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 Six: Unleashed

Riker's Island was the site of Paradigm City's prison. It was believed to have been named after a man named William Riker, but of course nobody knew who he was anymore. Some spotty records indicated that Will Riker was an astronaut or a naval commander. Other accounts said that he was a Dutch Settler from long ago. In the end, it really didn't matter.

It certainly didn't matter to Dan Dastun, former Colonel of the military police. Life could be hard for a cop on the inside. Convicts were generally hostile to police, especially those who were too honest or too stupid to take bribes. For a man as proud of the military police as Dastun to be in prison was a death sentence. Even if Paradigm didn't get one of the prisoners to kill him, an inmate with nothing to lose might try to off him. Even Dastun had to admit it was a slick setup. Death by convict meant that he could be eliminated without a paper trail.

So Dastun took the initiative. He picked a fight with someone he knew he could take. He didn't say anything; he just started swinging. When the warden asked him why he did that, Dan just shrugged and said he mistook him for someone else. In the end he got what he wanted, solitary confinement. Solitary confinement made it nearly impossible for Dastun to die 'accidentally'. If the suits at Paradigm wanted him out of the way, they would have hold a trial or kill him in an obvious murder.

The doors to Dastun's cell opened to allow a stocky bearded man with coffee colored skin admittance. His expensive business suit, smoky eyeglasses, carefully groomed hair and immaculately cut nails marked him as a man of wealth and power.

"What do you want?" Dastun grumbled.

"Do you know who I am?" the man rumbled in his deep voice.

"You're Gregory Stoker, a member of Paradigm's Board of Directors," Dastun shrugged, doing his best to look bored.

"Do you know what I can do for you?" Stoker asked him.

"I know what you can do to me," Dastun crossed his arms.

"I can offer you your life back, but only if you obey my orders to the letter," Stoker gazed at Dastun with cold eyes.

"What do I have to do?" the ex-cop asked in resignation.

Inside the former bank building known simply as 'the mansion', Roger Smith sat in the cockpit of Big O, the only place in the mansion he could be assured of getting away from that pesky android. Big O was loaded with less lethal ammunition for riot control. Dare he use the megadeus to stop the riots and looting out there? Would it do any good or would it simply fan the flames? What was he afraid of?

Roger sighed, for he knew what he was afraid of. His worst hallucinations happened when he was sitting right in this chair, when he was battling Big Fau or the three foreign megadeuses containing Big Fau's parts. If Roger went out in Big O before his head was on straight he could have another bizarre fantasy, one that he might not come back from. Dare he risk it until he figured himself out?

His mind drifted back to what Beck had told him when he had forced him to restore Dorothy's memory. "It's pretty obvious that the domineus and the megadeus gotta be in sync," the blonde crook told him. "Otherwise, bad things happen."

What had Swartzwald's ghost told Alan Gabriel before the Big Duo Inferno rejected the psychotic cyborg? "It chooses one who controls the power of God created by Man, one who is able to arrive at one truth. That's not the case with you!"

Was it safe for Roger to pilot the Big O when he wasn't sure of himself, when he was unable to arrive at one truth? Would he lose control Big O? Would the black megadeus turn on him? It didn't seem possible and yet, could he take the chance? At the very least Big O might freeze or go out of control and that wouldn't be any good would it?

He had promised Big O that he would do better, that he would be a better pilot. There was no way he could fulfill that promise while he was plagued with such doubts. He needed to straighten himself out and find out what truth he did believe in. Unfortunately that would mean subjecting himself to that unrelenting android's sharp tongue.

As the black clad negotiator walked down the catwalk away from his silent megadeus, Norman Burg strode up to him.

"Master Roger?" the butler asked, snapping the younger man out of his brooding. "Do you have a moment?"

"Sure Norman," the negotiator sighed. "What can I do for you?"

"Have you moved Miss Dorothy's blueprints, sir?" the elderly man asked gently. "I thought that I would familiarize myself with them before I started dinner."

"What? No, I haven't moved them," Roger shrugged. "Aren't they still in the safe?"

"I'm afraid not, Master Roger," Norman morosely shook his head. "They are not in either safe. I had wondered if you were studying them."

"You weren't going to be tutoring me until Paradigm City returns to some kind of stability," Roger stated. "Her blueprints would be gibberish to me until then. Why would I look at them now?"

"I wouldn't know sir," Norman's good eye looked away. "Curiosity perhaps?"

Roger's face reddened at his butler's subtle implication. "Certainly not! Let's check out the safe!"

In the negotiator's office, Roger and Norman studied the open safe. "The deed is still in there," Norman told him. "As is the emergency cash and Paradigm's check."

"But no blueprints," Roger grumbled.

"Who could have taken them, sir?" Norman wondered. "Mister Beck was out of our hair before we received them. You don't suppose he cased the mansion during his stay?"

"We've had this place sown up tight since the riots started," Roger announced. "There's no way anybody could break in here that easily." His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "No way, unless it was an inside job…"

"Sir?" Norman's voice sounded concerned.

"R Dorothy Wayneright!" Roger shouted. "Get in here!"

"Yes Roger?" the android asked from the doorway.

"Somebody has been rifling through my safe," the negotiator growled. "Your blueprints are gone."

"Who do you suppose could have taken them?" Dorothy asked.

"Who indeed?" asked a suspicious Roger. "Are you going to deny that you took them?"

