Robotic Who Now? (Trog)

He wasn’t exactly sure how he was able to hear people talking at a normal pace when he was running at a not normal pace but hear Iron Vader he did. Skidding to a stop Darren turned and looked at him “The name is Swordsmaster! Come on I’m even on an official hero team and everything!” He said grabbing his Talons’ Dog Tags that were hanging around his neck underneath his ‘costume’ and holding them out for Iron Vader to see before putting them back on around his neck. It wasn’t like they worked anymore, he still wasn’t entirely sure why that was, but Iron Vader didn’t need to know that. All he needed to know that Swordsmaster was totally a legit hero and had been through all sorts of weird things. Not nearly as many weird things as John or Tyuki, or their future daughter, and he wasn’t even Sean’s league but still!

“Also, again!? I mean sure whatever you seem to be smart.” Darren wasn’t the smartest person in the world but he was pretty good with tactics, sometimes, and attempting something over again after it failing last time was not usually a good idea. But! If Iron Vader said it was going to work this time than he had no reason not to trust the guy. Sheathing his sword he backed up a bit getting enough distance to build up speed for his jump as Iron Vader did his thing, shooting his weird glue off at the Mecha-Lincoln. Once that was done the aforementioned Hero took off racing forwards and jumped into the air, hidden blade once more springing loose but this time succeeding in stabbing into the robo-president’s stomach area.

“Hey it worked!” Darren called out the obvious in a very happy and excited manor. Using the hidden blades on both his wrists he climbed up the robot, leaving small holes in the things stomach, until he was able to propel himself up onto the things shoulders. He was just about to cut off the things head when his eyes rested on the giant Katana and a grin spread across his hooded face. Unsheathing the big blade he back flipped off of Mecha-Lincoln holding the sword as if it were as light as a feather and quickly cut the thing free of the glue like substance that was holding him in place. “Hey, Iron Vader! Heads up!” Turning the big katana sideways he swung it like a baseball bat and sent Mecha-Lincoln flying through the air heading towards Iron Vader. Darren was such a good team player.

Caleb felt a wave of relief wash over him as Quick-man was successfull in his attack. After all, he was not entirely sure wether it would work or not, even if the theory had been fairly sound at the time. However, he did not expect his Companion to do what he did next. He stole the robot's giant sword and swung it like abat, slamming it into the air, hurtling towards him at breakneck speeds. However, fortunately our hero was not one to stand frozen or dumbfounded all that often, and in less than a tenth of a second he had come up with an adequate plan With a swift keystroke he activated the first and second parts of his plan. The Gatlin-gun and the drones

Caleb's deadly Gatlin-gun was rotating furiously sending energy-bolt after energy-bolt into the mecha-Lincoln as it hurtled towards him. the individual bolts did not do much damage, but Caleb hoped to win against the robot using 'death by a thousand cuts'-style tactics. However, he would do better than just gatlin'gunning it. The drones had gotten their orders and were all firing at the airborn robot. All the Lincoln-esque features had been blown away, as had the suit. It was all dented and battered armour and scorched metal with rags and half-melted rubber hanging from it now. Small bits and pieces flew from it as thousands upon thousands of laser-shots from the Gatlin'-gun collided with it.

He descended a bit to get below the robot and aimed his gauntlet-blaster at it, and by twisting the small dial he had turned it up to maximum force. This bolt would be individually far stronger and boasted enough of a punch to to change the robots trajectory. He quickly did the math in his head. . . The perfect time to fire would be in. . . three - two - one - Blast-off!

The laser-bolt shot out and slammed into the chest of the lincoln-droid, the force of it sending the robot flying straight up into the air, it seemed to be disoriented as its arms flailed and with it's eyes covered it had no idea what was actually going on around it. part of the robot-formerly-known-as-Mecha-Lincoln's chest-armor came off as it was hit and fell to the ground. There was smoke comming from it now, and instead of shouting a small synthetic whine came from it. It seemed that he had knocked the voice-program off line. The Gatlin-gun continued to spin, sending an unending stream of deadly laser-bolts into the robot, as it first rose and then started to fall, as it had reached the zenith of it's upwards journey. As it crashed towards the ground it was in horrible condition. One of its hands were missing and it's leg was bent in a way that it should not be bent, the armour was either partially missing or battered into tortured sheets of metal barely hanging on to the main body, but it was still active, despite the thick, oily clouds of smoke that came out of it's internal workings.

