Operation: Spideros
The rise of Arachnos was inevitable. No one would argue with that. No one who liked to keep their insides on the inside, at least.
Whether it would have risen so fast, or with such spectacular success, without General Konstantine Spideros … that, also, is beyond doubt.
The debate is over precisely HOW General Spideros was instrumental in contributing to the dominion of Arachnos over the Rogue Isles.
Was it thanks to his tireless efforts and unfailing service? Some suggest that, had events gone another way, Spideros might have joined the uppermost echelon of Lord Recluse’s elite. His statue might have stood in the great hall along with Black Scorpion, Ghost Widow, Captain Mako and Sirocco. He might have given support and patronage to his own chosen few.
Or was it because he became too dangerous, perceived as a threat? Some claim that the entire reason behind Lord Recluse’s dramatic power-grab was for fear that if HE did not take immediate action to secure his domination of the Rogue Isles, Spideros might have gotten there first.
Regardless of his motives, he served Arachnos well. He was, without question, a fierce soldier and a brilliant tactician. By all accounts, he was a charismatic leader who was also unafraid to get right in the trenches, dirtying his hands and risking his life.
He earned the devotion of many of his troops, and the grudging admiration of more than one adversary. He had a few respected foes, several bitter rivals, and many deadly enemies … most within the heart of Arachnos itself, teeming with hierarchies and factions. He held a high ranking on Longbow’s ‘Most Wanted’ list. Untold numbers of Paragon City’s boldest heroes tried and failed to take him down.
Then came the incident.
The incident that the Freedom Phalanx denies all knowledge of. The incident Longbow swears never happened. The incident that left no witnesses … at least, no witnesses willing, or able, to come forth.
On occasion, some vigilante hero, team or supergroup would claim credit. All of these claims have, under mystic and psychic interrogation, proved to be false.
Was it a righteous defeat? A trick, trap, or betrayal? Ambush? Set-up? Assassination attempt?
Hundreds of combatants dead – Arachnos and Longbow both. Hundreds more casualties from the civilian sector. Property damage ranging into the millions. Untold independent heroes and villains drawn into the fray, some identifiable only by DNA samples taken from scraps clinging to the remnants of their costumes.
Only General Konstantine Spideros is known to have survived that fatal pitched battle. He was found in the aftermath and rushed from the scene by his most faithful lieutenants … clinging to the barest signs of life after a devastating head injury.
He should not have lived. Against all odds, he did.
After a fashion.
The brain damage was extensive.
His memory … destroyed. Decades of skills, knowledge and experience … ripped away. His personality … eradicated. A once-proud military genius reduced to the intellectual capacity of a witless child. His body would, in time, heal. His mind, it seemed, never would.
Conflicts raged. Spideros, oblivious, was sealed in a secure hospital, staffed only by his most faithful followers. Guarded twenty-four/seven. Fed intravenously, catheterized, and fascinated by the bright colors and bold shapes of a mobile hung above his bed.
He should, some said, be put out of his misery. Given mercy. This was not the fate he would have wanted. Better to die in battle than blunder along in such a helpless, hopeless existence. Besides, his organs could be harvested, his tissue cloned. It wasn’t as though he’d be of no use even in death.
Others argued that he should be kept alive, cared for. What if the initial assessment was wrong? What if he did fully recover? He still had considerable valuable information, secrets that only he had known. If he died, those secrets would be lost forever.
And still others rebutted that this in itself was a good reason to finish him off. With all that he knew, what if he fell into the wrong hands? What if he regained his knowledge but not his ability to KEEP those secrets? He was too dangerous. Far, far too dangerous.
But, came the counter-point, killing him risks making him a legend, or even a martyr. A rallying-point for those whose loyalty to him might outweigh even their loyalty to Lord Recluse. Could Arachnos afford that severe of a rift?
The debates went on, mired deeper and deeper into stalemate, while the man who had been General Konstantine Spideros progressed from a liquid diet to soft foods, mastered a few simple words, learned to stand while holding onto something, and could be kept amused for hours with a pop-up book.
Eventually, even those closest to Spideros fell victim to suspicion, paranoia, bickering, distrust, and fighting amongst themselves. Accusations were made. Fingers were pointed.
THIS woman was a spy working for Ghost Widow. THAT man was a stalker sent by Lord Recluse. THOSE people were a covert task force dispatched from Paragon City. HE had been behind it all along and wanted to get rid of Spideros and take over. SHE planned to smother him with a pillow like some angel-of-death out of misguided love. THEY had an automaton or clone of the general but couldn’t bring it online until they’d disposed of the body.
The outside groups sat back to watch, expecting that Spideros’ faction would destroy itself from within. Which it did, but not before the four followers closest to him were able to spirit him away.
They took Spideros – by then able to feed himself, count to ten, recite the alphabet with only a few mistakes, and almost always get through the night without wetting the bed – into hiding at a remote and previously abandoned Longbow training facility on a small chunk of rock in Nerva Archipelago.
Several months passed. No one in Arachnos or Longbow wanted to assume that Spideros must be dead … they knew all too well how faulty assumptions like that often turn out to be. But neither could they find any trace of him. As time went by and other, more urgent matters presented themselves, he became of less and less importance.
Meanwhile, under the care of his four loyal lieutenants, the man who had been General Spideros continued to improve. Physically, at least. He regained his strength and coordination. They instructed him in hand-to-hand combat, weapon care and use, basic survival and outdoor skills. He became as adept as any beginning Arachnos recruit.
Physically.
Mentally, however …
Mentally, to all intents and purposes, he remained approximately seven years old.
General Konstantine Spideros. With the reading and writing ability, the vocabulary, the cunning, the temper and all the social sophistication of a second-grader.
They tried to help him regain his former self. They showed him hours of video footage from past missions and strike forces in hopes of triggering his memory. They read to him from Spideros’ journals and correspondence. He got bored. Hypnosis only gave him a good night’s sleep. Subliminal cues seemed to have no effect.
He refused to answer to his old name and would throw tantrums if the others wouldn’t call him by the one he’d chosen. He liked to color. He liked to build with blocks and then knock them down. He liked to hit things with a stick. He got stubborn over bedtime or bath-time or eating his vegetables. If someone was nice to him, that person was his best friend. If someone was mean to him, he’d throw a rock or kick to the shins.
They were beginning to lose hope.
Then their hidden base, left alone for so long, got raided.
It was purely unintentional on the part of Longbow, who wanted to reactivate that facility but found a tiny contingent of Arachnos there when they arrived. The surprise was mutual on both sides. So was the immediate, hostile enmity.
The numbers? Not mutual. Not even close.
Perhaps if Spideros hadn’t been taking a nap …
As three of the lieutenants made a desperate last stand at a barricaded door, the fourth was able to wake him and get out of the base … briefly. The sacrifice of their companions proved futile. A contingent of Longbow caught the escapees during a routine cleanup sweep.
With no idea they’d just captured the infamous General Konstantine Spideros and one of his lieutenants, the Longbow Commanders had the two stragglers hauled off to the Zig.
There they were to stay, until an opportune moment of chaos in a large-scale breakout brought them back together.
**
( laying the groundwork for Tim and my VEAT characters, coming soon!
)
-- C.
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@Incineratrix and @Seema -- 2 accounts for the 3 of us
http://www.christine-morgan.com/ -- Christine's books
http://sabledrake.livejournal.com/ -- Personal journal
http://incineratrix.livejournal.com/ -- CoX journal
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