Free Kingdom of Heroes by Jay Phillips Page B

PROTOCOLS
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    ERROR
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    FILE SYSTEM DAMAGED
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    FILE SYSTEM REPAIR INITIALIZED
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    TIME REMAINING FOR ALL REPAIRS: 7H45M51S
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    TIME REMAINING: 7H45M50S
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    _______________________________________________
     
    Arthur Grant opened the door to his office and walked into the room. All of the business with prisoner 616 and The Agent had been resolved, and as usual, he was left to finish the paperwork and clean up the mess. His office was on the lower end of the spectrum, small, crappy carpet, crappier furniture, but it at least had a nice row of large windows, giving him a brilliant view of the large building on the other side of the street.
    Grant looked toward his desk. A woman stood in front of it, blond hair, unnatural light protruding from every fiber of her being, light that lit up the room like a bright summer day. As Grant stared in silence at the beautiful woman in front of him, all other light in the room besides her began to disappear; darkness overtook everything, covering the windows and turning every other source of light into shadows. The briefcase he held in his hand fell to his feet, spilling papers all over the worn out carpet.
    “No.” he said, his voice quivering. “I’ve done everything The Agent has asked of me. Everything. Without question, every time.”
    The woman who seemed to be made of light walked towards him.
    “I have never told anyone,” Grant pleaded. “I’ve never said a word to any one about The Agent’s plans. Ever.”
    The woman stood in front of him, her light filling his senses even as the room around them seemed to become gradually darker.
    “Please,” he cried, tears flowing from his eyes. “Please, I won’t say a word, not a single word.”
    She leaned in next to his ear and whispered. “I know you won’t,” she said, her voice almost as translucent as she was.
    The blade of light she emitted from her left hand entered Grant just below his naval and cut upwards until it reached the top of his sternum. She pulled the blade back and watched in silence as Grant fell to his knees, his now external intestines held within his hands.
    “Not a word,” he muttered to himself while he collapsed onto the ground, his blood and assorted organs creating a pool around him. “Not a word,” he said again as the pretty blond lady made of light disappeared along with the rest of the world into the darkness.
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    Journal Entry
    [Found on page 39 of the journal]
    Note: The following is an interview of Fire Maiden and The Ice Queen in a pre-war magazine designed and sold to men. The article was published somewhere around three years before the war. Could only find the one page and not the rest of it.
    Today I was granted the absolute best assignment I could have ever been given in the entirety of my life. Today I was asked to interview the, at least in my opinion and the opinion of the majority of men who read this fine publication, greatest superhero duo on the planet, Fire Maiden and The Ice Queen. These two have beauty, brains, and the ability to set you on fire or freeze you then shatter your bones. What’s not to love?
    After much debate with their manager (yes, superheroes have managers. What a world we live in today), it was decided that they would come to my place for a nice casual interview. Then, I had to go and change my pants. With clean pants, a stack of notebooks and several number two pencils, I sat at home, more than prepared for what was about to come.
    Much to my dismay, the duo didn’t fly in or arrive by ice slide, but instead, they showed up in a chauffeured black limo. Fire was dressed casual, wearing a simple pair of jeans and a tight t-shirt. She had her long blond hair put in a simple ponytail, and the little make-up she wore brilliantly complimented her luscious face. Ice, on the other hand, went all out in her skimpy baby-doll style dress and very high heels. I could also tell