DARKSIDE: The United States of Anarchy; "When The Cat's Away..."
[Version Control : Original.]
[Disclaimer: This text is intended for adult audiences, if you are
not of age to view it, be somewhere else. This series of explores the darker aspects of the human experience, if that might
offend you, then you were warned, and it isn't my problem. -- KTM]
Note: This one is stronger than most, but is probably the extreme.
Anything can happen in the Multiverse. Even a world that
is much like ours, but which somehow... isn't. A world that is a
magnet for the blackness in the dreams and souls of humankind. A
world known as: The Darkside.
The World's economic system depends on a delicate
interlocking system of mutual trust and financial debt. When
those bonds shattered, the governments and monetary institutions
crumbled. Even the most idealistic civil servants left their jobs
when their families were gripped with hunger. The Survivors of
the Chaos would come to call their nation the United States of
Anarchy.
Chapter 10. "When The Cat's Away, The Mice Will Play." -- by KTM.
In Robert's Military Command room, the Dark read
through tactical reports that Seeker had been providing him. She
had provided them in her professional capacity. He'd removed
Paris from team temporarily until he had her problem straightened
out. As yet, he hadn't had the time to deal with it. She was more
important to him at Tactical in this emergency, then she was
performing calisthenics under Titan's not so tender mercies.
Robert was trying to understand was General Stark was
doing. The General had stripped clean some installations, moving
the and supplies by truck caravan to other bases under his
control. He'd even forcefully invaded a federal reserve facility,
and made off with tons of food, and thousands of gallons of
gasoline. The bases he was consolidating to were nearly all Air
Force Bases, and at those his forces were entrenching.
When he left a place, he left behind a small number of
executed officers. Exactly for what reason they were being
killed, Robert couldn't fathom. The Black Legion had found a
young officer in the woods near one of the bases. He'd taken off
when he'd heard Stark was coming, having heard on the grapevine
what happened at the General's "staff meetings". The Command
Staff of the base either wholeheartedly joined forces with the
senior officer's plans, or they left the room in a body bag. The
recent OTS graduate had decided his best choice was to avoid the
process altogether.
He had willingly joined Robert's Legion, and was now a
Captain, and rising fast. Having real army experience as an
enlisted and an officer had really helped him. Other converted
military people in the Legion experienced similar success. Robert
welcomed them, knowing that they improved his forces.
"What is his pattern?" Robert mused. "If I knew what
Stark was planning, then maybe I could do something about it."
"I can help you with that, sir," said a tired but semi-
familiar voice behind him. Robert turned and saw the adjutant
that had accompanied General Stark in the meeting the soldier
had with the him. Lt. Jenners stood in the door of the Command
room, a member of the elite Midnight Guard just behind him.
The Lieutenant looked very different from the last time
Robert had seen him. Instead of the fastidious dress uniform, he
was wearing torn and dirty fatigues. There were bandages on his
shoulder and head and his face was weary.
"I've got him, Sergeant," Robert said to the guardsman,
who nodded and left. The Dark sent pages to get his staff in
here, and gestured for the officer to sit. "Why have you
come to me?" Robert asked as they waited.
"I... I deserted... him. It wasn't even the Army anymore,
sir," Jenners swallowed. "He'd become one of the Warlords he'd
accused you of being. He's not a soldier, anymore. I came to you
because you weren't afraid of him."
Rebecca had entered the room, and immediately laid her
hands of Jenners' shoulders. Her white glow surrounded him, and
then she lifted the wrappings on his head. Satisfied she took
them off, showing the fresh pink scar on his forehead. The smiled his thanks to her.
"But you should be afraid, sir," Jenners said to Roberts
as Titan and Wolf sat down. "You should be very afraid."
"Why?" Robert said, leaning back in his chair.
"Because he's got control of several Nukes," Jenners said.
Robert sat bolt upright in his chair, no longer looking
complacent. "Nuclear Weapons?" he said, disbelievingly.
"That's right, sir. And he's having them programmed to
strike here."
"At the... Why does he want to Nuke the Palace?" Robert
said, his brows furrowed in anger.
