II Crimsonstreak
Page 30
I was going to run to the Fairborne home before remembering that Chris’s hometown was actually destroyed. I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t have shopping malls or lots of people. I hope they put up a statue of him one day when they rebuild. He deserves it.
Maybe the Crusading Comet has some answers. I guess I’m off to New York.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
The Crusading Comet was happy to see me. He and his butler told me I could help fight against Colonel Chaos.
I don’t get it.
Colonel Chaos is a good guy. I mean, he used to be bad, but he turned good again. Now the Comet says Colonel Chaos has returned to his evil ways.
I asked him when we could spring Crimsonstreak, but the Comet said that wasn’t a priority. His butler totally scoffed at the idea.
I don’t get it.
We’re preparing for a fight. Let’s hope it’s a good one.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
Their blue sticks have a nasty sting. I don’t like them.
Neither does anyone in my group. We’re being herded into the Clermont Rehabilitation Resort, a super-cool place where superheroes like me can train and get better. They brought Crimsonstreak here before, so it must be a good place, right?
Except I don’t like it. The guards—they call them Enforcers—like to berate me and tell me I’m no hero. They don’t care that I’m Scarlet DashBoy. They said they see a kid in a costume.
I keep looking around this place for Crimsonstreak, but I never see him. They must be keeping him in a special area. Hell, he probably runs the place because he’s such a great hero. We could all learn something from him.
Maybe it’s not so bad. The Comet keeps telling me this isn’t a fun place, but I kind of like the food. I don’t understand why everyone’s so hot to trot on leaving. A bed, three guaranteed meals. I haven’t had that since… ever.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
It was chaos. All the other inmates went berserk today. I saw this one guy move really fast through a force field.
It had to be Crimsonstreak. I ran after him, but a couple of the Enforcers got me. They mistook me for Christopher Fairborne.
They strapped me up even tighter, put me aboard a transport, and took me somewhere. I heard one of the guys tell me they were going to take me to see Colonel Chaos.
Maybe I’ll finally get some answers. If I’m really lucky, I’ll still get that chance to team up with Crimsonstreak.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
I don’t know where Chaopolis is, but one of the Enforcers told me it used to be Indianapolis. I keep asking about Colonel Chaos, but they tell me they know I’m not Chris Fairborne.
Colonel Chaos doesn’t give a crap about me, they said.
So they’re going to use me as an example. This whole weird thing with the New World Common Wealth is strange. I thought it was this great new government, with Crimsonstreak’s dad in charge, making everything all better with the world. I’m kind of wondering about it now, though.
They’ve got me strapped to a table.
The first sting of the electro-whip barely tickled.
The other didn’t tickle.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
They’re at it again.
The Enforcers like to take turns with the electro-whips. I keep holding onto hope.
Crimsonstreak will save me.
Crimsonstreak will save me.
Crimsonstreak will save me.
We can still be partners.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
This time they flogged me in public. I was restrained while the Enforcers gave me their usual treatment.
You’d think after all the lashings that the pain would go away.
It doesn’t.
Dozens of Enforcers lined up, assaulting me with the electro-whip on its lowest setting.
Then, hope.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an Enforcer far away from the rest. I recognized his gait, the way he seemed to move faster than a normal person. A slightly shorter Enforcer walked with him.
A rescue.
I didn’t feel the sting of the lash as it shocked my system. A smile curled up on my lips when I saw Crimsonstreak stop and look.
I knew my future partner wouldn’t let me down. Neither would his… sidekick?
He looked at me as if considering something.
The electro-whip lashed me again, right in the chest. Those were the worst.
I looked toward Crimsonstreak.
When I blinked, they were gone.
I couldn’t feel much of anything after that.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
Wandering.
Rambling.
Trying to figure out what’s happened over these last two years. I was lost, abandoned. I dropped out of sight.
No one ever asked about Scarlet DashBoy, so he disappeared. There was one guy out there who could’ve helped me. Instead, he took his sidekick—I didn’t think he liked sidekicks—and walked right past me.
The Enforcers did their worst. It hurt.
It all hurt.
Then they found me.
They told me they could turn me into something special. I don’t really like surgery, but whatever they did worked. I can flat-out run. I was fast before, but now I’m faster.
Just don’t like the voices in my head. They keep telling me to do things, but I don’t want to do them. I only have one goal: take down Fairborne.
He’ll never be Crimsonstreak again.
Gotta find a way to hurt him, to make him notice me. Then, when he does, I’ll show him what speed really is.
From the personal journal of Barry Allen Bartlett (Scarlet DashBoy)
Fairborne.
I used to look up to that guy. I thought he was a hero.
Fairborne.
