*Sigh*

Not even gonna try anymore.

Fine. We're evil. All republicans are evil. I'M evil. Okay? I eat babies for breakfast. I drain old people of fluids for lunch. I grind up black people
and serve them for dinner. Okay then? Happy?

You guys who are on the left? You're going to win, this November. This much is a given. There are people on the Republican/Conservative side who think
reason will prevail. But I think a lot of us know better. Obama is the next President. And nothing the Republicans and McCain can say or do is going to stop
that. I don't think it's necessarily because the media is on his side (though they are). I just think that the collective mood of the whole populace is
just tired of this. I certainly am. I'm sick unto death of the wild accusations. Of the insane conspiracy theories. Of people just being OUT OF THEIR
FREAKING MINDS about ONE GUY.

So I wash my hands of trying to talk sense to anybody anymore about anything concerning politics until after the elections. Hell, until inaugural day next
January. Until your bogeyman Bush is gone, you're not going to be able to think clearly.

So y'know what? We on the right? We're just going to stand aside. I'm not really all that enthused about McCain and I don't know anybody on our
side who is. He's just a different flavor of the same shit sandwich we're about to be served this coming election. So why bother? If it will get
everybody who is insane with rage over Bush to calm. the. fuck. down. Then maybe it's worth it just to let the Democrats take over for awhile.

I understand that and I'll accept it. I'll try my best to ignore any creep of politics into General. Just accept that it's going to happen. And how
slanted it's going to be. I'd rather keep my friends and forgive them for their wrong-headedness then get angry and frustrated over any of this crap.

Do as thou wilt.

"Doctor. " A large thin man greeted as the hovercar stopped. He bore a remarkable similarity to Raymond Massey. "Your guest has arrived. "

Dr. Grey smiled. He walked immediately to the reception area, passing the television gallery, where Bruce Lee, Jack Dempsey, and Ed' "Strangler"
Lewis were watching the satellite broadcast of an underground combat tournament that aspired to the name of kumite and fell far short. He cared little for
bloodsport, but the products of his recreation were kept amused. He dwelt in the world of the superhuman, and physical confrontation was most of their raison
d'etre.

"Ah. Kage. An uninspired name one thinks. " He greeted his guest. He was garbed in green-gray raiment. He wore a symbol of ten in Japanese on his
forehead. The fabric gave him the impression of being a living, walking shadow. Kage's motions were graceful but not as smooth as Dr. Grey remembered. He
frowned slightly.

"The simple way is best. A man with a broom can kill a samurai, Doctor. " He answered. He did not bow.

"I am pleased to welcome you to my domicile, Kage. I do not invite many to my dwelling. I must confess some surprise that you accepted. "

"You are a mind of great power. " The Kage answered. "That is a rare quality. The world is infested with mediocrity that I find myself attracted
to anything that shows a promise of greatness. Your talents are that of greatness fulfilled. "

"I am not particularly susceptible to flattery. " Dr. Grey responded.

"My time is valuable as is yours. Talking about falsities is a waste of time. " The Kage responded.

Joe Louis and Primo Carnera had now settled into seats around the movie screen.

"The Kumite Deathblow Matches. They chose that deliberately. " Dr. Grey stated, knowing that the Kage would recognize the appellation.

"You have spies there. "

"The first camera was obvious. Now that local security takes pride in having done their job, my second cameraperson can proceed without harassment. "

"A very clever execution of misdirection. There are many who cannot grasp it in the most basic of scenarios. "

A cheer came from the room as Joe Louis nudged Jack Dempsey and commented on the effectiveness of one of the fighter'

s right cross as a knockout blow.

"Rather crude. " Dr. Grey noted.

"I was not aware that you hold interest in the martial arts. "The Kage commented.

"I am a scientist. I prefer testing a hypothesis to physical fisticuffs. Prudence must be mixed with force. "

"Machiavelli. " Kage answered.

"Is one of your operatives participating?" He asked him.

"A masked man under the name of Hito. It seemed to fit the venue. it is an ongoing experiment. "

"One of your robotic replicas?"

"No. My time is precious and my research must be spent on things that can best assist my work. I do not make robotic replicas. "

"Then what are your historical recreations?"

"Biological. "

Kage became silent. Dr. Grey could have attributed this to either surprise or disinterest. Dr. Grey could have cared less.

"How is Alberto?"She asked him, turning to the real reason behind his visit.

