Part 5
“I call upon the member for the Estuary of the Aeron to formally move the motion!”
As the council chairman called on me to stand, my fellow councillors all applauded and I had to gesture to them to stop as it was all quite embarrassing.
“Mr. Chairman” I started, “fellow members of the council, I would like to first of all thank you for the warm welcome that you have given me. I have to admit that being the baby of the council is being a little difficult to get my head around and I apolgise in advance if I cannot remember all of the honourable and right honourable members names first time around”
“Perhaps you need Captain Democracy!” joked a member of the opposition parties causing the council chamber to fill with laughter
“I am thankful to the honourable member for mentioning the good Captain” I smiled, “as he is one of the people I would like to thank. As members will know, I was rather caught short when he made his appearance at the count last month, but am grateful to him for his efforts. The second person I would like to reference is of course the former member for my ward who I note is in the public gallery this morning. I hope that the rest of the council will join me in wishing him a happy retirement from local government and suggest that if he gets bored, the National Assembly could not have a better representative for this area in it’s ranks!”
I then moved the main motion in my name calling for more investment in the roads of the county and concluded by saying, “As members will know, this county has a lot to thank Captain Democracy for, and therefore I hope that members will agree to the motion in my name and perhaps see fit to either inviting the good Captain to open the roads or indeed naming one of them after him. I beg to move, Mr. Chairman”
As I sat down, the leader of my group patted me on the back and said “Worthy of the good Captain himself, eh?” I blushed slightly and replied that I was just doing the best for my ward.
“The ayes to the right, 62, the noes to the left, 0, so the Ayes have it, the Ayes have it and I therefore audjorn this meeting!”
As we filed out of the council chamber with people shaking my hand and congratulating me on my first council speech, someone came up and asked for my autograph. I looked at them with a slight expression of surprise but they explained that they were so inspired by Captain Democracy that they wanted to create an autograph album of all the councillors in Britain to auction off to raise funds for the Captain to donate to a charity of his choice.
“A worthy cause indeed!” I smiled and was given a pen, which I clicked to sign my autograph. That action was the last thing I remembered.
***
“Oooh, my aching head!” I groaned as I woke up several hours later, “what hit me?”
My answer came in the form of a pain that was so severe I couldn’t help but scream.
“Ah, Councillor Watts” came a voice from somewhere, “glad to see that you’re back in the land of the living. How much longer for is a topic of debate!”
Shaking myself awake, I was shocked to find myself strapped to a metal frame with my hands above my head and restrained by handcuffs.
“I am a member of a local council!” I shouted, “you are committing a criminal offence!”
I was hit again by another blast of pain, this time twice as powerful as the last one which when it finished caused me to pant.
“And you are withholding information on the whereabouts of Captain Democracy!” replied the voice and explained that I was trussed up like a chicken in a basket with the sole intention of divulging the location of Captain Democracy
“But I wasn’t in the same room as…” I started before being hit again with a blast of pain, which was again twice as strong as the last blast.
“Councillor Watts” said the voice, “I do wish you would stop telling falsehoods. Surely being shocked by 400 volts of direct current should have taught you that. Or do I have to switch to alternating current instead to get the truth out of you?”
“I was in the toilet…” I shouted, and was hit again.
“Well” said the voice, “if that’s the way you want it, then you can have it!”
There was an ominous pause and then the voice came back.
“Councillor” it started, “I feel duty bound to tell you that I have now switched to an alternating current and if you do not tell me the truth when I next ask you about Captain Democracy, I will apply a 1,000 volt charge through you!”
“But…but…but” I spluttered, “that would be fatal. You’d kill a councillor just to get at a person who defends democracy?”
“Yes, I would, Councillor, and shall I tell you why? Because I should be in charge of the world, not elected politicians. They have to listen to their electorate and employ policies that don’t upset them for fear of not getting elected. Look at the Chinese, for instance, they have the best system around. You only get to vote for one party!”