"I knew the last time I was here that he intended to take
control of some of the nuclear weapons in order to restore order,"
Jenners said. "After he met you, he became obsessed with
destroying you, and everything you stand for."
"Can you survive a Nuclear blast, Robert?" Rebecca said.
"Even if you can, the rest of us most likely cannot." Robert
nodded to her.
Titan leaned forward, and eager glow in his eyes. "Let me
take the team in, boss. We'll settle his hash."
"No," Robert said. "You can't prevent the launchings that
your strike might cause, nor can you make the Nukes harmless like
I can. I'll need the team later, though, when I go to absorb his
conventional forces." Titan smiled in anticipation, and loudly
popped his knuckles.
Robert turned to Jenners, "So why tell me?" he said again.
The officer turned a haunted face to him. "Because there
are civilians here, sir, and in the surrounding town. We saw
children playing outside the Palace, but he doesn't care about
that now. I do care. I couldn't allow innocent lives to be lost
because I didn't act."
"Thank you, Jenners," Robert said. "I have to go take
care of this problem, right away. Titan, you're in charge until I
get back." With an ebon flash, he disappeared.
"Yes, sir," Titan said, his grin feral, and his eyes cold.
Robert appeared in a silo bunker, Rod in hand. He made
himself invisible, and began scanning the towering missile poised
to obliterate him.
He could just make it disappear, and the next one, and
perhaps the one after that. But soon his efforts would be
noticed, and from somewhere he hadn't yet found, or even from a
mobile platform, the attack would still come. He didn't want the
empire he had begun to build in Iowa to be destroyed. He would
have to do something subtle and decisive, to protect his dreams.
The bored Air Force officers began to play cards until
their shift was over. Robert sat out of the way in the cramped
bunker, and reached out to the missile with his powers. He needed
to know it's abilities, properties and weaknesses. The way it was
intended to function, and the way one disabled it.
When the time came he had to be able to find all the
weapons like it in the region, an wipe them out all at once. He
hoped that would remove all the bombs under Stark's control or at
least the majority of them.
It was going to take time to do this. A lot of time, many
hours, perhaps. It would be worth it, though. He slipped deep
into a meditative state, oblivious to all else but his intense
study. He was unaware what was transpiring in the Palace that he
was trying so hard to protect.
It took a whole 30 minutes before Titan got the nerve to
try out the great Sapphire Throne for size. He felt fully
qualified to succeed the little punk as emperor someday, and he
intended to pick the right time and place to do it.
Part of the instructions he'd been given if he ever had to
hold the fort for Robert, was to leave the Dark man's personal
quarters and his women strictly alone. Robert impressed on him
that the punishment for that would be... severe. Something about
a gelding.
However, that left everyone in the Palace not in the harem
up for grabs. The Power Team was boring. He'd fucked all the
girls worth fucking, except for the bat. He hadn't been able
to hold his gorge down enough to try that. The he'd bullied,
or had slapped into line.
During his tours with mercenary companies in Indo-China,
Hank Dodds, (a.k.a. Titan) had acquired some unusual desires.
They involved underaged girls, and snuff-fucks. At times, like
now, he had the time and the opportunity to satisfy his desires.
He summoned one of the prettier pages to the throne
room, after ordering everyone else to leave. The stood
before him in the cheery yellow-gold uniform of an Imperial page,
awaiting his orders. She looked to be 13 or 14, just barely
budding into adolescence. Titan felt his cock start to stir in
desire.
"Come here, girl," he said huskily. she approached him,
unsure of what he wanted. His hand snaked out and clamped on her
shoulder, making her cry out in pain. "Kneel," he growled, and
when she didn't obey right away, he forced her to her knees.
"Don't move," he hissed at her, showing her his other
hand, curled in a fist. She nodded in fear, having felt just how
strong and fast he was. He half rose, opening his pants, and
letting his cock free to bob in the air in front of the
girl.
Shocked, she shook her head in fervent denial of his
intentions. He gave her a gentle slap on the face, that made her
head whip to one side, and vivid finger marks appear on her cheek.
