477 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
477 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO oOOOO OOOO. OOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" .OOOOOO OOOOOo OOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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OOOO oOOOOOOO OOOOOOO. OOOO oOOOO
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OOOO .OOOO OOOO OOOOOOOOo OOOO OOOO"
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OOOO oOOOO OOOO OOOO "OOOO. OOOO OOOOo .OOOO'
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OOOO .OOOO" OOOO OOOO OOOOoOOOO "OOOO. oOOOO
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OOOO oOOOOOOO..OOOO OOOO "OOOOOOO OOOOoOOOO"
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OOOO .OOOO"""OOOOOOOO OOOO OOOOOO "OOOOOOO'
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OOOO oOOOO ""OOOO OOOO "OOOO OOOOOO
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|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| There Ain't No Justice |
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| #97 |
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|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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- Dark White -
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- 03: Discovery -
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by IronHorse
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Stark paced about his apartment trying to find the rationale behind his last
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act. The little girl had done nothing to deserve the reward he bestowed upon
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her, yet he brutally snuffed out her life just the same.
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I've got to find my _focus_, Ka, he growled at himself. Killing those who
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opposed him, even in the slightest, was justifiable, but now deriving
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pleasure from the mindless slaughter of innocents?
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I must be going crazy.
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--+=*=+--
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"What's wrong with you?"
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Joey Russo and the translucent apparition known as Great White, also as
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Warren Zeeber, "sat" in the living room of the home of the deceased Jennifer
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Sanders.
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"I'm dying," replied Zeeber.
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"No. You can't."
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"But I can..."
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Russo began to cry, barely even knowing this "man", he was already attached
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to him in a way which is only common of young children and lovers of myth.
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"But... but... I thought you were immortal."
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"Be calm, Joey... I am un-dying, but I'm not quite immortal."
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"Huh?"
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"My body, more aptly maybe, my _soul_, can live in an innumerable amount of
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hosts, but the host can, and does die."
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"But you're without a host now."
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"Yes, and I am nearing the end of the time that I can survive without one."
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"Then why don't you just go get a new host?"
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"I can't."
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A sudden glimpse of brilliance flashed upon Russo, and he surprisingly
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understood.
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"You mean you won't."
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"How do you mean?"
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"Ms. Sanders."
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"Yes. She was very, very, dear to me. And she gave up her life for another."
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"And so you won't take the life of someone else just so you can live..."
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"You're one smart kid, Joey. But there's more to it than that. So much
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more..."
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--+=*=+--
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Eddie rose from underneath Lisa, in the gingerly manner he moved to not wake
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her you wouldn't think he was the abusive boyfriend that he is, but one look
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at the make-up that now so poorly cloaks the bruises upon her face and you
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would be sure. This man was a creep.
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His purpose for not waking her was of no concern of her either, more of
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subterfuge, so that he could get into her purse and steal the money he would
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need to further his quest. Sniper equipment was quite expensive.
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Just as he put back her wallet and turned around, Lisa stirred.
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"Hi," she cooed.
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"I'm going out," he said flatly, and turned out the door.
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--+=*=+--
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"See, before, when I took over someone's body, I was able to take them over
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within minutes of them _already_ being dead. One time, I actually got to a
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host just over an hour after he died and it was still okay."
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"But now, after my encounter with Projector, a super- villain that
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manipulated the Astral Plane, things are different... combined with my
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natural limits on host worlds, I think things are really bad."
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"Whadda ya mean?"
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"Well, for one thing, I can no longer possess someone who has died. I _must_
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have a living form. I tried dead people, yes, even one who died right in
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front of me, but nothing happened."
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"Then how do you know they need to be alive?"
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"Because I already tried someone who was alive."
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After a pause which Joey knowingly did not interrupt, he continued.
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"It was horrible. The man I took over didn't just die, he was erased."
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"Erased?"
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"Yes, erased. Completely gone. His thoughts, his mind, his soul. All gone."
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"But... he, like, went to heaven, didn't he?"
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Another pause.
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"I don't think so..."
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--+=*=+--
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Stark sat looking blindly at his television, absorbed in his own thoughts for
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the past hour - thought that would turn blood cold.
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The little girl, her beautiful face showing little through the mask of blood
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and broken bones that was his doing.
