Author's Note: Um…. I just realized that I made a big mistake trying to put the election sequence here instead of waiting until later. There aren't any major spoilers yet, but I realized… well this was actually the 40th chapter in my paper notebook, and when I renumbered them, I knew these three election chapters had to go in sequence. Chapter 28 was the 44th chapter in my paper notebook and… um…
After this chapter, Janet is going to get younger again. She's more like two and a half here, and she'll go back to being one. By that logic of keeping these three chapters together, I made her too young in chapter 27. That's what threw me off when I was renumbering. Penguin is also more of a legend at this point, but she was just introduced to the public and it should have taken more time to build up her reputation…. So there are some missing things here.
If I was actually publishing this for a profit I would make an effort to go back and put these three chapters somewhere else, but at this point… I wanted the mayors elected earlier, but… yeah. I'm honestly a little burned out on this story in general. I have all the chapters done, so you will get the rest of them as I edit and post them. Hopefully this won't screw things up too much! I'm sorry!
Chapter 29 Power
Janet sat on the white leather couch of the TV room with a large electronic game on the coffee table in front of her. It was something that Seto had spent countless weeks designing, and now sold to thousands of parents with young children around the world. Although Janet did not fully comprehend how much time and effort her father had put into making her toy, she loved it. Mokuba and Serenity watched Janet play with the device with soft smiles on their faces. Even though Seto spent very little time at home, this gift clearly demonstrated that his daughter was never far from his mind.
Janet pounded her hands on the durable touch screen of the device to identify the answers to simple questions such as what a particular farm animal looked like or what letter of the alphabet corresponded to a certain sound. It responded with a "good job!" recorded from Serenity's voice whenever she got the correct answer. The machine was capable of running several different programs, and automatically adjusted to a child's learning speed. At the rate she was going, Janet would be able to read full sentences by the end of the year.
Mokuba and Serenity cuddled and watched TV while Janet played. They were watching a news story about a celebrity who had been caught having a threesome with two women other than his wife when suddenly the screen went completely white.
Mokuba and Serenity looked at each other in alarm and sat up straight. This was extremely peculiar. Global Communications never, ever disrupted their cable service before now.
Two seconds later, a blonde with hazel eyes wearing a hot pink suit and immaculately perfect makeup appeared on the screen. She wore a constant smirk on her face and stared right through the television toward her audience.
Mokuba shivered a little when he saw her. She had an indescribable fire that so few people these days possessed. "Is that who I think it is?" he found himself saying.
Serenity looked closely. "It is. It's Penguin."
Janet stopped what she was doing and looked up. Her tiny mouth hung open as if she was trying to decide whether or not now would be a good time to cry. She froze like that, staring at the woman on the screen.
Penguin spoke sharply yet steadily. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to bring you real news. You can return to watching that pointless dribble Global Enterprises likes to feed you later.
"It has come to Noel's attention that the so-called mayoral 'elections' that have been taking place are nothing more than ploys to make you feel like you actually have a say in your government. Have any of you noticed that the only way to vote is through an Industrial Illusions voting machine? Have any of you actually read the code that records and tallies your votes? Of course not! It is supposedly 'confidential' and 'protected.' How many of you would be surprised to know that the government does not pay attention to whom you as an individual vote for, but completely disregards your preferences in the end? Your voting system is a black box. It exists only to pacify your desire to have some control over the way your government operates without actually satisfying it.
"The fact of the matter is that every single mayor out there today was hand-picked by Global Enterprises, and Industrial Illusions ensured their election. These are men who look good on television, but who don't have any intention of actually listening to the people. They say what Global Enterprises tells them to say and go where Global Enterprises tells them to go.
"If you have been paying attention to the news in the territory of Japan, you may have noticed that every single one of these 'mayors' cancelled their upcoming public appearances due to a cold or flu. The true reason why the mayors are hiding their faces, however, is much more entertaining."
The video cut to an image of a sleeping middle-aged man. On his head was strapped a large steel cone with the letters DUNCE stacked vertically. The man rolled over in his sleep and felt that something was not quite normal. He tossed and turned a few times before his hands went to his head and he found the smooth metal object strapped to it. He tugged on it, but found that it would not budge. The steel ran down behind his ears and around his neck, making it impossible to remove.
