The New Era Chapter 14

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
"Keep these laser guns with you at all times. There's no telling when he'll be back. As soon as you see him, shoot him. Shoot him repeatedly. Under no circumstances are you to give him any quarter what so ever, not when he could disarm the entire city with a wave of his hand. I want him hit so hard he won't have a chance to do anything. Any questions?" Bakes looked for questions, but none where present. "Good, go tell the rest of the Watchers what I have told you." The group began to leave. "Dabrow, stay here second."
"Yes Bakes?"
"How are you and your team of scientists coming?"
"The force field is ready and at your command. We were able to increase its power by three percent. I know it's not much, but in the time we had to-"
"Yes I know, I know, good job. That will be all."
Kyoko hurried through the city square. It was crowded, full of people carrying laser guns. On the monitors everywhere, Bakes' instructions where being broadcast. "This is absolute madness," she thought. "Somebody has got to put a stop to this."
Kyoko ran to one of the many parks in the city. The park was named Daved park, after a famous Watcher. The teacher had told her Hans was here. If someone could stop this, it's Hans. Kyoko saw him sitting by the pond.
"Hans!" He turned around to see her running toward him, and rose to his feet. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw he had a laser gun.
"Oh no, not you too!"
"What?"
Kyoko walked the rest of the way to Hans. "Your laser gun. I thought you at least would abstain from this madness."
"It's okay, I have no intention of using this unless it's my last option. If that happens, I'll be glad I have it."
"Aren't you going to try and stop this?"
"I did. It's no use, Bakes won't listen to me."
"But what about appealing to the people?"
Hans shook his head. "My name is mudd now. They won't listen to me about anything."
Kyoko sighed. "Your right. It's just that-"
Kyoko was cut off by a blaring siren like sound. "That's the alert!" yelled Hans. "He's back!"


The Nathorite returned, this time bringing four friends. Many of The Watchers had expected the Nathorite to emerge in the city square, because that was where he appeared the first time. They were not disappointed. Bakes himself had been waiting at the city square.
As soon as the flash of light appeared, all the laser guns fired at its location. The Nathorites had no time to do anything before they were knocked to the ground. The Nathorites where hit simultaneously by hundreds of laser guns all set on rapid fire.
By the time Hans arrived on the scene, the Nathorites were not even moving anymore. They simply lay on the ground, dead still. Their bodies didn't even jerk in response to the laser gun fire. They had begun bleeding out of their mouths.
Hans ran up to Bakes. Trying to make himself heard over the noise of the guns, he yelled out, "Bakes, stop this. They've had enough. For Deka's sake stop this!"
"I'll be the judge of how much they can have Hans. They'll think twice about attacking us again!"
Seeing that debating with Bakes would be useless, Hans ran out among the Nathorites. All the laser guns stopped firing, for fear of hitting him. The Nathorites remained still. It was utterly silent, and Hans waisted no time taking advantage of the silence. "Stop this!" he yelled out. "Can't you see they've had enough?"
"Get out of the way Hans! You're a fool!" Hans couldn't see who had yelled out the comment, but the crowd agreed with it. Several others yelled out from the crowd.
"Move it Hans, or will kill you too!"
"Hans you're a traitor! Move!"
"Hans, who's side are you on now? You can die with them!"
Hans steeled himself, ready to die as he heard and saw several laser guns being aimed at him.
"Stop this! He's right!" Kyoko ran out to where Hans was, and embraced him. Hans held her tightly. "If you want to kill Hans you'll have to kill me too," she yelled. All the guns were lowered. Kyoko had an excellent reputation among the Watchers, and no one was willing to kill her. Feeling relief, Kyoko squeezed Hans tighter. While they were hugging, a flash of light enveloped the five Nathorites. They disappeared.


