Chapter 5
“Look!” the nearly life-sized holographic image of the super-heroine Pink Arrow a member of the Pain Posse said as she saw the trail of blood going up the stairway. The entire stage at the holoplex was filled with realistic looking three dimensional actors and scenes that changed like the old two-dimensional movies.
“You definitely got him,” the Blue Retaliator said, “But I have dealt with this guy so many times before. Do not underestimate him.”
The superhero team also included Exo, Roid Rage, Purple Harold, and Coyote-Man. They all crept up the stairs as quietly as possible in a very tense scene of the show.
Just then Randy Klosterman took a big slurp of his pop and the sound of the air bubbles in the straw broke the quiet of the holographic movie scene.
Milton elbowed Randy in the rib. Milton said, “Hey. People are watching.”
“Ow!” Randy said, not in a whisper.
“Shhhh!” came from behind.
Randy belched. He looked at Milton and said, “You caused it.”
“Quiet!” someone said in a loud whisper.
Suddenly, the Pain Posse’s holographic arch-nemesis Corpus DeLuxx suddenly came flying down the stairway with an arrow stuck in his thigh and he slung his trademark exploding fireball down on the team, hitting Coyote-Man directly in the torso and sending him out of the scene. The sound of the blast vibrated throughout the holoplex and made everyone forget about Randy’s soda-induced eructation.
Purple Harold, Corpus DeLuxx’s personal arch-enemy flew up to meet him in the air. He swiped at Corpus and his long claws and raked open the front of his supervillain uniform, drawing blood.”
“Yeah!” Randy said.
Whenever Purple Harold could get in close against Corpus with his claws, the audience knew the good guys had a chance. Corpus could not throw his energy fireballs. So Corpus DeLuxx knew he had to break off the close combat and fly away, which he did, with Purple Harold in flying after him in pursuit.
It was the end of the movie. The next scene focused on Coyote-Man. Massive Collateral damage was everywhere throughout the fictitious Neogothic City. Not only that, but Coyote-man clearly was not going to be revived.
Pink Arrow said, “As long as we remember him, he will never die.” Then the touchy-feely background music started to play as the holographic closing credits scrolled upwards in mid-air.
The somber audience left the theatre as they lost one of their heroes, albeit a minor character. But they all knew that Corpus DeLuxx would be in big trouble when Pain Posse 7 came out.
“That was stupid,” Milton said.
“What? I liked it,” Randy said.
“Oh, the movie was okay. I just mean the last part.”
“What part?” Randy asked. “I won’t miss Coyote-Man at all. I thought he was stupid anyway. All that howling.”
“No, not that. It’s that stupid thing about, ‘He will live as long as we all remember him’. That guy is as dead as anything ever was dead. He got splattered all over. I’ll remember him as dead, because he is.”
Randy said, “That’s because they were talking about his memory.”
“Okay, fine,” Milton said. “Someday, or at least in real life, every one of those characters will die off. In fact, everyone watching that story in the holoplex will be dead too. There won’t be anyone left in the world to remember Coyote-Man or anyone else at all, because they will be dead too.”
“Hey, that’s not very nice.”
“Then why do they have to say such stupid things? I’m getting tired of not being able to say things that are true because some people think they are offensive. I think that stupid line by Pink Arrow in the movie was offensive. What about that?”
As they exited the holoplex and were walking toward the transit worm stop, Randy said, “It’s just a movie, Milton. Quit making a big deal out of it. You gotta not take it so seriously and forget about it.”
“Why should I?” Milton said. That movie is telling everyone a big fat lie. Why is it okay to promote a stupid idea like that just because it is in a movie? Once you are dead, you are dead. And what really makes the Pain Posse the good guys? To me, there really is not any difference between them and the Tolerance Consortium. What is the purpose of living anyways?”
Randy became perturbed and said, “I thought we went there to watch some action and see bad guys get beaten up, not to try to learn things or think about stuff like that. I guess I was wrong. You want to make Pain Posse 6 into this big lesson or something and spend all night thinking way too much about it.”
Milton saw a couple of girls about their age walking toward the holoplex looking at their devices. He asked them, “Do you girls believe in God?”
They huddled together and continued walking, only faster.
“You can’t do that,” Randy said, grabbing Milton by the arm, trying to pull him to the side.
Milton would have none of that and stood his ground and jerked his arm away. “Why not?! Why is it so bad to talk about God?! Something is definitely wrong with this world! I’m getting tired of this!”
Randy said, “What’s the difference if God is real or not, it doesn’t matter to us!”
Milton said, “Seriously? If there is no God, then we were not made with a purpose. If there is no God, then we are just a random accident and it won’t matter or not if I made my bed this morning. If God made us, He did for a reason and I want to know what it is.”
“All that kinda talk is what they call clone envy,” Randy said. “Clones are raised for a purpose and we freely conceived people are just random. No one expects that much out of us, which I think is good. It takes a lot of pressure off of us.”
“I am not jealous of clones,” Milton said, “and that is just loser talk, and has nothing to do with what I am saying.”
“Loser?! I’m just a realist,” Randy said. “My grandma says I am a very well adjusted young man, not a loser. You just need to relax. All this stuff will go away. I promise.”