Mad Science Showdown
From Create Your Own Story
The man spins around in his large chair, a record delicately held between his hands as he uses his feet to stop himself in front of the table full of microphones, dials, knobs, switches, and various media players from records, to CDs. He eases the record down and seats it in its' player, carefully lifting the needle and setting it near the middle of the record as the vinyl starts to spin.
A few pops and cracks of static are the first noises out of the player before the music starts in earnest: heavy, slow drum beats fill the air accompanied by a guitar strumming a tune with a western feel to it. The music is soft and maintains a steady rhythm.
"Good morning to all of you out there waking up on this finnnnee day. It's Sly here," the man says as he leans in to the microphone, turning the volume on the music lower to not drown him out and just be background noise.
"Hope you all had a long night's rest. I'm sure we all know what day it is. I certainly do. The 109.5 AM tower I'm in sits up here on the bluff overlooking our fine metropolis and I can see the construction crews gettin' to work as they continue to slave away repairing the damage that a certain bunch of assholes who shall remain nameless caused in 2049."
Sly reaches up on the panel, pressing one of the buttons as the sound of a jackhammer and other construction noises fill the air. He holds it for a few seconds, then releases it and the construction noises stop.
"In a way, we've all been dreading this day. We knew what it meant when the people we didn't get to vote for decided that this is how things are going to work. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful, less random destruction and senseless death but just... come on!"
Sly inhales, and exhales slowly into the microphone to let the noise slip in to the radio broadcast.
"Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm sure there are some of you out there who have no idea what the man up there in that tower is talkin' about. Maybe you've just moved here, or maybe you've been living under a rock. In any case, I think it is a time for a little New Gunnison History 101."
"Let me take you back to what this place was like in 2047. Now we've always had a problem with scientists. Well, mad scientists. They loved building things, blowing each other up, blowing up the city, and blowing all us regular folk up. Most of their fights were contained. A few heroes rose up, beat them down. Life went on and the damaged parts of the city were rebuilt. I dare say there wasn't part of the city back then that didn't get hit at one point or another," Sly said, then leaned back in his chair. The creak of the metal under his weight loud enough to just be picked up and sent to the radios of everyone listening in.
"Fastforward two years, to 2049. A bunch of these crazy S.O.Bs decide to have a huge battle royale to see just who is the best of the best and see who really deserves to take over this city. Well over two dozen of these guys got involved, plus, and I use this term loosely, several heroes. After all hell broke lose the fighting didn't end for two, yep - count em', two whole weeks! You could count on one hand the districts of the city that were still standing after that one," he continued, shaking his head slowly despite the fact that nobody could see him.
"The fighting only stopped when the Mayor proposed an idea to these crazed labcoats. He'd build them an arena, and they can have at it there. They can leave the rest of us alone, and the city too, and go to town on each other. Each year having a different theme so that nobody felt left out. The grand prize? You control the city for two weeks, incidentally the same amount of time that fighting went on. And I'm sure you'll get some neat trophy too. Since none of them had ever actually succeeded between the infighting and the heroes, the looney labcoats agreed and put away their toys," Sly paused for a moment, reaching off to his left to grab his mug of coffee and take a sip. He knew a few of those looney labcoats would be listening in, but he was sure they'd have better things to do than deal with his insolence.
"The arena was built first, then reconstruction on the city started. It's been pretty quiet since the last time some giant machine destroyed downtown, and I'm glad for that but I'm not sure I really want one of these guys controlling the city for two whole weeks. Don't forget though, folks, the heroes are allowed to enter too. They don't have the madness or technical skills, but they do have the drive to win. Either way, by the end of today we'll see just who controls this city."
A knock on the glass in front of him, just below the lit 'on air' sign made Sly spin his chair around. His boss was standing there, tapping his watch. Sly knew the signal, it meant commerical time.
He spun his chair back around and leaned into the mic, trying to finish up before he ran out of time: "I've got to sign off for a bit, get some music in, let our advertisers make their money but I'll be back in a few hours coming to you live from the site of this year's Mad Science Showdown. We'll have a short talk about this year's theme, go over a few of the favourites, and get this party started. Good luck to all you crazy asshats, you'll need it! Sly, signing off."
Sly leaned back in his chair and switched off his microphone, letting the music from the record drift out over the airwaves. Today was going to be some day...
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