"Quick-man! Finish it!" Caleb hollered triumphantly as it was about to crash to the ground.

So, even before what he had just witnessed Darren knew that Iron Vader’s pewpew gun was awesome and that his mini drone things were pretty cool but now he was definitely sure they were. Like if he wasn’t able to physically see each and every shot, move around them and poke Iron Vader hundreds of times before the guy even registered what was going on he might be scared of the guy. Because he was able to do all of that though he wasn’t as scared as he probably should have been and there was also the fact that Iron Vader was a good guy like Swordsmaster was and therefore they wouldn’t have to ever fight and he wouldn’t have to ever test the that theory of his.

The Mecha-Lincoln, or what was left of it landed on the ground after being assaulted by Iron Vader’s weapons system in a pile of crap. A seemingly still working pile of crap though and as the other hero was still in the air it came down to Darren to finish the barely working robot off it seemed. Wielding the giant Katana he ran over to where the downed thing was and speared the thing in what was left of its head cutting all the way through it before removing the blade and decapitating the Robot. Death by decapitation, after you know being rained down upon by a hail of laser fire from a gatling pewpew gun. Now, Darren was not an expert on what a ‘respectable’ death was but he was pretty sure this was not it. It was probably better than the way the robot yelling about communism had died but still not respectable.

Looking at the giant Katana and weighing the options of keeping it for a little bit before realizing he liked his sword better Darren dropped it so that it was stabbed into the mutilated robots leg. Or what he thought was the leg. That done he turned to look up at Iron Vader. “So, should we check out the inside of the place now? Maybe the guy or gal who did this is actually in there. Well probably not after we just took down Mecha-Lincoln but you know there’s still the possibility that you can do your fancy google search and find out who they are or why they did what they did. Also come on the name is totally Swordsmaster, it isn’t that hard…” Because yes if he was going to continue calling him Quick-Man he was going to keep correcting him. Probably, actually no he’d eventually get bored of it but whatever.

Caleb gave an exasperated sigh as his sidekick spoke up again. He definitely did not approve of having his ingeniously clever systems being referred too as 'a fancy google search' (even though it may not be that far from the truth) but what he really did not approve of was being called 'The Iron Vader' That was a stupid name, especially since the guy had never watched star-wars. Besides, his armor was designed after the mandalorian armors. He would have tolerated "The Iron Mandalorian" but noooo, he had to go with the 'Iron Vader' one. He descended and landed next to his new Sidekick in order to straighten a few things out before they moved on.

"First of all:It's not a 'fancy google-search', okay? I'm like, a genius, geniuses don't need google for stuff like this, man! C'mon." Caleb whined, his Deep, awesome voice definitely not working to his advantage. In fact it was rather the opposite. Also, the fact that he had made the finger-quotation marks around the words 'fancy google search' did not help his case either.

"Second: Don't call me Iron Vader. It's like, a totally stupid name. You can call me. . . Oooh, let's go with Captain Awesome!" Caleb said cheerfully, smiling goofily underneath his helmet. Even though he hated to admit it, the other fellow had a point back when he said that 'Desolator' sounds like too much of a villain-type name. Captain Awesome was a whole lot better. It told people everything that they needed to know about him. That he was awesome, and apparently a captain somehow. Well, it was a white lie he supposed. Just 'Awesome' would not have the same ring to it.

"But yeah, anyways, let's go and like, try to find that robot-builder-guy who loves presidents so much" Caleb said, hoovering through the hole left by the Mecha-Lincoln when he bursted out of the facility like a mole bursting out of the ground. The inside looked almost as run-down as the outside, but some of the assembly-lines and cranes seemed to be in excellent condition, as if maintenance was conducted at least semi-regulrarly. It was clear that someone had used this place. With a quick series keystrokes on his lift-top a bundle of drones wooshed past the pair like angry, purple metal tennis-balls. They would scout through the place to give him a rough sketch of the place. Of course, he had sent the rest of them to scour the surrounding countryside, looking for any escaped, evil robot-building patriots.

"Wow. You know, I could probably build some seriously impressive gear in a place like this." Caleb said reverently as he looked around, whistling in an impressed fashion at some of the larger machines.

"I mean, President-bots? Gimme a break. I would totally whip up some laser-shooting, end-of-the-world black-hole generating mecha's with repulsor-shields and weapons that could obliterate anything any military could throw at them, and then I'd. . ." He went on, talking at an increased pace, obviously starting to get way too enthusiastic as he realized the potential of this place. Then he realized what he had said, and what company he was currently in

"If I was a villain, I mean. but that would be wrong." he finished lamely.

