[A hand pushes a small disc into a reader, and we pull out to a cityscape with several large television screens, all of which suddenly blank out and show a rotating mask in the bottom corner, before the image clarifies into an extra-elaborately costumed CARNIVAL RING MISTRESS sitting at a desk.]
RING MISTRESS: Good evening, North America. First, allow me to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition...I enjoy them as much as any bloke...
[Cut to office where numerous robots are working at desks at high speed under the observation of a blurred shape, who all turn to stare at the screen that's been co-opted.]
ELECTRODE: It's the public address channel!
[Across the country, numerous people are looking up at screens that show the delicately shielded face of the RING MISTRESS]
RING MISTRESS: But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.
[Back in the control room, the various workers are working feverishly. The blurred figure is going back in forth in high speed pacing.]
NEURON: Just let me think, let me think...
RING MISTRESS: Now, there are of course, those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and soldiers with weapons will soon be on their way...
[A phone rings and an INHIBITOR picks it up, before turning around with the phone]
INHIBITOR: It's the emperor, sir.
NEURON: Dammit!
[As they continue working, the RING MISTRESS continues uninterrupted]
RING MISTRESS: Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is...there is something terribly wrong with this world, isn't there?
[NEURON is watching the screen as he speaks into the phone.]
NEURON: You designed it, sir. You wanted it foolproof. You told me every television on the continent!
[More and more people are stopping to look at the screens in various locations across the continent.]
RING MISTRESS: Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.
NEURON: Cameras...she needs cameras....
RING MISTRESS: How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty...you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, the threat of super-powered annihilation? There were a myriad of threats that conspired to corrupt your bravery and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you submitted to now high emperor Marcus Cole, better known to you as Tyrant. He promised you order. He promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient capitulation. Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed Lady Liberty to remind this world of what it has forgotten.
[Outside a television studio, NUONs and MESONs are burning through a reinforced door under the observation of ANTI-MATTER]
MESON: We're almost through, sir.
[Above them, televisions still display the RING MISTRESS at her desk.]
RING MISTRESS: Over 400 years ago, a great citizen sought to burn the fifth of November forever in our memory. To remind us that freedom, equality, and truth are more than words. They are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing. If the crimes of this Praetoria remain unknown to you, then I suggest you let the 5th of November to pass unmarked. But if you've seen what I've seen, if you feel as I feel, and if you seek as I seek, then I invite you, one year from today, to stand with me outside the gates of the Imperial Palace, and together, we will give this tyranny a 5th of November that it will never, ever forget.
[Fade to black, title splash: V FOR VANESSA]
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
