2005-07-29

(no subject)

51.

“All fighting stops now, or the boy dies!” Was his demand.

It was done in seconds.

The Thunderbase crew had pulled back into the jungle. The invisible combatants were all visible, including Madame Mimic who lay unconscious on the ground.

“Some one turn off those machines!” He screamed in a way that did not nominate him for any mental health awards.

That too, was done.

Mickey had lost consciousness by the time the Immorti loosened his grip on the boy’s throat.

“I just want the mother and the boys. Give them to me, and everyone else lives.” Shastan demanded.

“Why not just take me?” The real Maria said, as she dragged her fractured body out of the tower. She was wearing a hospital gown, and dragged I.V. tubes behind her.

“I could kill you, but that would not be punishment enough,” He told her.

“It would take little to kill me,” She coughed.

“That is why I must destroy your soul. I must destroy your family, just as mine was destroyed.”

“Let me talk to my boys,” She told him, “Then you can do what you will.”

He laughed evilly, and dropped Mickey onto the ground. David flew to his mother, and then carried her to the spot where Mickey lay.

She looked down on her beloved child, and then up at the other glorious gift life had given her. She had a tear in her eye, but she smiled anyway.

“I love you, David,” She said.

“I love you too, Mom,” The boy told his mother.

Mickey started to struggle to wake up. His hand reached up to his neck. There it was taken by his mother.

“Aw, Ma’,” He companied, “You weren’t supposed to get involved with this.”

“And how can you be involved with anything that doesn’t include my heart and soul?” She admitted.

She took the boy’s hand and kissed it.

At that point she began shaking. She was reacting the way Mickey had seen an epileptic boy in his class react once.

She shuddered and fell to the ground, where she thrashed about violently.

“Maybe I won’t get to kill her after all,” Shastan laughed.

(no subject)

52.

Where it came from is impossible to tell. It might have been from the boy, or from his mother. More likely it was something bigger and deeper.

There is a well of power that is tapped at the most important times. It is family, it is unfailing. There is no more powerful source of human life than that.

A pool of liquid light encircled Maria, engulfed her and transformed her. It healed her and rediscovered her. The light brightened until it was a blinding beacon.

Then, floating ten feet over their heads, there she was. The glowing form of Maria. Not just mom, but a goddess.

And she was angry.

Her hair wasn’t back, but a golden halo circled her bald head.

“You cretin,” A voice that was like hers, but not exactly, came forth.

“You take your pain and make it everyone’s pain. In response to the loss of your family, you attack the family itself. All those who would have what you had should die before they can have it. All those who have something like what you had should lose it like you did.”

She rose another 10 feet into the air and said, “But the family is more than just the humans it takes to make a group. A family is more than DNA bonds. Family is more than church or politics or anything else that is artificially made. Family is a communal soul that exists within all the human race. And I am the seat of that soul. I am Motherhood. And you can take on a lot of stuff, but buddy, when you take on Motherhood you’d better be ready to lose your balls!”

She was now at full power, she was a magnificent thing to behold, radiant and beautiful.

“All right, boys,” She said, “Let’s take this sucker down!”

And now, the final battle began.

(no subject)

53.

David flew to his mother’s side, but Mickey said, “Wait just one second.”

He was looking at his I-Pod, and then said, “Turn ‘em on boys!”

The Omegatron 14’s lit up and began to blast the Helen Reddy song “I Am Woman,” and an enraged Shastan flew towards Maria.

Unfortunately for him he went well beyond her and was swatted back by the dragon’s tail.

On the rebound Maria locked hands with him, and, looking eye to eye said, “This is a life, like so many before it, that you have thrown away.”

With the most powerful kick anyone present had ever seen she hit the superhuman in the groin.

“You should have been doing good. But you chose to be anti-life,” She said as she socked him in the face. He had not been defending his face, since both of his hands were cupped around his recently attack region.

Her second shot sent him reeling at least 200 yards. At the end of that arc he became incredibly dense again and smashed to the ground.

