TimeBall!
By: Scen
Thread: Iron Writer!
Posted: August 05, 2004
TimeBall!
By Matt Hoffman
With credit to Travis Rumans and Rawley Cooper
For the inventions of theirs I used
Cast
Rear General Howe Lingane- Head of the Kriegsnavee and Chief of Grand Army Naval Operations, our hero. Actor should be human, 40`s-50`s-early 60`s; blond, graying hair; well-tanned Figaroan complexion. Must have commanding stage presence and a fairly muscular build -- this is an old soldier, not an old-and-weak soldier.
Natasha- a Monitor, sworn protector of time; an Elven or Hylian actress would do, though a human can play the role with proper makeup/magical costuming
Alystare Westmorlane- a misguided megalomaniacal time mage from a parallel timestream, bent on controlling the Web of Worlds. A human should play this role: tall and blonde; fair-skinned Tasnican. Should be at least as commanding a presence as Howe -- perhaps moreso: Alystare is a charmer. In the last act he appears in his "true form," which must be accomplished by way of an offstage illusionist.
Kinky- Alystare`s henchman. This character will be so heavily made-up that race almost does not matter at all, although the actor must be of human proportions, with no body fur and no additional appendages that cannot be hidden by costuming (wings not okay; tails okay, if they can be concealed)
Hphryn- a captive from beyond the Web, held by Alystare for experimentation. An Armataur or a Gant might work well in this role, as would any larger humanoid actor ranging from 7`-8` tall (not much taller, though). Heavy makeup and/or magical disguise should be employed to transform the actor into the alien race described in the text.
Katynka - another Monitor; appearance must be similar to Natasha (the same actress may be used, if desired)
various henchmen, servants, guards and soldiers loyal to Alystare - all should be either human or passably human.
(Production notes: This work is probably best produced as a film with a large special effects budget, though in the modern Web of Worlds it is not inconceivable to pull this off as a stage play -- although it would doubtless require a stage manager and/or set designer who was an Arythian wizard of at least the Tane Cenrum level; perhaps an Air Tane who is well-versed in illusions and special effects, or an Earth Tane who can quickly change and create scenery from raw materials. It might also help to cast actors who are skilled in magical illusions, especially those who have mastered the art of somatic concealment [so as not to spoil the magic for the audience during magical set and costume changes])
By Matt Hoffman
With credit to Travis Rumans and Rawley Cooper
For the inventions of theirs I used
Cast
Rear General Howe Lingane- Head of the Kriegsnavee and Chief of Grand Army Naval Operations, our hero. Actor should be human, 40`s-50`s-early 60`s; blond, graying hair; well-tanned Figaroan complexion. Must have commanding stage presence and a fairly muscular build -- this is an old soldier, not an old-and-weak soldier.
Natasha- a Monitor, sworn protector of time; an Elven or Hylian actress would do, though a human can play the role with proper makeup/magical costuming
Alystare Westmorlane- a misguided megalomaniacal time mage from a parallel timestream, bent on controlling the Web of Worlds. A human should play this role: tall and blonde; fair-skinned Tasnican. Should be at least as commanding a presence as Howe -- perhaps moreso: Alystare is a charmer. In the last act he appears in his "true form," which must be accomplished by way of an offstage illusionist.
Kinky- Alystare`s henchman. This character will be so heavily made-up that race almost does not matter at all, although the actor must be of human proportions, with no body fur and no additional appendages that cannot be hidden by costuming (wings not okay; tails okay, if they can be concealed)
Hphryn- a captive from beyond the Web, held by Alystare for experimentation. An Armataur or a Gant might work well in this role, as would any larger humanoid actor ranging from 7`-8` tall (not much taller, though). Heavy makeup and/or magical disguise should be employed to transform the actor into the alien race described in the text.
Katynka - another Monitor; appearance must be similar to Natasha (the same actress may be used, if desired)
various henchmen, servants, guards and soldiers loyal to Alystare - all should be either human or passably human.
(Production notes: This work is probably best produced as a film with a large special effects budget, though in the modern Web of Worlds it is not inconceivable to pull this off as a stage play -- although it would doubtless require a stage manager and/or set designer who was an Arythian wizard of at least the Tane Cenrum level; perhaps an Air Tane who is well-versed in illusions and special effects, or an Earth Tane who can quickly change and create scenery from raw materials. It might also help to cast actors who are skilled in magical illusions, especially those who have mastered the art of somatic concealment [so as not to spoil the magic for the audience during magical set and costume changes])
ACT I
By: Scen
Thread: Iron Writer!
Posted: August 05, 2004
(opening theme plays, along with a montage. the theme have a heavy representation of bass guitar, with a light, swaying orchestral overlay, suggesting a story of intrigue. images that might cascade across the montage include seaships in the midst of a violent storm, broken clocks, scantily clad women in silhouette dancing and prancing, maybe a needle gun here and there, and several images of spheres all throughout)
ACT I, scene i, the deck of the Miracuda, HOWE`s sailboat
(the lights come up, and we are on the deck of a small sailing vessel. we hear the sounds of a raging storm all around: whipping winds, crashing waves, with ambient thunder and lightning flashes. a lone man stands on the deck, one hand desperately holding a rudder wheel, the other clutching a number of ropes wrapped around his forearm. this is rear general HOWE. he is an older man with a thin beard and graying hair, and despite his age he looks to be in peak physical condition. his clothes are torn, and sopping wet: he has been fighting the storm for quite some time now)
(a woman appears at his side. it is NATASHA. she has somehow managed to avoid getting wet at all. she is young and shapely, with neck-length silver hair and bronze skin that has a hint of metallic cast to it. her ears are slightly pointed, and her eyes are brilliant amber. she is wearing a brown leather uniform of some kind, with a green emblem embroidered on the left breast.)
NATASHA: You look like you could use a hand.
HOWE: What the devil? (HOWE spares the woman the slightest of glances, as the lightning flashes overhead and another sharp gale cuts across the deck) Who are you and how did you get here?
NATASHA: There`s no time for that now, General. I have to give you a message.
HOWE: Fine time you chose to show up with it, then. (HOWE tugs on the ropes) Well? Out with it!
NATASHA: Two two one six three five eight. You must remember this. Have you got it?
HOWE: (pause) You show up in the middle of a violent storm to give me your phone number!? (thinks it over, decides it`s funny, then laughs insanely) Very well. I`ll give you a call once I get clear of this storm`s clutches. You hear that, Bismark? You`re not taking this old salt today!! (bellows a crazy Howard Dean yell and releases the ropes; they snap back and away as the sails flap uncontrolled in the wind. HOWE takes firm hold on the wheel with both hands) Do your worst!!
(there is a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder, and the scene goes black. we hear the continued sounds of the storm, and the steady snapping sound of a mast breaking. we then hear the ear-raking sound of a hull being gutted against shoals and rocks, the sound of metal and wood twisting under impact. then, all is silent save the storm)
* * *
scene ii, the shore
(we see debris scattered across the scene: driftwood, torn canvas, crates and et cetera. HOWE is lying prone, sprawled out in the sand. NATASHA is here, crouching catlike. she begins sifting through the bits and pieces from the wreck, looking for something)
(HOWE stirs. he flails around in the sand for a full minute before he regains enough sense to come up onto his hands and knees. NATASHA turns and smiles at him)
NATASHA: Congratulations. You beat the storm.
HOWE: (rubbing his head, standing) You`re damn right I did. I`m not GA Chief of Naval Operations for nothing. (approaches NATASHA) Now maybe it`s about time you told me who you are.
NATASHA: Did you remember my number?
HOWE: What?... (thinks) four... two...
NATASHA: Two two one six three five eight. You must remember it.
HOWE: I`ll remember it once you tell me who you are, lady.
NATASHA: Here. (NATASHA presses something into HOWE`s hand. it`s the brass letter "u" from Miracuda on the masthead) Keep this. It will help.
HOWE: (looks at the letter; it`s brass. it`s a u. not much else to be said: HOWE throws it over his shoulder) What will help is if you tell me who you are, then maybe we can figure out where we`ve run aground and how to get help.
NATASHA: (moves around behind HOWE and retrieves the letter) I`m serious, Howe. Keep this. You`ll find it useful later. (she offers him the u again)
HOWE: (swats her hand aside) Tell me who you are, woman.
NATASHA: (coyly, like a child) Remember my number, and I`ll tell you my name.
HOWE: (smiling) Well. Now we`re getting somewhere. Usually one asks for the name before one gets the number. But I`m guessing you`re not much of one to follow conventions... showing up on my boat like you did from out of nowhere. (takes a moment to recall) Two two... one... six three five eight.
NATASHA: Good. You must not forget it. (shoves the "u" into HOWE`s pocket)
HOWE: I won`t. Your name?
NATASHA: I am Natasha.
HOWE: Nice to meet you. Now. How did you get on my boat?
(ALYSTARE enters. he is a tall, handsome, blond-haired adonis dressed in flowing white robes with a violet cape that sweeps down his back. a pair of white-armored henchmen flank him on either side)
ALYSTARE: The same way she`ll no doubt try to escape this island, now that she`s been discovered. Isn`t that right, my dear?
(NATASHA turns with a start at the sound of ALYSTARE`s voice. she turns and hops up into the air, but stumbles on her way down. she glares angrily at ALYSTARE)
ALYSTARE: The island`s covered in a temporal disruption field. So there`ll be none of that. Take her.
(the henchmen draw their weapons and move forward to apprehend NATASHA. she smiles and lets them, going along without incident. they take her away the way they came)
HOWE: Okay. Before you say anything, let me guess: I actually died back on my boat, in the storm, but I`m having a split second escape fantasy right before I die, and it ends up being the weirdest damn escape fantasy I could possibly have where nothing at all makes sense and nobody is explaining anything to me.
ALYSTARE: No, General, you`re quite alive, I assure you. And I do apologize for the method I chose to bring you here... but when I saw the opportunity, I had to take it.
HOWE: (dumbfounded) Wait, just what are you --
ALYSTARE: No, no more talk. All will be revealed in time, General. For now, let me invite you into my estate. You can clean yourself up, get out of those tatters, eat if you wish...
HOWE: I never enter a man`s home until we`ve been properly introduced.
ALYSTARE: You are a gentleman and a soldier, sir. I am Alystare. Alystare Westmorlane. Welcome to Frog Island.
* * *
scene iii, Frog Island trail
(ALYSTARE is leading HOWE up along a path away from the shore, toward his manor. HOWE shades his eyes to get a glimpse of the manor)
HOWE: (whistles) Nice place you got here, Alystare. Any idea how much a sweet piece of beachfront property like that`d fetch on the open market?
ALYSTARE: I do. But sadly, it is not for sale.
HOWE: (squinting) What`s that up top there? Looks like you got a disco ball in your bell tower.
(ALYSTARE does not answer)
* * *
scene iv, Westmorlane Manor, corridor
(ALYSTARE leads HOWE down a glass-walled corridor. behind the glass, we see an enormous humanoid creature strapped to an angled upright examination table. the creature is unclothed, save for a speedo-like garment. he appears to be a mixture of insectoid and mammalian features: his torso is covered with chitinous exoskeletal plates over the pectoral muscles and on his flanks, and his thickly muscled arms end in squid-like tentacles rather than claws or fingers. the creature`s head is reminiscent of an elephant`s, save that the ears are placed higher on the head and are wedge-shaped, like a cat`s. the creature has only one eye, and it is closed, presumably because the beast is not conscious. wires and tubes are inserted into various places across the creature`s body, connected to various pieces of medical and scientific equipment. three henchmen are taking readings and prodding the creature with instruments.)
(HOWE does a double take, then stops and takes a look)
HOWE: Holy deep-fried crap on a toothpick. What in the Web is that thing!?
ALYSTARE: Really, Howe. Is it so strange to see a large non-human in this Web of Worlds of yours? Where you have moogles and robots and demons and giant ants from space and piles and piles of anthropomorphic animals running around doing all sorts of strange things?
HOWE: Well. Yeah, I guess. But I`ve never seen anything like that before. What is it?
ALYSTARE: Well. Truthfully, this beast is the reason why I have brought you here. But we`ll discuss that after you`ve had a chance to settle in. Come, this way.
(HOWE lingers a moment, staring at the creature through the glass. As he moves on he notices a security airlock that leads into the lab where the creature is bound. the airlock access is controlled by a keypad)
* * *
scene v, Westmorlane Manor, dining hall
(ALYSTARE is here waiting. he is standing in front of an expansive plate glass window, looking out on the ocean. he is working a pair of silver chi balls in his left hand, spinning them round each other by curling his fingers in and out in sequence. ALYSTARE`s servants are busy setting the long table with two place settings. they are setting out way too much food on the table for just two people)
(HOWE emerges through a pair of automatic sliding doors. he is now wearing a metallic silver jumpsuit with no sleeves and a high, bellhop`s collar. his silvery boots are knee-high, but his pant legs barely go down past his mid-thigh. this is not a uniform that becomes a Grand Army Chief of Naval Operations. HOWE is holding the brass "u" from the masthead of his boat as he steps inside the dining area, and is searching his new outfit for a pocket to put it in. finding none, he reaches around behind him and slides it under his belt)
ALYSTARE: Ah, General. I trust my accomodations are to your liking?