When Iron Vader touched down on the ground next to him and started talking Darren kind of zoned out. Well not so much as kind of as completely zoned out, sure the guy probably had something interesting to say or was detailing the plan for how they were to take on the base of operations for the robot presidents but Darren could not care less. His entire attention was completely focused on the butterfly that was fluttering over the ashes destroyed robotic presidents. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was doing over there but all of his attention was completely placed on the butterfly and what it was doing and oh hey look now there was two of them! That was totally awesome, they were awesome. Butterflies were cool, almost as cool as squirrels but nowhere near as cool as bunnies and deer.

It was only when Caleb started to move away from Darren and towards the factory warehouse place that he realized they were actually off doing things. Waving goodbye to his Butterfly friends, who probably had no idea he even existed, Darren followed the man who didn’t want to be called Iron Vader despite the fact that he sounded like Darth Vader and looked like he was a supped up War Machine or Iron Man. If he didn’t want to be called that the guy would definitely need to find a nickname for himself pretty soon that didn’t make him sound like a super villain or something out of a cartoon. If he didn’t the media would probably end up giving him one and they weren’t always the best of names. Not everyone was as lucky as Darren was when it came to nicknames, like that guy in Chicago they were calling ‘The Guy in Black’. Now that was a terrible Hero name.

After making their way inside Darren looked around with his mouth slightly open. “Woa this place is huge, well not like huge, huge you know? I mean the inside of the Pyramids are much bigger and I’ve seen buildings that housed Space Ships but it is big and got that creepy horror movie vibe to it.” After that was all out he stopped and listened to what Iro-not Iron Vader had to say because he had to listen to what his partner on this weird journey had to say every now and then. The guy might have something smart to say or a plan or something. Plans were usually good, but Darren never made up his that was usually John’s job. Except this time it was not a plan it was the guy listing off things that a super villain would and it made Darren stop in his tracks behind the guy and look at him with his head to the side slightly and eyes kind of wide.

“Dude, you totally just sounded like a super villain there. Like for real, don’t do that. Nice save by the way.” He laughed rolling his eyes and slapping the man on the back before walking past him. “Now if you excuse me I’m going to go help your tennis balls scout the area because that’s something you do when you walk into an unknown area.” That said and done he took off and in what seemed to be about three seconds, tops, to Caleb the boy blunder was back standing next to him as if he had never left and if Caleb had blinked or looked away it would even appear as if he hadn’t. “Yea okay no I didn’t see anyone…” Darren replied eating a hot dog that he totally didn’t go back into town to get after an unsuccessful scouting mission.

Caleb blushed a bit as he was Quick-man caught his rather immoral statement. Yeah, sure, he had let his enthusiasm get the better of him, but it really irked him that someone with this kind of resources at his disposal would waste them on making glorified, president-themed toys. It was looking at someone with their grubby hands on a super-computer, wich they solely used to play pong and occasionally delving into such modernities such as 'Oregon trail', but staunchly refusing to deal with anything beyond ascii Graphics. If they ever managed to catch this guy he would have to ask him what he was thinking when he started wonking around with presidents. It was just embarrassing to watch, really.

"It's just that the guy's all this stuff to work with, yet he does nothing but goof around with president-lookalikes, you know. I mean, it's like having your sword-fighting-powers and super-speed thing and using it exclusively to peel potatoes." Caleb complained as they looked around inside in the not-so-abandoned factory. He had already figured out at least four designs that would be workable with a minimum of snags, the most impressive of them were based on the Washingbots, but it would make the robotic presidents look like toy-soldiers if he decided to build it. . . .But that would have to wait for another day. He had to be a superhero now.

"Also, you know I have those things so that you don't have to scout personally, right?" he explained, but when he looked back to where Quick-man had been standing, he was not there anymore. Although in a few seconds he returned, munching on a hot dog. Caleb was just about to berate him about how it was not cool to leave inthe middle of another persons sentence, but the smell distracted him.

Wait, there's Hot dogs!? Where'd you get that hot dog? He asked in the manner of a pouty little brother who had no idea that there were chips in the house and desperately wants them before they are all gone. Also, there was something about 'villanous lair where evil robotic presidents are built' and 'Hot-dogs' that did not exactly mesh in his head. Although when he thought about it, even evil geniuses crippled by an obsession with presidents must eat, and what more patriotic snack were there than the humble hot dog? Well, maybe the burger and fries, but still. Hot dogs were tasty.

