From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Dr. Watson recounts an adventure that started on 20 March 1888. While Watson is paying Holmes a visit, Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, the hereditary King of Bohemia, enters his office. The King explains that he is to become engaged to a young Scandinavian princess. However, five years before the events of the story, he had enjoyed a relationship with the American opera singer Irene Adler. She has since retired and now lives in London. He fears that should the strictly principled family of his fiancée learn of this impropriety, the marriage would be called off. He seeks to regain letters and a photograph of Adler and himself together, which he had sent to her during their relationship as a token. The King's agents had failed to recover the photograph through various means; an offer to pay for the photograph and letters was also refused. Adler has threatened to send the photograph to his in-laws, so the King requests help in recovering the photograph. The next morning, a disguised Holmes goes to Adler's house. He discovers that Adler has a gentleman friend, the barrister Godfrey Norton, who calls at least once a day. On this particular day, Norton comes to visit Adler, and soon afterward takes a cab to a nearby church. Minutes later, the lady herself gets into her landau, bound for the same place. Holmes follows in a cab and enters the church, where he is unexpectedly asked to be a witness to Norton and Adler's wedding. Curiously, the newly-wed go their separate ways after the ceremony. Returning to Baker Street, Holmes recounts his tale to Watson and expresses his amusement at his role in Adler's wedding. He also asks whether or not Watson is willing to participate in an illegal scheme to figure out where the picture is hidden in Adler's house. Watson agrees, and Holmes changes into another disguise as a clergyman. They depart Baker Street for Adler's house. When Holmes and Watson arrive, a group of jobless men meanders throughout the street. When Adler's coach pulls up, Holmes enacts his plan. A fight breaks out between the men on the street over who gets to help Adler. Holmes rushes into the fight to protect Adler and is seemingly struck and injured, though it is later revealed that this is a self-inflicted splatter of red paint. Adler takes him into her sitting room, where Holmes motions for her to have the window opened. As Holmes lifts his hand, Watson recognizes a pre-arranged signal and tosses in a plumber's smoke rocket. While smoke billows out of the building, Watson shouts "Fire!" and the cry is echoed up and down the street. Holmes slips out of Adler's house and tells Watson what he saw. As Holmes expected, Adler rushed to get her most precious possession at the cry of "fire"–the photograph of herself and the King. Holmes observes that the picture was kept in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the right bell pull. He was unable to steal it at that moment, however, because the coachman was watching him. The following morning, Holmes explains his findings to the King. When Holmes, Watson, and the King arrive at Adler's house at 8 am, her elderly maidservant sardonically informs them she had left the country by train earlier that morning. Holmes quickly goes to the photograph's hiding spot, finding a photo of Irene Adler in an evening dress and a letter addressed to him, dated at midnight. In the letter, Adler tells Holmes he did very well in finding the photograph and taking her in with his disguises. Adler has left England with Norton, "a better man" than the King, adding she will not compromise the King, despite being "cruelly wronged" by him; she had kept the photo only to protect herself from further action he might take. The King exclaims how amazing Adler is: "Would she not have made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity she was not on my level?" Holmes replies that Miss Adler is indeed on a much different level from the King (by which he means higher–a subtle twist of meaning lost on the King). Thanking Holmes effusively, the King offers a valuable emerald ring from his finger as further reward.Holmes does accept a antique snuff box from the King as a gift ["A Case of Identity"] Holmes says there is something he values even more highly: the photograph of Adler. He keeps the photograph as a reminder of her cleverness, and of being beaten by a woman's wit. Watson also tells that, since their meeting, Holmes always refers to her by the honorable title of "the woman". In the opening paragraph of the short story, Watson calls her "the late Irene Adler", suggesting she is deceased. It has been speculated, however, that the word "late" might actually mean "former". She married Godfrey Norton, making Adler her former name. (Doyle employs this same usage in "The Adventure of the Priory School" in reference to the Duke's former status as a cabinet minister.) ===== ===== Day for Night chronicles the production of Je Vous Présente Paméla (Meet Pamela, or literally I want you to meet Pamela), a clichéd melodrama starring aging screen icon Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Aumont), former diva Séverine (Valentina Cortese), young heartthrob Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and a British actress, Julie Baker (Jacqueline Bisset), who is recovering from both a nervous breakdown and the controversy over her marriage to her much older doctor. In between are several vignettes chronicling the stories of the crew members and the director, Ferrand (Truffaut), who deals with the practical problems of making a movie. Behind the camera, the actors and crew go through several romances, affairs, break-ups and sorrows. The production is especially shaken up when one of the supporting actresses is revealed to be pregnant. Later, Alphonse's lover leaves him for the film's stuntman, which leads Alphonse into a palliative one-night stand with an accommodating Julie; thereupon, mistaking Julie's pity for true love, the infantile Alphonse informs Julie's husband of the affair. Finally, Alexandre dies on the way to hospital after a car accident. ===== The series follows the exploits of Ryo Saeba, a "sweeper" who is always found chasing beautiful girls and a private detective who works to rid Tokyo of crime, along with his associate or partner, Hideyuki Makimura. Their "City Hunter" business is an underground jack-of-all-trades operation, contacted by writing the letters "XYZ" on a blackboard at Shinjuku Station. One day, Hideyuki is murdered, and Ryo must take care of Hideyuki's sister, Kaori, a tomboy who becomes his new partner in the process. However, Kaori is very susceptible and jealous, often hitting Ryo with a giant hammer when he does something perverted. The story also follows the behind-the-scenes romance between Ryo and Kaori and the way they cooperate throughout each mission. ===== In August 9, 1991, Maksymilian "Max" Paradys (Jerzy Stuhr), looking for adventure, and Albert Starski (Olgierd Łukaszewicz), biologist, volunteer themselves for the first human hibernation experiment, created by professor Wiktor Kuppelweiser, a Nobel Prize laureate, who previously successfully hibernated a chimpanzee for half a year. The experiment is considered as an epochal event and is broadcast on television. The hibernation is scheduled to last for 3 years. Instead of being awakened 3 years later in 1994 as planned, they wake up in the year 2044, in a post- nuclear world. Both are 86 years old, but haven't aged a day outwardly. When they wake up, they believe that they are in a clinic following their hibernation. They are being taken care of by women, which they enjoy at the beginning, especially Max, who becomes attracted to Lamia Reno. However they gradually realize that everything going on around them is odd. After explicitly asking to meet professor Kuppelweiser, they are informed by Lamia and Dr. Berna that he "doesn't exist". They explain that there was a war long ago, that all males have long been extinct, and that it is actually March 8, 2044 (Women's Day). Max and Albert think that these must be hallucinations as a side-effect of hibernation and try to leave the room, but receive an electric shock from the closed door. The men are under constant surveillance after this. Lamia informs them their society reproduces without males through parthenogenesis. During a briefing, Max kisses Lamia, for which she knocks him down and threatens both men with euthanasia if there is another attempt at sexual assault. However, the kiss causes Lamia's drug-inhibited passions to resurface, making her both confused and fascinated. Due to her internal feelings she goes on a search for the oldest living woman to find out anything she can about the men before the war. She finds 74-year old Julia Novack, who fondly remembers her fiancé and tells Lamia that the old world with two sexes should be restored. She also guesses that Lamia fell in love with one of the men. After several days, Max and Albert are permitted to go out to meet with Her Excellency, the supreme ruler of women. Waiting for her in the bio- sanctuary, they spot a tree with two tiny apples and eat them, being disgusted by synthetic food. At the meeting they ask what womankind did to mankind. The women reply the extinction of men is not their fault, but Kuppelweiser's, who, during the war, invented an agent - the so-called M bomb - which was supposed to temporarily paralyze male genes, but, due to an oversight, instead destroyed male genes permanently. Max offers a proposal: he and Albert will serve as reproducers to restore the male population. However, the women do not wish the old order to return; Her Excellency gestures to the "sacred apple tree" and says it was planted by Arch Mother, and from which, when once in paradise, a male took an apple and seduced a woman with it, by which act paradise was lost to all forever. After noticing the missing sacred apples, Her Excellency becomes desperate and enraged and demands the men be taken back to their previous confinement and not be released anywhere. Once again confined, the men grow distressed and plan to escape by damaging the electric power grid. They succeed, but are caught during a course organized by the special section on how to interact with men, should they ever return to the world, and are locked up again. The women provide them with their last chance: to submit themselves for "naturalization" - undergoing a sex reassignment surgery. When they refuse, the ceiling above the room opens, showing a huge assembly of women, who are to determine their fate. Albert and Max now face a humiliating trial, while the women blame males for oppression, virtually all evil and vices, and praise their new society. They engage in historical revisionism by claiming that the greatest scientists - such as Copernicus, Einstein and Pincus (one of the pioneers of parthenogenesis) - were, in fact, women. When Max and Albert are taken away, the assembly votes on whether they should undergo forced 'naturalization' (proposed by group "Archeo") or be 'liquidated' (proposed by group "Genetix") of men. Naturalization is passed by a margin of only one vote. In the meantime, the men escape again. Wandering through what Albert calls "a nightmarish skyscraper", they encounter other women, who have never seen a man, and therefore view Max and Albert as their "sisters", provoking humorous encounters. After that the men discover a boot lying on the floor, with a bottle of cheap wine (popular in Poland in the late 20th century) and a sheet of newspaper from 1993 with stories from the beginning of the world war. They are cornered by the security team and escape down a waste chute. They discover the nest of "decadency" - one of the anarchist, "hippie" women's groups, who do not wish to be part of the oppressive regime, playing loud music, and some engaging in lesbian relations. They mistake Max and Albert for government spies and, in the meantime, the pursuing regime forces attack, and subsequent chaos provides the men with an opportunity to escape. During their escape, the men stumble upon Lamia, who provides them with a way to see the outside - a periscope - and reveals that they live deep underground in expanded old mines. The periscope shows a dark, rocky landscape above ground, and sensors indicate high levels of "Kuppelweiser radiation", a side effect of the M bomb. However, it transpires that Lamia is loyal to "Archeo" group and her "help" was a ruse to capture the men and force them into surgery. Lamia is congratulated by Tekla and Emma Dax (members of "Genetix") for her ingenious plan, but they also inform her that their section will now be in charge of the males, which devastates Lamia. In the hands of Tekla, the fate of the males is to be different. Their organs will be extracted for transplantation, and their remains will be tested for possible use as a food source, due to a growing protein shortage. The chief surgeon, Dr Yanda, an old lady, is revealed to be Max's daughter, who now delights in taking revenge for his abandonment of his wife and child in favor of hibernation for his own profit. Lamia sabotages the surgery and helps the men escape as revenge for Tekla and Dax taking the men and her research. Shortly after escape Albert passes out in the lift from the anaesthetic given to him in theatre, and dreams that he's in 1994, when process of hibernation has successfully finished. In the periscope room Lamia threatens the guards by telling them that she will blast the whole block if they do not give her the code activating a capsule reaching the surface, while Max and Albert find and change into protective suits. The guards claim that only Her Excellency knows the password required; enraged, Max shouts "kurwa mać!" (a common strong Polish swear), and to the surprise of all present, the capsule is activated. Lamia changes into another protective suit and joins the men. While they explore the barren surface, Max suddenly bumps against an invisible barrier and is unable to go further. He takes a knife and cuts the fabric of the barrier, and a dazzling light appears. They all go through the hole and find themselves on a beach, with the periscope area being surrounded by a small, circular tent-like structure. They explore their surroundings and find themselves in a forest, but the suits are running out of oxygen. Suddenly Max shouts with joy and throws away his suit, pointing skyward to a flying stork and declares "if it can live, it means we can live too". After removing the suits, they come across a cosy villa full of fresh food. While eating in the garden, they are found by Emma, who has been following them and, armed with a harpoon, demands their surrender, but she faints due to the lack of oxygen. Albert removes her helmet and performs CPR on her. He carries her inside the villa and starts to remove her suit. When she regains consciousness, Emma begins to fight with Albert; during their tussle, they accidentally turn on the TV and see an official government broadcast of events, stating that Lamia and Emma are dead and including an interview with "naturalized" Max and Albert, who claim to be feeling very well and thankful. Emma is shocked, unable to understand such lies and all the strange environment "with too much air". Max goes with Lamia to a bedroom and tries to explain her what mating is, while Albert tries his luck with Emma. Later, while resting in the living room, Max and Albert suddenly hear the familiar sound of an arriving elevator and hide. It is 'Her Excellency' who emerges from the elevator (which is hidden within a closet) to feed 'her' caged birds. When 'she' opens the wardrobe, 'she' is attacked by Max, who has hidden in it. During the ensuing fight, 'her' breasts and hair are stripped, revealing that 'she' is a male in disguise, to 'her' panic and Max's disgust and rage. Max also removes an electronic necklace, which was converting 'Her' Excellency's voice into one that sounds like a woman's. 'Her' Excellency tells the men his life story - just after the war, when the League of Women took power, he was 4 years old; the few boys remaining were naturalized into 'girls', but he was hidden by his mother. Growing up in a female disguise, he joined the League and finally was elected 'Her Excellency'. He was too afraid of women to form a relationship with any and, revealing himself, to try to restore the old order. The government has been exaggerating the radiation level in order to keep the inhabitants underground, making them easier to control; likewise, the inhabitants are medicated to remove sexual desire. The three make a deal: Max and Albert will not compromise 'Her' Excellency's true identity, but they will stay in his home with Lamia and Emma. Later, Max and Albert, disguised as laboratory workers, add male gametes to flasks in the incubation center. Flashing forward to several months later, a nurse, routinely wrapping newborns in blankets, is horrified to see a penis. ===== Historians have identified many possible factors contributing to Arnold's treason, while some debate their relative importance. According to W. D. Wetherell, he was: Wetherell says that the shortest explanation for his treason is that he "married the wrong person."Wetherell, 2007. General Sir Henry Clinton Arnold had been badly wounded twice in battle and had lost his business in Connecticut, which made him profoundly bitter. He grew resentful of several rival and younger generals who had been promoted ahead of him and given honors which he thought he deserved. Especially galling was a long feud with the civil authorities in Philadelphia which led to his court-martial. He was also convicted of two minor charges of using his authority to make a profit. General Washington gave him a light reprimand, but it merely heightened Arnold's sense of betrayal; nonetheless, he had already opened negotiations with the British before his court martial even began. He later said in his own defense that he was loyal to his true beliefs, yet he lied at the same time by insisting that Peggy was totally innocent and ignorant of his plans.Nathaniel Philbrick, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution (2016) pp 321-26.Michael Dolan, "Hero and Villain" American History (2016) 51#3 pp 12-13. Arnold had an extremely ambitious and jealous personality. He knew that he was distrusted and disliked by senior military officers on both sides. Washington was one of the few who genuinely liked and admired him, but Arnold thought that Washington had betrayed him. As early as 1778, there were signs that Arnold was unhappy with his situation and pessimistic about the country's future. On 10 November 1778, General Nathanael Greene wrote to General John Cadwalader, "I am told General Arnold is become very unpopular among you oweing to his associateing too much with the Tories."Showman (1983), p. 3:57 A few days later, Arnold wrote to Greene and lamented over the "deplorable" and "horrid" situation of the country at that particular moment, citing the depreciating currency, disaffection of the army, and internal fighting in Congress, while predicting "impending ruin" if things did not change soon.Showman (1983), p. 3:58 Biographer Nathaniel Philbrick argues: Early in May 1779, Arnold met with Philadelphia merchant Joseph StansburyStansbury's testimony before a British commission erroneously placed his meeting with Arnold in June. who then "went secretly to New York with a tender of [Arnold's] services to Sir Henry Clinton".Randall (1990), pp. 456–457 Stansbury ignored instructions from Arnold to involve no one else in the plot, and he crossed the British lines and went to see Jonathan Odell in New York. Odell was a Loyalist working with William Franklin, the last colonial governor of New Jersey and the son of Benjamin Franklin. On 9 May, Franklin introduced Stansbury to Major André, who had just been named the British spy chief.Randall (1990), p. 457 This was the beginning of a secret correspondence between Arnold and André, sometimes using his wife Peggy as a willing intermediary, which culminated more than a year later with Arnold's change of sides. ===== Arnold and André finally met on 21 September at the Joshua Hett Smith House. On the morning of 22 September, from their position at Teller's Point, two American rebels, John "Jack" Peterson and Moses Sherwood, under the command of Col. James Livingston fired on HMS Vulture, the ship that was intended to carry André back to New York. This action did little damage besides giving the captain, Andrew Sutherland, a splinter in his nose - but the splinter prompted the Vulture to retreat, forcing André to return to New York overland. Arnold wrote out passes for André so that he would be able to pass through the lines, and he also gave him plans for West Point.Lossing (1852), pp. 151–156 André was captured near Tarrytown, New York on Saturday, 23 September by three Westchester militiamen. They found the papers exposing the plot to capture West Point and passed them on to their superiors,Lossing (1852), pp. 187–189 but André convinced the unsuspecting Colonel John Jameson, to whom he was delivered, to send him back to Arnold at West Point—but he never reached West Point. Major Benjamin Tallmadge was a member of the Continental Army's Culper Ring, a network of spies established under Washington's orders, and he insisted that Jameson order the prisoner to be intercepted and brought back. Jameson reluctantly recalled the lieutenant who had been delivering André into Arnold's custody, but he then sent the same lieutenant as a messenger to notify Arnold of André's arrest. Arnold learned of André's capture the morning of 24 September while waiting for Washington, with whom he was going to have breakfast at his headquarters in British Col. Beverley Robinson's former summer house on the east bank of the Hudson.Loyal American RegimentBrandt (1994), p. 220 Upon receiving Jameson's message, however, he learned that Jameson had sent Washington the papers which André was carrying. Arnold immediately hastened to the shore and ordered bargemen to row him downriver to where HMS Vulture was anchored, fleeing on it to New York City.Lossing (1852), p. 159 From the ship, he wrote a letter to WashingtonArnold to Washington, 25 September 1780 requesting that Peggy be given safe passage to her family in Philadelphia—which Washington granted. Washington remained calm when he was presented with evidence of Arnold's treason. He did, however, investigate its extent, and suggested that he was willing to exchange André for Arnold during negotiations with General Clinton concerning André's fate. Clinton refused this suggestion; after a military tribunal, André was hanged at Tappan, New York on 2 October. Washington also infiltrated men into New York City in an attempt to capture Arnold. This plan very nearly succeeded, but Arnold changed living quarters prior to sailing for Virginia in December and thus avoided capture.Lossing (1852), pp. 160, 197–210 He justified his actions in an open letter titled "To the Inhabitants of America", published in newspapers in October 1780.Carso (2006), p. 153 He also wrote in the letter to Washington requesting safe passage for Peggy: "Love to my country actuates my present conduct, however it may appear inconsistent to the world, who very seldom judge right of any man's actions." ===== A married couple, Chris and Ruth Miller, are awakened by the whimpering of their little daughter, Tina. Chris goes to see what the trouble is. Their dog, Mack, begins to bark from the backyard. Chris cannot find Tina either in or under the bed, even though her pleas for help seem to be coming from nearby, yet far away. He calls Ruth into the room, and she is similarly mystified. Chris phones his physicist friend, Bill, for help, and opens the door to let the incessantly barking Mack into the house. The dog runs under the bed and disappears, but can still be heard barking, again close, but far away. Bill arrives and helps Chris move the bed so that he can physically scan the area where it was, marking the legs with books. When this proves fruitless, Bill examines the wall behind the bed. His hand passes easily through the wall and to another dimension, and draws marks on the wall outlining the apparent boundary. He explains to Chris and Ruth that sometimes lines in our three dimensions end parallel with, rather than perpendicular to, the fourth dimension. He warns them that they know nothing of what's beyond this portal, and should they follow Tina into the fourth dimension, they would only become hopelessly lost as well, since it is not manifested like the third dimension. Chris calls to Mack to guide Tina back. Mack leads Tina to the source of Chris's voice, but they still cannot find the entrance. Despite