All Star Kraven: Interlude One: Registration and You
"Hello boys and girls. Today on the World and You we have a very special topic. Registration and You," A motherly, middle aged woman was the host of 'The World and You,' the best rated educational children's television show currently playing.
"Registration?" Asked a small, furry, and altogether adorable puppet, "What's that?"
"Well, it's a long story," said the woman, to a chorus of delight from the evidently story loving small children and puppets, "It all starts a long time ago- fifty years ago today, to be exact. You remember what we talked about last week?" There was another chorus in answer, "That's right. The Cold War and You. Well, during the Cold War, there was what's called a 'draft'. Can anyone tell me what draft means?"
"It's a type of horse," called out a pony puppet, tossing its head. "It's really big, and it's really strong, and pulls stuff."
"That's right, Penny," said the woman, "But we're talking about a different type of draft. This is the type of draft that says that everyone of a certain age has to help the government for several years. Now we don't have a draft for everyone today, but we did fifty years ago. And that included people with special powers. But when you have special powers, you have to learn how to use them, or you might hurt yourself, or someone else. That's why the government made the Registration Act."
"But what is the Registration Act?" Asked Penny the Pony.
"I'm getting to that," said the woman, "The Registration Act says that anyone with special powers has to tell the government as soon as they find out. That way the government can help them learn how to use them. Then they can use them to help America and the world."
"Gosh," said a small child sitting near the woman's feet on a beanbag chair. "Why wouldn't anyone register?"
"Well," said the woman, "Most people do, but there are some bad people who just want to use their special powers to hurt people and take things. That's part of what the good guys do- they stop the bad people. And then there are some people who want to help, but don't think that they need to register. They're not bad people, because they help other people, but they're not quite good people either, because they break the law, and that's bad. That's why there are people like Mr. Gargan, who track down people with special powers who don't register, and turn them over to SHRADA, to help them."
Mac Gargan, also known as the Scorpion, stepped forward. He was in full regalia, the armored suit encasing him except for his face, the devices on his hands that let him scale walls, or crush rocks, even the tail, though it wasn't loaded with any of the various deadly weapons available.
"Would you like to tell the kids your story Mr. Gargan?"
"Yeah, sure. I used to be a private detective, you know, like you see in movies and stuff. But I had a gambling problem- gambling's bad kids, remember that. Anyways, I ended up owing money to some folks, and to pay it off, I let some other folks- not very nice guys either- mess around with me and this suit. Long story short, there was a while when I couldn't take it off- and I went kinda crazy. I robbed a couple of banks- put a security guard in the hospital- and then Kraven caught up with me. Him and me and that Madrox guy fought, and they ended up bringing me in. SHRADA managed to get the suit off me, and told me I could keep rotting in jail, or I could fight the good fight. And, well, I took the second option, and here I am."
"Here you are indeed, Mr. Gargan. Okay kids, we'll be talking about what you can do to help Registration right after these messages!"