Meet the Heroes 17

Hail to the Red and Blue.

Hail to the Red and Blue,
The Colors of Peace and Pride.
All Men Shall Rise and Greet the Dawn
With the Colors of the Red and Blue.

Honor and Justice Prevail,
In Spite of the Evil Below.
With God on Our Side,
Who Can Oppose?
Hail to the Red and Blue

Fight song for the Heroes (translated) during the Parade through the Dome of the Rock.
1 Day Before Meggido.

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Under Bristol

The safe lives of the clean and ordered machine people saw sunlight and rain, snow and wind. The colors of their world made a whole city a living Van Gogh. Men and women worked jobs for good wages and ate well. They vacationed. Their children learned and played. The presence of the Divine Peace was in every moment and every object shone as a Holy Beacon.

Cities are built on the ruins of old cities. Old water mains are drained and abandoned. Tunnels for trains that no longer ran still formed the spider's network back to the hub. Entire complexes, maybe bunkers or failed housing units. There were underground roads and churches. New tunnels connected he old places. The lost lived here. Harmless preached his message with Kosmos by his side. They called Kosmos “The Man With The Wounds” and no one fought him. Mercy had joined them. Guise followed Mercy.

Under the city, the were not noticed.

A meeting was for any who would join them. There would be an announced confrontation. Kosmos, Mercy and Guise agreed Rick could not resist a media blitz calling for a final showdown. He held all the cards. He’d droned on about his final revelation. They would send a counter message at dawn tomorrow. They would board planes now. The would be in Megiddo by dawn. They assembled. He could assemble as quickly. He scheduled his revelation for noon, they would attend.

Kosmos released a short video over a wireless network. His face, scarred and scowling, said the following:

Leaders of the Free World,

A great revelation is upon us. At noon tomorrow, Global Ambassador Richard Dubois will show the world final proof that human existence is not an accident of science or a ball of random mathematical knots. We of the Underground accept and acknowledge the truth of this proof and his statement. Our leader, David Mott, known by many of you as The Harmless Man, believes that this proof and this message defies what Ambassador Dubois has created.

We will attend the unveiling of this final secret. Before this, know that we are well aware of what he found, how he found it and where he found it. Several of us worked for him and know his true goal is nothing less than the enslavement of all humanity.

In the valley of Megiddo, a war shall be waged and all the terror from the realm of the Deceiver shall be unleashed. After which a time of great tribulation will seize the world as God unleashes his four avenging angels to cleanse the earth.

This will last for many ages. More than ninety percent of the people alive today will die. Many in suffering. Rick Dubois is the agent of the Deceiver and has incurred God’s wrath. This will be know by the seven signs, seals and trumpet blasts. Megiddo begins the long dark night of God’s people. But even as this begins, a son has been born. Evil will be overthrown and true peace will return to the land.

Many will die tomorrow and the following days. We urge you to prepare yourself and make peace with God. Fight for him and be washed clean in his Blood.

We Pray For You All,
Especially Ambassador Dubois,

Kid Kosmos, Guise, Mercy, Harmless,
Our Departed Friends
And All Who Struggle Below the Hand of Evil.

May God Take You in Death To His Final Rest.

Meet the Heroes 16

Admission

I never thought about it. We were doing the right thing. We were changing the world for the better. Harmless was a killer, a madman! He had to be shut down. Boss had it all figured out. We had no clue. It sounded right.

You look at a world of abundance and harmony. How can that be wrong? Maintain the peace. One man's life for maintaining the peace. I offered to do it myself. That bag of bones and dirty tricks. No match. One man's life for the world. Part of me still thinks it makes sense.

Boss wasn't right in the head, though. The chips might have done it. Maybe he was always like that. Once he had the taste and gave everyone what they wanted, he took what HE wanted from them. From all of us.

I would have killed Old Bones too, if the othet two hadn't popped up. Life is funny. My biggest mistake was twarted by two vengeful criminals who wanted to kill the same man I wanted to kill.

Description of the Events at the Ice Factory, from I Am Kosmos, the autobiography.


