Shades of Gray - By Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge Page 0,2
Broadcasting System’s Evening News, with Gena Mead, already in progress]
GENA: … more reports of citizens being victimized by those they turned to only yesterday to protect them: the Squadron. Hospitals are filling beyond capacity—
**BLINK**
[The News Network’s Spin Room, with Tom Carlin, already in progress]
TOM: … seriously, I want to know: who laced the extrahumans’ food with junk? If this isn’t an incredibly bad drug trip, then I don’t know what the hell is happening in the Americas. Someone better tell the Super ’Roids we ain’t the bad guys. And for the love of Jehovah, can someone get more from Corp-Co Chairman Stan Kane than “No comment?” Really, Stanley, what the hell happened to your supersoldiers—
**BLINK**
[Transnational Broadcasting System’s Evening News, local edition, with Shannon Beverly, already in progress]
SHANNON: … five Squadron heroes have smashed their way into Bank of Americas over on Lakeshore, destroying most of the building, terrorizing the bank staff, and taking off with more than e500,000 in digichips. Fifteen people, including eight police officers, were hurt—
**BLINK**
[The News Network’s Headline News, with M’Chelle M’bachu, already in progress]
M’CHELLE: … Everyman Society Chairman Frank Wurtham is demanding immediate action against not just the Squadron but all extrahumans.
[CUT to FRANK WURTHAM in a press conference, outside Everyman headquarters in Boston]
WURTHAM: It’s not just unthinkable, it’s un-American for us to sit back and watch everything our fathers and their fathers and their fathers before them struggled to build, watch it all pounded to dust by a handful of genetic freaks. It’s our duty to the Americas, and more than that—it’s our Jehovah-given right as normal, everyday citizens to fight to protect ourselves and our country against these abominations of nature. All of us must rise up and—
“Jaysus, please shut him up.”
“Sorry. He can be mesmerizing.”
“You just have a thing for redheads.”
“Mmm. Lucky for you.”
**BLINK**
[American Public Television’s The Captain and the Kid, already in progress]
… CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS puts a gloved hand on KID POWER’s shoulder, stopping the youth from running into the dark cave that hides LADY EVIL and her captive.
“Deadly.”
“Yeah, this is a good one. I saw it when it first aired …”
“Shhh.”
CAP: Really, Kid, ya gotta … take a breath and think before ya go chargin’ in headfirst like that.
KID: See, that’s the problem, Cap. You think too much. While you’re so busy exercising your graymatter, there’s a girl in there—an innocent girl—who’s terrified and alone and has no one to help her!
CAP: I know ya got … feelings … for the girl. But ya gotta use your head, Kid.
KID: I love her, Cap. And I’m not letting Lady Evil get away with her dastardly plan!
KID POWER shrugs out of CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS’s grip and runs pell-mell into the cave.
CAP: Kid, wait!
From inside the black cave, a shout of surprise … and then a long, bloodcurdling scream.
CAP: Dang it, Kid.
CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS shakes his head. Then he clenches his jaw determinedly. With his cape billowing heroically, he marches toward—
[BLACK SCREEN]
“Hey …”
“You blinked.”
“Not this time. Damn it, I like this one. Lady Evil’s going to get the captain all horned up …”
“Hang on. Something’s happening.”
[American Public Television logo appears, followed by a close-up of APT Evening News anchorwoman Randi Rose]
RANDI: Good evening. At 7:13 P.M., President Kirby, in an effort to contain the extrahuman revolt in New Chicago, New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, and other cities across the Americas, has invoked the Insurrection Act. That’s right: he’s sending in the troops to rein in the superheroes.
[CUT SHOT of PRESIDENT JOHN KIRBY in the Rose Garden, illuminated with plasbulbs and vidlights, standing at a podium with the presidential seal.]
KIRBY: My fellow Americans, we are in the midst of a crisis of epic proportions. The extrahumans, whom we’ve come to trust and depend on, have suddenly, tragically, turned against us. They are unleashing horrors in our cities, destroying property, harming innocents. While some of the Squadron have contacted us, and promised that they were doing everything they could to stop these so-called rabids, it’s clear that we can no longer depend on extrahumans to protect their human cousins. Their acts of violence are nothing short of terrorism. And so it is with a heavy heart and a firm hand that I have invoked the Insurrection Act. I have authorized five hundred thousand members of the National Guard to join their brothers and sisters in the police force to do whatever it takes to once again bring order to the United and Canadian States of America.
[SCREEN SHOT of SCREAMER and THE ANGLE demolishing a building in the Downtown