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Description
Adam heard another group in the distance begin to chant.

"Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! The MGA has got to GO! Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho!"

Adam's apprehension grew as they weaved through the crowd that now seemed to be getting larger by the minute. Laura seemed to be making for a large, tight knot of people that were gathered around the MGA monument. The large, granite column was over fifty feet tall. Carved into the lower sections were raised reliefs depicting faceless super-heroes in battle with Rikti forces. The upper sections had been fashioned into the Master's instantly recognisable globe and starburst symbol. The names of all the Masters who had been active during the Second Rikti War had been chiselled into the square granite base of the column along with the words;

**This monument erected by the grateful citizens of Paragon City to honour the Masters of the Golden Age. For without their courage, strength and determination this world would have fallen into darkness**

"I mean just who the Hell do they think they are??", came a shout from the base of the monument.

"What gives them the right to govern??", the angry voice continued. "Did we VOTE for them? No!"

Adam finally caught sight of a young man of about his own age standing on a box in front of the granite column. Like the other rabble-rousers he was wearing a red beret and an
anti-MGA t-shirt. He was bellowing in a voice that was five times too big for his slight frame.

"In the beginning they called themselves 'Gods'. Now they are calling themselves 'Masters'. Well I've got a few names for them too. I call them 'dictators'! I call them 'tyrants'!

Loud cheers and applause broke out from the young demagogue's audience.

"So today we are going to send them a message!", he yelled as he pointed upward at the carved MGA symbol. "We, the people, WILL BE HEARD!!"

His supporters went wild. Shouts of agreement and encouragement filled the air. To Adam's disbelief Laura seemed to be leading him straight toward the group of exuberant protestors.

"Laura! Are you crazy? We can't get mixed up in this!"

Laura's grip was like a vice on his wrist and she shouldered her way through the crowd. Adam's disbelief turned to abject horror as she started to wave and shout directly at the young man on the box.

"Dirk! Dirk it's me! I brought him. I brought Adam!"

The young man on the box caught sight of Laura and waved back. He stepped down and began making his way through the crush of people toward them. People smiled and slapped him on the back as he passed.

Finally, he was standing in front of them and Adam was able to get a better look at him. He was thin, with long hair and a wispy, trainee moustache. Round, steel-rimmed spectacles sat on his thin nose and his beret featured a badge that gave the impression of some kind of rank.

"Adam", said Laura. "This is Dirk. He's the president of the Paragon U chapter of the National Students Front. Dirk this is my boyfriend, Adam Jennings. He's the one I've been telling you about."

She then stepped back as if she was presenting Adam to a foreign dignitary.

Dirk seized Adam's free hand and pumped it hard.

"Wow! You actually came" he said with a wide grin. "Awright! Glad to meet you, Adam. Man this is fantastic! Sister Laura's been telling me all about you. I can't wait for the others to hear your story."

Adam was stunned. Sister Laura? Had he just slipped into some weird parallel dimension? It took him several moments to find his voice.

"My story?", he asked with a look of utter confusion. "What are you talking about? What story?"

Dirk gave him a smack on the shoulder that felt to Adam like being slapped with a wet noodle.

"Oh come on, brother!", said Dirk. "No need to play dumb with us. You have genuine first-hand experience of how the Masters are trying to control all our lives, man. You know what I'm talking about."

Confusion continued to dominate Adam until a fateful realisation hit him like a thunderbolt. He was overtaken by memories of a warm night two months ago. He and Laura had been lying in bed next to each other. A cool breeze that smelt faintly of newly mown grass wafted in through the open window of his dorm room. He had never felt as close to a girl as he had felt to Laura that night. He felt as if he could spend his entire life with her. The next morning, on an impulse, he had revealed to her his greatest secret. It was the only thing that Dirk could possibly be talking about.

Adam rounded on Laura.

"You told him about THAT??", he asked with visible outrage.

While he had been talking to Dirk, Laura had removed her sweater. To Adam's shock she had been wearing an anti-MGA t-shirt under it all along and a red beret was now jammed on her head.

"Adam just think for a minute", she said gently placing her hand on his shoulder. "You could be of so much help to the cause. People should know what you've had to go through."

"Listen to her, man!", Dirk chimed in. "People need to hear what you have to say. Everyone who's ever been on the receiving end of those bastard's draconian policies needs to speak up. If they do then we have a real chance of changing the system. I'm just damn happy to have you with us today, brother."

Adam was devastated. How could Laura have done this to him? He roughly pushed her hand off his shoulder and turned back to Dirk.

"Ok listen up", he snarled. "First of all I'm not with you, ok Dink?"

"Uhhhh, it's 'Dirk', man."

