Episode #2 – Of Power and Corruption
Geoff wandered through the immaterium that was his domain, and he was smiling to himself, a thing that he had not done in an extremely long time. His plan was coming to fruition. Even though where he was, was a swirling mass of nebulae and starfeilds, it was as if he walked on solid flooring, he stepped forward and looked around, he liked this place. It reflected the way he felt. Cold.... Barren.... Dead. To him, this place was home. With a simple flick of his wrist, he conjured up a computer. Once he had returned to earth, all of the technology that had been created in the time that he had been gone was instantly gathered to his mind.
He now knew what man had become.... destructive. He smiled again... man... they were their own worst enemy. He sat down and logged onto the Internet. He meandered about for a while, looking at the vast plethora of information that sprawled before him, it was amazing how much information was stored here. He soon found out that the earth had adopted the use of currency instead of the barter system that was in place before he was sent away. An idea flashed in his head. Combining his knowledge of the arcane with the new technological information that he had acquired, he quickly started a new business.
************
1 Six Months Later
************
Amy walked through the Tekhed department store, looking at their newest endeavour. They had burst onto the scene about four months ago and they had taken the computer world by storm. They had developed a new type of central processing unit, called a stacked crystal diode, and it was five hundred times faster that any other CPU out there, and it was self- upgrading if logged onto the Internet, which unfortunately Amy wasn't. Amy walked around, perusing the VR equipment and newest games.
She smiled, Tekhed was a good company. They sold their product almost at cost, only a marginal mark-up to cover their employees salaries, even then their prices were lower than any around, considerably lower. Amy had upgraded her CPU from a Pentium 233 to a V.7 SCD database with VR internet capabilities, and it had cost her only $200, instead of over $3000 for any of the other company's knockoffs.
Everyone had wondered how such a company had been able to stay afloat for so long, selling things at cost wasn't very profitable, but when you traded your stocks right and had very well-heeled backers, it wasn't to hard to keep competitive. Amy looked around, but the newest edition of the Tekhed Internet Explorer wasn't around, the displays had been picked clean. Amy looked around, the shelves were bare! She walked up to the sales counter and looked at the Clerk.
"Pardon me, do you happen to have Amy more copies of the new Tekhed Internet Explorer?" Amy asked politely.
"The only ones that are left are reserved, sorry."
"Oh.... I see... well, maybe with the next shipment?"
"Yeah, maybe" said the clerk. As Amy turned to walk away, she ran right into someone, almost knocking him to the ground.
"Oh! I am so sorry sir!!" Amy said as she caught his arm and helped him get his balance.
"It's perfectly okay, it was a mistake. Anyone could've made it."
Amy looked up into the face of the man and recognized him.
"Oh my god.... your Thomas Michaels.... the Thomas Michaels!"
"Uh... yeah.... so?"
"Your only the owner and president of Tekhed! Your like a superstar around here!!"
"Oh... Tekhed... yeah well.... I guess you could say that.." He smiled sheepishly.
"Well, since you seem to know my name so well.... what's yours?"
"Oh, my name's Amy... Amy Anderson. I'm a big fan of your work Mr.
Michaels"
"Well, that's nice of you to say Amy," Thomas looked around, he noticed that all of the Tekhed stock was gone.
"I guess my work is appreciated somewhere..." Amy looked at him.
"What do you mean? Your company has branches in every country, your tech's everywhere!!"
"Nothing... nevermind... I take it you were here to get the new Internet Explorer, right?"
"Yeah, well I was until I found but the were all sold out"
"Come with me" said Thomas. He turned around and walked out of the store, Amy following close behind him. Thomas led them out to the parking lot, and walked to a small sports car.
"Stay here, I'll be back in a second"
"Okay..." said Amy, suddenly becoming a little paranoid. What was she doing? Standing outside in a relatively deserted parking lot with a man she didn't know! She looked around, everything seemed to be far away and grey.
"Here you go Amy" said Thomas. Amy nearly leapt out of her skin!
"Whoa, you okay, I didn't mean to scare you like that"
"It's alright, I just didn't hear you"
"No problem, this is for you" Amy looked down, she couldn't believe her eyes. The box read "S.C.D V.9 I-Net Explorer"
"The next version? Mr. Michaels! I don't know how to thank you!!"
"Hey, no prob... maybe I'll see you around again..."
"Yeah... maybe..."