HOWE: (tugging at his collar) These clothes make me look gay.
ALYSTARE: Really? I find they are quite becoming. You look so... futuristic in them. So dashing. So bold.
(there is an awkward silence, as HOWE isn`t sure what to make of ALYSTARE`s complement)
HOWE: (noting ALYSTARE`s chi-enhancing stage business) Nice balls.
ALYSTARE: Thank you. Come, sit. I`m sure that after your ordeal you could do with a hot meal and a glass of wine.
HOWE: I`d prefer a cold Tasnican beer and a platter of coldcuts, but I`m famished so I won`t argue with you.
(ALYSTARE and HOWE take their seats. ALYSTARE is at the head of the table, HOWE to his left. the rest of the long dining table is conspicuously empty. throughout the conversation below, HOWE and ALYSTARE will take small bites of their food and sips of their wine, but they will not engage in eating to the point of disrupting their conversation. the majority of the food that is on the table now will be wantonly wasted)
HOWE: You mentioned earlier something about the method you chose to bring me here?
ALYSTARE: Yes. And then, you`ll recall, I apologized for it.
HOWE: Well, let me apologize now, because I`m not quite sure I understood you. I crashed here. In my boat.
ALYSTARE: Yes, you did. Because of the storm.
HOWE: Yes, because of the storm.
ALYSTARE: The storm was mine, General Howe. You see, I am a very powerful archmage.
HOWE: Archmage, eh? Arythian? Merger?
ALYSTARE: No, I am Tasnican. But I am not from the Tasnica you know. I am from far in the future. You see, the Web I am from is one that is at peace. We are ruled by a High Council of enlightened wizards and professors. Many of the problems of your modern Web are a thing of memory where I am from.
HOWE: Except for armed guards, I guess. That seems to be a problem you still have in abundance.
ALYSTARE: (smiles) I see I have yet to earn your trust.
HOWE: Well, you`ll forgive me for saying so, but in the Web I am from, when you want to invite someone over you can send them a written invitation. Or maybe give them a call. Or, if you`re tech savvy, send an email over the omninet. But this custom of "conjuring a storm to obliterate my ship and nearly kill me" is a little strange to me. Maybe it`s culture shock. Yeah, maybe that`s the word for this ambivalence I`m feeling toward you right now. I`m just damn shocked. By the culture. Of the future. (HOWE looks down at his clothing again) Do people really dress this gay in the future?
ALYSTARE: General. Don`t be silly. I didn`t even come close to nearly killing you. As a matter of fact, I saved you from the intended course of history.
HOWE: (pauses) Come again?
ALYSTARE: You were to have died at sea. An accident, they called it. Most couldn`t believe it at first: Howe Lingane, dead at sea... in an accident? For me, it was providence. I needed you, and here you were, in the waste bin of history. I conjured my storm, guided you toward my island, and plucked you from your fate. Now you are here, and by all rights you are mine. If you would agree to my proposal, that is.
HOWE: Well, let`s hear your proposal then. Provided it doesn`t involve anything sick. I mean, the only reason I`m wearing this kinky S&M get-up is because that`s all you provided me with. The minute my rags are dry, I`m changing back into those unless you`ve got something not made of leather or plastic, and with decent pants for me to wear.
ALYSTARE: (takes a breath, then gets up and moves toward the window. he folds his hands behind his back as he prepares to speak) The Web in my time, General, is at peace. (pause) And that, as it happens, is exactly the problem. The Web at peace was unprepared... when the Tswn came.
HOWE: Tswn?
ALYSTARE: You saw one of them on your way in. A specimen I brought along with me... so I could show you the kind of peril my time is in.
HOWE: How far in the future are we talking?
ALYSTARE: If you must know, the year I am from is 358 WR. Though, we renumerated our calendrical scheme in the year 335 WR. The current year in my home time is the twenty-third year of the New World of Balance.
HOWE: And there`s no Grand Army in your time?
ALYSTARE: Oh, there is a Grand Army. Of a kind. But like everything else, it is run by professors and the literati, not by experienced soldiers. In 23 NWB, there hasn`t been an experienced soldier anywhere in the Known Web for well over a century.
HOWE: Well, I think I can guess where you`re going with this. You want me to train and lead your "Grand Army" to victory against the... (pauses) Whatsitcalleds.
ALYSTARE: You`re only half right. You see, I don`t intend to go back to exactly my time. In the year from which I departed for this time period, the Tswn are victorious, and the Grand Army is not worth saving. I intend to go back to just prior to the Tswn invasion. This island -- Frog Island -- is capable of "hopping" back and forth across the timestream, and it will be the key to my defense against the Tswn. What you will provide, is your mind, General Howe.
HOWE: Say what?
ALYSTARE: In my time, the Grand Army has no human soldiers. It is comprised of robots, coordinated across all dimensions by the Shogun 7 multiframe webmind -- a descendent of your era`s feeble Tactician supercomputer. I intend to take from you all your Grand Army training and expertise, and program it into Shogun when I go back.
HOWE: Wait a minute. No human soldiers?
ALYSTARE: That is correct.
HOWE: No wonder you got your asses kicked by the giant elephant men. Bots can`t be soldiers. No way, no how.
ALYSTARE: Having seen the devastation of the Tswn invasion firsthand, I would be inclined to agree with you. However, with your know-how and personality integrated into the strategical matrices of my era`s Grand Army, surely we can stem the tide and save my time from annihilation.
HOWE: Two problems: first, I like my mind where it is. So, this doesn`t work if it involves removing anything from my skull.
ALYSTARE: (laughs politely) You needn`t worry, General. What will happen is a simple brain scan. We will imprint your alpha waves -- read and download your mind, essentially -- and store it to disc.
HOWE: Well, okay. That sounds painless. But the second problem is enough to put a bit of a crimp in your style. I`m the Chief of Grand Army Naval Operations. I`m fairly specialized: I deal mostly with boats and planes. So, likely, my know-how is good enough to do you, and by Zahd your seas will be really well defended by an army of bots with my brain inside. But your land, air and space defenses are going to be a bit spottier than they would be if you`d somehow managed to nab one of the other Soldierly Council Generals -- or the Generalissimo himself.
ALYSTARE: It will have to do. You were the only one of the lot I could make off with without disrupting history. I pray that you are not so specialized that you won`t be able to help us at all?
HOWE: No. I know enough about my comrades` divisions to get by. I guess an old sailor`s better than nothing. (pause) It occurs to me. I never did get an explanation from either one of you as to who that Natasha woman was.
ALYSTARE: (frowns) You needn`t worry about her, General. She is an enemy to our cause.
HOWE: Yeah, I gathered that by how you welcomed her on the beach. And for the record: it`s your cause.
ALYSTARE: Surely, as a soldier of the Grand Army, your cause is defending the Web of Worlds?
HOWE: Defending my Web, yes. Defending your Web, only after I`ve let you download me onto one of your discs. So who is she?
ALYSTARE: Well, it should have been obvious to you by her appearance that she was not human, yes?
HOWE: Not nearly as inhuman as the elephant man your thugs were working on back in the corridor.
ALYSTARE: We don`t know exactly what race she belongs to... but she is a servant of the Tswn. A spy. She was obviously drawn to you because she knew of my purpose here. Which means the Tswn are onto me, and we have little time to waste. (pause) So. Will you submit to the scan?
HOWE: (pauses) What happens after the scan -- if I say yes?
ALYSTARE: Either way, I`m sure you`re aware that it would not be ethical for me to let you return to your life. You already know too much of what the future has in store, plus it would alter my future in ways I can`t even begin to fathom, what with you fated to die at sea. However, you are invited to come back with me to my era. Who knows? Perhaps you could even become our Generalissimo -- we have not had someone to fill that rank in quite some time.
HOWE: And if I say no?
ALYSTARE: (smiling) I am not the cruel man you must think I am, if you expect me to say that your life depends upon your compliance. But make no mistake: I do not intend to let you leave here, General Lingane. You cannot return to your old life now. Surely by now, most people have already learned of and accepted your "death" at sea. History has already been written. Be thankful, General, that you have escaped what fate had intended for you.
HOWE: (he swishes the wine in his glass as he considers) You know. This is exactly the sort of thing that Rear General Howe Lingane would never fall for. The kind of thing he`d never believe in a million years. He`s far too pragmatic and rational to believe you, or your bullshit story. No. Howe Lingane would never agree to this. (takes a swig from the glass) Lucky for you, Howe Lingane died at sea today.
ALYSTARE: (smiles and clasps a hand on HOWE`s shoulder) Then I am glad he is dead. If only because his death means new life for the people of my era. (looks up at one of the servants) Please send in Kinky, if you would please?
(the servant quickly exits to stage right)
HOWE: Kinky?
ALYSTARE: My assistant. Kinky is the scientist behind all that you see here on Frog Island. Much of this is well beyond my ken: I am, as I said, a powerful archmage, not an inventor or a technician. Like yourself, General, my expertise is quite specialized.
(the stage right entrance to the dining hall opens again, and in steps KINKY. KINKY is a clown. He is tall and dressed in a bright yellow shirt and baggy black slacks, which are held up by a pair of rainbow suspenders. His makeup is a mockery, making him look decidedly sinister despite his bright red nose and curly mane of dark blue hair.)
ALYSTARE: Kinky will take care of you, General. Follow him to the laboratory, and the scan will begin immediately.
HOWE: (trying to contain laughter) Alystare... your scientist is... a clown.
(KINKY does not speak. instead he draws a bicycle horn from out of his pocket and honks it, in a rapid series of long and short honks that is far too complicated and patterned to be random. the tone of the horn`s honks is low -- and like the clown, quite sinister!)
ALYSTARE: (frowning) General, you`ve offended Kinky`s code of clown honor. You must apologize to him. And I must apologize to you, for not better preparing you. Kinky is from my time, you see. And in my time, this is what the people of Foo look like.
HOWE: Foo? Foo does not exist. It`s gone. And good riddance.
ALYSTARE: In your time, yes. But around the year 200 WR, Foo experienced a renaissance of sorts. The dimension was resucitated, its people born anew, and its culture came to dominate the Web of Worlds. Until, that is, the Fourth Great War, when Foo became the first dimension in the Web to be completely annihilated by multiple U-missile strikes, launched from virtually every other industrialized nation in the Web of Worlds. Kinky`s ancestors were only able to survive by using the Dark Matter of Foo to transform themselves into a race of mute clowns, who can only communicate with each other and other sentient races by way of a complex language of bicycle horn honks. Now they wander the Web as outcasts, travelling salesmen, and mimes.
HOWE: I`m not sure I want to save your Web anymore. Your Web`s history is stupid and makes no sense.
ALYSTARE: Please, Howe. Say you`re sorry to the nice clown.
(KINKY glares menacingly at HOWE)
HOWE: (pauses) I`m sorry you`re a stupid clown?
(KINKY snarls, and draws a blood-stained meat cleaver from the folds of his baggy pants. he lunges toward HOWE, who jumps out of his seat with a start)
ALYSTARE: (shouting) That is enough, Kinky!!
(KINKY frowns, and puts away the cleaver)
ALYSTARE: Let`s get the scan over with. As quickly as possible. (glaring at KINKY) Without further incident, if you please.
HOWE: (holding some reservation) Yeah. Let`s just do this.
(ALYSTARE leaves, with HOWE close behind. KINKY`s eyes, appearing sunken from behind layers and layers of thick black eye makeup, follow them as they leave)
* * *
scene vi, Westmorlane Manor, corridor
(ALYSTARE leads HOWE down another corridor, not unlike the one he came through when he was first brought into Westmorlane Manor. the corridor is long, and has many laboratories on either side of the glass walls to the left and right. the laboratories are sealed off by airlocks -- each of which has a keypad next to it.)
(HOWE notices one door that does not seem to lead into a laboratory. the wall around this door is opaque, and the door appears to be reinforced. a keypad accompanies this door as well.)
* * *
scene vii, Westmorlane Manor, laboratory
(HOWE is strapped down to an experiementation table. KINKY and a number of scientists are calibrating a large apparatus, resembling a CAT scan machine. one of the scientists places a pair of electrodes on HOWE`s temples. the scientists are conferring with each other, with KINKY supervising them all, and honking on his horn to offer instructions and corrections to their work.)
(ALYSTARE is watching, from behind a glass wall that separates the laboratory from the corridor. his arms are folded, and his face is stern. as the preparations are completed, KINKY turns to face ALYSTARE, as if seeking his approval. ALYSTARE nods, and KINKY turns and begins honking at the scientists. a klaxon sounds in the lab, and a red light above the machine begins flashing, as HOWE is fed into the tunnel-like orifice of the machine. a thin line of light passes over HOWE`s cranium, once, twice, thrice. the machine grinds and whines as it works, then again the light passes over HOWE`s cranium four times more. then, the machine powers down, the klaxons silence, and the red light stops. the scientists draw HOWE out of the machine and begin to detach all the wires from his skin.)