Bakes opened the door to the meeting room. Hans was already there. "Sorry about calling this conference so suddenly Hans, but we need to talk."
"Don't apologize, I agree with you."
Bakes hesitated. He noticed the angry tone in Hans' voice, and wondered whether to address it or not. After thinking a short time, he decided to. "Hans, I know you're angry about what happened this afternoon. Mob fury can be an ugly thing."
"They would have killed me if it wasn't for Kyoko."
"Nonsense, your a fellow Watcher. Nobody would have laid a hand on you. People make threats all the time they have no intention of carrying out."
"They had every intention of carrying this one out."
Bakes shook his head and looked at the ground for some time, before looking up straight into Hans' eyes. "Hans, you don't trust me, do you?"
Hans was startled by the abrupt change in subject. "What?"
"You don't trust me, do you?"
Still taken aback, Hans spent some time thinking over an answer, before saying, "no, I guess not."
"Hans, I want to be your friend. I want to work together with you. I admire you Hans, I really do. You're a man of courage, of integrity, a man who stands up for what he believes in. I admit, I was a little worried for you this afternoon. If I needed too, with one word I would have nullified all their laser guns had I thought for one instant that you were in the slightest danger."
"I'd call that situation a little dangerous, wouldn't you? Their hands were on the trigger."
"Hans I didn't say anything because I knew they wouldn't kill you. You underestimate the morality of your countrymen."
"Really? So far I've not been impressed."
"Come on now Hans. We've got mad men like Gaius and Rodens, but what country doesn't. The majority of The Watchers are good at heart."
"The majority of The Watchers voted to let the Icelers die, and I think you would have let me die if Kyoko hadn't come."
"Hans I'm trying to be patient. I'm willing to overlook this afternoon's incident because I admit you did have a bit of a close call out there, but it better not happen again."
"Bakes they were down and beaten. What were you trying to do, kill them?"
"Maybe. Maybe that wouldn't have been such a bad idea. Maybe if we had killed them they would think twice before coming again. That's not the point. Unless you want our government to fall into total anarchy, you obey the authorities."
"Oh really? Who elected you?"
Bakes face grew scarlet. He opened his mouth to respond, but decided to wait a moment until he had calmed down. "Hans, we've been over this before. I'm working on returning democracy, but it takes time. Besides, in a crisis situation like this, maybe a dictator is better equipped to handle it."
"Alright, then lets elect a dictator."
"Hans we had a deal. I get two weeks to return democracy."
Hans took a deep breath. "You're right, I'm sorry. Just one thing, if we encounter the Nathorites again, treat them humanly."
"Would they have done the same to us?"
"That wasn't what I asked."
Bakes sighed. "Alright, alright you win that one Hans, on one condition. From now on, I don't want the two of us to be at odds anymore. I admire you Hans, I want us to work together."
"Deal."


"Drusus, this is the second night we've been in this town. Haven't you found some help yet?"
Drusus shook his head. "I'm afraid not. We're facing two problems. One is that Gaius' reputation has become somewhat exaggerated in this town. None of the soldiers who saw him in action want to fight against him, and none of the townsfolk who heard stories about him want to risk their lives either."
"And since the army is disbanded, we can't order anyone to do anything."
"Right. The other problem is almost the exact opposite of the first one. Strangely enough, many of the young men have gone to Gaius to join him."
"Join him?"
"Apparently he's been trying to lure men to his cause with gold. He's acted quite kind to his men, and been very generous with the wealth, with promises of more to come."
"And with those two laser guns, he could very well deliver on those promises.
"Right. Now the problems we're experiencing are probably only because this is such a small town. Just fifteen miles down the road there's a much larger city. We'd be almost sure to find help there."
"How many people would we be talking about?"
Drusus shrugged. "One, two, three, I guess maybe up to five."
"That's it?"
"Rumors have made fighting Gaius the equivalent of suicide, and the rumors aren't far off from the truth."
Pericula kicked the floor. "Damn! I don't know if we can take the time to go to the city and back, and I don't know if we can defeat Gaius alone." She looked at Drusus for help making the decision, but he offered none.
"This is your call," he said.
"I guess we go to the city. See if you can arrange transportation, I want to leave tonight."


Quintus shifted uneasily. "Hans doesn't really seem like such a bad guy. I mean, he was just doing what he thought was right."
"So was Jistap. Care to speak any words in his defense?"
"Yea, but Jistap wanted to kill. Hans just wants to help people."
Antonius rolled his eyes. "A fine job he's done of that. He helped destroy democracy to save the Icelers, only to let Rodens kill them later. He didn't stop Jistap's new world order."
"He tried, he couldn't"
"He could have, when he first found out Jistap's dealings. Instead he kept silent, and now seven hundred Watchers are dead because of his silence. Mark my words, Hans is no hero."