🚀 go-pugleaf

(continued from part five...)
                                   ***********

     Wonder Grunion had gone, as had most of the major superheros in Benedict's
immidiate vicinity.  The Sorcerer Supreme had been a most impressive spokesman,
and had presented his case well.  He was correct in most of his points, and
quite possibly all of them- the anthropomorphic fish had made significant
additions to Benedict's data, additions that would have to be researched
extensively back at MooseLodge.
     It was all a matter of extreme.  The views that Wonder Grunion had
presented, that the killing of all who were "different" was wrong, was
perfectly acceptable to Benedict.  It was his disagreement with this very
policy that had caused the renegade Dalek to become a traitor to his own race,
for Davros believed wholeheartedly in the utter extermination of all that was
not pure Dalek.  Benedict's crime had been the belief that the mere existance
of a difference was not sufficient cause for extermination.  The differences
must be measured, extrapolated, and judged.  Only those differences whose
continued existance sufficiently threatened the whole merited extermination.
And it was this belief that had made Benedict himself "different" enough from
other Daleks to warrent his own extermination.
     The entire matter was pointless, anyway.  There would never be another
chance to...
     "Hey you!  Dalek!"
      Benedict spun his eyestalk to look at the human who was calling him.  He
wasn't very impressive, just barely in his twenties.  A mage, judging from the
ill-fitting robes he wore, and the torn, mud-splattered spellbook clutched in
his hand.
     "I am Benedict Arnold."
     "Yeah, whatever.  They say you're the one who caused all this."
     "Your question is not specific.  Define."
     "You know what I mean!  You're the freaking _computer_ who went and
sentanced us all to death for knowing magic!"
     "I have computed that the welfare of the planet would benefit by the
elimination of all magic.  If that is your question, the answer is affirmative."
     The mage, obviously scared but even more obviously angry, rolled up his
sleeves and clenched his fists.  The half-dozen minor mages who had been left
to guard Benedict all took a step back.
     "So, you still wanta zap us all, huh?"
     "Affirmative." Until he had had an opportunity to properly re-evaluate the
new data, Beendict saw no reason to change his existing conclusions.
     "Well then.  Why don't you start with me!"
     "I do not understand."
     "You heard me!  There ain't no frigging Revolution anymore.  But I'm still
here.  And you're still here.  Let's settle it, man-to-...er, Dalek."
     Benedict shook his eyestalk in confusion.
     "Negative.  Your death would not be logical."
     "But you just said you wanted all mages dead."
     "Affirmative."
     "But you don't want to see *me* dead?"
     "Affirmative."
     "What the...?"
     The Dalek sighed inside his life-support system.
     "You have confused two seperate decisions.  The death of all magi will
benefit the planet's welfare by the avoidance of another Radian incident.  The
death of an individual mage will not."
     "I don't get it."
     "The Revolution is over, is it not?"
     "Of course it is!"
     "Were I to kill you now, would that enable me to re-initiate the
Revolution and resume the extermination of all mages?"
     "Of course it won't!"
     "That is the logic.  The extermination of all magi is desireable.
However, that couse of action is no longer possible.  The public support that
enabled the Revolution to exist has been altered by the visual broadcast of
Radio Free Hero.  The probability that such conditions will arise again without
another Radian-level incident are neglectable.  Therefore, the extermination of
all mages is impossible.  It is not logical to attempt to impliment a plan that
is desireable, but not possible."
     The young man backed off, leaning against a tree.
     "Let me get this straight.  So it's all or nothing?"
     "Affirmative.  Available data on magic indicates that the optimal control
mechanism for one mage is another mage.  If all but one mage were to be
exterminated, the probabilities of the destruction of this planet are
significantly higher than if all current mages were allowed to exist.  If magic
cannot be eliminated, than the threat of magic may be reduced by increasing the
quantity of capable mages.
     He scratched his head.  "I don't believe this.  You, Benedict Arnold, the
Dalek bastard who everyone says wants to wipe the floor with us, want to see
*more* mages?!?"
     "Affirmative."
     "And it even makes SENSE, somehow!  I don't believe it!"
     "Such is the nature of logic.  I commend you on your ability to grasp this
concept."
     "Why, thank you."
     "I believe the correct response is...you are welcome.  And now, if you
will excuse me, I must depart."
     The young mage and the other guards were so busy congratulating themselves
for having followed the Dalek's logic that they didn't notice he was gone for
nearly half an hour.

