Tagged: vengeance

I Poked the President in the Chest with the Thumb-Shaped Device

  • by jenthrough the residential neighborhood
  • reloaded at least twice
  • now have caught up with the Hamburger
  • controversy spanning several years
  • as for the possibility of air piracy

Tune in next time part 111                             Click Here for Earlier Installments

I poked the president in the chest with the thumb-shaped device the American Ambassador to Contraria had so recently delivered to me. “What’s the deal?” I asked. “If you’re here in person, why have Myxolemia deliver this? I haven’t even had a chance to look at it yet.”

Thor looked at the thumb drive blankly. “I’ve never seen that before in my life.”

We both stopped walking down the sloping, darkening corridor and stared at the ridiculous object. I held my finger to my lips and my brother nodded. If we were lucky it was merely a listening device. If we were unlucky…

Thor motioned for me to drop the thumb, but I couldn’t do that. This was a hospital. If the thumb exploded, untold innocent lives could be lost. I darted out a side exit and ran through the residential neighborhood, looking for a suitable place for bomb disposal. Thor jogged along beside me. By the time I found an armor-plated dumpster my reservoir of panic had been emptied and reloaded at least twice.

I tossed the suspicious electronic digit into the dumpster and Thor slammed the lid closed. We darted away to a safe distance and then felt free to speak again.

“We must get to the airfield,” Thor said. “My zeppelin is waiting.” I was so anxious to make my escape from Contraria that I didn’t even ask where we would fly to.

Air Force One and a Half was tethered to the top of a landing spire. Thor and I took the elevator up and started across the gangway. We were more than halfway across when I felt a swaying that could only mean someone was behind us. I turned and saw a cadre of masked and armed villains. I gave Thor a shove and we ran the rest of the way into the cabin of the zeppelin, only to be confronted by more blowguns.

A woman in a mask made of broccoli said, “We now have caught up with the Hamburger Heathen!” She was talking, of course, about Thor. His Presidential Decree of Universal Carnivorousness had not sat well with many vegetarians and vegans. It was a controversy spanning several years, and they’d tried seemingly every tactic in the book in their quest for vengeance. As for the possibility of air piracy, I hadn’t previously considered it, but I couldn’t claim to be surprised.

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Whenever She Talked About Dieter

  • by jenwhen she found out he was married
  • exaggerated his size
  • seating configuration woes
  • blue-gray vest with silvery buttons.
  • now have caught up with the Hamburger

Whenever she talked about Dieter, Brittany exaggerated his size, both in the financial and genital departments. She planned an elaborate dinner party to introduce him to her entire family. But when she found out he was married, to some hausfrau in Hamburg, the small apartment’s seating configuration woes seemed hardly worth mentioning, at least not in comparison to her vendetta.

“His lies now have caught up with the Hamburger, as has the woman he scorned,” Brittany growled. “Hell hath no fury, Dieter.”

There were tears on his blue-gray vest with silvery buttons, along with blood and sweat. Brittany had at least never had to exaggerate the size of his wardrobe.

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The Explosion Occurred at Noon Sharp

  • by jenmouth turned down
  • “See ya later.”
  • his fondness for her
  • nodding in admiration
  • all the gasoline on the island

The explosion occurred at noon sharp, and the fire still raged now at midnight. The sky was a smear of orange and black, like the aftermath of a halloween riot. Mason knew all the gasoline on the island had been stored at the airfield, the one still blazing nearly 12 hours after Cassandra lobbed the first incendiary grenade. Mason couldn’t help nodding in admiration of Cassandra’s efficiency, but his fondness for her professionalism did not bleed over into fondness for anything else about her. The woman was ruthless and now Mason and the very rich man he was paid to protect were stranded on the island with her.

He spoke into his walkie-talkie to his employer, safe in the estate’s panic room. “See ya later.” He hoped to be told to stand down, to take cover and wait Cassandra out, but no such order came.

Mouth turned down in a determined frown, Mason checked his weapon and strode into the jungle.

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The Host of My Favorite Music Podcast

  • by jenentirely the wrong kind of inflection
  • turned into wobbly rubber
  • delicately touched the sleeve
  • because of technical embargoes
  • liquor and the jellies
  • with ice in his voice
  • only to force cursing
  • Caesar, the Decembrists, Prince Charlie, Xerxes

The host of my favorite music podcast made the announcement with ice in his voice, and entirely the wrong kind of inflection. Big Jim Caesar, the Decembrists, Prince Charlie, Xerxes and Lolita, and KGI would all be playing Bonnaroo this year, but because of technical embargoes, Liquor and the Jellies (my favorite band), would not. The news seemed designed only to force cursing from me, and I complied, letting loose a stream of profanity that did not stop until my neighbor pounded on the wall. My stomach turned to wobbly rubber when I remembered how much I’d paid for my ticket on Craigslist. I delicately touched the sleeve of my kimono to my cheek to blot my tears of disappointment and fury while inwardly I vowed vengeance against the president’s new War on Synthesizers.