Tears appeared in her eyes, and trickled down in a steady flow.
He fingered her name tag, and pawed her small chest.
"Blow me, Alyssa," he said, "or I'll get rough."
Her tear-streaked eyes widened, how could he possibly get
rougher than that? His slap had almost taken her head off.
Slowly, unwilling, Alyssa opened her lips, and let him draw her
close enough to surround his cock with her warm, wet mouth.
"Ahh," he sighed in satisfaction. "Suck me, you little
cunt. I want to feel my go down your throat. Oh, you have a
hot little mouth, just like the pretty in Laos," he said.
He pumped her head on him, pushing his dick deeper down her throat
with every thrust. "I wonder if you have a hot little cunt, too?
Maybe we'll both find out."
It wouldn't take him long to cum. Indulging in one of his
favorite vices right on his bosses 'throne' got him so hard.
Raping Alyssa's mouth like this was better than any of the other
little that he'd had. Except, of course, for the ones he'd
filled with his seed, just as the burning fear in their eyes faded
forever, choked off by his hands tightly clamped around their
throats. No, there was no orgasm better than that.
He didn't quite feel free to do that to this girl,
unfortunately. Since he was 'deputy emperor', he might as well
take advantage of the privileges of the rank. His gruntings got
louder, and with a deep groan he shot into her mouth, shouting at
her to drink it.
Alyssa tried, but she shook with terror when she couldn't
help but let some of it dribble down her chin.
"You careless little...!" he snarled and raised his fist.
"Stop, Titan!" a clear voice commanded him. He spun
around to see an angry Rebecca White walking toward them. "Let
her go!" she said.
"And why should I?" he sneered. He still held onto the
girl's shoulder with a painful grip.
"Leave her alone," she said to him, noting the marks
on her face, and the semen dripping down her chid, and beading on
her uniform's yellow front.
"I'm not done with her yet," he said. "But I've got a
better idea." He reached besides the throne for the black chain
coiled besides it, with the connector that mated to her dark
serpentine necklace. "Put that on, and I'll let her go." He
threw it to her, and she caught it.
"Let her go, and I'll put it on," Rebecca countered.
"Because you know that my word is worth something, and yours
isn't."
Titan frowned at her, then with a nasty grin he pushed
Alyssa away. "Scoot," he said, and she did, rushing out of the
room at a run.
Rebecca lifted the chain, and connected it to what had
been her collar. Titan began her closer by the chain,
hand over hand. "I've been wanting a piece of you since Ol'
Robbie-boy showed us what a hot fuck you are. And since I'm
holding the fort, and you aren't in the harem, I get to fuck your
lily white cunt. I'm going to enjoy this, bitch."
Rebecca tried to resist his pull, out of pride. The chain
limited her ability to project her white energy, and together with
the collar crippled her powers to resist Robert's corruption.
Only the first function meant much to Titan, she was sure. She
didn't think that he was really worried about her energy, as he
often boasted of his invulnerability, but the chain did mean she
couldn't escape him.
"He's been letting you get to his head," Titan growled.
"The upper one, that is. He's been talking about Laws, and rules,
and I don't like 'em. I wanna do what I wanna do. So I'm gonna
teach you to keep your pure heart morality to yourself, sister.
Those of us in power want to enjoy it."
"You're making a mistake, Henry," Rebecca said. "He will
not appreciate you acting like this..."
"What will he care?" Titan smirked. "You're the thorn in
side," he said as he pulled her short by her chain. "I figure
that if I tame you he'll give me a medal. I'd like to do
something that he couldn't do."
"You're wrong," Rebecca said. She looked away from him as
she continued. "I'm ashamed to admit it, but he could have broken
my will, if he had kept going with me, but he *chose* not to. It
wasn't because he couldn't break me, he just decided not to. He
didn't want me to be subservient to him, he wanted me to cooperate
willingly."
"Then he was a fool," Titan said with a merciless smile.
"I'd rather have you as a simpering love-slave. Prepare for your
first lesson, 'Becky'." He reached out and tore the pale blue
tailored dress off her, then the rest of her garments. He stared
hungrily at her for a moment when she stood before him, naked
except for the black necklace and it's chain.