                                   ***********

     "Well, *there* you are," Radian said.  "Where the hell have you been?"
     Shadebeam looked up at her sharply.  "What?!  I was trying to get to you
all through the goddamn battle!  I oughta kill you!"
     "You can't do that," Akane said to her.  "Then you'd have to do something
respectable for a living."
     "Oh, yeah," Shadebeam said, hugging Akane.  "What the hell made you go
after Bulletproof for?  And how did you get away?"
     "I...ow, don't know," Akane said.  "Terminal blockheadedness, I think,
for the first question.  As for the second, I just remember this big
Brazilian flag.  Oh, T showed up and carried me a ways...hey, watch the ribs."
     "Sorry," Shadebeam said.  "Now what say we blow out of here before one of
these creeps decides to turn us in?"
     "We've got twenty-four hours safe passage," Akane told her.  "It looks
like all the heroes on our side are willing to abide by it, some more
grudgingly than others."
     "Great!" Shadebeam exclaimed.  "Everyone ready to blow?"
     -I am!- Andro telepurred, from the backpack.
     *As am I,* Symon said.
     *Same here,* China added.
     -Er, how exactly do you mean that question?- Kyoko asked.
     <<While I am, technically, in a fixed position, thousands of miles
away,>> HAL interjected, <<I think it would be a good idea to put as much
distance between you and this place before your safe passage time expires,
Akane.>>
     "Not yet, HAL," Akane said.  "I've got to check on something."  She
pushed her way forward, to the small crowd gathered around the unconscious
Scholarman.  His wound had closed, by magic, Radian could see, but he was
still far from healthy.
     "The paramedics will arrive in a few minutes," Wonder Grunion told her.
"His condition is weak, but stable.  He will live."
     "Thank you," she said, looking up at the Scaly Sorcerer Supreme.
     "Do not thank me," Wonder Grunion said.  "A magic wielder stabilized
his condition before I arrived."  He watched her, with some interest.  "You
care for him, do you not?"
     "He's...a friend," Akane said.
     She leaned forward, and kissed his cheek, before standing.
     "Good luck," Wonder Grunion told her, as she started to leave.  She
turned back to him, startled.
     "Good luck?" she asked.  "Thank you, but... I'm a fugitive.  You know
that."
     "You will not run forever," Wonder Grunion said.  "Justice will yet have
its day, not because you are weak, but because you are strong."
     "Will you be a character witness at my trial?" Radian asked, a corner
of her mouth curling up.  Wonder Grunion just looked at her and turned away,
to attend to more of the wounded of both sides.
     Shadebeam and Radian watched him go.
     "He didn't say a thing about me," Shadebeam grumped.  "Why do I always
get second billing?"
     "Beats me," Akane said.  "C'mon, lets...wait."
     -Oh, great, now what?- Kyoko asked.  -Going to collect a lecture from
Andy Awesome?-
     "Don't be ridiculous," Akane said.  "I'm going to chat with Spectrum."
     -Oh, well that's _completely_ diff-- huh?-