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Schemes

The Ice Factory had been abandoned for years. Kid Kosmos scanned with his infra-reds for hot spots. The third floor was an expansive loft formerly used for storage of sheets of thick ice. The caltrops hung from the ceiling.

Three signals registered. Two on the floor and one hanging upside-down from an I beam. He modified his plan. Watch and wait. The signal from the rafter dropped behind the two on the floor. A flood light eradicated the darkness. Kosmos ducked behind a cooling unit and saw Harmless whip his leg into the back of Tinman. Pig Fink rolled to the ground and drew his nine millimeter. Harmless leapt up and grabbed a caltrop, swinging back up into the rafters. Shots fired.

Tinman struggled to his feet and looked up. Gone was the gold and white caped garb of the new Harmless. All black, ragged and dirt covered, his skull mask back on his face, he dove straight down on him feet first. Tinman’s neck snapped.

Pig Fink stood up and braced to shoot. Harmless’ leg arched up high as he sprung straight toward Fink. A bullet caught him square in the chest. He managed to bring his leg down on Fink’s wrist. The gun whirled in Kosmos’ direction. The Kid caught it like a short stop chasing a line drive. He had the gun trained on Fink. Harmless lay motionless.

“Didn’t I already arrest you once, Pig?” he said. The Pig Fink Lazily turned around, laughing.

“Breaking the deal,” he said, “Predictable.” He walked to harmless and kicked his prone body. “The whole place is wired to blow up if my heart stops,” he said, reaching into his pocket,” Or, if I press this button.” He showed a small remote device.

“How about you put that down and walk out now,” Kosmos said, “Before I break your arm and haul you out of here.”

“Catch,” Fink said and tossed it to him. Instinctively, Kosmos caught it. The intense electrical shock from the device floored him. He could still see and hear. He could not move. A fat face glared down at him. “I break deals too. Only I’m going to kill you.” He took out a straight razor and slashed across Kid Kosmos’ face. “But first, I want you to have a little makeover.” He chopped off the three first fingers of Kosmos’ left hand.

Screaming. Kid Kosmos screamed. Another swipe cut off his nose. Another ruined his eye.

“You’re so pretty, so pretty,” Pig Fink whispered. The slashing stopped. Finks body disappeared. Kid Kosmos passed out.


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Antichrist

Some men make deals with the devil. Some have no choice. Satan claims them even through their best intentions. Boss hadn’t heard from Kosmos, Fink, Mercy or even Guise. He did see Harmless on the news. The news fed directly into his brain. The cameras at the Ice Factory showed him everything up until Harmless crept behind Fink. Someone cut the signal before he saw the endgame.
There was no need to guess. Everyone he’d sent died. He knew it. Now, the time had come to bring a world to bear upon one man. Boss could not turn back. Peace must be preserved. Anyone who helped The Helpless Man would suffer. Helpless. Helpless.

People cut RFID chips out of their necks. Rouge surgeons were removing chips from his agents. Helpless was organizing against him. Every bit of propaganda against this man was quickly debunked and replaced with his Helpless Message. A book. It was a book he used. In the age of instant communication Helpless fought with the printed word. The Ancient Printed Word of a Dictator God who did not provide an ounce of peace or prosperity. God made men suffer. The Boss made human life a joy. Why was a book about serving a terrible master, a practical fiction of a mythical mountain god of the Hebrews making sane people turn away from peace, joy and prosperity?

It would end. He would force them to choose. Live in suffering and wait to be exterminated, or make the sensible choice and choose beauty and security. No. Not exterminated. Enslaved. Death would only free them and make martyrs. Show them stripped and remorseful and forced to be productive. Force them to ensure peace and prosperity. Make everyone see that this was the only way.

With a thought, he reorganized his forces to hunt these cave dwelling miscreants and bring them to Jerusalem. Id the wanted God so badly, let them have a glimpse of him. The true God, buried for eons in the sands of Mesopotamia. His final secret would then be revealed and they would understand and repent. He’d show them the guardian of Eden.

Meet the Heroes 15

Revelations

Monday morning it rained. An unremarkable fact, except that it didn't stop. It rained for two weeks. It rained across the entire globe. Something had gone wrong with Rick's brain. The experiment was too successful.

