by Joel Burdick
[Is that what I sound like when I start monologuing?] Anansi sent across the neural link.
[Yes. :P]
[Remind me to stop doing that.]
[I do. Also, I figured it out.]
[Yeah, me too. Didn't recognize him. Explains everything.]
Chapter 25
“Kinda funny that Nefarious Zod would be the president, isn't it?” Anansi said, turning back to face the president. Andrews' laugh stopped as he looked at Anansi. Denise shot a glance to Anansi, wondering what he was on about. “It bothered me when I first met you. I felt like we'd met before, and I couldn't figure out why.”
“How did you figure it out?” Andrews asked, crossing his arms across his chest. He seemed genuinely surprised. Impressed, even. “The disguise was perfect.”
“Almost. It was the laugh, really.” Anansi tossed the grenade up like a baseball, snatching it out of the air. “Sure, you look nothing like him, sound nothing like him. Hell, your cover was perfect. Didn't throw up any red flags, and you kept appearing as Zod from time to time in your campaign. I'm impressed. Really, I am.” Anansi clapped slowly. “Of course, when you laughed, I remembered the commission I got a few years back.” Andrews smiled.
“See, someone anonymous sent me a request for a transformation belt. Make you look and sound like someone else. Programmable.” Anansi shrugged. “It wasn't too hard and mostly anonymous requests are kinda par for the course for me. Took me a week to make it and send it out and got a pretty timeliness bonus for getting it done.
“Never figured it was you, though.”
Denise looked from Anansi to the president, her mind racing. It didn't make any sense. Nefarious Zod was famous for his mind control powers, but he was in a chemically induced coma in a military hospital under lock and key. She and Archangel had put him there themselves.
“I went to great lengths to establish my cover, even having these unwitting fools in SHIP “arrest me.” As if I could be taken so easily.” Andrews waved his hand dismissively.
“I've foiled you pretty easily,” Anansi retorted, tossing and snatching the grenade again.
“Yes, that. Have you? You may be immune to my control, and your teammates as well, but nobody else on this flight is. Speaking of whom...” Andrews gestured to the door. Denise looked at the same time as Anansi did, seeing the hallway outside clogged with press and staff, all of whom with pistols against their temples in the exact same position as the security chief.
“It seems that the hostages are present,” Andrews taunted, his smirk returning. “Would you like to try that line about you “having done me in” again?”
“Know what your problem is, Zod?” Anansi said, tossing the grenade skyward again. [Get ready to get the security chief,] read a message on Denise's viewscreen. He snatched it as it fell. Andrews raised an eyebrow, gesturing for Anansi to continue. “You're too obsessed with theatrics that you occasionally forget things. I know what that's like. It's what made me like you, even if you were a bastard that steals wills. You're like me in that manner. But sometimes those things you forget are important. Things like making sure that all of your opponents are still here.”
Andrews whipped his head back to Kay and Denise, who were still standing exactly where they had been. Kay waved to Andrews and disappeared as the grenade projecting her image destroyed itself. Kay reappeared behind Andrews as Anansi whirled, throwing the grenades he was holding into the hallway. As electricity arced through Andrews from Kay's gloves, the grenades exploded in the hallway, sending arcs of electricity up and down the hallway and through the bodies of the press and staff. Bodies slumped to the floor, twitching, weapons clattering out of hands. Denise reached the security chief, driving the gun upward just as he pulled the trigger, sending the bullet into the ceiling. She shocked the man, lowering him gently to the floor.
A hand touched her shoulder, and Anansi stood over her. “Nicely done. I might have to keep you around,” he said. A kissy face emoticon appeared on her display, tagged as from Kay. She rolled her eyes and dismissed it.
“You try to get rid of me,” she replied, standing. “I dare you.” She pressed her helmet against his. Kay filled her screen with kissy face emoticons. By the way Anansi laughed, she had done the same to him.
“So, mister hero,” Denise said, pulling back and miming holding a microphone to the area of Anansi's mouth. “Now that you've saved the free world from a mind-enslaving supervillain, what are you going to do?” Anansi ran a hand across the top of his helmet, as if brushing back his hair. He leaned down towards the imaginary microphone.
“I'm going to Disneyland!”
Chapter 26
“Breaking news. After Air Force One went silent for a span of twenty minutes today, it made an emergency landing on the interstate en route to Sacramento.” The blond anchorwoman shuffled her papers as if she weren't reading off of a teleprompter. The words “LIVE” and “BREAKING NEWS” appeared at the bottom of the screen in bright bold letters. “It was carrying President Andrews and an entourage to Sacramento to speak out against superhuman violence.
“According to sources on Air Force One, at approximately two thirty, three individuals appearing to be Anansi appeared in the aircraft, disabling all security personnel and directing the craft to land as soon as possible. They then proceeded to disable the president's personal security detail.
“In a stunning turn of events, the president revealed himself to be the man behind the mask of Nefarious Zod in disguise, a Class four Minder with mind controlling powers thought to have been captured and placed in a chemically induced coma at a maximum security prison three months ago. After this revelation, the president forced the staff and members of the press present on the flight to place guns to their heads in an attempt to force the group of Anansi to surrender.”
