The Big O and all of its settings and characters are owned by Cartoon Network, Sunrise, and Bandai Visual.

THE BIG O:

ACT 28

SCAPEGOAT

Chapter Eleven: The Fall of Big Fau

The punch that Big O gave Big Fau knocked the white megadeus backwards and sent it staggering. With its left leg barely connected to the rest of its injured bulk it was a miracle that it could stay on its feet.

"You see, Dorothy?" Roger said as he worked the controls. "Stand up and face your fears! You don't have to be afraid anymore! Big O and I won't let anything happen to you!"

Dorothy rose to her feet and held on to the wall with one hand to steady herself. Standing up wasn't really the smartest thing to do with Big O moving around like this, but she followed Roger's instructions anyway.

"Roger, why are all of those cannons pointed at us?" the android asked.

"Hm?" Roger's attention was still on Big Fau. "Big Fau doesn't have any cannons aimed at us. That's why I'm moving around to its damaged side, so it won't have any weapons to point at us."

"No, I mean the military police," Dorothy clarified.

"Huh?" Roger looked at a screen and noticed the armored vehicles with their howitzers pointed at the struggling megadeuses. "Big O, give me a close up." The image of the military vehicles vanished in a burst of static to be replaced by the image of Dan Dastun giving instructions to his officers.

"Well I'll be!" Roger smiled. "This is too good of an opportunity to pass up!"

"What are you going to do?" Dorothy asked him.

"I'm going to give Dastun a chance to fulfill his dreams!" Roger chuckled. The black clad young man pumped the foot pedals and the massive megadeus started walking. Roger pulled on the joysticks to control the arms of Big O the entire time they were moving.

"Roger you are moving us to the intact side of Big Fau," Dorothy pointed out.

"All part of the plan, Dorothy," Roger assured her. "Got'cha!"

Both of Big O's hands were locked on Big Fau's remaining arm. Big O's waist turned to force the white megadeus to stagger in a semicircle around the black megadeus. Big O then wrapped its arms around Big Fau's arm and hunched down, its head leaning on the white megadeus' tower like arm.

"What is he doing?" Dastun asked as he witnessed the bizarre struggle through his binoculars. "Why doesn't he just take that thing down? Wait a minute!" Dastun's eyes widened in realization. "I get it now! Johnson, do you see what he's doing? He's exposed the white megadeus' unarmored side to us. We can lob shots right into it and bypass the armor!" He put his radio to his mouth. "All units, lock targeting lasers on the exposed sections of the white megadeus and prepare to fire!"

Inside of Big O's cockpit, Roger struggled with the joysticks. "C'mon, Dastun!" he growled. "What's taking you so long?"

A periscope like arm extended out of the white megadeus' back to fire an energy beam that raked Big O's head and shoulders. Although Big O's red crystalline crown deflected the beam when it passed over the megadeus' head, the black megadeus' torso and arms were scarred as the beam bit into the hull.

"Let go of me!" Rosewater shouted from inside Big Fau's cockpit. "You can't take Big Fau away!" he whined childishly. "Big Fau is my Big! He's my Big! You can't do this! I am the domineus of megadeus!"

To Alex Rosewater's horror the message scrolling across the central screen between his foot pedals said: "CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD--- YE NOT".

"Wha?" Alex glanced around to see the keys and switches on the sides of his cockpit activate themselves. With a pneumonic pop, one of the cables attached to his spine jerked free of his back. "Yagh! Eee! Aah!" One by one the cables detached themselves from him as he jerked spasmodically in his chair. "Big Fau! No! Don't abandon me!" he sobbed as he collapsed forward in pain. "Don't go away…"

"Sir!" Johnson called as he peered through his binoculars. "Inside the white megadeus! There's a man in there! I think it's Alex Rosewater!"

"I don't care if it's Gordon Rosewater!" Dastun retorted. "Take that thing out!" Dastun put his radio to his lips. "Fire!"

One by one the cannons on the armored vehicles fired. Explosions erupted from the unarmored sections of the white megadeus as the shells bypassed the hull to burrow into the interior of Big Fau.

"No!" Alex cried, sitting back up in his chair. "Big Fau! You've got to move! You've got to let me save you or we'll—" His cries were drowned out by a massive fireball that obscured the cockpit and sent debris everywhere.

"Whoa!" Roger exclaimed from Big O's cockpit. As the cannons fired, Big O was using Big Fau's bulk as a shield to protect itself. "They're really letting Alex have it!"

"Big Fau is dead," Dorothy said quietly. Why did she sound so sad?

More explosions were heard inside of Big Fau's shell. As massive explosion caused shrapnel to fly through the air at the howitzers in a retaliatory strike.