His stupid father. His stupid mother. Somehow she’s back from the dead. I keep hearing whispers that she’s a little crazy. Crazy like her stupid son. Her stupid, cowardly, idiotic son.
I can’t believe I used to look at that guy and try to be like him. I can’t believe I dressed myself in red and tried to convince everybody that I was just like Crimsonstreak. I’m not like Crimsonstreak. I’m not like Fairborne. I’m not like either of them.
Barry Allen Bartlett died a long time ago. Scarlet DashBoy died when the New World Common Wealth took over and Fairborne let those Enforcers work him over.
Scarlet DashBoy died that day.
DIED.
He became something even greater.
A different man, a different color.
Call me the Bluestreak.
I’ll be everything Crimsonstreak isn’t. Heroic, intrepid, and good. I’ll save this world on my own. I don’t need anyone now. One day, I’ll become the fastest man ever. Fairborne will eat my dust. DUST. No more hero worship, no more stupid kid looking up to a fraud. The blue wave is coming and it will sweep away all that came before.
Just have to push the voices out of my head.
That day will come soon!
This is the time of the Bluestreak.
Appendix II: The Provisional Government
World News Service
June 3, 2010
Greg Sakowicz
Staff Reporter
Legion’s Chaos Theory
Group reveals existence of second Colonel Chaos
WASHINGTON – The Heroic Legion shocked the world today when the newly reformed group revealed the existence of a second Colonel Chaos.
“Our Colonel Chaos opened a rift to a new dimension,” Legion leader Samson Knight said. “In doing so, he pulled over a different version of Miss Lightspeed and opened the door for a second Colonel Chaos to enter our world.”
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br /> The unwieldy explanation appears to fit a series of strange events that resulted in the return of Chaos’s wife, Miss Lightspeed, who died at the hands of the villainous Zeus Caesar in 2000. Chaos had previously said that his wife had been “in stasis” since the battle with Caesar.
According to the Heroic Legion, a second Colonel Chaos entered our world, teamed up with the other Miss Lightspeed, captured the original Colonel Chaos, and then set about establishing the now-defunct New World Common Wealth.
“Our Colonel Chaos could not accept the death of his wife, triggering a chain of events that forever altered the course of our world,” Samson Knight told reporters. “This is an unprecedented case, and I do not know how we proceed from this point forward from a legal standpoint.
“What I do know is that the New World Common Wealth is dissolved. Member nations will be restored to their previous circumstances. The United States of America will be reconstituted. Our states will reclaim their individuality. Gone are the days of ‘regions’ and cities named after the scourge of the alternate-dimension Colonel Chaos.”
Chaos 1 surrendered peacefully following a battle with Chaos 2 on an island off the coast of New York. His son Chris Fairborne, a.k.a. Crimsonstreak, is credited with organizing a mission to unseat his father. Crimsonstreak had formerly been a prisoner at the Clermont Institution for the Criminally Insane, where he stayed following his conviction in 2007 related to a deadly bombing that destroyed his hometown of Williamsburg, Ind.
World News Today has confirmed the existence and subsequent death of a second Christopher Fairborne. Samson Knight would not reveal the cause of the second Christopher Fairborne’s death, adding only that he was a genetic clone of the original Christopher Fairborne.
Knight told reporters that Chaos 2 cloned his son in order to establish a leadership triumvirate for the New World Common Wealth.
The issue of pursuing justice now heads into murky legal waters. The Heroic Legion will have to determine which Colonel Chaos is directly responsible for a genocidal campaign against super-powered heroes. It is estimated that Earth lost up to 50 percent of its heroes following the Kiltech Incursion and Chaos 2’s campaign to eradicate enemies of the New World Common Wealth. However, the campaign could not have been carried out without the work of Chaos 1, who effectively helped Chaos 2 enter our world.
Furthermore, even after these unprecedented legal issues are clarified, attention must turn to punishing Chaos 2. Sources tell World News Today that the Heroic Legion will have to decide whether to allow Chaos 2 to stay in our world or order Chaos 1 to build a device allowing Chaos 2 to travel back to his own dimension.
Samson Knight refused to discuss the issue during today’s briefing.
“The issue of punishment for Colonel Chaos and his alternate-universe self will be decided at a later date. I have no comment at this time.”
World News Today
July 5, 2010
Greg Sakowicz
Staff Writer
Road Map to Normalcy
Provisional government, Heroic Legion detail reconstruction plan
WASHINGTON – The United States of America will soon fly the red, white and blue once more.
It just may take some time.
“Our country—our world—has suffered unprecedented trauma,” said Ariana Glover, chairwoman of the provisional government now overseeing the former New World Common Wealth. “We are dealing with some complicated issues involving sovereignty, constitutional interpretation and states’ rights. On top of that, we’re grappling with everything from road and bridge infrastructure to food distribution.”
