Chapter 8 (Shira rescuing Leila from suicide, followed by them becoming a couple, kicking off the central relationship line), with the next big "wham" scheduled for Chapters 22 and 23. But what happens in Chapter 15 has repercussions that echo throughout the rest of the series and even threaten to destroy not just the American Empire but the world. The difference between Revision 4 and previous drafts is that, because it allows an editor to separate, combine, and rearrange scenes, yWriter5 makes it easy for me to build a rising narrative and even send it spinning out of control (which it's supposed to do in 15.5).

I will say no more. Instead, I'll go back to editing Chapter 15, with this parting comment: if you've read the Revision 1 or 2 version, the final version will surprise you.

More Thoughts on the Political Thriller

As I write this, I've just finished editing Spanner Chapter 14, and the final two installments are ready and scheduled to post. 14.5 is still the "heavy metal gang war" episode, and 14.6 is still something of a breather episode. But looking back, I marvel at how much I've changed them to fit the final continuity. They're much more a part of the greater political thriller plot than their second-draft versions.

I've found myself seriously annoyed by the great mass of thrillers these days. Most psychological thrillers strongly imply that only the police can save the day. Most political thrillers these days, unlike their 1970s counterparts, are right-wing plots that state straight out that only government superagents can save the day, and they're usually FBI, CIA, or Navy SEALs. I've criticized the left-wing political thrillers in an earlier post for exalting a hero, usually either a guerrilla or an investigative journalist, at the expense of mass action; in Spanner, I'm striving to correct this by making it clear that against the American Empire, Echelon-NORAD, and every giant corporation in the world including the Chinese government a.k.a. Chinese Communist Party (Holdings) Ltd., the mere heroes of Team Bremelo or even Team Spanner don't stand a chance unless they can somehow wake up the masses; it all comes down to "the sanction of the victim". The current flood of right-wing political thrillers takes this to its logical conclusion: assuming the absolute passivity of the masses, heroes cannot succeed without the government, and therefore the government and its all-powerful neoconservative establishment are not only the true heroes but the only possible heroes. Going one step further, you have the Evangelical Christian thrillers written by the likes of Frank Peretti, in which the heroes are helpless against absolute evil until Jesus and his angels take over their fight. Paradigmatic of this rightward shift is the quick and easy conversion of a left-wing thriller into a right-wing one by the ghostwriter of Glenn Beck's The Overton Window. If Beck ended up (co-)writing one of the worst thrillers ever, something like Zero Dark Thirty is exactly what he was aiming to create.

So the usual assumption is that either the masses are passive, as in most political thrillers on the left as well as the right, or downright evil, as Spanner's Conservative Revolutionaries blatantly state following the example of Ayn Rand. Thing is, the thriller-writing establishment is as conservative as Glenn Beck, which is why he fit right in so easily despite his (and his ghostwriters') lack of writing skills. Hollywood is just as conservative: considering my low opinion of Hollywood awards, I'm willing to bet money that Zero Dark Thirty will sweep the Oscars in particular, as a love letter to the lords of Military-Industrial Complex by their fellow Corporates in the Intellectual Property monopoly cartel. This is exactly what I call #msmfail.

And so I'm writing my own political thriller my way. Naturally, it's starting as a blog novel, and its next incarnation will be as an ebook. The Corporate "lamestream" won't touch it with a ten-foot pole because of its political incorrectness. No doubt the Corporates are criticizing me in Stalinist terms of "false consciousness" since thinking for oneself is and has always been by definition a crime against the divine right of Authority. To which I reply as always: À bas les néoconos! Right-wing Stalinism of the ultra-rich is the only possible form of government today? I'll continue to think otherwise. Call me utopian, but I still think the old order is doomed. The only question is whether humanity wants to survive long enough to create a new democratic order. Me, I'll just keep writing.