"Look out!" Dastun cried. "We turned that white megadeus into a shaped charge! Everybody take cover!" With that the colonel entered the closest armored vehicle as Johnson rolled underneath.

"What the?" The burly Stoker ran back to his limousine to hide behind it.

Wreckage and debris tumbled through the sky to land with earsplitting shrieks and crashes through the ranks of the military police. The armored vehicles took the impacts in stride, although the cars and trucks were worse for wear. A particularly large piece of metal impaled Gregory Stoker's limousine, completely caving in the roof and sending shattered glass flying.

"Johnson, are you alright?" Dastun roared as he opened the door to his mobile howitzer.

"Here sir," the young lieutenant coughed as he dragged himself out from under the vehicle. He was covered in dust, but seemed to be okay.

Dastun looked over his shoulder to witness Stoker standing up behind his ruined limousine. The board member's scowl made his dark face even darker. Had Stoker wanted Dastun to target the white megadeus or the black one? Was he still a supporter of Alex Rosewater's 'New Order' or had he washed his hands of it? Oh well, Dastun figured. He should have been more specific. When push came to shove Dastun always fired at the giant robot attacking the city instead of the giant robot defending it.

"Let's find out who's injured and get some emergency vehicles out here," Dastun suggested.

Johnson nodded, and then pointed over Dastun's shoulder. "Sir! The black megadeus!" the breathless lieutenant exclaimed. "It's still firing!"

"What?" Dastun turned to see for himself. The black megadeus was firing a concentrated beam of energy from its red crown. Fortunately the beam was directed at the shattered carcass of the white megadeus.

"What is it doing?" Johnson asked out loud.

"He's making sure," Dastun muttered.

Inside the black megadeus, Roger continued to focus the weapon he called the 'chromebuster' at Big Fau's shattered remains.

"Roger, is that really necessary?" Dorothy asked him.

"Sorry, Dorothy, I don't want anybody rebuilding that thing," Roger replied. "More importantly, I want to take out whatever mind affecting device is hidden in there. Hold on."

Dorothy grabbed a hold of the wall as Big O bent over to use the piledriver in one of its arms to pulverize Big Fau's severed head. Roger was so intent on completely reducing Big Fau to scrap metal that he didn't notice Dorothy turn her head and flinch with each blow the black megadeus delivered. "Roger, please stop," she murmured.

"Hm?" Roger grunted as Big O's fists knocked another hole into the shell of the white megadeus. "What was that, Dorothy?"

"Roger, stop," she repeated. "It is not necessary to continue mutilating it."

"If you could tell me what part the psychological weapon is in, we could get this done a lot faster," Roger suggested. He stopped and paid more attention to his passenger. Dorothy was leaning against the wall and looked very fragile, more like a vulnerable human than an android with perfect posture. "Dorothy?" he asked gently. "Are you ok?"

"I am fine Roger," she said without facing him.

"I thought that it wasn't all right for you to lie," he said before he had Big O stand up straight.

"It isn't all right for me to lie to Norman," she clarified. Was she joking? If so, that was probably a good sign.

"Dorothy?" Roger asked quietly. "You still don't think of yourself as… part of Big Fau do you?"

"I was," she nodded, finally turning to face him. "I understand what it was to be Big Fau. I understand the demons that drove Alex Rosewater. I feel sorry for them. I know that it was necessary to destroy them, but it seems cruel to desecrate their remains."

"You're sure that Big Fau is… dead?" Roger asked hesitantly. "That thing got into both our heads, Dorothy. We don't need it haunting us again. I don't want anymore hallucinations."

"You don't know that Big Fau caused them in the first place," Dorothy's emotionless voice was almost… testy.

"I want to get eliminate at least one suspect then," Roger smiled. "So far, my worst visions seem to occur when we face Big Fau. Even if it wasn't the cause, it had to be a mitigating factor."

The shadows in the control room made the android's neutral expression look like a frown.

As a negotiator, Roger couldn't resist the temptation to bargain for a better deal. "Tell you what, I'll stop flattening Big Fau if you tell me why you don't want me to look at your blueprints."

Dorothy responded by looking away.

"Fine, consider Big Fau pulverized scrap metal," he said as Big O continued attacking the white megadeus' inert hull. Roger could only continue his assault for another a minute or so before he sighed and looked over at the sullen android. "You win, that's enough for today," he mumbled, "but only if you let Norman take a look at you when we get home. I worry about you, you know."

"Yes Roger," she said quietly. "I know."

The military police watched as the black megadeus sank into the ground. The dust storm its exit summoned rivaled that of the destruction of the white megadeus. Dastun held his gloved hand over his nose and mouth as Big O vanished and the massive crater in the ground fell in on itself. When the dust cleared, he saw Roger's long black car drive up.

