"The Widening Gyre"

The ragtag group fled off the stage into the cathedral. They scrambled up marble stairs, passing by fleeing, hiding, scared, pied Do-Nothings, other members of the Popular Front forming barricades, paint-guns at the ready, steely looks in their eyes, a thousand stories of love, bravery, and comradeship written over the course of December 31, 2999. Our heroes slipped past them all, kept running, upwards, until they arrived on a balcony overlooking the whole show.

The Polymermen had made it through the Kingdom and were now at the barricades of the Presidio. The Home Division combat-bots seemed unsure of what to do, lacking any communications from the central government, and this was their first mission in centuries. Faced with logical paradoxes and unclear instructions, the combat-bots reverted to the primary law of not harming a human, so they backpedaled, ray-carbines lowered, as the Polymermen spilled into the Presidio. Both Gothic fortress and Roman villa alike were crawling with Polymermen now, hanging Apollo 11 banners from windows and balconies, like brown ants mixed with red-white-and-blue.

Up on the balcony, Kaede was seeing ghosts, huddled in a corner. Kyoko was pacing.

“What if we…we could…Kaede, what do we do?”

“Think of something yourself for once!” Kaede snapped, then hugged her knees tighter.

“Yaho…” Kyoko sat in a different corner and sighed.

Walrus, Slow, and Rango were in a frenzy, all of them crying while telling each other to shut up, knocking each other to the ground.

Azuki was also sitting, no more tears coming, looking stone-faced at the courtyard, where bands of Do-Nothings still engaged the Polymermen. Many more were trying to flee through the collapsing structures on either side of the muddy field.

Nat, Charles, and Altamont were in the midst of a fierce debate regarding the arrangement of the Polymermen and the best place for the Do-Nothings to counterattack and deliver their schwerpunkt. Tensions rose and feathers flew when Charles and Altamont got into it.

Everyone was in a bad mood, dig. That just left Sue and Zipper.

“Well, ya happy now?” Zipper asked Sue. “You enjoying this explosion of energy? This Neo-Romantic moment? You’re enjoying the end of the world, right?”

Sue adjusted her glasses. “Ah, I see. You’re upset and bitter and looking for a target to take it out on. Well, I can do that too.”

She jabbed a finger on Zipper’s chest. “This is all your fault!”

“Wha? Mine?”

“If you hadn’t taken us on this vision quest, then we never would’ve met Joe, and you never would’ve gotten him to perform live! Everything that’s going on right now - it’s all your fault!”

Sue threw her arms up. “I could’ve spent the last two months chilling out, playing video games and all that, but no! We had to go on this stupid quest, and for what? What did you accomplish with this, Zipper? You still have no hobbies, no skills, and no purpose. What have you even learned during this?”

Zipper swallowed. The storm clouds above the balcony seemed to grow darker. She averted her eyes. “Not a goddamn thing, I ‘spose.”

“That’s right. All we can do now is have a drink and hope this whole thing blows over. We’ll be lucky if we can even make it out of here.”

Sue laid down in a fetal position and tried to sleep. Nat, Charles, and Altamont all threw each other to the floor in their anger. The only one still standing was Zipper.

All my fault.

Zipper gazed at the chaos and destruction out in the courtyard, in the collapsing Kingdom and conquered Presidio. All the bodies, all the mud and gunk, all the screams and cries and terror, all the dashed dreams-

All my fault.

And the worst about it all? Humanity was doing just fine before this all started. No war, no poverty, no pollution. The only challenge left was to figure out what to do with all that free time. Even an issue as small as that led to open warfare. This entire crisis was over nothing.

People are just the worst. That must make me the worst of all.

She leaned her back on the railing, not wanting to look anymore. Her legs buckled.

If I had just stayed home that day…if I just wasn’t afraid of getting older…

Zipper caught herself on the railing.

