The Red Pill or the Blue Pill? -- General Space

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Date Posted: 04:41:15 09/06/02 Fri
Author: Walter Patterson
Subject: The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?
In reply to: The DimenScion 's message, "Japanese Hair Metal" on 18:32:35 09/04/02 Wed

The Red Pill:

"Are you here?" asked Walter as he entered the library, momentarily taken back by the resounding bass of his own voice. It seemed wrong, but felt right somehow.

"Over here!" she called, and he turned toward the melodic resonance of her voice. Kathryn Patterson. His wife.

Kathryn was crouching next to a reference table, Molly and Alcatraz nearby with their children. The former warden and his wife had the beginnings of a beautiful family, but Walter's pride and joy was his own. Young Walt had managed to wriggle out of one of his socks again, and he giggled as Kathryn perched him on the edge of the table and worked the sock back on while Molly steadied him. A warm shiver danced along Walter's spine, and he chuckled.

"Now then, hope I don't have to lock the tyke up in my brig." he said, stepping forward and grabbing his wife by the waist.

"Don't you dare," she replied, a gleam in her eyes as they met his. "I think the 'hero of the Starbase' has enough criminals to fill the cells without having to restrain his own son."

"Maybe...Rugby has been pretty crime-free since I was put in charge of security. Maybe I can spend more time around you."

Kathryn smile and kissed him, and Walter remembered the first time they met. She had told him an anecdote about her neice back home on Earth, and he nervously smiled and cursed himself for barely being able to speak to her. Right then and there, from the way she described how she spoke to her neice, he knew she would be a good mother, a natural. He knew he wanted her to be the mother of his children and spend the rest of her life with him.

Paralyzing shyness. It seemed so far away now, like he was a different person. Walter had come so far for an ordinary desk clerk. He had single-handedly stopped a one-eyed tentacled demon from...from something, and had saved Kathryn. From that action his confidence had boosted, and he managed to thwart the new UB2K before their organization even got off the ground. Inspired, Walter set about presenting strategies he had conceived in fictional holo-novels written in his spare time. Alcatraz and the others in security were so impressed they promoted Walter immediately to the position of Strategy General. Working with communications and lab technicians, he perfected a space-time portal generator, and summoned the greatest heroes of the SPUniverse in their prime. LEGOman. Icevein. Dirge. Motocron. Rynox. BoGo. Transmetal Party Weasel. Verge. The Bolt. Fulcrumm. Ebonhawk. Mercado. Spaceman Bill. Even the Captain, from some alternate future where he had studied under the tutelage of the Shaper. Others, too numerous to mention. Together, they formed a legion and, under Walter's guidance, took out the Electriad, the Paleguard, the Manches, the Swarm, the Shard, the Hive, the Vok, and more. Walter faced the greatest villain alone however, one no one could have expected, and the human spirit and ingenuity won out. The SPUniverse itself was at peace, and the warden retired, nominating Walter as his replacement. Howitzer of course seocnded it, and as he stood on the dais in the holorooms beside PHOTRON and the Captain, the only face in the audience he saw was hers. His acceptance speech was a wedding proposal, and she accepted.

"I'd never take the red pill....that's crazy....even when happiness is right in front of me, I'd never take..."

The Blue Pill:

"You've done well," hissed a voice over Walter's shoulder, as he surveyed the twisted metal and charred flesh that adorned the Docking Bay of Starbase Rugby. The bl@ck mist over his shoulder curled about his neck liek a serpent, and his eyes flashed red as his army of tentacled demons stepped from the shadows. His old 'friends' had put up a fight, but once Walter allowed the last WR@ in and found the right army, nothing could stand in his way.

"I'm a little surprised you even picked me," he said to his benefactor. "When I learned where you were hiding all this time I thought for sure you had a better vessel. Why me?"

"You deserved it," hissed the voice. "So much angst....so much pain...and fear--! A WEALTH of fear the likes of which I had not tasted in a long time...so long. I was safe there when my brethren arose, freed from the shackles of Manar by my slayer's misfit minions. Lucky happenstance through a sequence of events so random, I had to believe in fate. Every last one was eliminated, and the Pawn even had a second chance. I particular enjoyed watching you peel back his skin and pin him to that ridiculously named vessel--you have such an artistic mind. They didn't appreciate you. They didn't see the beauty you possessed inside, the darkness through which I might plant seeds of a new beginning. How wonderful when you met these Manches...bad luck for you. Always bad luck. I looked at your life, at the things that could only happen to you, and I relaized Fate placed more potential in you than in my vessel. Reaching out to your inner darkness was the best thing I ever did, Walter Patterson."

Walter chuckled as several Wrak skittered past. he knelt and picked a blond wisp of hair from one of their reluctant mandibles. He tucked it into the pocket of his jumpsuit, a memento of a dream long gone, buried under layers of nightmare. Somewhere echoed the sound of metal fists on metal walls.

"The bartender's in the vault again, isn't he?" asked the d@rk voice. "Just like before. The crew wasn't as big or diverse back then. Rampage haunted his nightmares even when the new crew took over. He hid it under that gruff exterior, but this is something even he won't forget. Fitting you decided to keep Tankup and Tankup alone alive."

"You said it yourself, WR@TH....I am an artist."

"No,no,no,no,no! What IS that! What are you doing to me! Stop! Stop making it all real! I can't decide! I can't DECIDE!!!"

Walter screamed, wriggling in Sohn's grasp. The Manch only pulled him closer to that damnable eye, and Walter stared at his hands. While one withered and wrinkled, the skin darkening as veins became more prominent, the other's muscle mass increased as it took on a tanned healthy hue. Walter Patterson felt himself changing, a man literally split down the middle.

Dichotomy suffered in the grasp of Sohn of Belial. His dreams and his nightmares were both real. Memories of events that would never be, that existed only in his fantasy were now real to him, and while the SPUniverse of course remained unchanged, Walter Patterson would soon incur psychic scars that might never heal....

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
-Mark twain (1835-1910)

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Replies:

Timberjack -- The DimenScion, 12:53:14 09/08/02 Sun
- Delicatessen -- Sohn of Belial, 18:43:50 09/14/02 Sat
  - He looked at his hands again -- Dichotomy, 20:10:35 10/04/02 Fri
    - Blobcake -- The DimenScion, 15:33:45 10/05/02 Sat
      - Man Awakens From 35-Year Coma -- The DimenScion, 20:24:48 10/05/02 Sat