He quickly stripped himself, yanking her close to him, and
roughly kissing her. On reflex she raised her power to strike
him, but the grounding chain protected the mercenary as well as
it had the Emperor. Rebecca could not stand still and submit to
him quietly, so she struggled. He was just a strong man, not a
nigh demi-god or demon, and he couldn't coerce her acquiescence.
In frustration, he took matters into his own hands. Literally.
Titan put both hands on her left upper arm, and sharply
bent it in the middle. With a muffled crack the bone broke. He
made it a clean break; if he had twisted his hands he could have
made multiple fractures and splintered the bone. He didn't want
her to pass out, just yet.
Rebecca's face went pale, as the shock went through her.
He pushed her down on her back on the scattered cushions of the
dais. He was smiling cruelly as he told her the situation. "If
you fight me anymore, I'll *bump* your arm. So be a good girl,
and don't fight. I just want to enjoy fucking you."
He pulled out the lube he would have used on the page
girl, and gave his phallus a liberal coating of it. She
wasn't wet, he knew, but he didn't care. His dick was as hard as
steel, and he stabbed her with it as if he meant to kill her.
She cried out her in pain as he rammed into her. The
vicious entrance had jostled her injured arm. His hands curled
under her full ass, forcing her up hard to meet his ravaging
thrusts, doubling the impact. Between the battering pain of his
brutal rape, and the throbbing pain in her arm, Rebecca was quite
unable to offer any physical resistance to his assault. Her body
was his plaything.
Her mind retreated, withdrawing deep within herself.
Distantly she knew what Titan was doing to her. He was fucking
her as hard as he could, and was starting to get angry at her lack
of response. He even started poking her bruised and swelling arm,
so he could enjoy the involuntary grimaces she made.
A part of her had been working on a problem for some time.
Ever since she knew that Robert couldn't manipulate her as he
could everyone else, she had been thinking about it, in the back
of her mind. His dark power gave him great abilities, limited
only by his febrile imagination. Hers seemed to be his opposite,
but she had less power... or did she?
Was it the power that was lacking, or her confidence in
it? A door opened deep in her mind, and then she knew the answer.
Her power could potentially be as great as his, or even greater...
if only she would believe it to be so. But she had been chosen
because she felt no craving for personal power. Her only love was
Justice. And this certainly was not fair! In Titan's mind was a
forming plan to kill her as he finished his rape. It was up to
her do something about it, if she wanted to live.
She tried to unravel the black collar, and grimaced in
shock as she failed in her first attempt. It was too hard to try
to fight it's structure when she was in such trauma. She did
manage to begin a process of healing on herself, and that helped.
She couldn't zap Titan with her power, so what could she do to
stop him? As she groped for the way to repair herself, she saw
how that ability could be passively used to affect others.
With a hard shove and a groan, Titan began to come
explosively inside her. His grin was feral as he reached up to
place his hands firmly around her neck. A yawn interrupted him,
followed by another one, even stronger. His hands grew slack on
her throat, and he raised them to rub his eyes. That orgasm had
felt so good, and he was so tired... He barely managed to roll
his bulk off Rebecca before he was fully asleep, snoring soundly.
She pulled a pillow in front of her nude body, and waited.
She couldn't leave the dais with the chain around her neck, and
she was too tired to unravel it. She had to keep her abuser
asleep if she didn't want him to finish the murder, and assault
her again. She had to wait for Robert. Where was the
sonofabitch, anyway?
Robert's dark eyes opened. He understood the nuclear
missile in a way he wouldn't be able to articulate in words. He
reached out throughout his territory and in a large buffer zone
surrounding it, and turned all the nuclear weapons in that area,
...off. He absorbed their potential energy, and converted the
fissionable materials into harmless clay.
The Dark stayed in the bunker long enough to see if
the officers had noticed the change. No dials or tell-tales had
flickered, so they kept on playing cards. The inert missiles
could still cause damage to the Palace and the town, so his power
flared again, and disabled the rocket engines as well. When they
finally turned the keys at Stark's command, it would be too late,
the missiles would stay put.
