Lady Liberty
Part 1
Art in this chapter by Kathan D. McCallister
The crowd roared its encouragement to the rafters! In the largest sports stadium the world had everseen, untold thousands were on their feet, shaking their fists and shouting her name at the top of their lungs: "VIRGINIA! VIRGINIA! VIRGINIA!" Down in the center arena, a round space encircled by a high wall, Virginia leaped and caught the flying metal disk in mid-air, spun while airborne and threw the disk with all her considerable might to strike a metal pylon, one of thirteen standing tall and slender in the round space. The disk, two and a half feet in diameter, ricocheted off the pylon to strike another, and a third, and a fourth with uncanny accuracy... after it bounced off a tenth pylon, she leaped and caught it in mid-air, spun while airborne and threw it again...
The crowd was beside itself! She heard her name being chanted at furious volumes by thousands of hoarse throats, an insane cacophony of intolerable decibels: "VIRGINIA! VIRGINIA! VIRGINIA!" This time she caught the disk after it ricocheted off an additional pylon, an eleventh... again she spun while airborne and threw... one pylon, two, three... after the twelfth she leaped, caught, spun, threw... one ricochet, two, three... after the thirteenth, the never equaled thirteenth, the world record thirteenth, she leaped, caught, and didn't throw, but landed squarely, cleanly, on her two strong feet, the disk in her right hand.
"VIRGINA! VIRGINIA! VIRGINIA!" roared the crowd in a monstrous thunderclap of praise.
She had done it. Done what she'd set out to do. She was the best disk hurler on the planet. Unsurpassed and unsurpassable by any athlete she had ever heard of, she was Virginia Lincoln, of African descent, six foot three and tightly muscled, dressed in the patriotic colors of her nation: red, white, blue. Her metal disk was yellow.
As "The Star Spangled Banner" was played over a hundred huge speakers, barely audible over the crowd, Virginia stood silent and proud as one of the judges walked over to her, saluted, and placed over her head and around her neck a ribbon, from which hung a golden medallion, recognizing her supreme athletic achievement.
On the medallion was written the words, "Champion Disk Hurler of the Empire of the Americas."
***
Later that evening, Virginia was seated in a small broadcasting studio, being interviewed by a nightly news personality. She’d had time to shower and change her clothes. She was dressed in military casual, as the current style was known. Shirt, pants, light vest, all khaki with patches of camouflage patterning just large enough to catch the eye and suggest soldiering.
"Well, Miss Lincoln… Virginia… may I call you Virginia?" asked the interviewer, a blonde white male who imagined himself to be charming and might have been if he hadn’t imagined it so vividly.
"Sure," came the reply.
"Now that you’re acknowledged as the premiere disk hurler of this or any century, what’s next, Virginia? What do you do for an encore?"
"You know, I really haven’t thought that far. All my focus has been on doing what I set out to do. I did it. Now… well, you know, I might be the premiere disk hurler of this century we’re living in, but if we were living in the century past, I’d have stiff competition from the original hurler."
"You mean Captain America. The last of the old superheroes who tried to resist the Armed Forces ascension."
"Yes. I know the Generals have discredited him and we’re all supposed to spit whenever his name is mentioned, but you can’t deny that my sport was inspired by what he could do with that shield of his."
"Let’s change the subject," said the interviewer, looking distinctly uncomfortable with the current topic. "Many of our viewers often wonder what it’s like to be the product of a eugenics program."
"I can understand how that might fascinate," replied Virginia. "For me it’s perfectly normal, it’s the only life I’ve ever known. My parents and their parents and theirs, back six generations before me, were selected for breeding by the Colonels of Science, chosen for their athletic excellence, especially in the sport of disk hurling. My parents and their parents and theirs, and me too, all of us were trained in our sport from childhood. Our sport has always been the only life, the only destiny we’ve ever known or tried to imagine. It’s what the Colonels of Science picked out for us. It’s who we are."
"Has your mate been selected yet? Which lucky hurler gets to father your child?"
She said nothing for just a moment. For the briefest instant she just sat there, perfectly still. Then: "No, the Colonels of Science haven’t yet made their choice."
"I bet you’re anxious to find out who it is!" grinned the pretty blonde white man.
"Yes," Virginia grinned back, "Yes, of course I’m anxious!"