(ALYSTARE smiles, and with a flourish of his cape he walks away from the observation area)
END ACT I
ACT I, scene i, the deck of the Miracuda, HOWE`s sailboat
(the lights come up, and we are on the deck of a small sailing vessel. we hear the sounds of a raging storm all around: whipping winds, crashing waves, with ambient thunder and lightning flashes. a lone man stands on the deck, one hand desperately holding a rudder wheel, the other clutching a number of ropes wrapped around his forearm. this is rear general HOWE. he is an older man with a thin beard and graying hair, and despite his age he looks to be in peak physical condition. his clothes are torn, and sopping wet: he has been fighting the storm for quite some time now)
(a woman appears at his side. it is NATASHA. she has somehow managed to avoid getting wet at all. she is young and shapely, with neck-length silver hair and bronze skin that has a hint of metallic cast to it. her ears are slightly pointed, and her eyes are brilliant amber. she is wearing a brown leather uniform of some kind, with a green emblem embroidered on the left breast.)
NATASHA: You look like you could use a hand.
HOWE: What the devil? (HOWE spares the woman the slightest of glances, as the lightning flashes overhead and another sharp gale cuts across the deck) Who are you and how did you get here?
NATASHA: There`s no time for that now, General. I have to give you a message.
HOWE: Fine time you chose to show up with it, then. (HOWE tugs on the ropes) Well? Out with it!
NATASHA: Two two one six three five eight. You must remember this. Have you got it?
HOWE: (pause) You show up in the middle of a violent storm to give me your phone number!? (thinks it over, decides it`s funny, then laughs insanely) Very well. I`ll give you a call once I get clear of this storm`s clutches. You hear that, Bismark? You`re not taking this old salt today!! (bellows a crazy Howard Dean yell and releases the ropes; they snap back and away as the sails flap uncontrolled in the wind. HOWE takes firm hold on the wheel with both hands) Do your worst!!
(there is a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder, and the scene goes black. we hear the continued sounds of the storm, and the steady snapping sound of a mast breaking. we then hear the ear-raking sound of a hull being gutted against shoals and rocks, the sound of metal and wood twisting under impact. then, all is silent save the storm)
* * *
scene ii, the shore
(we see debris scattered across the scene: driftwood, torn canvas, crates and et cetera. HOWE is lying prone, sprawled out in the sand. NATASHA is here, crouching catlike. she begins sifting through the bits and pieces from the wreck, looking for something)
(HOWE stirs. he flails around in the sand for a full minute before he regains enough sense to come up onto his hands and knees. NATASHA turns and smiles at him)
NATASHA: Congratulations. You beat the storm.
HOWE: (rubbing his head, standing) You`re damn right I did. I`m not GA Chief of Naval Operations for nothing. (approaches NATASHA) Now maybe it`s about time you told me who you are.
NATASHA: Did you remember my number?
HOWE: What?... (thinks) four... two...
NATASHA: Two two one six three five eight. You must remember it.
HOWE: I`ll remember it once you tell me who you are, lady.
NATASHA: Here. (NATASHA presses something into HOWE`s hand. it`s the brass letter "u" from Miracuda on the masthead) Keep this. It will help.
HOWE: (looks at the letter; it`s brass. it`s a u. not much else to be said: HOWE throws it over his shoulder) What will help is if you tell me who you are, then maybe we can figure out where we`ve run aground and how to get help.
NATASHA: (moves around behind HOWE and retrieves the letter) I`m serious, Howe. Keep this. You`ll find it useful later. (she offers him the u again)
HOWE: (swats her hand aside) Tell me who you are, woman.
NATASHA: (coyly, like a child) Remember my number, and I`ll tell you my name.
HOWE: (smiling) Well. Now we`re getting somewhere. Usually one asks for the name before one gets the number. But I`m guessing you`re not much of one to follow conventions... showing up on my boat like you did from out of nowhere. (takes a moment to recall) Two two... one... six three five eight.
NATASHA: Good. You must not forget it. (shoves the "u" into HOWE`s pocket)
HOWE: I won`t. Your name?
NATASHA: I am Natasha.
HOWE: Nice to meet you. Now. How did you get on my boat?
(ALYSTARE enters. he is a tall, handsome, blond-haired adonis dressed in flowing white robes with a violet cape that sweeps down his back. a pair of white-armored henchmen flank him on either side)
ALYSTARE: The same way she`ll no doubt try to escape this island, now that she`s been discovered. Isn`t that right, my dear?
(NATASHA turns with a start at the sound of ALYSTARE`s voice. she turns and hops up into the air, but stumbles on her way down. she glares angrily at ALYSTARE)
ALYSTARE: The island`s covered in a temporal disruption field. So there`ll be none of that. Take her.
(the henchmen draw their weapons and move forward to apprehend NATASHA. she smiles and lets them, going along without incident. they take her away the way they came)
HOWE: Okay. Before you say anything, let me guess: I actually died back on my boat, in the storm, but I`m having a split second escape fantasy right before I die, and it ends up being the weirdest damn escape fantasy I could possibly have where nothing at all makes sense and nobody is explaining anything to me.
ALYSTARE: No, General, you`re quite alive, I assure you. And I do apologize for the method I chose to bring you here... but when I saw the opportunity, I had to take it.
HOWE: (dumbfounded) Wait, just what are you --
ALYSTARE: No, no more talk. All will be revealed in time, General. For now, let me invite you into my estate. You can clean yourself up, get out of those tatters, eat if you wish...
HOWE: I never enter a man`s home until we`ve been properly introduced.
ALYSTARE: You are a gentleman and a soldier, sir. I am Alystare. Alystare Westmorlane. Welcome to Frog Island.
* * *
scene iii, Frog Island trail
(ALYSTARE is leading HOWE up along a path away from the shore, toward his manor. HOWE shades his eyes to get a glimpse of the manor)
HOWE: (whistles) Nice place you got here, Alystare. Any idea how much a sweet piece of beachfront property like that`d fetch on the open market?
ALYSTARE: I do. But sadly, it is not for sale.
HOWE: (squinting) What`s that up top there? Looks like you got a disco ball in your bell tower.
(ALYSTARE does not answer)
* * *
scene iv, Westmorlane Manor, corridor
(ALYSTARE leads HOWE down a glass-walled corridor. behind the glass, we see an enormous humanoid creature strapped to an angled upright examination table. the creature is unclothed, save for a speedo-like garment. he appears to be a mixture of insectoid and mammalian features: his torso is covered with chitinous exoskeletal plates over the pectoral muscles and on his flanks, and his thickly muscled arms end in squid-like tentacles rather than claws or fingers. the creature`s head is reminiscent of an elephant`s, save that the ears are placed higher on the head and are wedge-shaped, like a cat`s. the creature has only one eye, and it is closed, presumably because the beast is not conscious. wires and tubes are inserted into various places across the creature`s body, connected to various pieces of medical and scientific equipment. three henchmen are taking readings and prodding the creature with instruments.)
(HOWE does a double take, then stops and takes a look)
HOWE: Holy deep-fried crap on a toothpick. What in the Web is that thing!?
ALYSTARE: Really, Howe. Is it so strange to see a large non-human in this Web of Worlds of yours? Where you have moogles and robots and demons and giant ants from space and piles and piles of anthropomorphic animals running around doing all sorts of strange things?
HOWE: Well. Yeah, I guess. But I`ve never seen anything like that before. What is it?
ALYSTARE: Well. Truthfully, this beast is the reason why I have brought you here. But we`ll discuss that after you`ve had a chance to settle in. Come, this way.
(HOWE lingers a moment, staring at the creature through the glass. As he moves on he notices a security airlock that leads into the lab where the creature is bound. the airlock access is controlled by a keypad)
* * *
scene v, Westmorlane Manor, dining hall
(ALYSTARE is here waiting. he is standing in front of an expansive plate glass window, looking out on the ocean. he is working a pair of silver chi balls in his left hand, spinning them round each other by curling his fingers in and out in sequence. ALYSTARE`s servants are busy setting the long table with two place settings. they are setting out way too much food on the table for just two people)
(HOWE emerges through a pair of automatic sliding doors. he is now wearing a metallic silver jumpsuit with no sleeves and a high, bellhop`s collar. his silvery boots are knee-high, but his pant legs barely go down past his mid-thigh. this is not a uniform that becomes a Grand Army Chief of Naval Operations. HOWE is holding the brass "u" from the masthead of his boat as he steps inside the dining area, and is searching his new outfit for a pocket to put it in. finding none, he reaches around behind him and slides it under his belt)
ALYSTARE: Ah, General. I trust my accomodations are to your liking?
HOWE: (tugging at his collar) These clothes make me look gay.
ALYSTARE: Really? I find they are quite becoming. You look so... futuristic in them. So dashing. So bold.
(there is an awkward silence, as HOWE isn`t sure what to make of ALYSTARE`s complement)
HOWE: (noting ALYSTARE`s chi-enhancing stage business) Nice balls.
ALYSTARE: Thank you. Come, sit. I`m sure that after your ordeal you could do with a hot meal and a glass of wine.
HOWE: I`d prefer a cold Tasnican beer and a platter of coldcuts, but I`m famished so I won`t argue with you.
(ALYSTARE and HOWE take their seats. ALYSTARE is at the head of the table, HOWE to his left. the rest of the long dining table is conspicuously empty. throughout the conversation below, HOWE and ALYSTARE will take small bites of their food and sips of their wine, but they will not engage in eating to the point of disrupting their conversation. the majority of the food that is on the table now will be wantonly wasted)
HOWE: You mentioned earlier something about the method you chose to bring me here?
ALYSTARE: Yes. And then, you`ll recall, I apologized for it.
HOWE: Well, let me apologize now, because I`m not quite sure I understood you. I crashed here. In my boat.
ALYSTARE: Yes, you did. Because of the storm.
HOWE: Yes, because of the storm.
ALYSTARE: The storm was mine, General Howe. You see, I am a very powerful archmage.
HOWE: Archmage, eh? Arythian? Merger?
ALYSTARE: No, I am Tasnican. But I am not from the Tasnica you know. I am from far in the future. You see, the Web I am from is one that is at peace. We are ruled by a High Council of enlightened wizards and professors. Many of the problems of your modern Web are a thing of memory where I am from.
HOWE: Except for armed guards, I guess. That seems to be a problem you still have in abundance.
ALYSTARE: (smiles) I see I have yet to earn your trust.
HOWE: Well, you`ll forgive me for saying so, but in the Web I am from, when you want to invite someone over you can send them a written invitation. Or maybe give them a call. Or, if you`re tech savvy, send an email over the omninet. But this custom of "conjuring a storm to obliterate my ship and nearly kill me" is a little strange to me. Maybe it`s culture shock. Yeah, maybe that`s the word for this ambivalence I`m feeling toward you right now. I`m just damn shocked. By the culture. Of the future. (HOWE looks down at his clothing again) Do people really dress this gay in the future?
ALYSTARE: General. Don`t be silly. I didn`t even come close to nearly killing you. As a matter of fact, I saved you from the intended course of history.
HOWE: (pauses) Come again?
ALYSTARE: You were to have died at sea. An accident, they called it. Most couldn`t believe it at first: Howe Lingane, dead at sea... in an accident? For me, it was providence. I needed you, and here you were, in the waste bin of history. I conjured my storm, guided you toward my island, and plucked you from your fate. Now you are here, and by all rights you are mine. If you would agree to my proposal, that is.
HOWE: Well, let`s hear your proposal then. Provided it doesn`t involve anything sick. I mean, the only reason I`m wearing this kinky S&M get-up is because that`s all you provided me with. The minute my rags are dry, I`m changing back into those unless you`ve got something not made of leather or plastic, and with decent pants for me to wear.
ALYSTARE: (takes a breath, then gets up and moves toward the window. he folds his hands behind his back as he prepares to speak) The Web in my time, General, is at peace. (pause) And that, as it happens, is exactly the problem. The Web at peace was unprepared... when the Tswn came.
HOWE: Tswn?
ALYSTARE: You saw one of them on your way in. A specimen I brought along with me... so I could show you the kind of peril my time is in.
HOWE: How far in the future are we talking?
ALYSTARE: If you must know, the year I am from is 358 WR. Though, we renumerated our calendrical scheme in the year 335 WR. The current year in my home time is the twenty-third year of the New World of Balance.
HOWE: And there`s no Grand Army in your time?
ALYSTARE: Oh, there is a Grand Army. Of a kind. But like everything else, it is run by professors and the literati, not by experienced soldiers. In 23 NWB, there hasn`t been an experienced soldier anywhere in the Known Web for well over a century.
HOWE: Well, I think I can guess where you`re going with this. You want me to train and lead your "Grand Army" to victory against the... (pauses) Whatsitcalleds.
ALYSTARE: You`re only half right. You see, I don`t intend to go back to exactly my time. In the year from which I departed for this time period, the Tswn are victorious, and the Grand Army is not worth saving. I intend to go back to just prior to the Tswn invasion. This island -- Frog Island -- is capable of "hopping" back and forth across the timestream, and it will be the key to my defense against the Tswn. What you will provide, is your mind, General Howe.
HOWE: Say what?