The anchorwoman looked off screen, past the camera. “Are we sure this is...?” she asked, confusion in her tone. She nodded as someone spoke too low for the camera to pick up. “Whatever. If this turns out to be a hoax, it's your fault for making me report this.” She turned back to the camera.
“The group of Anansi disabled the president and his hostages. No loss of life has been reported, though several members of the Secret Service were hospitalized with broken bones. A thumb drive was found taped to Nefarious Zod, who himself was cocooned in duct tape in the presidential conference room with an unconscious Agent Spark and incapacitated Agent Archangel. Both SHIP agents declined comment and with Agent Stone are being seen for evidence of mental conditioning. Team Forcefire, the designated security detail for Air Force One, refused comment as well.”
Anansi shut off the television with his neural link, earning him a pillow to the face.
“I was watching that,” Denise said, readying another pillow. She wore nothing but a tank top and underwear, halfway tucked under the covers of the bed in the back of the Cicada. Anansi, wearing sweatpants and an identical tank top, rolled off the bed, taking a pillow with him. He popped up to take a peek at Denise and was hit with the pillow.
“It was boring and we were there!” he shouted, flinging the pillow back at her. She caught it and rolled backwards off of her side of the bed, nearly hitting her head on the wall. She peeked up and immediately ducked back down to avoid a pillow thrown at her.
“We were getting to the interesting part, though!” she retorted, snatching up the second pillow and flinging them at Anansi in quick succession. “We still don't know how the rest of the country will react to you being the good guy.”
“Who cares?” Anansi said, dodging the pillows and returning fire.
“You do if you want to go home for the holidays again.” Anansi paused in mid-throw, which earned him another pillow in the face. He growled and leaped across the bed, catching Denise in his arms and dragging her back onto the bed where they wrestled until Anansi came out on top, pinning her arms to the bed.
“Stop making sense, you. We are supposed to be crazy, and crazy doesn't make sense.” She st
uck her tongue out at him as the television winked back on. Anansi rolled off from atop her, allowing her to watch the television.
“-sident Chambers has temporarily stepped down from his position after a check for mental control returned positive for tampering until the extent of the tampering could be determined,” said the blond anchorwoman, shaking her head in disbelief. “Speaker of the House Logan Perry has assumed the office after being cleared as untouched by mind control. Speaker Perry had this to say.”
The image changed to an elderly man with a shaved head. He brushed at his black suit, trying to straighten out an imaginary crease until an aide whispered in his ear. He eyed the camera with barely concealed contempt.
“People of America, you have been deceived. Your elected president was put in place through deceit and is in fact a wanted criminal. He has corrupted an unknown amount of members of the governing body. This could have gone undiscovered for years if not for the actions of the criminal Anansi and his compatriots, who as of yet remain unidentified. While Vice President Chambers undergoes investigation to determine the extent of his corruption, I will be performing as Acting President, and my first act will be to pardon Jacob Redpath, known as Anansi, of his crimes and reinstate his American citizenship.”
Anansi watched in disbelief as the congressman signed a paper, holding it up for the reporters to see. Denise punched his shoulder, a wide grin on her face. “See? You're a free man.”
“I have a feeling I owe someone for this, now,” Anansi said, ignoring as the acting president was bombarded with questions from the reporters. Denise grabbed the remote and turned off the television. She tossed the remote from the bed.
“Why? Why does everything have to have hidden strings?” she said as she rolled onto her side, draping one arm over his chest. She gazed into his eyes. Anansi felt his fears melting away. “Enjoy the moment for once in your life, you worry-wart.”
“I'll try,” Anansi said, pulling Denise in for a kiss. “Are you going to let people know you're not dead?”
“And give up my complete freedom of responsibility?” she said and laughed. “I'll tell them next week, when we've had a vacation.” She kissed him, and Anansi felt desire building within him. He decided to enjoy the moment.
-~-~-
Kay cut the feed from Anansi's quarters as he and Denise began engaging in lovemaking. She felt Anansi's end of the neural link silence, cutting her off from his mind. That was fine. She was busy, anyways. She shifted her attention back to the chat room.
[KT3.141592653: They are fine. Jake came out unscathed. He was in top form today.]
[TKRTPK: Good to hear. Will you lot be around for Thanksgiving this year?]
[KT3.141592653: Likely. Jake owes my chassis flesh, which we will be working on, but I will likely be attending as myself instead of a mental tag-along this year.]
[TKRTPK: Nice. I look forward to meeting the brains behind the operation.]
[KT3.141592653: Between the two of us, I am suspicious about Perry. I find it unlikely that Zod would leave such a powerful man untouched.]
[TKRTPK: It is odd.]
[KT3.141592653: Do you know why?]
[TKRTPK: >:)]
[KT3.141592653: Ah.]
[TKRTPK: See you at Thanksgiving.]
[User TKRTPK has logged out.]
[End chat room program.]