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Showing posts with label challenge 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenge 2. Show all posts

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Jon the Integalactic Gladiator: Class is in session


I stumbled off the campus to Springfield Heights Institute of Technology holding all of the possessions that I had with me. Actually, I was kindly escorted out by the college’s security force. And by “kindly,” I mean “forcibly.”

“Yeah, well I’ve been kicked out of finer institutions than yours,” I shouted/mumbled back at them. “I’ve been kicked out of Brown, Vassar, and McHenry County College.”

Well this is really weird, I know I was supposed to come here and talk to the kids that we recruited in our new secret society, I wrote it all down here on my hand. That’s weird, my hand appears to be all smudged. Weirder still, I appear to be talking to a small dog right now.

“What do you mean I’m not supposed to be here?” I asked the dog.

The dog yapped back at me.

“Xavier’s school? Sure I’ve been there.”

The dog yipped at me.

“Oh, I’m supposed to be there now? You mean our secret society of mutant recruits are all at the secret mutant school?”

The dog yapped at me again.

“What do you mean I smell like booze?” I demanded/ mumbled. “Well, let me explain something, I’m a Universal Lynchpin and I bet that’s something your dog mind can’t understand.”

The dog yipped and growled at me.

“Well, first I had to save the universe by having several pints of ale at a pub in Galway, then I had to realign the universe’s bearings within the multiverse by having a few more in Limerick. Then I had to have a few Black and Whites at Durty Nelly’s in Bunratty.”

The dog yipped and yapped at me.

“Well, it was a highly explosive mixture of Guinness and Harp,” I explained/hiccupped. “If I didn’t do something all of Ireland might have been destroyed.”

The dog barked.

“Because I have a cast iron stomach,” I explained. “That’s how come I survived.

The dog barked once again.

“What do you mean I’m repeating your questions every time I answer them?” I asked.

The dog yipped and barked.

“Because I’m a dog whisperer, that’s why.”

The dog yipped and barked and yapped and shortly thereafter, I was clothed, showered, sobered up, in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and standing in front of our new recruits.

“Good morning students, I am your faculty advisor Professor Jon the Intergalactic Gladiator. I am here to teach you all the history of our prestigious society.”

“Uh, you’re the advisor?” some melty kid raised his hand. “I thought Carrot Top was.”

“Right.” I answered/ grumbled. “I’m his assistant.”

“What are you a professor of?” another kid asked.

“Intergalactic Gladiating,” I answered quickly.

“Wait a minute,” another kid piped up. “Are you and Carrot Top even mutants?”

“Well sure,” I answered. “As I explained earlier, I have the mutant power to talk to dogs (which sure comes in handy when a dog is the generalissimo of our team), and Carrot Top has an innate superhuman talent for invention. He’s like Forge, but funnier… Well not that much funnier, I guess.”

“So you’re here to explain the rich history of our secret society of mutants?” another one asked.

“Wait, I remember you,” I said. “What’s your name again?”

“Hoo.”

“You.”

“I said ‘Hoo.’”

“Right, I’m asking you what your name is.”

“I’m Hoo the Owl Girl from the snowy north.”

“Ah yes, I remember doing that bit before. OK, to answer your question, our secret society of mutants is so secret, we don’t even tell anyone our name. So I’ll just refer to it as the Secret Society of Mutants.”

The kids nodded blankly.

“OK, now before I tell you our rich and interesting history, I need you all to stand up and raise your right hand to take the Secret Society of Mutants Secret Society Secret Pledge.”

The kids all complied and I silently mouthed the pledge.

“We didn’t hear that,” a boy who can turn into a basketball whined.

“The pledge is a secret, too,” I explained. “OK, now that you’re all initiated and sworn in, I’m going to give you the history. Our society dates all the way back to colonial America and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock (who had the mutant ability to pull his gall bladder out of his body and use it like a bola) met up with Samuel Adams (who had the ability to spray delicious beer from under his fingernails) and they realized that they had a mutual kinship. They knew that in just two hundred years or so, mutants like them would be hounded and treated poorly for their trivial superhuman abilities by human and mutant alike.”

I paused to let that sink in.

