FAQing Hostile
Subcultural Mutant Otaku Versus the Mundanes
Spawned by Twoflower
Chapter Nine By: Ian Heafer
A Studio Turnip/Down to the Wire Production.

	Sherman cruised along northward through the Florida wastelands. Inside 
three otaku sat around a screen.  The charred remains of what once was Otakuland 
were displayed for the three to see.  "When we had returned from our mission, 
this was all that was left." Vixen said as she gestured to the screen. 
hiro nodded, he had seen the sight before, "were you able to ascertain what had 
caused it?"  
"No, we assume that someone was able to seize control of the LARGO railgun 
array, seeing as it's the only weapon that we know of powerful enough to level a 
whole city."
hiro rested his chin in his hand, "Who could do such a thing? LARGO was one of 
Otakuland's most secure and well-protected systems."
"We can't say for sure.  Our original idea was the Ears, they had broken our 
cease fire earlier that day."  
"Unprovoked violence doesn't mean that they would have been able to take control 
LARGO." He rubbed his chin, "From what I know of Disney, they lacked the 
technology to tackle something like that."
"Our assumption was that that had changed." Vixen continued, " The Ears we had 
encountered were carrying cel-modems that were more advanced than normal."
"That could point towards AOL, but the intelligence that we had received was 
that AOL had no interest in destroying Otakuland."
 	"But th3 c3l-m0d3mz w3rn't s3t 2 A0Lz s3tt1ngz, r1t3 s1s." B1ff added.
	"B1ff's right," Vixen said, "the settings weren't any I recognized to be 
AOL, which is odd when you consider the relationship that AOL has with the 
Ears."
	"Hmmm," hiro closed his eyes in thought, "to me this could mean one of two 
things.  One, Disney and AOL aren't as close as we were led to believe, but 
Disney was used to make us believe that AOL had something to do with the attack 
on Otakuland.  The other possibility is that AOL did have something to do with 
Otakuland's destruction, but the strange cel-modems were planted on the Disney 
troops to disassociate AOL from the attack."
	Vixen crossed her arms, "Both theories contradict our intelligence, and it 
still doesn't explain why."
	hiro glared at her, "That's all I'm able to come up with the information 
we currently have."
	"H3z r1t3, 1nf0rm4t10nz s0m3th1n' w3 d0n't h4v3 4 l0t of r1ght n0w.  Wh3n 
th3 Otakuland S3rv3rz w3nt d0wn w3 l0st 4ll 0ur 'n3t 4cc3ss."
	"Which makes information difficult to get." Vixen finished for him.
	"4nd 0th3r th1ngz." B1ff added.
	"There's a group of RPGers about a day from here," Vixen said, gesturing 
to the map that had appeared on the screen, "maybe they know something. If were 
planning on heading all the way to Seattle, we'll need to try and get some more 
supplies anyway.  We wont get too far on what the Trekkers gave us." 
	"I know of a few places where we can find supplies," hiro added, "But once 
we get out of Florida, expect to do a lot of fighting to get what we need."
	"Just wh4tz y3r st0ry 4nyw4y?" 
	"Biff, has a point, we don't know all that much about you hiro."
	"Well, if you must know," hiro started, "The Jinruigakusha are charged 
with keeping the knowledge of the holy land.  From time to time we take research 
trips down into the sunken ruins of Japan.  Since these trips are so difficult 
and expensive to begin with, a second Otakuland was set up on the West coast as 
sort of a home base for these trips."
	"Y3r s4yn' th3r3z 4n0th3r Otakuland?"
	"Nothing that would compare to the size and greatness of the original," 
hiro continued, "more of a secret research base than anything else, but there 
are quite a few of us there conducting studies."
	"How come we were never told about this?" Vixen inquired.
	hiro allowed himself a small grin, "I did say it was a secret didn't I.  
If you were never told about it, you probably didn't need to know."
	"Then what are you doing all the way over here in Florida?"
	"When we suddenly lost contact with Otakuland, we feared the worst. I was 
sent with a small group to travel back and find out what had happened, but I we 
were separated when we ran into a group of farmers screaming something about how 
they needed to protect the sanctity of America's Dairylands."