"As well as can be expected. " Shockwave Alberto was the codename taken for the head of the Magnificent Ten. Kage was a member of one of the Ten.

"He gloats too much. " Dr. Grey stated.

"Perhaps. He prefers public recognition of his victory. "

"True victory does not require public recognition. No one will deny the final victory, and even if they did, it would be useless. "

"A final victory? This sounds like you and not Lord Alberto. "

"I do not speak about either of us. "Dr. Grey corrected.

The remark intrigued the Kage although he held his face an expressionless mask.

A man in a German military uniform approached, and tried to hand him a report.

"The JLInterplanetary finally captured-"

"Leave it in my study. I changed my mind on that months ago. I am very busy, General. You are dismissed. " Dr. Grey instructed.

The general sullenly saluted, turned on his heels, and strolled away.

"Rommel?" The Kage inquired.

"One of my tactical advisors. He and Patton are quite close these days. However, soldiers always overestimate their importance. "

"What about Goering and his other Nazi friends?"

"I do not surround myselves with them. I prefer to be with people who actually have something intelligent to contribute. " Dr. Grey stated in a cold
voice. They passed by a room.

"Leonardo da Vinci?" Kage asked in a tone of some surprise, which for anyone else would have a piercing scream, a jump, and a hand to the heart.

"You do not know my ambitions. Given the choice of reproducing the man on the street, or even worse, a politician, what better challenge would there be
than the nature of giants? What better zeitgeist of the Renaissance than Leonardo? "

"Can you produce superpowered beings?" The Kage asked.

"Handwavium appears to respond best to conscious beings. The embryos tend to destroy the handwavium altogether. Genetic retrovirii seem to have an
ameliorating effect on handwavium destruction. One in every ten million embryos appears to attract a handwavium power. The study has been most revealing.
"

"Then you have many handwaved servants. " The Kage concluded.

"It is a simple process, but not easy. One day, I shall encode the handwaved abilities into human DNA and eliminate handwavium altogether and create
custom-powered humans at will. "

His face was masked. The statement seemed to disconcert him. Dr. Grey was pleased. His most successful superhumans relied on completely solid state technology.
His handwaved humans tended to be no powerful than a strong athletic human. He decided to further demonstrate his capabilities.

Three containers rose from the floor. Each one had a handwavium-enhanced power.

"This one was a epidemiologist. His biomod allowed him to clean the dirt from the skin. He made a fortune opening a resort. This one was a housewife given
wings. The third is a pickpocket who had a habit of bragging about his thefts, but his power was that to be unseen while robbing people. "

"A wide variety of subjects. " The Kage stated.

"It may interest you to know, that I have found a way to neutralize the handwavium-enhancement, temporarily. I've converted a transmitter for just
this process. Imagine if I used such a weapon on JLInterplanetary Headquarters? I trust Alberto would find such a service profitable. I am sure we can come to
an agreement. "

The Kage said nothing.

"While you consider my offer with the included free demonstration, allow me to show you my recreations. Or perhaps you have no interest in my
hobbies?"

"If you wish to be self-indulgent, make it interesting. " The Kage answered. They walked past the ballroom in which John F. Kennedy and Mariyn Monroe
were dancing together.

"There is no surer guide to the future than the past. " Dr. Grey remarked. They winded their way past Walt Disney watching Beauty and the Beast and
enjoying the picture other than various comments on the inconsistencies of the lines. Richard Burton was bragging about his exploits in Mecca to an interested
John Lennon.

"How intriguing. " He commented.

"I prefer to think of this as their afterlife. " Dr. Grey answered.

They came to the part where Dr. Grey had been heading. There was a gymnasium with one man. He was lifting some huge machinery. The readout told the Kage that
it was someone with superhuman strength.

"This is one of my greatest works. He calls himself Modi. "

"He calls himself Wrath? " the Kage questioned.

"I brought him back from the dead. There was something about his death that intrigued me, and my instincts did not fail me. He was trained as a Viking
berserker. He is now extremely strong and fast, and potentially superior to the Jason in strength and reflexes. "

"What?" The Kage asked flatly.

"Speed is being worked on as we speak. " Dr. Grey answered.

"Bad news, Doctor. " An old man in bifocals handed him a piece of paper.

"Blast. " He grimaced.

"Anything I can do to assist?" The Kage asked Dr. Grey

"No. Mr. Franklin will keep you entertained. " He walked away.