"Whatever. I'm not with you!", said Adam. He cast a stinging glance back at Laura. "I'm not with anyone! But here's a free piece of advice. This rally is a really, REALLY bad idea."

Dirk looked at him as if he had just said that the sun rose in the west and donuts weren't tasty.

"Bad?? Are you nuts? Man, do you know how long it took to organise all of this? Do you know what we had to do just to keep this under the MGA radar? But it was worth it! We got people comin' in from all over the state today. Five thousand at least."

Adam groaned and shook his head.

"Oh God. Do you have any idea what you could bring down on all our heads?", he asked. "Are you that stupid? For all our sakes, get the word out and tell everyone to go home. Go home before this goes too far."

Dirk thrust his chin out defiantly and poked Adam in the chest.

"No way, man! We're staying put and we are going to be HEARD today. The MGA can't ignore us anymore."

"And that is exactly what I'm afraid of", replied Adam. He threw the blanket and picnic basket to the ground. "Look, you do what you want to do. I'm leaving."

As he turned around Dirk grabbed him by the upper arm.

"Leaving? What's the matter, brother? You scared? Too damn self-obsessed to stand with us and send a message to the Masters?"

Adam jerked his arm out of Dirk's grip. He came nose to nose with the protestor and glared fiercely at him.

"You're goddamn right I'm scared! And you should be too. The MGA allows a certain level of opposition but you know that they don't tolerate anything on this kind of scale. We all saw what happened in Ottowa last year. And in Singapore back in 2007.

Dirk's conviction seemed to waiver for a moment before he regained his composure.

"All the more reason to stand up and be counted!", he yelled. "Show the fascist pigs that they can't silence the voice of the people."

"You're crazy, man!", said Adam. "If you and your friends want to play at being rebel activists and maybe get your heads busted by a bunch of Crossbow goons then have fun! Count me out!"

Adam turned his back on Dirk and began to shove his way through the growing crush of people.

"Adam! Adam!", called Laura.

Anger, fear and disgust all warred for dominance over Adam now. The girl that he thought he loved had betrayed his greatest secret to strangers. Strangers who wanted to use it, and him, in a dangerous political battle. Because of his past she had to realise what kind of trouble he would be in if the authorities found out he was anywhere near a gathering like this. Obviously she didn't care.

The air was heavy with slogans and chants and the assembled mass of people had now grown so thick that it was becoming very difficult to move through.

A hand came down on Adam's shoulder. He spun around to see that Laura had somehow managed to catch up with him. She was like an entirely different person now. The sweet young woman whom he had been going out with for the last six months had been replaced by an earnest radical zealot.

"HEY!! What's your problem Adam?", she demanded, her face shining with self-righteous indignation. "Dirk is one of the good guys. He's trying to make a difference. We all are!"

"He's an idiot, Laura!", snapped Adam. "He's trying to make like he's a revolutionary when he's just a poser. If Colossal Woman or Impervium Falcon turned up right now he'd be pissing his pants. He's treating this as if it's some kind of game and it's not."

The very name of the two MGA powerhouses caused Laura to falter. She briefly looked up at the sky and then back at Adam.

"You…you don't think that any of the MGA will actually turn up here do you?", she said with a worried expression.

"I don't know and I'm not going to hang around to find out.", said Adam.

The look of concern on her face quelled Adam's anger momentarily. He seized her by the shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.

"Laura for God's sake, the Masters know they can't silence all dissent in the community. And they don't want to. They know that if they tried then soon they really would have a revolt on their hands. So they let people blow off steam. They allow them to stand on soapboxes in the park and rail against their administration. They let people hand out their anti-MGA pamphlets on street corners. As long as they don't yell too loudly or reach too many people then the Masters turn a blind eye. But THIS?"

He made a sweeping gesture at the throng of protestors.

"Mobilising this many people all at once? This is dangerous, Laura. The Masters will see this as a threat". Adam's voice took on an ominous tone. "And we all know how they deal with threats."

An animated buzz suddenly swept the crowd.

"Hey, look! Up in the sky!", someone yelled.

"What are those things?"

The blood turned to ice in Adam's veins. Shading his eyes from the afternoon sun, he scanned the sky. He quickly made out a number of small flying objects in the distance that were getting bigger with each passing second.

Within a minute he could hear the harsh whine of small jet engines and soon several tight formations of human figures passed overhead. They wore the tight, red and grey uniforms of Crossbow and their highly polished jet-packs shone in the sunlight. On their chests was the star and wings insignia of the Crossbow airborne units.

"Raptors!", came a shout.

"This is it!", thought Adam.

The flying Crossbow officers took up a patrol pattern that criss-crossed the airspace above the park. Adam knew that they were the forerunners. The eyes and the ears. Right now they would be relaying information about the crowd to….

The rumble of heavy vehicles filled the air.

….the others.

