Chapter 12: Madison's Constitution

“Executive Power,” Madison shouted, the tips of her trident extending forward as its prongs thrashed out across the battlefield, “Ratification; Three Branches!”

“Chill out, baby!” Monroe chuckled, jumping over a prong and leaning back to dodge another. She landed on one hand, pushing off the ground and leaping away from a third attack. With each artful dodge that she made, a new, fresh wound appeared across Madison’s body.

In the stands, Jefferson gave a shallow moan.

“Oh, what a disaster this is turning into! And to think that I had been so hopeful at the start of things too…”

“Alas,” a young goth standing beside her lamented, “it is an all too human folly to expect things to work out in a world as cruel as our own; especially when it comes to Monroe acting according to plan.”

“You aren’t wrong there, Quincy,” Jefferson remarked. “Monroe certainly does have a tendency of acting freely and independently. Then again,” she spoke with a small, somber smile, “I suspect she would be a tad more docile if it weren’t for that ludicrous EP you helped her obtain.”

“Ridiculous,” Quincy Adams said with an overly dramatic sigh, “why, I’ve never accomplished anything nearly as significant as that in my entire, pitiful life!”

He looked down to the arena as cuts continued appearing across Madison’s body with each attack she made.

“…but you’re entirely right about Executive Power: Monroe Doctrine…the fact that it gives Monroe the ability to automatically land a counter blow in response to any hostile action against her is devastating enough on its own…but it becomes all but invincible when combined with Monroe’s talent for dodging any attack that comes her way.”

“It certainly would be a difficult EP for Madison to overcome…” Jefferson admitted, “…if it weren’t for the past experiences that she’s had...”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Shortly after the War of Independence, a group of prominent Virginians gathered in a local town hall and stood circled around a single, dominating figure.

“Well?” Pat Henry spat, “Are we doing this or what?”

“Give us a minute,” Eddy Randolph replied, turning his attention back to a sickly Madison. “Are you sure about this? You really aren’t looking good right now.”

“I have to,” Madison replied, suppressing a heavy cough, “nobody else can take Henry in my place.”

Randolph lowered his head, clenching up his fists.

“Don’t worry,” Madison insisted as she made her way forward, “I shall not let this land fall into ruin.”

Henry gave a snort.

“You most certainly will not!” he screamed, raising up his arms, “Because I’m going to stop you before you ever get the chance to destroy it!”

Henry suddenly charged forward without waiting for the referee to start the match, stopping in front of Madison and throwing out a masterful punch.

“You’re too focused on perfection,” Madison remarked, dodging his overly prepared swing, “you need to be practical!”

Henry lifted his guard as Madison unleashed a series of rapid thrusts, perfectly absorbing each of her blows at the cost of blocking off his vision. Madison then ducked down, sweeping Henry’s legs out from under him, knocking him to the ground. Henry started to rise, but stopped as he felt Madison’s trident pricking at his neck.

“…I surrender,” he muttered with a solemn click of his tongue.

Madison’s supporters roared with approval, only for their voices to be drowned out by the howls coming from the Anti-Federalists.

“Screw this!” Joe Mason screamed from the sidelines, “I don’t care what we agreed to! I’m going to put a stop to this hogwash here and now!”

The Anti-Federalists gathered around Mason, giving rallying cries as they raised their weapons into the air. They started marching forward, but stopped as Henry stepped out in front of them.

“All of you! Stand down!”

The soldiers lowered their weapons, grumbling to themselves as they backed away. Henry shook his head, turning his attention back to Madison.

“I swear on my honor as a gentleman: our forces in Virginia shall not oppose your plan to unite the States into a single nation.”

With that, Henry turned around and headed out behind the rest of his men.

“What are you thinking!” Mason hissed besides him, “You’re giving up way too easily here!”

Henry looked to his partner with a stern glare, then twisted his mouth into a chilling grin.

“Who ever said anything about giving up?”

The next day, Randolph slammed a heavy stack of papers onto Madison’s desk.

“We’ve been had!” he scowled. “While we were focused on getting Virginia’s approval for the national convention, Henry’s been sneaking clause after clause into our original agreement!”

Madison skimmed over the papers in front of her.

“And it appears that almost all of his amendments are centered around blocking me from attending the convention.”

“Exactly,” Randolph said with a nod. “And if you, the chief architect of this entire plan, doesn’t show up, then the whole project is all but doomed to fail!”

Madison furrowed her brow.

“How troublesome…”

“You know what I say?” Randolph exclaimed, grabbing hold of the papers. “I say we take this piece of garbage back to Henry and tell him right where he can shove it!”

“We can’t,” Madison replied, calmly removing the papers from Randolph’s hands. “He beat us fair and square; challenging him on these amendments would only serve to undermine our own movement. No, the only option we have now is to fight him according to his own rules.”

Madison flipped through the papers, then pointed down to a single line of text. Randolph looked over the words and gave a soft glare.

“…I don’t like our odds.”

“Neither do I,” Madison replied, “but it’s the only option we have.”

The next week, Henry met up with Madison and Randolph, a warm smile painted across his face.

“Hello, friends!”

“Shut it!” Randolph shot back.

“Anyways,” Henry went on, ignoring Randolph’s words, “regarding the details of today’s match for deciding Virginia’s final delegate to send to the convention…us Anti-Federalists have ultimately selected this to be our location for the fight.”

Madison and Randolph looked out, their eyes taking in the sight of an abandoned city with towering buildings separated by wide, open spaces.

“Seriously?” Randolph asked with a scratch of his head. “I never thought someone as pretentious as you would want to duke it out in a dump like this.”

“Oh?” Henry replied with feigned surprise. “Why, I think there’s a slight misunderstanding between us.”

“…how so?” Madison asked with a growl.

“You see,” Henry continued with a mischievous shine in his eyes, “I never said that I would be the one taking part in the match…only that I would be the one responsible for selecting Madison’s opponent.”

Randolph and Madison exchanged a set of worried glances.

“But if you aren’t the one representing the Anti-Federalists…” Randolph began.

“…then who is?” Madison finished.

“I am,” a voice called from behind.

Madison turned around, her jaw nearly dropping to the ground.

“M…Monroe!” she exclaimed with shock.

“In the flesh and blood, baby!” her former ally, Jeanne Monroe replied with a grin.

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Monroe Doctrine. This EP is based off the doctrine introduced by James Monroe, which essentially declares that the United States will fight back against any interference from the Old-World taking place in the New World.

Madison’s Flashback I. Few of the events in this flashback literally happened, though most of the events are based around James Madison’s very real struggle to ratify the Constitution despite the many roadblocks Patrick Henry put in front of him.

Notably, it is not true that Patrick Henry literally added secret clauses to their agreements, but he did genuinely do a lot of maneuvering to make it so that James Madison didn’t appear at the national convention to ratify the constitution. In particular, he forced James Madison to run in an election in a heavily gerrymandered district against James Monroe, the outcome for which…