The Kage looked at Mr. Franklin and one programmed hologram went with him while he went the other way invisible. He followed Dr. Grey. He followed him through
corridors and chambers of a hidden fortress. One chamber contained a neural-net AI composed of biological brain matter noting down television ratings and movie
attendance as an experiment in mass psychology. Another noted the star chart movements of ships in space keeping track of everyone in space. A third led to
genetically altered frogs leaping around an early experiment on enhancement technologies.

"You can come out now, Kage. " He called. The man in the mask stepped out boldly.

"You are not permitted here. " He told him.

"No roads are barred to the Kage. "the man told Dr. Grey.

"Even if you were the Kage, you would not be permitted here. " Dr. Grey answered. " I surround myself with recreations of reality. Did you
really think you would pull it off? Your emotional response is consistent, but your physical movement betrayed you. You pulled off the real Kage's
arrogance perfectly. Your performance is very good, but not perfect. "

"You will die. "The man in the mask stated.

"Please, Copycat Ryan as you style yourself. You were hired to kill me by the grieving families I left behind after that mess on the biotech station.
There should be two more of you. "The man who the false Kage saw before in the gymanisum held the bodies of two regular ninja in each hand.

"They put up a fight.Antaeus is unconscious. " Dr.Grey's eyebrows raised

"The Village of Hidden Asteroids has been hiding secrets. "Dr./ Grey mused.

"Take this one then. " Dr. Grey answered. He charged and Dr. Grey slipped by him with superhuman grace. He sprayed him in the face with an atomizer.
His quick reaction proved to a master's work as the way he dodged and flipped became a work of art all while evading the spray.

"Nin. " Dr. Grey stated as Ryan evaded a blow from someone who was also invisible. The air currents in the corridor had warned him who Dr. Grey had
addressed. Trust him to steal the Japanese word for invisibility. That was all he had time for when a blast of light triggered disorientation in his neural
patterns. He shook off the effects in an instant with a meditative trance technique and ran for the door. He touched doors that shattered upon his finger as he
ran towards the exit. The complex was shifting. His direction sense functioned as he blasted through things that blocked his way. He had never felt more
impassioned in his life. He had to rescue his two comrades and contact the Village of Hidden Asteroids and get everyone they were allied to turn the fortress
into rubble. He had thought a handwavium disruption weapon would be impossible and he had quickly figured out the how and why of the temporary disruption. He
had to get out to warn them.

The labyrinth came to an end and saw daylight looming ahead of him. There were trees up there, he could jump up among them. Then he saw the mass of dead
football players waiting for him. He didn't recognize any of them as they tackled him. He blasted the ground and the air threw up football players all over
the grass. He hopped onto a tree and slammed into one who felt like a brick wall.

"He's all yours Antaeus. Let's see if you can handle one of them without help. " The one known as Nin suggested. Ryan slammed a blow from the
secret techniques of Hidden Asteroid into the one called Antaeus who skidded back on the branch and fell down out of sight.

"He's going to need training. " Nin commented as a woman looked up from below. A bolt of lightning hit him and he knew no more.

"What do we do with them, your worship?" The woman named Lei asked Dr. Grey.

"Their talents are too good to waste killing them. Use the mind virus. " Dr. Grey instructed.

"Yes, Lord Grey. " His twelve Elites chorused.

"Place him in the examination room. The Village Hidden in Asteroids has displeased me, so I'm going to remove them from the board. "

"You're going to kill them all?" Lei questioned.

"That would be a waste of mercenary talent. I'm going to buy their village. I can supply them vat-grown meat for their Ninjaburger franchise and
they'll stop bothering me with their highly-trained ninja through a suitable medium. "

I heard this on the radio today and it just screamed two things out at me

1) This is a coooool song

2) OMFG POWA SONG

Royworld - 'Dust'

All that will remain of us,

Are a thousand voices floating in the atmosphere,

Shadows falling in the dust,

And I hear your voice singled out and I want to say,

You and I will never die,

So don't think about all the space in-between us,

Get that rubbish off your mind,

And how many times can I tell you I love you?

You never believed in yourself,

You're living life upon a shelf,

And now that the city's burning,

You're radioing in,

I'm radioing out,

Come-in anyone,

Is there anyone around?

All I want to say,

What's it all about?

Radioing in,

I'm radioing out...

Walking down a corridor,

And I hear the sound of conversations through these walls,

Feeling like a lonely soul,

As the ghosts in the shadows sing-along with the radio,

You and I will never die,

And as the sun's streaming in through the windows from the streets outside,

Come on baby it's alright,

And how many times can I tell you I love you?