Bill's warnings, Chris reaches into the portal and falls into the fourth dimension, an abstract, crystalline landscape which seems distorted, and constantly turning upside down and sideways. Bill advises him not to move. Chris sees Tina and Mack and calls them towards him. Bill calls for him to hurry. When Tina and Mack close in on Chris, Bill grabs them and pulls them back into the bedroom. Ruth rushes Tina to another room. Bill explains that Chris was only halfway through the portal, despite Chris' perception that he was standing up in the new dimension. Bill was in fact holding onto Chris the entire time. He was telling Chris to hurry because the portal was closing. Bill knocks on the wall, and it is solid. The portal has closed. Bill tells Chris, "Another few seconds, and half of you would have been here, and the other half..." ===== Dean Corso, a New York City rare book dealer, makes his living conning people into selling him valuable antique books for a low price, and then re-selling them to private collectors. Corso meets with wealthy book collector Boris Balkan, who has recently acquired a copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows by 17th-century author Aristide Torchia, one of only three extant copies. The author adapted the book from one written by the Devil himself, and was burned for heresy. "The Nine Gates" purportedly contains the means to summon the Devil and acquire invincibility and immortality. Balkan believes two of the three copies are forgeries. He hires Corso to check all three and acquire the legitimate one by any means necessary. Balkan's copy was acquired from Andrew Telfer, who killed himself soon after. Telfer's widow Liana seduces Corso, in a failed attempt to get the book back. Meanwhile, Corso leaves the book for safekeeping with bookseller Bernie Rothstein, who is then murdered; his corpse is found posed like an engraving in The Nine Gates, which is also similar to the position of the body of figure in The Hanged Man; the twelfth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. Corso retrieves the book from a hidden cabinet and travels to Toledo, Spain. The Ceniza brothers, book restorers who sold Balkan's copy to Telfer originally, show him that three of the nine engravings are signed "LCF", rather than "AT", which aligns with the rumors that Lucifer himself was Aristide Torchia's co-author, and implies Satan designed the three images personally. Corso travels to Sintra, Portugal, to compare Victor Fargas' copy of the book to Balkan's. To Corso's surprise, he discovers that the signature "LCF" is found in three different engravings, which vary in small but significant details from the "AT" images in the Balkan copy. The next morning, a mysterious young woman (identified only as "the Girl") who appears to have been shadowing Corso since Balkan hired him, awakens Corso and leads him to Fargas' house. He finds the old man murdered and the "LCF"-signed engravings ripped out of that copy and the book half burned. In Paris, Corso visits the Baroness Kessler, who owns the third copy. At first, the Baroness refuses to cooperate, but Corso intrigues her with evidence that the engravings differ among the three copies. He explains his idea: each copy contains a different set of three "LCF"-signed engravings, therefore all three copies are required to acquire the complete set of 9 images for the ritual. Corso finds "LCF" on three different engravings in the Baroness's book, confirming his theory. Corso is assaulted from behind and when he comes to his senses he finds that the Baroness Kessler is strangled and the library in flames. Corso escapes and later is assaulted by Liana's bodyguard. The Girl appears floating in the air and rescues Corso. When Liana steals Balkan's copy from Corso's hotel room, Corso and the Girl follow her to her chateau, and witness her using the book in a Satanic ceremony with an audience of robed rich people present. Balkan suddenly interrupts the ceremony, kills Liana, disperses the audience and leaves with the engraved pages and his own intact copy. Corso pursues Balkan to a remote castle, depicted in one of the engravings, and finds Balkan preparing the final ritual. After a struggle, Balkan traps Corso in a hole in the floor. Balkan performs his summoning ritual: he arranges the engravings on a makeshift altar, and recites a series of phrases related to each of the nine engravings. Balkan then douses the floor and himself with gasoline and sets it alight, believing himself to be immune to suffering. Balkan's invocation fails, and he screams in pain as the flames engulf him. Corso frees himself, shoots Balkan in mercy, takes the engravings, and escapes. Outside, the Girl appears and has sex with him by the light of the burning castle, her eyes and face seeming to change as she writhes on top of Corso. She tells him that Balkan failed because the ninth engraving he had used was a forgery. On her suggestion before she disappears, Corso returns to the Ceniza brothers' now vacant shop. By chance, he finds there the authentic ninth engraving. On it, there is a likeness of the Girl riding a multiple headed beast, reminiscent of the Whore of Babylon. With the last engraving in hand, Corso returns to the castle. He completes the ritual and crosses through the Ninth Gate into the light. ===== Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma Valento. The club has changed owners, so no one now there knows her. Malloy ends up killing the black owner of the club and escaping. The murder case is assigned to Lt. Nulty, a Los Angeles Police detective who has no interest in the murder of a black man. Marlowe advises Nulty to look for Malloy's girlfriend, but Nulty prefers to let Marlowe do the routine legwork and rely on finding Malloy based on his huge size and loud clothes. Marlowe decides to follow up and look for the girl. He tracks down Mrs Jessie Florian, the widow of the nightclub's former owner, and plies her with bourbon. Mrs Florian claims Malloy's girlfriend is dead. Before making further progress, Marlowe receives a call from a man named Lindsay Marriott, who claims his friend has been robbed and requests Marlowe's presence in delivering a ransom payment for stolen jewellery. Later that evening, in a deserted canyon, Marlowe waits in the dark and is hit on the head from behind. When he awakes, Marriott is dead. A passerby, Anne Riordan, finds him and takes him home. Lt. Randall, the cunning but honest Los Angeles cop investigating Marriott's murder, is skeptical about the story. At Marlowe's office, Anne explains that she is from Bay City, a policeman's daughter interested in local crime. Her father was cashiered by the corrupt cops running the Bay City Police. She tells Marlowe that she learned from Randall that the stolen necklace belongs to a Mrs Lewin Lockridge Grayle, the young wife of a wealthy and influential Bay City resident. Mrs Grayle is a ravishing blonde whom Grayle met when she was singing for the radio station he owned. She married him in Europe under an assumed name, to keep her background secret. Anne offers to have her hire Marlowe to find the necklace. Marlowe examines some marijuana cigarettes he found on Marriott's body and discovers the card of a psychic, Jules Amthor. He makes an appointment to see him. On a hunch, he investigates Mrs. Florian's house and discovers that Marriott held a trust deed on it, meaning he could foreclose on her at will. Following up with Mrs Florian, she reveals she was once a servant for Marriott's family, and Marlowe suspects she was somehow blackmailing him. Marlowe visits Mrs Grayle, who finds him attractive and hires him, which he can use as an excuse to continue investigating the two murders. They make a date to meet again at the club of a local hoodlum, Laird Brunette, near the spot where Marriott was killed. At Amthor's office, Marlowe probes him for his connection to Marriott and the drugs. Amthor calls in a pair of Bay City detectives out of their jurisdiction to arrest Marlowe, claiming Marlowe tried to blackmail him, but instead of taking him to jail, they knock him unconscious and lock him up in a private hospital run by Dr. Sonderborg, a drug dealer who keeps him docile with drug injections. Marlowe escapes, but on the way out, he sees Malloy in another room. He discusses the case with Randall, who is annoyed at his persistence in investigating the case. They suspect Marriott of blackmailing wealthy women, in league with Amthor, and return to Mrs Florian's, only to find her murdered, apparently shaken to death by Malloy. Because of the involvement of the Bay City cops whom Amthor called in, Marlowe visits the corrupt Bay City police chief, John Wax, who brushes him off until Marlowe mentions that he has been hired by Mrs Grayle. Marlowe is then told that Malloy may be hiding out on a gambling boat anchored beyond the three-mile limit and run by Brunette, who also controls the corrupt city government in Bay City. Marlowe sneaks on board with the help of Red Norgaard, another honest cop fired by Bay City, and despite being caught by Brunette, persuades him to pass a message through his criminal network to Malloy. Marlowe calls Mrs Grayle, ostensibly to have her pick him up at his apartment for their date. Responding to Marlowe's message, Malloy shows up first, and hides when Mrs Grayle arrives. Marlowe confronts her: she is Velma and had used Marriott to keep Mrs Florian in line after she recognised Velma's voice on Grayle's radio station. Marriott had worked as an announcer at the same station. Mrs Grayle convinced Marriott to set up Marlowe to be killed in the canyon, but actually did so to kill Marriott because she viewed him as a 'weak link' who would reveal her secret past. She had also informed on Malloy about the robbery that sent him to prison. When Malloy hears this, he steps out to confront Velma, who shoots him fatally and flees. Amthor, Sonderborg, and the crooked cops are all exposed; Red gets his job back. Velma flees, but when she is eventually tracked down in Baltimore, she kills the detective who recognizes her, and commits suicide when cornered. ===== The novel opens outside a club called the Dancers. It is late October or early November. No specific year is given for when the events take place, but internal evidence and the publication date of the novel place them some time between 1950 and 1952. Philip Marlowe meets a drunk named Terry Lennox, a man with scars on one side of his face. They forge an uneasy friendship over the next few months. In June, Lennox shows up late one night at Marlowe's home in "a great deal of trouble" and needing a ride to the airport across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. Marlowe agrees as long as Lennox does not tell him any details of why he is running. On his return to Los Angeles, Marlowe learns that Lennox's wife was found dead in her guest house and that she died before Lennox fled. Marlowe is arrested on suspicion of murder after refusing to co-operate with investigators, who want him to confess that he helped Lennox flee. After three days of antagonizing his interrogators, Marlowe is released, the police explaining that Lennox has been reported to have committed suicide in Otatoclán with a full written confession by his side. Marlowe gets home to find a cryptic note from Lennox containing a "portrait of Madison" (a $5,000 bill). A "portrait of Madison" Marlowe gets a call from Howard Spencer, a New York publisher, who asks him to investigate a case. One of Spencer's best writers, Roger Wade, has a drinking problem and has been missing for three days. Initially Marlowe refuses, but after Wade's wife, Eileen, also asks for Marlowe's help, he consents. Marlowe finds Wade in a makeshift detox facility in an isolated and soon to be abandoned ranch. He takes his fee, but the Wades' stories do not match. The Wades each try to convince Marlowe to stay at their house to keep Roger writing instead of drinking, and though he refuses, he ends up making further trips to the house at their behest. On one such trip, he finds Wade passed out in the grass with a cut on his head. Mrs. Wade enters a sort of trance and attempts to seduce Marlowe, thinking him to be a former lover of hers who died ten years earlier in World War II. Meanwhile, Marlowe is repeatedly threatened to cease his investigation of the Lennox case, first by a friend of Lennox's named Mendy Menendez, then by Lennox's father-in-law, the police, the Wades' servant (a Chilean named Candy), and Wade's wife. Marlowe also learns that Terry Lennox had previously lived as Paul Marston, who was previously married and had lived in England. Wade calls Marlowe again, asking him to come by to have lunch with him. Wade drinks himself into a stupor, so Marlowe takes a walk outside. When he returns, Eileen Wade is ringing the doorbell, saying she forgot her key. Marlowe finds Roger Wade dead on the couch, apparently from suicide, but Eileen accuses Marlowe of killing her husband. Candy fabricates a story to implicate Marlowe, believing him to be guilty, but his claims are undermined in an interrogation. Marlowe receives a call from Spencer regarding Wade's death and bullies Spencer into taking him to see Mrs. Wade. Once there, Marlowe grills her on the death of Terry Lennox's wife. Eileen first tries to blame it all on Roger, but Marlowe argues that she killed both Mrs. Lennox and Roger Wade and that Lennox was actually her first husband, presumed killed in action with British Special Air Service during the war. Eileen Wade leaves with no response. The next morning, Marlowe learns that she has killed herself, leaving a note confessing that she killed Mrs. Lennox and Roger Wade. Marlowe refuses to let the story lie. He is assaulted by Menendez, who is arrested in a setup arranged by a police commissioner who served with Menendez and Lennox during the war. Finally, Marlowe is visited by a Mexican man who claims to have been present when Lennox was killed in his hotel room. Marlowe listens to his story but rejects it and offers his own version, ending with the revelation the Mexican man is none other than Lennox, who has had cosmetic surgery. Lennox attempts to make amends for the trouble he has caused Marlowe, but is rebuffed, with Marlowe claiming that while he doesn't judge him for what he did, Lennox is 'not here anymore'. Lennox is hurt by this and leaves after saying goodbye. The novel ends with Marlowe listening to Lennox leave and faintly hoping he might return but instead explaining that he never saw him again. ===== La Amistad is a slave ship transporting captured Africans from Spanish Cuba to the United States in 1839. Joseph Cinqué, a leader of the Africans, leads a mutiny and takes over the ship. The mutineers spare the lives of two Spanish navigators to help them sail the ship back to Africa. Instead, the navigators misdirect the Africans and sail directly north to the east coast of the United States, where the ship is stopped by the American Navy, and the surviving Africans imprisoned as runaway slaves. In an unfamiliar country and not speaking a single word of English, the Africans find themselves in a legal battle. United States Attorney William S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder. Secretary of State John Forsyth, on behalf of President Martin Van Buren (who is campaigning for re-election), represents the claim of the Spanish government that the Africans are property of Spain based on a treaty. Two Naval officers, Thomas R. Gedney, and Richard W. Meade, claim them as salvage while the two Spanish navigators, Pedro Montez and Jose Ruiz, produce proof of purchase. A lawyer named Roger Sherman Baldwin, hired by the abolitionist Lewis Tappan and his black associate Theodore Joadson, decides to defend the Africans. Baldwin argues that the Africans had been captured in British Sierra Leone to be sold in the Americas illegally. Baldwin proves through documents found hidden aboard La Amistad that the African people were initially cargo belonging to a Portuguese slave ship, the Tecora. Therefore, the Africans were free citizens of another country and not slaves at all. In light of this evidence, the staff of President Van Buren has the judge presiding over the case replaced by Judge Coglin, who is younger and believed to be impressionable and easily influenced. Consequently, seeking to make the case more personal, on the advice of former American president (and lawyer) John Quincy Adams, Baldwin and Joadson find James Covey, a former slave who speaks both Mende and English. Cinque tells his story at trial: Cinque was kidnapped by slave traders outside his village, and held in the slave fortress of Lomboko, where thousands of captives were held under heavy guard. Cinque and many others were then sold to the Tecora, where they were held in the brig of the ship. The captives were beaten and whipped, and at times, were given so little food that they had to eat the food from each other's faces. One day, fifty captives were thrown overboard. Later on, the ship arrived in Havana, Cuba. Those captives that were not sold at auction were handed over to La Amistad. United States Attorney Holabird attacks Cinqué's "tale" of being captured and kept in the slave fortress, and especially questions the throwing of precious cargo overboard. Holabird contends that Cinque could have been made a debt slave by his fellow Sierra Leoneans. However, the Royal Navy's fervent abolitionist Captain Fitzgerald of the West Africa Squadron backs up Cinqué's account. Baldwin shows from the Tecora’s inventory that the number of African people taken as slaves was reduced by fifty. Fitzgerald explains that some slave ships when interdicted do this to get rid of the evidence for their crime. But in the Tecora’s case, they had underestimated the amount of provisions necessary for their journey. As the tension rises, Cinqué stands up from his seat and repeatedly says, "Give us, us free!" Judge Coglin rules in favor of the Africans. After pressure from Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina on President Van Buren, the case is appealed to the Supreme Court. Despite refusing to help when the case was initially presented, Adams agrees to assist with the case. At the Supreme Court, he makes an impassioned and eloquent plea for their release, and is successful. The Lomboko slave fortress is liberated by the Royal Marines under the command of Captain Fitzgerald. After all the slaves are removed from the fortress, Fitzgerald orders the ship's cannon to destroy it. He then dictates a letter to Forsyth saying that he was right — the slave fortress doesn't exist. Because of the release of the Africans, Van Buren loses his re-election campaign, and tension builds between the North and the South, which eventually culminate in the Civil War. ===== NES gameplay. The heart in the top left hand corner is the player's life reserve. The letters under it represent the current gas powerup.A mysterious crime wave has hit St. Canard and S.H.U.S.H. requires the services of the caped crime fighter Darkwing Duck to stop it as it appears that F.O.W.L. and their valued operative Steelbeak is behind the uprising. They have hired six of Darkwing's greatest foes to wreak havoc in different areas throughout St. Canard. Darkwing must subdue each of these criminals in order to find Steelbeak and save the city. ===== The film follows Melinda, a female employee of the Pentagon's public information service, who loses her job when she refuses to give in to her male superiors' sexual advances. She then becomes outraged by the Pentagon's "un-patriotic" actions, and takes revenge on them by using her physical charms to seduce the top brass into letting her back into the Pentagon. After being re-employed, she sets out to manipulate them to her will and destroy their careers, thus ridding the US government of what she sees as "perverts", who care more about cheap thrills than national security. She eventually seduces the Russian ambassador into betraying valuable military secrets by offering him among other things "the most scrumptious little breasts" as well as something (left unsaid) which she declares to be the "softest, moistest, sweetest". In the end she is appointed Secretary of Defense as a reward. ===== Rio (Marlon Brando) (also called "The Kid"), his mentor Dad Longworth (Karl Malden), and a third man called Doc rob a bank of two saddlebags of gold in Sonora, Mexico. Mexican rurales (mounted police) track them, catch them celebrating in a cantina, and kill Doc. Dad and Rio escape, but get trapped on a high ridge with only one horse between them. Rio figures the rurales will be "swarming all over us inside an hour." They decide one partner might succeed in riding to a nearby jacalito (small adobe house) and returning with fresh mounts. They gamble for it, with Rio fixing it so his pal, Dad, can be the one to go. Dad gets to a corral and straps the saddlebags of gold onto a fresh pony, but he gets second thoughts. He casts one eye towards a point on the ridge sure to be taken by the rurales, and with the other he gazes off in the opposite direction, towards the border and safety. One way leads to danger and a poor chance at survival with half the loot, the other towards certain safety with all the spoils. After a short moment of reflection he leaves his friend to be taken by the rurales. Rio is arrested and transported to prison by way of the jacalito, where he learns firsthand of Dad's betrayal. Rio spends five hard years in a Sonora prison. He escapes with new partner Chico Modesto (Larry Duran) and goes hunting for Dad. He discovers Dad has become the sheriff of Monterey, California. Instead of ambushing him, Rio gives him a chance to explain why he left him on the ridge back in Mexico. Rio himself claims he had never been captured, and as such has no reason to feel vengeful towards Dad. Dad's awkward, self-serving version of events is easily seen through, but Rio's story is no less implausible. All along Rio planned not only to kill Dad, but also to pull off a bank robbery in Monterey with his new partners Chico and "scum-suckin' pig" Bob Emory (Ben Johnson). Emory had used his knowledge of Dad's whereabouts to force his way into the scheme. Plans are sidetracked when Rio falls in love with Dad's beautiful stepdaughter, Louisa (Pina Pellicer). Rio takes advantage of a fiesta (festival) to spend the night with her on the beach. Dad tries to punish Louisa for what happened, but after intervention by his wife, Maria, (Katy Jurado) he backs down. Still enraged, he traps Rio, ties him up in the middle of the town, and administers a vicious beating with a whip. He then smashes Rio's gun hand with the butt of his shotgun, to make sure Rio will never be able to beat him in a gunfight. While recovering from his wounds, Rio struggles with his conflicting desires to love the girl and to get revenge on her stepfather. He repeatedly practices shooting with his left hand. He decides to forgo vengeance, fetch Louisa and leave town. However Emory has been brewing his own plans. He and a partner kill Chico and pull off the bank job without Rio's knowledge. The heist goes wrong and a young girl is killed. Rio is accused of committing the crimes by Dad, even though he believes Rio's protestations that he had no involvement. Knowing that the outcome of his trial is certain, Rio expects to be hanged in two days. Dad has one last private talk with him, again attempting to absolve himself for all he has done. Rio replies, "You're a one-eyed jack around here, Dad, but I've seen the other side of your face". Rio tells him he had been imprisoned for the last five years, but Dad calls it a lie. Louisa visits Rio in jail to tell him she is going to have his baby. He is then beaten by sadistic deputy Lon Dedrick (Slim Pickens), who desired and has been denied Louisa's affection. Elsewhere, Maria confronts Dad and insists on being told the truth about the relationship between him and Rio, stating she knew something was wrong since the moment Rio arrived. She says she knows Dad is wanting to hang him purely out of guilt. Dad angrily leaves after telling her she has no appreciation for everything he has done for her. Louisa attempts to smuggle a Derringer pocket pistol to Rio, but she is discovered by Dedrick, who mocks her and carries her out of the jail, leaving the gun on a table. While they are out, Rio with great difficulty is able to get hold of the pistol. However it is without ammunition. Pointing the unloaded gun at Dedrick when he returns, Rio bluffs his way out of jail in a tense confrontation. Rio takes Dedrick's revolver, beats him unconscious, and locks him in a cell. As Rio is making his escape he is spotted by Dad, riding into town. Under fire, in the final showdown Rio shoots Dad dead. Rio and Louisa ride out to the dunes and say a sentimental farewell. Rio will now be a hunted man and is already wanted in Mexico, so he tells Louisa that he might go to Oregon. He tells her to look for him in the spring, when he will return for her. ===== After Fidel Castro's revolutionary government seized the assets of Trafficante's Cuban businesses and expelled him from the country as an "undesirable alien," Trafficante came into contact with various US intelligence operatives, and was involved in several unsuccessful plans to assassinate Castro. In 1975, the CIA declassified a report stating that Trafficante had been persuaded to poison Castro, an allegation he denied. In 1997, further declassified documents indicated that some mafiosi worked with the agency on assassination attempts against Castro. Allusions to these historic connections were confirmed by the CIA's 2007 declassification of the "Family Jewels" documents. The "Family Jewels" confirmed that in September 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu to approach the West Coast representative of the Chicago mob, Johnny Roselli. Maheu hid the fact that he was sent by the CIA, instead portraying himself an advocate for international corporations. He offered to pay $150,000 to have Castro killed, but Roselli declined any pay and introduced Maheu to two men he referred to as "Sam Gold" and "Joe." "Sam Gold" was Sam Giancana; "Joe" was Trafficante.Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, Subject: Roselli, Johnny, November 19, 1970. The CIA and the Mafia had a common enemy in Castro, a communist revolutionary who had shut down Cuba's lucrative casino businesses. ===== The story starts in the final years of the rule of King Uther Pendragon. The first part, "The Sword in the Stone", chronicles Arthur's upbringing by his foster father Sir Ector, his rivalry and friendship with his foster brother Kay, and his initial training by Merlyn, a wizard who lives through time backwards. Merlyn, knowing the boy's destiny, teaches Arthur (known as "Wart") what it means to be a good king by turning him into various kinds of animals: fish, hawk, ant, goose, and badger. Each of the transformations is meant to teach Wart a lesson, which will prepare him for his future life. Merlyn instills in Arthur the concept that the only justifiable reason for war is to prevent another from going to war and that contemporary human governments and powerful people exemplify the worst aspects of the rule of Might. White revised the original Sword in the Stone heavily for the four-part book in 1958. He took out the wizards' duel between Merlyn and Madame Mim, the adventure with T. natrix the snake, and the episode with the giant Galapagas. The first of those was replaced with the adventure of the ants. In the Wart's adventure with Merlyn's owl, Archimedes, the boy Arthur becomes a wild goose instead of visiting the goddess Athena. In the adventure with Robin Hood in the original book, the outlaws take the boys to attack the cannibal Anthropophagi and the Wart kills a Sciopod. In the 1958 version, the boys lead an attack on Morgan le Fay's Castle Chariot and Kay kills a griffin. The revisions reflect White's preoccupation with political questions in The Once and Future King, and generally give the first part of the work a more adult flavour. In part two, "The Queen of Air and Darkness", White sets the stage for Arthur's demise by introducing the Orkney clan and detailing Arthur's seduction by their mother, his half-sister Queen Morgause. While the young king suppresses initial rebellions, Merlyn leads him to envision a means of harnessing potentially destructive Might for the cause of Right: the chivalric order of the Round Table. The third part, "The Ill-Made Knight", shifts focus from King Arthur to the story of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere's forbidden love, the means they go through to hide their affair from the King (although he already knows of it from Merlyn), and its effect on Elaine, Lancelot's sometime lover and the mother of his son Galahad. "The Candle in the Wind" unites these narrative threads by telling how Mordred's hatred of his father and Sir Agravaine's hatred of Lancelot caused the eventual downfall of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the entire ideal kingdom of Camelot. The book begins as a quite light-hearted account of the young Arthur's adventures, and King Pellinore's interminable search for the Questing Beast. Parts of "The Sword in the Stone" read almost as a parody of the traditional Arthurian legend by virtue of White's prose style, which relies heavily on anachronisms. However, the tale gradually changes tone until "Ill- Made Knight" becomes more meditative and "The Candle in the Wind" finds Arthur brooding over death and his legacy. ===== King Arthur has sent out 100 knights to retrieve the Holy Grail. Arthur is dismayed when it turns out that the mission was futile and 70 knights have died in its course. Among those who have returned is Lancelot, the lover of Queen Guinevere. Soon Lancelot again takes part in a tournament. There he gets injured. While Lancelot seeks recovery in his own castle, Arthur learns about his wife's affair and, heavily agitated by Mordred, he puts Queen Guinevere in prison. With Lancelot's help she breaks out. Arthur starts immediately a campaign against the castle where the lovers were looking for shelter. During the siege Lancelot happens to kill his old mate Gawain. Driven by sorrow he tries to end the fight and wants to negotiate a treaty with King Arthur. When he witnesses how Mordred commits an attempt on Arthur he joins without hesitating the side of the king. In the final scene, many knights, among whom Arthur, lie dead or wounded after the battle. Lancelot, wounded himself, utters Guinevere's name before falling over. ===== In September 1987, Dr. Julian Whittlesey is leading an expedition through the Amazon Basin, in the Brazilian rainforest, in search of the lost Kothoga tribe. He hopes to prove that they still do exist and in the process learn more about their culture, including their lizard god Mbwun ("He Who Walks On All Fours"), supposedly the son of Satan. However, Whittlesey disappears after finding the mutilated body of his partner, Crocker, and realizes that a creature in the bush is stalking him. A year later, in Belem, a dock worker named Ven is suddenly and brutally killed when a freighter arrives with a shipment of crates from Whittlesey's expedition. Seven years later, in a fictionalized version of New York City's American Museum of Natural History, two young boys are found dead in a museum stairwell, having gotten lost in the late hours of the museum. NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta leads the subsequent investigation. He has the museum under tight lockdown and its staff placed under curfew, for fear the murderer is still hiding somewhere in the museum or the many catacombs that run underneath it. The three prominent leaders of the museum - curator Winston Wright, deputy head Ian Cuthbert, and public relations director Lavinia Rickman - all try to keep the murders under wraps, as the grand gala opening of the new "Superstition" exhibition, led by George Moriarty, draws nearer, an event that will feature many wealthy benefactors as well as Mayor Harper. Rickman even hires The New York Times reporter Bill Smithback, Jr. to cover the murder investigation but repeatedly edits his reports so they will appear more favorable towards the museum and its leadership. Assistant Curator Gregory Kawakita jokingly begins spreading the rumor of the "Museum Beast", a legendary monster that has allegedly been roaming the tunnels under the museum for years and is responsible for the murders. Although the rumors are initially dismissed as myth, D'Agosta is shocked during the autopsy to discover a claw buried in one of the boy's brains. When a security guard suffers a similarly brutal death, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast arrives to aid in the investigation, having taken a personal interest in the unique nature of the kills. The investigation intensifies as the gala draws nearer, with the search spreading to the tunnels under the museum. Margo Green and her mentor, Dr. Whitney Frock, initially take little to no interest in the investigation, but Pendergast eventually approaches them when he realizes the claw from the autopsy matches the claws on a Mbwun figurine that had been sent back to the museum in a crate in 1987 and is set to be put on display in the new exhibition. Green, with Smithback's help, manages to get into the secure vault and gain access to some letters that Whittlesey had sent to a museum colleague named H.C. Montague, detailing the struggles the 1987 expedition had been going through. Pendergast then reveals the primary reason for his interest in the case: the nature of the murders of the two boys and the security guard matches the murder of the Brazilian dock worker in 1988, as well as several other dock workers in Louisiana later that year. Pendergast was able to trace back to the one connection among the museum murders, the Louisiana murder, and the Belem murder: the shipment of crates Whittlesey had sent the museum in 1987. However, other than one smaller crate containing the Mbwun figurine, the crates were empty, save massive quantities of local plant leaves apparently used as packaging. Frock reveals that those crates have been moved into the heavily reinforced secure vault as well, and after Green and Smithback's stunt to get the letters, the directors are well aware of their intentions and will never allow them access to the crates. Pendergast hints at the possibility that the murders might not have been committed by a human, and that the Mbwun monster may somehow have been sent to the museum by Whittlesey's shipment. Reading through more of Whittlesey's letters, Green and Smithback discover one other major colleague of Whittlesey's who is still working at the museum, and to whom one of the letters was addressed, Dr. Jorgensen. They ask Jorgensen about the nature of the expedition and its aftermath. Jorgensen explains that Whittlesey was determined to prove that the Kothoga tribe had not gone extinct, and that he had found it at long last on a tepui deep in the Brazilian jungle. In addition, Whittlesey had apparently discovered a unique plant at the base of the tepui that had some kind of protein-like quality to it. However, Whittlesey was being accompanied by a museum bureaucrat simply identified as "Maxwell", whose job was to hinder Whittlesey's progress so that the find would not collide with the local government's discovery of an undisclosed natural resource that had been discovered on the tepui. Determined to mine the entire area, the government dropped napalm on the tepui in 1988, killing all of the remaining Kothoga and destroying the plant. Jorgensen also reveals that Whittlesey's colleague Montague had disappeared rather suddenly several years ago. Green and Frock soon realize that the plant Whittlesey discovered was the same plant that had been sent back as packaging in the crates, and that Whittlesey had never sent the crates back to the museum empty; that the main content of the crates was the plant itself. The day of the gala, Green and Frock then begin running computer analyses on samples of the plant as well as the claw from the autopsy. The results reveal that the plants are rich in thalamoid hormones, which can also be found in the human hypothalamus gland, though to a much lesser extent. After reviewing the autopsy reports, Green realizes that what all of the murders - in the museum and in Louisiana and Brazil - all had in common was that the hypothalamus had been ripped out of the victim's heads and was completely missing. The analysis of the claw creates a general caricature of the creature in the question, comprising a primary mix of primate, reptile, and human genes; a nocturnal nature; a strong sense of smell; a quadruped build; a maximum speed of 60-70 km/h; and thick muscle definition and bone structure. Frock describes this hypothetical combination as having the strength of a grizzly bear, the speed of a greyhound, and the intelligence of a human being - the ultimate predator. Frock and Green finally discover the truth behind the entire ordeal, but their efforts to warn their superiors before the gala are thwarted. As the investigation ultimately did not produce a suspect, the gala is allowed to begin, with a tightened security presence by the NYPD and the FBI, under the official command of Special Agent Coffey. The exhibition initially appears to be going fine until the body of NYPD officer Fred Beauregard drops down from the rafters above the exhibition and right into the crowd, causing a mass panic. At the same time, an NYPD officer named Waters, assigned to monitor the museum's security control room, hears a strange noise in the generator room (revealed to be merely the air conditioner pump) and opens fire, only to completely destroy the central switching box and shut down the museum's power. This results in the museum's massive, metal security doors automatically closing, separating the museum into five cells and trapping a handful of guests, staff, and security personnel alike inside the museum. When the chaos settles, dozens of people have either been killed by the stampeding crowd or crushed by the closing doors, and the roughly three-dozen who are trapped inside the area where the exhibition is includes D'Agosta, Smithback, Cuthbert, Wright, Rickman, Mayor Harper, museum security director Ippolito, and NYPD officer John Bailey. Coffey and Kawakita manage to make it outside the museum, while Green, Frock, and Pendergast are all in the tunnels under the museum, and all three soon encounter the creature. Pendergast manages to fire a single shot, which simply bounces off the creature's skull. Pendergast manages to communicate with D'Agosta via radio, to warn him about the creature, and explains that the best way for the trapped crowd to escape is down through the museum tunnels, which eventually lead to the sewer systems of New York. The three directors refuse to head down into the tunnels, and instead retreat into Wright's office on the fourth floor. Just as D'Agosta prepares to lead the crowd down the first stairwell, the creature attacks and kills Ippolito and an injured guest. The rest of the crowd manages to escape down into the tunnels. Although extremely skeptical of the consistent reports of a creature's being responsible, Coffey eventually orders a SWAT team to descend into the museum through the skylights, to eliminate the creature. The Mbwun then enters the office where the three directors are hiding, and Cuthbert sends Rickman and a now-drunk Wright into the adjacent dinosaur area to safety, while he draws a pistol to make a stand. However, the creature suddenly leaves him alone and pursues the other two, killing both of them. Cuthbert is rescued by the SWAT team shortly before they move in to attack the creature, only for the entire team to be slaughtered. The crowd manages to navigate the tunnels and reaches the sewers just before the creature returns, killing Bailey. They then reach a massive underground chamber that is filled with skeletons and torn meat, presumably the creature's lair. They struggle to stay above the rising water as the storm outside intensifies, and another woman is dragged away by the current and dies, shortly before the crowd finally reaches a manhole and escapes back out onto the streets of New York. Pendergast and Green devise a plan to make a final stand against the creature, with Pendergast hoping to use his old hunting techniques of shooting the creature's legs in order to stop its charge. However, the shots do not penetrate the hide, and the creature closes in. At the last second, Green shouts for Pendergast to shoot through the creature's eye, allowing the bullet to pass straight through the skull and into the brain, which kills it instantly. In the epilogue four weeks later, Green, Frock, Kawakita, Pendergast, D'Agosta, and Smithback all convene in Frock's office to discuss the events of that night. Pendergast explains everything in great detail: the Kothoga legend claimed that Mbwun was given to them by Satan in order to slay their enemies in battle, when in actuality, the Kothoga created the Mbwun by feeding a human the strange plant that Whittlesey had discovered and shipped back to the museum. Eating the plant resulted in the human subject's undergoing the transformation process into the creature known as Mbwun, larger, faster, stronger, and slightly smarter. However, the Mbwun subsequently needed a consistent supply of the plant in order to survive, like an addictive drug. When the tepui where the Kothoga and Mbwun lived was completely destroyed, the Mbwun knew the last surviving samples of the plant were in the crates Whittlesey had shipped back, and thus, it followed the crates all the way to New York. It initially lived off the plants in a steady ration for years, and in the process, killed Montague one day when he came down to investigate the crates. Montague's disappearance was marked by a puddle of blood by the crates, but when it was discovered by Cuthbert, Wright, and Rickman, they washed it away to preserve the museum's reputation. As part of the cover-up, the crates were moved into the heavily fortified vault, moving them permanently out of the Mbwun's reach. Thus, in order to stay alive, it needed the next best substitute: the human hypothalamus. Though it tried its best to keep its existence a secret by living off smaller animals and homeless people in the sewers, it eventually turned to the murders of the boys and the security guard. Even during the police investigation, it could no longer deny its appetite, and thus ran amok during the exhibition. Pendergast also reveals that among the bodies that were found in the lair were the remains of Moriarty and a pendant that Whittlesey had always worn on him, serving as proof that the creature killed both of them. Cuthbert has since been institutionalized, Coffey was demoted and sent to the Waco field office, and Smithback reveals that he will release a book on the entire event, with half of the money going to a memorial fund for the late Bailey and his family. In his lab, Kawakita has realized an horrific truth; the creature didn't kill Whittlesey and take his pendant as a trophy, it actually WAS Whittlesey. He speculates that the Kothoga, having failed with Mbwun using their own people, had decided to feed the plant to a white man instead, hoping the resulting creature would be easier to control. The gamble failed, and Whittlesey was able to survive on the plants for years before their destruction, and he followed his own samples back home to the museum. Thanks to the samples that survived and were analyzed, Kawakita manages to develop a drug that would turn the users into addicts first, then into Mbwun. He begins selling it on the street, reflecting that the Kothoga's problem had been that Mbwun was able to feed on the plants himself whenever he wanted, and so they had no hold over it. Now, as the only person alive capable of making the drug, the creatures would never turn on him; he would have total control over the creatures and succeed where the Kothoga failed. ===== Crystal Chronicles takes place in an unnamed fantasy world inhabited by four races. The player takes control of a caravan hailing from the village of Tipa, in which members of the world's four races come together to help its mission. 1000 years before the game's events, the world's sustaining Great Crystal was shattered by a meteorite carrying an alien lifeform called the Meteor Parasite. The Parasite generated a poisonous vapour called the Miasma, which kills anyone it touches. Fragments of the Great Crystal ward off the Miasma from surviving settlements, but require renewal using myrrh, an energy harvested from magical trees using magical vessels protected by dedicated caravans. The Tipa caravanners go on missions across the world to gather myrrh, learning the world's history from travellers and characters found in other settlements. The caravanners eventually reach the home of the Carbuncles, an ancient race who guided the world's races to the Great Crystal fragments before going into hiding. After hearing of their adventures, the Carbuncles direct the caravanners to the source of the Miasma, asking them to destroy the Meteor Parasite. The caravanners fight the Meteor Parasite, but before they can kill it are transported to an unknown realm. There they meet Mio and her evil counterpart Raem, metaphysical beings born following the Great Crystal's destruction. Raem attacks the caravanners, merging with Mio to increase his power, before being finally destroyed. Mio and Raem separate and fade away, then the caravanners are sent back to Mount Vellenge to destroy the wounded Meteor Parasite. The world is freed from the Miasma—allowing the four tribes to begin rebuilding civilisation—and the caravanners return home. ===== Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee, singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell) are American showgirls and best friends. Lorelei has a passion for diamonds, believing that attracting a rich husband is one of the few ways a woman can succeed economically. She is engaged to Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), a naïve nerd willing to do or buy anything for her. However, Gus is under the control of his wealthy, upper-class father. Dorothy, on the other hand, is looking for a different kind of love, attracted only to men who are good-looking and fit. Lorelei plans to wed Gus in France, but Esmond, Sr. stops his son from sailing, believing that Lorelei is bad for him. Lorelei decides to travel to France with or without Gus, and before she leaves he gives her a letter of credit to cover expenses upon her arrival, and promises to later meet her in France. However, he also warns her to behave, noting that his father will prohibit their marriage if rumors of misdeeds make their way to Esmond, Sr. Unbeknownst to both of them, Esmond, Sr. has hired a private detective, Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), to spy on Lorelei. During the Atlantic crossing, Malone immediately falls in love with Dorothy, but Dorothy has already been drawn to the members of the (male-only) Olympic athletics team. Lorelei meets the rich and foolish Sir Francis "Piggy" Beekman (Charles Coburn), the owner of a diamond mine, and is attracted by his wealth; although Piggy is married, Lorelei naively returns his geriatric flirtations, which annoys his wife, Lady Beekman (Norma Varden). Lorelei invites Piggy to the cabin she shares with Dorothy, whereupon he recounts his travels to Africa. While Piggy demonstrates how a python squeezes a goat by hugging Lorelei, Malone spies on them through the window and takes pictures of the two, but is caught by Dorothy as he walks away nonchalantly. She tells Lorelei, who fears for her reputation. They come up with a scheme to intoxicate Malone and then search him to recover the incriminating film while he is unconscious. They find the film in his pants, and Lorelei promptly prints and hides the negatives. Revealing her success to Piggy, she persuades him to give her Lady Beekman's tiara as a thank you gift. However, Malone reveals he had planted a recording device in Lorelei's cabin, and has heard her discussion with Piggy about the pictures and the tiara. Malone implies that Lorelei is a golddigger and, when Dorothy scolds him for his actions, admits that he himself is a liar. However, Dorothy reveals to Lorelei she is falling for Malone, after which Lorelei chastises her for choosing a poor man when she could easily have a rich one. Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw The ship arrives in France, and Lorelei and Dorothy spend time shopping. However, the pair are then kicked out of their hotel and discover Lorelei's letter of credit has been cancelled due to the information Malone shared with Esmond, Sr. When Gus shows up at their show, Lorelei rebuffs him, after which she performs Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, the musical number whose lyrics explain why and how women need to pursue men with money. Meanwhile, Lady Beekman has filed charges regarding her missing tiara, and Lorelei is arraigned for theft. Dorothy persuades Lorelei to return the tiara, but the pair discover it is missing from her jewelry box. Piggy tries to weasel out of his part in the affair when Malone catches him at the airport. Dorothy stalls for time in court by pretending to be Lorelei, disguised in a blonde wig and mimicking her friend's breathy voice and mannerisms. When Malone appears in court and is about to unmask "Lorelei" as Dorothy, she reveals to Malone in covert language that she, Dorothy, loves him but would never forgive him if he were to do anything to hurt her best friend, Lorelei. Malone withdraws his comments, but then reveals Piggy has the tiara, exonerating Lorelei. Back at the nightclub, Lorelei impresses Esmond, Sr. with a speech on the subject of paternal money, and also makes an argument that if Esmond, Sr. had a daughter instead of a son, he would want the best for her, to which he agrees and consents to his son's marriage to Lorelei. The film closes with a double wedding for Lorelei and Dorothy, who marry Esmond and Malone, respectively. ===== Henchard on the way to the fair with Susan and Elizabeth-Jane At a country fair near Casterbridge in Wessex Michael Henchard, a 21-year-old hay-trusser, argues with his wife Susan. Drunk on rum-laced furmity he auctions her off, along with their baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane, to Richard Newson, a passing sailor, for five guineas. Sober and remorseful the next day, he is too late to locate his family. He vows not to touch liquor again for 21 years. Believing the auction to be legally binding, Susan lives as Newson's wife for 18 years. After Newson is lost at sea Susan, lacking any means of support, decides to seek out Henchard again, taking her daughter with her. Susan has told Elizabeth-Jane little about Henchard, and the young woman knows only that he is a relation by marriage. Susan discovers that Henchard has become a very successful hay and grain merchant and Mayor of Casterbridge, known for his staunch sobriety. He has avoided explaining how he lost his wife, allowing people to assume he is a widower. When the couple are reunited, Henchard proposes remarrying Susan after a sham courtship, this in his view being the simplest and most discreet way to remedy matters and to prevent Elizabeth-Jane learning of their disgrace. To do this, however, he is forced to break off an engagement with a woman named Lucetta Templeman, who had nursed him when he was ill. Donald Farfrae, a young and energetic Scotsman passing through Casterbridge, helps Henchard by showing him how to salvage substandard grain he has bought. Henchard takes a liking to the man, persuades him not to emigrate, and hires him as his corn factor, rudely turning away a man named Jopp to whom he had already offered the job. Farfrae is extremely successful in the role, and increasingly outshines his employer. When he catches the eye of Elizabeth- Jane, Henchard dismisses him and Farfrae sets himself up as an independent merchant. Farfrae conducts himself with scrupulous honesty, but Henchard is so determined to ruin his rival that he makes risky business decisions that prove disastrous. Susan falls ill and dies shortly after the couple's remarriage, leaving Henchard a letter to be opened on the day of Elizabeth-Jane's wedding. Henchard reads the letter, which is not properly sealed, and learns that Elizabeth-Jane is not in fact his daughter, but Newson's – his Elizabeth-Jane having died as an infant. Henchard's new knowledge causes him to behave coldly towards the second Elizabeth-Jane. Elizabeth-Jane accepts a position as companion to Lucetta, a newcomer, unaware that she had had a relationship with Henchard which resulted in her social ruin. Now wealthy after receiving an inheritance from her aunt, and learning that Henchard's wife had died, Lucetta has come to Casterbridge to marry him. However, on meeting Farfrae, she becomes attracted to him, and he to her. Henchard's financial difficulties persuade him that he should marry Lucetta quickly. But she is in love with Farfrae, and they run away one weekend to get married, not telling Henchard until after the fact. Henchard's credit collapses and he goes bankrupt. Farfrae buys Henchard's old business and tries to help Henchard by employing him as a journeyman. Lucetta asks Henchard to return her old love letters, and Henchard asks Jopp to take them to her. Jopp, who still bears a grudge for having been cheated out of the position of factor, opens the letters and reads them out loud at an inn. Some of the townspeople publicly shame Henchard and Lucetta, creating effigies of them in a skimmington ride. Lucetta is so devastated by the spectacle that she collapses, has a miscarriage, and dies. The next day, Newson – who it transpires was not lost at sea – arrives at Henchard's door asking about his daughter. Henchard, who has come to value her kindness to him, is afraid of losing her companionship and tells Newson she is dead. Newson leaves in sorrow. After 21 years, Henchard's vow of abstinence expires, and he starts drinking again. Eventually discovering that he has been lied to, Newson returns, and Henchard disappears rather than endure a confrontation. On the day of Elizabeth-Jane's wedding to Farfrae, he comes back, timidly seeking a reconciliation. She rebuffs him, and he departs for good. Later, regretting her coldness, she and Farfrae set out to find him. They arrive too late, and learn that he has died alone. They also find his last written statement: his dying wish is to be forgotten. ===== The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge. The two main characters, Vashti and Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas'. Her son Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his room. There, he tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world. He confides to her that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission and that he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine. However, the Machine recaptures him, and he is threatened with 'Homelessness': expulsion from the underground environment and presumed death. Vashti, however, dismisses her son's concerns as dangerous madness and returns to her part of the world. As time passes, and Vashti continues the routine of her daily life, there are two important developments. First, the life-support apparatus required to visit the outer world is abolished. Most welcome this development, as they are sceptical and fearful of first-hand experience and of those who desire it. Secondly, "Technopoly", a kind of religion, is re- established, in which the Machine is the object of worship. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and threatened with Homelessness. The Mending Apparatus – the system charged with repairing defects that appear in the Machine proper – has also failed by this time, but concerns about this are dismissed in the context of the supposed omnipotence of the Machine itself. During this time, Kuno is transferred to a room near Vashti's. He comes to believe that the Machine is breaking down, and tells her cryptically "The Machine stops." Vashti continues with her life, but eventually defects begin to appear in the Machine. At first, humans accept the deteriorations as the whim of the Machine, to which they are now wholly subservient, but the situation continues to deteriorate, as the knowledge of how to repair the Machine has been lost. Finally, the Machine collapses, bringing 'civilization' down with it. Kuno comes to Vashti's ruined room. Before they perish, they realise that humanity and its connection to the natural world are what truly matter, and that it will fall to the surface-dwellers who still exist to rebuild the human race and to prevent the mistake of the Machine from being repeated. ===== ===== The story begins with a scientist, Dr. Yorkshire Bell, noting that dinosaurs once flourished and became extinct when they advanced beyond their ability to adapt to change. Giant mammals, such as the saber-toothed tiger and the mammoth, came and went the same way. Humans, Earth's current dominant life form, had one special asset – intelligence – enabling them to advance further than all creatures before them. Dr. Bell wondered if, one day, humans might advance beyond the point of no return and render themselves extinct. In the summer of 19XX, a bulletin reveals that a prolonged investigation by the United Nations Police has discovered a plot by a murderous secret society known as "The Red Party", led by master of disguise Duke Red, has infiltrated the International Scientists Conference held in Metropolis. While Duke Red orders his henchman Acetylene Lamp to follow Dr. Charles Lawton, M.D., all the scientists notice that the Sun is now covered with sunspots, causing its radiation levels to rise. Lawton, back in his laboratory, had almost given up on his thirty-year experiment into synthetic cells (imitation eukaryotes composed of non-organic material and designed to mimic organic cells, in order for enough of them to be fashioned into true-to-life prosthetic organs and body parts) when he noticed the sunspots had irradiated his tank of synthetic proteins and brought them to "life". So had Duke Red, who ordered Lawton to create an entire human body out of synthetic tissue, its face modeled after a marble statue and possessing several superpowers. Fearing his creation would be used for evil, Lawton brought it to "life" and destroyed his lab, making Duke Red believe their creation had been destroyed. In reality, Lawton had rescued the artificial human and was raising it as his own child in secret, thanks to some help from Dr. Bell. When "Michi" ("his" name) accidentally rendered its "father" unconscious and went out to play, he stopped a truck from running over a girl selling flowers. When the boy was mobbed by an awestruck crowd, another boy named Ken'ichi dragged him to the Dam Dharma Museum and the statue it was modeled after. They learned from the curator that it was called "The Angel of Rome", possessing the most beautiful face in the world - not knowing that Dharma himself was a member of the Red Party who supplied the statue to Duke Red. The Red Party paid Lawton a visit, resulting in Lawton being mortally wounded, which was witnessed by Detective "Moustachio" from Japan who, unfortunately, had to release them because he had no arrest warrant. Lawton showed Moustachio a film telling the whole story of Michi's creation, as well as a journal detailing all of his powers. Arriving at his Japanese- American relatives' home, he discovered his nephew, Ken'ichi ("Ken" for short), had brought home a friend from the museum - Michi. Revealing Lawton's death and true paternal status, Moustachio entrusted Michi to Ken'ichi's care while he consulted Superintendent General Notarlin of the Metropolis Police Department. Notarlin introducing him to Police Inspector Ganimarl (a parody of Ganimard, easily defeated foe of Arsène Lupin) from France and Sherlock Holmes from England, Moustachio went with them to a monster sighting behind the Dharma Museum, where they were attacked by giant rats (which bear a striking resemblance to Mickey Mouse) and crashed into a fake tree which led Moustachio to the Red Party's underground headquarters. His presence discovered, Moustachio attempted to escape, aided by Fifi, one of the Red Party's slave robots (No. 14), but was caught and Fifi destroyed. Duke Red, describing himself as the "Napoleon of the Electronic Age" (in reference to the "Napoleon of Crime"), revealed that the Red Party was developing a chemical weapon called Toron Gas as well as responsible for the man-made sunspots, using a substance called omothenium (which intercepts gravity) to raise the Earth's temperature enough to melt the Antarctic ice cap in order to build their new headquarters upon the defrosted continent. Unable to get Moustachio to hand over Michi (the former unwittingly revealing the android's custody with Ken'ichi), the Red Party locks him in a chamber to become their first guinea pig. Michi is introduced as a new student at Ken'ichi's junior high school, as well as Emmy, the violet-seller girl Michi had saved - unknown to the class, Emmy's schooling was being sponsored by a strange old man in exchange for luring Michi to her gangster older sister. At home, Ken'ichi accidentally discovered Dr. Lawton's journal revealing Michi as an artificial human with cybernetic super-powers - including helium-induced flight, gills in his ears to breathe under water, and a sex-change button in his throat - which Ken'ichi tested successfully at home. At the Metropolis Police Department, Dr. Yorkshire Bell had been summoned by Notarlin to examine the giant rats (scientifically named Mikimaus waltdisneus) and revealed that giant animals and vegetables were growing all over the world because of the sunspots. Holmes arrived to reveal Duke Red as responsible for the sunspots as well as his current disguise - the strange old man helping Emmy. Ganimarl tracked the man to Emmy's home, where the man was being held up for more money by her sister's gangster friends. Exposed, Duke Red gassed Ganimarl unconscious and left him in disguise for the police to find, and threatened Emmy's sister to deliver Michi to him. Back at Red Party headquarters, Moustachio realised the Toron Gas hadn't been released because the giant rats had overrun the underground base (courtesy of Moustachio unintentionally leaving the entrance open). Disguising himself within the skin of one of the rats, Moustachio found the base's CPU and a short-circuited slave robot (No. 56). Reactivating the robot, he ordered it to immediately destroy the CPU and then destroy the Red Party's food and water supplies at the right time, then played dead so Duke Red's henchman would dispose of the rat's corpse (with him in it). Ken'ichi and Michi arrived at school to find the police questioning Emmy about whether her sister belonged to the Red Party. The other schoolchildren learned about Emmy's sister's criminal connection and attempted to expel her, but Michi saved her; Emmy returned the favor by telling Michi she knew the location of Michi's father (still abiding by Duke Red's plan) but she was abducted by a giant wasp. Michi saved her again and Emmy admitted to lying about Michi's father. Ken'ichi insisted Emmy stay in his house for protection, but her sister and her friends entered and demanded Ken'ichi bring Michi to them. He did, first activating Michi's gender switch; the gangster's left because they wanted Michi the boy, not Michi the girl. After Ken'ichi informed Emmy of Michi's true nature, they discovered Michi had run away. Moustachio arrived at the Metropolis Police Department to inform Notarlin and Ganimarl that Duke Red had been infiltrating the police to spy on them - as Sherlock Holmes! Duke Red had the police arrest Notarlin and Ganimarl, having recruited more than half of them into the Red Party, and left Moustachio free, telling him Michi had escaped and the Red Party had to pursue him. The Red Party used their mobile headquarters - the Atlantis, a 200,000-ton luxury liner - to hold Notarlin and Ganimarl while pursuing Michi; little knowing that girl-Michi had unknowingly stowed away onto the ship, was discovered, and recruited as a cabin girl. Michi discovered the crew's true identities and used the ship's radio to contact the police, who sent a search plane with Ken'ichi on board to find it. Michi was caught and admitted her name; Duke Red pressed the gender switch to turn "her" back into "him". When Michi mistook Duke Red to be her father, Duke Red revealed Michi's artificial nature and criminal purpose. As a result, Michi's mind snapped and he attacked the Red Party, the henchmen discovering he was also bulletproof. Confronting the Red Party's slave robots, Michi convinced them (led by No. 56) to destroy the food and water supply and scuttle the ship. The Red Party attempted to abandon ship but were arrested by Notarlin and Ganimarl, who escaped their cell in the confusion, and then thrown overboard by the robots. Notarlin and Ganimarl, having fled up the mast, watched as the robots condemned Duke Red to being incinerated in the ship's boiler, then were rescued (after a fashion) by Ken'ichi's search plane. The party were then downed by Michi and witness "his" declaration of war against the human race, marching towards Metropolis along the ocean floor. Unable to contact Moustachio because of the sunspots interfering with radio transmissions, they drifted towards Long Boot Island, where a surviving member of the Red Party told them the omothenium radiation emitter had created the sunspots but also enlarged all flora and fauna, his colleagues having been eaten by giant ants. Destroying the emitter, they saw the man-made sunspots disappear right before their eyes. Receiving warning of the robot army, Moustachio had the police declare martial law and remove the populace to underground shelters. Dr. Bell warned Moustachio that a poisonous gas, which destroyed human brains to reduce them to animals - was being released; Moustachio recognised it as Toron gas, Michi and the robots having destroyed the Red Party's underground gas cylinders, and among the first victims were looters along with Emmy's sister. Michi knocked down Metropolis' skyscrapers by hand while the slave robots took on the people on the ground. While the ordinary robots were easily dealt with, Ken'ichi attempted to reason with Michi, then challenge him (successfully) using judo. When Michi gained the upper hand, his body started to smoke and he fell off the roof. While the citizens wanted Michi's destruction, a broadcast by Dr. Bell informed them of Michi's mental breakdown due to Duke Red and that he was dying; because the sunspots were gone, their unique radiation which powered Michi's synthetic cells faded away, and his body was disintegrating. As everyone, including Michi's classmates, witnessed the end of science's greatest work of art, Dr. Bell reflected, as he had at the beginning of the story, if humanity's advancement was capable of engineering its self-destruction.Metropolis Manga at TezukaOsamu@World Accessed on 2007-06-04 ===== The plot generally focuses on the custody battle for Ryunosuke and the attempts by Akiko and Mishima Heavy Industries to reclaim Nuku Nuku's body, which often involves amusingly larger- than-life battles between Nuku Nuku and military hardware produced by Mishima Heavy Industries. Two episodes also deal with a one-sided war between Nuku Nuku and another android named Eimi, who suffers from an over-the-top inferiority complex and envies Nuku Nuku's more stable design. As it stands, Eimi was made after her and seeks to transfer her programming into Nuku Nuku to ditch her own body, which Akiko calls "a piece of junk". In spite of Eimi being more emotionally unstable than Nuku Nuku, both their fights end in a draw. ===== Following poor results in the May 2012 local elections after a difficult few months for the government, with Labour increasing its lead in the polls, there were concerns from Conservative MPs about Cameron's leadership and his electability. David Davies, the chairman of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, accused the Conservative leadership of "incompetence" and hinted that it could risk Cameron's leadership. Nadine Dorries warned the Prime Minister that a leadership challenge could happen. Later that year, Conservative MP Brian Binley openly said that Cameron's leadership was like being a "maid" to the Liberal Democrats, and accused him of leading the party to defeat. In January 2013 it was revealed that Adam Afriyie was planning his own bid for the Conservative leadership with the support of fellow MPs Mark Field, Bill Wiggin, Chris Heaton-Harris, Patrick Mercer, Jonathan Djanogly and Dan Byles. The Times and ConservativeHome revealed that a 'rebel reserve' of 55 Conservative MPs gave firm pledges to a co-ordinating MP to support a motion of 'no confidence' and write to Brady simultaneously, more than the 46 MPs needed to trigger a vote of no confidence. Andrew Bridgen openly called for a vote of confidence in Cameron's leadership and claimed that the Prime Minister had a "credibility problem" but he dropped his bid for a contest a year later. ===== Episodes about a murder generally follow one of four basic plot outlines: * The killer is known, and how the crime was committed is known. The episode is spent trying to find evidence to arrest that person, and these episodes are hence patterned similarly to many episodes of Columbo. * Monk knows who the killer is, and knows what the motive is, but the killer has a seemingly air-tight alibi. The episode is spent trying to break that alibi and find out how the killer did it. * In a number of episodes, the plot involves trying to find out the killer, how the murder was done, and why. * In some episodes, the killer's modus operandi is known, but not who did it or why. ===== Maddalena Ciarrapico arrives in New York City from Italy to get married and brings her fiancé a gift of mortadella (large Italian pork sausage) from her co-workers at the sausage factory where she used to work. But she is refused permission to bring the mortadella into the country because of the ban on meat that may contain food-borne diseases. An indignant Maddalena refuses to hand the sausage over, staying in the customs office at the airport, sparking a diplomatic incident in which she attracts widespread sympathy and support. ===== Ogami Ittō, formidable warrior and a master of the suiō-ryū swordsmanship, serves as the Kogi Kaishakunin (the Shōgun's executioner), a position of high power in the Tokugawa shogunate. Along with the oniwaban and the assassins, Ogami Ittō is responsible for enforcing the will of the shōgun over the daimyōs (lesser domain lords). For those samurai and lords ordered to commit seppuku, the Kogi Kaishakunin assists their deaths by decapitating them to relieve the agony of disembowelment; in this role, he is entitled and empowered to wear the crest of the shogunate, in effect acting in place of the shōgun. After Ogami Ittō's wife Azami gives birth to their son, Daigorō, Ogami Ittō returns to find her and all of their household brutally murdered, with only the newborn Daigorō surviving. The supposed culprits are three former retainers of an abolished clan, avenging the execution of their lord by Ogami Ittō. However, the entire matter was planned by Ura-Yagyū (Shadow Yagyu) Yagyū Retsudō, leader of the Ura-Yagyū clan, in order to seize Ogami's post as part of a masterplan to control the three key positions of power: the spy system, the official assassins and the Shogunate Decapitator. During the initial incursion, an ihai (funeral tablet) with the shōguns crest on it was placed inside the Ogami family shrine, signifying a supposed wish for the shogun's death. When the tablet is "discovered" during the murder investigation, its presence condemns Ittō as a traitor and thus he is forced to forfeit his post and is sentenced, along with Daigorō, to commit seppuku. The one-year-old Daigorō is given a choice by his father: a ball or a sword. If Daigorō chose the ball, his father would kill him and send Daigorō to be with his mother; however, the child crawls toward the sword and reaches for its hilt; this assigns him the path of a rōnin. Refusing to kill themselves and fighting free from their house imprisonment, father and son begin wandering the country as "demons"—the assassin-for-hire team that becomes known as Lone Wolf and Cub, vowing to destroy the Yagyū clan to avenge Azami's death and Ittō's disgrace. On meifumadō ("The Road to Hell"), the cursed journey for vengeance, Ogami Ittō and Daigorō experience numerous adventures. They encounter (and slay) all of Yagyū Retsudō's children (both legitimate and illegitimate) along with the entire Kurokuwa ninja clan, eventually facing Retsudō himself. When Retsudō and the Yagyū clan are unable to kill Ittō, the shogunate officially proclaims him and Daigorō outlaws with a price on their heads, authorizing all clans to try and arrest/kill them and permitting anyone to go after them for the bounty. The last duel between Ogami Ittō and Yagyū Retsudō runs 178 pages—one of the longest single fight-scenes ever published in comics. Toward the end of their journey, Ogami Ittō's dōtanuki sword is surreptitiously tampered with and damaged by a supposed sword-polisher who is really an elite "Grass" ninja of the Yagyū clan. When Ittō is finally attacked by the last of the (kusa) Grass ninja, the sword breaks and Ittō receives wounds that are ultimately fatal. Deadlocked in mid-battle with Retsudō, Ittō's spirit leaves his body after years of fatigue and bloodshed, unable to destroy his longtime enemy and ending his path of meifumadō. The story finishes with Daigorō taking up Retsudō's broken spear and charging in fury. Retsudō opens his arms, disregarding all defense, and allows Daigorō to drive the spear into his body. Embracing Daigorō with tears, Retsudō names him "grandson of my heart", closing the cycle of vengeance and hatred between the clans and concluding the epic. Many of the stories are written in a