Ten years earlier, a Korean team of scientists had thrown a microchip into a slice of rat brain, just to see what it would do. The dendrites of the neurons attached to the silicon and used the circuitry to send signals. The microchip was then hooked up to a mmory source, which was loaded with a simple flight simulator.

In a month, using routine methods to condition brain cells, the slice of rat brain could fly a fake plane. A week later, a remote controlled plane.

President Rick Dubois had access to secret information. There were at least two thousand soldiers with wired brains. They flew the Predator Drones in Afghanistan. Rick saw his chance.

He gathered the world's top scientists and asked them to create remotely controlled interfaces for anything on the planet that could be manipulated. Then, they attached all the devices to one deep computer, the cutting edge of Artificial Intelligence. Rick had it hooked up to his brain.

Then, it rained for two straight weeks, everywhere. Downpours. He sat mute, watching every video feed, every readout, every medical report. His brain did the only thing it could. It dreamed. While it dreamed, it rained.

Deserts turned to grasslands. Global warming halted from the cloud cover. Crops were abundant. Guns malfunctioned.

When he awoke, the sun came out. He knew everything there was to know. He had the knowledge of the universe. Rick Dubois, former telemarketer, American Boss, ambitious to a fault, had all the answers. The world held its breath as Eden returned and their savior, a man who lead fearlessly and performed signs and miracles promised an end to human suffering.

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Tracking

The Gold and White was a curse. Harmless figured that out soon enough. Too late. He hid in the tunnels and subways, dressed as a rag picker. He drank just enough to reek. He picked fights to get his face swollen. He didn't dare return to Guise for surgery. The game was up. They'd nearly finished him off.

The American Boss became the American Brain, and worse. Harmless read his Bible and mumbled to himself. He was near the end. He prayed for it. They'd beaten him as a child. They'd discarded him. They'd ignored him as a young man. He'd been mugged, cut, slapped, insulted, jailed, raped, broken and tortured. They hunted him and he hid in man made caves. The Brain would find him soon.

Hope was a picture. It was dirty and creased. A small creature, a baby human, at once ugly and beautiful stared back at him. If he could run for a while longer, hide for enough time, his son would save the world.

It was the last thing she'd given him. It was the reason Guise turned on him. It made him angry and sad and proud. His only shame was abandonment. He had no choice. Mercy would never allow it. He didn't know the boy's name. The photo appeared with a not in a blanket roll at a homeless center. Words burned his soul from the back side of it.

"This is what we created. This is what I fight for now. You aren't capable of fighting for him. Go on and get yourself killed before he's old enough to meet you.

M."

To old, he told himself. To old for any of it. Run. Hide. Lay down. Wait for the final moment. His Son was in the Good Book. His Son would save them.

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Boss World

Prosperity reigned supreme. No one went without. Hydrogen power flourished, saving the environment and producing clean water. Nations who fought for oil and food lost power. Religions proclaimed the Age of God. The Antichrist, the Destroyer, the Deceiver retreated.

Disagreement flared, but guns were seldom fired. New pharmaceuticals curbed violent thought and criminal urges. The justice system became a hospice of complete care and rehabilitation. Anyone who could not be fixed was healed by the World Brain. President Dubois was the first. The European Union followed. The United Nations did the same. The Heads of state across the Middle East saw the work of Mohammed in this and accepted.

Trouble spots were quickly overcome. No one named names but certain despotic dictators vanished or capitulated. Africa returned to a paradise. Egypt was rebuilt. Records thought lost were pieced together. All of man's quest were slowly brought to total and satisfactory fruition.

Those who were unhappy had choices. Reconditioning, exile or chip implantation. When explained by a trusted doctor, chip implantation not only improved mood and intelligence, but gave access to simple powers that made life a joy to live. And it turned out to be true.

Harmless knew why he was hunted. All of this improvement was real, for now. Humans are not God. Humans suffer from temptation. Harmless had worked for Rick. Rick would be tempted first. He would ally his forces. peace would not be enough. He live for the sale, the kill. He would control.