ALYSTARE: In my time, the Grand Army has no human soldiers. It is comprised of robots, coordinated across all dimensions by the Shogun 7 multiframe webmind -- a descendent of your era`s feeble Tactician supercomputer. I intend to take from you all your Grand Army training and expertise, and program it into Shogun when I go back.
HOWE: Wait a minute. No human soldiers?
ALYSTARE: That is correct.
HOWE: No wonder you got your asses kicked by the giant elephant men. Bots can`t be soldiers. No way, no how.
ALYSTARE: Having seen the devastation of the Tswn invasion firsthand, I would be inclined to agree with you. However, with your know-how and personality integrated into the strategical matrices of my era`s Grand Army, surely we can stem the tide and save my time from annihilation.
HOWE: Two problems: first, I like my mind where it is. So, this doesn`t work if it involves removing anything from my skull.
ALYSTARE: (laughs politely) You needn`t worry, General. What will happen is a simple brain scan. We will imprint your alpha waves -- read and download your mind, essentially -- and store it to disc.
HOWE: Well, okay. That sounds painless. But the second problem is enough to put a bit of a crimp in your style. I`m the Chief of Grand Army Naval Operations. I`m fairly specialized: I deal mostly with boats and planes. So, likely, my know-how is good enough to do you, and by Zahd your seas will be really well defended by an army of bots with my brain inside. But your land, air and space defenses are going to be a bit spottier than they would be if you`d somehow managed to nab one of the other Soldierly Council Generals -- or the Generalissimo himself.
ALYSTARE: It will have to do. You were the only one of the lot I could make off with without disrupting history. I pray that you are not so specialized that you won`t be able to help us at all?
HOWE: No. I know enough about my comrades` divisions to get by. I guess an old sailor`s better than nothing. (pause) It occurs to me. I never did get an explanation from either one of you as to who that Natasha woman was.
ALYSTARE: (frowns) You needn`t worry about her, General. She is an enemy to our cause.
HOWE: Yeah, I gathered that by how you welcomed her on the beach. And for the record: it`s your cause.
ALYSTARE: Surely, as a soldier of the Grand Army, your cause is defending the Web of Worlds?
HOWE: Defending my Web, yes. Defending your Web, only after I`ve let you download me onto one of your discs. So who is she?
ALYSTARE: Well, it should have been obvious to you by her appearance that she was not human, yes?
HOWE: Not nearly as inhuman as the elephant man your thugs were working on back in the corridor.
ALYSTARE: We don`t know exactly what race she belongs to... but she is a servant of the Tswn. A spy. She was obviously drawn to you because she knew of my purpose here. Which means the Tswn are onto me, and we have little time to waste. (pause) So. Will you submit to the scan?
HOWE: (pauses) What happens after the scan -- if I say yes?
ALYSTARE: Either way, I`m sure you`re aware that it would not be ethical for me to let you return to your life. You already know too much of what the future has in store, plus it would alter my future in ways I can`t even begin to fathom, what with you fated to die at sea. However, you are invited to come back with me to my era. Who knows? Perhaps you could even become our Generalissimo -- we have not had someone to fill that rank in quite some time.
HOWE: And if I say no?
ALYSTARE: (smiling) I am not the cruel man you must think I am, if you expect me to say that your life depends upon your compliance. But make no mistake: I do not intend to let you leave here, General Lingane. You cannot return to your old life now. Surely by now, most people have already learned of and accepted your "death" at sea. History has already been written. Be thankful, General, that you have escaped what fate had intended for you.
HOWE: (he swishes the wine in his glass as he considers) You know. This is exactly the sort of thing that Rear General Howe Lingane would never fall for. The kind of thing he`d never believe in a million years. He`s far too pragmatic and rational to believe you, or your bullshit story. No. Howe Lingane would never agree to this. (takes a swig from the glass) Lucky for you, Howe Lingane died at sea today.
ALYSTARE: (smiles and clasps a hand on HOWE`s shoulder) Then I am glad he is dead. If only because his death means new life for the people of my era. (looks up at one of the servants) Please send in Kinky, if you would please?
(the servant quickly exits to stage right)
HOWE: Kinky?
ALYSTARE: My assistant. Kinky is the scientist behind all that you see here on Frog Island. Much of this is well beyond my ken: I am, as I said, a powerful archmage, not an inventor or a technician. Like yourself, General, my expertise is quite specialized.
(the stage right entrance to the dining hall opens again, and in steps KINKY. KINKY is a clown. He is tall and dressed in a bright yellow shirt and baggy black slacks, which are held up by a pair of rainbow suspenders. His makeup is a mockery, making him look decidedly sinister despite his bright red nose and curly mane of dark blue hair.)
ALYSTARE: Kinky will take care of you, General. Follow him to the laboratory, and the scan will begin immediately.
HOWE: (trying to contain laughter) Alystare... your scientist is... a clown.
(KINKY does not speak. instead he draws a bicycle horn from out of his pocket and honks it, in a rapid series of long and short honks that is far too complicated and patterned to be random. the tone of the horn`s honks is low -- and like the clown, quite sinister!)
ALYSTARE: (frowning) General, you`ve offended Kinky`s code of clown honor. You must apologize to him. And I must apologize to you, for not better preparing you. Kinky is from my time, you see. And in my time, this is what the people of Foo look like.
HOWE: Foo? Foo does not exist. It`s gone. And good riddance.
ALYSTARE: In your time, yes. But around the year 200 WR, Foo experienced a renaissance of sorts. The dimension was resucitated, its people born anew, and its culture came to dominate the Web of Worlds. Until, that is, the Fourth Great War, when Foo became the first dimension in the Web to be completely annihilated by multiple U-missile strikes, launched from virtually every other industrialized nation in the Web of Worlds. Kinky`s ancestors were only able to survive by using the Dark Matter of Foo to transform themselves into a race of mute clowns, who can only communicate with each other and other sentient races by way of a complex language of bicycle horn honks. Now they wander the Web as outcasts, travelling salesmen, and mimes.
HOWE: I`m not sure I want to save your Web anymore. Your Web`s history is stupid and makes no sense.
ALYSTARE: Please, Howe. Say you`re sorry to the nice clown.
(KINKY glares menacingly at HOWE)
HOWE: (pauses) I`m sorry you`re a stupid clown?
(KINKY snarls, and draws a blood-stained meat cleaver from the folds of his baggy pants. he lunges toward HOWE, who jumps out of his seat with a start)
ALYSTARE: (shouting) That is enough, Kinky!!
(KINKY frowns, and puts away the cleaver)
ALYSTARE: Let`s get the scan over with. As quickly as possible. (glaring at KINKY) Without further incident, if you please.
HOWE: (holding some reservation) Yeah. Let`s just do this.
(ALYSTARE leaves, with HOWE close behind. KINKY`s eyes, appearing sunken from behind layers and layers of thick black eye makeup, follow them as they leave)
* * *
scene vi, Westmorlane Manor, corridor
(ALYSTARE leads HOWE down another corridor, not unlike the one he came through when he was first brought into Westmorlane Manor. the corridor is long, and has many laboratories on either side of the glass walls to the left and right. the laboratories are sealed off by airlocks -- each of which has a keypad next to it.)
(HOWE notices one door that does not seem to lead into a laboratory. the wall around this door is opaque, and the door appears to be reinforced. a keypad accompanies this door as well.)
* * *
scene vii, Westmorlane Manor, laboratory
(HOWE is strapped down to an experiementation table. KINKY and a number of scientists are calibrating a large apparatus, resembling a CAT scan machine. one of the scientists places a pair of electrodes on HOWE`s temples. the scientists are conferring with each other, with KINKY supervising them all, and honking on his horn to offer instructions and corrections to their work.)
(ALYSTARE is watching, from behind a glass wall that separates the laboratory from the corridor. his arms are folded, and his face is stern. as the preparations are completed, KINKY turns to face ALYSTARE, as if seeking his approval. ALYSTARE nods, and KINKY turns and begins honking at the scientists. a klaxon sounds in the lab, and a red light above the machine begins flashing, as HOWE is fed into the tunnel-like orifice of the machine. a thin line of light passes over HOWE`s cranium, once, twice, thrice. the machine grinds and whines as it works, then again the light passes over HOWE`s cranium four times more. then, the machine powers down, the klaxons silence, and the red light stops. the scientists draw HOWE out of the machine and begin to detach all the wires from his skin.)
(ALYSTARE smiles, and with a flourish of his cape he walks away from the observation area)
END ACT I
ACT II
By: Scen
Thread: Iron Writer!
Posted: August 05, 2004
ACT II, scene i, Westmorlane Manor, computer-type lab
(KINKY is sitting in front of a computer terminal. black and green screens of data, like on the OmniNet, are flashing by as the clown hacks away at a keyboard with his fingerless hobo-gloved hands.)
(ALYSTARE enters and comes up behind KINKY, watching the data flow by from over the clown`s shoulder)
ALYSTARE: Any progress?
(KINKY takes one of his hands away from the keyboard and reaches for his bicycle horn. he proceeds to honk out in code)
ALYSTARE: (watching the data) There. What about there?
(KINKY squints and leans in toward the screen. he rubs his chin thoughtfully, then honks out a reply)
(the data keeps scrolling by, then KINKY abruptly stops it. he begins to honk excitedly, and the grin on ALYSTARE`s face widens)
ALYSTARE: Thank you, General. (skims through the garbled data, reading the bits and pieces) Knowledge of tactical formations, defensive systems around Albook -- access codes to the Tactician mainframe. (pats KINKY on the shoulder) Have your hackers begin working on getting us inside Tactician, Kinky. I will prep the TimeBall.
(KINKY nods in agreement, then happily stands and skips off, honking out the tune to "la cucaracha")
* * *
scene ii, HOWE`s suite in Westmorlane Manor
(HOWE is wearing his old clothes, tattered though they are from his ordeal at sea. he looks decidedly less gay now -- but also less futuristic. he is turning the brass "u" over in his hands, deep in thought)
HOWE: (to himself) Two two... one six... three... five eight... two two... one six three...
(HOWE stands and begins pacing, still muttering the numbers over and over to himself. he gets a twinkle to his eye, and clasping his fingers around the brass "u," he moves toward the door to his suite.)
* * *
scene iii, Westmorlane Manor, corridor
(HOWE moves down the corridor, again passing by glass-walled laboratories on either side. in one of them, KINKY and a number of computer technicians are cranking away at a series of terminals. conscious of being seen, HOWE rushes past quickly, ducking slightly to avoid line-of-sight)
(KINKY looks up as HOWE passes. his eyes narrow, and he bares his sharpened yellow teeth)
(HOWE comes to the metal door he passed by on the way to his brain scan earlier. he stands in front of the keypad by the door)
(HOWE sighs)
HOWE: What`ve I got to lose? I`m already dead.
(HOWE taps in the code he learned from NATASHA: two two one six three five eight. the keypad lights up, and there is a loud hiss as the hydraulic locking mechanism on the door releases. HOWE jumps at the sound and glances down either side of the corridor to see if he`s been spotted. seeing that he`s safe, he pulls the door open and slips inside)
* * *
scene iv, Westmorlane Manor, control room
(we see an expansive control room, with lots of henchmen running about doing their henchmanly things. some of them are standing around guarding stuff. others are manning computer terminals. ALYSTARE is standing above a pit, within which is a holographic 3d map of Albrook and the surrounding area.)
(one of the computer technicians approaches ALYSTARE)
TECHNICIAN: Sir, Tactician has been hacked. We`ve compiled the data you requested, and have it ready in a form the Tswn can read.
ALYSTARE: Good. Where is Kinky?
TECHNICIAN: He excused himself unexpectedly, sir... I didn`t catch where he said he was going because... well...
ALYSTARE: You don`t speak Foo. (smiles) No matter, he`s probably just gone to relieve himself. When he returns to your station, tell him I`d like to see him.
(TECHNICIAN turns to leave)
* * *
scene v, Westmorlane Manor, oubliette
(HOWE treads lightly down a hallway which connects several barred cells. he glances inside each one, until he comes to the last one on his right side. he folds his arms and clears his throat. inside the cell, NATASHA, who had been reclining on a hard cot, jumps up)
NATASHA: You remembered my number, I see.
HOWE: I`m a General in the Grand Army. I remember lots of things.
NATASHA: Yes, and that is unfortunate.
HOWE: Unfortunate?
NATASHA: Did you already submit to the brain scan?
HOWE: (frowns) Yes. Yes I did.
NATASHA: Then we don`t have a lot of time left. Open my cell -- it`s the same code, from the keypad at the end of the hall. Alystare is an unimaginative fool and only uses one passcode in the entire Manor...
HOWE: I`m not opening anything else until you explain who you are and what`s going on here.
NATASHA: (pauses) We don`t have time for this.
HOWE: No, you don`t have time for this. I`m a guest here, you`re the one Alystare isn`t so keen on.
NATASHA: All right. You have a point. Where shall I begin?... what has Alystare told you?
HOWE: Nevermind what Alystare told me. I want to hear your story as you come up with it, without any help from Alystare.
(NATASHA nods. she folds her hands behind her back and approaches HOWE at the barred door to her cell)
NATASHA: My name is Natasha. And I am a Monitor.
