[LNH2] LNH Europe 2020 #2

[Martin Phipps]

LNH Europe 2020 #2: Brothers Up In Arms, Part III

2020.  The future.  Londo.net, Eng.lan

  "I'll be right there."  Rudolph MacGuire, aka Rumour Monger, stood up from 
his home office workstation and went to answer the door.  He was not 
willing, however, to open the door without knowing who was there.  "Who is 
it?" he asked.
  "We're members of LNH Europe.  We're conducting an investigation into the 
activities of your former Brotherhood of Evil Net.villain teammates.   We'd 
like to ask you some questions."
  "Suppose I don't want to talk to you?"
  "We've been authorized by Scot.lan Yard to conduct this investigation.  If 
you don't cooperate with us, we can have you charged with obstruction of 
justice."
  "So it's like that, is it?  I'm going to want a lawyer present before I 
answer any questions."
  "That won't be necessary because you aren't being charged with anything.  
That being said, your refusal to cooperate may be considered suspicious by 
the local judiciary.  It may be enough for me to be able to obtain a warrant 
to search your apartment."
  "Alright, I'll be right back."  Rudolph went to his workstation, closed 
all his windows, shut down his computer and went to open the door.  "Sorry 
to keep you waiting," he said.
  "That's quite alright," Hamster Man said.  Behind him were Swiss Miss, 
Linguist Lass and Browsing Boy.
  "Please sit down on the sofa," Rudolph said as he pointed to it.  Hamster 
Man, Swiss Miss and Linguist Lass sat on the sofa while Browsing Boy and 
Rudolph himself sat on lounge chairs that had been placed on opposite sides 
of it.
  "Three former members of the Brotherhood of Evil Net.Villains were 
apprehended in Thai.lan recently," Hamster Man said.  "Do you know anything 
about this?"
  "No, I don't," Rudolph said, flatly.
  "Any idea what they might have been up to?"
  "I just said I don't know."
  "Speculate."
  "Are you asking for my expert opinion?"
  "If you like?"
  Rudolph pretended to mull over the question.  "Wasn't Lagneto living in 
Thai.lan?"
  "Yes, he was."
  "Maybe they were working for him."
  "Except he's dead now.  He died three years ago during his trial."
  Rudolph smiled.  "I have evidence to the contrary."
  "What sort of evidence?"
  "All sorts of evidence.  Bank records.  Eye witness accounts."
  "Tell us who your sources are and we can ask LNH Asia to investigate."
  "I can't do that," Rudolph said with a smile.
  "How's that?"
  "One of my duties at AOL-Time-Warner-Dis.net-Sony-Seagrams-Newscorp is as 
a freelance investigative reporter for the Net News Network.  In such a 
capacity, I have the right-- indeed the duty-- to protect my sources."
  "Nice try," Browsing Boy said, "but this isn't the Loonited States.  Your 
rights as a journalist aren't protected by the Ame.rec.an constitution!"
  "Actually," Swiss Miss said, "he's right.  Press freedoms have been 
enshrined into the new European constitution."
  "Oh."
  "We can still order a supeona and make you hand over whatever evidence you 
have," Hamster Man said.
  Rudolph nodded.  "Alright.  I'll put whatever information I can find on 
disk and deviler it to Scot.lan Yard personally tomorrow morning, as long as 
my sources remain protected."
  "Very well then," Hamster Man said, getting up and offering to shake his 
hand.  They shook hands.  "Thank you for your help.  Let's go."
  Swiss Miss, Linguist Lass and Browsing Boy all got up and followed Hamster 
Man out of Rumour Monger's apartment.
  "He's lying," Linguist Lass said once they were out the door.  "I can 
tell."
  "I know," Hamster Man said, "but he did give us a lead that we can follow 
up on.  If Lagneto _is_ still alive then we need to find out what 
connection, if any, there is between him and the Brotherhood."
  "Maybe Rumour Monger himself is working with Lagneto," Swiss Miss 
suggested, "and he's giving him up to take the heat off of him."
  "I don't think so," Hamster Man said.  "At Lagneto's trial, Rumour Monger 
testified against him.  For some reason, he doesn't seem to like Lagneto.  I 
think he _wants_ us to find Lagneto."  They all pondered the problem for a 
moment.  "As soon as Rumour Monger hands over his evidence to Scot.lan Yard, 
I'm going to have it sent to LNH Asia so they can find out for themselves if 
there's any truth to what he claims."