non-chronological order, revealing different parts of the narrative at different times. For example, Ogami's betrayal is not revealed until the end of the first volume, after many stories have already passed. ===== Alice De Raey, played by Cara Pifko, a young criminal lawyer fresh out of Osgoode Hall Law School, is thrown into a chaotic justice system. She encounters characters ranging from the truly desperate to the bizarre. Alice, with a good-natured openness that cloaks a tenacious, committed spirit, finds herself on a journey that constantly tests her patience and compassion. Alice has a distinctive habit of muttering to herself. Set in the courtrooms of Toronto's Old City Hall, cast regulars include Michael Riley, Michael Murphy, Michael Healey, Siu Ta, Eric Peterson, Janet-Laine Green and Kathryn Winslow. Jayne Eastwood and Ron Lea joined the cast in 2005. In addition to Alice's education in the real world of low rent criminal justice, distinctive features of the Wonderland courtroom include respectful treatment of the mental health concerns of both defendants and the authority figures (judges and lawyers) faced with the contradictions of the system and the multicultural nature of Toronto society. Events in many of the characters' lives overwhelm their ability to emotionally cope and the shortcomings of the "blunt instrument" of the judicial system to address those situations are fully explored. Language and cultural barriers routinely figure into the course of justice, raising questions about the ability of the judicial system to respond to the needs of a changing society. ===== Poirot and Hastings are staying at a Cornish resort. Conversing with Magdala "Nick" Buckley, Poirot believes that someone is out to kill her, confirmed when he finds a bullet that Nick had thought to be a wasp shooting past her head. Poirot explains his concern to Nick. Poirot suspects someone in Nick's inner circle. Nick's nearest living relative is a lawyer cousin, Charles Vyse, who arranged the re-mortgaging on End House for her to supply desperately needed funds. Her housekeeper is Ellen, and the lodge near End House is leased by Australians Mr and Mrs Croft. George Challenger has a soft spot for Nick. Nick's two closest friends are Freddie Rice, an abused wife, and Jim Lazarus, an art dealer in love with Freddie. When Nick had surgery six months earlier, the Crofts suggested she make a will. It is not clear who wants Nick dead. Charles would inherit End House and Freddie would get the rest of the estate – none of which is worth killing for. At Poirot's advice, Nick calls her cousin Maggie to stay with her for a few weeks. When Maggie arrives, Nick hosts a party with everyone present but George. A renowned pilot named Michael Seton has gone missing, sparking debate about his fate. Nick receives a call while the guests are enjoying the party. Maggie is found dead, wearing Nick's shawl. Nick and Maggie had gone to freshen up, after which Maggie wore Nick's shawl. George is relieved to see Nick alive. Realizing that Maggie was killed by mistake under his nose, Poirot becomes furious, launching an investigation. To protect Nick, Poirot tells everyone that she is going to a hospital. He asks her not to eat anything from an unknown source. The next day, the newspapers report that Michael Seton is dead and Poirot correctly deduces that Nick received that information through the call. Nick confesses to Poirot that she and Michael were secretly engaged. Michael was the sole inheritor of vast wealth, and that wealth will go to his fiancée. Poirot is wary of the Crofts: he asks Inspector Japp to inquire about them. Poirot and Hastings find the love letters written by Michael, but do not find Nick's original will. Nick recalls sending it to Charles, who denies receiving it. Mr Croft tells Poirot that he sent the will to Charles; one of the men is lying. Nick receives a box of chocolates laced with cocaine, allegedly sent by Poirot. Nick is safe as she ate only one. The chocolates were delivered by Freddie, who claims that Nick phoned her to bring them. Poirot suspects Freddie, who is a cocaine addict. Poirot sets up a ruse with Nick's participation, telling the others that Nick is dead. Charles tells Poirot that he received Nick's will, which is read in End House, awarding her money to the Crofts for helping her father in Australia. This startles all except the Crofts. Poirot announces to the stunned guests that a seance will be conducted and Nick's "ghost" appears, exposing the Crofts. They forged the will and sent it to Charles after they heard news of her death. Japp reveals that the Crofts are known forgers. He arrests the duo. But Poirot announces that they had no hand in the murder. Just then, someone outside shoots at Freddie and misses, then shoots himself. Poirot captures the man, Freddie's sick and dying husband, who wrote many notes begging her for money. Poirot reveals that the real murderer is Nick. Michael was engaged to Maggie, not Nick: the cousins have the same name, Magdala Buckley. After learning of Michael's wealth and disappearance, Nick plotted to present herself as Michael's fiancée to usurp his wealth, a plot which required Maggie's death. The plot was her own work. George used to supply cocaine to both Freddie and Nick concealed in wristwatches; Nick used her supply to poison the chocolates. Nick is arrested, taking Freddie's wristwatch as a "souvenir"; the full box contains enough for Nick to take an overdose and escape the gallows. Poirot tells George either to surrender himself or go away, allowing Freddie to recover from her addiction. In the end, Jim and Freddie decide to marry. ===== The story revolves around Judith, a daring and beautiful widow, who is upset with her Jewish countrymen for not trusting God to deliver them from their foreign conquerors. She goes with her loyal maid to the camp of the enemy general, Holofernes, with whom she slowly ingratiates herself, promising him information on the Israelites. Gaining his trust, she is allowed access to his tent one night as he lies in a drunken stupor. She decapitates him, then takes his head back to her fearful countrymen. The Assyrians, having lost their leader, disperse, and Israel is saved. Though she is courted by many, Judith remains unmarried for the rest of her life. ===== Lucía (Paz Vega), a waitress, is talking on the phone with her depressed writer boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa) after they had a nasty argument, where, afterward, she walked out. Since he has been in a 'funk' for a while, she's worried and goes home to console him. Finding an empty apartment, Lucía is frantic. She receives a phone call from the police while finding a suicide note, and is so afraid of bad news that she hangs up, assuming the worst. They call back, but she ignores the ringing phone, packs a bag, and flees. Looking for a new beginning, Lucía travels to the mysterious Balearic Islands that Lorenzo had always talked of, but had recently been very negative about. Six years earlier: Lorenzo is having casual sex in the ocean, on a bright moon-lit night, with a beautiful married woman he just met named Elena (Najwa Nimri). They part ways, expecting to never see each other again. She discovers she is pregnant with his child, and attempts to find him, but, not knowing much about him, is unable to. Later, as Lorenzo talks with his literary agent (Javier Cámara) at a restaurant, discussing his writer's block, Lucía catches his attention as he gets up from his table to get cigarettes. She asks to speak to him and he joins her. She brazenly tells him that ever since she read his latest book, she has been following him and has fallen passionately in love with him. A smitten Lorenzo immediately engages the sexy, passionate Lucía and she moves into Lorenzo's apartment. The film then interweaves the past and present, both of the characters in the film, and of the characters in Lorenzo's novel. Lorenzo repeatedly stalls for time on his new book with his editor, while his relationship with Lucía deepens. About six years pass. Lorenzo learns he has a daughter as a result of his encounter with Elena and begins to visit the child at her school, meeting her babysitter Belén (Elena Anaya). Belén tells Lorenzo her mother is a recently retired porn actress with a new hot boyfriend, and virtually seduces Lorenzo with chatter of sexual context and banter about her fantasies. Lorenzo uses these encounters and his fantasies about Belén and her mother as content for his book, and Lucía reads about it, thinking it fiction. Meanwhile, he does not disclose his fatherhood to Lucía or the child, nor even attempt to contact Elena. Belén flirts with Lorenzo and eventually invites him over to Elena's house while she babysits his daughter, Luna (Silvia Llanos). Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to have sex. They are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family dog, a large Rotweiler in 'protect mode', kills Luna. Belén is stunned. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression. Lorenzo's writing turns dark, towards depraved sex and death. He anonymously contacts Elena, who has moved to the island to find solace and recall better days, and provides her a nice story about a beautiful child that loves to swim in the sea, to cheer her spirits. But his now guilt-ridden and uncommunicative relationship with Lucía begins to collapse. Back in the present, Lucía meets a scuba diver on the island, Carlos (Daniel Freire), and through him, Elena, who runs an inn on the island. Lucía rents a room, and the women bond as friends, not knowing their intimate connection. But when Lucía mentions Lorenzo by name, and his past visit to the island long ago, Elena deduces the connection. Lucía sees a picture of Luna (looking remarkably like her father and remembering the name from Lorenzo's novel) and she makes the connection too. Lorenzo's editor visits Lorenzo in the hospital, where he was taken after being in an 'accident', spending several weeks in recovery. When Lorenzo asks about Lucía, the editor tells Lorenzo he thinks Lucía thinks he is dead. Lorenzo guesses Lucía is on the island and has the editor take him there. After both women discover that Lorenzo isn't dead, the three characters cope with and finally understand the entanglements of their interwoven relationships. ===== The story begins in frontier-town Nauvoo, Illinois in 1844. It follows the main body of the Church as they are forced to leave Illinois, choosing to settle temporarily in Nebraska and then to travel by wagon train to the Great Basin. Much of the story's plot revolves around two of the group, Jonathan Kent and Zina Webb. ===== Twelve-year-old Will Parry is caring for his mentally ill mother when he accidentally kills an intruder and runs away to Oxford. There, entering a portal to a parallel universe, Will discovers the deserted city of Cittàgazze where he meets Lyra Silvertongue and her dæmon Pantalaimon, who similarly arrived from her world via a bridge in the sky created by her father, Lord Asriel. The witch Serafina Pekkala eavesdrops on Mrs Coulter, Lyra's wicked mother, torturing a witch for the prophecy that concerns Lyra. Serafina kills the witch before she can reveal the details and takes a troop of witches to search for Lyra, while aeronaut Lee Scoresby searches for Stanislaus Grumman, previously believed dead, as he may have knowledge of a powerful object which Scoresby intends to use to protect Lyra. Will returns to his world through the portal and finds information about his father, who went missing on an expedition. Lyra searches Will's Oxford for information about Dust, mysterious particles connected to consciousness. On the advice of her alethiometer, a truth-telling device, Lyra meets the physicist Dr Mary Malone, who has a computer that can communicate with dark matter. Lyra realises that dark matter appears to be the same as what she knows as Dust in her own world. After accepting a lift from a gentleman introducing himself as Sir Charles Latrom, Lyra realises he has stolen her alethiometer. Sir Charles forces Will and Lyra into retrieving a mysterious knife from Cittàgazze for the alethiometer's return. They defeat a youth who has taken the knife from its holder, Giacomo Paradisi, but Will loses two fingers in the fight. Giacomo explains that this is the sign of the knife's next bearer, and explains its power: the ability to cut through any material, even the fabric between worlds. He also explains that their world is haunted by soul-eating spectres, which prey on adolescents and adults but ignore children. Will uses the knife to cut a hole from Cittàgazze into Charles's home. They overhear a conversation with Mrs Coulter. Lyra realises that Charles is Lord Boreal, having travelled from her world long ago, and Will hears news of his father, who discovered a doorway between the worlds. They escape to Cittàgazze with the alethiometer and are rescued from marauding children by Serafina Pekkala, who attempts unsuccessfully to heal Will's wound with a spell. Sir Charles visits Dr Malone, threatening to cut her funding unless she co-operates with him. She later follows Lyra's suggestion to communicate with dark matter with her computer. The consciousness Dr Malone communicates with instructs her to destroy the computer and travel through the same window between worlds used by Will and Lyra, explaining her role is to "play the serpent". Lee Scoresby finds Grumman living as a shaman known as Jopari (a corruption of his original name John Parry): Will's father. Grumman has summoned Scoresby to take him to the bearer of the knife and to assist Lord Asriel, who is assembling an army to rebel against an ancient being called the Authority. They set off in Scoresby's hot air balloon but are forced to land by soldiers of the Church. Scoresby contacts Serafina for help and dies holding off the soldiers so that Grumman can complete his task. Serafina leaves Lyra to follow Scoresby's call. Mrs Coulter tricks Charles into revealing the secret of the knife and kills him. She uses the spectres, which she has learned to control, to torture a witch into revealing the prophecy: Lyra is the second Eve. Mrs Coulter plans to destroy Lyra rather than risk a second Fall. Will finds his father, who staunches the bleeding in his hand and instructs him to join Lord Asriel's forces. Immediately thereafter, Grumman is killed by a vengeful witch whose love he had once spurned. Will returns to camp to find a pair of angels waiting to guide him to Asriel. He goes to awaken Lyra, but discovers she is missing and her guardian witches' souls have been drained by spectres. ===== The show stars a fictional British Indian family, including Madhuri and Ashwin Kumar (played by Indira Joshi and Vincent Ebrahim), their adult son Sanjeev (played by Sanjeev Bhaskar), and Sushila, Sanjeev's grandmother, normally referred to as Ummi (played by Meera Syal). The family lives in Wembley, London, England. The show's central premise is that Sanjeev's parents have supported his dream of being a television presenter by having a TV studio built on what used to be their back garden. Running gags include Sanjeev's apparent social ineptitude, Ashwin's obsession with financial matters and his tendency to tell long stories with no real point, and Ummi's stories of her absurd exploits with her childhood friend Saraswati the bicycle (so named because of her contortionist skills). It is also a regular conceit that the guests' appearance fees are paid in Bimla's chutney. The show has an improvisational feel, though in reality much of the regular cast's performance was scripted but the guest interviews were not. In the early episodes only Meera Syal improvised to any great extent though as the cast became accustomed to their characters, the improvised content increased for later episodes. Bhaskar stated in a 2009 interview, "We never rehearsed the guests, and the best ones were the ones to keep the ball in the air." ===== Darwin Project takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic landscape in the Northern Canadian Rockies. As preparation for an impending Ice Age, a new project- half science experiment, half live-entertainment- is launched. Players are dropped into an arena, initially armed with only an axe and a bow, and have to gather resources and survive along with 9 others. Players must craft items and upgrade their weapons (axe and bow) using resources in order to survive and fight until only one player remains, winning the game. ===== A boy named Shasta overhears Arsheesh the fisherman negotiating to sell him to a powerful Calormene feudal nobleman. He is relieved to discover that Arsheesh is not his real father, since there was little love between them. While Shasta awaits his new master in the stable, Bree—the nobleman's stallion—astounds Shasta by speaking to him. Bree is a Talking Horse from Narnia who was captured by the Calormenes as a foal. He tells Shasta that the nobleman will treat him cruelly, and Shasta resolves to escape. The horse suggests that they ride north together to the land of Narnia. On their journey, Shasta and Bree meet another pair of runaways: Aravis, a young Calormene aristocrat, and Hwin, a Talking Horse. Aravis is running away to avoid being forced to marry Ahoshta, the Grand Vizier of Calormen, while Hwin's story is much like Bree's. The four runaways travel through Tashbaan, the great capital of Calormen. There, they encounter Narnian visitors who mistake Shasta for Corin, a prince of Archenland, who went exploring earlier that day. Obliged to accompany them, Shasta overhears the Narnians' plans to escape from Calormen to prevent a forced marriage between Queen Susan and Rabadash, son of the Tisroc (or king) of Calormen. Shasta escapes when the real Prince Corin returns. Meanwhile, Aravis has been spotted by her friend Lasaraleen. She asks Lasaraleen to help her escape from Tashbaan. Lasaraleen cannot understand why Aravis would want to abandon the life of a Calormene noblewoman or refuse marriage with Ahoshta, but she helps Aravis escape through the garden of the Tisroc's palace. On the way, they hide when the Tisroc, Rabadash, and Ahoshta approach. Aravis overhears the Tisroc and Rabadash discussing the Narnians' escape. Rabadash wants to invade Narnia to seize Queen Susan. The Tisroc gives Rabadash permission to conquer Archenland before making a quick raid into Narnia to kidnap Queen Susan while High King Peter is away battling giants in the north. Aravis rejoins Shasta and the horses outside Tashbaan and tells them of the plot. The four set out across the desert, and a lion (whom they later discover to be Aslan) frightens them into fleeing swiftly enough to outrun Rabadash's cavalry. Shasta arrives in Archenland in time to warn Archenland and Narnia of the approaching Calormenes. When Rabadash and his horsemen arrive at the castle of King Lune in Archenland, they find the defenders alerted. A siege ensues. There is no clear outcome until reinforcements from Narnia, led by Edmund and Lucy, arrive. The Calormenes are defeated, and Rabadash is captured. Rabadash rebuffs King Lune's offer of a conditional release. Aslan the Lion, the King of Beasts, son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea, the King above all High Kings in Narnia, arrives in Archenland. After Rabadash insults Aslan, he is transformed into a donkey. Aslan informs him that his true form will be restored if he stands before the altar of Tash at the Autumn Feast; thereafter, however, the prince will become a donkey permanently if he ever ventures more than ten miles from the Temple of Tash. For this reason, Rabadash pursues peaceful policies when he becomes Tisroc, as he dares not cross the ten-mile boundary by going to war. The victorious King Lune recognizes Shasta as his son Cor, the long-lost identical twin of Prince Corin and—as the elder of the two—the heir to the throne of Archenland. Cor had been kidnapped as a baby in an attempt to counter a prophecy that he would one day save Archenland from its greatest peril. Shasta's timely warning of the Calormene attack has fulfilled the prophecy. Aravis and Shasta live in Archenland thereafter and eventually marry. Their son, Ram, becomes the most famous king of Archenland. ===== Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. Watson travel by train to Dartmoor to investigate a crime of disappearance of the great race horse Silver Blaze and the murder of the horse's trainer, John Straker. Holmes and Watson arrive at King's Pyland, from which Silver Blaze is missing. Fitzroy Simpson has come to Dartmoor (and specifically to King's Pyland) to gather information relating to his professional activities, and has become a suspect in the murder. However, to Holmes, from the outset, there seem to be a number of facts that do not fit the inspector's case against Simpson, damning as it looks. It seems odd, for instance, that he would lead the horse out on to the moor simply to injure or kill him. That could be done right in his stall. He could not have stolen the animal. What good would such a famous thoroughbred be to him? Why has an exhaustive search of the neighbourhood not turned up Silver Blaze? What has Simpson done with him? alt=Black-and-white drawing of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson confronting Silas Brown, who has Silver Blaze in his barn Sherlock Holmes soon tracks down Silver Blaze, literally: his tracks (along with a man's) are clearly visible in the soil, albeit intermittently. Holmes also deduces why the police could not find the horse, despite having looked right at him. Holmes ensures Silver Blaze's safety, and turns his mind to other aspects of the case. John Straker, Silver Blaze's late trainer, has been killed by a blow to the skull, assumed to have been administered by Simpson with his "Penang lawyer", a clublike walking stick. Simpson's cravat is also found in Straker's hand, and the latter's coat is found draped over a furze bush. A knife is found at the crime scene—a peculiarly delicate-looking one, with a small blade. Dr. Watson, from his medical experience, identifies it as a cataract knife used for the most delicate surgery—useful as it is for that purpose, it would be unsuitable as a weapon. In addition, Straker also seems to have gashed himself in the hip with it. One of the stable lads, Ned Hunter, was on guard duty the night of the crime, but he proves to have been drugged with powdered opium placed in his supper. No one else who ate the curried mutton made at the Strakers' house that evening suffered any ill effects, but Hunter was in a profound stupor well into the next day.In the Russian translation, the curry is replaced with garlic sauce, since curry was largely unknown to Russian-speaking public at the time. That part is briefly referenced in the Soviet Sherlock Holmes TV series, but no other part of the case is. Straker's pockets contained two interesting items: a tallow candle and a milliner's bill for (among other things) a 22-guinea dress, made out to one William Derbyshire. There is the curious incident with the dog, and a problem with the sheep kept at the stable: a shepherd tells Holmes that three of his animals have recently become suddenly lame. Holmes's powers unravel the mystery, and lay bare what villainies there are to be exposed. He visits the milliner's shop in London and determines, using Straker's photograph, that Straker posed as Derbyshire. This establishes his motive: he had a mistress with expensive tastes, and tried to influence the race's outcome to earn himself a large sum of money. The curried mutton was a clue, also; only such a spicy dish could have masked the taste of powdered opium, and it was impossible for Simpson to arrange a highly seasoned meal that evening for his purposes. Therefore, someone in the household must have conceived the idea—namely, Straker himself. The "curious incident of the dog in the night-time" is easily explained: the dog made no noise, because no stranger was there. As Holmes explains: "I had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others.... Obviously the midnight visitor was someone whom the dog knew well." It was Straker who removed Silver Blaze from his stall and led him out on to the moor. Straker's purpose in doing this was to use the cataract knife to inflict a slight injury upon one of the horse's legs, rendering him temporarily lame in a way that would be undetectable on examination and thus likely put down to strain. He had thought to use Simpson's cravat (which the latter dropped when he was expelled from King's Pyland) as a sling to hold the horse's leg to cut it. But instead, Straker was killed when the horse, sensing that something was wrong, panicked and kicked the trainer in the head. The lame sheep had