The man opened his brown eyes wide and bolted upright. The camera now had a better view of him, and people could see that he was the mayor of Domino City. He dashed to the bathroom, and the camera cut to a different one pointed at his mirror. His face drained of all color when he saw what was written on his hat.
After a few more minutes of fretting and trying to remove the hat, he grabbed his mobile phone and speed-dialed his publicity coordinator. "Cynthia, get over here fast. I need your help with something… Tell them I can't make it… I don't care! Make something up!" He ended the call and paced helplessly around his bedroom.
The camera cut back to Penguin. She grinned deviously as the camera panned out to reveal her three other singing companions. They began singing in four-part harmony a song that only those who had watched the local, independent news channels the previous month would be able to recognize:
Maybe we're not so dangerous
Why don't you listen to us?
Hear us out
We've got something to talk about
Remember back when
You voted with a pen
Then, all votes were counted
By real folks
Who kept the results fair
There were no secrets
In the circuits
Of machines that had not conscience
Paper ballots always showed
Who won and who must fold
Maybe we're not so dangerous
Why don't you listen to us?
Hear us out
We've got something to talk about
Look at us now
We do not know how
Our votes were tallied
Now we're stymied
Into thinking that we had a choice
When we really had no voice
And now we're supposed to feel
Like our votes were somehow real?
Fat chance!
Maybe we're not so dangerous
Why don't you listen to us?
Hear us out
We've got something to talk about
Penguin and the other Noelites faded from the screen. Global Communications came back on, continuing with its regular news story as if it had never been interrupted.
"What just happened?" Serenity asked.
"More importantly, how. It looks like Global Cable just got hacked, but they didn't even know it," Mokuba replied.
"Noel hacked cable TV?" Janet asked.
"Yes. We think so," Mokuba replied.
"Why?" Janet asked, looking at him with her bright blue eyes.
"They wanted to tell us something; something that Global Communications did not want us to know."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did Global Communications not want us to know?"
"They, um… Serenity, a little help here?" Mokuba pleaded.
"They have a lot of power, and they want to keep it," Serenity explained.
"Why?"
"Power lets people do more of the things they want to do," Serenity said.
"Why?"
"You tell me, miss smarty pants. What's the definition of power?"
Janet punched a few icons on the screen of her electronic toy. Then, she said aloud, "Power."
"Power," the device repeated, "noun. One. The ability or official capacity to act or perform effectively. Two…" the machine continued to drone on and on in its synthesized female voice, "Nine. Physics. The rate at which work is performed, mathematically expressed as the first derivative of work with respect to time and commonly measured in units such as the watt and horsepower. Ten. Electricity. A. The product of applied potential difference and current in a direct-current circuit. B. The product of the effective values of the voltage and current with the cosine of the phase angle between current and voltage in an alternating-current circuit. Eleven-"
"-Enough! Mokuba cried, "We were talking about the first three or four definitions."
"But I like ten. Ten makes my toy work," Janet protested.
"Yes, electricity is what makes your toy work," Mokuba told her.
"Is it a or b?" Janet asked.
"It's both. Alternating-current, or AC for short, comes out of the wall. Then, a tiny machine turns it into direct-current, or DC for short, and stores it by moving the electrons in the batteries of your toy from one place to another. Then, when you turn on your toy, the electrons move in the opposite direction to give power back to your toy."
Janet clapped her hands in excitement. "Power! So fun! What are electrons?"
Serenity and Mokuba spent the next hour trying to explain subatomic particles to the little girl. Some things she understood immediately, but other things would take more time for her to learn. Eventually, she fell asleep on the white leather couch between her mother and her uncle.
Mokuba picked up Janet and carried her upstairs while Serenity followed. They then tucked her into her crib in the nursery and turned out the light.
"Wanna fool around?" Mokuba asked Serenity softly as soon as they were back in the hallway.
"You know it," Serenity replied with her olivine eyes glowing.
They interdigitated their hands and strolled easily to Mokuba's room. With the warm softness of each other's touch, all of their worries and cares disappeared.