Agents of Atlas
In
The Great Game
It was a common day in the hidden city of Atlas, the caves underneath San Francisco in early April were dank and cold. Ken Hale the Gorilla Man hated these days, his fur would get wet and he would start to smell like a dumpster.
"Of all the indignity I have to suffer already being the 400 pound gorilla in the room, now I smell like a zoo too," Ken griped.
"You know I could create a salve that will make your fur hydro impermeable," Bob Grayson The Uranian offered.
"No thanks Bobby, last time I offered to be your test monkey, people started calling me Orangutan Man, it took three weeks for my fur to turn back," Ken said.
Jimmy Woo the Khan of the Atlas Empire had gathered his inner circle for their weekly meetings and assignments. Jimmy was still getting used to being the benevolent emperor of a organization of monsters, mad scientist, and common criminals. M-11 the Human Robot was at his side analyzing the Atlas master computer in the central meeting room.
"Okay guys we have made great progress, M-11 was just crunching the numbers and we have eliminated ten percent of the Atlas Empires' "negative" aspects. Swell job everyone!" Jimmy said emphatically.
"Jeez Jimbo, no one has used swell since the Kennedy administration, you gotta start watching some MTV," said Ken.
"Yes, I certainly like the show about the tanned teenagers enjoying free love on the beach," announced Venus the Siren and recently promoted goddess of love.
"Yeaaaahhhh...On second thought just read the newspaper that should help," Ken said.
"This is why we are we are only ten percent done with are mission after eight straight months of work, because the simian has to crack jokes," begrudged Namora the Atlantean Princess.
Jimmy knew she was right, it had been nonstop stakeouts and take downs for almost a whole year and they were still so far from accomplishing his goal of turning the Empire into a force for good. Jimmy was also mentally exhausted he had not slept in a week, the Atlas city was enormous and the inventory of their headquarters was not even close to completed.
"Namora you bring up a great point, we are progressing slower than any of us would like, but we must be tactical in all of our moves in taking down the many arms of Atlas. If we don't completely destroy the branches' resources and personnel they could start right back up again and we would have to duplicate our efforts," Jimmy espoused.
"Woo I want results not a pep talk. If I wanted to have smoke blown up my backside I would have stayed in politics," remarked Namora.
"Well actually Namora the missions should start getting shorter and shorter, because Bob and M-11 have finally broken through the security protection on the Atlas master computer, we should be able to locate all Atlas facilities from this location," Jimmy bragged.
"It was nothing really it was just a multiple logarithm firewall, with cross encryption, it it usually a high school math final on Uranus, I admit I was a little rusty on the last binary sequence," Bob said smiling.
"Man one guy talks like the cast of Happy Days and the other talks out of his Uranus, can somebody just explains how this helps us kick Atlas Foundation tail," Ken stated mockingly.
"Well Ken like I was saying, If we have the main Atlas manifest at our HQ we can upload it to our mobile information units, this will allow us to asses how large a threat is, and how many us are needed to neutralize it," Jimmy said.
"So we spend less time planning and more time in action. I like it Woo you are thinking like an Atlantean chieftain now, strategy for us is when our foes lose 100 percent of their forces and we only lose 50," Namora commended.
"Right Namora, but I really don't want to lose anyone, with this new level of access we will be able to change tactics on the fly and geocentrically focus our missions," Jimmy stated.
With that Jimmy activated the new security access on the main computer. When he entered the final command the computer began to hum and make a strange clanging sound. The screen shut off and the computer let out a sharp feedback screech.
"Uh, oh Jimbo I think opening it up might have voided the warranty, did you keep the receipt maybe we can send it back tell' em it was defective," Ken joked.
The screen flickered and then turned back on, the image was black and white and a figure appeared. It was Master Plan aka Yellow Claw aka Golden Claw aka Plan Tzu, Jimmy Woo's late nemesis.
"Okay, where do I look, do I look at the camera or do I look to the side, how about in profile?" Plan confusingly asked.
"Just look directly into the camera sir," a voice answered off screen.
"Oh right tell me when to we are ready to start," Plan said
"We are already filming sir," the off screen voice said.
"Remind me to have you killed when we are finished," said Plan sternly.