Spanner 14.4: When the Cat's Away

← ...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 14: Plots and Plans
Part 4: When the Cat’s Away (Revision 4)

Fox: There has just been a deadly shooting at a high school in suburban Seattle—

Sun: Police, ambulances, and grief counsellors are swarming onto the scene—

ABCNN: Let us join in remembrance of our ABCNN News colleagues who died in the Bangor High shooting, our entire Instant News Team except for one camera operator—

QVCBS: The rest tonight’s programming will be dedicated to honoring our fallen comrades, we don’t care what you think—

ESPNBC: The sole survivng Instant News Team member, Amanda Currie, is now being hospitalized in stable condition—

Pictures of the damage, of bloodstained halls and bullet-ridden walls and inconsolable students crying their hearts out, flood the Darknet and even surface on the controlled Internet. Party sites resound with praise for the shooters reclaiming their Manhood and condemnation for their losing it by dying or fleeing. No one dares mention the variously brave, reckless, and suicidal young women who confronted the shooters without their clothes, out of fear that the Party militants will hunt them down and avenge their fallen comrades’ lost Manhood; the naked heroines themselves, to avoid publicity, have long since left in separate cars.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” says Rio to the naked girls in the Mustang. Shira, Jennifer, and the girl with the violet eyes left their uniforms at school.

AEGIS is far more worried. “If you girls keep this up, they’ll kill you!”

Shira winks back. “We’re willing to risk it.”

“Like the proverb says,” Jennifer adds, “it’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees.”

“Besides,” says the violet-eyed beauty, “what better way to express your love for life than to cheat death regularly?”

The Mustang heads for downtown Bremerton on an empty highway. Outside the city, the fleeing traffic moves slowly, but at least it now moves. Three packed vans among them, each carrying one Shield protecting maybe one Positive: one has three librarians (Sally, Kitty, Chris) in the middle seat, three teachers (Elsie, Yasmin, and Eugene) in the back seat, Sylvia in the passenger seat and Charlie protecting her as she drives to Ocean City; Taylor drives those Richter-Thomases not staying out to Port Townsend; and Desiree driving Shira’s nameless neighbours, Ruby, Elle, Ayla, and Lucie. “Do we really have to go away?” asks Ayla.

“Only for the weekend, sweetheart,” Desiree replies. ”Mother’s family are coming to wreck the city, so we need to find a safe place where they can’t hurt you.”

Elle asks, “Will we get away from them in time?”

“It’s only Thursday, Elle. We’re four days early, so we should get to Ocean City sometime tonight and avoid all the insanity in the big city. We’ll have the whole weekend to spend on the beach.”

“Really?”

“At the special place where your Aunt Charlie and I spent our honeymoon.”

Ayla gasps. “I didn’t know sisters could get married!”

“We did. But it’s a long story, so I’ll explain it to you girls when we get there.”

“So why’s Shira staying behind?” asks Elle.

“She says she’s got a little present she wants to give to Mother and her big brothers.”

“Is Kira still alive?”

“Shira thinks so.”

The nameless women in back say nothing. They hold each other’s hands, take deep breaths, cross their fingers. Ayla looks at the stranger sitting next to her, leaning back in Elle’s arms. “What’s your name again? I forgot.“

Lucie seriously thinks about it. Suddenly she is overwhelmed by a burst of inspiration. “Luna.” She smiles radiantly, knowing in her heart she has done the right thing. “Luna Cerise.”

Desiree stares back at Lucie in shock. Ruby asks, “What’s wrong?”

“That is her name,” she sighs. She looks back at the road. Her voice now trembles with joy. “She just chose her own name!”

All her passengers cheer, except a stunned Ayla, who simply marvels, “Sugoi.” They laugh.

By the time they get to Gorst, where the highways to Tacoma and out of the city meet, the traffic nearly stops as two traffic streams merge. “Wow,” says Ruby, “there’s a lot of people trying to get out of town already.”

“Oh, this is nothing.”

