LNH/FWF/HCC: Legion of Net.Heroes Volume 2 #55: "A Minute in the New Atlantis!"

[Andrew Perron]

                            LEGION OF NET.HEROES

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                                  VOLUME TWO
                               ISSUE FIFTY-FIVE
                        "A Minute in the New Atlantis!"

[ The cover is a young girl standing on a mountain with her back to us,
holding a glowing equation over her head and facing a giant turtle with a
long beard and a toga flying towards her on jets of flame.]

<---------------------->

In her room one night, turning, tossing, unable to sleep, Faith Barnham
receives a shocking message from beyond!

"I am Baron Verulam, the last!" said the phantasm. "You are the only one
who can help me!"

"Help you do what!?" asked the frightened teen.

"Help me solve Francis Bacon's last puzzle, and save the land of Bensalem
from ultimate destruction!"

<---------------------->

"The people--!" she said, walking into the Great Chamber of Common Law.
"They're... they're..."

"Asleep!" trumpeted the Baron. "They have been inducted into a world
without change!"

"But who could have done this?"

"A great beast, who rose from the sea to punish us for our sins against
science. The ARISTURTLE!"

<---------------------->

"But why!?" she said, pounding at the walls of the Library of Saint Alban.
"Why do you think Bacon's works have the answer?" She thrust her hand out
toward the pile of books, scoured and tossed aside in turn.

"So it has always been!" grumped the ghost. "In times of trouble, we have
*always* turned to Bacon!"

"...what," she said, turning to him. "Always? In every situation?"

"Indeed! We have followed the law he set down for over five hundred years!"

"But... he was the creator of the scientific method! The one who questioned
all the old wisdom!" In a single blow, she knocked the books off the table!
"If you were really following him, you'd be asking *new* questions, not
just following the old wisdom--" She blinked. "Following the old wisdom
blindly..."

With a great roar, the wall crashed in, and the Aristurtle was there,
roaring its defiance. But in the rubble, a tiny slip of paper, glowing
blue, floated into Faith's hand. She looked down - a single formula, that
seared itself into her mind...

<---------------------->

The Rosy Council all came out to see her off. "Thank you for freeing us
from the icy grip of the past," said the First Philosopher. "But what will
you do with the Unwritten Law that has written itself to your thoughts?"

"I don't really know," she said, standing by the portal home. "But I think
it's telling me to create something new - a new instrument by which to
promote science."

"You are truly the inheritor of Bacon's legacy," said the Baron's shade.
"Worthy to carry on his name."

"Then... I guess I will!"

"Then carry it to the world, Francis Bacon Lass!"

<---------------------->

Author's note: Note that the logo design at the top is the one used on LNH
v2 #50. I'm using it right now as a prod to all the writers involved~

In Flame Wars Final, I included Francis Bacon Lass as a suspect just to
make a silly reference to the whole Shakespeare thing. But she grew on me
over the rest of the story, and come the HCC, I realized I had a character
who I'd introduced but, unlike Pummelo, never given the origin of in-story.
Thus!

Tidbit: I actually came up with "Aristurtle" over ten years ago, as a
Pokemon name. The full evolutionary chain was Aristurtle -> Platortoise ->
Socryuutes, in order of "least awesome to most awesome".

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, used wiki a *lot* on this one.