My 9-11 Story
Sep. 11th, 2006 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwrnmnbsolI can't believe it's been five years already. I remember all the details of the day down to the smallest possible scale, exactly as if everything happened only yesterday. But time has passed, and the world has irrevocably changed in the wake of 9/11. I see signs of it everywhere, from the endless media recaps to the flavor of our foreign policy to the price of gasoline. But, still, there's a jarring disconnect that my brain has trouble processing. I just can't believe that five years have passed since Manhattan was attacked by giant bees.
I was buying a paper in Tribeca when that first shadow passed over my head, and a thin whine became a drone became a nerve-shredding howl. Of course there was massive confusion at first, and people were too surprised to be scared. Then somebody pointed at the sky, and I heard somebody shout 'bees', and then the first >KRUMP< of artillery fire began. The streets became a wash of smoke and panic.
I ran for a phone booth and called the Professor. "Is it Doctor Delirium?" I asked, praying that Tokyo would be the last major city destroyed by that monster.
"Nein, nein!" replied the super-scientist excitedly. "Ze Mendel-Men!"
The Mendel-Men -- of course. I myself had tracked the Hypno-Ape back to the Siberian laboratory/fortress belonging to that pack of insane genetic engineers. With the help of the Magnum Brothers, I reduced that pit of depraved experimentation to a smoking hole in the tundra -- but the Mendel-Men themselves escaped. It was only a matter of time before they raised their wicked heads and made trouble for the world again.
"Professor, send me Sweet Lita," I demanded.
"But Sam!" he protested. "Ze gauss unit hass not been fully tested, und..."
"Zip it, Hans!" I shot back. "I got giant bees attacking the City; this is no time for playing it safe!"
The phone booth shook, and the windows buzzed from the standing wave set up by Sweet Lita's inertialess drive. I looked up and saw her bulbous form hovering twenty feet overhead. She looked pokey, but with her hydrogen ballonets holding her up, all the inertialess had to do was fight wind resistance. That made my baby the fastest LTA craft the world has ever seen. I climbed the rope ladder like a monkey on fire, goggled up, and sparked the flamethrowers. Then we were up and at 'em.
You know the rest of the story. Everybody knows about Sam Hane, aka Captain Hellfire, and his dogfight with the giant bees. We've all seen the footage of my cutlass battle atop the World Trade Center with the Mendel-Mercenaries. And as for all those people who almost perished in those buildings, all I can say is: thank goodness for anti-gravity.
But are we really any safer now? Right after the attack, the whole world had New York in its heart. We had flyovers by the Crimson Tigers, temporary shelters set up by the Fae enclave in Central Park, offers of assistance from the Chinese and the Russians and the Drakonian Empire. Five years later, that goodwill has been squandered. In our pursuit of the Mendel-Men, we have made war with the Drakonians, imprisoned all mutants, and angered the Gods of New Atlantis. And what do we have to show for it?
Nothing, that's what. Just yesterday I was torching Slug-Things in the Mojave Desert, and the Magnum Brothers almost wrecked Las Vegas bringing down the Mendel-Mammoth. Our government's cavalier response to the problem has made things worse, not better. It's almost as if they're all about bluster and show, completely unaware of the consequences of their actions.
Do they think the world we're living in is a comic book or something?
I was buying a paper in Tribeca when that first shadow passed over my head, and a thin whine became a drone became a nerve-shredding howl. Of course there was massive confusion at first, and people were too surprised to be scared. Then somebody pointed at the sky, and I heard somebody shout 'bees', and then the first >KRUMP< of artillery fire began. The streets became a wash of smoke and panic.
I ran for a phone booth and called the Professor. "Is it Doctor Delirium?" I asked, praying that Tokyo would be the last major city destroyed by that monster.
"Nein, nein!" replied the super-scientist excitedly. "Ze Mendel-Men!"
The Mendel-Men -- of course. I myself had tracked the Hypno-Ape back to the Siberian laboratory/fortress belonging to that pack of insane genetic engineers. With the help of the Magnum Brothers, I reduced that pit of depraved experimentation to a smoking hole in the tundra -- but the Mendel-Men themselves escaped. It was only a matter of time before they raised their wicked heads and made trouble for the world again.
"Professor, send me Sweet Lita," I demanded.
"But Sam!" he protested. "Ze gauss unit hass not been fully tested, und..."
"Zip it, Hans!" I shot back. "I got giant bees attacking the City; this is no time for playing it safe!"
The phone booth shook, and the windows buzzed from the standing wave set up by Sweet Lita's inertialess drive. I looked up and saw her bulbous form hovering twenty feet overhead. She looked pokey, but with her hydrogen ballonets holding her up, all the inertialess had to do was fight wind resistance. That made my baby the fastest LTA craft the world has ever seen. I climbed the rope ladder like a monkey on fire, goggled up, and sparked the flamethrowers. Then we were up and at 'em.
You know the rest of the story. Everybody knows about Sam Hane, aka Captain Hellfire, and his dogfight with the giant bees. We've all seen the footage of my cutlass battle atop the World Trade Center with the Mendel-Mercenaries. And as for all those people who almost perished in those buildings, all I can say is: thank goodness for anti-gravity.
But are we really any safer now? Right after the attack, the whole world had New York in its heart. We had flyovers by the Crimson Tigers, temporary shelters set up by the Fae enclave in Central Park, offers of assistance from the Chinese and the Russians and the Drakonian Empire. Five years later, that goodwill has been squandered. In our pursuit of the Mendel-Men, we have made war with the Drakonians, imprisoned all mutants, and angered the Gods of New Atlantis. And what do we have to show for it?
Nothing, that's what. Just yesterday I was torching Slug-Things in the Mojave Desert, and the Magnum Brothers almost wrecked Las Vegas bringing down the Mendel-Mammoth. Our government's cavalier response to the problem has made things worse, not better. It's almost as if they're all about bluster and show, completely unaware of the consequences of their actions.
Do they think the world we're living in is a comic book or something?