“Hey, hold on,” she realized. Her brain, having been used with increased regularity for months now, had finally achieved the ability to make grand realizations. “It ain’t my fault. Not entirely. Lawrence and Kajanas would’ve still been feuding, with or without me. Same with the people. If not me, then it would’ve been something else. I contributed, sure, but everyone did. It’s called society for a reason. It wasn’t my failing. It was all of ours.”

She stood tall now. “We are the choices we make. If I had stayed home that day, maybe there’s no Do-Nothing movement. But if there’s no movement, then there’d be nobody here right now, ready to stop Lawrence. If I stayed home, then I’d be picking my nose and scratching my ass, not caring one way or the other while humanity falls. You know what I learned, Sue? I learned that we can’t just look up to some person and think they got all the answers! We ourselves gotta come up with them, we gotta talk with another, even if you disagree, and share those answers, otherwise fists do the talking, chaos increases, and things collapse.”

Zipper placed a hand across her chest. “All the technology in the world doesn’t matter if people don’t care about one another. That’s something technology can’t do. Only the heart can.”

Nat, Charles, and Altamont stopped their fighting, looking sheepishly at one another.

"Things suck sometimes," Zipper concluded. "Maybe a lot of times. But as long we're here together, why, we can do anything. And I only realized this because I went outside my comfort zone and failed a bunch. Time's gonna pass whether we like it or not, so we may as well try our best."

Azuki stood and nodded.

Zipper leaned over the railing now, screaming out to fleeing Do-Nothings down below. 

“Hey! Joe’s been taken to the Presidio! Our friend needs our help! I’m just a bum, but I’m gonna stay and fight, so what does that make all of you?”

Several of the Do-Nothings, vaguely aware of some redhead screaming at them, turned and paused. And right at that moment, the Martian fleet appeared above Saint Francisco, the Vespasian leading the charge against Lawrence's fleet. Pie and paint now flew across the skies; the rain and thunder worsened.

Another livestream made it through the military blockade. This time it was Kajanas, sitting in the control room of the Vespasian. None other than Billy Sodenholzer, brother to a high school chum of Zipper’s, sat next to him.

“Citizens of humanity,” Kajanas began, wearing dirty battle armor, a bandage around his shoulder. “I’ll not mince words. Lawrence has mounted a coup to seize control of the government. He has accused me of doing the same, but let me assure you - this was his doing, and his doing alone. He and his band of Polymermen have trampled upon law and order, seeking to create a world of might makes right, of inequality and repression. All of you, take to the streets, not just his Polymermen!”

He nodded at Billy. “In a grand, off-screen adventure, young Billy here and I seized a broadcasting tower to get through the military blockade. I did so not just to speak against the coup, but to warn of more dire news. Lawrence has a galaxy-spanning superweapon beneath the Presidio. Should he arrive there and be able to activate it, all will be lost. A good person died to bring me this information. Many more will unless we’re able to stop it. Citizens of humanity, join me at the Presidio!”

The transmission stopped. Down below, the Do-Nothings still looked confused, unsure of who to believe now or even what to do. Zipper slammed on the railing, trenchcoat billowing in the wind.

“Listen to me! Forget about high-minded ideals for a second. Forget about ideology, forget about in-fighting, forget about getting older!” She pointed at the Presidio. “Lawrence will be here soon. That’s our friend he’s captured! That’s our future he’s stealing! And we’re, what, gonna go home? Gonna sit around feeling sorry for ourselves? Keep our heads down and hope it won't affect us? It already has!”

The Do-Nothings down below started murmuring, nodding.

Zipper felt a hand on her shoulder. Kaede now stood next to her, light smile on her face. “You’re no poser, Zipper. I can tell you that much.”

Kaede turned to the crowd. “Members of the Popular Front…I don’t know much about tactics, but I can do one thing - lead a frontal-charge! Everyone, gather in the cathedral main hall. Let's charge right through front gate of the Presidio!”

A thousand arms lifted a thousand paintball-guns, color returning to people’s faces.

Zipper raised both her arms. “Everyone - those are brave Polymermen at the Presidio. Let’s go kick their asses!”

The rallying cry was deafening as the Do-Nothings got their second wind.