"Well.... see you later"
"Yeah... later" Amy smiled and walked away as Thomas got into his sports car. Amy walked to her car and quickly got into the driver seat and drove home.
************
Geoff smiled, his plan was working, slowly, but it was working. He had set up Tekhed Corp as a front for the real reason he needed all of this money, Genetic Research. He had started to implement his plan today, sending his little pawns out to collect the genetic material of each of the five Sailor Senshi. A few of these so-called pawns weren't the brightest of the bunch, but they did their job well. Geoff was standing in a cleanroom dressed in a white sterile suit with a Plexiglas faceplate. He was holding a vial of pink liquid in his gloved hand.
"The stuff revenge is made of...." he said quietly as he slid the vial into a nitrogen cooling system. A soft "ping!" went off.
"Enter..." Geoff growled. A man wearing a white sterile suit walked in carrying a small, round glass disk in his hands.
"The genetic material you requested, sir" said the man.
"Good, leave it over there" said Geoff, pointing to a large machine with six small, round indentations in the front.
"Uh.. where?"
"The Extractor! Put the sample down by The Extractor you imbecile!!" Geoff snapped at the man.
"Get out of my sight Thomas, now" said Geoff, the edge on his voice let Thomas know his life depended on it.
"Yessir, r-r-right a-a-away sir!" said Thomas as he darted out of the cleanroom.
Geoff groaned exasperatedly and monitored the freezing process that Thomas had so rudely interrupted. It was soon completed and he walked over to the extractor. He looked at the genetic material, a piece of the scout of Mercury's hair. He wondered how that snivelling whelp Michaels had attained such a sample, but it didn't matter, he had the sample, and that was that. The tiny fragments were arranged in a straight line. Geoff took the hair and carefully placed them into the extractor. The machine began to hum, and Geoff watched the monitor and regulated exactly what he wanted. He withdrew the special DNA that gave the scout of Mercury her Senshi powers and suspended them in a saline solution.
Geoff knew that Mercury was the thinker of the group and he wanted her genius for his creations as well. He isolated the specific DNA strands, separated them from the rest of the strand, and suspended them in another saline solution. Geoff looked around, his creations were just now beginning to take shape. He had used his own DNA as the initial structure for his creations, and now he was going to use the DNA of the five Sailor Senshi to create the perfect instruments of Armageddon. Each of them were different, their powers based on one of the five elements, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Ice and Death.
Each were trained in the martial arts and proficient with all known firearms. Geoff would now use the genetic material from each of the Senshi to augment these new warriors powers to a new level of destruction, subverting and distorting the pure powers from the Senshi into ones more tailored to the needs of his warriors. Geoff knew he could do this, all he needed was time. He turned around, looking at the maturation chambers that were arrayed before him, each of his warriors slept in complete silence, not knowing the fate that awaited them in the near future. Each were different, some taller than others, some more muscled than others, but all were distinctly his children. Geoff turned from the chambers and walked to a small intercom unit on the wall.
"Ms. Pakar?" he said into the comm unit, summoning the attention of his personal assistant, Shelly Pakar.
"Yes Mr. Silveria?"
"Please send out a extermination squad"
"Whom shall I say is the target?"
"Thomas Michaels, make sure it looks like a mob assassination"
"Yes sir."
"Thank you Ms. Pakar"
"Your welcome sir"
Geoff looked around. His crowning achievement would soon come to fruition, and he would watch with cold relish as his warriors destroyed the Sailor Senshi. Geoff walked out of the cleanroom and stripped off the cumbersome sterile suit. Underneath he was wearing a black pants and a grey business shirt. He walked to his office and sat down at his computer, typing in data. He began his search for the person who could help him locate the genetic material for the Scout of Venus.
***********
2 A few weeks later
************
Mina drove around the darkened streets of Juuban, heading for her favourite nightclub, the Centre. She parked her motorcycle and walked into the club. She walked into the same music and lighting effects that she had seen for the past two weeks, they were due for a change. She walked to the bar and ordered herself a Dry Martini. She watched as the people danced and drank, enjoying their company. This was her element. This type of place was where she liked to go. A tall, good-looking man sat down beside Mina with a deep frown on his face and a deeper furrow in his forehead. Mina looked at him for a second, she recognized this guy, but she couldn't place him. She heard a song come over the speakers and then it hit her, that was Keith Summers! He was a international singing sensation from Canada, what on earth was he doing here?! Mina looked at him again, it couldn't hurt to try and help.