HOWE: Monitor?
NATASHA: You probably aren`t going to believe me if I tell you what a Monitor is...
HOWE: Try me.
NATASHA: (considers how to word what she needs to say) I serve UL. We Monitors are at once mortal, and at once... not mortal. But we are hardly immortal. We serve UL to one specific end: to protect the fabric of time. There are places in this Web where the fabric of time is loose... and some mortals have learned to exploit that looseness for their own ends. Alystare is one such person. And we Monitors have been secretly working against his intentions for as long as we`ve known about them. (pauses, and then laughs) Although, to speak of it in those terms is confusing, because time really has nothing to do with how long we`ve known about Alystare, and what he intends to do.
HOWE: Well. So far both your story and Alystare`s rank very high on the crazy meter. You say you`ve been working against him secretly, but he seemed to know enough about you to be able to at least tell me a story about who you were.
NATASHA: What did he say?
HOWE: Why don`t you tell me who Alystare is first?
NATASHA: All right. Alystare is a Time Mage from an alternate future. That future, however, perished because of a mistake he made while travelling to the past; the timeline is extinct and no longer progresses. Instead of repairing the damage, Alystare migrated into our timeline -- arriving from beyond the jurisdiction of the Monitors.
HOWE: Monitors have jurisdiction?
NATASHA: In Alystare`s reality, humankind has total control over time. There is no need for Monitors there: the wizards and the High Council police themselves effectively. Or, at least, they used to. Thus UL and our organization need worry only about what happens within the boundaries of our own reality, our own future and past. Alystare crossed the border before we were able to perceive his arrival. He embarked on a plan to rule the Web of Worlds with advanced knowledge of an invasion from a race of humanoids from outside the Web, called the Tswn.
HOWE: But that went badly for him, I`m guessing?
NATASHA: Worse than you can know. His plan was to become the ruler of one of the strongest nations in the Web at the time, in the year 358 WR. He chose the United States of Pandora, where he became Principal of the Legislar thanks to his magically enhanced appearance and charisma. He spent the first few years after his assuming the Principality building up Pandora`s weapons technology in preparation for the Tswn arrival. And when they came in 371, his plan was to let the Tswn defeat everyone else and then beat them back, conquering broken territories in the wake of the war.
HOWE: Sounds like a good plan. Evil, but I guess it could work. What went wrong?
NATASHA: What went wrong was that the Tswn attacked Pandora first -- because they knew Pandora had the best weaponry out of anyone else in the Web. And this was not something Alystare anticipated, because we had been watchful of him since his arrival and prevented his attempts to time travel ahead to check on his plan`s progress.
HOWE: (laughs) What a fool.
NATASHA: He escaped destruction, though, with the aid of this island -- which isn`t an island at all, in fact it`s probably all that`s left of 371 WR`s Pandora City.
HOWE: And he managed to slip away without you Monitors catching him?
NATASHA: He did so with the aid of an device called the TimeBall. He stole it from his timeline before he arrived here, and used it to a limited extent to further his plans in the era from 358 to 371. We would have tried to stop him, or destroy the TimeBall before it came to this... but the TimeBall projects a field of temporal disruption, which nullifies our power to timejump. It also lets him open rifts in the fabric of time, through which he and this island were able to escape the destruction of 371.
HOWE: Okay. So what did he want with my brain scan, exactly?
NATASHA: Tactician.
HOWE: (stunned) Tactician? The computer?
NATASHA: He read your mind and you let him in willingly. Now he knows everything that you know, all that you have remembered in your career with the Grand Army. Formations, offensives, defenses, successful campaigns... access codes.
HOWE: Those codes wouldn`t be good anymore. I`m dead. They`d have turned them off... deactivated them.
NATASHA: In a Web at peace? With no enemies for the Grand Army anywhere, and given the non-hostile way in which you "died"? Not likely. You haven`t been dead that long, Howe. I can tell you, having seen the future, they don`t purge your access codes before Alystare can use them to get in.
HOWE: What does he do with them?
NATASHA: You saw the Tswn specimen Alystare has? He`s about your rank in the Tswn military hierarchy, and he`s already had his brain scanned -- though less willingly than you. The clown used drugs and torture to loosen up his resistances a bit. So Alystare has comms frequencies and backdoor access codes to the Tswn fleet`s central computer. He`ll extract information about Albrook`s defenses, use the TimeBall to create a rift that will pull the Tswn fleets into our Web, and then give them attack coordinates that will tell them exactly where to hit your Grand Army to deliver a killing blow. Then he will provide the Tswn with SAGA ship schematics -- as detailed as your rank will allow -- and then those of every other national spacefleet in the Web of Worlds. All courtesy the Tactician central mainframe. Your fleets will be decimated by technology two hundred years more advanced than anything the Web presently has.
HOWE: That`s crazy. Why would he do that? He couldn`t beat them in the future, why does he think he`d be able to beat them now?
NATASHA: Because when it serves his purposes, he intends to reverse the information flow. He can begin telling the Grand Army how to fight back, how to beat the Tswn invaders -- revealing his presence and emerging as a hero. At least, that`s his plan. Again, in the future of the timeline that I saw, it doesn`t quite work out to fit with Alystare`s plan. But to him, it doesn`t matter. If things get hot, he just moves the island to another time period, maybe another timeline, and tries his scheme again. And by that time, I imagine you will be quite useless to him. So he`ll get rid of you.
HOWE: (shaking his head) You know what... I think you`re both crazy. Maybe you more than him, but I haven`t had enough experience with crazy people to be able to tell.
NATASHA: You must believe me, Howe... wasn`t I right about the passcode?
HOWE: Yeah, that just means maybe you`ve been here once before and used it to escape. It doesn`t prove anything. All this talk of time travel and the future... if you Monitors are so good at seeing the outcome of things how come you got captured so easily? (waving her off before she can respond) No, don`t. I don`t want to hear it. Right now, I`m going to look for a boat that I can steal so I can go home. I`ve had just about enough of this shit.
(HOWE turns to leave, but KINKY is standing in his way, snarling like a junkyard dog. KINKY`s teeth are bared, his brows are furrowed. his shoulders are heaving, and he is wearing a pair of bright red boxing gloves)
HOWE: Oh. Hi, uh, Kinky was it? I was just leaving. So I`ll let you get down to business... the business of torturing your prisoner. That`s what you`re here to do, right?
(KINKY reaches out toward the keypad. he presses a button, and the door behind him shuts and locks itself. a thin line of drool runs down the red makeup around his mouth, over his pointed white chin and then dribbles to the floor)
HOWE: (takes a step back) Okay, Natasha. I will grant you that the clown is probably crazier than even you.
(KINKY lunges forward, fists flying. HOWE manages to duck under the first blow and plants a fist into KINKY`s ribs. the clown makes a noise like a squeaky toy as he is hit, but does not otherwise seem to be fazed. he rears up and backhands HOWE across the face, sending HOWE whipping around backward into the bars of the adjacent cells. HOWE recovers just in time to move out of the way of KINKY`s fist, which strikes with enough force to dent the bars)
(HOWE quickly assumes a pugilist`s stance, and unloads a series of fast jabs on KINKY, striking him in the face, chest and gut. again, each hit produces a squeak, but instead of harming the clown or slowing him, the flurry of attacks seems to only enrage him more. he parries HOWE`s next blow, and reverses HOWE`s momentum, planting a firm punch to HOWE`s forehead. HOWE stumbles back, but manages to reclaim his equilibrium just in time to block a couple of lethal combinations)
NATASHA: His nose, Howe! A Foo clown`s weakness is its delicate nose!!
(KINKY decks HOWE, and turns in anger toward NATASHA. he reaches up to the flower on his shirt and squeezes it. a needle is projected from the flower`s bud, striking NATASHA in the neck. she gasps and collapses to her knees)
(KINKY returns his attention to HOWE, who has come back up on his feet and is palming the brass "u". KINKY smiles and gnashes his teeth as he approaches. HOWE lunges forward, striking at KINKY`s gut. KINKY easily blocks, but leaves his face open for HOWE, who throws his whole weight into driving the "u" into KINKY`s face. the "u" hooks into KINKY`s nostrils and tears back as HOWE pushes, full force. blood sprays forward and KINKY squeals pathetically, his gloved hands reaching up to claw at his face. HOWE then plants a good-night punch into the clown`s exposed adam`s apple, crushing his throat and sending him collapsing to the ground in a heap. KINKY honks one last time before his body goes limp)
(HOWE takes a breath, retrieves the "u", then goes over to the keypad and punches in the code. NATASHA`s cell door opens. HOWE goes over to her and kneels beside her. she`s gasping for breath, and has become very pale)
(HOWE nods silently, laying NATASHA backward. her eyes roll into the back of her head, and her lips begin quivering)
HOWE: It`s okay. I believe you. I`ll do what I can to stop Alystare.
(NATASHA smiles. she reaches up to the emblem on her breast, and pulls it off. she presses it into HOWE`s hand)
(HOWE stands as NATASHA breathes her last. he sighs)
HOWE: Although I have no idea how to even begin doing that. Especially now that I`m gonna be going at this alone...
(HOWE thinks for a moment, and then grins. he heads toward the prison`s exit)
* * *
scene vi, Westmorlane Manor, laboratory
(we are in the laboratory with the captured Tswn specimen. it is still unconscious on the examination table. a pair of lone guards stand to either side of the door leading into the lab. no one else is in the room.)
(through the glass, we can see into the corridor outside, and we watch as HOWE approaches the airlock. he punches in the keycode and the outer airlock doors hiss open. not having any reason to suspect that something may be amiss, the two guards stiffen their stances, so as to look alert and not-very-bored.)
(the inner airlock doors open, and HOWE takes a half step into the lab. he wastes no time dealing with the guards, snapping up the one on his left in a headlock, while deftly removing the guard`s weapon with his free hand. a single blast of energy into the remaining guard`s neck sends him to the floor, not knowing what hit him. HOWE finishes off the headlocked guard by snapping his neck -- which he manages to do quite easily. because why not?)
(HOWE approaches the Tswn specimen. he is hesitant, only because he suddenly realizes he has absolutely no idea how he plans to proceed from here. he casts a quick glance back at the airlock, then back at the huge creature strapped to the table.)
(suddenly, the creature`s single eye shoots open, and it beholds HOWE. the eye is big, occupying most of the center of the creature`s face. its iris is reddish brown, and the large black pupil appears to be ever so slightly multi-faceted, like an insect`s eye. a cunning grin comes to the creature`s tusked mouth.)
HOWE: Good morning. Sleep well?
(the creature just stares at HOWE, examining him carefully)
HOWE: Oh come on, can`t you speak Common? Every other form of life in the Web speaks Common by default. Don`t tell me that magical language everyone knows somehow bypassed your part of the universe.
HPHRYN: Of course I speak your language, puny stupid human.
HOWE: Oh. Well, good. Now we`re getting somewhere.
HPHRYN: You have killed your own people, human -- the guards meant to keep me in this prison. You will explain to me why you have done this, and perhaps I will not kill you.
HOWE: Well, call it an educated guess, but I don`t think you`d kill me even if you wanted to. On account of your being strapped in pretty tight and unable to get free.
HPHRYN: (looks around, working its mouth as it thinks) Your puny human mind cannot fathom the motivations and desires of a Tswn warrior, human. I lie here and succumb to these bonds because it is my wish to, not because they are somehow strong enough to inhibit even me!
HOWE: Well. I was going to try and cut a deal with you... see if maybe you and I could help each other out, if I freed you. But since you can free yourself, I suppose I`ll just be on my way.
(HOWE turns to leave. as he nears the inner airlock door...)
HPHRYN: Hold, human. I am desirous to learn what machination you had managed to concoct within that puny human mind of yours.
HOWE: Oh yeah? That mean you`ll help me if I free you?
HPHRYN: There is a chance of that, yes.
HOWE: (turns back to face the creature) All right, here it is. The man who captured you -- Alystare -- he`s scanned both our brains. He`s used the information that he gained from those brain scans to manipulate our respective armies into conflict with one another.
HPHRYN: (devilish grin) Fool human! The Tswn warriors do not need to be manipulated into battle!! We LIVE for battle!! We had been planning to conquer and destroy your pathetic race already!
HOWE: Yeah. Well, except that he`s going to use everything you knew about your own fleet to help my side win in the end. Meaning all your Tswn warriors are being herded into a slaughter.
HPHRYN: (blinks a couple times) Oh. Well. That`s bad!! We must stop him!!
HOWE: Yes, the thought had occured to me as well.
HPHRYN: Free me, human, and I will help you crush this Alystare.
HOWE: Well... just promise you won`t crush me.
HPHRYN: You stupid, stupid human. I am a Tswn warrior. We are creatures of honor. We do not crush those who help us escape our bonds! -- although, I just want to make it perfectly clear, I could have escaped these bonds myself. I just chose not to.