“They formed the Secret Society of Mutants as a brotherhood, a support group, and as a superhuman adventuring team all rolled in one. They soon recruited Francis Scott Key, who could melt cheese (and only cheese) with lasers from his eyes, and Betsy Ross whose ability was to sneeze whenever she saw the color blue…”

“Wait a minute,” Hoo said. “Betsy Ross sneezed when she saw blue?”

“That’s right,” I nodded knowingly.

“But she made the American Flag, that has blue in it.”

“That just proves how much she loved her country,” I answered announcingly. “I couldn’t possibly do the same if I were her situation. Could you even imagine a flag made out of cats?”

The kids looked confused.

“Fast forward a few hundred years and our society has grown widespread throughout the country. There’s Bea Arthur who can eat gravel, Michael Jackson who has the mutant gift of dance, Farrah Faucett, who can cut glass with her nipples, and Karl Malden who has the power to make us laugh.”

“Excuse me, Professor,” Basketball Boy raised his hand. “Aren’t all of those people you just mentioned dead?”

“Er, well yes I guess they are,” I answered.

“Well, does that mean that since we’re in the society, we’re going to die?”

“What? No, of course not. OK, kids, time’s up. Get out of here.”

Friday, July 17, 2009

Flash Boom Ahhhh

She-devil am I? That's not what the hat says, now is it? No, I don't think so.

Rolling my eyes at Koma's melodrama, I head of in search of the faculty offices in order to get the needed faculty approval. How does one start that sort of conversation anyways?

In the second office I peak into, I find a napping John McCain. I double check the name on the door...which reads John McClaine.

????


I go in and wake the old man up. "Are you in the right office?" I ask.

"That's my name on the door, isn't it?" he said with a yawn. He looked at me and straightened his tie. "How can I help you young lady?"

Aw, what the heck. "My group is starting a secret society on Campus here at Maverick U and we need the approval of someone in the faculty. Do you actually work here?"

"After I lost the election, Sarah felt bad so she offered me an honorary position here. I oversee Seal's clubbing. Since there aren't many clubs here, he doesn't go out much. What's the name of your secret society?"






"I see. And what is it you..."

"What are you doing in my office?" demanded a voice.

John and I turned to see the new comer.

"You again?" McCain muttered. "Why don't you just go away?!"

"Because this is my office!"

The two start bickering, and when the fist started flying I decided to leave. I have no desire to see an old man loose.

I wander down the hallway and try another office. The name on the door reads, 'Mace Windu'. Hmm, ok. This guy looks a little more promising.
"Hi! What do you teach?"

Standing there,I suddenly feel wierd...kind of like I have to throw up. I feel this way every time my sister Ariana starts showing off her telepathic skills by blanking my mind, or at least trying to. She never succeeds, just makes me sick to my stomach and gives me a nasty headache. The feeling passes.

"I know why you are here," the tall man says. "What will your society do here?"

Wierd. "Here, I'll show you."

There was a flash, a boom, and he went "Ahhh."

"That wasn't me..." I said. There were more noises and we headed out into the hallway, where there was suddenly lots of smoke.

"They are at it again," he said as the two other teachers ran out of the office. The younger one was chasing the older one.



"Come, follow me," Mace encouraged.

We left the building, which was not a bad idea since it was now on fire.

"What's your name?" I ask as we wander into the parking lot.

"I am Mace Windu. I am sorry, but I cannot approve your society. Already you have disrupted the natural balance here."

"Uhm, it wasn't all that balanced when we got here. If anything, we've brought balance. It makes no sense I know, but two of your so-called teachers just blew up one of the buildings. That's not much different than one of our meetings, so hey - why not."

"I see your point," he said. Still he looked disturbed.

"Look," I said. "All you need to do is approve our society, we'll be gone with-in the semester anyway."

"Tempting. Is that a promise?"

"Uhm, sure."

"Then you have my approval, Flash Boom Ahh! Go and do whatever it is you need to do and begone from this place."

"Thank you!" Impulsively I give him a kiss on the cheek and walk away.

Now to go clubbling with Seal...after all, that is one of the majors offered...

The Lovelorn Origin of “Flash Boom AHHH!”