***
Still later, in the wee hours of the morning, Virginia Lincoln walked the streets of the city alone. The sky was dark but at street level there was much light, from the windows and neon signs that blazed brightly wherever she glanced. She walked alone but she wasn’t the only walker by a long shot. The sidewalks were crowded with the citizens of the night.
She carried her yellow metal disk in her right hand. She wore the same outfit she wore at her interview, with no coat or hat. It was early June and pleasantly warm.
"Steve Rogers…" she whispered to herself, or perhaps not quite to herself. "If there are saints in heaven like some once believed, then I guess you’re mine… watch over me… bless me in what I’m about to do…"
At a large entrance-way she turned and went inside. The building was huge and upon stepping in, she found herself in a high-ceilinged space that dwarfed its human occupants. On one high wall there was a sign that said, in big letters, "Museum of the Traitors."
Across the space she walked, and onto a rising escalator. At the top she kept walking, finally entering a room with a sign over the doorway: "The Avengers – Worst of Them All."
In she went.
Immediately she saw the man she knew would be there. Colonel Benedict. Tall, well made, platinum blonde, his jet black uniform impeccable in every detail, he stood erect and haughty, waiting for her to arrive. He noticed her walking toward him.
Past the gutted armor once worn by the traitor Iron Man, she came. Past the equally gutted, and very dead, synthetic body of the Vision, she came. Museum pieces, relics of old, defeated, discredited enemies, displayed as reminders of what it meant to face the Generals on the field of battle—past them all she came. The last thing she passed was the shield of Captain America. It wasn’t gutted, of course, as there was nothing to gut, no machinery, no wires. It was just a metal disk. What harm could it do?
"Hello, Virginia," said the Colonel as he grabbed her in strong arms and kissed her without preamble.
She kissed him back, and when they disengaged, she was smiling. "Careful, Colonel. You wouldn’t want people to think we were violating the eugenics code!"
"Anyone so stupid as to think that, deserves to be shot, and would be."
"Yeah, you’re right," she nodded. "You’re one of the Colonels of Science. You, more than anyone, want to see me mated with the best disk hurler on the planet. Well…" she smirked, "The second best on the planet. We already know who the best is."
"Yes, we certainly do." He looked her in the eye. "So what’s next? What do you do for an encore?"
"Everyone keeps asking me that! Can’t I just enjoy the moment for a while?"
Colonel Benedict laughed. "Of course, my dear. Savor it. You earned it. And by earning it, you vindicated the eugenics program that spawned you. Thirteen pylons! Thirteen! Five years ago, nobody would even have tried for eleven."
She brightened under his admiring gaze. "It’s hard to imagine that once upon a time, the birth of children was left to chance. Any two people could decide to become parents—or not even really decide, but just blunder into becoming parents. How primitive!"
"Barbaric!" agreed the Colonel.
Virginia continued. "As if children were just… I don’t know… flowers or sparrows or some other wild thing, appearing spontaneously by no plan of man’s. How could civilization have survived so long under that sort of system? Children need to be tailor-made to fill the niche society needs filled! They need--"
Colonel Benedict interrupted with, "I love it when you talk this way!" and grabbed her again and kissed her.
When she could breathe again, she blurted out, "Hey, what’s that?" and pointed over the Colonel’s shoulder. He turned to look.
And with that, she went into motion.
First, she punched the Colonel hard in the back of the neck as he was looking away from her. Down to the floor he went.
Then she leaped to where the shield, the legendary shield, was mounted in a bullet-proof glass case.
Nobody had noticed her yet.
The glass case opened of its own accord as if by magic! She grabbed the shield and ran full tilt for the balcony, which was open to the elements on this warm June night. Several guards had spotted her and were rushing toward her, guns drawn! They shouted, "Halt!" and "Freeze!" and "Stop right there!" as they ran at her. She figured she had three seconds.
Tick.
She hurled her yellow disk as she ran! It started ricocheting about the room, causing a minor but crucial distraction.
Tick.
The first shot was fired! She kept running straight for the ledge of the balcony.
Tick.
She reached the ledge and vaulted right over into space!