Flame and acid hit him from both sides, and the music continued to blare.

“Even your own robots are against you,” David said, pointing to the approaching behemoth.

The metal giant struck him from one side and Mastodon answered on the other.

Then he flew uncontrollably into the air, where he was met by Maria’s pummeling fists.

This time when he hit the ground, he did not get up so quickly.

When the giant robot sat on his back it took conscious effort for him to throw the thing away.

Luckily Stonedragon could take over another of the abandoned giants and bring it into the battle.

Madame Mimic had recovered and appeared to him as himself, but a Shastan in a diaper, sucking his thumb and crying like a baby.

He was again enraged, but flame and a crashing robot on his head seemed to take the momentum out of it.

Now the machines that he knew were the thing altering his powers blared out the Beatles song “Nowhere Man.”

He stood, with great trouble, and began to walk to his saucer. At this point an invisible hand injected him with something.

He turned and looked at them, with a total look of confusion.

On the other side, another invisible injection took place.

The world around him began to spin.

It was at this point that Maria landed just in front of the beaten Immorti.

“Vadid Shastan,” She told him, “You will come back in another life. We cannot stop that. But this last thought let us leave you with in this life.”

Mickey and David walked to her side.

“You were not beaten by power, you were not beaten by stealth or shicanery. You were beaten by family. Something you had, and could have again. If you can, move on. I have lost my husband because of you, but I must move on. The family is more important than any individual. Until you learn that, your lives are phony, sham things. This next one, try to live again.”

It was at that point the poison took over.

The injections had taken so long to be given because needles could not pierce his skin. But, once the battle had cut him, scraped him, there were plenty of places where the poison could go directly into his system.

A general cheer went up from those who had seen a hard battle won.

Mickey didn’t feel like cheering as he looked down on the dead body.

His mother understood and soothed his hair with her hand. Then she kissed him on the top of his head.

Mickey decided to let those who felt like celebrating do so, so he hit the button on his I-Pod and Queen’s “We Are the Champions” filled the air.

(no subject)

54.

Mickey didn’t really join in much of the party that followed.

He had planned and carried out the murder of a man. It was indeed the man who would have ended all life on Earth, but it was still a man.

Eleven year old boys shouldn’t be involved in the death of another human.

No matter how he looked at it, there was no reason to drink punch and dance and sing.

His mother came into the darkened living room and sat beside the boy.

“You were brilliant back there, kiddo,” She told him. “The first time I was in a battle I cried for an hour afterward. And it was just fighting, nobody died.”

“How can it be a good thing for someone to die?” Mickey asked with tears in his eyes.

“You know the idea of the lesser of two evils?” She asked him. He didn’t answer.

“If you were ever to be happy about killing someone, then I would worry about you,” She told him. “They,” She went on, “Are celebrating the victory, not the death. The victory of life over death. Wouldn’t you say that was worth a little party?”

“Guess,” He admitted, but he didn’t cheer up in the least.

“What’s important is that I have never seen anybody handle the planning and combat the way you did,” She said.

“Really?”

“Stonedragon said you are a natural General.”

“Huh?”

“He said you were a genius in tactics,” She told him in complete sincerity.

“Wow,” He said with a small amount of positive feeling creeping into his dour countenance.

“They are waiting for you to make an appearance,” She said, taking his chin in her hand and pulling his face up to look to her.

His took a deep breath.

“They put themselves on the line behind your plans, you owe them.”

He sat back on the couch and sighed.

“I owe them?”

“They put their lives at risk . . .”

He jumped up, “Alright, alright. I’ll go.”

She smiled and stood.

“By the way, they have presents . . .”

He looked pleased.

“And they will expect a speech.”

Everything resembling happy flew out of his face.

“See you down there, honey.” She said and giggled as she went out the front door.

If he had known what the "present" was, he wouldn’t have been anywhere as prickly about going.

The present would change his life and future forever.