"Why so glum?"
"You wouldn't call this the best day of my life"
"Oh?"
"Between my wife separating from me, my record label dropping me, and my car getting totalled about two hours ago, this day's just getting better and better..." Mina put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"What's your poison?" she asked.
"Double Manhattan, no ice, double lime" Mina looked over at the bartender, Alfonzo Fuerti was his name.
"Hey Alfonzo, you know how to make a Manhattan?"
"Yep"
"Then make my friend here a double, no ice, double lime, okay?"
"Cool"
"Thanks"
Keith looked at her. He recognized her from some place. Mina turned around for a second and he saw her red hair ribbon, and it clicked, she was the girl the played Sailor V!
"Hey, ain't you the girl who played Sailor V before it got cancelled?"
"The one and the same, name's Mina Aino"
"Keith, Keith Summers" He proffered his hand, she took it and shook it lightly.
"Well, from one star to another, I hope you fans don't give up on you" said Mina.
"Oh, they won't, I've already got two or three other labels lined up, and their chomping at the bit to sign me, and you?"
"Well.... ever since I moved here, not much has happened with the show, or that new movie that was in the works. I've taken up a normal life here, even go to a normal school and have a job too!"
"That must be a drag..."
"No way! I actually have a social life and some pretty good friends to! None of those leeches that ya' know will never pay back a single cent when you lend'em money, real friends!"
"Well... I think I'll keep the star profile for now, but if I ever need lessons in leading a normal life, mind if I call you?" Mina was a bit thrown by what Keith had just said, but she took it in stride.
"Sure, i'm always willing to give a lesson or two!" Mina grabbed a napkin from under one of the small plates and wrote her number down.
"And if you ever need to talk to someone, you just phone me, 'kay?" said Keith as he tore the napkin in half and wrote his number down on it, the handed it back to Mina. Mina took the number and smiled as she put it in her purse. Alfonzo brought Keith's drink over and set it down. Keith nodded a quick thanks and Alfonzo left. Mina and Keith talked well into the night, but Keith was called away on important business, so Mina drove herself home.
Geoff wandered through the immaterium that was his domain, and he was smiling to himself, a thing that he had not done in an extremely long time. His plan was coming to fruition. Even though where he was, was a swirling mass of nebulae and starfeilds, it was as if he walked on solid flooring, he stepped forward and looked around, he liked this place. It reflected the way he felt. Cold.... Barren.... Dead. To him, this place was home. With a simple flick of his wrist, he conjured up a computer. Once he had returned to earth, all of the technology that had been created in the time that he had been gone was instantly gathered to his mind.
He now knew what man had become.... destructive. He smiled again... man... they were their own worst enemy. He sat down and logged onto the Internet. He meandered about for a while, looking at the vast plethora of information that sprawled before him, it was amazing how much information was stored here. He soon found out that the earth had adopted the use of currency instead of the barter system that was in place before he was sent away. An idea flashed in his head. Combining his knowledge of the arcane with the new technological information that he had acquired, he quickly started a new business.
************
1 Six Months Later
************
Amy walked through the Tekhed department store, looking at their newest endeavour. They had burst onto the scene about four months ago and they had taken the computer world by storm. They had developed a new type of central processing unit, called a stacked crystal diode, and it was five hundred times faster that any other CPU out there, and it was self- upgrading if logged onto the Internet, which unfortunately Amy wasn't. Amy walked around, perusing the VR equipment and newest games.
She smiled, Tekhed was a good company. They sold their product almost at cost, only a marginal mark-up to cover their employees salaries, even then their prices were lower than any around, considerably lower. Amy had upgraded her CPU from a Pentium 233 to a V.7 SCD database with VR internet capabilities, and it had cost her only $200, instead of over $3000 for any of the other company's knockoffs.
Everyone had wondered how such a company had been able to stay afloat for so long, selling things at cost wasn't very profitable, but when you traded your stocks right and had very well-heeled backers, it wasn't to hard to keep competitive. Amy looked around, but the newest edition of the Tekhed Internet Explorer wasn't around, the displays had been picked clean. Amy looked around, the shelves were bare! She walked up to the sales counter and looked at the Clerk.
