I'm too worried about SPYGOD. We're getting his transmissions, bounced off several communications satellites whose subscribers must be very confused right now. And while the Agents here with me are saying this is business as usual, and he'll be fine, this time I'm not so sure.
Because I think I know exactly what he's up against. And if I'm right, chances are good that we could lose our best hope against some of the darker mistakes the 20th century left behind, here and now.
So now that he's gone into radio silence -- perhaps to better facilitate slaughtering a number of apparently brain-damaged GORGON agents, now that he has one of their weapons -- this reporter feels there's a need to say exactly what that is.
During World War II, Germany wasn't the only Axis power with a program to recruit and create superhumans. Japan also had one, and while most of the information about this program was thrown down the memory hole by the Japanese -- along with a lot of their more egregious wartime activities, following the post-war Occupation -- enough pieces of the puzzle exist to assemble a partial view of what was happening.
The pieces tell us that Japan had a program running at least as early as 1928, working in step with the eugenics movement of that country. Led by such scientists as Hisomu Nagai, who advocated laws against allowing “unfit” people to breed, the Imperial Government began searching for people who were “more fit than fit” to help stabilize their national gene pool.
This led to the official discovery of Japan’s supers, most of whom did not wish to advertise their talents out of fear or shame. Such exceptional persons were taken under the government’s wing, and either trained in how to use their powers for the public good, or bred with others in the hopes of making truly powerful children.
Those whose powers could be turned into weapons were trained, given suitably fearsome costumes, and let loose on the government’s targets. Those with powers with a less military application were either farmed out for propaganda purposes, or sent out to their neighbors to engage in high-powered espionage for the wars the Army wanted, and the Emperor didn't mind.
And such warriors they had.
When they moved to take Manchuria, the Imperial Sun was with their troops, using his fire-based powers to frighten and confuse the Chinese defenders. When they moved into Central China, in 1937, that one was joined by the swift-running Son of the Divine Wind, and, later, by the Blue Samurai Lord.
When the bombers flew into Pearl Harbor, they were accompanied by the Divine Wind, himself. When the Americans began to fight back in the Pacific they were hounded at every turn by the Five Rings Society, the Ultimate Man, and the Nightmare Children.
But when it came time for the Japanese to hang onto their conquests, they got out the scary ones.
Frightening people like Thunder and Lightning, who could generate powerful, controlled hurricane-force winds from his mouth, and throw electric bolts some distance, respectively. The sadistic brothers liked to play games where the former tossed up villagers suspected of hiding guerrillas into the air so the latter could use them as target practice.
They always started with the children.
There was the Lady of Sorrows, who could make people turn inside out with a kiss. There was Bodyhammer, who could break concrete walls with a flick of his finger, to say nothing of skin and bone. There was Assassin Lord, who brought a cloud of death with him wherever he went, and animated the bodies of those he killed to serve as killer servants.
And there was Dark Star. Possibly the most terrifying one of them all.
SPYGOD was telling the truth about where they found her, and what she could do. They used her in the Army for ages as their dreaded chief interrogator, and she was taken from country to country, where her mere presence would make strong men beg to be allowed to simply confess all they knew.
There's a man who was unlucky enough to be straddled by her in a POW camp, and then later hooked up to an N machine. He can't communicate very well, as you might expect, but he seems to be indicating that the only reason he was able to withstand the N machine for as long as he did was because she was ten times worse.
As the Allies' strategic talents fought their way towards the mainland, the Japanese threw almost everything they had at stopping them. Some of their holy warriors were already in too deep where they were to be withdrawn, though. Thunder and Lightning went into the jungles of New Guinea looking for the mythical headquarters of Australia's own strategic talents, and when they failed to come out, Dark Star was sent there to evaluate the situation.
They were never seen again. Australia never came clean about all they knew about the war, even to this day, but they steadfastly denied any involvement in the three super-soldiers' apparent demise. Japan never did much digging into their leftover mistakes for fear of having to apologize for them, and the Occupation forces kept a lot of what they found quiet out of fear or shock.
But now those three are apparently back. They are ancient but still powerful, and clearly working for GORGON. Maybe in charge of GORGON, for all we know.
SPYGOD seems to think he's got the matter in hand. I hope he's right. I'm not much into violence or revenge, but it would be a good thing to lay my head down to sleep knowing that those three monsters are no longer alive in the world.
Better still to know that the monster on our side brought some semblance of justice for their many victims after all this time.
Randolph Scott, for Alternet, going back to the broadcast.
(Randolph Scott is listening to Cerial Killer (DJ Sisen) and looking at the beer)
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