“Oh, stuff a ballot box will you!” I thought to myself and then suddenly remembered the box that the Professor had given me. Trussed up as I was I couldn’t reach into my pocket. “Damn” I thought, “what a shame I can’t think it on”. I still don’t know what made me think of that, but the thought of being killed simply for keeping my secret identity a secret was not a prospect I was looking forward to, so closed my eyes and concentrated on the box in my pocket whilst trying to drown out the ranting of the voice.
“And that’s why, Councillor, I want to know where Captain Democracy is, so I can kill him and prove that democracies have no place in the world, which is why I ask you again, where is Captain Democracy?” the voice concluded. I ignored him as I could begin to see the box in my mind.
“As you seem so determined to die, I shall grant you a last request” said the voice, “I will set a thirty second timer and start it when I say, giving you a last chance to tell me what I want to know. If you don’t, then you will cause a by-election in your ward. You have thirty seconds from now!”
“Hurry up!” I thought as I saw a box in my mind but couldn’t see the switch. Gritting my teeth and concentrating harder than I had ever done so before, I began to see the formation of a switch on the side of the box. “Come on” I thought as an alarm sounded.
“Goodbye, Councillor” said the voice as a shearing pain shot through me just as I completed the switch. “SWITCH ON!” I yelled in my mind and sure enough the switch moved. As it did the pain vanished and I was able to focus on what was happening. I decided to keep my eyes closed to fool the voice into thinking I was dead and sure enough a few moments later, I felt myself being picked up and carried somewhere. As I did, I heard a familiar voice.
“No!” it shouted, “you’ve killed my best friend. You fiends!”
It was Tom and although I wanted to reassure him that I was still alive, I knew that his relief would have to wait a bit longer as I wanted to know where I was. I was unceremoniously dumped and waited until the footsteps had gone. Jumping up to my feet, I texted the professor explaining what had happened and that I needed my Captain Democracy outfit pronto. I was amazed when he replied a few seconds later saying “Look at your feet” and a few seconds after that a glow emerged which dissipated to reveal my outfit. “Transporter Beam LOL” he texted.
It took me only a few moments to get changed and decided to first of all free Tom. As I started to move my phone wobbled. I answered it and saw another text from the Professor. “Nearly forgot your sidekick!” and a few seconds later another pile of clothes appeared at my feet. I smiled and gingerly made my way towards where Tom was imprisoned. Deciding to take the direct approach, I punched the guard with such an uppercut that he slid past Tom’s cell and crashed into the other side. I sauntered up to Tom, put my finger to my mouth and passed Tom the clothes and then sauntered past and waited a few moments. A thumbs up popped through the cell and as I walked back I chuckled to myself then attacked the cell bars by prising them open enough to enable Tom to step through.
Just then another guard appeared on the scene and saw us. He hit a nearby button and an alarm started to wail. I was about to attack the guard when Tom held me back. He smiled at me and then launched at the guard with such a flying kick that the guard was forced into the cell that I had vacated Tom from just moments ago. I looked at him with amazement as I closed the cell bars and then patted him on the shoulder.
“Well done” I said, and then realised I didn’t know what to call him.
“Ballot Boy to the rescue!” he announced and ran off in the direction of the alarm. Laughing, I quickly followed.
Despite not being the superpowered person, I was amazed at the progress Tom was making. He was demolishing guards, doors and the occasional barricade with reckless abandon. In fact it was only the steel door that guarded the central control room that halted his progress but not before he’d given it a good kick and been sorely disappointed that it hadn’t caved in.
“Allow me!” I said and charged at the door in the style of a English solider at Agincourt causing the door to implode inwards. “And that’s how you open a door!” I said, as Tom wandered in and looked around in wonder.
“HOLY STUFFED BALLOT BOXES, CAPTAIN!” he exclaimed
I looked at Tom and scratched my head. “I’m sorry?” I asked, “have you started channelling Robin?”
Tom pointed downwards and repeated his statement. “Wholly stuffed ballot boxes, Captain!”
