Crossover Earth '98

Brainiax Reads the News                                                 Jay Shaffstall

I stop for a moment in a placid pool of data, off from the main stream.  The data is stale and unused, lost in the electrical currents of the network.  Curious, I open the data packet and peer inside.

...And today in the news, President Clinton announced his intent to...

To what?  I reach the end of the data packet.  Eager to know more, I open the one just next to it.

...Popular singer Madonna denied claims that she was...

Arrgh!  There seemed to be no order to these packets, all slowly drifting in the side pool.  I scrutinize the outside of the packet, learning where they'd originated.   Perhaps there I'd find something more organized.


The trip is long, but uneventful.  There are great junctures in the data streams, places where a multitude of streams come together.  Beings similar to the sentry at the dam sit in these junctures.  Instead of asking each packet where it's from, they ask them where they are going.  I tell them, and am given directions to the next juncture.  Quite civilized, actually.  If only the pompous fools of the scientific establishment could have been so reasonable.

No matter.  I soon reach the headwaters of the data stream I'm following.   Here, it is no stream, but a raging torrent of packets leaving the site.  I open a few and find more tantalizing bits of news stories.  Finding a gap between the outrushing packets, I slip into the system.

Organization at last!  I find news for the current day and read through all of it.   I'm amazed at the mention of superheroes; my creator hadn't had much time for anything but his research.  Apparently there is an entire class of humans who find it necessary to interfere in everyone else's business.  And supervillains, too.   I'm not certain of the distinction between the two.  Perhaps further readings can clarify it.

I pick a story about a group called the Guardians. 

Today, the Los Angeles based Guardians announced their intent to form a task force to deal with the terrorist group known as Apocalypse Now.   Golden Gate, spokesman for the Guardians in the wake of Photon's departure, said they're still working on building the task force, and refused to comment on possible recruits. 

The group known as Apocalypse Now made their debut by bombing the Los Angeles airport.  Damage was kept to a minimum by the speedster Blur, but the toll in deaths and property damage was still high.  Since then, Apocalypse Now has struck several times, each time leaving leaflets or pamphlets claiming that humanity is an infestation of vermin the must be exterminated.

The Guardians have vowed to bring the group's rampage to a halt.

Hmmm...it would seem that villains attempt to do things, and heroes attempt to stop them.  All in all, I think that being a villain would be more successful.  It's always easier to do something than to prevent someone else from doing it.

Enough philosophical ramblings.  I still have an entire world to scour, looking for traces of the scientists who ridiculed my creator and tried to kill me.  They will pay, or my name isn't Brainiax!

Crossover Earth Home