She was three stories up. As the guards reached the ledge she’d vaulted over, she had dropped one story. She grabbed the passing ledge of the second story balcony with her left hand to halt her fall, then let go, dropped past the next ledge, grabbed it with her left hand, let go, and dropped to the street. Bullets whizzed past her or struck the shield she held up with her right hand to protect herself.
Immediately as she landed on her feet she was running! She ducked behind things as she went, to protect herself from bullets.
Suddenly she veered into an alley and into the back of a large truck, which immediately started moving. Out of the alley and onto the road it went. At a traffic light it came to a stop. The light went green, the truck pulled into the intersection—and exploded!
The fire ball was huge!
No bodies would be found in the wreckage. Nor would anyone realize that the floor of the truck had once been cut through with a person-sized hole, or that directly underneath the truck as it had sat at the traffic light, there had been a man-hole… uncovered.
As the conflagration in the intersection dominated the night, a person in a bulky coat walked up to the man-hole and covered it with a heavy metal disk, neither yellow nor red, white, and blue, but merely brown and dingy, heavy and old.
The person in the coat walked away, unnoticed. All eyes were on the inferno!
***
Underground in the sewer system, Virginia ran! In her right hand she still held the legendary shield. In her left she held a small flashlight she’d been carrying in her pants pocket.
Time passed as she continued as fast as she could through the sewers. She couldn’t leave anything to chance. She didn’t think anyone had followed her underground but in case she was wrong, she needed to reach her destination as quickly as possible.
Finally she came to a nondescript spot she’d memorized over weeks of preparation. There on the wall was a simple black X, nearly hidden behind some big metal pipes. She pressed her hand against the X.
The wall pushed inward! Virginia ducked in through the opening and pressed another X on the other side of the wall—the side of the wall she was now on. The wall pushed outward, closing the entrance and hiding it!
Virginia found herself in a cavern. And not alone!
"Fancy meeting you here!" said a black woman, her skin not quite as dark as Virginia’s.
"And here I thought we had this cavern all to ourselves!" said a red-headed white woman to the black woman who had first spoken.
All three, Virginia included, smiled. Then they grabbed each other, hugged like bears, and shouted loudly in unison, "WE DID IT!!!"
The red-head carried a bulky, neatly folded coat, the very one that had been worn a short time ago by that mysterious person who’d covered the man-hole. She was wearing the coveralls of a sewer worker. Over the left breast pocket was a name, stenciled neatly. "Barnes."
The black woman who had first spoken, said now, "I was worried about the glass case. For a minute there I didn’t think I’d break the code. Imagine if I’d failed! You’d never have gotten it open!"
Virginia looked her calmly in the eye. "But you didn’t fail, Samantha. You’re one of the best hackers in the business and more important, you’re a Wilson through and through. When the country needs you, you get the job done. Same goes for you, Becky."
"And you!" said Becky Barnes to Virginia. "You’re the only one of us with no old hero’s blood in your veins. You were bred to please the crowds, not to fight wars. But here you stand, with the toughest job of any of us."
Samantha Wilson held a book out to Virginia. "Here. This is yours now. It’s been in my family for generations. We kept it hidden, like a witches’ book of shadows."
Virginia set the shield down and took the book in her hands. "The Strategy and Tactics of Captain America," said the cover. "By Samuel Wilson." The pages were handwritten. A chill went up her spine.
"Study that," said Becky. "You’ve got a month to get yourself ready. Samantha and I will help you train as best we can. But in the end it’s up to you. Somehow you have to turn yourself from an athlete into a warrior. By July 4th."
"One month," said Virginia, nodding, sobered. "I’ve been training in karate and savate all my life, but it was always as part of an athletic regimen. I wasn’t being taught how to think like a warrior. Sparring on the mat is a far cry from facing soldiers on the battlefield."
She looked down at the book in her hands, the precious book, and whispered, "Steve Rogers… help me."
***
The day was bright and hot, and sticky humid. No clouds obscured the sun. At the center of the city, a tall clear column of plastic rose up and up, crowned by a clear plastic sphere. The whole structure was bullet-proof. Passers-by would glance at the strange tower and narrow their eyes in bewilderment. What were the Generals up to now?
At high noon, the crowds caught a glimpse of movement. Up the clear column ascended a sort of elevator, with a man inside. When it reached the top, the man stepped out into the sphere, onto a clear floor. The elevator descended and disappeared from sight underground.