HOWE: Duly noted. (HOWE steps forward and works at freeing the Tswn. eventually he manages to find a catch that releases the bond on HPHRYN`s left arm. the creature bellows as its arm is freed, and begins to tear off the rest of its bonds. HOWE stands back as the Tswn bursts out of its prison)
HPHRYN: Hphryn the Destroyer is free!! Worlds tremble once again as the mighty Hphryn regains control over his body functions!! Now I crush my captors and return to my people, to lead them wading waist-deep into seas of blood and glory!!
HOWE: Not so fast, first we need a plan...
HPHRYN: You bore me, human. Do not stand in my way as I charge, lest I am forced to break my solemn oath and accidentally crush you.
HOWE: (thinks it over for a moment) Well, since you put it that way, my friend, don`t let me hold you up. Go right ahead and get to charging.
(HPHRYN roars and does just that, rushing forward and shattering through the airlock doors, smashing through them like they were rice paper. he turns and barrels down the hallway, intent on running around blindly and killing anything that happens to get in his way
HOWE: Well. At least I`ve managed to create one hell of a distraction.
(HOWE exits out the smashed airlock doors)
END ACT II
(KINKY is sitting in front of a computer terminal. black and green screens of data, like on the OmniNet, are flashing by as the clown hacks away at a keyboard with his fingerless hobo-gloved hands.)
(ALYSTARE enters and comes up behind KINKY, watching the data flow by from over the clown`s shoulder)
ALYSTARE: Any progress?
(KINKY takes one of his hands away from the keyboard and reaches for his bicycle horn. he proceeds to honk out in code)
ALYSTARE: (watching the data) There. What about there?
(KINKY squints and leans in toward the screen. he rubs his chin thoughtfully, then honks out a reply)
(the data keeps scrolling by, then KINKY abruptly stops it. he begins to honk excitedly, and the grin on ALYSTARE`s face widens)
ALYSTARE: Thank you, General. (skims through the garbled data, reading the bits and pieces) Knowledge of tactical formations, defensive systems around Albook -- access codes to the Tactician mainframe. (pats KINKY on the shoulder) Have your hackers begin working on getting us inside Tactician, Kinky. I will prep the TimeBall.
(KINKY nods in agreement, then happily stands and skips off, honking out the tune to "la cucaracha")
* * *
scene ii, HOWE`s suite in Westmorlane Manor
(HOWE is wearing his old clothes, tattered though they are from his ordeal at sea. he looks decidedly less gay now -- but also less futuristic. he is turning the brass "u" over in his hands, deep in thought)
HOWE: (to himself) Two two... one six... three... five eight... two two... one six three...
(HOWE stands and begins pacing, still muttering the numbers over and over to himself. he gets a twinkle to his eye, and clasping his fingers around the brass "u," he moves toward the door to his suite.)
* * *
scene iii, Westmorlane Manor, corridor
(HOWE moves down the corridor, again passing by glass-walled laboratories on either side. in one of them, KINKY and a number of computer technicians are cranking away at a series of terminals. conscious of being seen, HOWE rushes past quickly, ducking slightly to avoid line-of-sight)
(KINKY looks up as HOWE passes. his eyes narrow, and he bares his sharpened yellow teeth)
(HOWE comes to the metal door he passed by on the way to his brain scan earlier. he stands in front of the keypad by the door)
(HOWE sighs)
HOWE: What`ve I got to lose? I`m already dead.
(HOWE taps in the code he learned from NATASHA: two two one six three five eight. the keypad lights up, and there is a loud hiss as the hydraulic locking mechanism on the door releases. HOWE jumps at the sound and glances down either side of the corridor to see if he`s been spotted. seeing that he`s safe, he pulls the door open and slips inside)
* * *
scene iv, Westmorlane Manor, control room
(we see an expansive control room, with lots of henchmen running about doing their henchmanly things. some of them are standing around guarding stuff. others are manning computer terminals. ALYSTARE is standing above a pit, within which is a holographic 3d map of Albrook and the surrounding area.)
(one of the computer technicians approaches ALYSTARE)
TECHNICIAN: Sir, Tactician has been hacked. We`ve compiled the data you requested, and have it ready in a form the Tswn can read.
ALYSTARE: Good. Where is Kinky?
TECHNICIAN: He excused himself unexpectedly, sir... I didn`t catch where he said he was going because... well...
ALYSTARE: You don`t speak Foo. (smiles) No matter, he`s probably just gone to relieve himself. When he returns to your station, tell him I`d like to see him.
(TECHNICIAN turns to leave)
* * *
scene v, Westmorlane Manor, oubliette
(HOWE treads lightly down a hallway which connects several barred cells. he glances inside each one, until he comes to the last one on his right side. he folds his arms and clears his throat. inside the cell, NATASHA, who had been reclining on a hard cot, jumps up)
NATASHA: You remembered my number, I see.
HOWE: I`m a General in the Grand Army. I remember lots of things.
NATASHA: Yes, and that is unfortunate.
HOWE: Unfortunate?
NATASHA: Did you already submit to the brain scan?
HOWE: (frowns) Yes. Yes I did.
NATASHA: Then we don`t have a lot of time left. Open my cell -- it`s the same code, from the keypad at the end of the hall. Alystare is an unimaginative fool and only uses one passcode in the entire Manor...
HOWE: I`m not opening anything else until you explain who you are and what`s going on here.
NATASHA: (pauses) We don`t have time for this.
HOWE: No, you don`t have time for this. I`m a guest here, you`re the one Alystare isn`t so keen on.
NATASHA: All right. You have a point. Where shall I begin?... what has Alystare told you?
HOWE: Nevermind what Alystare told me. I want to hear your story as you come up with it, without any help from Alystare.
(NATASHA nods. she folds her hands behind her back and approaches HOWE at the barred door to her cell)
NATASHA: My name is Natasha. And I am a Monitor.
HOWE: Monitor?
NATASHA: You probably aren`t going to believe me if I tell you what a Monitor is...
HOWE: Try me.
NATASHA: (considers how to word what she needs to say) I serve UL. We Monitors are at once mortal, and at once... not mortal. But we are hardly immortal. We serve UL to one specific end: to protect the fabric of time. There are places in this Web where the fabric of time is loose... and some mortals have learned to exploit that looseness for their own ends. Alystare is one such person. And we Monitors have been secretly working against his intentions for as long as we`ve known about them. (pauses, and then laughs) Although, to speak of it in those terms is confusing, because time really has nothing to do with how long we`ve known about Alystare, and what he intends to do.
HOWE: Well. So far both your story and Alystare`s rank very high on the crazy meter. You say you`ve been working against him secretly, but he seemed to know enough about you to be able to at least tell me a story about who you were.
NATASHA: What did he say?
HOWE: Why don`t you tell me who Alystare is first?
NATASHA: All right. Alystare is a Time Mage from an alternate future. That future, however, perished because of a mistake he made while travelling to the past; the timeline is extinct and no longer progresses. Instead of repairing the damage, Alystare migrated into our timeline -- arriving from beyond the jurisdiction of the Monitors.
HOWE: Monitors have jurisdiction?
NATASHA: In Alystare`s reality, humankind has total control over time. There is no need for Monitors there: the wizards and the High Council police themselves effectively. Or, at least, they used to. Thus UL and our organization need worry only about what happens within the boundaries of our own reality, our own future and past. Alystare crossed the border before we were able to perceive his arrival. He embarked on a plan to rule the Web of Worlds with advanced knowledge of an invasion from a race of humanoids from outside the Web, called the Tswn.
HOWE: But that went badly for him, I`m guessing?
NATASHA: Worse than you can know. His plan was to become the ruler of one of the strongest nations in the Web at the time, in the year 358 WR. He chose the United States of Pandora, where he became Principal of the Legislar thanks to his magically enhanced appearance and charisma. He spent the first few years after his assuming the Principality building up Pandora`s weapons technology in preparation for the Tswn arrival. And when they came in 371, his plan was to let the Tswn defeat everyone else and then beat them back, conquering broken territories in the wake of the war.
HOWE: Sounds like a good plan. Evil, but I guess it could work. What went wrong?
NATASHA: What went wrong was that the Tswn attacked Pandora first -- because they knew Pandora had the best weaponry out of anyone else in the Web. And this was not something Alystare anticipated, because we had been watchful of him since his arrival and prevented his attempts to time travel ahead to check on his plan`s progress.
HOWE: (laughs) What a fool.
NATASHA: He escaped destruction, though, with the aid of this island -- which isn`t an island at all, in fact it`s probably all that`s left of 371 WR`s Pandora City.
HOWE: And he managed to slip away without you Monitors catching him?
NATASHA: He did so with the aid of an device called the TimeBall. He stole it from his timeline before he arrived here, and used it to a limited extent to further his plans in the era from 358 to 371. We would have tried to stop him, or destroy the TimeBall before it came to this... but the TimeBall projects a field of temporal disruption, which nullifies our power to timejump. It also lets him open rifts in the fabric of time, through which he and this island were able to escape the destruction of 371.
HOWE: Okay. So what did he want with my brain scan, exactly?
NATASHA: Tactician.
HOWE: (stunned) Tactician? The computer?
NATASHA: He read your mind and you let him in willingly. Now he knows everything that you know, all that you have remembered in your career with the Grand Army. Formations, offensives, defenses, successful campaigns... access codes.
HOWE: Those codes wouldn`t be good anymore. I`m dead. They`d have turned them off... deactivated them.
NATASHA: In a Web at peace? With no enemies for the Grand Army anywhere, and given the non-hostile way in which you "died"? Not likely. You haven`t been dead that long, Howe. I can tell you, having seen the future, they don`t purge your access codes before Alystare can use them to get in.
HOWE: What does he do with them?
NATASHA: You saw the Tswn specimen Alystare has? He`s about your rank in the Tswn military hierarchy, and he`s already had his brain scanned -- though less willingly than you. The clown used drugs and torture to loosen up his resistances a bit. So Alystare has comms frequencies and backdoor access codes to the Tswn fleet`s central computer. He`ll extract information about Albrook`s defenses, use the TimeBall to create a rift that will pull the Tswn fleets into our Web, and then give them attack coordinates that will tell them exactly where to hit your Grand Army to deliver a killing blow. Then he will provide the Tswn with SAGA ship schematics -- as detailed as your rank will allow -- and then those of every other national spacefleet in the Web of Worlds. All courtesy the Tactician central mainframe. Your fleets will be decimated by technology two hundred years more advanced than anything the Web presently has.
HOWE: That`s crazy. Why would he do that? He couldn`t beat them in the future, why does he think he`d be able to beat them now?
NATASHA: Because when it serves his purposes, he intends to reverse the information flow. He can begin telling the Grand Army how to fight back, how to beat the Tswn invaders -- revealing his presence and emerging as a hero. At least, that`s his plan. Again, in the future of the timeline that I saw, it doesn`t quite work out to fit with Alystare`s plan. But to him, it doesn`t matter. If things get hot, he just moves the island to another time period, maybe another timeline, and tries his scheme again. And by that time, I imagine you will be quite useless to him. So he`ll get rid of you.
HOWE: (shaking his head) You know what... I think you`re both crazy. Maybe you more than him, but I haven`t had enough experience with crazy people to be able to tell.
NATASHA: You must believe me, Howe... wasn`t I right about the passcode?
HOWE: Yeah, that just means maybe you`ve been here once before and used it to escape. It doesn`t prove anything. All this talk of time travel and the future... if you Monitors are so good at seeing the outcome of things how come you got captured so easily? (waving her off before she can respond) No, don`t. I don`t want to hear it. Right now, I`m going to look for a boat that I can steal so I can go home. I`ve had just about enough of this shit.
(HOWE turns to leave, but KINKY is standing in his way, snarling like a junkyard dog. KINKY`s teeth are bared, his brows are furrowed. his shoulders are heaving, and he is wearing a pair of bright red boxing gloves)
HOWE: Oh. Hi, uh, Kinky was it? I was just leaving. So I`ll let you get down to business... the business of torturing your prisoner. That`s what you`re here to do, right?
(KINKY reaches out toward the keypad. he presses a button, and the door behind him shuts and locks itself. a thin line of drool runs down the red makeup around his mouth, over his pointed white chin and then dribbles to the floor)
HOWE: (takes a step back) Okay, Natasha. I will grant you that the clown is probably crazier than even you.
(KINKY lunges forward, fists flying. HOWE manages to duck under the first blow and plants a fist into KINKY`s ribs. the clown makes a noise like a squeaky toy as he is hit, but does not otherwise seem to be fazed. he rears up and backhands HOWE across the face, sending HOWE whipping around backward into the bars of the adjacent cells. HOWE recovers just in time to move out of the way of KINKY`s fist, which strikes with enough force to dent the bars)
(HOWE quickly assumes a pugilist`s stance, and unloads a series of fast jabs on KINKY, striking him in the face, chest and gut. again, each hit produces a squeak, but instead of harming the clown or slowing him, the flurry of attacks seems to only enrage him more. he parries HOWE`s next blow, and reverses HOWE`s momentum, planting a firm punch to HOWE`s forehead. HOWE stumbles back, but manages to reclaim his equilibrium just in time to block a couple of lethal combinations)
NATASHA: His nose, Howe! A Foo clown`s weakness is its delicate nose!!