  The evidence Rumour Monger promised was dropped off at Scot.lan Yard the 
next morning as promised.  Hamster Man was allowed access to the 
commissioner's office so he could study the evidence in privacy.  Some of it 
wasn't particularly convincing: the eye witness accounts of a large aging 
Americans fitting Eric Morova's description having recently been spotted in 
Bang.DOS and Phuk.net came as no surprise; those cities are major tourist 
areas with plenty of foreigners passing through every day.  Obviously, when 
it became publicly known that Lagneto had been living in Thai.lan all the 
time, there were plenty of people who came forward to say they saw him and 
this would have continued even after he was declared dead.  For some Thai 
villagers, let's face it, all foreigners are going to look the same to them. 
  To Hamster Man, these eye witness accounts were no more convincing then 
the many accounts from people who claimed to see Elvis in Graceland long 
after he was supposed to have died.
  Some of the other evidence was more compelling, however.  For example, 
Rumour  Monger had, somehow, gotten access to the bank account owned by Eric 
Morova.  Even after his supposed death, there were withdrawls made from the 
account.  That wasn't so surprising: Eric's wife and son's would have needed 
money to live on and, as his wife, she could easily have gotten permission 
to withdraw the money.  What was more surprising were the money transfers 
made into his account shortly after he was supposed to have died.  As far as 
Hamster Man knew, Lagneto's wife was a simple woman from a small village in 
Thai.lan.  How would she have been able to transfer money into their 
account, especially if it had been from an overseas account?
  What was the most peculiar was the way the LNH handled the death and 
burial of Lagneto: Professor Stomper was said to have declared Lagneto dead 
at the trial but then, giving modern recovery methods, why wasn't he rushed 
to a hopsital?  Why wasn't an autopsy performed to determine the cause of 
death or even, for that matter, whether or not he actually was dead?  Why 
was no death certificate filed in the Hague where he was supposed to have 
died?  Was Professor Stomper worried about being accused of fraud if his 
deception had been uncovered?  Why did the LNH handle the funeral themselves 
and not a professional funeral home?  Given that he had supposedly died of 
natural causes and hadn't had time to decompose, why was it decided to bury 
him-- so soon after his arrival by flight.thingee to the Loonited States-- 
in a closed casket, thereby depriving his family of the opportunity to see 
him one more time?
  Hamster Man noticed some other things too: the Newer Mutants, each and 
every one of then having come from Thai.lan, started studying at Net.ropolis 
Academy around the same time that Lagneto was captured returning to Thai.lan 
from the Loonited States.  It was never established just what Lagneto had 
been doing in the Loonited States.  Did he really go there just to see his 
daughter?  Or had the LNH and Lagneto been working together for some time?  
A year ago, LNH Asia was formed and the remaining six members of the Newer 
Mutants returned to Thai.lan.  Could it be that the LNH is actually working 
with Lagneto to create a network of net.ahumans in South East Asia?  Is LNH 
Asia really the Legion of Net.Heroes in Asia or are they Lagneto's 
Net.Heroes in Asia?  Hamster Man could see a huge conspiracy taking form and 
he didn't like it one bit.
  "We're going to have to look into this personally," he told his teammates 
later that evening.  "We're going to Asia."

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the solar sys.tem...

  "We're approaching Looniearth now, your dishonourable @$$@#$%ness."
  "Good.  Very good.  As soon as you locate the building we're looking for, 
I want you to blow those @#$%^&$ away!  I want to kill those @#$%^&@#$%^&$ 
once and for all!"  Boba LaRocque smiled broadly.  His Dorfian destroyer, 
while not powerful enough to destroy entire cities on Looniearth, certainly 
had enough firepower to destroy his hated enemies in LNH Asia!

NEXT: LNH Europe vs. LNH Asia vs. Boba LaRocque in LNH Asia 2020 #2, the 
conclusion to the Brothers Up In Arms arc!

And then in LNH Europe 2020 #3: Boba LaRocque goes on trial for his crimes 
against humanity at the World Court in the Hague, Net.therlands!

CREDITS:

LNH Europe created by Kevin Wilcox.  Hamster Man and Rumour Monger created 
by Raymond "wReam" Bingham.  Brotherhood of Evil Net.Villains created by 
wReam and Drizzt.  Lagneto created by Jef Kolodziej.

LNH Asia, the Newer Mutants, Linguist Lass and Boba LaRocque created by me.

Doctor Stomper, Browsing Boy and the Dorfs are public domain.

Martin

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