Even benevolent control in its ultimate form flies in the face of the Free Will God gave us to choose. But he was old and weak. For now, he'd recover and hide.

One thought nagged at his mind.

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The Beast

He wanted to run things. People encouraged him. He never aspired to be a political, let alone a world leader. He never dreamed of having a chip in his brain wired to every computerized device worldwide. Even still, his mind hardly kept control

Fear can create evil. The best intentions are subverted by it. The American Boss, Rick Dubois, the Miracle Worker, the savior of the free world was turning. Inside, he could feel it. He could not stop it. Information overload overcame his sense of decency and common sense.

In a chaotic environment, people crave order. Rick's mind was information chaos.

There was another more disturbing thought. He had the power to bring harmony throughout the world. He did not have the character to do so. As his feeling of inadequacy mounted, his passion for control, for proof of his worthiness consumed him. The righteous need an enemy. Rick found enemies.

A wise man confronts his enemies with calm reason. Rick confronted them with Law. Strangely, no one opposed. Paradise became the tranquilizer. The need for an easy life lead people to watch friends be hauled away. People disappeared. Others towed the line and forwent their principles for the sake of peace.

The Blue and Red Union ensured order. Chronos followed the letter of the law. Only two of the union began to doubt. The letters still came. News conferences from hidden locations broadcast the words of an old, tired, beat up man who pleaded for sanity. A perfect world required tyranny.

Some could not accept tyranny for the sake of peace.

Meet the Heroes 14

Testament

"He's nuts," Chronos said. Nothing else was said for a long time. A list of demands sat in front of them. Remove the Blue and Red. Cease the slander against the Righteous. Cut all ties with the military and the government. Formally apologize for leading people into sin. It went on.

Mercy leaned sideways. They talked endlessly and they had no answers. In one day, he'd go to the papers. He'd go on Barry Reinhart. He'd speak on talk radio. The arrangements were made and the public wanted to hear his voice, see his face, read his words.

The damage was done. Blue and Red, ruined. Kid Kosmos warned them that Harmless was all about the violence. He used violence, he responded to violence, and only violence would stop him. The only option was deadly force.

President Dubois proposed special forces, a quiet end to the nonsense. Kosmos had another idea.

"I can take him," he said. "Set it up and get all the national networks to cover it. He likes a certain type of bait. Offer it."

Pros and cons were discussed. Kid Kosmos held them in his sway. Chronos seconded the idea. Mercy opposed. Everyone else fell in line.

Harmless. Old. Weak. Slow. Injured for life. It wasn't possible for him to survive. On screen, a final glorious stand for the old veteran and Pontificate. His last stand. A Struggle and a quiet arrest. A tragic death in prison. Endgame.

A few eyes narrowed at the prospect. President Dubois reminded them that global peace was at hand, and an obstacle like The Harmless Man with his inflammatory rhetoric stood in the way. It had to be done for the greater good.

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Old

Wounds healed slowly. Mornings meant pain and pain killers. His job almosy done, Harmless let go of secrecy. He spoke openly. His mask was donated to charity. He wore a business suit.

When he ventured out to combat evil, he wore economical lycra suits with padding. He wore gold and white, the colors of redemption. His face looked like a surgeon's mistake. His body angled oddly in places, but he could still move. He donned a cape. It was a decorative risk, but an ingenious tear away neck fastener eased any worry it caused. It was, by all standards, the best designed suit money could buy.

His crime fighting was limited, some said staged. His message mattered. Everything else supported that message. Dubois must be stopped, he told the public. Dubois socialist, relativistic brand of justice encouraged criminals to revert. True justice allowed no chance for repeat offenders, he preached.

Peace is deadly. It is complacent. It mocks sacrifice. The wicked must suffer. He struggled on. He struggled alone. He begged for help from the young.

He fought as always, fists and boots. Only his suit had changed.

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Hunted

Of course the suit worked perfectly. He designed suits for Heroes across the globe. It was flexible, puncture resistant, impact resistant, practically bullet proof. He made suits. He fixed things, too. One problem always plagued him. One thing he could not fix until he made the suit.