Munching on his hot dog Darren shrugged when asked by not Iron Vader where he got it. “I dunno, back in town. Why you want one?” He asked pulling one out of his pocket and holding it out for the other hero to take. “Not sure how you’d eat with that helmet of yours on though. Kind of why I wear a hood, helps hide my face and I can still eat and talk and all of that stuff.” If Not Iron Vader took the hot dog Darren would continue on looking around waiting for his partner on this strangely un-patriotic, if you were American, journey to do whatever it was people who were insanely smart and good detectives did. Mostly because Darren hadn’t been able to find the culprit they had been looking for. If he didn’t take the hot dog, Darren would simply finish off the one he had started on before continuing with the next one.

Either way at some point he’d reach up under his hood with his non hot dog filled hand and scratch the back of his head. “So, uh seeing as I didn’t find the guy or gal we came here to look for what exactly can you do with all this stuff? Besides make robots and things to take over the world of course? I mean like detective wise. You’re smart, usually I’d give up or get distracted by something and forget all about this until I got attacked by one of them again. I’ve never actually stuck around long enough to see this side of the job. Well no I tried once but Forceave and Ranger both kicked me out of the room because apparently I talk too much and am a distraction. Which is totally no-Hey that thing is shiny.” Darren stated running off over to a shiny piece of, well he wasn’t sure what it was but it was sitting on the ground next to one of the conveyor belt.

A humming noise came from somewhere within the recesses of Calebs helmet when Quick-Man asked him what he would be able to accomplish with all of the equipment lying around here. There were oh-so-much he would be able to do. Some of it would probably be a boon to mankind, some of it would be very dangerous, and most of it would be even more deadly. He rubbed his armoured hands together in anticipation as he approached what looked like the main console. He cracked his knuckles theatrically as he started tapping away. He easily cracked the security and figured out the custom O.S whoever had designed this place had put in place.

"Well, 'Build robots' is a good start, but it wouldn't quite cover it. 'Build weapons' is another thing and a third is 'Build bombs'. But that's more of a hobby. I like, never blow things up anymore." Caleb said as he tapped away. He also took a Hot-dog in his hand, held it and handed it back. "Thanks, but no thanks, man. Can't eat with my helmet on." he said, far more dejectedly than he had intended.

There were all manner of specs here, including information of something 'big' hidden near the lincoln memorial. Some sort of armor. It was hard getting much information on it since chunks of it was missing, but he had been able to trace it since the second-last input had been a message for it to activate. However, the last input was what worried him. It have been given a few seconds ago by remote, and it was basically putting the reactor underneath the place to overload so that it would have been buried. Caleb tried to cancel this process, but the generator was too long gone.

So, I got good news and I got bad news. The good news is I know were he is heading. The bad are that this place is about to blow up. I hate to have to ask you this, but could you carry me? I've done the math in my head, and I wouldn't make it out in time otherwise. Caleb said, somewhat embarrassingly.

Sure, Darren may have been completely distracted by all of the shiny things that were in the factory that he could find and he may have been in his own little world looking at all of the pieces and trying to find out what it was they did but, when his partner in heroics spoke up again he stopped. Turned towards the guy and listened to what he had to say. Or, at least the beginning of it anyway. The good news he gave out was awesome, they knew where the guy or gal was and they could now go race off at speeds much slower than Darren would have liked but still kind of fast. The bad news? Well Darren didn’t even wait to hear all of the bad news because as soon as Not Iron Vader spoke up saying the place was about to blow he took action.

Racing over to where the other guy was standing Darren lifted him up into his arms and darted out of the factory through the giant hole created by Mecha-Lincoln all in one go. Moments later as the place was exploding he would come to a stop on a hill not too far away, but outside of the blast radius, overlooking the now burning and destroyed factory that had previously been where the two heroes had been standing. “Well, that was close. Would have been terrible to have taken down all those big bad presidential robots only to die in a firey explosion with tons of metal parts sticking out of our bodies.” He said after putting the other guy down on his own two feet with a smile on his face. Darren always looked on the bright side, it was part of his charm. Or his immaturity, same thing really.