He smiled in satisfaction. Stark's fangs had been pulled,
and the General didn't have a clue. Robert could take out his
conventional forces long before the mad General's people had a
chance to discover the damage he had done this day, much less be
able to fix it.
Robert appeared in the command room where Lt. Jenners and
the Power Team waited. On the big board, the locations of every
U.S. Nuke was pin-pointed in bright red. With a nod, all the ones
that he had neutralized faded to black, then turned green. "One
problem resolved," he told them. "I've turned them all into
paperweights, and I can do the rest when I have the time or need."
He had expected cheers. Or at least 'Good job, sir',
along with relieved smiles. Instead he was greeted by nervous
silence. Obviously, something else had gone wrong. Paris had an
expression that could be called vindictive, and Charity was trying
to comfort a female page.
"What's wrong?" he said.
"It's Titan," Paris said. "You remember what I said?" He
nodded seriously. When you left, he forced himself on Alyssa,
here. Rebecca traded herself to him so he wouldn't the any further. So the brute raped Rebecca instead. She's still
chained to the throne, in the Grand Hall. She's trying to keep
him asleep, so he won't kill her."
Robert's face took on a fierce scowl at this news, and
those present could see why he was called the Dark man. He didn't
say a word as he turned around and stalked to the throne room,
spinning the Rod easily in his hands as if he intended to do some
'batting practice' with it.
He paused at the big doors, looking at the big man, who
was sprawled naked on the dais, and the woman seated on his
throne, clutching a large pillow in front of her. She sighed in
relief when she saw him come in and glare not at her, but at
Titan. He was followed at a distance by those he'd left in the
Command center, including the page, who held Charity's hand.
Robert came up to the dais, and tapped Titan's barrel
chest with the Rod lightly, to ensure his slumber. "You can relax
Rebecca, I've got him." He turned and gestured at Rebecca, and
she was cleaned and dressed. He drew the pillow from her she was
desperately clutching, as gently as he could. His fingers were
feather light as he released the chain, then stroked her face.
"Are you alright?" he said.
"No," she said, her voice trembling. "He broke my arm."
He reached for her arm, noticing her flinch involuntarily
from his touch. When he used his power on her, he noted that for
once it wasn't conflicting with hers, and that she'd already been
healing herself some. "Just stay here," he said softly.
Robert stepped back, and with a flash of dark light,
dressed Titan as well. He grabbed him by the collar, and dragged
him down the dais steps, letting him awake as he did so. "Rise
and shine!" he said. "Come on, Titan, I want to talk to you."
Titan got up fast, taking in the scene at a glance. He
decided that his only way out of the mess he was in would be to
kill Robert, and fast. With no warning, he attacked the Dark man.
A black bolt surrounded the as he came at Robert,
but it didn't stop him. Titan grinned, taunting, "Losing your
touch, 'M'lord'? You know there's only two kinds... the quick...
and the dead!" with that he swung with all his might. The
snapping sound from his blow made everyone wince, until they saw
Robert standing unmoved, and Titan cradling a broken hand.
"You know, I'm the one that gave those Powers you were so
proud of," Robert said, conversationally. "Didn't it occur to you
that I could also take them away at any time? You can't be
trusted with them, and so you'll never again have them." Robert
gestured at the other man's groin, "And you can't be trusted with
that, either." Titan stared numbly at him, unable to comprehend
what he meant.
"Lady Web," Robert said, "give me what he did to you all;
what Paris told me about this morning." The redhead's eyes shone
as she established the mental connections, not only with the Team,
but to the and to Rebecca. Robert winced at the rawness of
the abuse, and bowed his head. He'd made Titan his deputy, the
spaceship shows he'd seen on had taught him that a commander
was responsible for the actions of his subordinates.
The Emperor sat on the dais steps, and gestured for Alyssa
to come to him. The went straight to his arms and cried. He
patted her gently, "It will be alright, Alyssa," he said to her.
"He won't be able to you again. Go ahead and go back to your
quarters." With a sniffle and a peck on his cheek, she went.