Description
Adam heard another group in the distance begin to chant.

"Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! The MGA has got to GO! Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho!"

Adam's apprehension grew as they weaved through the crowd that now seemed to be getting larger by the minute. Laura seemed to be making for a large, tight knot of people that were gathered around the MGA monument. The large, granite column was over fifty feet tall. Carved into the lower sections were raised reliefs depicting faceless super-heroes in battle with Rikti forces. The upper sections had been fashioned into the Master's instantly recognisable globe and starburst symbol. The names of all the Masters who had been active during the Second Rikti War had been chiselled into the square granite base of the column along with the words;

**This monument erected by the grateful citizens of Paragon City to honour the Masters of the Golden Age. For without their courage, strength and determination this world would have fallen into darkness**

"I mean just who the Hell do they think they are??", came a shout from the base of the monument.

"What gives them the right to govern??", the angry voice continued. "Did we VOTE for them? No!"

Adam finally caught sight of a young man of about his own age standing on a box in front of the granite column. Like the other rabble-rousers he was wearing a red beret and an
anti-MGA t-shirt. He was bellowing in a voice that was five times too big for his slight frame.

"In the beginning they called themselves 'Gods'. Now they are calling themselves 'Masters'. Well I've got a few names for them too. I call them 'dictators'! I call them 'tyrants'!

Loud cheers and applause broke out from the young demagogue's audience.

"So today we are going to send them a message!", he yelled as he pointed upward at the carved MGA symbol. "We, the people, WILL BE HEARD!!"

His supporters went wild. Shouts of agreement and encouragement filled the air. To Adam's disbelief Laura seemed to be leading him straight toward the group of exuberant protestors.

"Laura! Are you crazy? We can't get mixed up in this!"

Laura's grip was like a vice on his wrist and she shouldered her way through the crowd. Adam's disbelief turned to abject horror as she started to wave and shout directly at the young man on the box.

"Dirk! Dirk it's me! I brought him. I brought Adam!"

The young man on the box caught sight of Laura and waved back. He stepped down and began making his way through the crush of people toward them. People smiled and slapped him on the back as he passed.

Finally, he was standing in front of them and Adam was able to get a better look at him. He was thin, with long hair and a wispy, trainee moustache. Round, steel-rimmed spectacles sat on his thin nose and his beret featured a badge that gave the impression of some kind of rank.

"Adam", said Laura. "This is Dirk. He's the president of the Paragon U chapter of the National Students Front. Dirk this is my boyfriend, Adam Jennings. He's the one I've been telling you about."

She then stepped back as if she was presenting Adam to a foreign dignitary.

Dirk seized Adam's free hand and pumped it hard.

"Wow! You actually came" he said with a wide grin. "Awright! Glad to meet you, Adam. Man this is fantastic! Sister Laura's been telling me all about you. I can't wait for the others to hear your story."

Adam was stunned. Sister Laura? Had he just slipped into some weird parallel dimension? It took him several moments to find his voice.

"My story?", he asked with a look of utter confusion. "What are you talking about? What story?"

Dirk gave him a smack on the shoulder that felt to Adam like being slapped with a wet noodle.

"Oh come on, brother!", said Dirk. "No need to play dumb with us. You have genuine first-hand experience of how the Masters are trying to control all our lives, man. You know what I'm talking about."

Confusion continued to dominate Adam until a fateful realisation hit him like a thunderbolt. He was overtaken by memories of a warm night two months ago. He and Laura had been lying in bed next to each other. A cool breeze that smelt faintly of newly mown grass wafted in through the open window of his dorm room. He had never felt as close to a girl as he had felt to Laura that night. He felt as if he could spend his entire life with her. The next morning, on an impulse, he had revealed to her his greatest secret. It was the only thing that Dirk could possibly be talking about.

Adam rounded on Laura.

"You told him about THAT??", he asked with visible outrage.

While he had been talking to Dirk, Laura had removed her sweater. To Adam's shock she had been wearing an anti-MGA t-shirt under it all along and a red beret was now jammed on her head.

"Adam just think for a minute", she said gently placing her hand on his shoulder. "You could be of so much help to the cause. People should know what you've had to go through."

"Listen to her, man!", Dirk chimed in. "People need to hear what you have to say. Everyone who's ever been on the receiving end of those bastard's draconian policies needs to speak up. If they do then we have a real chance of changing the system. I'm just damn happy to have you with us today, brother."

Adam was devastated. How could Laura have done this to him? He roughly pushed her hand off his shoulder and turned back to Dirk.

"Ok listen up", he snarled. "First of all I'm not with you, ok Dink?"

"Uhhhh, it's 'Dirk', man."