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The man, lying on the street, insides burning from his own stomach acids, all
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the while tearing his own mid- section apart with his own hands trying to
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stop the pain.
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The woman. Fighting first, then submitting in fear and fatigue as he raped
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her, then her after sex glare, ( he could tell despite her own desires she
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had an orgasm, and he realized she must like it rough ), shattering like
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plate glass as he pulled out his knife and killed her.
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And many ghosts before, his first two kills. They should have never opposed
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him. He had no choice... really he didn't... they were asking for it... all
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of them...
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He roused as a political commercial came on the television and in minutes he
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had his focus. He found his Ka.
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--+=*=+--
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"My race are travelers, we normally spend no more than one hundred and fifty
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years on any one world," spoke the apparition Great White. "In fact, the
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longest amount of time we _can_ possibly spend on any one world is just over
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two hundred. But humans are weak."
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"How's that?" asked the enthralled Russo.
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"Your race doesn't live as long as others, therefore, neither do I when I
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inhabit your kind."
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"Why don't you just inhabit someone from another planet and then come here?"
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"I can't. For me to travel though space I must shed my 'host', and I don't
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know how to fly a space craft, nor have I ever needed one."
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"So, why don't you just pick up and leave?"
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"Because, there's a little more to it than that. I need host energy as a kind
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of booster, to launch me towards my next destination. Without one, I can
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barely fly."
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"Wow..." and Russo had a thought. "How much energy do you need?"
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"All of it," replied Zeeber, knowing where the boy was headed.
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"Oh."
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"Yes," said the lightform.
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--+=*=+--
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"That's a beautiful scope you got there," said the salesman as Edward Lynch
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envisioned his target between the cross-hairs of the high power lens he was
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going to buy for just one purpose.
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"Yes, it is," he said, laying it upon the counter.
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"I'll take it."
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"Planning on taking down some big game with this baby, huh? That's $327.46"
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"Yes, actually."
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"I heard some guy down in Africa actually took down an elephant at
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three-hundred yards with this thing," continued the salesman as he handed
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Lynch his change.
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"But then, you don't look the elephant hunting type, am I right?"
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"Ya never know," Eddie replied and left the store.
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Watching Eddie cross the lot and pull away in his car the salesman noticed a
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bumper sticker on the driver's side trunk. It showed a cartoon elephant
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vacuuming up money and people with it's trunk, beneath it simply read:
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REPUBLICANS SUCK.
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--+=*=+--
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In the land where Stark lived, there were no Republicans, no Democrats
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either, in fact, there wasn't much of an election any more seeing as most
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people never even bothered to go out and vote. Those too poor to bother
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minding trivial concerns as to who wrote the laws they broke to survive
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really didn't care who was supposedly running the country, and the other
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thirty percent of the population was so rich, they may as well have been
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above the law.
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So eventually the bigger party just swallowed up all the smaller parties by
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simply buying them out or, more likely, buying the voters ( those that were
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real anyway ), and drowning them out by a lack of support.
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The incumbent, Victor Waterford, had been the incumbent for the past
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seventeen years. Few people bothered to notice he was also the richest man on
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the planet. Before _and_ after the fact.
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All that was about to change.
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Victor Waterford sat in his office in the capitol building, doing what most
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high level government officials did in this world, evaluating the vast
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amounts of his money, and deriving ways about getting more.
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The intercom buzzed.
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"Yes?"
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"Line one, Mr. President, it's a man who says he must speak with you. I don't
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know how he got the private number..."
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"That's okay," the President said, cutting off the secretary, "If he made it
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this far, he must be one of the generals." Or the leader of a drug cartel
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planning on wiring me the little known 'government ignorance' tax, he
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thought. "Put him through."
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"Victor," the voice on the other end said enthusiastically.
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"Who is this? Don't you know who you're speaking to? I'm the President god
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damn it!" Waterford hated it when these slimy drug dealers thought they could
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treat him as an equal when he knew he was more than any of them combined.
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"Calm, calm, Victor, we wouldn't want me to get excited now, would we?"
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"Who is this and how did you get this number?"
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"Does Julia ring a bell?"
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"My wife?"
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"Your ex-wife."
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"What did you do to her!?" screamed the President, simultaneously pushing the
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button to summon his men.
