Chapter 1
High above the streets of New Metropolis a swirling vortex of
clouds spread outward encompassing the city. At the center was a small
cylindrical craft emitting the clouds. It was twenty feet long, ten
feet wide and hovered in the eye of the storm. Inside sat the maniacal
Dr. Sinclair, his hand wrapped around two control sticks he guide the
growth of the storm. By now the courier would be delivering his
demands for 500 million dollars to the mayor, and the mayor would
comply. Her ratings were already low and she can't afford the
destruction of the city. That would be political suicide. With his
right hand he pushed forward and a targeting screen came up on one of
the many displays in front of him. He pointed the cross-hairs so they
lined up with the Daily Times building and fired. A brilliant flash
blinded him for a moment as lightening raced downward and set the
building ablaze. The good doctor chuckled to himself, everything was
going perfectly.
Outside the window something caught his eye. There floating nearby was
Captain Crisp, the cleanest hero around. He looked in trying to see
who the pilot was. He was a 6'4 muscular man dressed impeccably in a
three piece suit, with a cape. Captain Crisp, was the town's
protector, and Doctor Sinclair's nemesis. There was a tapping at the
window,
"Is that you Sinclair?" said Crisp
The doctor smacked his forehead. Of course it was him, who else was this devious. He picked up a microphone and spoke into it.
"Yes Crisp, it is I Dr. Sinclair in my Weather Dominator! I am the Bringer of doom, and..." Crisp cut him off.
"Can you stop all this, I have a dentist appointment I need to get to and you know how hard it is to reschedule those"
"Oh, well yes I suppose, those are hard to... Hey wait a minute, No I am the bringer of doom! You cannot stop me!"
Crisp sighed, "Fine" and with that took a fit and smashed it into the
top of the cylinder. Inside Sinclair grabbed the safety rails to keep
from being knocked out of his seat and reached for the counter measure
switch, but before he could Crisp gave the cylinder a swift kick, and
Sinclair heard a sonic boom. Every warning light went off at once, and
outside the window the earth and sky were tumbling as we darted across
the sky, finally crashing into the ocean over a hundred miles away.
Over New metropolis Crisp shook his head and flew off to the dentist.
The storm clouds receded and the Daily times building slowly burned,
long since vacant as a result of the demise of newspapers.
Out in the ocean, Sinclair climbed about an inflatable life raft with a
homing beacon and radio. There was going to be hell to pay when he got
back.
Chapter 2
At four AM Doris's alarm buzzer went off. She got up and prepared for
the day. She was a diminutive 5'4 woman, slightly round, with graying
curly hair. Her small apartment was immaculate, her clothes for that
days work were layed out. She quickly prepared for the day, hair,
makeup, nails, clothes. She was the image of perfection in a smart
gray jacket, white blouse and grey skirt that came to just below the
knee. She did a quick walk though of the apartment, making sure
everything was just perfect, spending a few minutes to smooth out the
plastic covers on her couch, then headed out the door, locking three
deadbolts behind her. Outside at the bus stop she sat quietly and
pulled a scarf she had been knitting out of her purse and continued her
work on it.
The bus ride was short, and she arrived at the dully brick office
building around 5:30. Inside she stepped carefully over the old tile
floor toward the single elevator and pressed up. On the second floor
she stepped out into a dimly lit hallway and pulled out her keys,
unlocking the front door for Energy Design Innovators, Inc. Inside she
disabled the alarm, turned on the lights, and started the coffee. She
did a quick pass though the office, checking the short gray cubes,
making sure everything was in place and there were no messes. A messy
desk would not be acceptable at EDI! Once she had her cup she started
work prepping for the 9am daily status meeting. Although she was
officially the office manager, she really kept everything together in
the small office of about 20 people and the daily status was her job to
facilitate.
At 9 the office had filled and was buzzing with activity. Doris opened
the doors to the main conference room and took a seat at the head of
the long mahogany table. The attendees filled in around the table and
the few stragglers took chairs lining the room.
"Thank you all for coming," started Doris "As you know we have alot to
do, so I i'll keep this as brief as possible. First of all we have the
feedback on our latest project, The Weather Dominator." She looked at
a small man in a cheap black suit seated at the far end of the table.
"Stan, marketing dropped the ball on this one. Our customers do not
like the name Weather Dominator. They say it sounds like a cheap
cartoon gimmick. I need better out of you. You get one more chance."
"Oh thank you," said Stan nervously "I will not let you down Doris".
Doris smiled, flashing her perfect teeth, "Wonderful, I'm glad we can
continue our working relationship. Now Bill, it appears that Captain
Crisp destroyed the dominator and our client is not pleased. The
countermeasures you developed did not activate in time to stop him."
"Ah, well, it takes 34 seconds to initialize the system. If Dr.
Sinclair had read the manual, he would have known the system needed to
be activated in advance. I really can't be held responsible for a
failing of the customer." said Bill, with an air of confidence.
"Well, Bill, actually, the original requirements called for an always on
defensive system, and you seem to have failed us." Doris got up and
walked over and stood behind Bill who was seated at the table. "I am
afraid we are going to have to terminate you." Bill wa conscious only
long enough to realize that a needle was pressing into his neck, then
everything went black. Bill's lifeless form collapsed on the table.
The crowd nodded to each other in approval, Bill had been a problem, he
had been death with. "Now, onto brighter things, Jack here" she
motioned to a tall thin man sitting against the wall "did a magnificent
job, with the weather control circuits and lighting targeter. he is
our employee of the month! Let's all give him a cheer, he will get a five hundred dollar Amex Card and one day of vacation time!." The crowd
clapped and everyone smiled at Jack, he had earned this honor. Bill's
body remained still on the table. "Now everyone be back here at 1, we
are all having cake to celebrate Jill's birthday! She will be turning
27, in her fifth year with us! Thanks everyone for your hard work, I
will see you then!" Doris ended the meeting and the room emptied.
Doris was the last one out and, looking back, shook her head at Bill's
body. "It is so hard to find a good engineers" she
muttered to herself. Back at her desk she called the "cleaning crew" to
take care of Bill, and place a call to Cheerful Times Super Happy
Placement Services so they could send a new engineer over right away.
