From Bad To Mangaworse: Anime Mundi |
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| [The Foundry]
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Issue #25: "The Search (Anime Mundi Prologue)" 10 June 2002 Tabula Rasa sends Pyro and Energon off to Sauvie Island to investigate a lead while he leads the rest of the team to Dr. Morii’s underground sanctum. TR calls the Checkerheads for backup and, as Vic, calls Jean-Pierre d’Aubaine strictly for Psy-Ops purposes. Sure enough, the Journal publisher tries to obstruct the Checkerheads and, later, the Feds when they show up at his building to search its sub-basement. The day does not go well. Morii gets the upper hand, capturing Frisson, Velocity, ‘Porter and TR. Jeopardy escapes with a merfolk, only to discover Morii caused widespread devastation by implanting a berserker virus in the COMETPRO powered armor suits. Issue #26: "Anime Mundi, Part 1" 10 June 2002 Marcoli attempts to re-route Paladin Noir for assistance, but Morii hacks into a defense satellite network to stop the world’s most powerful metahuman. Marcoli hastily assembles a rescue team—Brother Knight and Halitosis from the depleted Team Hyperion, COMETPRO M.I.B. Lupe Cazaril (and his B.F.G.), Jeopardy, and the recently-arrived Energon and Pyro. The Ghost of Nikko Wylde appears and offers her assistance. The captured members of The Foundry wake up in an anime world as “Ice Princess Frisson” (Danielle “Frisson” Devereaux), “Velocity-X” (Max “Velocity” Morell), “Zazen Raja” (Vic “Tabula Rasa” Charlton) and ‘Porter (Namor “’Porter” Christianson”). They discover they are condemned to the Throckmorton Ravensgate OtakuCorp’s Metahuman Kumite Competition—of which Energon is the defending champion! Issues #27-30: " Anime Mundi, Parts 2-5" 10 and 26 June 2002 At the urging of lodge brother Jean-Pierre d’Aubaine, local Congressmen Dave Gavriel and Hellman Jessup pull strings to bring the U.S. House Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee to Ravensgate—as an institutionalized witch-hunt aimed at Marcoli, the Checkerheads, Vic Charlton, and The Foundry. In the Anime Mundi world, the first cage match does not go well for the captured Foundry members—Max loses his head, and it goes downhill from there. In the Old Underground, the rescue team fights its way into Morii’s sanctum and attempts to extract the captured Foundry members from their VR tanks. While Cazaril attempts to defuse some booby-traps left around Morii’s lab, The Ghost of Nikko Wylde uses her telepathy to bring Jeopardy, Energon and Pyro into the anime VR. In and out of the anime world, the heroes discover that Dani, Max, Namor and Vic are inside a computer-game scenario Jason (Energon) designed. How did Morii get her hands on it? In the anime world, the heroes learn all about Jason’s fantasy life—and learn where Jason hid the game’s cheat codes. These he uses to full effect, but not without a price levied by the master program. With Jason’s cheat codes, the heroes survive the Kumite and, subsequently, the “Empress Mayor” and her entourage—but Energon’s electromagnetic pulses have shut down the lab’s computers and life-support systems. The heroes are forced to put their trust in Morii’s autosurgeon machines to save their captured comrades. Issue #31: "Woke Up This Morning, Got Yourself A Gun (Anime Mundi Epilogue)" 11-12 and 26-27 June 2002 In the aftermath of the June 10th Battle of the Oregon Journal MediaCorp Building, Agent Marcoli is reassigned pending review. Ambitious DEA policy wonk Victor Rodriguez replaces him as regional COMETPRO leader. Also, in the days immediately following, Tabula Rasa gets The Ghost of Nikko Wylde to tell her story to the Checkerheads: She was an undercover cop murdered in 2001 by fellow officers to cover up their corruption—and that of unknown others among the local power elite. Chief Gunn and Inspector Shinmen debate the ethical and legal ramifications before Shinmen goes off—to apprehend the perps in his inimitable manner. Following that same tack, some of The Foundry—TR, Pyro, Jeopardy—with Agent Cazaril and Nikko toss the home of one of Nikko’s killers. They discover some disturbing new clues tied to her murder, Oscar’s visions, and the mayor’s past. On the home front, The Foundry discovers that their powers work differently; Energon’s EMPs caused the autosurgeon tables to malfunction and use their Anime Mundi personae as the repair templates. Two weeks later at the subcommittee hearings, Marcoli loses it during testimony—but not before he presents evidence (from Jason’s bugs) that turns the tables on d’Aubaine, and those in the Journal publisher’s pocket. |