“Why did Mormon missionaries think hippos could survive in Alaska?”

There was one in every group. Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching. Being able to sculpt young minds, to teach, to shape the next generation of leaders, has always been the cornerstone of a healthy society. Because children are our future — unless we stop them now.

“You givin’ me lip, boy-o?”

The inquisitive pledge clammed up. “No, sir.”

“No sir, sir. Didn’t they teach you manners in Anchorage?”

Being an adjunct at an unaccredited university has its perks. I can have as many parking spaces as I want, and I have full discretion over campus funds, which I’ve already used to lease as many cars as there are parking spaces.

Someday I’ve got to learn to drive.

“Sir,” a brown-nosing freshman began, “sir, I doubt anyone who lived through the famine of ’79 will question the wisdom of those missionaries. A single hippo can last a family of four at least a month.” He smiled smugly.

“Excellent grasp of state history…” I ran my finger over the roster, since I didn’t recognize the fellow (but he had the most familiar burning red eyes!).

“Sandrew. Sandrew Darckloud.” He smiled again. “State history is a specialty of mine. Though, I was hoping to learn more about this secret society of yours…”

“The history of Flash Boom AHHH! is fraught with subtleties and intrigue.” This was the answer I usually gave to get them hooked, but for some reason it just made everyone tense. The crowd roared like it was going to tear me apart!

My heart shot up into my throat. Danger. My life was in immediate danger. If not for my rippling muscles, I would have been afraid.

“Where does the name come from?” Sandrew asked. The others either nodded vigorously or shouted in agreement. Some had clenched fists.

“Enoch Boom was one of the Mormon missionaries. In 1948, he convinced the church elders to dispatch one thousand hippopotamuses from the Salt Lake to Alaska, to ween the native peoples onto an animal ‘closer to God than the whale’. The elders thought he was crazy, of course — they just wanted him gone. So he set out along the Rockies with a caravan of true believers and two frigidaires full o’ vittles.”

A spry girl with three pigtails and a “Maverick-U” jersey started hopping around me menacingly: “Did he found Maverick University?! Why isn’t our mascot a hippo?!”

I coughed. They were all staring at me with bulging eyes; I backed up against the fridge that had sat in this office for nearly 60 years.

“No…” They looked ready to pounce, “Maverick University was already here, but back then it was Seward University, after William Seward, the Secretary of State who bought Alaska from the Russians for a bottle of wine and two beads… it was renamed ‘Maverick University’ in 1972, right after Senator Stevens got that huge campaign contribution from Maverick™ Pharmacologicals.”

I wrapped my hand around the crowbar that had been tucked away under the fridge since the great freak-out of ’86.

“But Enoch Boom did come here, to get climate charts from the most learn-ed climatologists of the far north… for the hippo habitats, you see. It was here that he met (and was enthralled by) Geraldine Flash.”

One guy was grinding his teeth so hard, you could see the enamel flying off in torrents of debris. The others followed suit.

“Flash was from a long line of pyrotechnic experts and craftsmen, but had opted for a career in climatology — although that was a mere cover for her secret ambitions. Geraldine Flash was in fact the first woman to be a member of The Brotherhood of Mesmerism, the precursor to Canada’s more militant Black Cheddarist hypnotist movement. There was no official bar against women, but the organization had a strictly observed unibrow provision (§38, BOM Charter).”

Flipping out a lighter, I set the crowbar aflame and shook it at the pledges. They backed up, some hissing in anger.

“Her job was to subliminally prepare Alaskans for Canadian occupation. This was back when Canada was a virtual superpower, mind you. But ’twas not to be, for Geraldine Flash had fallen deeply in love with Enoch Boom.”

I smiled wistfully. “They met in secret and shared their visions of a perfect world. Realizing they couldn’t rebuild a ‘society bereft of gutter crags’ alone, they dragged in some of Boom’s acolytes and Flash’s graduate students. That’s how our secret society was formed. Would-be members would line up at our door, and just as they could say ‘Flash, Boom…’ someone slammed open the door and went ‘AHHH! AHHH!’ to shush them.”

“Hence the name, yo,” Sandrew finished, succinctly stealing my spotlight. The fraud.