Ken chuckled, "Boy Jimbo, it took you 50 years to defeat this guy?"
"Greetings to you Woo Yen Jet and compatriots. Some how you have breached the encryption network of my thinking machine. Do not think this a victory I let you do this. By decrypting my security network you have initiated a contingency program I have put in place called The Great Game," Plan maniacally stated.
"Woo, can I launch the computer yet?" Namora inquired enthusiastically.
"Hold up Namora, I want to hear what he is getting at." Jimmy stated calmly
"I will explain what the Great Game was for the lesser intelligent members of the group, of course I mean the filthy circus ape." Plan laughed.
"No Respect, No respect even from the dead guy." Ken groaned.
"The Great Game was an imperial land grab by the Russian and British Empire in the nineteenth century, for the Central Asian territories which are now apart of Afghanistan. Just another example of Euro-American ideas of dominating people of other races," Plan said pejoratively
"Bob, Have you found a way to bypass this program?" Jimmy asked.
"I have been trying, but it is a fundamental part of the central programing, tampering with it could cause the entire mainframe infrastructure to collapse, wiping out all of the data," Bob stated defeated.
Master Plan continued "My Great Game is a little different it will force your group to try to outwit me in situations where they lose any advantage of their gifts. That loud sound you heard at the program initiation was a high powered radio frequency that activated the timer of seven miniature nuclear devices. Six of which will detonate in two days and one that will detonate in four days. Each member of your group will have to disable their singular bomb before the final bomb can be disarmed."
"Jimmy, I can't draw anything from the program, it is completely locked up, it is like when the radio wave went out the locations of the devices went with it," Bob exclaimed.
"Once your countries' futility is displayed for not only preventing a nuclear holocaust, but also being blamed for it, the combined might of China and the Soviet Union will invade your pathetic country, and I Master Plan will rule it as my fiefdom!" Plan grandiosely shouted.
"The Soviet Union? that idiot forgot to turn the program off when he transferred the Atlas Empire over to Jimmy," Ken Griped.
"At his advanced age can you blame him? He can't have possibly remembered all of his evil schemes," Venus empathized.
"The location of the bombs is still bothering me, he would never tell us where they are himself so what is this Game he keeps talking about," Jimmy wondered allowed.
As Jimmy was saying this none of the group had noticed six long glass domes with machines attached to the top had dislodged from hidden compartments in the ceiling, and had now begun to silently descend towards the group.
"After this your team will never be the same again, and with that let the games begin..." Plan warned.
As Master Plan said this the domes dropped onto each corresponding member of the agents. The team was taken by surprised and tried as hard as they could to break the walls of the domes but to no avail.
"Why didn't the tin can sense these things coming," Ken shouted while struggling inside his prison.
Plan laughed on the screen, "Woo I would like to introduce one of the greatest scientific advances the Atlas Empire ever created. These are our Biometric Containment Units, they tracked you by your specific life signs,are made from an indestructible polymer, and the bottoms are electromagnetically attuned to the Earth's magnetic field, so even the sea witch flying up at full strength will not be able to lift it."
"Jimmy he is right I can't break this thing." Namora yelled while punching the enclosure.
"M-11, can you re-program the machines on top or blast out with your death ray." Jimmy commanded the robot.
"Negative" Buzzed M-11.
"Now to tell you about our second major breakthrough we have spent numerous year and countless resources creating the world's first ever teleportation device. Many of my servants perished perfecting this technology. Now you may be asking why not just use this teleportation pod to kill you. I have bigger plans for you James Woo and I want you to see your capitalist "utopia" fall to the people's army." Plan gloated on the screen.
"Plan you fool you have already handed over the role of Khan too me, I know your further plans for me," Jimmy argued fruitlessly.
Plan began to laugh on the screen, as he did the machines attached to the domes activated and a light start spinning around the top.
"Okay, how was that, dramatic enough?" Plan asked his off screen assistants.
"We are still filming sir," the voice answered.
Plan screamed, "Incompetents all of you,"
Jimmy yelled out final instructions, "Remember two days for the individual bombs, four for the final one, get in contact with the rest of the team as soon as you disable your bomb."
The computer screen went black, the containment units began to glow bright, when the light receded the tubes were empty.