been used by Straker for practice. Colonel Ross's main concern, of course, is getting his horse back safely. Holmes chooses not to tell Ross where his horse has been (although he has known all along) until after the Wessex Cup, which is won by Silver Blaze. At first the Colonel does not recognize his own horse, since the animal's distinguishing white markings have been covered with dye. The horse had been looked after by one of the Colonel's neighbours, Silas Brown, who had found him wandering the moor and hidden him in his barn. Holmes then explains the details of the case step-by-step to the satisfaction of the Colonel, Watson, and Inspector Gregory. Gregory is one of the more competent police detectives Holmes works with in the course of his career. He conducts a thorough investigation of the crime before Holmes's arrival, and gathers all the evidence Holmes needs to solve the case. Holmes notes that Gregory is "an extremely good officer", and observes that the only quality he lacks is imagination—the ability to imagine what might have happened on a given occasion, and act on this intuition. ===== The abbot of a humble monastery in the Valley of Sorrows calls upon Master Li and Number Ten Ox to investigate the killing of a monk and the theft of a seemingly inconsequential manuscript from its library. Suspicion soon lands on the infamous Laughing Prince Liu Sheng—who has been dead for about 750 years. To solve this mystery and others, the incongruous duo will have to travel across China, outwit a half-barbarian king, and saunter into (and out of) Hell itself. ===== The action mostly takes place in the Paddington area of London and is set in July 1949, a few years after the end of the Second World War. PC George Dixon, a long-serving traditional "copper" who is due to retire shortly, supervises a new recruit, Andy Mitchell, introducing him to the night beat. Dixon is a classic Ealing "ordinary" hero, but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of Tom Riley. Called to the scene of a robbery at a local cinema, Dixon finds himself face-to-face with Riley, a desperate youth armed with a revolver. Dixon tries to talk Riley into surrendering the weapon, but Riley panics and fires. Dixon dies in hospital some hours later. Riley is caught with the help of professional criminals and dog-track bookmakers who identify the murderer as he tries to hide in the crowd at White City greyhound track in north-west London. The kudos of arresting Riley falls to young Andy Mitchell. ===== The Mists of Avalon is a generations-spanning retelling of the Arthurian legend that brings it back to its Brythonic Celtic roots (see Matter of Britain). The plot tells the story of the women who influence King Arthur, High King of Britain, and those around him. The book's protagonist is Morgaine, priestess of Avalon, who is King Arthur's half- sister. Their mother, Igraine, is married to Uther Pendragon after Morgaine's biological father, Gorlois, is killed in battle. Rumors spread in Avalon that before Igraine knew her husband Gorlois was killed, Uther consulted with Merlin who used his magic to transform the king into the likeness of Gorlois and thus gain access to Igraine at Tintagel. He spent the night with her and they conceived a son, Arthur. Morgaine witnesses Uther Pendragon's accession to the throne of Caerleon after his predecessor, Ambrosius, dies of old age. Uther becomes her step-father, and he and Igraine have a son, Arthur, Morgaine's half-brother. When Morgaine is eleven years old and Arthur six, an attempt of murder is made on Arthur's life. Their maternal aunt, the high priestess Viviane, arrives in Caerleon and advises Uther to have Arthur fostered far away from the court for his own safety. Uther agrees, and also allows Viviane to take Morgaine to Avalon, where she is trained as a priestess of the Mother Goddess. During this period, Morgaine becomes aware of the rising tension between the old Pagan and the new Christian religions. After seven years of training, Morgaine is initiated as a priestess of the Mother, and Viviane begins grooming her as the next Lady of Avalon. Some months after her initiation, Morgaine is given in a fertility rite to the future high king of Britain. Their union is not meant to be personal, but rather a symbolic wedding between the future high king and the land he is to defend. The following morning, Morgaine and Arthur recognize each other and are horrified to realize what they have done. Two months later, Morgaine is devastated to find that she is pregnant. After Uther dies in battle against the Saxon invaders, Arthur claims the throne of Britain despite questions about his legitimacy (he had been conceived within days of Igraine's marriage to Uther Pendragon). Since Arthur must now defend Britain against the Saxons, Viviane has Morgaine make him an enchanted scabbard that will prevent him from losing blood and gives him the sacred sword Excalibur. With the combined force of Avalon and Caerleon, Arthur repels the invaders. As Morgaine's unborn child grows within her, so do her feelings of anger and betrayal toward Viviane, who she believes tricked her into bearing a child to her own half-brother. Unable to stay in Avalon any longer, she leaves for the court of her aunt Morgause, queen of Lothian, where she bears her son, naming him Gwydion. Spurred by her husband Lot's ambition and her own, Morgause tricks Morgaine into allowing her to rear her son. To escape Lot's unwanted advances, Morgaine leaves Lothian and returns to Arthur's court as a lady-in-waiting to the high queen, Gwenhwyfar. She does not see Gwydion again until he is grown and a Druid priest. When Gwenhwyfar fails to produce an heir, she is convinced God is punishing her for her sins. Chiefest among them, as she believes, are her failure to persuade Arthur to outlaw pagan religious practice in Britain and her forbidden love for Galahad, Arthur's cousin and finest knight, who is also known as Lancelet. Although Lancelet reciprocates Gwenhwyfar's love, he is also Arthur's friend and an honorable man. This situation causes terrible suffering to both Lancelet and Gwenhwyfar. On the eve of a decisive battle against the Saxons, Gwenhwyfar prevails upon Arthur to put aside his father's Pendragon banner and replace it with her own Christian banner. As her religious fanaticism grows, relations between Avalon and Camelot grow strained. Still, in her desperation over her failure to carry a child to term, she asks Morgaine for help, threatening to have an extramarital affair so she can become pregnant. In an attempt to keep Gwenhwyfar from doing so, Morgaine reveals that Arthur already has a son, though he does not know it. After the battle, Arthur moves his court to Camelot, which is more easily defended than Caerleon had been. Seeking to free both Lancelet and Gwenhwyfar from the forbidden love that traps them both, Morgaine tricks Lancelet into marrying Gwenhwyfar's cousin, Elaine. Some time later, during a heated argument with Arthur over their lack of an heir, Gwenhwyfar breaks Morgaine's confidence and tells Arthur he has a son. In growing suspicion and horror, Arthur summons Morgaine and orders her to tell him the truth. Morgaine obeys. Now believing that the lack of a royal heir is God's punishment for Arthur's union, however unwitting, with his own half-sister, Gwenhwyfar urges Arthur to confess the encounter to the bishop, who imposes strict penance upon him. Then she and Arthur arrange for Morgaine to marry into Wales, far from Camelot. But because of a misunderstanding, Morgaine, who had thought she would be marrying the king's younger son Accolon, a Druid priest and warrior, finds herself betrothed to King Uriens of Wales, who is old enough to be her grandfather. Arthur yearns to meet his son Gwydion and perhaps foster him at Camelot, but each time he brings up the subject with Gwenhwyfar, she refuses to discuss it. Morgaine marries Uriens and moves to Wales, but in time begins an affair with Accolon. The "old people" of the hills, who keep to the old pagan ways, regard Accolon and Morgaine as their king and queen. King Uriens suspects nothing, but Accolon's older brother, Avalloch, begins to; at one point, he confronts Morgaine in private and tries to blackmail her into sleeping with him as well. Morgaine sends Avalloch out on a boar hunt and is magically present when the boar kills him. In his grief for his eldest son and heir, Uriens abstains from pork for the rest of his life. Morgaine tells Accolon, who is now Uriens's heir, of the sacred marriage she made with Arthur years before. She adds that they must take the kingdom back from Arthur and the Christians and bring it back under the sway of Avalon. The attempted coup fails and Arthur kills Accolon in single combat. As Uriens recovers from the shock of losing a second son, Morgaine leaves Wales forever. Gwydion, now grown, goes to the Saxon courts to learn warfare far from Arthur's eye. Impressed by his cleverness, the Saxons name him Mordred ("Evil Counsel"). Years later, at a Pentecost feast at Camelot, he introduces himself as Queen Morgaine's son and Queen Morgause's foster son, though he calls Queen Morgause "Mother" and Morgaine by her name. Because of his close resemblance to Lancelet, he must often tell people that Lancelet is not his father. To earn his knighthood with no suspicion of preferential treatment, Gwydion challenges Lancelet to single combat during a tourney and they fight. As they start to fight in earnest, Gwenhwyfar, who has warmed to Gwydion in the meantime, protests and Arthur interrupts the match. Lancelet makes Gwydion a knight of the Round Table, naming him Mordred. Morgaine returns to Camelot under guise with another sister of Avalon during another Pentacost festival. Wielding great magic, Morgaine and her sister make manifest the Holy Grail—one of the sacred regalia of Avalon. The assembled court sees the manifestation of the Grail as a holy revelation. When the knights of the Round Table leave to search for the Holy Grail, Mordred attempts to usurp the throne. In a climactic battle, the armies of Arthur and Mordred fight and Arthur is mortally wounded. Morgaine takes the dying Arthur through the mists to Avalon, reassuring him that he did not fail in his attempt to save Britain from the approaching dark times. Arthur dies in her arms as the shoreline comes into view. Morgaine buries him in Avalon and remains there to tell the tale of Camelot. ===== Dr. Ellie Arroway works for the SETI program at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Guided into science and communication by her now-deceased father, she listens to radio emissions from space, hoping to find evidence of alien life. David Drumlin, the president's science advisor, pulls the funding from SETI, because he believes that the endeavor is futile. Arroway gains backing from Hadden Industries, run by secretive billionaire industrialist S. R. Hadden, which allows her to continue the project at the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico. Four years later, around 1996, with Drumlin seeking to close the SETI program, Arroway discovers a signal repeating a sequence of prime numbers, apparently sent from the star system Vega about 26 light-years away. This announcement causes Drumlin and the National Security Council led by Michael Kitz to attempt to take control of the facility. Arroway's team discovers a video hidden in the signal: Adolf Hitler's opening address at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Arroway and her team postulate that this would have been the first signal strong enough to leave Earth's ionosphere, reach Vega, and be transmitted back. The project is put under tight security, and its progress followed worldwide. Arroway finds that the signal also contains more than 63,000 pages of indecipherable data. The reclusive S. R. Hadden secretly meets with Arroway to provide the means to decode the pages. The pages reveal schematics for a complex machine that is determined to be some kind of transport for a single occupant. The nations of the world fund the construction of the machine at Cape Canaveral. An international panel is assembled to choose a candidate to travel in the machine. Although Arroway is a frontrunner to go, her hopes are scuppered by Christian philosopher Palmer Joss, a panel member whom Arroway met and briefly became romantically involved with in Puerto Rico. When he brings attention to her atheism, the panel selects Drumlin, as more representative of humanity. When the machine is first tested, a religious terrorist destroys the machine in a suicide bombing, killing Drumlin and several others. A cancer-stricken Hadden, now in residence on the Mir space station, reveals to Arroway that his company had secretly made a second machine in Japan and that Arroway will be the one to go. Outfitted with several recording devices, Arroway enters the machine's pod, which is then dropped into three rapidly spinning gimbaled rings, causing the pod to apparently travel through a series of wormholes. Arroway sees a radio array-like structure at Vega and signs of an advanced civilization on another planet. She then finds herself on a beach, similar to a childhood picture she drew of Pensacola, Florida, and a figure approaches that becomes her deceased father. Arroway recognizes him as an alien taking her father's form and attempts to ask questions. The alien tells her that the familiar landscape and form were used to make their first contact easier for her and that this journey was just humanity's first step to joining other spacefaring species. Arroway falls unconscious as she begins traveling back through a wormhole. She awakens to find herself on the floor of the pod, the mission control team repeatedly hailing her. She learns that, from outside the machine, it appears that the pod merely dropped through the machine's rings and landed in a safety net. Arroway insists that she was gone for approximately 18 hours, but her recording devices show only noise. A Congressional Committee is formed and speculates that the signal and machine were a hoax designed by the now- deceased Hadden. Arroway asks the committee to accept the truth of her testimony on faith. In a private, online conversation, Kitz and White House official Rachel Constantine reflect on confidential information that, although Arroway's recording device only recorded noise, it recorded 18 hours of it. Arroway and Joss reunite, and Arroway receives ongoing financial support at the VLA. ===== Nate Johnson, and his son, DJ, arrive at an auto body shop in Los Angeles to pick up his Lincoln Navigator, and much to Nate's chagrin, there has been a mix up, and his truck has gone from needing a simple 8-track to being pimped out with hydraulics and spinning rims. He is told that it will take 3 days to remove all the bells and whistles off of his truck. However, Nate has to take his truck as is because he and his family are due in Missouri for a family reunion. Once Nate and DJ arrive home, Nate gets a phone call from his mother, Glorietta, who disapproves of his marriage to his wife, Dorothy, and the phone call is taken over by Nate's older brother, Mack, who always tries to one up Nate by appealing to their mother's material needs. When it is time for Nate and DJ to leave, it is revealed that Nate is separated from his wife, Dorothy, and she lives in a different house down the street, as well as their two daughters, Nikki and Destiny. Nate does have an estranged relationship with her daughter. While Nate and DJ wait for the girls to come out, Nikki is locked in her room chatting on her cellphone, while her little sister, Destiny is trying to get in so she can get her stuff for her invisible dog, Sir Barks-a Lot. Nikki and Dorothy disagree about Nikki's cell phone usage and outfit choices, and Dorothy goes outside to meet Nate and DJ. When Nate sees that Dorothy is bringing her schoolwork on the road trip with her, his disapproval of Dorothy's studying is shown. Destiny's birthday is the day after they leave, and after Nate tells Destiny what he will do for her birthday, a man named Stan Turner shows up calling for Dorothy. He pulls up in a drop top car playing classical music, and he tells Dorothy that he reserved a table for them and brought her freshly picked flowers. Nate steps in, explains that he is Dorothy's husband, and threatens and scares Stan off. The family gets in the car, and they start off on their road trip. Nate reaches an indian casino, where he thought it was an indian reservation and also teach her daughter Nikki about the Indians. Nikki flirts with the indian tour guide, Nate didn't like. Nate embarrassed her and she told him off. Nate punished her and took away her cell phone. The road trip seems to be going smoothly until they reach a long stretch of highway where a semi truck is trying to run them off the road. The truck slams into the back of the family's SUV and all of their suitcases tumble out. Nate is able to spin his vehicle out of the truck's way, and everyone, including Nate, is visibly shaken up. Night time comes, and they stop at a hotel, where Dorothy pretends she is interested in rekindling her and Nate's estranged romance, but really she just wanted to get out of the truck and relax. Once they leave the hotel and resume their trip, they run into a hitchhiker, Chrishelle, and when Dorothy shakes her head at Nate, he quotes to her “what would Jesus do” to justify him stopping for the attractive young woman. When Chrishelle gets into the truck, she steals cereal from Destiny, and drops a reefer pipe in the back seat. The family stops at Bun World for lunch, and Destiny's birthday celebration, and when Nate asks Chrishelle to bless the food, she begins to roll her eyes and hiss strange phrases, which frightens the family and they all refuse to sit near her once they get back in the car. That evening, they all go to a hotel to rest, and Nate is woken up by a small alligator in his and Dorothy's bed. As he and DJ fight the alligator, Chrishelle comes in, and reveals the alligator, named Twinkie, to be hers. They quickly ditch Chrishelle and get back on the road. While in the car, all the girls are sleeping, and DJ begs his father to pull over because he has to relieve himself due to drinking so many sodas. He eventually relieves himself in a to-go soda cup, and when Nate gets thirsty, he goes for the cup, but smells it, and tosses it out of the window, accidentally hitting a cop on a motorcycle. When DJ alerts Nate to what he's done, Nate turns around, not paying attention to the road, and accidentally drives through a construction site, hitting a cement truck, causing wet cement to pour all over the grill and hood of his SUV. The cop arrests all of them, due to Nate littering, and because the cop found Chrishelle's reefer pipe in the back seat. While they are locked up, Dorothy assists the officer in writing off his taxes, and in exchange for Dorothy's help, the officer lets the family go. Back on the road, Nate runs out of gas, and he goes to find a phone to call his Uncle Earl. Earl eventually shows up, and after he flirts with Dorothy, he starts working on the SUV, using hair straighteners and other inappropriate tools to fix the problem, although Dorothy tells him they just need gas. Earl hauls the truck onto the back of his, and he carries the family the rest of the way to the family reunion. Once they show up to the reunion, Nate greets his brother, then his mother, who openly criticizes his and Dorothy's marriage, and after reconsidering telling Gloriana the truth about their marriage, Dorothy tells her she and Nate will renew their wedding vows and passionately kisses Nate in front of his mother. Mack and Nate gather with their relatives to pray for the food, but it turns into a competition, and their relatives walk away and began eating without them. As the day goes on, the two families compete for the “Family of the Year” trophy, which Mack has never lost, and the ultimate showdown comes from the families doing separate musical performances on stage. Nate and his family go around stealing items from relatives for their on-stage outfits, and their performance, which includes groovy dance moves and slick rapping from DJ, wins them the trophy. Mack breaks down, and Nate gives him the trophy, saying that his family was the only trophy he needed. As the family celebrates, the same semi truck that ran Nate off the highway shows up, barreling through the park, tearing decorations down and almost hitting Nate's relatives. The driver turns out to be Stan, still stewing over the fact that Dorothy isn't as interested in him as he assumed, and he reveals in front of their whole family that Nate and Dorothy live in separate houses. Nate confesses that he hasn't been a very supportive husband, and after apologizing to Dorothy, Glorietta tells Nate it's about time Nate realized what a good wife he had. Stan still won't let up, and after Nate threatens to fight Stan, Glorietta says no, then turns around and punches Stan herself. Nate and his family leave, with Nate telling everyone that his wife has some studying to do. Nate, Dorothy, and the kids show up at Uncle Earl's auto shop, and when Uncle Earl reveals their truck, it looks as good as new. Earl isn't a very professional mechanic, and he says he used fluoride toothpaste and a wire coat hanger to make sure Nate's truck was in good shape for driving. Nate and his family get into their truck, and once he and Dorothy share a reconciling kiss, they head home with no issues. They get to Dorothy's house, and when Nate hits the lock button on the car remote, the truck completely falls apart in the drive way. He gets upset, but Dorothy tells him not to worry about it, because they have other things to do, hinting that they are going to rekindle their romance. Nate smiles, and runs into the house after Dorothy. ===== The book opens as King Arthur prepares himself for his final battle. Merlyn reappears to complete Arthur's education and discover the cause of wars. As he did in The Sword in the Stone, Merlyn again demonstrates ethics and politics to Arthur by transforming him into various animals. The last chapter of the book takes place only hours before the final battle between King Arthur and his son and nephew Mordred. Arthur does not want to fight after everything that he has learned from Merlyn. He makes a deal with Mordred to split England in half. Mordred accepts. During the making of this deal, a snake comes upon one of Mordred's soldiers. The soldier draws his sword. The opposing side, unaware of the snake, takes this as an act of betrayal. Arthur's troops attack Mordred's, and both Arthur and Mordred die in the battle that follows. Guenever joins a convent, and remains there till death. Lancelot becomes a hermit and dies a hermit. His last miracle was making the room that he died in smell like heaven. ===== Mega Man 3 takes place during an unspecified year during the 21st century (20XX). The mad scientist Dr. Wily, having twice had plans for world domination dashed, claims to have reformed and begins work with Dr. Light on a project to build a peace-keeping robot named "Gamma". Robot Masters in charge of a set of "mining worlds", however, go berserk and make off with Gamma's eight power crystals. Mega Man is called into action, this time with a canine companion named Rush, to retrieve the crystals from the sites. Throughout his mission, the protagonist continuously encounters and spars with Break Man, a masked foe who has abilities comparable to Mega Man's own. After Mega Man destroys the eight Robot Masters, he then revisits four of the mining sites to face off against eight "Doc Robots", who possess the abilities of the Robot Masters from Mega Man's previous mission. Once the crystals are retrieved, Wily reverts to his evil ways, steals Gamma, and retreats to his new fortress. To stop Wily's newest plan to conquer the world, Mega Man destroys Gamma and defeats Wily in a final confrontation. As the fortress begins to crumble, Break Man appears in enough time to save Mega Man, but is too late to save Wily, who is seen being crushed under the rubble. When Mega Man regains consciousness in Dr. Light's lab, his creator informs him that Break Man was actually his older brother Proto Man. ===== Mega Man 4 takes place in an unspecified year during the 21st century, described as the year "20XX". One year after the events of Mega Man 3, a mysterious Russian scientist named Dr. Cossack unleashes an army of robots with the intention of world domination, much like Dr. Wily before him. Dr. Light calls upon his own greatest creation, the hero Mega Man, to go after Cossack's Robot Masters, who have seized control of eight cities.Rockman 4 Aratanaru Yabō!! manual, December 1991, Capcom. He also equips