"Pardon me, do you happen to have Amy more copies of the new Tekhed Internet Explorer?" Amy asked politely.
"The only ones that are left are reserved, sorry."
"Oh.... I see... well, maybe with the next shipment?"
"Yeah, maybe" said the clerk. As Amy turned to walk away, she ran right into someone, almost knocking him to the ground.
"Oh! I am so sorry sir!!" Amy said as she caught his arm and helped him get his balance.
"It's perfectly okay, it was a mistake. Anyone could've made it."
Amy looked up into the face of the man and recognized him.
"Oh my god.... your Thomas Michaels.... the Thomas Michaels!"
"Uh... yeah.... so?"
"Your only the owner and president of Tekhed! Your like a superstar around here!!"
"Oh... Tekhed... yeah well.... I guess you could say that.." He smiled sheepishly.
"Well, since you seem to know my name so well.... what's yours?"
"Oh, my name's Amy... Amy Anderson. I'm a big fan of your work Mr.
Michaels"
"Well, that's nice of you to say Amy," Thomas looked around, he noticed that all of the Tekhed stock was gone.
"I guess my work is appreciated somewhere..." Amy looked at him.
"What do you mean? Your company has branches in every country, your tech's everywhere!!"
"Nothing... nevermind... I take it you were here to get the new Internet Explorer, right?"
"Yeah, well I was until I found but the were all sold out"
"Come with me" said Thomas. He turned around and walked out of the store, Amy following close behind him. Thomas led them out to the parking lot, and walked to a small sports car.
"Stay here, I'll be back in a second"
"Okay..." said Amy, suddenly becoming a little paranoid. What was she doing? Standing outside in a relatively deserted parking lot with a man she didn't know! She looked around, everything seemed to be far away and grey.
"Here you go Amy" said Thomas. Amy nearly leapt out of her skin!
"Whoa, you okay, I didn't mean to scare you like that"
"It's alright, I just didn't hear you"
"No problem, this is for you" Amy looked down, she couldn't believe her eyes. The box read "S.C.D V.9 I-Net Explorer"
"The next version? Mr. Michaels! I don't know how to thank you!!"
"Hey, no prob... maybe I'll see you around again..."
"Yeah... maybe..."
"Well.... see you later"
"Yeah... later" Amy smiled and walked away as Thomas got into his sports car. Amy walked to her car and quickly got into the driver seat and drove home.
************
Geoff smiled, his plan was working, slowly, but it was working. He had set up Tekhed Corp as a front for the real reason he needed all of this money, Genetic Research. He had started to implement his plan today, sending his little pawns out to collect the genetic material of each of the five Sailor Senshi. A few of these so-called pawns weren't the brightest of the bunch, but they did their job well. Geoff was standing in a cleanroom dressed in a white sterile suit with a Plexiglas faceplate. He was holding a vial of pink liquid in his gloved hand.
"The stuff revenge is made of...." he said quietly as he slid the vial into a nitrogen cooling system. A soft "ping!" went off.
"Enter..." Geoff growled. A man wearing a white sterile suit walked in carrying a small, round glass disk in his hands.
"The genetic material you requested, sir" said the man.
"Good, leave it over there" said Geoff, pointing to a large machine with six small, round indentations in the front.
"Uh.. where?"
"The Extractor! Put the sample down by The Extractor you imbecile!!" Geoff snapped at the man.
"Get out of my sight Thomas, now" said Geoff, the edge on his voice let Thomas know his life depended on it.
"Yessir, r-r-right a-a-away sir!" said Thomas as he darted out of the cleanroom.
Geoff groaned exasperatedly and monitored the freezing process that Thomas had so rudely interrupted. It was soon completed and he walked over to the extractor. He looked at the genetic material, a piece of the scout of Mercury's hair. He wondered how that snivelling whelp Michaels had attained such a sample, but it didn't matter, he had the sample, and that was that. The tiny fragments were arranged in a straight line. Geoff took the hair and carefully placed them into the extractor. The machine began to hum, and Geoff watched the monitor and regulated exactly what he wanted. He withdrew the special DNA that gave the scout of Mercury her Senshi powers and suspended them in a saline solution.
Geoff knew that Mercury was the thinker of the group and he wanted her genius for his creations as well. He isolated the specific DNA strands, separated them from the rest of the strand, and suspended them in another saline solution. Geoff looked around, his creations were just now beginning to take shape. He had used his own DNA as the initial structure for his creations, and now he was going to use the DNA of the five Sailor Senshi to create the perfect instruments of Armageddon. Each of them were different, their powers based on one of the five elements, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Ice and Death.