"There is no need to for me to deny anything, Roger Smith," the girl retorted, "since I am guilty of nothing wrong."

"That doesn't sound like a denial," Roger said as he looked into Dorothy's unflinching eyes. "Is that a confession?"

"There is nothing for me to confess," Dorothy said stubbornly. "If I did take them, it would be none of your business. You said that I am Doctor Wayneright's only heir. By your own words my blueprints are technically my legal property."

"Don't get smart with me, Dorothy…" Roger warned.

"Miss Dorothy!" Norman gasped in fatherly concern. "Does this mean that you did take them? I can't believe it. What could have possessed you to do such a thing?"

The android turned to face the butler, and seemed unsure of herself.

So, Roger thought, she was ready for a fight with me, but Norman playing the guilt card was something she had not anticipated. Good.

"Yes," the negotiator went on the attack. "Why did you take them? We thought we had a burglar."

"I never said that I did," Dorothy replied. Was it his imagination, or did her voice lack confidence? Hard to tell with Dorothy.

"You never said that you didn't either," Roger countered. "Are you going to admit that you took them or are we going to have to assume that we have a security breach?"

Dorothy clasped her hands and looked away.

Roger's voice softened as he tried another tack. "Hey it's okay that you want to take a look at them," he said, allowing her to save face. "After all, you have a right to know how your own body works. I just thought that Norman would tutor us in robotics first, that's all."

Dorothy looked back in his direction, all expression gone from her colorless face.

"Dorothy?" he asked tentatively. "You're right. You've done nothing wrong. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. You can look at them anytime you want to. So, when you're done with them, be sure to put them back in the safe, alright?" Roger smiled uneasily. "I mean, Norman needs to take a look at them too, you know."

Zilch. Nothing. She didn't even blink.

"By the way, where are they now?" Roger asked innocently.

"Why do you need to see them, Roger Smith?" Dorothy countered.

"I don't," he shrugged. "Just curious."

"Why are you curious?" she countered. "What is it about my body that you find so fascinating?"

"Wha?" Roger sputtered and blushed in embarrassment before he lost his temper. "You won't distract me with these ridiculous insinuations!" he snarled. "Why won't you tell us where it is? Just what are you trying to hide?"

"I never said that I was hiding anything, Roger Smith," she announced stoically. "You didn't answer my question. Could it be that you yourself have something to hide?"

"Quit trying to deflect the question and just answer it already!" Roger ordered. "I went through a lot of trouble to get those plans! If you don't want me to look at them you could at least tell me why!"

"May I watch you undress, Roger?" she asked innocently.

"No!" he barked.

"Why?" she asked. Check and mate.

"Grrr!" Roger's hands went through his jet-black hair. "Norman! I'm going for a walk! See if you can reason with this crazy pile of bolts!" He marched out of the office before he said anything worse.

"Dorothy," Norman said in his most conciliatory tones, "Why don't you want us to study your blueprints? What is it about them that bothers you so?"

The girl just stared at the doorway Roger had exited through.

Meanwhile in an underground hanger underneath the ruined Paradigm Headquarters, a group of surgeons assembled inside of Big Fau's cockpit. They surrounded the comatose Alex Rosewater, who was resting on a special table that had been placed inside. Monitors with X-ray images of the chairman's skeleton and spinal column were set up in the control room.

"Alright," the head surgeon announced. "Making the first incision…"

As soon as the scalpel touched the metallic filaments surrounding his spinal column, Alex Rosewater sprung to life. His bloodshot eyes opened and his hand reached out behind his head to seize the surgeon's arm in an iron grip.

Several of the surgeons cried out. The cried out again when Alex Rosewater rose to his feet and seized the doctor by his neck. Some tried to restrain him, but when they heard the chief surgeon's neck snap, they fled the area by the catwalk that led out of the control room of the ghostly white megadeus. To the horror of the workmen, the operating table and the body of the chief surgeon were thrown out to fall down amongst them.

"How dare you try to separate me from Big Fau," Rosewater snarled as he sat down in the control chair and put his feet into the pedals. "Nobody will take my megadeus from me, do you hear me, no one!"

As a transparent hemisphere enclosed the cockpit from the rest of the control room, the three circular monitors at his feet came to life. The larger central screen displayed scrolling text: CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD-- YE NOT GUILTY. A strange buzzing sound was heard in the cockpit.

"Yes, you're right, Big Fau," Alex frowned. "It's time to get back at that poor excuse for a domineus who put them up to this! It's time to rid my world of Roger Smith!"

Outside in the hanger, the frightened workmen cried out as the scaffolding around the white megadeus fell away. Screams and metallic impacts could be heard as the injured leviathan staggered to its feet and lumbered forward. Alarm klaxons were heard as Big Fau stumbled towards the huge lift that would take it to the surface.

"Sir!" a technician in charge of the elevator controls exclaimed. "The elevator! It's activating all by itself!"

"What?" his supervisor gasped. "That's impossible!"

Inside the white megadeus' cockpit, Alex Rosewater grinned an ironic smile. "Who knew Big Fau?" he mused as the giant robot rose to the surface of the city. "We don't need that android's memory. You have me instead. Together we are complete. This is what you wanted all along isn't it? And deep down, this is what I wanted. Now let's bring this ungrateful city to its knees!" The roof opened above the robot allowing it access to the outside world. "Big Fau!" Rosewater shouted in glee. "It's showtime!"


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

Next: Showtime