“Be right back though. Fire is bad.” He said before taking off and running around the explosion site as fast as he could in a circle creating a sort of vortex and sucking all of the oxygen out of the fire. Or, something like that. Science wasn’t his thing. Actually most educational subjects weren’t ‘his thing’ but that didn’t mean he didn’t know it helped to put out the fire and when that was done he returned to where Not Iron Vader was standing and leaned against a tree panting slightly. “Alright, so we know where the big bad creator is why don’t we go after him?”

Caleb was quite taken aback as he was suddenly grabbed and the scenery started to whip by. It was like riding a roller-coaster only far more scary, especially since our hero knew that if he banged an arm and a leg into a wall or a doorframe at these breakneck speeds he would most definately lose them, and rather painfully at that. After all speeds like this one were known as "breakneck" for a reason. Caleb closed his eyes and did his best to hold his arms and legs as close to the body as he possibly could, hoping that his newest companion managed to carry him to safety without any of his limbs falling off

But it seemed that he had little cause to worry, since when he felt the ride stop, he still had every limb attatched. He could feel the wave of heat as the facility exploded, the flames reaching for the sky. Fortunately they were far enough away so that they did not have to worry about debris or anything of that sort. There were quite a bit of fire still burning, and he was about to suggest they leave it to the police. After all they had a villain to fight However, Quick-man decided that this was not how he did things. He ran towards the fire and using his super-speed he put it out. It was an incredible sight to behold. At times like this he wished that he had been born with a few more awesome powers than he had been. Sure, being a genius rocked ,but brains can't stop fires on their own. Well, with all the psychics running around some could, but his definately could not. However, with the right technology there might be a way for him to affect things in the physical world with his brain.

"Woah, man. You've got some serious power there. I mean, like, seriously powerful powers" Caleb said Lamely as his friend returned. He was currently giving instructions to his remaining drones. Sure, he had lost a few in the battles against mecha-Lincoln and even more in the explosions, but most of them were doing fine and dandy. It was time for them to head to the Lincoln Memorial. He paused for a few seconds, realizing he had to give verbal instructions to his new ally

"The bad guy is heading to the Lincoln Memorial. He's got something big stashed away somewhere around there." Caleb said as he took to the air, heading back to the city. He was wondering what manner of challenge the last stand of this rather patriotic villain would present to the pair, but he hexpected it to be quite a doozy. After all, whatever he had buried there was alot bigger than anything they had faced in this little excursion thus far.

Darren only grinned when Not Iron Vader complimented his powers, “Thanks, they are kind of cool aren’t they? Your suit is pretty badass too. You are totally going to make an awesome super hero someday.” Was he too positive? Probably. Was he too easily excitable and happy? Most definitely. Was he wrong? No. Darren had been around heroes and villains for quite some time now and he was pretty good at telling who was what and whether or not they’d be any good at this big game they all played. It probably wasn’t a good thing that he still considered everything to be a game but when you had a history like he did, ignoring everything from the real world and throwing up this façade where everything is one big game is the only way you could deal with life. Or, at least that’s what psychologists would say.

Darren wasn’t one, so he didn’t know any of that. He just liked having a good time, stopping the bad guys, and saving people’s lives along the way. It was practically all he knew but he knew he was damn good at it. Of course it wasn’t until Not Iron Vader started moving that Darren realized they had to go off and find the big bad ‘patriot’, as NIV kept calling him, and end this once and for all! He moved to take off after his partner in heroics when the name of the location they were going to caught his ears. The Lincoln Memorial? “Hey, isn’t that the big marble building with pillars and inside it a giant statue guy with a beard is sitting in a chair? I was sitting on top of the building before all this started! I totally could have stopped him beforehand! Well you know if I knew he had been there…” He asked/explained/complained.

In all honesty Darren probably wouldn’t have been able to take down the Robotic President making Patriot. Not because he wasn’t powerful or experienced enough to do it on his own but simply because he hadn’t known. It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t psychic or a mind reader, but would that stop the little guy from feeling bad about it? No, probably not. What would make him feel better was getting there and stopping the mad man from hurting anyone else and so before NIV could even protest Darren picked him up and took off back to the Lincoln Memorial running as fast as he possibly could. Needless to say as the scenery flew by they arrived merely seconds later and Darren was able to set his partner down. “Where is he? Or her? Them…” Sword already drawn and ready for action.