It was rare for one man ro request a suit an another man to request a modification to it. He didn't care. The modification was small, easy to hide and harmless. Perfect. A harmless solution to his long standing problem.

Solutions often presented themselves. Mercy wanted to save a man he wanted destroyed. If he destroyed this man, she would hate him. Adding an RFID tag to a suit was hardly destroying a man. Someone could track him, that's all. No killing. They said nothing about killing him.

He had no illusions that she would turn to him in grief. Part of him wanted her to suffer like him. Mostly, he wanted his problem fixed. He was fixing a problem, that was all.

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Tinman

Only a fool would get arrested in order to orchestrate a prison break.

One day a man came to Guise looking for a chop job on his face. The policy: don't ask, don't tell. So, this lunatic sits in a chair for five hours and spends weeks with a puffy face all so that he can commit a series of heinous murders in order to get sent to Pelican Bay in the Supermax section.

It begs the question.

There was a man in that prison in need of assistance. Ironically, this man wanted to get out of this prison to kill a man who once was detained in the very same cell of this prison. So, this intelligent man sent a coded message to the craziest man he knew. His friends called him Martin.

Martin used to dress up as a tin soldier and shoot automatic weapons into crowds of drug crazed slaves, ex-cons and costumed freaks. That was before he lost his job as a criminal side kick. He was overjoyed when his former boss invited him back to work. Sure, the pay was awful, but the benefits were more than enough to make up for it.

All he had to do was brutally kill a few tens of people and get caught. It took a damn long time to get caught. The Heroes today just weren't as cunning. The police were no help. He couldn't turn himself in, they'd have him committed.

So, he butchered a couple of newlyweds on vacation and wrote some outrageous slogans on the wall. Tinman. What a guy. He left enough fingerprints and didn't leave town and even held up a convenience store just to get on file.

Once inside one of the many criminal detainment centers, it was a simple matter of politics to get transferred. Stab a guard, take a beating, get sent to s supermax. The man who needed his help did the rest.

Martin had no idea how he would get his boss out. He was just happy to have a job again.

Meet the Heroes 13

Manifest

And in the final days, a man will come to the people. He will be considered wise among them, wiser than all of the Prophets. All the Nations will listen to his words. He will unite all the world. He will bring peace to the Nations. There will be a gathering of all the leaders from every tribe. They will give this man power over all men. He will speak beautiful words. He will perform signs and miracles.

Once he has the world is his thrall, he will reveal his true nature. He will enslave humanity and put them to his evil purposes. All that oppose him will be thrown into the dungeon to die. Men will fear him. He will place his mark on man, woman and child. He will raise a great army of warriors, and even the Aeons of Darkness will rise from their pit beneath the plain of the Euphrates.

But those faithful to the God of Truth and Light, YHVH, the Father of the most Holy Christos, the Word and the Redeemer, will go into hiding and prepare for the final reckoning. The Lord will send down his Avenging Angels to scour the earth of wickedness with pestilence, famine, war and death. The Enemy will be greatly diminished. But the Lord of Evil will wage his final assault upon the Faithful in the valley of Megiddo.

When Darkness has shrouded the land and all seems lost, the Son will descend as a ball of light from Heaven, and with him will be the Host of the Righteous, all the souls throughout time who have found favor with the Lord and they will lay waste to the Enemy.

So sayeth the Lord your God.

His Judgment will be final. The final day of Reckoning does not happen at the end of time. It happens outside of time itself. It has already happened, is happening now and always will happen until God declares and end to all space and time.

Leaders of free nations make grand speeches denouncing the harsh justice of the Lord. They throw men in dungeons. They muster armies dressed in the Blue and Red of Heroes. These Heroes do not fight for justice. They fight for the Law of Man. We fight for the Law of God. God has no concern for the mortal body. If your eye should offend the Lord, tear it out and throw it away. If another man profanes the Lord and performs wicked deeds, he will be struck down. The Son, the Word, Christos did not come to abolish the Old Laws, he came to fulfill them. Time is no object for Christ. When He said He came to fulfill the Law, he meant eternally. We will trade Death for Death. Our war is a righteous war. If the self proclaimed Heroes of the Blue and Red serve the Evil Master, President Dubois, they must suffer the righteous Death of God’s Law.

