Chapter 29: Force

“Amazing!” Thompson screamed. “Roosevelt, through sheer force of will, has managed to reduce Wilson’s entire army down to a just single member! This, folks; is the truth strength of a Rushmore!”

The stands erupted into a chorus of thunderous cheers. Roosevelt turned his attention from his opponent, greeting the audience with a beaming smile. Back on the ground, the last remaining Wilson gave a dejected smirk.

“I’m still here,” she muttered, looking across the faces of the crowd as they chanted Roosevelt’s name. “But I suppose that hardly makes a difference to them. After all…” she said, looking to Roosevelt’s muscular back, “you are a real, vivid person, whom they have seen and cheered for, millions strong…I, on the other hand, am a vague, conjectural personality, more made up of opinions and academic prepossessions than of human traits and red corpuscles…”

She sighed to herself.

“As such,” she spoke while undoing the tie around her neck with her uninjured hand, “if I wish to redeem my fallen status and show the world my magnificence…then half-measures such as the ones I have shown up to this point will be entirely insufficient. No, there is but one response possible from us to draw the will of the masses towards us…”

As she spoke, the three unconscious Wilsons dissolved into a blue mist, pouring their essence back into the final Wilson. Roosevelt turned around, instinctively raising up his guard as Wilson walked towards him, her previously gray eyes transformed into an azure blue.

“Our only response,” Wilson exclaimed as she smashed her fist into Roosevelt’s arms. “Is force!”

Roosevelt slid back from the weight of Wilson’s heavy blow. He started lowering down his guard, only to raise it back as Wilson appeared before him in an instant.

“Force to the utmost!” Wilson screamed as she continued striking at Roosevelt with a series of seismic blows. “Force without stint or limit! The righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust!”

Roosevelt took a strike to his face, followed by a devastating blow to his gut. His face contorted into an expression of gruesome pain, only for him to replace his grimace with his biggest smile yet.

“Yes!” Roosevelt exclaimed as he took on another hit. “Yes, yes, yes! This! This right here is the Wilson I remember!”

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

Years ago, Wilson stared out her Princeton office window, watching the rain as her secretary, Eddy House, barged inside.

“Come on, Wilson! How long are we going to sit back and watch while this madness unfolds around us?”

“There is such a thing as a woman being too proud to fight,” Wilson muttered, continuing to stare out her window as a building crumbled in the distance.

Earlier that morning, the former allies Theo Roosevelt and Bill Taft had started fighting in the middle of Princeton’s campus, decimating everything in their path. Wilson had of course contemplated stepping into the fray, but she abhorred violent rumbles like this. Moreover, no students had been caught in the crossfire thus far, allowing Wilson to safely justify her decision to stand back and watch. However, as the fighting continued to escalate with each passing hour, it seemed only a matter of time before the combatants would overstep their bounds…

House’s phone buzzed. He looked down, reading the message across his screen with a grimace.

“I just got a note from Zimmerman…it seems like they’ve sunk one of our boats.”

Wilson continued staring out her window.

“…was there anybody aboard?” she asked.

“They don’t know the exact numbers for sure…but it looks like there were around 12 or 13 students.”

Wilson removed her glasses and rubbed her fingers along the bridge of her nose.

“And what do you believe should be the right response for us to give in turn?”

“…are you serious right now?” House asked, dumbfounded. “Obviously the people are going to demand you go out and take them down!”

Wilson glared at House with an uncharacteristic malice.

“I did not ask about popular opinion; I asked you what is right! I do not care for popular demand…I want to do what is right, whether it be popular or not.”

She continued to stare a moment longer before sighing to herself.

“No…you are right…I am merely deluding myself here. God knows I’ve tried keeping us out of this war the best that I could. But alas…there is one price which is too great to pay for peace.”

She stepped out of her office carrying with her an expression of dark calm.

“One cannot pay the price…of self-respect!”

Wilson headed out the building, marching to the center of campus as Taft slammed his war hammer into Roosevelt, shooting him across the grounds and through the nearest building. Roosevelt shot himself up, stopping his advance as he noticed Wilson standing between him and Taft.

“Both of you,” Wilson spoke in her sternest professorial voice, “stand down.”

“Out of the way!” Taft screamed, “This fight’s got nothing to do with you!”

“Oh, how I wish that were true,” she replied with a shake of her head. “But I must ask you once more: will you go away quietly? Or shall I be required to make you leave by force?”

Roosevelt snarled as he tightened up his fists.

“I think I’ll take my chances against you trying to snub me!” he scoffed. “You lack valor! You can’t do it; I’d like to see you try!”

Wilson gave a sigh.

“It is true that I might not be able to stop you two on my own,” she spoke out, looking Rosevelt in the eyes , “…but what you fail to realize…is that I have God on my side!”

As she spoke, a radiant light burst from Wilson’s body, halting Roosevelt and Taft as they watched a fresh Presidential Seal form across her hand.

“An…an Election on command?” Roosevelt stammered, “That’s…that’s impossible!”

“Remember this gentleman…”

Taft and Roosevelt both stepped back as a pair of Wilsons rushed towards each of them.

“God himself ordained that I should be the next President of the United States…” one of the Wilsons said. “…neither you, nor any other mortals could have prevented this!”

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Wilson’s Flashback I. The first half of this flashback is based on Woodrow Wilson’s reluctant entry into World War I. He resisted doing this for as long as he could, but eventually Germany’s aggressiveness was too much for him to bear. One major turning point for his change of mind was Germany sinking the Lusitania, a boat which carried 128 United States passengers on board. Another big factor was the Zimmerman telegram/note, which was a message from Germany to Mexico urging them to wage war against the United States. After these events, Woodrow ultimately decided to enter the war.