A little something that I put together for the final chapter, after hearing a particular '70s song on the radio... I don't want this to be the final version of this scene; for one thing, it has no song lyrics. This is because I can't find the lyrics anywhere on the web... Oh, the altered lyrics to the remix are trivally easy to find, but perish forbid the original lyrics should be available anywhere.
Enough rant - time for the story fragment.
By this point, they had to know where we were headed, even if we didn't. So it was no surprise that there were a dozen soldiers waiting for us as we walked around a corner.
"Oh, no," moaned Hanson as a metal blast door closed behind us, cutting off our escape route.
As the Neo-Atlantis soldiers aimed their rifles at us, I gestured to the others. "Get behind me," I whispered.
When I was in MegaTokyo, I was introduced to the idea of the "superhero". The Blue Blaze Irregulars helped me get a partial handle on the concept, mostly by letting me read some of their collections of serial-art stories. (They called those stories "comic books", but there wasn't anything comic about most of them.) I also picked up some interesting music the last week I was in MegaTokyo, including a Canadian song that was almost as old as I am. Putting the song together with the abilities of some of the "superheroes" seemed like the best choice here, both for the novelty value and to avoid using one of my more powerful songs on normals.
I raised my voice to the level where my computer would definitely hear me. "System. Rubber Band Man. Play." The song's effect took hold as the soldiers opened fire.
The bullets hit my skin, causing my back to develop some very tall dimples for a moment. I straightened up and let the rounds fall off my chest and land on the deck. I could only imagine the looks of surprise that must have been on the Neo-Atlanteans' faces. Sometimes I really hate full-face masks.
Once I was sure that they were out of ammunition, I bounced - yes, bounced - over to them, stretched out my arms as far as I needed to, and gave all twelve of them a biiiiiiiiiiiig hug.
"Good Lord, Sangnoir! How do you do that?"
I replied with the standard answer a magician gives to that question. "Very well, Samson." I turned my neck around 180 degrees to see him frown. "Now would you three please come over here and secure these people? I can't hold them forever." In fact, one of the soldiers was almost out of my grasp, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold him.
Sanson noticed that soldier and drew his pistol. I was about to ask him to be careful aiming when he reversed the weapon and clubbed the soldier over the head with its butt. That was enough to knock him out, and the other soldiers stopped trying to get out of my hug. By the time the song was over and I was back to being a normal metahuman, Samson and Hanson had disarmed and secured the soldiers.
"Now what?" asked Samson.
"We keep going and hope Jean hasn't moved. If he doesn't need to be rescued, then he'll know how to get off this ship."
"My thoughts exactly, Senorita," I smiled as we continued on the course I had learned from playing "I Will Follow Him".
Well, that's it, so far. Can anyone fill in the following blank for the "legal" section, or find me a copy of the lyrics?
Lyrics from The Spinners' "Rubber Band Man" copyright 1971 by _____, used without permission.
--
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
Enough rant - time for the story fragment.
By this point, they had to know where we were headed, even if we didn't. So it was no surprise that there were a dozen soldiers waiting for us as we walked around a corner.
"Oh, no," moaned Hanson as a metal blast door closed behind us, cutting off our escape route.
As the Neo-Atlantis soldiers aimed their rifles at us, I gestured to the others. "Get behind me," I whispered.
When I was in MegaTokyo, I was introduced to the idea of the "superhero". The Blue Blaze Irregulars helped me get a partial handle on the concept, mostly by letting me read some of their collections of serial-art stories. (They called those stories "comic books", but there wasn't anything comic about most of them.) I also picked up some interesting music the last week I was in MegaTokyo, including a Canadian song that was almost as old as I am. Putting the song together with the abilities of some of the "superheroes" seemed like the best choice here, both for the novelty value and to avoid using one of my more powerful songs on normals.
I raised my voice to the level where my computer would definitely hear me. "System. Rubber Band Man. Play." The song's effect took hold as the soldiers opened fire.
The bullets hit my skin, causing my back to develop some very tall dimples for a moment. I straightened up and let the rounds fall off my chest and land on the deck. I could only imagine the looks of surprise that must have been on the Neo-Atlanteans' faces. Sometimes I really hate full-face masks.
Once I was sure that they were out of ammunition, I bounced - yes, bounced - over to them, stretched out my arms as far as I needed to, and gave all twelve of them a biiiiiiiiiiiig hug.
"Good Lord, Sangnoir! How do you do that?"
I replied with the standard answer a magician gives to that question. "Very well, Samson." I turned my neck around 180 degrees to see him frown. "Now would you three please come over here and secure these people? I can't hold them forever." In fact, one of the soldiers was almost out of my grasp, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold him.
Sanson noticed that soldier and drew his pistol. I was about to ask him to be careful aiming when he reversed the weapon and clubbed the soldier over the head with its butt. That was enough to knock him out, and the other soldiers stopped trying to get out of my hug. By the time the song was over and I was back to being a normal metahuman, Samson and Hanson had disarmed and secured the soldiers.
"Now what?" asked Samson.
"We keep going and hope Jean hasn't moved. If he doesn't need to be rescued, then he'll know how to get off this ship."
"My thoughts exactly, Senorita," I smiled as we continued on the course I had learned from playing "I Will Follow Him".
Well, that's it, so far. Can anyone fill in the following blank for the "legal" section, or find me a copy of the lyrics?
Lyrics from The Spinners' "Rubber Band Man" copyright 1971 by _____, used without permission.
--
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