Robert reached inside of Titan's mind, and he recoiled at
what he found there. Robert had found the limit to his darkness
and corruption, as Rebecca had foreseen. What this had done,
and was capable of doing was too sick for even the Dark man's
sensibilities, thought he caught a hint from the Rod that it
wouldn't have balked at that level of evil.
"As a man, you are a murderer and a rapist, and you always
will be. So I will now take something else away from you that you
don't need." Another flare of black, and Hank Dodds was briefly
concealed by it. When it faded away, the who had been Titan
was now a woman!
"I've instituted Road Gangs" Robert said, "as a way of
making hardened criminals useful in my Empire. I don't assign you
to join them -- instead I sentence you to serve them. You will be
cook, laundress, maid and concubine, to every on the gang I
send you to. In other words, I mean to see that you get a belly
full of what you've been dishing out for all these years." He
grinned evilly. "Guards! Haul him... I mean HER out of here."
Robert watched as they hauled the prisoner away.
Robert turned to the Team. "I'm sorry this had to happen.
Paris, I should have had that meeting with you right away, and
remembered what you said. He shouldn't have been left in charge
when I'd already been told he'd had his hand in the cookie jar."
He shook his head, "Alyssa shouldn't have had to pay for my
mistakes, nor Rebecca either." The Dark sighed. "I try to
learn from my errors, and I know now I should have let you choose
your own leader. So, who is it going to be?"
The Team muttered among themselves for short time, and
quickly came to a consensus. A friendly, but un-gentle shove
pushed the bald to the forefront of the group.
"Hey!" Teke said. "I don't want to be no damned leader,
I've got no taste for it."
Charity came up to him, and gently touched near the
stitches on his brown cheek. "You're the only one of us who tried
to stand up to him. Your words inspired us, while _his_ inspired
only loathing and fear. It has to be you."
"I just couldn't stand to you see any of you hurt," he
said. "Especially..." his words trailed off as he started deep in
her eyes. Charity smiled hugely and wrapped her arms around him.
He looked up helplessly at Robert, who shrugged, smiling.
"The Team has spoken," Robert said. "You've got a lot to
do in order to get these people working together as a Team."
"Ah, hell," Teke swore, and laughter answered him. "I
suppose the first thing would be if we learned to trust one
another."
"Good," Robert said. "Now, get 'em out of here. I have
to talk to Rebecca."
They left, and he walked up the steps, and picked up the
trembling woman in his arms. He carried her to her bedroom, and
sat her against her pillows. He sat on the end of the bed.
"I'm sorry, Rebecca," he said. "This wasn't supposed to
happen."
"I know," she said. "But he was only following your
example. Don't you see, that as a leader, if you set a rule that
you don't follow yourself, you are only a hypocrite. If you
enforce a rule that you break yourself, you are a tyrant, and not
a leader."
"Damn it," he said frowning, "that will be so hard."
She sighed, in no mood to fence with him, or to pull her
punches. "The government you want will demand more of you than it
will required of any of your citizens. If you aren't willing to
pay that price, all you have to do is abandon your dreams."
"Ouch," he said. "I do want laws, but laws untainted by
the stupid morals and petty regulations of the United States. If
they must apply to me as well, then that is the price that I will
have to pay. You're right about that." He reached up and melted
the black collar from around her slender neck. "There, you're
free. Will you consider staying on and helping me with my dream?"
"I don't know," she said. "So much has happened." She
put her face in her hands. "I wouldn't know where to go."
"What is your dream?" he said, realizing he had never
asked her anything personal like that before. He wished he'd done
so earlier.
"My Dream is Justice," she said. "But maybe our dreams
are not incompatible. Perhaps there is hope for you yet."
To be Continued...
December, 1997 -- Darkside: United States of Anarchy, Part 10 of 20.
Series Continues after #20 in Darkside: Imperial States of America.
Archived @ "ftp://ftp.asstr.org/pub/Authors/World_of_the_Darkside";
Or www.asstr.org/~World_of_the_Darkside & www.greyarchive.com.
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