(KINKY decks HOWE, and turns in anger toward NATASHA. he reaches up to the flower on his shirt and squeezes it. a needle is projected from the flower`s bud, striking NATASHA in the neck. she gasps and collapses to her knees)
(KINKY returns his attention to HOWE, who has come back up on his feet and is palming the brass "u". KINKY smiles and gnashes his teeth as he approaches. HOWE lunges forward, striking at KINKY`s gut. KINKY easily blocks, but leaves his face open for HOWE, who throws his whole weight into driving the "u" into KINKY`s face. the "u" hooks into KINKY`s nostrils and tears back as HOWE pushes, full force. blood sprays forward and KINKY squeals pathetically, his gloved hands reaching up to claw at his face. HOWE then plants a good-night punch into the clown`s exposed adam`s apple, crushing his throat and sending him collapsing to the ground in a heap. KINKY honks one last time before his body goes limp)
(HOWE takes a breath, retrieves the "u", then goes over to the keypad and punches in the code. NATASHA`s cell door opens. HOWE goes over to her and kneels beside her. she`s gasping for breath, and has become very pale)
(HOWE nods silently, laying NATASHA backward. her eyes roll into the back of her head, and her lips begin quivering)
HOWE: It`s okay. I believe you. I`ll do what I can to stop Alystare.
(NATASHA smiles. she reaches up to the emblem on her breast, and pulls it off. she presses it into HOWE`s hand)
(HOWE stands as NATASHA breathes her last. he sighs)
HOWE: Although I have no idea how to even begin doing that. Especially now that I`m gonna be going at this alone...
(HOWE thinks for a moment, and then grins. he heads toward the prison`s exit)
* * *
scene vi, Westmorlane Manor, laboratory
(we are in the laboratory with the captured Tswn specimen. it is still unconscious on the examination table. a pair of lone guards stand to either side of the door leading into the lab. no one else is in the room.)
(through the glass, we can see into the corridor outside, and we watch as HOWE approaches the airlock. he punches in the keycode and the outer airlock doors hiss open. not having any reason to suspect that something may be amiss, the two guards stiffen their stances, so as to look alert and not-very-bored.)
(the inner airlock doors open, and HOWE takes a half step into the lab. he wastes no time dealing with the guards, snapping up the one on his left in a headlock, while deftly removing the guard`s weapon with his free hand. a single blast of energy into the remaining guard`s neck sends him to the floor, not knowing what hit him. HOWE finishes off the headlocked guard by snapping his neck -- which he manages to do quite easily. because why not?)
(HOWE approaches the Tswn specimen. he is hesitant, only because he suddenly realizes he has absolutely no idea how he plans to proceed from here. he casts a quick glance back at the airlock, then back at the huge creature strapped to the table.)
(suddenly, the creature`s single eye shoots open, and it beholds HOWE. the eye is big, occupying most of the center of the creature`s face. its iris is reddish brown, and the large black pupil appears to be ever so slightly multi-faceted, like an insect`s eye. a cunning grin comes to the creature`s tusked mouth.)
HOWE: Good morning. Sleep well?
(the creature just stares at HOWE, examining him carefully)
HOWE: Oh come on, can`t you speak Common? Every other form of life in the Web speaks Common by default. Don`t tell me that magical language everyone knows somehow bypassed your part of the universe.
HPHRYN: Of course I speak your language, puny stupid human.
HOWE: Oh. Well, good. Now we`re getting somewhere.
HPHRYN: You have killed your own people, human -- the guards meant to keep me in this prison. You will explain to me why you have done this, and perhaps I will not kill you.
HOWE: Well, call it an educated guess, but I don`t think you`d kill me even if you wanted to. On account of your being strapped in pretty tight and unable to get free.
HPHRYN: (looks around, working its mouth as it thinks) Your puny human mind cannot fathom the motivations and desires of a Tswn warrior, human. I lie here and succumb to these bonds because it is my wish to, not because they are somehow strong enough to inhibit even me!
HOWE: Well. I was going to try and cut a deal with you... see if maybe you and I could help each other out, if I freed you. But since you can free yourself, I suppose I`ll just be on my way.
(HOWE turns to leave. as he nears the inner airlock door...)
HPHRYN: Hold, human. I am desirous to learn what machination you had managed to concoct within that puny human mind of yours.
HOWE: Oh yeah? That mean you`ll help me if I free you?
HPHRYN: There is a chance of that, yes.
HOWE: (turns back to face the creature) All right, here it is. The man who captured you -- Alystare -- he`s scanned both our brains. He`s used the information that he gained from those brain scans to manipulate our respective armies into conflict with one another.
HPHRYN: (devilish grin) Fool human! The Tswn warriors do not need to be manipulated into battle!! We LIVE for battle!! We had been planning to conquer and destroy your pathetic race already!
HOWE: Yeah. Well, except that he`s going to use everything you knew about your own fleet to help my side win in the end. Meaning all your Tswn warriors are being herded into a slaughter.
HPHRYN: (blinks a couple times) Oh. Well. That`s bad!! We must stop him!!
HOWE: Yes, the thought had occured to me as well.
HPHRYN: Free me, human, and I will help you crush this Alystare.
HOWE: Well... just promise you won`t crush me.
HPHRYN: You stupid, stupid human. I am a Tswn warrior. We are creatures of honor. We do not crush those who help us escape our bonds! -- although, I just want to make it perfectly clear, I could have escaped these bonds myself. I just chose not to.
HOWE: Duly noted. (HOWE steps forward and works at freeing the Tswn. eventually he manages to find a catch that releases the bond on HPHRYN`s left arm. the creature bellows as its arm is freed, and begins to tear off the rest of its bonds. HOWE stands back as the Tswn bursts out of its prison)
HPHRYN: Hphryn the Destroyer is free!! Worlds tremble once again as the mighty Hphryn regains control over his body functions!! Now I crush my captors and return to my people, to lead them wading waist-deep into seas of blood and glory!!
HOWE: Not so fast, first we need a plan...
HPHRYN: You bore me, human. Do not stand in my way as I charge, lest I am forced to break my solemn oath and accidentally crush you.
HOWE: (thinks it over for a moment) Well, since you put it that way, my friend, don`t let me hold you up. Go right ahead and get to charging.
(HPHRYN roars and does just that, rushing forward and shattering through the airlock doors, smashing through them like they were rice paper. he turns and barrels down the hallway, intent on running around blindly and killing anything that happens to get in his way
HOWE: Well. At least I`ve managed to create one hell of a distraction.
(HOWE exits out the smashed airlock doors)
END ACT II
ACT III
By: Scen
Thread: Iron Writer!
Posted: August 05, 2004
ACT III, scene i, Westmorlane Manor, control room
(ALYSTARE is where he was before, standing overseeing his control room. only now, the scene is much more chaotic: klaxons are blaring, lights are flashing, guards are rushing to where they are needed)
(despite the setbacks -- the death of KINKY, the release of the Tswn, now rampaging throughout the manor, and the missing Grand Army General -- ALYSTARE seems calm, totally at ease. his hands are folded behind his back as the feminine computer voice announces: T-MINUS THREE MINUTES TO INITIATION OF TIME RIFT)
(a pair of guards enters, escorting HOWE at gunpoint. his hands are cuffed behind his back.)
ALYSTARE: General Lingane. You are proving to be much more of an annoyance than I had anticipated. How disappointing. (to the guards) There`ll be no need for those. Nothing can delay my plans now, at this late stage.
(the guards uncuff HOWE. HOWE rubs his wrists)
ALYSTARE: In less than three minutes, General, your world and mine will change forever. A new order will come about -- one headed by me. I will recreate here, in your shattered Web, all that was correct in mine. It will be a perfect society: one ruled by scholars and learned men, with me shining the light down the path. It`s not too late for you either, General. You could still find a place in my new order.
HOWE: You really think this will work?
ALYSTARE: Of course it will. I have planned everything, down to the last shots fired in this little staged confrontation between your Grand Army and the Tswn.
HOWE: You wouldn`t happen to be using the same script you used in 371 WR, would you?
ALYSTARE: Ah. You must have spoken to the Monitor before she died. Then that means you are also the one who killed my poor Kinky.
HOWE: Far as I`m concerned, I did you a favor. People will take your organization more seriously if there aren`t any Foo clowns involved.
ALYSTARE: Perhaps. But did you have to unleash my Tswn prisoner?
HOWE: Thought it would buy me some time.
ALYSTARE: Well, you thought wrong, General Howe. As you can plainly see, everything is proceeding according to my plan, without any delay.
(a guard enters the control room. his white uniform has several cuts, from which small traces of blood can be seen)
GUARD: Sir, we`ve collapsed the west corridor, with the Tswn inside. You may consider the beast contained.
ALYSTARE: Excellent work. Return to your post. (to HOWE) You see? A nice try, General, but nothing, not even your raging Tswn compatriot, can stop me now.
(as ALYSTARE turns back to monitor the progress of the time rift, HOWE erupts into a flurry of motion. he has the two guards on the floor and disarmed before they realize what`s going on, and he draws one of their guns and aims it at the console in front of ALYSTARE. he fires off a shot, but the lance of white energy seems to be absorbed into the machine.)
ALYSTARE: Energy insulation, General. Every console in this control room is thickly coated in it. (smiles confidently) Like I said, nothing can stop me.
(the guards stand up and roughly take hold of HOWE, relieving him of the gun)
HOWE: This is doomsday you`re instigating, Alystare. You`re a fool if you think this will work.
ALYSTARE: The world is full of fools, General Howe. (to his guards) He has abused the freedom I`ve granted him. Cuff him.
(as the guards are moving to handcuff HOWE, the far door bursts in, and HPHRYN emerges. he roars and lunges for the nearest one of ALYSTARE`s flunkies, brutally beating him with his massive, tentacled hands)
(all the guards in the room rush to stop the Tswn, but their shots do not seem capable of harming the massive, elephant-headed beast)
(HOWE takes advantage of the situation and decks his guards again. once they are on the floor, he removes one of their rubber gloves and slips it onto his hand. he draws the brass "u" from his pocket, picks up one of the guard`s batons, and turns to the console. he uses the baton to pry off an access panel, then wedges the "u" inside, hammering it in with the end of the baton. once it`s in place, he stands back and fires at the "u," relying on the conductivity of the brass to help him bypass the insulation)
(the panel sputters, and sparks erupt from the surface. the holographic image of Albrook fades, and the feminine voice garbles)
(more guards pour into the control room, but their attentions are on HPHRYN and not the troublesome GA General. HOWE scans the chaos of the control room for ALYSTARE)
(he catches sight of ALYSTARE exiting through a doorway on the lower level of the control room. with a heroic leap, HOWE bounds over the railing and lands in a crouch on the lower level. above him, there are screams as HPHRYN tosses ALYSTARE`s henchmen about like rag dolls)
* * *
scene ii, Westmorlane Manor, bell tower
(ALYSTARE emerges from a trap door, throwing it shut behind him. the bell tower is open, with arches 10` wide at the base in four directions, affording a great view of the island. above ALYSTARE, an 8` diameter glowing silver sphere hangs suspended by a cable. ALYSTARE moves to a console off to the side of the trap door and presses some buttons. the sphere descends ever so slightly, and begins to glow)
(the trap door opens again, and ALYSTARE smiles)
(HOWE emerges, and levels his gun at ALYSTARE)
ALYSTARE: Go ahead and shoot, Howe. You are too late to change anything. I`ve already primed the TimeBall. Now, only seconds remain before your Web is beset by the terror of the Tswn, and my island hops out of this doomed timeline forever.
HOWE: That a fact? (HOWE aims at the cable suspending the TimeBall, and fires. it snaps and the ball descends to the floor with a crash. its surface flickers, and the glow dims)
(ALYSTARE screams and lunges at HOWE. they grapple for the gun, and it eventually is knocked from HOWE`s grasp and over the side.)
(HOWE, a soldier, is able to overpower ALYSTARE, knocking the wind out of him. ALYSTARE chokes, gasps, and then his form flickers as he loses concentration on his handsome appearance and resumes his true shape: a short, bald, hook-nosed little trollish man. he whimpers pathetically and crawls away in fear from the General. as ALYSTARE cowers, the TimeBall flashes to life, and begins to glow again)
ALYSTARE: (laughs with a snort) Like I said... General... you are too late.
HOWE: We`ll see about that. (HOWE moves to the TimeBall and begins to push it. it`s heavy, but it begins rolling toward one of the arches)
ALYSTARE: NO!! (stands and rushes to the other side of the ball, propping himself to stop HOWE from pushing any further) I will not let you destroy all that I`ve worked so hard for!!
HOWE: Chaos? Destruction? The end of civilization? That`s what you`ve worked for!?
ALYSTARE: These are things you have helped insert into the equation, General. My plan... my plan was for peace, order... prosperity for all time. Since I cannot have that... I`ll not let your Web escape unpunished! You and everything you care about will BURN!! (ALYSTARE pushes back against the TimeBall. it throbs with light, its intensity slowly growing. the simpering, ugly time mage is somehow able to hold his own against the GA General, and they stand there in the tower pushing against each other, with the clock ticking away)
(HOWE grunts. carefully, he begins to let ALYSTARE gain some ground. the time mage cackles, not suspecting that HOWE is having him on. then, HOWE suddenly darts aside. ALYSTARE`s built-up momentum sends the TimeBall careening forward, through the opposite arch, over the side.)