"Whatever. I'm not with you!", said Adam. He cast a stinging glance back at Laura. "I'm not with anyone! But here's a free piece of advice. This rally is a really, REALLY bad idea."

Dirk looked at him as if he had just said that the sun rose in the west and donuts weren't tasty.

"Bad?? Are you nuts? Man, do you know how long it took to organise all of this? Do you know what we had to do just to keep this under the MGA radar? But it was worth it! We got people comin' in from all over the state today. Five thousand at least."

Adam groaned and shook his head.

"Oh God. Do you have any idea what you could bring down on all our heads?", he asked. "Are you that stupid? For all our sakes, get the word out and tell everyone to go home. Go home before this goes too far."

Dirk thrust his chin out defiantly and poked Adam in the chest.

"No way, man! We're staying put and we are going to be HEARD today. The MGA can't ignore us anymore."

"And that is exactly what I'm afraid of", replied Adam. He threw the blanket and picnic basket to the ground. "Look, you do what you want to do. I'm leaving."

As he turned around Dirk grabbed him by the upper arm.

"Leaving? What's the matter, brother? You scared? Too damn self-obsessed to stand with us and send a message to the Masters?"

Adam jerked his arm out of Dirk's grip. He came nose to nose with the protestor and glared fiercely at him.

"You're goddamn right I'm scared! And you should be too. The MGA allows a certain level of opposition but you know that they don't tolerate anything on this kind of scale. We all saw what happened in Ottowa last year. And in Singapore back in 2007.

Dirk's conviction seemed to waiver for a moment before he regained his composure.

"All the more reason to stand up and be counted!", he yelled. "Show the fascist pigs that they can't silence the voice of the people."

"You're crazy, man!", said Adam. "If you and your friends want to play at being rebel activists and maybe get your heads busted by a bunch of Crossbow goons then have fun! Count me out!"

Adam turned his back on Dirk and began to shove his way through the growing crush of people.

"Adam! Adam!", called Laura.

Anger, fear and disgust all warred for dominance over Adam now. The girl that he thought he loved had betrayed his greatest secret to strangers. Strangers who wanted to use it, and him, in a dangerous political battle. Because of his past she had to realise what kind of trouble he would be in if the authorities found out he was anywhere near a gathering like this. Obviously she didn't care.

The air was heavy with slogans and chants and the assembled mass of people had now grown so thick that it was becoming very difficult to move through.

A hand came down on Adam's shoulder. He spun around to see that Laura had somehow managed to catch up with him. She was like an entirely different person now. The sweet young woman whom he had been going out with for the last six months had been replaced by an earnest radical zealot.

"HEY!! What's your problem Adam?", she demanded, her face shining with self-righteous indignation. "Dirk is one of the good guys. He's trying to make a difference. We all are!"

"He's an idiot, Laura!", snapped Adam. "He's trying to make like he's a revolutionary when he's just a poser. If Colossal Woman or Impervium Falcon turned up right now he'd be pissing his pants. He's treating this as if it's some kind of game and it's not."

The very name of the two MGA powerhouses caused Laura to falter. She briefly looked up at the sky and then back at Adam.

"You…you don't think that any of the MGA will actually turn up here do you?", she said with a worried expression.

"I don't know and I'm not going to hang around to find out.", said Adam.

The look of concern on her face quelled Adam's anger momentarily. He seized her by the shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.

"Laura for God's sake, the Masters know they can't silence all dissent in the community. And they don't want to. They know that if they tried then soon they really would have a revolt on their hands. So they let people blow off steam. They allow them to stand on soapboxes in the park and rail against their administration. They let people hand out their anti-MGA pamphlets on street corners. As long as they don't yell too loudly or reach too many people then the Masters turn a blind eye. But THIS?"

He made a sweeping gesture at the throng of protestors.

"Mobilising this many people all at once? This is dangerous, Laura. The Masters will see this as a threat". Adam's voice took on an ominous tone. "And we all know how they deal with threats."

An animated buzz suddenly swept the crowd.

"Hey, look! Up in the sky!", someone yelled.

"What are those things?"

The blood turned to ice in Adam's veins. Shading his eyes from the afternoon sun, he scanned the sky. He quickly made out a number of small flying objects in the distance that were getting bigger with each passing second.

Within a minute he could hear the harsh whine of small jet engines and soon several tight formations of human figures passed overhead. They wore the tight, red and grey uniforms of Crossbow and their highly polished jet-packs shone in the sunlight. On their chests was the star and wings insignia of the Crossbow airborne units.

"Raptors!", came a shout.

"This is it!", thought Adam.

The flying Crossbow officers took up a patrol pattern that criss-crossed the airspace above the park. Adam knew that they were the forerunners. The eyes and the ears. Right now they would be relaying information about the crowd to….

The rumble of heavy vehicles filled the air.

….the others.