A few students were laying faceup on the linoleum, blood running from their noses and ears. Whatever was warping these industrious students into bloodthirsty fiends was burning them out faster than sugar in a gas tank.

“Here’s the twist: one of Flash’s prized pupils was a spy for the Canadian Defense Ministry! Buster Brown, the septuagenarian strategist behind Canada’s response to War Plan Red was posing as a child prodigy with progeria at Seward U.”

By now the students who had fainted were completely revived and bobbing and weaving before me. Their teeth had regrown, too, and they clawed relentlessly at their scalps. Fiery ichor spilled from the cuts.

“The church couldn’t have taken too kindly to Boom’s project, I wager?” Sandrew chuckled, immune to whatever was maddening his peers. Strange lad, that one.

“Well,” I admitted, “he tried to use Canadian hypnotism to give souls to his beloved hippopotamuses. The Mormon church takes a hard stance on that.”

I shivered, “They expelled him forever from Utah and demanded the return of all hippos north of the arctic circle. Boom couldn’t bear to see his ‘children’ sent back to Utah, where they would languish in the Salt Lake without him. So, like the prophetic shepherd he fancied himself, he led the mesmerized hippos a la the pied piper, into the Alaskan wilderness.”

Skin was now dropping off the students in clumps, revealing soft, velveteen fur beneath. Sandrew just stood there, transfixed by my story. Why did he look so familiar?

“Geraldine declared ‘sanctuary’ and remained on campus for the rest of her life, desperately trying to recreate Enoch’s experiments with reindeer and moose, but the love was gone. She fell on a patch of black ice and broke her neck 50 years ago. We proudly continue her work.”

Sandrew grinned. “And Enoch? The hippos?”

“Buster Brown wasted his life looking, but they were never seen again — though some sasquatch hunters… were… found…”

Snarling and foaming, the deformed pledges surrounded me. Gulping, I entered a special combination on the dial lock. You see, this fridge was unlike other fridges.

“A very complete and convincing rouse.”

I threw “Sandrew” a scowl. “It was, wasn’t it Karl?”

*DUN DUN DUNNNNN!*

Sandrew Darckloud’s ever-present smirk melted away as his lanky frame morphed into master sorcerer Karl Überdale!

“When did you figure it out?”

I polished an apple on my sleeve. “Oh, about the time all my students became GIANT RABBITS. Is this your revenge, Karl?”

“Spencer was ex-pen-dable,” he said, stretching out the word like that. “What I’m after is the Brain of Artemis… it may be fused with bubbling lava, but not inextricably so!” He rolled a graph down from thin air, detailing a maniacal device. “I can recover the Brain, but only if I have a 32/65WP/98-C Sump Pump.”

“What a dry hole you are! Only one such pump was ever built, and it’s… oh, SNAP!” I clutched my chest. “I need that to be witty!”

“You won’t need your wits about you where you’re going,” the insane illusionist intoned, scrambling the collegian cottontails to his raised staff.

I gripped the handle. “I was lying, ‘Sandrew,’” I laughed, “Geraldine Flash didn’t break her neck. She was just… out in the icebox.” Cracking up, I slammed the fridge door into a rabbit-pledge’s face and ducked inside.

“STOP HIM! HE’S GOT THE SUMP PUMP!”

A brilliant white light enveloped me and the scratching at the door stopped. Nervous (as if!), I opened the door. The fridge was outside; only it was a different fridge.

Here’s the skinny: Enoch sobbingly left Geraldine, but he didn’t head off alone with his hippos, no sir. He took one of his matching continental fridges, and left the other fridge with his beloved.

Their love was so strong it created a wormhole between the fridges, surviving decades after their death — until today, when I just plunged a flaming crowbar through the back panel.

Finally free of the sorcerer’s wrath, I began my long journey back to civilization — accompanied by the gentle song of the baleful hippopotamus.

Somewhere, in unexplored Alaskan wood,
A monument to love once stood.
A secret fridge, a hidden stash,
Presiding over Boom and Flash
Who lay in graves at base of hill,
Who lay in wait and wait until
The world that spurned them comes to know
The gentle soul — hipno-hippo.