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"Whoa, whoa, whoa big fella, don't get your panties all in a bunch just yet.
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We wouldn't want any more harm to come to Melissa, now would we?"
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"My daughter? What are you doing to my daughter!?!"
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"Well, lets just say she it won't be a white wedding anymore..."
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"You son of a bitch," screamed Victor as three men in dark suits rushed into
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his office.
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"And so sweet... only thirteen?"
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"Twelve!"
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"Twelve... my, my... You know, Victor, she's one hell of a fuck."
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TRACE THIS BASTARD, Waterford wrote quickly on a piece of paper. "You are an
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idiot, you know that, don't you?"
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"A little tight at first, but I broke her in..."
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"You'll never get away with this..."
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"Did you know she's a screamer? Real loud too."
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"You're insane."
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"You know what, Victor?"
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"What's that?"
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"I think she liked it."
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"You bastard."
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"I think she loved every minute of it."
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"I'm going to get you."
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"Maybe you will. Oops, sorry. Time's up. Tell your lab boys better luck next
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time." And the caller hung up.
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"Damn. Almost had him," said a man in front of a portable computer to the
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President.
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"I know. He knew. Just find him."
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The phone rang again.
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"Sir, it's Pendelton, he's at your house. Your family's gone."
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"What about the guards?"
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"Dead. All five of them. We don't know how he got past them all, but he musta
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been a big son of a bitch, he got Hamell."
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"Just find him."
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"Yes sir."
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--+=*=+--
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Stark hung up the phone and looked over at the little twelve year old girl
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sitting tied up near the fire place. She was pretty, wasn't she? And it
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looked like she was one of those lucky early bloomers, certainly that wasn't
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padding inside her nightgown. He sat down in front of her.
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"Uh... you're not going to rape me, are you mister?"
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"No, Melissa, I'm not going to rape you... And if you're nice, I might not
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even kill you."
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Melissa Waterford was very afraid. Just hours ago, before the long car ride
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up here to the mountains, she saw what was left of five top level security
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guards after this man had gotten through with them. It looked as if they
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didn't stand a chance. At least two had their necks broken, and the big man,
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Hamell, he was on the floor making a weird gurgling noise she didn't
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understand, at least until she saw his tongue on the other side of the room.
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And she still didn't know what became of her mother, though she did fear she
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was dead.
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"But... if you kill me my dad won't give you what ever it is you're looking
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for."
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"But of course he will... You're just... insurance."
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--+=*=+--
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"You know what you have to do?" said Russo, sitting straight up as an idea
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struck him.
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"What's that?"
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"Take over the body of someone who is going to die anyway... someone who
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won't miss their life."
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"But what about their afterlife?"
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"Hmm... I know. Take someone who doesn't deserve an afterlife. A death row
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guy."
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"That wouldn't be good. Then I'd be on death row."
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"True..."
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"But... if I found someone who did escape the system..."
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"Yeah... someone who should be in jail anyway..."
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"But I can't. I don't have the power in me to go anywhere further than
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Michigan."
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A pause.
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"Then we'll find someone evil in Michigan."
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Perhaps Joey's exuberance was rubbing off on him, perhaps he was finally
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getting over the fact that Jen was gone, whatever it was, something was
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finally kicking him into motion again... as long as it wasn't too late.
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"No, Joey, _I'll_ find someone evil in Michigan..."
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"But..."
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"No buts, it'll be faster this way... Then I'll come back and see you... I
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promise."
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"No fair."
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"Nothing's fair kid, nothing..."
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Great White made a feeble attempt at hugging the boy and then shot out
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through the window and up into the sky like a bolt of lightning.
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A very weak bolt of lightning.
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--+=*=+--
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And a few hours later...
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"Let's go babe."
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"Where we going Eddie?" Lisa asked as he pushed her out the door with the
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half-packed bag he threw together for her.
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"Detroit."
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"Back to the states? For real? Great!"
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Lisa quickly got into the car and Eddie slammed shut the door.
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The states? Yes, he thought. Elephant hunting.
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.... to be continued.
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ú ùþ ú ú þù ú
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ÛÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜþÜÜÜÜ ú ù ú ú ù ú ÜÜÜÜþÜÜÜÜÛÛÛÛÛ
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