                                   ***********

     The sounds of battle were gone, the moans of the injured and dying fading
away as they were tended to.  Nora slumped in the mud, exhausted, a powerful
ache spreading across her left hip where her costume had barely stopped a pair
of bullets, from which side she didn't know.  She felt the mud oozing between
her toes, and wished she could believe it was only water that had soaked the
ground.
     A strange whine rang in her ears, distant, rising and falling.
     "Nora?"  She looked up to see Thane, blood seeping through a bandage on
his scalp, looking down at her.
     "How did you know my name?" she asked.
     "I, uh...I promised I wouldn't tell.  Somebody slipped up."
     "Never mind.  It doesn't matter."  He sighed heavily, his cool minty
breath rustling her hair slightly as he sat down.  He put a finger in his ear
and worked it around a bit.
     "My ears are ringing," he said.
     "Mine too.  I wonder if they'll ever stop?"
     She looked up, then, peering around herself.  The Masked Bruce and some of
his teammates were leaving, not all of them conscious.  The body of a mage lay
face down several yards away.  Further, she could see some people examining the
bodies of the Red Femur and his men, checking for signs of life.  A shout
brought somebody running with a first aid kit; apparently one of them had
survived.
     "John?" she asked.
     Thane shook his head wordlessly.
     Nora stood up, looking around at the battlefield.  It was filthy, she
realized.  Everything about it was dirty and filthy and horrid.  She felt her
breath start coming in choking gasps, and bent her head to her chest, squeezing
her eyes shut as the tears began to flow.  Thane sat quietly and watched her as
the sun slowly faded behind thickening clouds and the rain began, building
from a drizzle to a cool, steady shower.  Through the rain, it almost looked
like a psycadaelic VW minibus was pulling away, being followed by a van that
had been hiding behind some obviously phony foliage.  They soon disappeared.
The Killer RV was driving off in another direction, while a caravan of Army
vehicles crawled down yet another road, loaded to the hilt with metal parts
and equipment.  Radio Free Hero, having gotten rid of the video equipment, was
checking his radio gear.  Overhead, the Moosewing flew, heading due north,
while the M.E.C.H.A. jet and Ray Sterling's Alpha fighter few towards the city.
Benedict had gotten away, somehow, in the confusion following the end of the
battle, but the mages who had been guarding him had related their conversation
with him to Andy Awesome, who had simply nodded, without chastising any of them
for letting him go.
     "Jesus!" she shouted suddenly, looking up.  "Why?"
     She stood silently, watching shocked people working in the rain.  Suddenly
her brow furrowed and she smacked the side of her head.  Puzzled, she looked at
Thane.
     "It's still getting louder," she said.
     "Yeah," he agreed.  "Sort of a 'WHEE-oo, WHEE-oo' sound."
     Just as Andy Awesome and DEATH KNIGHT 3000 stepped into view, carrying
Bulletproof's motionless figure on a stretcher from the Awesome Force One, red
and blue lights suddenly flooded the battlefield.  Sirens wailing, thirty-five
police cruisers, two mobile jail trucks, five amublances, three firetrucks, and
three news vans (sans sirens and lights) burst through the woods on the
overgrown dirt road and parked in a random cluster.  Bob City Police Officers
("Best Bailiffs in Bob") poured out of the cars, batons drawn, riot shields at
the ready.  A harried-looking Chief placed a bullhorn on top of his car and
began to shout.
     "ATTENTION!  ATTENTION!  IN THE NAME OF THE LAW, ALL HERE PRESENT ARE-"
     A thirty-sixth car roared out of the woods and, finding that there wasn't
room to park with the others, plowed into them and cleared itself a space.  The
doors were flung open, and Sam and Bert leapt out with their guns drawn and
opened fire.  The rest of the police, the news crews, and the surviving
combatants dove to the ground and put their hands over their heads.
     "SAM! BERT!" shrieked the Chief.  A squeal of echo feedback from the
bullhorn punctuated his words, but he was nearly killed when Sam and Bert,
perceiving a threat, turned their guns on him and continued to blaze away for