Mega Man with the New Mega Buster, which he developed in secret. Upon defeating the eight Robot Masters — Toad Man, Bright Man, Pharaoh Man, Ring Man, Dust Man, Skull Man, Dive Man, and Drill Man — Mega Man makes his way to Cossack's icy fortress. However, in the middle of his battle with Cossack, Mega Man's brother Proto Man teleports in with Cossack's daughter, Kalinka. The girl begs Mega Man to stop fighting her father and elaborating that Dr. Wily had kidnapped her and forced her father into building an army of robots. With Wily's plan undone by Proto Man, he steps out of the shadows. Mega Man pursues his nemesis and fights through the scientist's Wily Castle, but Wily manages to escape in the end. Mega Man escapes as the fortress begins to self-destruct, and rides home on the top of a passing train, where he is greeted by Roll and Rush. ===== The street of Otaru where Shunji Iwai shot Love Letter. Hiroko Watanabe lives in Kobe and has lost her fiancé Itsuki Fujii in a mountain climbing accident. On the day of his memorial ceremony, two years after his death, Hiroko looks through his high-school yearbook at his parents' house. Mrs. Fujii explains that they used to live in Otaru, and that their old house is now replaced by a highway. Nevertheless, Hiroko records the address she sees under the name "Itsuki Fujii" in the yearbook, and decides to write him a letter. Surprisingly, she receives a reply from Fujii. Unsure who sent the reply, she keeps writing and finds out it was not from her dead fiancé, but from a woman also named Itsuki Fujii who went to high school with her fiancé and bears a striking resemblance to Hiroko. The movie cuts back and forth between Hiroko and Female Itsuki based on the letters they send to each other. Female Itsuki works at the public library and is suffering from a cold that doesn't seem to go away, which she refuses to go to the hospital for. It is discovered that her father died of pneumonia when she was in high school. She is bewildered when she receives her first letter from Hiroko, having never heard of her. Nevertheless, she sends a reply saying she is fine and has a cold. After her first reply from "Itsuki Fujii", Hiroko visits her friend Akiba, who also knew her fiance and was there during his accident. Hiroko shows Akiba the letter and says it's a message from heaven. Akiba tells Hiroko she needs to let Fujii go, proceeding to kiss her and confess the feelings that he has had for her (even when Hiroko and Itsuki were going out). He then promises to "free her". Hiroko, still holding onto her memories of Fujii, continues to write letters to Itsuki. Female Itsuki suddenly writes back demanding to know who Hiroko is. Hiroko shares this with Akiba, unable to comprehend such a letter from her "fiance". Female Itsuki then receives a reply asking to "prove that you are the real Itsuki Fujii". She mails a copy of her residency card to Hiroko and asks her to not write back anymore. Hiroko is devastated by ID, and it is revealed that Akiba was the one who sent the letter asking for the "proof". He then tells Hiroko that they should visit Otaru to meet the female Itsuki Fujii to fully expose the truth and help her to move on. On the day of the visit to Otaru, female Itsuki is tricked by her mother into going to the hospital to get her "cold" checked up. She falls asleep and has a dream/flashback of her father being wheeled into the hospital, chasing her mother and grandfather into the emergency. Waking up and having missed her appointment, she leaves the hospital. While Itsuki is away, Akiba and Hiroko go to her home, passing by the said "highway" that was built over male Itsuki's old house. Upon reaching the house, they discover that female Itsuki is not home and opt to wait outside for her. However, unable to bring herself to meet Itsuki, Hiroko writes a letter for her, explaining she swung by the house and sent the letters thinking Itsuki was her fiance (leaving out the fact that he died 2 years ago). Akiba and Hiroko leave by taxi. The driver then says that he just sent home someone who looked exactly like Hiroko (Female Itsuki coming home from the hospital). A day later when Hiroko is leaving Otaru and Itsuki is out to put her reply letter in the mail, they momentarily spot each other before parting. When Hiroko returns home, she flips through Itsuki's yearbook again and finds that there were in fact, 2 Itsuki Fujiis, the address she copied belonging to the female one. After she notices her physical similarity to female Itsuki, she begins to wonder if that was the reason why her fiance fell in love with her. She asks female Itsuki to confirm the "double Itsuki" theory, which she does, and requests for Itsuki to share her high school memories of her fiance. The relationship between the Itsuki-s is told in flashbacks. Male Itsuki was portrayed as a shy young boy who kept to himself and behaved strangely. Male and Female Itsuki suffered teasing from fellow schoolmate as they were often "paired" them together as a couple due to their same names, despite both parties denying any such relationship. In the library, instead of working, Male Itsuki often would to write down his name on the check out cards of books that no one had checked out, thus being the only name on the card. Their relationship is highlighted by other memories like mixed up test papers, Male Itsuki jumping into a 100-meter dash despite having a broken leg, and Female Itsuki failing as a go-between for Oikawa, a disturbed girl with a crush on Itsuki. While away from school during her mourning period for her father, Female Itsuki is visited by Male Itsuki. He asks her to return a book for him, not stating the reason why, and quickly leaves. Female Itsuki returns to school after vacation and is upset to find that Male Itsuki has transferred, making the book exchange the last time she ever saw him. Switching back to the present, female Itsuki goes to her old school where she meets some school girls in the library who tell her they have found so many cards with her name on it. After she explains that her "friend" wrote the names, the girls quickly assume that her name was written in everyone because that friend "loved her very much", embarrassing Itsuki. Before leaving, her old teacher reveals to Female Itsuki that Male Itsuki died in the mountain accident 2 years ago. On Akiba's suggestion, he and Hiroko go to the mountain where Itsuki died, with Hiroko struggling to come to terms with Itsuki's death. They stay the night in the cabin of Kaji, another friend of Male Itsuki who witnessed his death. The 3 friends share their memories of Itsuki. Female Itsuki suddenly collapses from a high fever. Her mother realizes that the neglected "cold" has become pneumonia and Itsuki is suffering the same fate as her father. Her mother asks Grandpa to call an ambulance, who say they can only come in 1 hour's time as there is a massive blizzard outside. Grandpa decides to take matters into his own hands and prepares to carry Itsuki to the hospital by foot in the storm. Mother attempts to stop Grandpa by reminding him that it was because Grandpa did the same thing to Itsuki's father that he died. Grandpa reminds her that it wasn't the snow, but the fact they waited for the ambulance too long before deciding to go by foot, thus taking 40 minutes to get to the hospital. Mother decides to take the risk and brave the storm. When they finally reach it, Itsuki, as well as an out of breath Grandpa, are sent to the emergency room, just short of the 40 minute death clock. In the mountains Akiba wakes up Hiroko and asks her to watch the sun rise with him. He points out a mountain peak and says that is where Itsuki is. He greets Itsuki by yelling to the mountains and jokingly saying he is '"taking Hiroko away from him". Hiroko then runs closer to the mountains and cries to Itsuki, mimicking the first letters between Hiroko and female Itsuki by shouting "Fujii Itsuki, How are you? I'm fine". Miles away, female Itsuki wakes up in the hospital. Some time later, Hiroko and Itsuki have somewhat become pen pals. Itsuki prepares to write a letter about something that happened recently. The school girls from her high school visited female Itsuki with the book that Male Itsuki gave her before he left. They point to the check out card and as she suspected, his name was on it. However, on the back of the card, Itsuki is deeply moved to find a portrait of herself that Male Itsuki sketched. Instead of writing the letter about the drawing, the film ends with Female Itsuki narrating "Dear Watanabe Hiroko, I am too embarrassed to send this letter". ===== Miami area high school guidance counselor Sam Lombardo is accused of rape by two female students, wealthy and popular Kelly Van Ryan and poor outcast Suzie Toller. He hires lawyer Kenneth Bowden to defend him. At trial, one of the girls admit having lied to get revenge on Sam: Suzie for him failing to bail her out of jail on a minor drug charge and Kelly for him having an affair with her mother. Sam and Kenneth negotiate an $8.5 million settlement for defamation. It is revealed that Sam and the two girls were accomplices who used the trial to get money from Kelly's wealthy family. Police detective Ray Duquette suspects the trio are working a scam. Against the wishes of the district attorney's office, he continues investigating Sam. He tells Kelly and Suzie that Sam has already transferred the money to an off-shore account. Suzie panics and goes to Kelly, who comforts her. Kelly, however, calls Sam and tells him they may have to get rid of Suzie. In the pool, Suzie attacks Kelly. They fight, but eventually end up kissing, while watched by Ray, unbeknownst to them. A few nights later, at the beach, Sam apparently kills Suzie while Kelly waits nearby. They drive to the swamp where Sam disposes of the plastic-wrapped body. Ray and his partner, Detective Gloria Perez, investigate Suzie's disappearance. Her blood and teeth are found at the beach while her car is found at a bus terminal. The D.A.'s office again insists that Ray drops the case, but he asks Gloria to watch Sam. Sam shows Gloria Kelly's school files, which claim she is a troubled and violent girl. Meanwhile, Ray goes to Kelly's house to confront a scared and upset Kelly. After Ray enters her room, three gun shots are heard, after which Ray exits the room and collapses. He later claims that Kelly shot first and he killed her in self-defense. No charges are filed against him, but he is dismissed from the force for disobeying orders. It is revealed that Sam is working with Ray. Although Sam is displeased Ray killed Kelly instead of just framing her for Suzie's death, he agrees they have fewer loose ends. The two go sailing on Sam's sailboat, where Sam tries to kill Ray. When Ray fights back, he is shot and killed by a very much alive Suzie. She then poisons Sam's drink and knocks him overboard, so his body will not be found. Several post- credits scenes fill in the missing details. The five co-conspirators are Suzie Toller, Sam Lombardo, Sgt. Ray Duquette, Kelly Van Ryan, and Atty. Kenneth Bowden. Suzie, with an IQ of around 200, is revealed to be the ultimate mastermind of the entire plot as she alone sails off into the sunset. In the final post-credits scene she meets Kenneth, who is handling her financial affairs. He hands her a briefcase with one million dollars cash and a check for the remaining balance minus his "usual fee." ===== ===== Set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the film begins in a diner called Bennys Billiards, where local tough guy Rusty James is told by Midget that rival group leader Biff Wilcox wants to meet him that night in an abandoned garage lot for a fight. Accepting the challenge, Rusty James then talks with his friends — the wily Smokey, loyal B.J., and tall, nerdy Steve - who all have a different take on the forthcoming fight. Steve mentions that Rusty James' older brother, "The Motorcycle Boy," would not be pleased with the fight as he had previously created a truce forbidding gang fights, or "rumbles." Rusty James dismisses him, saying that the Motorcycle Boy (whose real name is never revealed) has been gone for two months, leaving without explanation or promise of return. Rusty James visits his girlfriend, Patty, then meets his cadre and walks to the abandoned garage lot, where Biff and his buddies suddenly appear. The two battle, with the fight ending when Rusty James disarms Biff and beats him almost unconscious. The Motorcycle Boy arrives dramatically on his motorcycle and his appearance distracts Rusty James who is slashed by Biff in the side with a shard of glass. Incensed, the Motorcycle Boy sends his motorcycle flying into Biff. The Motorcycle Boy and Steve take Rusty James home (past Officer Patterson, a street cop who's long had it in for the Motorcycle Boy) and nurse him to health through the night. Steve and the injured Rusty James talk about how the Motorcycle Boy is 21 years old, colorblind, partially deaf, and noticeably aloof — the last trait causing many to believe he is insane. The Motorcycle Boy and Rusty James share the next evening with their alcoholic, welfare-dependent father, who says that the Motorcycle Boy takes after his mother whereas, it is implied, Rusty James takes after him. Things start to go wrong for Rusty James: he's kicked out of school after his frequent fights. Despite Rusty James's desire to resume gang activity, the Motorcycle Boy implies that he has no interest in doing so. Rusty James has sex with another girl and Patty rejects him. The two brothers and Steve head across the river one night to a strip of bars, where Rusty James enjoys briefly forgetting his troubles. The Motorcycle Boy mentions that he located their long-lost mother during his recent trip while she was with a movie producer, which took him to California although he did not reach the ocean. Later, Steve and Rusty James wander drunkenly home, and are attacked by thugs, but both are saved by the Motorcycle Boy. As he nurses Rusty James again, the Motorcycle Boy tells him that the gang life and the rumbles he yearns for and idolizes are not what he believes them to be. Steve calls the Motorcycle Boy crazy, a claim which the Motorcycle Boy does not deny — further prompting Rusty James to believe his brother is insane, just like his runaway mother supposedly was. Rusty James meets up with the Motorcycle Boy the next day in a pet store, where the latter is strangely fascinated with the Siamese fighting fish, which he refers to as "rumble fish." Officer Patterson suspects they will try to rob the store. The brothers leave and meet their father, who explains to Rusty James that, contrary to popular belief, neither his mother nor brother are crazy, but rather they were both born with an acute perception. The brothers go for a motorcycle ride through the city and arrive at the Pet Store where the Motorcycle Boy breaks in and starts to set the animals loose. Rusty James makes a last-gasp effort to convince his brother to reunite with him, but the Motorcycle Boy refuses, explaining that the differences between them are too great for them to ever have the life Rusty James speaks of. The Motorcycle Boy takes the fish and rushes to free them in the river, but is fatally shot by Officer Patterson before he can. Rusty James, after hearing the gunshot, finishes his brother's last attempt while a large crowd of people converges on his body. Rusty James finally reaches the Pacific Ocean (something the Motorcycle Boy failed to do) and enjoys the shining sun and flocks of birds flying around the beach. He also tries to forget what happened to his brother. ===== The novel is based on the fictional "Everhard Manuscript" written by Avis Everhard, which she hid and which was subsequently found centuries later. In addition, this novel has an introduction and series of (often lengthy) footnotes written from the perspective of scholar Anthony Meredith. Meredith writes from around 2600 AD or 419 B.O.M. (the Brotherhood of Man). Jack London writes at two levels, often having Meredith condescendingly correcting the errors of Everhard yet, at the same time, exposing the often incomplete understanding of this distant future perspective. Meredith's introduction also acts as a deliberate "spoiler" (the term did not yet exist at the time of writing). Before ever getting a chance to get to know Avis and Ernest, how they fell in love or how Avis became politically involved, the reader is already told that all their struggles and hopes would end in total failure and repression, and that both of them would be summarily executed. This gives all that follows the air of a foreordained tragedy. There is still left the consolation that a happy end would come for humanity as a whole – though hundreds of years too late for Avis and Ernest as individuals; the cruel oligarchy would fall, and the two will be vindicated and respected by posterity as pioneers and martyrs. The book begins with the acquaintance of Avis Cunningham, a daughter of a renowned physicist with the socialist Ernest Everhard. At first, Avis does not agree with Ernest in that the whole contemporary social system is based on exploitation of labour. However, she proceeds to investigate the conditions the workers live in and those terrible conditions make her change her mind and accept Ernest's worldview. Similarly, Bishop Morehouse does not initially believe in the horrors described by Ernest but then becomes convinced in their truth and is confined to a madhouse because of his new views. The Manuscript itself covers the years 1912 through 1932 in which the Oligarchy (or "Iron Heel") arose in the United States. In Asia, Japan conquered East Asia and created its own empire, India gained independence, and Europe became socialist. Canada, Mexico, and Cuba formed their own Oligarchies and were aligned with the U.S. (London remains silent as to the fates of South America, Africa, and the Middle East.) In North America, the Oligarchy maintains power for three centuries until the Revolution succeeds and ushers in the Brotherhood of Man. During the years of the novel, the First Revolt is described and preparations for the Second Revolt are discussed. From the perspective of Everhard, the imminent Second Revolt is sure to succeed but from Meredith's frame story, the reader knows that Ernest Everhard's hopes would go unfulfilled until centuries after his death. The Oligarchy is the largest monopoly of trusts (or robber barons) who manage to squeeze out the middle class by bankrupting most small to mid-sized business as well as reducing all farmers to effective serfdom. This Oligarchy maintains power through a "labor caste" and the Mercenaries. Laborers in essential industries like steel and rail are elevated and given decent wages, housing, and education. Indeed, the tragic turn in the novel (and Jack London's core warning to his contemporaries) is the treachery of these favored unions which break with the other unions and side with the Oligarchy. Further, a second, military caste is formed: the Mercenaries. The Mercenaries are officially the army of the US but are in fact in the employ of the Oligarchs. Asgard is the name of a fictional wonder-city, a city constructed by the Oligarchy to be admired and appreciated as well as lived in. Thousands of proletarians live in terrible poverty there, and are used whenever a public work needs to be completed, such as the building of a levee or a canal. The Manuscript is Everhard's autobiography as she tells of: her privileged childhood as the daughter of an accomplished scientist; her marriage to the socialist revolutionary Ernest Everhard; the fall of the US republic; and her years in the underground resistance from the First Revolt through the years leading to the Second Revolt. By telling the story of Avis Everhard, the novel is essentially an adventurous tale heavily strewn with social commentary of an alternative future (from a 1908 perspective). However, the future perspective of the scholar Meredith deepens the tragic plight of Everhard and her revolutionary comrades. ===== The novel The Valley of the Moon is a story of a working-class couple, Billy and Saxon Roberts, struggling laborers in Oakland at the Turn-of-the-Century, who left city life behind and searched Central and Northern California for suitable farmland to own. The book is notable for its scenes in which the proletarian heroes enjoys fellowship with the artists' colony in Carmel, and their settling in the Valley of the Moon. ===== The story concerns a love triangle. The protagonist, Dick Forrest, is a rancher with a poetic streak (his "acorn song" recalls London's play, "The Acorn Planters"). His wife, Paula, is a vivacious, athletic, and sexually self-aware woman, who falls in love with Evan Graham, an old friend of her husband. Unable to choose between the two men, she wounds herself mortally with a rifle in what her husband is certain is a suicide. ===== A framing story is told in the first person by Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder. Prison officials try to break his spirit by means of a torture device called "the jacket," a canvas jacket which can be tightly laced so as to compress the whole body, inducing angina. Standing discovers how to withstand the torture by entering a kind of trance state, in which he walks among the stars and experiences portions of past lives. : I trod interstellar space, exalted by the knowledge that I was bound on vast adventure, where, at the end, I would find all the cosmic formulae and have made clear to me the ultimate secret of the universe. In my hand I carried a long glass wand. It was borne in upon me that with the tip of this wand I must touch each star in passing. And I knew, in all absoluteness, that did I but miss one star I should be precipitated into some unplummeted abyss of unthinkable and eternal punishment and guilt. ===== At Swim-Two-Birds presents itself as a first-person story by an unnamed Irish student of literature. The student believes that "one beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with", and he accordingly sets three apparently quite separate stories in motion. The first concerns the Pooka MacPhellimey, "a member of the devil class". The second is about a young man named John Furriskey, who turns out to be a fictional character created by another of the student's creations, Dermot Trellis, a cynical writer of Westerns. The third consists of the student's adaptations of Irish legends, mostly concerning Finn Mac Cool and Mad King Sweeney. In the autobiographical frame story, the student recounts details of his life. He lives with his uncle, who works as a clerk in the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. The uncle is a complacent and self- consciously respectable bachelor who suspects that the student does very little studying. This seems to be the case, as by his own account the student spends more time drinking stout with his college friends, lying in bed, and working on his book than he does going to class. The stories that the student is writing soon become intertwined with each other. John Furriskey meets and befriends two of Trellis's other characters, Antony Lamont and Paul Shanahan. They each become resentful of Trellis's control over their destinies, and manage to drug him so that he will spend more time asleep, giving them the freedom to lead quiet domestic lives rather than be ruled by the lurid plots of his novels. Meanwhile, Trellis creates Sheila Lamont (Antony Lamont's sister) in order that Furriskey might seduce and betray her, but "blinded by her beauty" Trellis "so far forgets himself as to assault her himself." Sheila, in due course, gives birth to a child named Orlick, who is born as a polite and articulate young man with a gift for writing fiction. The entire group of Trellis's characters, by now including Finn, Sweeney, the urbane Pooka and an invisible and quarrelsome Good Fairy who lives in the Pooka's pocket, convenes in Trellis's fictional Red Swan Hotel where they devise a way to overthrow their author. Encouraged by the others, Orlick starts writing a novel about his father in which Trellis is tried by his own creations, found guilty and viciously tortured. Just as Orlick's novel is about to climax with Trellis' death, the college student passes his exams and reconciles with his uncle. He completes his story by having Trellis's maid accidentally burn the papers sustaining the existence of Furriskey and his friends, freeing Trellis. ===== Set almost a decade after Rainbow Valley, Europe is on the brink of the First World War, and Anne's youngest daughter Rilla is an irrepressible almost-15-year-old, excited about her first adult party and blissfully unaware of the chaos that the Western world is about to enter. Her parents worry because