The 13-member provisional council includes several former U.S. lawmakers and is working hand-in-hand with the Heroic Legion to reinvigorate the United States of America. Members admit this is a daunting task in the wake of the Kiltech Incursion and the New World Common Wealth’s establishment and subsequent collapse.
“One of those would have been enough of a shock to our system,” said council member Daniel Wooster, a former congressman from the former state of California. “When you combine an alien infestation with a complete reorganization of the globe, you are bound to encounter a variety of unanticipated problems.”
“We face the reality of hitting ‘reset’ on our beloved country,” former Connecticut Senator S.J. Biggs said. “While we strive for an outcome with no restrictions on personal freedom, we must also come to grips with the harsh reality that an extraterrestrial incursion could once again shake our foundation. A different type of defense platform must be enacted. We must think outside our normal box.”
The provisional council unveiled a 10-point plan for reorganizing the United States of America. Effective immediately, states are to return to their pre-NWCW borders. Municipal and city governments are expected to take over operations from former NWCW “Central Processing” sites. Their priorities will include food distribution, census taking, and an assessment of infrastructure needs.
The provisional council is asking remnants of state governments to coordinate similarly on a higher level. Council members point out that some vestiges of the New World Common Wealth reign—including networked video monitors and detailed record-keeping methods—may prove helpful in assessing needs.
For now, the provisional government is operating under the assumption that the Union was in fact broken under the rule of Colonel Chaos’s New World Common Wealth. Council members plan to return to the historical status quo, but will entertain changes to the conventional U.S. delineations, a concession to the destruction of California and the desire of some states to redraw borders or join together.
The first step in the process will be the orderly election of senators and representatives from original state territories. Once those selections are made, the council will convene a new Constitutional Congress to re-ratify the Constitution and move forward with business at the U.S. Capitol.
“The complexities involved here are unprecedented,” said Professor Richard Gillespie, a noted political and history expert from Franklin College. “This isn’t a case of states wanting to secede from the United States of America. This is a case of the states being forcibly pulled apart by an outside influence.
“We’ve been using the word ‘unprecedented’ quite often, but it really is the best way to describe our predicament. After the Kiltechs invaded and killed the president, our government ceded control to Colonel Chaos,” Gillespie said. “Thus, from a legal standpoint, the American people allowed the New World Common Wealth to take control. That action nearly makes the NWCW an extension of the U.S. Constitution. Thus, the provisional council is symbolically nullifying that move by restarting the process of ratification.”
The council expects most of the hallmarks of NWCW rule—Enforcers, curfews, requirements for transit papers, energy rationing and the reorganization of the highway and Interstate systems—to disappear.
“Everything starts from the ground up,” Biggs said. “We go with the local governments first, work to the state level and then kick-start our national government.”
World News Today
January 7, 2011
Greg Sakowicz
Staff Writer
Government Stuck in Reverse
Divisive issues derail national government plan
WASHINGTON – The provisional council assembled to repair the broken United States of America has skidded into some roadblocks, sometimes by its own doing.
“The provisional government could have returned immediately to the status quo instead of burdening itself with this complicated process of re-ratification,” said Professor Richard Gillespie, a noted national political expert from Franklin College. “But they felt—as many of us do—that they had to remove the taint of the New World Common Wealth from their government. As a result, they’re encountering problems they didn’t anticipate.
“For example, three states—Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky—are now haggling over the right to the name ‘Land of Lincoln.’ All have
ties to our 16th president and are now locked in a pointless dispute that is slowing down our return to a smoothly functioning national union.”
Gillespie referred to the tri-state flare-up as a direct result of the provisional council’s decision to consider the redrawing of state borders.
“Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but spent his early years in Indiana. He spent his professional and political life in Illinois. All three states have a legitimate claim to part of his legacy, and now they’ve decided this is the best time to parse the subject. It really is inconceivable.”
According to Gillespie, Illinois has threatened to request the annexation of northwestern Indiana unless its neighboring state relinquishes its claim to the phrase “Land of Lincoln.”
“Abraham Lincoln spent his formative years in Indiana. It’s where he learned how to think and where he developed his theories on life, religion and politics,” Indiana territory steward Mitchell Danielson said. “I think our neighbors to the west should acknowledge that the ‘Land of Lincoln’ was east of Chicago.”
“One would think the state of Indiana—make that territory of Indiana—would put our national government ahead of its own self-interest,” Illinois territory steward Dick Turbine said. “But apparently our Hoosier neighbors believe Abraham Lincoln belongs to them. He belongs to everyone, Illinois most of all.”
As if the dispute between Indiana and Illinois wasn’t ill-timed enough, Kentucky territory steward Patricia Devine released a statement on behalf of her fledgling government.