The backup stretches as far as the eye can see, past the airport, all the way beyond Shelton and even Olympia. The sun begins to set. Desiree takes her camera out of the glovebox and takes pictures.

Shira, Jennifer, and Leila do not evacuate. Jennifer drives the Mustang back to downtown Bremerton, to Shira’s apartment building. When they open her door, they find not just Catalina wagging and licking, overjoyed as ever to welcome them home, but also, sitting on the couch, already nude with a fighting boots at her feet—Melody?

Jennifer crosses her arms. “Melody, aren’t you supposed to be leaving the city with your mothers?”

“No,” Melody says. “They told me to stay here and go with you. I’m your protector.”

The girl with the violet eyes puts her hands on her hips and cocks her head. “Aren’t that gang of rogue superheroes a bit much for you?”

“Do you have superpowers, Miss Factor Positive?” The two girls stare each other down.

The traffic continues to stream out of the city, gradually faster, as the sun goes down and the city goes dark.

What's In Store for Spanner in 2013

Looks like I took an unintentional break from editing Spanner Chapter 14 over the extended New Year's weekend. Anyway, now it's the year before the story actually begins, and I'm still editing Book 1. So what are my plans for the series this year?

1. I'm going to finish the final edit of Book 1, of course. I'm just over halfway to the end. Unlike with Revision 3, I want to get all the way to the end.
2. Complete the first draft of Book 2, then do a full edit before I start posting installments.
3. Plot Book 3 and begin writing a first draft — sure, there's scenes written, but right now they're just fragments.
4. Complete the Book 1 ebook and get it ready to sell through the online bookstores. This means not just the expensive parts such as buying what I need to keep full creative control, but also the covers and possibly inside illustrations.
5. Get my drawing skills back to the level at which I can finally do the long-delayed task of designing my characters.

For the remainder of Book 1 Revision 4, there's many new elements I've decided to throw in that were completely absent from R2. Here's how I plan to do it:

1. Expand the "anonymity is freedom" theme to include people with one-word or even one-letter or -character names, plus the most important names of all: the numbers the Imperial American government gives pretty much everybody on the planet it claims to rule forever by divine right.
2. Take Book 3 characters Shane Chantry (from the mid-1990s Project Notebooks), Oz Bean (the black rodeo cowboy from Texas), and Radica Maxx (Shira's jealous archrival in hoverboard racing, always sick and tired of being number 2) and insert them in the later stages of Book 1. I've already done this to Shane in 13.5 and 14.1. Oz will make his first appearance in 15.2. Radica... where should I put her? I'll figure it out sometime soon.
3. Expand on certain neglected characters from previous chapters, including those new to R4: Daisy Kwon, Irina Lanskaya, Zac Finney, Hope Reston, the librarians and other dissident teachers, etc. The third-act "homestretch" (Chapters 16-23) should give me plenty of room to do so as I prepare to clear out certain Book 1 characters to make way for the Book 2 supporting cast.
4. Escalate both the "cyberpunk" and "Orwellian" aspects of the story.
5. Weaponize "the power of rock": on the government side, the Patriot Metal superstars and their battle copters; on the other, the Rockers with their instruments (lead guitars, electric violins, circuit-broken Casio SK-1s, Roland 808 bass cannons, etc.) connected to sound cannons. Combine this with "the power of love" weaponized by Shira and Leila starting Chapter 15, and CPMC may die from "rule of cool" alone — but the point of Chapters 16-23 is that "rule of cool" is not enough without the masses taking action on their own behalf.

And so this is my plan for Spanner in the year before the story begins. As I myself am impatient as to how the story's going to turn out, I get the feeling I'll be following this plan to its completion, unlike previous years. And it starts tonight, as I've started editing the second half of Chapter 14. 14.4 will post on Friday because my muse refused to work during the extended New Year's weekend. But she's back on duty now and attacking the story again as we speak. It continues...