"Happy July 4th to all citizens of this great land!" roared the amplified voice of the man in the tower, and now everyone knew who he was, even if they couldn’t see him clearly. He was General Mike Armstrong, supreme commander of all the Armed Forces of the Empire.
"Today we celebrate a glorious date in our history," said the booming voice. "Two fateful events occurred on this date. The first was the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And the second was the Issuing of the Ultimatum. The first made a mockery of Europe and all it stood for. The second made a mockery of politics and politicians and all they stood for. With the first we unyoked ourselves from a far and foreign continent. With the second we unyoked ourselves from a class of men and women who lived for debate and compromise and the wasting of a nation’s time."
As the General spoke, automated mobile cameras roamed the sidewalks, filming live the crowd’s reactions to the speech. Prudent were the citizens who cheered and clapped at the appropriate times.
"How awesome was that day, that bright July 4th long decades past, when the Armed Forces issued their Ultimatum to the fop who was president, and the swine who were representatives and senators, and the dithering old dinosaurs who were court justices—court jesters, really. ‘Step down from office or die.’ A simple message from straightforward men. In less than an hour, the corrupt government structures we had were discarded, and in their place we had the simple concept of the chain of command. No more checks and balances between branches of a government that couldn’t get the small things done and couldn’t even conceive of the big things. No more jockeying for power by two political parties that represented no one yet claimed to represent us all. ‘Step down from office or die.’ Six proud words that changed history!"
As the General continued, the workers of the city went about their business. Street sweepers swept and window washers washed, and one lone sewer worker with striking red hair bent down and popped the cover off a man-hole.
Once again, time was measured in three seconds. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Calmly, the sewer worker replaced the man-hole cover. Walking briskly from that spot was a tall black woman in patriotic garb. Where she had come from, not one eye had seen, for her method of arrival had been more devious than has yet been revealed.
Oblivious, of course, to what was happening at street level, the General went on. "In one fell swoop we took control of the nation. No longer would soldiers have to beg politicians for funding, or be sent like errand boys to a hundred locations with no strategic importance except to the corrupt. At last the soldiers, the ones who get called upon to fight and die, would be the ones deciding whom to fight and where to die."
Virginia moved silently and swiftly through the crowd, until she was standing a mere three feet from a squadron of soldiers, all armed, all staring at where the General was barely visible in his high, far tower.
"And decide we did!" continued the General. "First Canada, then Mexico, then South America, we attacked and conquered them all! Today we reign as the undisputed rules of two continents, indeed of an entire hemisphere! And I tell you truly, my friends, Europe has good reason to tremble at the thought of us, for our appetite is not yet satisfied! The Empire of the Americas shall one day encircle the globe!"
Virginia took that as her cue, and leaped into the midst of the soldiers, clobbering one, two, three, with blows from her legendary shield!
Even as this was happening, the automated, mobile cameras all swiveled and rolled, the better to be pointed at the fighting under way! And what’s more, the audio portion of the live broadcast also shifted away from the General’s speech. He went on speaking up in the tower, unaware that he was no longer being seen or heard!
Seated at her computer terminal underground, Samantha Wilson smiled to herself.
The battle on the street continued! Virginia leap-frogged over a handful of soldiers, landing feet-first in the face of two others, even as she hurled her shield at the aimed rifle of a third. Ricocheting off the first gun, the patriotic disk hit a second, third, and fourth, knocking them from their owners’ hands. Virginia was airborne five feet from the ground as she caught the shield, spun, and hurled it at the aimed rifle of another soldier. As soon as Virginia’s feet hit the earth she was running at a bunched up group of soldiers…
Samuel Wilson had written: "One of Cap’s most adamant principles was, if the shield is out of your hands, keep moving! Never stand still! Only two things kept Cap alive: that amazing metal disk of his, and this principle of never ever giving the enemy a stationary target!"
…diving at the dirt and rolling, she came up behind her bewildered foes. Leaping straight up like a coiled spring, her hands flashed four times, and four men went down, a fist to the neck being more than they could endure. Even as they were dropping, Virginia was already running flat out, and reaching up with one hand to catch her shield as it flew!
Samuel Wilson had written: "Cap always said that when you’re throwing the shield, you should have your catch already planned! If you don’t know exactly where and when you’ll be catching your only weapon, you have no business throwing it!"