Each were trained in the martial arts and proficient with all known firearms. Geoff would now use the genetic material from each of the Senshi to augment these new warriors powers to a new level of destruction, subverting and distorting the pure powers from the Senshi into ones more tailored to the needs of his warriors. Geoff knew he could do this, all he needed was time. He turned around, looking at the maturation chambers that were arrayed before him, each of his warriors slept in complete silence, not knowing the fate that awaited them in the near future. Each were different, some taller than others, some more muscled than others, but all were distinctly his children. Geoff turned from the chambers and walked to a small intercom unit on the wall.
"Ms. Pakar?" he said into the comm unit, summoning the attention of his personal assistant, Shelly Pakar.
"Yes Mr. Silveria?"
"Please send out a extermination squad"
"Whom shall I say is the target?"
"Thomas Michaels, make sure it looks like a mob assassination"
"Yes sir."
"Thank you Ms. Pakar"
"Your welcome sir"
Geoff looked around. His crowning achievement would soon come to fruition, and he would watch with cold relish as his warriors destroyed the Sailor Senshi. Geoff walked out of the cleanroom and stripped off the cumbersome sterile suit. Underneath he was wearing a black pants and a grey business shirt. He walked to his office and sat down at his computer, typing in data. He began his search for the person who could help him locate the genetic material for the Scout of Venus.
***********
2 A few weeks later
************
Mina drove around the darkened streets of Juuban, heading for her favourite nightclub, the Centre. She parked her motorcycle and walked into the club. She walked into the same music and lighting effects that she had seen for the past two weeks, they were due for a change. She walked to the bar and ordered herself a Dry Martini. She watched as the people danced and drank, enjoying their company. This was her element. This type of place was where she liked to go. A tall, good-looking man sat down beside Mina with a deep frown on his face and a deeper furrow in his forehead. Mina looked at him for a second, she recognized this guy, but she couldn't place him. She heard a song come over the speakers and then it hit her, that was Keith Summers! He was a international singing sensation from Canada, what on earth was he doing here?! Mina looked at him again, it couldn't hurt to try and help.
"Why so glum?"
"You wouldn't call this the best day of my life"
"Oh?"
"Between my wife separating from me, my record label dropping me, and my car getting totalled about two hours ago, this day's just getting better and better..." Mina put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"What's your poison?" she asked.
"Double Manhattan, no ice, double lime" Mina looked over at the bartender, Alfonzo Fuerti was his name.
"Hey Alfonzo, you know how to make a Manhattan?"
"Yep"
"Then make my friend here a double, no ice, double lime, okay?"
"Cool"
"Thanks"
Keith looked at her. He recognized her from some place. Mina turned around for a second and he saw her red hair ribbon, and it clicked, she was the girl the played Sailor V!
"Hey, ain't you the girl who played Sailor V before it got cancelled?"
"The one and the same, name's Mina Aino"
"Keith, Keith Summers" He proffered his hand, she took it and shook it lightly.
"Well, from one star to another, I hope you fans don't give up on you" said Mina.
"Oh, they won't, I've already got two or three other labels lined up, and their chomping at the bit to sign me, and you?"
"Well.... ever since I moved here, not much has happened with the show, or that new movie that was in the works. I've taken up a normal life here, even go to a normal school and have a job too!"
"That must be a drag..."
"No way! I actually have a social life and some pretty good friends to! None of those leeches that ya' know will never pay back a single cent when you lend'em money, real friends!"
"Well... I think I'll keep the star profile for now, but if I ever need lessons in leading a normal life, mind if I call you?" Mina was a bit thrown by what Keith had just said, but she took it in stride.
"Sure, i'm always willing to give a lesson or two!" Mina grabbed a napkin from under one of the small plates and wrote her number down.
"And if you ever need to talk to someone, you just phone me, 'kay?" said Keith as he tore the napkin in half and wrote his number down on it, the handed it back to Mina. Mina took the number and smiled as she put it in her purse. Alfonzo brought Keith's drink over and set it down. Keith nodded a quick thanks and Alfonzo left. Mina and Keith talked well into the night, but Keith was called away on important business, so Mina drove herself home.