(ALYSTARE screams as he watches the TimeBall go over, and tries to stop himself from following it -- but HOWE reaches out and pushes him. he tumbles over after the TimeBall, screaming, hurtling over the side of the bell tower.)
* * *
scene iii, Westmorlane Manor, control room
(there are corpses everywhere. the room is silent, save for the terminals on the upper level, which are giving off intermittent showers of sparks. HPHRYN is crouching over a terminal on the lower level that is still operable. he bursts out with laughter)
HPHRYN: Stupid puny humans, with their stupid inferior human technology! I shall have no problem forcing my way into this computer, activating sub-light communications channels, and broadcasting a message to my warriors in this time to summon them here to conquer this Web! Hphryn the Destroyer talks to himself as he strikes again!! (laughs maniacally for about a minute, then pauses) Hey. What`s that sound?
(the TimeBall crashes through the ceiling and crushes HPHRYN. it cracks and explodes, sending shards of crystal everywhere. just behind it is ALYSTARE, who smashes through the top of the TimeBall in a shower of broken crystal and blood.)
(the TimeBall`s broken surface is still glowing. from the gaping crevasses in its once smooth shell, an inky blackness spreads, slowly engulfing the whole control room)
* * *
scene iv, Westmorlane Manor, bell tower
(HOWE watches as the blackness spreads, engulfing the whole island, and slowly spreading up to his location in the tower)
(KATYNKA swings around one of the arches and lands next to HOWE, in a crouch. she looks exactly like NATASHA, though her silvery hair is slightly longer)
HOWE: Wait a minute... you`re... you`re dead. Killed by a killer clown from Foo!
KATYNKA: Oh, General. It boggles the mind how you can even say that with a straight face. (she giggles) I`m not Natasha. I`m Katynka -- also a Monitor. Difference is she`s dead, I`m alive, and you and I have to leave now if we`d like to keep it that way. I`ll timejump and you can piggyback.
HOWE: I thought you couldn`t timejump here?
KATYNKA: Well, you smashed the TimeBall. That changes things, doesn`t it? No temporal disruption field, no block on my timejumping. Now come on.
HOWE: What?
KATYNKA: No more stupid questions, Howe. We have to leave now... the TimeBall is going to eat as much of this island as it can, then collapse in on itself. That means the ground you`re standing on isn`t going to be safe or solid for much longer.
HOWE: Well... all right then. But where will we go? Alystare was right about one thing: I can`t go back home now.
KATYNKA: Well... how`d you like to join the Monitors?
HOWE: Join you?
KATYNKA: Sure. You seem like you can handle yourself well enough. You succeeded in stopping Alystare after the clown killed Natasha. We might have some use for a dead Grand Army General in our ranks. (shrugs) Besides, you wouldn`t be the first historical figure to join up. I think you`ll be pleasantly surprised once we reach Temporal Prime.
HOWE: (considers for a moment) Sure. Why not? I guess if my choices are "join the Monitors" or "face oblivion," I might as well make some use of myself.
(KATYNKA takes HOWE`s hand, and together they leap through one of the arches. after they disappear into the open air, the scene is engulfed in blackness)
THE END
(ALYSTARE is where he was before, standing overseeing his control room. only now, the scene is much more chaotic: klaxons are blaring, lights are flashing, guards are rushing to where they are needed)
(despite the setbacks -- the death of KINKY, the release of the Tswn, now rampaging throughout the manor, and the missing Grand Army General -- ALYSTARE seems calm, totally at ease. his hands are folded behind his back as the feminine computer voice announces: T-MINUS THREE MINUTES TO INITIATION OF TIME RIFT)
(a pair of guards enters, escorting HOWE at gunpoint. his hands are cuffed behind his back.)
ALYSTARE: General Lingane. You are proving to be much more of an annoyance than I had anticipated. How disappointing. (to the guards) There`ll be no need for those. Nothing can delay my plans now, at this late stage.
(the guards uncuff HOWE. HOWE rubs his wrists)
ALYSTARE: In less than three minutes, General, your world and mine will change forever. A new order will come about -- one headed by me. I will recreate here, in your shattered Web, all that was correct in mine. It will be a perfect society: one ruled by scholars and learned men, with me shining the light down the path. It`s not too late for you either, General. You could still find a place in my new order.
HOWE: You really think this will work?
ALYSTARE: Of course it will. I have planned everything, down to the last shots fired in this little staged confrontation between your Grand Army and the Tswn.
HOWE: You wouldn`t happen to be using the same script you used in 371 WR, would you?
ALYSTARE: Ah. You must have spoken to the Monitor before she died. Then that means you are also the one who killed my poor Kinky.
HOWE: Far as I`m concerned, I did you a favor. People will take your organization more seriously if there aren`t any Foo clowns involved.
ALYSTARE: Perhaps. But did you have to unleash my Tswn prisoner?
HOWE: Thought it would buy me some time.
ALYSTARE: Well, you thought wrong, General Howe. As you can plainly see, everything is proceeding according to my plan, without any delay.
(a guard enters the control room. his white uniform has several cuts, from which small traces of blood can be seen)
GUARD: Sir, we`ve collapsed the west corridor, with the Tswn inside. You may consider the beast contained.
ALYSTARE: Excellent work. Return to your post. (to HOWE) You see? A nice try, General, but nothing, not even your raging Tswn compatriot, can stop me now.
(as ALYSTARE turns back to monitor the progress of the time rift, HOWE erupts into a flurry of motion. he has the two guards on the floor and disarmed before they realize what`s going on, and he draws one of their guns and aims it at the console in front of ALYSTARE. he fires off a shot, but the lance of white energy seems to be absorbed into the machine.)
ALYSTARE: Energy insulation, General. Every console in this control room is thickly coated in it. (smiles confidently) Like I said, nothing can stop me.
(the guards stand up and roughly take hold of HOWE, relieving him of the gun)
HOWE: This is doomsday you`re instigating, Alystare. You`re a fool if you think this will work.
ALYSTARE: The world is full of fools, General Howe. (to his guards) He has abused the freedom I`ve granted him. Cuff him.
(as the guards are moving to handcuff HOWE, the far door bursts in, and HPHRYN emerges. he roars and lunges for the nearest one of ALYSTARE`s flunkies, brutally beating him with his massive, tentacled hands)
(all the guards in the room rush to stop the Tswn, but their shots do not seem capable of harming the massive, elephant-headed beast)
(HOWE takes advantage of the situation and decks his guards again. once they are on the floor, he removes one of their rubber gloves and slips it onto his hand. he draws the brass "u" from his pocket, picks up one of the guard`s batons, and turns to the console. he uses the baton to pry off an access panel, then wedges the "u" inside, hammering it in with the end of the baton. once it`s in place, he stands back and fires at the "u," relying on the conductivity of the brass to help him bypass the insulation)
(the panel sputters, and sparks erupt from the surface. the holographic image of Albrook fades, and the feminine voice garbles)
(more guards pour into the control room, but their attentions are on HPHRYN and not the troublesome GA General. HOWE scans the chaos of the control room for ALYSTARE)
(he catches sight of ALYSTARE exiting through a doorway on the lower level of the control room. with a heroic leap, HOWE bounds over the railing and lands in a crouch on the lower level. above him, there are screams as HPHRYN tosses ALYSTARE`s henchmen about like rag dolls)
* * *
scene ii, Westmorlane Manor, bell tower
(ALYSTARE emerges from a trap door, throwing it shut behind him. the bell tower is open, with arches 10` wide at the base in four directions, affording a great view of the island. above ALYSTARE, an 8` diameter glowing silver sphere hangs suspended by a cable. ALYSTARE moves to a console off to the side of the trap door and presses some buttons. the sphere descends ever so slightly, and begins to glow)
(the trap door opens again, and ALYSTARE smiles)
(HOWE emerges, and levels his gun at ALYSTARE)
ALYSTARE: Go ahead and shoot, Howe. You are too late to change anything. I`ve already primed the TimeBall. Now, only seconds remain before your Web is beset by the terror of the Tswn, and my island hops out of this doomed timeline forever.
HOWE: That a fact? (HOWE aims at the cable suspending the TimeBall, and fires. it snaps and the ball descends to the floor with a crash. its surface flickers, and the glow dims)
(ALYSTARE screams and lunges at HOWE. they grapple for the gun, and it eventually is knocked from HOWE`s grasp and over the side.)
(HOWE, a soldier, is able to overpower ALYSTARE, knocking the wind out of him. ALYSTARE chokes, gasps, and then his form flickers as he loses concentration on his handsome appearance and resumes his true shape: a short, bald, hook-nosed little trollish man. he whimpers pathetically and crawls away in fear from the General. as ALYSTARE cowers, the TimeBall flashes to life, and begins to glow again)
ALYSTARE: (laughs with a snort) Like I said... General... you are too late.
HOWE: We`ll see about that. (HOWE moves to the TimeBall and begins to push it. it`s heavy, but it begins rolling toward one of the arches)
ALYSTARE: NO!! (stands and rushes to the other side of the ball, propping himself to stop HOWE from pushing any further) I will not let you destroy all that I`ve worked so hard for!!
HOWE: Chaos? Destruction? The end of civilization? That`s what you`ve worked for!?
ALYSTARE: These are things you have helped insert into the equation, General. My plan... my plan was for peace, order... prosperity for all time. Since I cannot have that... I`ll not let your Web escape unpunished! You and everything you care about will BURN!! (ALYSTARE pushes back against the TimeBall. it throbs with light, its intensity slowly growing. the simpering, ugly time mage is somehow able to hold his own against the GA General, and they stand there in the tower pushing against each other, with the clock ticking away)
(HOWE grunts. carefully, he begins to let ALYSTARE gain some ground. the time mage cackles, not suspecting that HOWE is having him on. then, HOWE suddenly darts aside. ALYSTARE`s built-up momentum sends the TimeBall careening forward, through the opposite arch, over the side.)
(ALYSTARE screams as he watches the TimeBall go over, and tries to stop himself from following it -- but HOWE reaches out and pushes him. he tumbles over after the TimeBall, screaming, hurtling over the side of the bell tower.)
* * *
scene iii, Westmorlane Manor, control room
(there are corpses everywhere. the room is silent, save for the terminals on the upper level, which are giving off intermittent showers of sparks. HPHRYN is crouching over a terminal on the lower level that is still operable. he bursts out with laughter)
HPHRYN: Stupid puny humans, with their stupid inferior human technology! I shall have no problem forcing my way into this computer, activating sub-light communications channels, and broadcasting a message to my warriors in this time to summon them here to conquer this Web! Hphryn the Destroyer talks to himself as he strikes again!! (laughs maniacally for about a minute, then pauses) Hey. What`s that sound?
(the TimeBall crashes through the ceiling and crushes HPHRYN. it cracks and explodes, sending shards of crystal everywhere. just behind it is ALYSTARE, who smashes through the top of the TimeBall in a shower of broken crystal and blood.)
(the TimeBall`s broken surface is still glowing. from the gaping crevasses in its once smooth shell, an inky blackness spreads, slowly engulfing the whole control room)
* * *
scene iv, Westmorlane Manor, bell tower
(HOWE watches as the blackness spreads, engulfing the whole island, and slowly spreading up to his location in the tower)
(KATYNKA swings around one of the arches and lands next to HOWE, in a crouch. she looks exactly like NATASHA, though her silvery hair is slightly longer)
HOWE: Wait a minute... you`re... you`re dead. Killed by a killer clown from Foo!
KATYNKA: Oh, General. It boggles the mind how you can even say that with a straight face. (she giggles) I`m not Natasha. I`m Katynka -- also a Monitor. Difference is she`s dead, I`m alive, and you and I have to leave now if we`d like to keep it that way. I`ll timejump and you can piggyback.
HOWE: I thought you couldn`t timejump here?
KATYNKA: Well, you smashed the TimeBall. That changes things, doesn`t it? No temporal disruption field, no block on my timejumping. Now come on.
HOWE: What?
KATYNKA: No more stupid questions, Howe. We have to leave now... the TimeBall is going to eat as much of this island as it can, then collapse in on itself. That means the ground you`re standing on isn`t going to be safe or solid for much longer.
HOWE: Well... all right then. But where will we go? Alystare was right about one thing: I can`t go back home now.
KATYNKA: Well... how`d you like to join the Monitors?
HOWE: Join you?
KATYNKA: Sure. You seem like you can handle yourself well enough. You succeeded in stopping Alystare after the clown killed Natasha. We might have some use for a dead Grand Army General in our ranks. (shrugs) Besides, you wouldn`t be the first historical figure to join up. I think you`ll be pleasantly surprised once we reach Temporal Prime.
HOWE: (considers for a moment) Sure. Why not? I guess if my choices are "join the Monitors" or "face oblivion," I might as well make some use of myself.
(KATYNKA takes HOWE`s hand, and together they leap through one of the arches. after they disappear into the open air, the scene is engulfed in blackness)
THE END