Virginia was momentarily in an open space, and three rifles fired—so she ducked down and held the shield up. Bullets bounced off harmlessly. She went back into a flat out run, straight at one of the three men who had fired at her.
Automated mobile cameras caught her every move. And now, a voice-over began. A speech by Virginia Lincoln, that she had prepared in advance and recorded. The visual was still the battle, but the audio was these words:
"My name is Virginia Lincoln. I had considered keeping my identity a secret, but in the end, I’ve decided to use my fame as one more weapon against the Generals. You all know me. You know what I’ve accomplished for this country in athletic contests around the world. In my new role, I continue to serve my country. My opponents are no longer fellow athletes, but the tyrants who grip the throat of our nation in a fist of iron—"
Five soldiers encircled her, rifles aimed at her chest! Apparently they expected her to surrender. That expectation dulled their reflexes! In one sleek motion she dove at one of them, the one who seemed most relaxed—she jumped high, above his line of fire—and simultaneously threw her shield! In mid-air she grabbed the shoulders of the soldier she’d selected, and using his shoulders as a gymnast’s "horse," she vaulted over and behind him! Out of the line of fire, she ran to a point just behind another of the soldiers, and reached up her hand. The shield, having disarmed four of the soldiers, met her fingers where and when it was intended to. She pushed two of her opponents directly at the one who still had his gun in his hands, blocking his shot.
"—I’ve decided to take a special title, even as Captain America did. I will be calling myself Lady Liberty. Let that name be a rallying point for all those who refuse to accept any rule imposed by force! Let any brave souls who think the state should serve the people, not vice versa, be ensured by my word that Lady Liberty will not rest until the Generals have been arrested and placed in jail where they belong. Let all who reject the conquest of empire as an attack on the rights of nations and individuals everywhere, take comfort in the knowledge that Lady Liberty has taken up the mantle of Captain America, in defense of the ideals for which he gave his life! My carrying of his shield is symbolic of my carrying on of his noble legacy. Against the iron fist, Lady Liberty stands tall! Against the gods of endless war and empty glory bought with blood, Lady Liberty hurls her shield! Against any state that holds itself more sacred than the people that give it life, Lady Liberty wears the colors of the flag in proud unyielding defiance!"
Virginia threw her shield straight at the chests of two soldiers who stood close together and had her in their sights. She ran full tilt directly behind the shield. Bullets bounced off the thrown weapon. As it hit its targets and knocked them off balance, Virginia was airborne, grabbing the shield, somersaulting, coming down on her enemies’ shoulders with her feet, and hopping high off of them, her weight and the strength of her legs proving too much for their already precarious balance. They hit the dirt.
Samuel Wilson had written: "One thing Cap discovered early on was that, if he threw his shield at his enemies, more often than not they would fire their weapons at the shield! This always amazed him, but he never failed to use it to his advantage!"
The televised broadcast abruptly ended, Lady Liberty’s first public speech having reached its conclusion. The automated mobile cameras stopped dead where they stood and went dark.
Somewhere, Samantha Wilson breathed deeply, proud of what she’d accomplished for her nation and her ideals. She turned off her computer and poured corrosive acid over its exposed parts, the case having been removed beforehand. Destruction of evidence complete, she vacated this particular hiding place, never to return.
Virginia came down to earth from her leap… and disappeared. Literally vanished in plain sight. A dozen soldiers stood confused, their target denied them.
A block away, a red-haired, female sewer worker popped open a man-hole cover.
Three seconds. Tick. Tick. Tick.
She replaced the man-hole cover and walked away.
Down in the sewers, Lady Liberty appeared out of nowhere. And standing beside her was a young blonde woman in a multi-colored, very modern outfit. They both began running, to put as much distance behind them as fast as possible.
"Thanks, Roz," said Lady Liberty to her ally as they sprinted underground. "You’ve done your country proud."
"I can only hope I’ve done my family proud," said Roz. "The name Richards is a tough one to live up to. Too bad I can’t make force fields! But invisibility comes in handy now and then."
"It certainly does," agreed the newly christened Lady Liberty, a smile on her lips and a fierce flame in her heart.
To be continued in Part II.
copyright 2001 by Ron-Bucky-Petrocco.
Leave Feedback by clicking below.