You never believed in yourself,

You're living life upon a shelf,

And now that the city's burning,

You're radioing in,

I'm radioing out,

Come-in anyone,

Is there anyone around?

All I want to say,

What's it all about?

Radioing in,

I'm radioing out...

I'm radioing out...

I'm radioing out...

I'm radioing out...

I'm radioing out...

All that will remain of us,

Are a thousand voices floating in the atmosphere,

Shadows falling in the dust,

And how many times can I tell you I love you

I think the power for this is very obvious, if perhaps prohibited for story reasons, but this is definitely a 'Contact Loved One Over Any/All Time, Space
Or Distance' power. If Doug was ever able to find a way to contact Maggie during the Walk, I think this'd be it.

I'd highly recommend the song itself to people, as it's got a kind of 'laid-back intensity' to it, and I found
it very enjoyable.

- Link to the video

- Beautiful Orchestrally Backed Live Performance

So, finding out there's an(unsurprising) Nanoha fandom here, I figured I'd post a couple of these I found that're rather good.
Interlude ("Lesbians? What lesbians?") [S1/A's/StrikerS]
Tough Enough (A little excessive on the picture in picture, but otherwise decent. Beware 25 seconds of Naruto at the beginning in the "artist signature") [StrikerS]
Just Communication (Yes, that song's probably EXACTLY what you think it is) [StrikerS]
Ignition (Far less likely to be recognized, but the editing's rather well done) [A's]
Unfortunately, an absolutely priceless Vivio one from StrikerS was removed by the user, so as recompense, I'll drop off a few more from my personal favorites list.
99 Red Balloons (Robotech/Macross)
It's All Over But The Crying (BGC 2032)
Cabaret (Slayers)
Demonheart (Slayers)
She Goes Boom (Slayers)
Transformers (Gnarls Barkley)
In My Arms Again (Ah My Goddess OVAs)
Sisters In Arms (Tenchi Muyo)
I've got a few more, but I'd hardly want to absolutely spam this full of them. My Youtube Favorites list is basically one massive AMV list for 90% of it. :lol
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

So, I was very VERY impressed with the Knight Saber homages I saw earlier this evening. Nobody had a version of Linna's suit, though. So I started fiddling
around and came up with this - I present Fu Saber!

So while chatting in with several others in the Legendary(and establishing my utter geek cred, but that's another story), we were greated by one of the first examples of how mixing the Arachnos SpecOps costumes with other costume parts may end up causing mind breakage.

Quote:05-24-2008 18:29:03 [The Legendary]OpMegs: ....
05-24-2008 18:29:09 [The
Legendary]MatrixDragon: What the hell?!
05-24-2008 18:29:10 [The
Legendary]OpMegs: Was that a crab spider in a thong?
05-24-2008 18:29:14 [The
Legendary]Atlantea: (utterly BREAKS)
05-24-2008 18:29:16 [The
Legendary]Terrence Knight: Pours bleach on his brain
05-24-2008
18:29:21 [The Legendary]Evil Midnight Lurker: I'm glad I missed
it.
05-24-2008 18:29:26 [The Legendary]MatrixDragon: THERE IS NO GOD THERE IS
ONLY ZUUL
05-24-2008 18:29:28 [The Legendary]OpMegs: A female crab spider in
a thong.
05-24-2008 18:29:37 [The Legendary]Terrence Knight: Theres NOT
ENOUGH BLEACH
05-24-2008 18:29:38 [The Legendary]Evil Midnight Lurker: Well,
that's better
05-24-2008 18:29:39 [The Legendary]OpMegs: ....not as bad as it
could've been

Retropolis Transit Authority

I want these shirts. Especially the Certifiable MAD GENIUS and
Back Off, I'm Doing Science ones.

--
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."

--Voltaire

After more than a few book-only sales, RightStuf's gone back to marking down DVDs from a single company...

Until June 1, save at least 40% of retail price of DVDs and 33% off retail price of manga from Viz. (Yes, Blade, that includes the Ranma 1/2 box sets.) Details http://www.rightstuf.com/mail-templates/viz-2008-05-22/]here.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Bob, have you ever thought of using any disco songs like "Disco Inferno" or "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor?
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Bella Fuego sees a hole in her badge array and wishes to fill it with Imperious's task force.

I am looking at a 7:00pm EST start tonight (Friday) on Virtue.

Nero might have fiddled while Rome burned...

But what caused the fire?