several moments before realizing their error.
     "Whoops," said Bert.  "Sorry, Chief."
     Shaking his head and quivering just slightly, the Chief turned back to
the battlefield.  "AS I WAS SAYING, ALL HERE PRESENT ARE UNDER ARREST!  LAY
DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND COME QUIETLY!"
     Nora gaped and looked at Thane.  "But-" she said.  "But...but..."
     "Right, Miss, into the truck."  Nora glanced back at Thane as another
officer took him by the arm and lead him along behind her.  Nora looked around,
and realized that Radian and Shadebeam had disappeared.  The members of Team
M.E.C.H.A. were also absent, no doubt having been picked up immediately after
it had been ascertained that law enforcement officials were on their way.  She
wasn't sure whether Force Ten had split or not.
     "Wait!" protested Superuser.  "You don't understand-!"
     "Disturbing the peace?  Unlawful discharge of weapons?  I think we can
comprehend that, for starters," said his arresting officer.
     "Sergeant, you don't understand," said Andy Awesome calmly.  "If you'd
just let me explain-"
     "Save your voice for your phone call," she replied as she lead the awesome
hero to the lockup.
     "Wait!  No!  It's not how it looks!" exclaimed Mental, who, along with
Mirror Maid and Phobos was helping Mighty Dog out of a huge hole he had
created off-camera in the last episode while ramming a large group of Daleks
into the Earth's crust.
     "It's not?" asked a cop, arching his eyebrows.
     "Well...okay, so maybe it is pretty much how it looks, but still-"
     "Come along."
     "You gonna be a little more cooperative, buddy, or do you want 'resisting
arrest' added to the charges?" snarled another officer as she dragged Deadman
toward the mobile jails.
     "Hubba hubba!" said the Bomb happily, waddling along after her.
     "Hold it right there, bub!"  An officer collared the Masked Bruce in the
middle of a sneaky tip-toeing exit with the unconscious Trudy in his arms.
"Come along."
     "But...officer, somebody has just stolen my wallet!" the Masked Bruce
said, letting his power flow.
     "Really?" said the officer, releasing him and straightening up.
     "Yes.  It was right on the park bench next to me, and then when I looked
up, it was gone!"
     "Oh, dear."  The cop looked around, thoughtfully but sad.  "I'm very
sorry, but there's really very little I can do."
     "Oh," said the Masked Bruce dejectedly.
     They stood awkwardly for a moment.
     "So do you wanna come back to my place?" the cop asked.
     "Yeah, alright."
     "Good.  Into the van with you."
     "DOWH!  Wait!  Wait!  You reversed the lines!  You got them wrong!"
     "What are you talking about?"
     "You can't arrest me!  I am the Masked Bruce!  Defender of Truth!  Wielder
of the power of the un-KAL mil-TEE!  Officer of the Xolchipalian Defense Force!"
     "I don't care if you're Her Majesty the Queen of England, you're friggin'
busted," said the cop, shoving the Masked Bruce into the back of the truck.
     "Say," mused Dar as he was ushered away by a pair of officers, "where do
you suppose Superguy has been all this time, anyway?  He could have nipped this
whole thing in the bud."
     As if on cue, the sky went black and a sound like the crack of doom split
the air, sending people for miles around scrambling for cover.  Heroes and
villains and bubbas alike stared up in horror to see Jupiter, knocked out of
orbit by the impact of comet Qwyntor-Levy 9, hurtling toward the Earth.  It
was clear that the smaller planet would, in a matter of moments, be engulfed by
the gas giant and torn apart by the insane fluctuations of gravity and inertia.
Once again, all present dove to the ground with their hands over their heads.
     Almost all, anyway.
     "SAM! BERT!" bellowed the Chief in rage.
     "Not our fault, Chief!" Sam said.  Bert pointed up.
     "^&%^%#$@#!" swore the Chief.  He dove to the ground and put his hands
over his head.
     Everybody waited for the end.
     And waited some more.
     Still they waited.
     "Hey," someone called out.  "Where'd the sound like the crack of doom go?"
     "Look!"  Hecate stood up and pointed at a white note fluttering down from
the sky.  She reached up and grabbed it as everybody else began to stand.
"Dear heroes, villains, police, bubbas, and others," she read aloud...