"Hi there, Dan!" Roger called as he rolled the window down. "I heard that the military police took out the white megadeus! Nice job!"

Colonel Dastun leaned against the obsidian car to stick his face into Roger's window. "You gave it to me, didn't you?" he asked. Dorothy remained silent in the passenger seat.

"Don't look now, Colonel, but your public awaits!" Roger pointed behind the officer. Dastun glanced behind him to see a van pull up with the Paradigm Press logo on it. Roger laughed. "Tell them that the black megadeus seemed to be in trouble, and that you had to bail it out!" the young man snickered. "That ought to make the front page news!"

"Just what the hell do you think you're playing at?" Dastun growled.

"It's important that the faith be restored in the military police," Roger explained as he suddenly became serious. "The marshal may have fell in with the 'new order' but you didn't. You symbolize the honest cops in this town. You can't be bought and you protect everyone in this city whether they live inside or outside the domes. You just proved it by taking down Alex Rosewater and saving the city from annihilation."

"Now wait a minute!" the colonel protested. "That's not the truth and you know it!"

"Dastun, Big O can't save this city," Roger said sadly. "Only you can. The black megadeus may be great at taking out giant robots but it can't restore people's faith in law and order. Maybe it's time I acknowledged my limitations, and let the most courageous, the most honest cop in the city have a chance to show us what he's got."

Dastun smiled and nodded, recalling a similar conversation with Roger in the past. At that time it was Dastun who was lamenting the fact that the military police couldn't protect the city. This time Roger was telling him that it was Dastun's chance to save the city, this time from itself. "Time to get on my white horse, huh?" he grunted.

"Looks like it," Roger shrugged. "Come on down to my place and have a drink when you've got the time. I still haven't finished off that bottle you were admiring last time you were there."

"Oh really?" Dastun raised an eyebrow. He couldn't remember that last time Roger invited him, or anybody for that matter, over to his house. "Sure thing, but God only knows when I'll have a chance to come over. Now get out here, it looks like I got a press conference to go to."

"Whether you like or not," Roger teased as he rolled up the window.

"Humph," Dastun grunted as the long black car drove away. Still there was a wistful smile on his face before he turned to face the reporters who were coming towards him.

"Colonel Dastun!" a brunette lady reporter in a purple dress called to him. "Is it true that it was the military police who took down Alex Rosewater and the white megadeus?"

"Uh, yeah," scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. "The black megadeus seemed to be having a malfunction or something so I gave the order to fire. We must have hit the power source, 'cause the explosion sent shrapnel out of it like a shaped charge!"

"Colonel Dastun!" a male reporter with sandy blonde hair waved to get his attention. "Is it true that you were relieved of your duty and arrested for disobeying orders?"

"Um… no. I was placed in protective custody until we could determine who was still part of the 'New Order'," Dastun muttered as he recalled the lie he had memorized. "My arrest and discharge were all a ruse until my life was out of danger. I assure you, the military police will do all it can to find the conspirators behind the 'New Order' and bring them to justice. We won't let anything like this happen again. The Paradigm Corporation has agreed to cooperate with our investigation and we expect to make some arrests soon. In the meantime we ask everyone to keep calm and let us put this city back together. Next question?"

"Colonel Dastun!" a photographer cried. "Could we get a picture of you with the ruins of the white megadeus behind you?"

"Sure, why not?" the colonel shrugged. "Knock yourselves out boys."

In the ebony sedan nicknamed 'the Griffin,' Roger negotiated the damaged and dilapidated streets of the city.

"Do you think that Colonel Dastun will be able to calm the city?" Dorothy asked the man in black. "Do you think that the people will stop rioting?"

"I don't know, Dorothy," Roger admitted. "All I know is that most people prefer what they know to something new. My guess is that deep down, the residents of this insane city want things to go back to normal."

"Do you think we did the right thing?" Dorothy asked him. "Do you think that it was right to leave the Paradigm Corporation in charge of the city?"

"I wish I knew," Roger admitted. "The whole group of them deserve to be put up against the wall and shot but I'm afraid that we'll get a totalitarian state in exchange. Whether we like it or not Gordon Rosewater's capitalistic vision is the evil we know, and hopefully the lesser of two evils."

"Is the evil we know always the lesser of two evils?" Dorothy asked.

"It's the evil that we know how to live with," Roger shrugged. "Humans hesitate before facing an evil they don't know how to handle. Call us pragmatists or cowards but that's just the way we are."

"Perhaps it is difficult to gamble when you have something to lose," Dorothy offered.

Roger smiled and looked over at the young girl. "Perhaps you're right."


On a desk filled with hourglasses a phone rings. Norman's hand picks up the receiver and a sinister voice says:

Next: Epilogue