Caleb's bony chest puffed up in pride as the man told him that his suit was badass. True, he already knew it was pretty badass since that had been why he originally intended it to be built that way. Also, having a particularly awesome voice that sounded a bit like (but still legaly distinct from) Darth Vader and the whole having a semi-autonomous laser gatling-gun perched on your shoulder was hardly a point against being badass in his book. In fact it was probably on the list of the official 'badass accessories list'. He was just to respond in a gracious and humble manner when his somewhat dim companion managed to strike a rather sore nerve

"Whudda ya mean 'some day'? I'm an awesome superhero now. I've like, fought ninjas, saved damsels and captured literal soul-sucking monsters already." Caleb blurted out in a quarrelsome fashion, obviously rather taken aback by the comment. Sure, the damsels had mostly been saved by Erwin, and they weren't really damsels either, more like 'ninjas that could probably kick his armored butt from here all the way to japan and back before lunch-time, but he decided to Withhold that little detail, mostly to protect the identities of Diana and her accented genin, of course. Yeah. Lets go with that.

I"Yeah that's the one. lf we hadn't bashed his other robots he might not have tried activating it today. from what I've read in his databanks he's been at this for at least five years. He's worked at this for a long time." Caleb responded, deciding to let go of his indignation from when Darren told him he would be a great superhero 'some day'. After all, he had all the time in the world to be petty after they had saved whoever their enemy was going hurt from whatever he had stashed near the Lincoln memorial

"Also, I don't know if it helps but his name is Amos Smith. I figured that might be like, one of your arch-nemesis-type of guy or something" He added lamely. The did not ring any bells in his head, but maybe Darren would know.

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What most people think off when they hear of a 'insane genius who build robots'. is a bitter nerd teeming with impotent rage, but Amos Smith was pretty much the opposite. He was a big man with the physique of a bodybuilder, the winning smile of a movie-star and a handsome face further enhanced by plastic surgery, all wrapped in a 'classical' Armani suit. A charismatic natural leader that commanded respect and admiration of all that met him. But Amos had a secret. And that secret was that he had a dream, and that he had been working on a way to make that dream a reality for more than a decade. And now his dream was threatened by a pair of halfwit vigilantes!

He quickly drove his car onto the lawn of the Washington park. He did not have time to do this the way he planned to do this. He could feel the sweat on his forehead as he did his best to not hit the people spending the afternoon in the park. He cursed under his breath as a young woman bounced over his hood, her cup of coffee splashing across his windshield. It was not supposed to go like this, It was not how it was planned! This was supposed to be a bloodless coup, nobody was supposed to get hurt! Nobody except the liberal pinkos! It was unfortunate that the presumably innocent woman had to get hurt, but he needed to do this! After all, you could not make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. He narrowly avoided crashing into an elm and rushed out of the car, almost tripping and falling over.

Two policemen rushed towards him shouting at him to stop and put his hands, but he was not going to let some nobody stop him from ascending! He rushed towards the quicker man and caught him in a hold around the waist and suplexed him with such force that he could hear his neck break. The other one started to draw his weapon but before he had time to do so, Amos had already closed the distance between the two. He towered above the poor, over wheight policeman, who only now had gotten his gun out of the holster. With a series of swift motions Amos had grabbed the mans wrist, pulled the gun from his hand and used it against him. It even though he was almost in his forties he had lost none of his strength since his days as a Navy Seal.

He breathed out and adjusted sunglasses and wipe the sweat of his brow as he activated his weapon. The weapon in question was a twenty-foot robot, that was currently tearing itself through the lawn. He had not yet given it a presidential look, but it was still painted white blue and red, just like the country he was trying to save from itself. As he climbed into his mecha he briefly thought of the two police-officers he had killed. It was unfortunate, but it was not really his fault, his hand had been forced. If anyone were to be blamed, it would be those so-called heroes that had hounded him today. They were to blame. But they would soon be out of his way, and after that, the yould be nothing but a footnote in history. He activated the loudspeakers in his robot. It was time for him to announce the nation. It was time for him to give the speech he had worked on for ten long years.

"I have a dream! That one day, every person in this nation will control their own destiny! A land of the truly free dammit! A nation of action not words -- ruled by strength not committee! Where the law changes to suit the individual, not the other way around! America is diseased -- rotten to the core...there's no saving it... We need to pull it out by the roots! Wipe the slate clean -- burn it down! And from the ashes a new America will be born! Evolved but unchained! The weak will be purged -- and the strongest will thrive -- free to live as they see fit! They'll make America great again! Now I march on the White house to make that dream a reality! Will you join me!?" he announced pompously as his voice swelled with patriotic fervor. As for the vigilantes, they could come as soon as they pleased! Nothing could defeat him now!