Episode 053 Previous Episode	Next Episode
“What kind of powers do you have? And do you use them for good, or for awesome?” Strong Bad, Strongbad_email.exe Alan’s index and middle fingers ran along either side of his nose as he held his chin. Staring at the computer screen in the dark hotel room, his watery eyes studied every character and facet of information that scrolled slowly in front of him. In a white tank top and black slacks, he sat next to the window, his cutlass resting against the round table. Before him, the desktop computer’s blue screen showed white letters that moved persistently along at a snail’s pace while a status bar along the bottom showed the measly 7% completed status. A crack of lighting shot through the air outside the hotel window, but he didn’t notice. Knock-Knock “Come in,” he said without looking away. The door opened and Dante came in with a pair of fast food bags. “Hey,” he exclaimed. “Why’re the lights off?” Alan looked away for the first time, realizing how dark the room was. He looked at the clock on the computer. “Holy crap, it’s 8:30?!” he said, jumping up. “Yeah, man,” Dante said, sitting down on the hotel bed, shoving one of the bags into Alan’s chest. “You’ve been decoding, or whatever, all day.” “No wonder I’m so stiff,” Alan said, popping his back. He fished through the bag, pulling out a sandwich. He took a bite and grimaced, causing Dante to smile. “I miss Chicos,” he commented to himself. “What?” his cohort asked. “That place off Board Street,” Alan answered sentimentally before taking another bite. “The one with the girl?” Dante chuckled, recalling. Alan looked at the computer screen for a moment more. “Remember how Jericho was reviled for using steroids on the Hand of the Brotherhood?” “Yeah,” Dante nodded after swallowing. “The Brotherhood of the Sun, the paragon of humanity that it wanted to be, didn’t take too kindly to it as I recall.” “It wasn’t steroids,” Alan declared. He looked to Dante. “It was gene therapy.” “Say what?” “There’s a series of genetic traits that are shared by all knights,” Alan explained. “I’m still trying to figure out how that works or what it’s all about, but some people have a genetic predisposition towards knighthood. There’s some kind of subconscious drive that they have, sort of like some people just have a genetic predisposition towards certain illnesses.” “Oh good,” Dante said. “The Oath of Chivalry and cervical cancer have something in common.” “Jericho wasn’t giving his men steroids,” Alan said. “He was giving them gene therapy, to artificially make them knights.” “Why?” Dante asked. “I don’t know,” Alan said. “My guess would be to utilize Knightspeak, but that’s just a guess.” He ate quietly for a few moments. “Dante, this is so much bigger than I thought. I’ve barely scratched the surface and there’s so much data that Jericho didn’t complete.” “Are we going to be able to use this?” he asked with a glance to the computer. “Oh yeah,” Alan said certainly. “Better than I expected too. Jericho had already put a similar plan to ours into production. You know how we were worried about how to broadcast the signals? He’s already got that taken care of for us.” “How?” “Street lamps,” Alan said. “Street lamps?” Dante asked. “Street lamps,” Alan repeated. “Everything looks like it’s all set up.” He laughed. “Jericho was in position for a daring assault. The fortress that the Brotherhood of the Sun constructed was just the final stage. When the knights assaulted it, they stopped a bid for world domination that was in its last hours of preparation. Another day or two and the Brotherhood of the Sun would have been unstoppable.” He pointed at the screen. “Largely due to Knightspeak and everything that’s related to it.” “So what’s the plan from here?” Dante asked. “Me and Ryoko and Matt have already gotten a couple of dozen responses to our queries on Knightsnet. I’d say we’ve got at least thirty something people who are ready to go when we say.” Alan looked at the computer screen, staring cynically at the status bar. “We need time,” he breathed. “This is taking forever. I’m having to decode the programs almost line by line because of the encryption process the Brotherhood of the Sun used. On top of that, this is some pretty advanced physio-psychology stuff. Way out of my league. We need to find some people who can fully understand it.” “Understand what?” Dante chuckled. “We can worry about why the stuff works later.” “No we can’t,” Alan said. “If we don’t understand how this stuff works, then we can’t rely on it to work all the time. We can’t rely on it to work when we need it to, or to not be undone.” He stood up and paced in front of the two beds. “This is the most powerful weapon in human history, bar none. We can’t take it into battle without knowing everything about it.” “Alan, I’m with you,” Dante said, “but you’re talking about the kind of thing that takes a lifetime. And while I don’t mind investing it in this cause, we are going to run out of money soon. Maybe not soon-soon, but sooner rather than later.” “That’s why I’ve got Eliot out there looking for opportunities,” Alan explained, his mind elsewhere. “We’ve got to find a renewable income source that will support us while I get this thing squared away.” “You’re looking for a get-rich scheme, Alan. They don’t exist,” Dante said. Alan smiled. “They might if we can use this on them,” he said, glancing at the computer. “Think about it. We invest in an entertainment forum, a club or something like that, that allows us to play Knightspeak under the music so people keep coming back night after night. We’ll have the financing we need.” “So Eliot’s looking for a club for us to what? Buy into?” Dante asked. “Pretty much,” Alan nodded. “We get the financing; we buy the time we need to understand this stuff. We understand it; we can rely on it to fulfill our plans. We fulfill our plans and the world will once again know that the knights, whether it be one knight or one hundred knights, is more than any other force on this earth can handle.”
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