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When I Saw The Photo

  • k-avatarfoolishly assumed that the astronauts were
  • isn’t it a placebo?
  • in an earth-floored hut
  • something bigger, something that lasts
  • such a methodical revenge
  • But I want somebody else, if it ain’t inconvenient
  • Don’t approach them.

When I saw the photo, I foolishly assumed that the astronauts were in an earth-floored hut. Of course I should have known immediately that it was a mars-floored hut. The hut was a temporary structure built alongside something bigger, something that lasts: the medical barracks of the Mars Colony.

Which was my workplace. I looked out the window and there was the hut, still intact despite its official purpose being depleted.

“You are to find these people and administer the injections. But do it via blowgun. Don’t approach them.” The person who showed me the photo also brought two slender hypodermic darts. I glanced at their labels.

“Fauxdoxicam? Isn’t it a placebo? But more importantly, I have no way to tell who the people in the picture are. They’re wearing spacesuits.”

“I can’t answer any questions. All I can do is communicate your mission parameters.” The stranger got up and left, muttering, “But I want somebody else, if it ain’t inconvenient,” into a strange wrist-mounted device.

I had always known that I would someday need to repay the favor I owed to the interplanetary mob. It had to be them. No one else would exact such a methodical revenge.

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Ripples Would Betray Him

  1. k-avatarCharacter – ninja, just one week from retirement
  2. Setting – penguin enclosure
  3. Object – snorkel
  4. Situation – revenge

Ripples would betray him, so there were no ripples.

Shivering would reveal his lack of adaptation to this environment, so there was no shivering.

Oddly, the snorkel didn’t seem to pose a problem.

Swimming among the penguins behind the glass, Jin sought to merge with their graceful motion the way his black garb helped him blend with their distinctive coloration. Swimming, he watched the crowd on the other side of the glass. Watched for them to note something amiss, watched for them to discover that one of the penguins was actually a ninja. Hoped they wouldn’t realize that, in fact, two of them were.

Na must be in here somewhere, too. The one who had dishonored the guild and deflowered Jin’s betrothed. He could only be hiding among the penguins, because Jin knew he wasn’t in any of the other traditional ninja hideouts.

Time was of the essence. Jin and Na were both only a week from retirement, and union rules were very strict about seeking vengeance once a shadow warrior started drawing a pension. But Jin knew he was close, that he need only be patient a little longer.

The time would soon be right. The place was certainly right.

Revenge, after all, was best served cold.

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Claudia Thanked the Semiskilled Employee

  • k-avatarthirty-sixth
  • thanked
  • semiskilled
  • avenged

Claudia thanked the semiskilled employee as her thirty-sixth and final item traversed the scanner and made its way down to the steel-clad staging area for conveyance into a sack, her choice of wood-pulp or petrochemical composition, and surrendered the necessary currency to atone for all these items’ removal from the shelves, and wondered if her inner smile showed at all as she produced also that instrument of rebate, a coupon rare and wondrous that would regain her all the money and more from this accursed edifice, this store that had hardened her soul and rounded her back. Yes, at last she would be avenged.

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Marita Shuddered and Closed Her Eyes

  1. by jenCharacter – alien robot
  2. Setting – dry dock
  3. Object – engagement ring
  4. Situation – scattering ashes

Marita shuddered and closed her eyes. With any luck the horrible cyborg wouldn’t think to look for her in her hiding spot. A ship in dry dock has no need for lifeboats, after all.

Curiosity got the better of her, and Marita opened her eyes. Peering through the crack between the boat and its canvas tarp she caught a fleeting glint of sunlight reflecting off the machine’s shiny blue casing. A second later there was a sharp, electrical noise as the robot fired a blast of energy at the stack of lumber where Lyle was hiding. The wood disappeared in a cloud of ash which quickly scattered in the breeze, exposing Lyle on bended knee, proffering a ring.

Marita watched in amazement as the robot holstered its ray gun and pulled Lyle to his feet. The two of them embraced and walked together to the waiting rocket ship.

“That ring was meant for me!” Marita grumbled, knowing that she would now need to swear vengeance upon the alien robot and its kind in order to save her dignity.

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