          --------------------------------------------------
          |                                                |
          | Dear heroes, villains, police, bubbas,         |
          |  and others,                                   |
          |                                                |
          |     I am very sorry that I could not be here   |
          | to prevent this senseless fighting and tragic  |
          | loss of life, but when I discovered that       |
          | Qwyntor-Levy 9 was actually an anti-comet on   |
          | headed for an impact that would send Jupiter   |
          | spiralling onto a collision course with Earth, |
          | it was apparent to me that the situation       |
          | required my absolute attention.  I am now      |
          | returning the planet to its natural orbit, and |
          | barely had time to write this note before      |
          | pushing Jupiter away from Earth.               |
          |     I trust that a lesson has been learned     |
          | here today, about tolerance and the horror of  |
          | genocide.  Those of you who instigated this    |
          | action -- and the equally harmful and point-   |
          | less counteraction -- will undoubtedly have    |
          | a great deal to think about over the course    |
          | of the next few years, if not the rest of your |
          | lives.                                         |
          |     I wish you luck as you wrestle with your   |
          | consciences, and in your daily lives from this |
          | day forth.                                     |
          |                                                |
          |                       Sincerely,               |
          |                                  Superguy      |
          |                                                |
          --------------------------------------------------

     "Wow," said Hecate, pressing the note lovingly against her chest.  "To
think...Superguy himself wrote a note telling us he was too busy to save us.
Oh, the joy!"
     "Move along," said a cop, taking her arm.
     "*How* did you say you got here?" Sam asked a mage at random.
     "I'm telling you, I teleported!" the young man gibbered.  "Please, I
had to come here, it was self-defense-"
     "Teleported, eh?" said Bert, glancing sideways at Sam and twirling a
finger around his ear.  He was smoking a cigarette as quickly as he could,
trying to kill the irritatingly cool, minty taste in his mouth.  "All right,
David Copperfield, into the car."
     "He's not David Copperfield," said David Copperfield, nursing a broken
arm.  "I'm David Copperfield."
     "And I'm Houdini," said Sam.  "Siddown and shaddup, ya goon."
     "Wait!" said Bert, "He *is* David Copperfield!  Can I get your autograph,
just for my kid, you understand-"
     "BERT!" bellowed the Chief, walking by with Dar under one arm and the
Magistrate under the other.
     "Into the car," snapped Bert.  "Siddown and shaddup, ya goon."
     The combatants were rounded up by the handful and stuffed into the vans
and cars, rushed past the news crews and shuttled off to the Bob City jails.
There was a bit of trouble with the She-Devil, but Figuremaster and T calmed
her down by pouring a two-liter bottle of Cuervo down her throat, and they all
got carted off together.  It wasn't more than an hour before the battlefield
was empty of all but the dead and the coroners.
     Several hours later, they were gone, too.
     It was only then that a quiet spell was spoken, and the Earth puckered up
and spat the Scaly Sorceror Supreme to the surface.  Wonder Grunion looked
around himself, took a deep, minty-fresh breath, let it out in a long sigh, and
began fishing for his credit cards.  Finding them, he teleported off to Bob,
to bail out his teammates.

                                   ***********

     "This is Radio Free Hero, broadcasting to you again by radio.  The lemurs
took the video equipment, and I say good riddance.  They didn't take Max,
even when I offered to throw in a case of Super K grape soda..."
     "Hey, I'm kidding!  These engineers are so serious..."

IS IT REALLY OVER?
WHO WERE THE MYSTERIOUS MEN IN THE DARKENED ROOM, AND WHY WERE THEY INTERESTED
     IN WHAT SPACE MOOSE WAS SAYING?
WHY WOULD ANYONE BE INTERESTED IN ANYTHING SPACE MOOSE SAID?
Some of these questions will be answered in the one-shot epilogue to this
     long, long crossover.  Others will be answered in the individual
     series written by the individual authors.  All of it will be right
     here on...SUPERGUY!

Unless, of course, it isn't.