Harmless.

Meet the Heroes 12

The Golden Age

With the defeat of Pig Fink at the hands of the National Union of Heroes, peace and prosperity returned to the cities of our great nation. President Dubois convinced Congress that the wars of the past were no longer the focus of American Defense. The country returned to a political stance of isolationism. American left the world stage.

The regulation of Civil Law Enforcement Officers provided the training and the guidance for aspiring young Heroes to take their place in the pantheon of national icons. The chief among these was Kid Kosmos. In the days of the Demon Squad, the Horde and the Inside Boys, heroes were no more than weapon laden vigilantes. The Kid was different. A star athlete in college, and a gold medal sprinter, he was a specimen of physical health, maturity and good hygiene. There was nothing he couldn’t do.

Human evolution being what it is, sheer chance made it inevitable that he would be born. A boy who could do things that were preternatural. He was stronger and faster than any human on earth. He looked like the baggage kid at the supermarket. He was polite and understood decency. He was the first born Hero. No life circumstance created him. He was who he was from the beginning.

He’d fought beside men like Harmless and Buzz Baldwin. He’d tended to the injured with Guise and Mercy. He’d been at American Boss’ trial for tax evasion. He never asked for the spotlight, but when his testimony saved Rick Dubois from prison and set the Boss on the road to the presidency, the Kid became his icon. Kid Kosmos was the first Superhero.

The Golden Age began as Chronos and Kosmos defeated the Horde and arrested, not killed, Pig Fink. It turned out he was Anthony Scallini, a low level mob Capo with a grudge and Borderline Personality Disorder. The monster that terrorized metropolitan America was no more than a crazy two bit hood. The Horde was detoxed humanely, and a few even went on to survive in the working world.

The Inside Boys eventually wandered back into petty crime once Harmless disappeared. The Kid asked Mercy once what had happened. “Debt repaid,” she said, and abruptly retired and disappeared.

Dodger died of pneumonia at age seventy-one. Guise opened a retail costume shop. Kosmos and Chronos were left holding the flag. With government funding from the Boss, they developed a recruitment and training program. Sure, people could join the army if they wanted, but it seemed far more attractive to dawn the Red and Blue of the Union and fight crime in their own back yard.

Crime rates dropped. Fortune passed everywhere. The Union volunteered in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East. The battles were difficult, but they were won. Soon, the world became a safe, sane place.

Then the letters arrived. The older generation recognized the message. A voice cried out in the wilderness.

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The Devil


No true human being abandons their life’s calling. Mercy was a healer, a doctor. Harmless was a judge. The final dust up with Fink ruined his body. Mercy spent three years with him on a white beach, hidden from Rick and the others. Guise was devastated. He knew. She told him. He would not be fixing things for her any longer. It was a forty-three second phone call from a pay phone in Cozumel. She’d chosen the devil.

She thought the devil desired evil as a child. Living with this man taught her the devil was the one who needed healing and love, but could never receive it. His name was David Mott. He worked the docks in an old New England fishing town. He was beaten by his father. He was thrown off a boat. He caught diseases from hookers. He stole. He drank. He fought. He was utterly unlovable.

One day, he put on a skull mask and started beating people. He read the Bible. He read the Book of Judges. He read Maccabees and Isiah. He knew the Law and the Prophets. He wrote a four hundred page manifesto. Above all, he hated God. God was his master and he hated God. God took an innocent young boy and turned him into a demon.

Mercy tried. His body healed. He told her things about his past. He seemed better. One day, he explained what happened the first night they met. The muggers assaulted her. She was attractive. They set their sights on more than her money. He beat them to death. She bled a lot. This frightened him. He left her with words, and hoped someone found her. He ran away.

"Debt paid', he said to her one day. He’d done nearly nothing that night. She’d wasted three years on him, and he only wanted to die. "Debt paid", he said, and left.

Then she saw the letters on the news again.