[LNH/ACRA/WRIMO] Anal-Retentive Archive Kid: A Judicious Use Of Overkill #2

Saxon Brenton saxonbrenton at hotmail.com
Thu Nov 4 18:38:43 PDT 2010


Anal-Retentive Archive Kid: A Judicious Use Of Overkill - part 2
     
A Legion of Net.Heroes miniseries for the Raccowrimo writing month
Written by and copyright 2010 Saxon Brenton
     
     
     Wendle arrived at the apartment where Elizabeth was living... well, 
residing.  He'd only been there once before, for school work.  He got on 
well enough with her, but they weren't what you could call close friends.  
She wasn't his type.  Which was to say, Elizabeth not only had no interest 
in the strange and unusual, but an active aversion to it.  And when you 
considered Wendle's part time job as Anal-Retentive Archive Kid for the 
Legion of Net.Heroes, this sometimes made conversation a bit strained.
     Still, the young man remembered the place well enough from his 
previous visit that he let his mind wander onto what sort of takeaway 
he'd like for dinner this evening.  So he wasn't paying full attention as 
he came up the stairs, and had only himself to blame when he was shoved 
in the back and thrown to the floor, and when he looked up discovered a 
smiling man pointing a gun at his face when he looked up.
     Now, here is where things become both extremely complex and brutally 
simple, as both men's instinctive reactions and preconceptions come into 
play.
     Hiro Ajisai was a self-satisfied bully who liked to think of himself 
as a cat playing with his victims.  This is why he had the twisted nick-
name Neko, the 'cat'.  He fully intended to murder Wendle in cold blood, 
but as always wanted to indulge his cheerful malice first.  He motioned 
with his gun in a 'get up' gesture, while simultaneously saying in 
Japanese, "< Time to die, gaijin dog.  No witnesses allowed, >" and 
completely failing to realise that Wendle could understand every word 
that he said.
     Wendle's first reaction was to freeze.  This was perhaps an unusual 
reaction for a member of the Legion, but then he wasn't trained as a 
combat operative.  As it became clear that Neko intended to kill rather 
than rob or kidnap him, he carefully stood up, raised his arms in an open 
hand gesture of surrender, and then quickly slapped one palm against his 
chest.
     Neko was delighted.  The gangster had been watching for something 
like this.  He loved the way that dudes - hyped up with violent pop 
culture TV and video games - would try to fight, as if they were some 
sort of action movie hero.  Neko himself had honed his fast draw and 
quick shot skills especially for occasions like this, and would 
deliberately let the punks grab their weapons and get *almost* to the 
point where they could get off a shot at him - then watch the sense of 
triumph die in their eyes as he pumped them full of lead, and quip, 
"Hollywood lies to you all the time."
     Neko had no idea until it was too late how badly he had misint-
erpretted what Wendle was doing.  That Wendle was not reaching for a gun, 
but instead was making a single quick slap to the plot device in the 
pocket of his shirt, activating it to instantly teleport himself back to 
the Legion headquarters.
     It was the last mistake that Neko would ever make.
     
     
=====  
Character credits: 
     Everyone here created by me.
     
Author's notes:
     The use of plot devices as emergency teleports dates back at least 
as far as _Integrity Quest_.  
     
     
-----  
Saxon Brenton   University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
     saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au     saxonbrenton at hotmail.com
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex
world of jet-powered apes and time-travel." - Superman, JLA Classified #3
 
  		 	   		  


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