******************************
	
	The room was dark except for the dull glow of a computer screen.  A hooded 
figure crouched over it cautiously as he slowly waited for the data to creep in.  
While he was using some of the most advanced Internet technology left in the 
world, his need to remain undetected hampered his progress.  He siphoned off 
what he needed in small packets as to not alert the System Administrators to 
what he was doing.  He wiped the sweat from his brow, he was a professional, one 
of the best at what he did, but even he wasn't completely immune to fear.  If he 
was caught, what would happen to him would be worse than being made into an 
extra, and his masters would not be able to save him.
	When his masters had gotten wind of the plans to destroy Otakuland, he had 
been sent in immediately. I was difficult to replace someone high up in any 
organization, but he never took jobs like this because they were easy.  There 
was a certain thrill to waltz around right under the enemy's nose, to strike at 
them from within.  
	He had been unable to halt the orders to destroy Otakuland, but that 
wasn't his purpose.  His masters weren't concerned about the lives of a few 
thousand people who worshiped animation from before the war. There were more 
important things on their minds.
	The FAQ.  He was to retrieve the Otaku FAQ.  He never understood why his 
masters were so driven to get a hold of it.  If the Masters weren't concerned 
with the Otaku, why would they desire the work that they based their lives on.  
	Perhaps the age of the work is what interested them.  Rumors say that the 
original leader of the Otaku wrote the FAQ himself.  That could easily make the 
Otaku FAQ one of the oldest records in existence.  Perhaps some secret from 
before the war was recorded in the FAQ.  Those who fought in the war had the 
power to level the planet, a power that no one today was known to have.  If the 
Otaku had a clue to something like that hidden in their FAQ that would be quite 
a find.
	He had been able to search the LARGO system before the attack, but to no 
avail.  With all the known Otakuland servers destroyed in the strike, there was 
a good chance the FAQ was lost.  His masters would not tolerate that.
	Fortune was on his side when a group of extras encountered some of the 
Otaku stragglers.  The Otakus had taken the extras equipment with them.  While 
the superiors of the man he was impersonating worried of about the Otaku somehow 
linking the extras equipment to them, it kept him hopeful.  Someone in the group 
was bound to have the FAQ, and the stolen equipment made for an excellent way to 
keep tabs on them.  

****************************

	Dave took a few steps back and admired his work.  The poster was in 
tatters, the colors were faded and some of the folds in it had worn or been out 
and out torn from the rough treatment it had been given over the years.  Many a 
time it had been roughly folded to hide it from the view of others.  One of the 
corners was completely gone.  It was not the quality of the poster he was 
concerned with, but the fact it was hanging on the wall filled him with a good 
feeling.  He had had this poster, depicting the cast of Marmalade Boy grouped 
together as if posing for a photograph, for years, but never dared to hang it up 
like this when he was with the Pop Rocks.  "Sis would kill me if she saw this." 
he said to himself with a small chuckle.
	His sister.  When Sherman had stormed over the fence of the Pop Rocks 
compound, Dave had ran and never looked back.  He wondered what his sister, his 
parents were doing.  Going on without him, he supposed.  Survival was never 
guaranteed in the ruins of the great war, but the loss of a family member was 
still difficult.  His sister had known his secret, she could have probably 
pieced together what had happened, but his parents may not be taking it so well.  
He didn't regret what he did for a moment.  All his life he knew that something  
was missing, but had never been able to figure out exactly what.  Now he had 
found it.
	"Dave?" Vixen stood in the doorway. Dave tried unsuccessfully to mask his 
surprise at hearing Vixens voice, for some reason is lacked some of it's usual 
harshness.  Vixen must have noticed this too because her face quickly tightened 
back into her usual 'don't mess with me' look, "What?" Her voice was back to 
normal too.
	"Nothing," Dave said quickly, not wanting to get into any more trouble, 
"what did you need?"
	Vixen noticed the poster, "Making yourself at home I see." Dave nodded.  
"Well, don't get too comfortable."
	"What do you mean?"
	Vixen leaned against the metal doorframe, "We're stopping off at the 
RPGers base to try and get some more supplies." Vixen found herself looking at 
the floor, "You'll be staying with them."
	"What! Why?"
	"We, we're heading to Seattle. It's a long trip and none of us know what's 
out there." She paused for a moment, "I, we don't need a newbie like you getting 
in the way."	
	
*******************

Author's Notes:

	Arrrrrgh!!  This is the impro that refused to come out.  I had quite a few 
Ideas that I wanted to put into this too.  Oh well, such is life. While I admit 
that this is far from great, I don't think it turned out quite as bad as it 
could have.  Thanks to Clint for preading most of this and for helping me the 
many times writers block reared it's ugly head, and thanks also to Mike and 
Scott for help with brainstorming.  As always, Constructive comments and 
criticism are always accepted at asimh@uaa.alaska.edu.  Flames will be passed on 
to those less fortunate during the cold Alaskan winter.

Viva la Revolution.