Warriors

[Abishai100]

It's interesting how urbanization has spawned all kinds of bravery stories/films (even video games!), so here's a gangland yarn (my last one in the USMB Writing section --- I'm retiring!) inspired by the urban landscape calamity films The Warriors and Battle: Los Angeles.


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Angel and Alas were twin brothers and members of rival gangs in modern-day Los Angeles. The year was 2040, and no one wanted to remember the 'aftermath rhetoric' of the Trump Administration's apocalyptic bouts with anti-consumerism North Korea, which spawned a cataclysmic nuclear war. L.A. was now a land of pirates and princes, and rival gangs controlled the 'urban aesthetic.' Angel was part of the axe-wielding gang called the Red Hand, while Alas was part of the crossbow-wielding gang called the Aryans.

The Aryans were committed to immigration-control, while the Red Hand was committed to all forms of urban social control using martial law and pure terror. Minions of the Red Hand single-handedly destroyed all the new 'recruits' of the LAPD, hired specifically to carry out the new police-brutality licensing policy of U.S. President Thomas Johns. The body parts of these new 'idealistic recruits' were left on the footsteps of the police station. Alas wanted to destroy Red Hand single-handedly (for their perverse anarchy), but he had a small boy to take care of now --- the son of his new girlfriend (the beautiful Shelbye).

Angel and Alas knew that war was brewing on the streets of L.A., and to honor their respective gangs and not draw suspicion-gossip of brotherhood-based defection, Angel and Alas decided to dress up as Batman and Scarecrow (respectively), two rivals in comic book storyboards from the 20th Century, to declare they were 'professed enemies.' Scarecrow/Alas despised the bloody axe (the weapon-of-choice of Red Hand), and Batman/Angel thought the crossbow (the weapon-of-choice of the Aryans) was a 'dirty weapon.' Scarecrow fitted the arrows of his crossbow with a potent hallucinogen, so they would cause delusions to the fallen target stricken with the poison.

The battle between the Aryans and Red Hand took place on Halloween Eve, and the two 'armies' stood on the opposite sides of the football field of an abandoned high school (once the proud school where American movie superstar Leo DiCaprio studied!). The Red Hand had axes they were ready to swing and hurl, and the Aryans had their 'special crossbows' (all adjusted by Scarecrow/Alas) which they were ready to use as 'death-devices.' Batman/Angel worried that the Aryans would liberally fire arrows before any members of Red Hand even got to their side, but he figured that enough axes would be hurled to break the 'offensive line' of the crossbow-wielding Aryans.

It was now the five-year anniversary of the great battle between the Aryans and Red Hand, and Halloween Eve was approaching again. Batman/Angel was dead (killed in the 'great battle'), but Scarecrow/Alas was still alive, and he became a 'pedestrian journalist,' distributing flyers with various poems, limericks, and short-stories commemorating the 'great battle' of 2040. Alas now walked around usually in a Scarecrow costume (to honor the death of his fallen brother and the eventual demise of the violent and brutal axe-wielding Red Hand). The Aryans were disbanded and members held positions of importance, but only Scarecrow (Alas) kept the 'folk gossip' alive with his 'bardic garb' about the 'great battle of 2040.'

BOY: Why are you dressed as Scarecrow?
ALAS: You're a curious young boy; I'm honoring the great battle of 2040.
BOY: Oh, everyone knows about that; it changed L.A. dreams...
ALAS: It sure did; my brother died in that battle; he was part of a rival gang.
BOY: You were a member of the Aryans?
ALAS: Indeed; my brother (Angel) was part of Red Hand!
BOY: Why do you still commemorate the great battle?
ALAS: Honoring the sacrifice of everyone invokes faith.
BOY: Why should we honor the 'sacrifice' of 'crazies,' Scarecrow?
ALAS: You never know when the 'devil of sloth' will rise again...
BOY: Oh, you think that war is like a disease?
ALAS: Yes, and folk revelry is the cure...
BOY: What if a gang rises carrying laser-guns and gas-grenades?
ALAS: Then the Aryans will return carrying laser-shields and throwing-stars.
BOY: Maybe L.A. is the land of 'war-dreams.'
ALAS: Someday, L.A. will once again be the land of the 'American Dream.'
BOY: Well, at least we know L.A. was the home of the great warriors...

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[Abishai100]

The Utopia Memoir


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Arand the vampire was a true knight and defender of capitalism and democracy in the modern age. He contemplated retiring from his vigilante missions and wanted to write a memoir of his adventures, so he could reflect on the drama and emotion of all the passion and labor that went into the defense of new age liberties regarding capitalism, consumerism, and the caging of Communism. Arand thought about all the nifty little 'tools and toys' the defenders of democracy used to fortify the 'pillars of consumerism.' Without the right gadgets, it would be impossible to engage the enemy of liberty --- anarchy.



Arand started writing his memoir and his account of recruiting young idealistic pseudo-vigilantes. He had named his special 'prodigy-team' Olympus, Inc (OI). OI was responsible for monitoring the urban activities in major U.S. cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago and taking photos of the action (crime, terrorism, architectural changes, burglary, etc.). Arand likened the work of OI to the photojournalists who covered the Los Angeles Race Riots of 1992 and the Bosnian War as well! Arand concluded that modern defense of pro-consumerism liberties required an attention to pedestrian details/dreams and an analysis of the 'organic plague' of anti-commerce terrorism/anarchy such as the work of the nefarious Red Hood Gang, which was devoted only to urban mayhem.



Arand remembered meeting the beautiful Mara and wrote about her in his memoir. Arand and Mara soon met other like-minded democracy-defenders who aided the two loverbirds and OI as well. This special 'alliance' was nicknamed the Rascals, since they 'scurried' around and used resourcefulness to 'color' the jaded minds of Americans who had become weary and cynical about the values of capitalism. The Rascals also defended the art of the modern world, such as the consumerism-iconography work of Andy Warhol and his mosaics of Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe celebrity photos. The Rascals were very Utopian, and they wanted to ensure that American 'warriors' did not espouse the 'looting' of hardware stores for urban gang fights.



Arand's best ally was Black-Spider who single-handedly took down the ominous urban crimelord Kingpin by infiltrating his corrupted prison in Los Angeles and converting it into a democratic institution that did not 'inspire' youngsters to seek a life of crime. Kingpin was using the prison to hide drugs and condone the use of the media to support anarchism and Communism, and Black-Spider dismantled the 'operation' by entreating the inmates (even those working directly for Kingpin) to consider the wisdom of a prison run as an 'orphanage' rather than as a 'saloon.' When Kingpin fell, Americans felt overwhelmingly better about the 'social grip' of ruthless crime-bosses in this new 'landscape.'



When Arand discovered that Mara was an ethically-conscious vampire just like him, the two married and it was considered a marriage of heavenly value. Arand wrote in his memoir that defending Wall Street, eBay, Burger King, NATO, and the European Union required not only imaginative teamwork and idealistic vigilance but also ruthless precision and clinical dissection of urban psychosis. Arand had to be not only an angel but also a priest. When Arand completed his memoir, a curious Hollywood film-maker approached him with the offer to convert the memoir into a modernism masterpiece movie titled The Warriors of Capital. The movie went on to make millions, and Arand and Mara reflected on the divine grace of democracy secured!

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