I looked down and gasped. Beneath us were hundreds upon thousands of conveyor belts each containing plastic ballot boxes that were being filled with millions of ballot papers each one bearing the name “Authority, Master”.
“Master Authority?” I asked to no one in particular, “who in the name of Parliament is he?”
“That would be me!” said a voice behind us. We both span round and Tom adopted a martial artist pose whilst I examined the person closely. Tom then leapt at the figure.
“No, Ballot Boy!” I shouted, but it was too late as Tom sailed through the figure and landed the other side of him in a heap.
“Very astute of you, Captain Democracy!” said Master Authority, “but how did you know this was a holographic projection?”
“Elementary, my dear sir!” I said, adopting my Sherlock Holmes accent, “firstly, as the mastermind behind this plan I reasoned that as soon as we started to make our move you would not want to be in the same place and secondly, you are hovering three inches off the ground” and waved my hand underneath his feet to prove my point
“Bravo, indeed, Captain!” he said, clapping his hands, “I am so glad that I decided to make you my archenemy. It’s nice to see a superhero with a bit of class for a change. What a shame that you seem to associate with the muscles over there!” and pointed to Tom who was staggering to his feet.
“Ballot Boy is the best sidekick in the world!” I said, as I went over to help him up, “and anyone who dares suggest otherwise will hear about it from me. Now, about these ballot boxes, rather a strange way for someone to take over the world!”
“Ah” said Master Authority, “don’t you just love irony! In every election from today onwards, I will be beaming out a hypnotic command for people to vote for myself and my candidates who are all puppets. Once they are elected, they will act on their first command, which is to stand down and announce me as their replacement. Once I control half the seats in every elected chamber in the world, I shall declare myself as global overlord!” and started to laugh
“You fiend!” said Tom and readied himself to pounce again, but I held him back. “Ironic, indeed” I said as I walked around the floating projection, “and yet, I can’t help wonder if you have forgotten one very basic element of elections!”
Master Authority stopped laughing and looked at me.
“Now, if there is one thing about being a superhero” I explained, still walking around him, “is that it’s all very well to have, as you put it “the muscles”, but sometimes a bit of brainpower doesn’t hinder the old superhero operation. Now, forgive me if I am wrong, but presumably to have a collection of puppets you must have a central control and from what I know about, and I apolgise for using the term, megalomaniacs, they always have their central control in the same place”. I stopped walking and pointed to a big red button, “and that if there is one thing all megalomaniacs like to do, it’s listen to the sound of their own voice. Am I correct so far?”
“My dear Captain!” he said, with a smile, “It is as if I am an open book in your eyes. I can see us getting along like a house on fire!”
“Well, thank you” I said, bowing, “However, it does mean that I am able to disarm this whole operation with just one word!”
Master Authority looked at me incredulously. “You!” he said, “shut all this down with a single word! I’d like to see you try!”
“And I shall!” I said, as I turned to the button and typed “Authoritianism!”
“Password Accepted” noted the computer, “Central Base Self Destruction Initated. Complete Destruction in 60 seconds and counting!”
Master Authority stared at me in disbelief. “But, how?”
“You said it yourself!” I replied, “don’t you just love irony. You used your name as the password!”
“Blast you, Captain Democracy!” he said, “Mark my word, I shall return!” and with that he disappeared. As he did, the computer exploded next to me. Looking around to see if there was no one else I turned to Tom. “Jump on” I shouted, “this is going to be close!”
Tom jumped on and I started running on the spot. As a voice announced “Destruction in 30 seconds” I said to Tom, “Hold on tight and away we go!” as I started to run with explosions going off around me. As the voice started counting down from 10, I took a sudden right turn and jumped through the building into the outside and found myself several hundred metres in the air and falling. I switched from running to flapping and was able to fly away from the exploding base which registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake.
Landing on the nearest piece of land to the base, I allowed Tom to jump off and catch his breath and then we looked at each other and laughed our heads off. “Well” I said, a few moments later, “looks like I chose the right sidekick eh?”
Tom nodded and recovering said “And I chose the right superhero!”