Rilla seems not to have any ambition, is not interested in attending college, and is more concerned with having fun. Once the Continent descends into war, Jem Blythe and Jerry Meredith promptly enlist, upsetting Anne, Nan, and Faith Meredith (who Rilla suspects is engaged to Jem). Rilla's brother Walter, who is of age, does not enlist, ostensibly due to a recent bout with typhoid but truly because he fears the ugliness of war and death. He confides in Rilla that he feels he is a coward. Rilla was a bit happy because she was closer to Walter than to her brother Jem. The enlisted boys report to Kingsport for training. Jem's dog, Dog Monday, takes up a vigil at the Glen train station waiting for Jem to come back. Rilla's siblings Nan, Di, and Walter return to Redmond College, and Shirley returns to Queen's Academy, leaving Rilla anxiously alone at home with her parents, their spinster housekeeper Susan Baker, and Gertrude Oliver, a teacher who is boarding with the Blythes while her fiancé reports to the front. As the war drags on, Rilla matures, organizing the Junior Red Cross in her village. While collecting donations for the war effort, she comes across a house where a young mother has just died with her husband away at war, leaving no one to care for her two-week-old son. Rilla takes the sickly little boy back to Ingleside in a soup tureen, naming him "James Kitchener Anderson" after his father and Herbert Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War. Rilla's father Gilbert challenges her to raise the war orphan, and although she doesn't like babies at all, she rises to the occasion, eventually coming to love "Jims" as her own. She also assists in the elopement of a soldier whose beloved is the daughter of the town's only vocal pacifist; the pacifist's attempts to oppose fund-raising for the war effort or to criticize the war while leading prayers are a recurring minor storyline. Rilla and her family pay anxious attention to all the war news as the conflict spreads and thousands die. Rilla grows much closer to Walter, who some townsfolk and fellow students have branded a slacker, an insult he feels deeply. Rilla feels that Walter finally regards her as a chum, not just as his little sister. Walter eventually does enlist, as does Rilla's newfound love interest, Kenneth Ford (the son of Owen and Leslie Ford, who met in Anne's House of Dreams), who kisses her before leaving and asks her to promise she will not kiss anyone else until he returns. She keeps this a secret for much of the book, unsure what it means about his feelings for her. Her mother later tells her that "if Leslie West's son asked you to keep your lips for him, I think you may consider yourself engaged to him." As the war continues, one night Dog Monday begins to howl inconsolably, leading the family to fear something terrible has happened to Jem. Instead, they receive news that Walter was killed in action at Courcelette. (In Anne of Ingleside, published in 1939 but set many years before Rilla of Ingleside, Montgomery foreshadows Walter's death; Anne sees the shadow of a cross cast from the window over sleeping Walter's head.) In Walter's last letter to Rilla, written the day before his death, he tells her that he is no longer afraid and believes it may be better for him to die than to go on living with his memories of war forever spoiling life's beauty. Rilla gives the letter to Una Meredith, as she has long believed Una had been in love with Walter, though she had never spoken of it to either of them. After Rilla had gone back to Ingleside that night, Una swore that she would not let love enter her life again. Anne's youngest son, Shirley, comes of age and immediately joins the flying corps. Susan was deeply touched when Shirley called Susan "Mother Susan" before he went. Jerry Meredith is wounded at Vimy Ridge, and in early May 1918, Jem is reported wounded and missing following a trench raid. The Blythes spend nearly five months not knowing Jem's fate, but are encouraged by Dog Monday's continued presence at the train station, as Susan reasons a dog so troubled by the death of his master's brother surely would sense a tragedy involving his master. Finally the family receives a telegram: Jem had been taken prisoner in Germany, but eventually escaped to Holland and is now proceeding to England for medical treatment. When the war finally ends, the rest of the boys from Glen St. Mary return home. Mary Vance and Miller Douglas announce plans to marry, with Miller deciding to pursue a career in Mr. Flagg's store after losing a leg in the war. Jem returns on an afternoon train and is met by a joyful Dog Monday. Jims' father returns with a young merry English bride and takes Jims to live with them nearby; Rilla is glad she can still remain part of Jims' life. Life after war resumes. Jem plans to return to college, since he and Faith cannot be married until he finishes studying medicine. Faith, Nan, and Diana plan to teach school, while Jerry, Carl, and Shirley will return to Redmond, along with Una, who plans to take a Household Science course. Noting that Kenneth Ford has survived the war but has not contacted her, Rilla concludes that his interest must have faded and she should consider joining the college-bound group. Finally, Kenneth returns home and proposes to Rilla with the question "Is it Rilla-my-Rilla?"—to which Rilla lisps, "Yeth," a rare slip into her childhood habit. ===== The film follows famous filmmaker Sandy Bates, who is plagued by fans who prefer his "earlier, funnier movies" to his more recent artistic efforts, while he tries to reconcile his conflicting attraction to two very different women: the earnest intellectual Daisy and the more maternal Isobel. Meanwhile, he is also haunted by memories of his ex-girlfriend, the unstable Dorrie. ===== Edward and Alphonse Elric live in Resembool with their mother Trisha and father Van Hohenheim, the latter having left without a reason. Trisha soon dies from an illness. After finishing their alchemy training under Izumi Curtis, the Elrics attempt to bring their mother back with alchemy. The transmutation backfires, and Edward loses his left leg while Alphonse loses his body. Edward sacrifices his right arm to retrieve Alphonse's soul, binding it to a suit of armor. Edward is invited by Roy Mustang to become a State Alchemist, to research a way to restore their bodies, and undergoes a painful medical procedure, which grants him prosthetic automail limbs. Edward becomes a State Alchemist, with the title of Fullmetal Alchemist. The Elrics spend the next three years searching for the mythical Philosopher's Stone to achieve their goals. The Elrics are eventually attacked by an Ishbalan serial killer known as Scar, who targets State Alchemists in revenge for his people's genocide in the Ishbalan civil war. Returning to Resembool to have Edward's limbs repaired by their childhood friend and mechanic, Winry Rockbell, the Elrics meet Dr. Marcoh, who provides them with clues to learn that a Philosopher's Stone is created from human souls. They investigate a laboratory in which the Stones were created, but are hindered by the Homunculi. The Elrics decide to visit Izumi, hoping to improve their alchemy. Mustang's friend Maes Hughes continues the Elrics' research, but is killed by the homunculus Envy. The Elrics learn from Izumi that she attempted to use alchemy to revive her stillborn child. Alphonse is captured by the homunculus Greed, but is rescued by Amestris' leader King Bradley. Bradley is revealed to be the homunculus Wrath, and brings the captured Greed to the Homunculi's creator, Father. When Greed refuses to rejoin his fellow Homunculi, he is reabsorbed by Father. After meeting the Xingese prince Lin Yao, who seeks a Philosopher's Stone to cement his position as heir to his country's throne, the Elrics return to Central City, where they learn of Hughes's murder. Lieutenant Maria Ross is framed for Hughes' murder, so Mustang fakes Ross's death and smuggles her out of the country. In encounters with the Homunculi, Mustang kills Lust. Lin captures Gluttony, who swallows Lin, Edward, and Envy into his void-like stomach. They escape from Gluttony's stomach after he takes Alphonse to meet Father, who makes Lin the vessel of Greed. Mustang tries to expose Bradley to the government, but finds that the higher officials are complicit in Father's plans. The Elrics and Mustang are released, but warned not to oppose Father, who seeks to use them as "human sacrifices". Meanwhile, Scar heads north with the Xingese princess May Chang, fired corrupt official Yoki, and kidnapped Dr. Marcoh. The Elrics head north as well, and reach Fort Briggs, commanded by General Olivier Armstrong. They confront the homunculus Sloth and learn that Father founded Amestris to amass enough population to create a massive Philosopher's Stone. With it, he can achieve godhood by absorbing the being beyond the Gate of Truth on the ‘Promised Day’. Forced to work with Solf Kimblee, a murderous former State Alchemist and ally of the Homunculi, the Elrics turn on him and split up, joined by a reformed Scar, his group, Kimblee's chimera subordinates, and later Lin/Greed. Hohenheim reveals that he was made an immortal when Father arranged the fall of Cselkcess four centuries ago, and had been working since then to stop Father. The Promised Day arrives, with Father planning to use an eclipse and ‘human sacrifices’ in order to trigger the transmutation. The protagonists battle Father's minions, with Kimblee and almost all of the Homunculi dying. However, Father manages to activate the nationwide transmutation circle, and absorbs the superior being. Hohenheim and Scar activate countermeasures, draining much of Father's absorbed souls, rendering him unstable. The protagonists face Father in a final battle, in which Greed is killed by Father. Alphonse, his armor almost destroyed, sacrifices his soul to restore Edward's right arm. Edward defeats Father, who is dragged into the Gate of Truth, from which he was created. Edward sacrifices his ability to perform alchemy to fully restore Alphonse, while Lin receives a Philosopher's Stone. Hohenheim goes to visit Trisha's grave, where he dies peacefully. The Elrics return home, but separate two years later to research alchemy further. Years later, Edward and Winry have married and have two children. ===== Kimi ga Nozomu Eiens story revolves around the main protagonist Takayuki Narumi, a male high school student. The first chapter, which takes place between July 6 and August 20, 1998, serves as a prologue to the second chapter. Takayuki is set up with Haruka Suzumiya by their friends Mitsuki Hayase and Shinji Taira. Takayuki ends up in bed with a nude sprawled out Haruka, but their relationship is not consummated due to performance anxiety. Mitsuki stops Takayuki on her birthday and has him buy her a ring, which results in him being late for his date with Haruka. At the end of the chapter, caused by Takayuki not being able to arrive in time, Haruka ends up in a coma because of an accident. In chapter two, during the three years since the accident, Mitsuki has been taking care of Takayuki and they have formed a relationship. Takayuki has also taken a part- time job at the Daikuuji (Sky Temple) family restaurant. Haruka's sister contacts Takayuki to tell him that Haruka has come out of her coma and is asking to see him. ===== The novel is set in the near future (2034–2080), after the solar system has been surrounded by an impenetrable shield known as the Bubble, presumably by an extraterrestrial civilization for unknown reasons. The Bubble permits no light to enter the solar system, and as a consequence the stars can no longer be seen, causing widespread societal panic, 'claustrophobia', and terrorist action. Neural mods are common place, designed pathways in the brain that are created with engineered, programmable microorganisms to produce a variety of effects, such as implanting skillsets, emotions, altered states of awareness or, illegally, forcing and controlling thoughts. The narrator, Nick, contains a suite of tactical mods that allow him to suppress emotions and enhance tactical and analytical thought. Nick is a private eye forced to quit the police force after the death of his wife, the trauma of which caused him to activate his emotional suppression mod, which further prompted him to purchase a mod that simulates the feeling of love and wellbeing of his wife still being alive, logically solving the problem of grief. Nick accepts a case to investigate Laura, a woman who has vanished from a psychiatric institute, after several instances of her escaping. The institute staff insist that short of walking through a wall, it should not have been possible to escape the previous times, though it comes to light that she was kidnapped in this instance. Investigation in New Hong Kong leads Nick to the group responsible, the Ensemble, but causes him to be captured. Nick is implanted by an illegal 'Loyalty Mod', which causes him to earnestly and truly believe in the goals of the Ensemble. Nick is used as a security guard for the project the ensemble is working on, a new neural mod perfected by studying Laura. This mod, called the Eigenstate Mod or 'Eigenmod', allows the brain to consciously control the physical process that is responsible for wave function collapse. This feature of neurology is present in several animal species, and one of the researchers responsible for the mod, Po-kwai, suspects that the Bubble may exist because humanity may have been aggressively collapsing the wave functions of alien civilizations that did not have the ability to do so, causing them harm. When using the mod, the user becomes 'Smeared', existing within a superposition of states constantly, therefore every possible set of actions they take being equally 'real'. When one version of the user succeeds in whatever they want to do, they deactivate the mod, collapsing the eigenstates into that one subjective reality. This allows the mod to seemingly control probability to do anything, though raises questions of morality and philosophy to the narrator, who considers deactivating the mod equivalent to murdering the other equally real versions of the user. Nick eventually meets a group of Ensemble members who like him are under the control of the Loyalty mod. They explain to him that the loyalty mod only specifies their loyalty to Ensemble, but fails to specify what the ensemble actually is. Therefore, via logical argument, the group (calling itself the Canon) decides that as by definition the most loyal members of the ensemble, what the ensemble is is up to their personal interpretations. The Canon has Nick steal and apply the eigenstate mod to himself, which he uses for various purposes before eventually meeting with a strangely coherent Laura after bypassing otherwise impregnable security with the mod. Laura explains that she is naturally capable of smearing, and that she is one of the aliens who created the Bubble. The true alien consists of an emergent being composed of all the eigenstates of Laura at once, that dies when she stops smearing, but captures a holographic representation of itself within her mind that rebuilds the alien mind when she begins smearing again. Laura explains that life on earth developed the ability to collapse wave functions by chance, which eventually spread via pure natural selection. As smeared intelligence cannot survive in a single, unique state of the universe, they erected the bubble, preventing humanity from seeing and thus deciding the state of anything outside it, while simultaneously protecting humanity from the starkly alien nature of outside reality. Laura finishes by explaining her role as an observer, there to offer humanity a way to join the rest of the universe, if they choose to. She also warns Nick of his Smeared self, which she describes as a child and unsure of its abilities, but which is becoming increasingly aware that its goals do not align with that of Nick's, who she describes as a single cell to a much larger, complex and much more alien Smeared Nick. A member of the canon uses the stolen eigenstate mod to cheat the production of engineered microbes that can install the mod into people, while also acting and spreading like a disease would, so that he may spread the ability to smear to humanity and join the aliens in smeared reality. Nick attempts to stop the release of the plague but is unsuccessful. Not long after, New Hong Kong begins to be filled with strange and impossible events, people changing faces, turning to glass or vanishing while holograms become real and the sky begins to rain blood. Nick finds Po-kwai, and both affirm that while they are not precisely scared of what is coming, they are not ready for such an existence. Po-kwai postulates that this outcome was inevitable and not the fault of smeared Nick—that instead the smeared total of all of humanity tunneled into possibility. Humans around them begin to blur as the smeared minds begin to increase in complexity. Both watch as stars begin to appear in the sky until it is filled with blinding white light. In the Epilogue, Nick resides in a refugee camp outside of New Hong Kong, the disease apparently only spreading within the city before stopping, but not before causing massive damage and leaving millions dead, often in gruesome and fantastical ways. The only difference for Nick being that his Loyalty mod and the mod simulating love for his wife have been permanently removed, with Nick finding the idea of embracing artificial satisfaction disgusting despite his newfound grief. It is left unclear if the Bubble still exists. Nick and Po-kwai part ways, confused as to why smeared humanity, after going to the trouble of coming to exist, would interact with reality outside the bubble and recoil. Nick initially believes that smeared humanity found the world outside the bubble distasteful, causing them to suicide into a single unique eigenstate again. He begins to suspect though that humanity has in fact smeared and joined the universe, and that he is merely one possibility out of infinite miracles and infinite suffering, his perceived reality being but one tiny aspect of his emergent, smeared self. Nick tries to come to terms with this, lying awake at night contemplating it till he finally falls asleep. ===== Yumiko (Esumi) and Ikuo (Asano) are a young Osaka couple who have a new baby. One day Ikuo is walking along the railway tracks and is hit and killed by a train. It seems that he may have done this deliberately yet there is no apparent motive. A few years pass. Yumiko agrees to an arranged marriage with a widower, Tamio (Naitō), and she and Yuichi (her son, now played by Gohki Kashima) move to Tamio's house in a rustic village on the Sea of Japan coast, shot on location in Wajima, on the Noto Peninsula (the actual location where the film was shot is Uniumachi, about 5 km west from Wajima along the coast). A drunken spat over a bell Yumiko had given Ikuo just before he died causes Yumiko and Tamio to discuss their strong emotions for their lost loves. Shortly after, Yumiko follows a funeral procession and lingers at the crematorium, until Tamio arrives by car to pick her up, at which point she says she just wants to know why Ikuo killed himself. Tamio suggests that, like the will o' the wisps his father used to see, perhaps something just drew him away from life. ===== A boy is born in Paris, France in the year 1738. His mother is tried almost immediately for previous infanticide and subsequently executed, leaving him an orphan. He is named "Jean-Baptiste Grenouille" (French for "frog") and is fostered but is a difficult, solitary child and is eventually apprenticed to a local tanner. Unknown to other people, Grenouille has a remarkable sense of smell, giving him an extraordinary ability to discern precisely the subtlest of odors from complex mixtures of scent and across great distances; as a result he can perform apparently magical feats such as identifying bad vegetables by the worms they contain, or visitors as they approach the house, and can navigate in total darkness by the smell of objects around him. One day, long after having memorized nearly all the smells of the city, he is surprised by a unique smell. Grenouille traces it with his nose and finds that the source of the scent is a young virgin girl just passing puberty. She is not much younger than Grenouille himself. Entranced by her scent and believing that he alone must possess it, he strangles her and stays with her body until the scent has left it. In his quest to learn more about the art of perfume-making, he becomes apprenticed to one of the city's finest perfumers, Giuseppe Baldini, an aging, once-great master of the trade who finds himself increasingly outperformed by rival perfumers. Grenouille proves himself a prodigy by faithfully copying and even improving a rival's perfume in Baldini's laboratory, after which Baldini offers him an apprenticeship. Grenouille learns the basic techniques of perfumery from Baldini, whose flagging reputation is suddenly restored to prominence when he sells Grenouille's masterful new formulas as his own. Baldini eventually reveals to him that there are techniques other than distillation that can be used to preserve a wider range of odours, which can only be learned in the heartland of the perfumer's craft, in the region of Grasse in the French Riviera. Shortly after, Grenouille elects to leave Paris, and Baldini dies when his shop collapses into the river Seine. On his way to Grasse, Grenouille travels the countryside and is increasingly disgusted by the scent of humanity. Avoiding civilization, he comes instead to live in a cave inside the Plomb du Cantal, surviving off the mountain's sparse vegetation and wildlife. However, his peace is ended when he realizes after seven years that he himself does not possess any scent: he cannot smell himself and neither, he finally understands, can other people. Traveling to Montpellier with a fabricated story about being kidnapped and kept in a cave for seven years to account for his haggard appearance, he creates a body odour for himself from everyday materials and finds that his new "disguise" tricks people into thinking that it is the scent of a human; he is now accepted by society instead of shunned. In Montpellier, he gains the patronage of the Marquis de La Taillade- Espinasse, who uses Grenouille to publicize his pseudoscientific theory about the influence of "fluidal" energies on human vitality. Grenouille manufactures perfumes which successfully distort the public perception of him from a wretched "caveman" into a clean and cultivated patrician, helping to win enormous popularity for the Marquis' theory. Seeing how easily humanity can be fooled by a simple scent, Grenouille's hatred becomes contempt. He realizes that it is within his ability to develop scents described as "superhuman" and "angelic" that will affect in unprecedented ways how other people perceive him. Reaching Grasse, he offers his assistance to a small shop run by a widowed perfumer, Madame Arnulfi, and her journeyman lover, Druot, and there trains in the arts of scent extraction and preservation by enfleurage. One day, he encounters another irresistible scent that is even more inspiring than the one possessed by his first victim. It is again the scent of a young virgin girl, this one named Laure Richis, who is the daughter of the town's wealthiest nobleman. Grenouille decides that this time he will seek to preserve the scent physically and not just in his memory. He begins a campaign of killing teenage girls to practice extracting and preserving their overpowering scents. All of his victims are found bludgeoned to death and stripped of their clothing with their hair cut off, but are not otherwise molested. He eventually kills 24 girls in preparation for killing Laure, without ever leaving a trace that would link him to the crimes. The police are baffled and the town becomes hysterical with fear. Laure's father realizes his daughter must be the ultimate goal of the murderer's campaign and secretly escorts her to a place of safety, but Grenouille follows them by following her scent. When they stop for the night, he breaks into her bedroom and finally kills her and successfully preserves her scent. Despite his careful attention to detail, the police trace Laure's murder to him, and the hair and clothing of his previous victims are all discovered at his cabin near Grasse. He is caught soon afterwards and sentenced to death. However, on the way to his execution in the town square, Grenouille wears a new perfume he has created from his victims, this one of overwhelming power. The scent immediately causes the crowd of spectators to fawn in awe and adoration of him, and although the evidence of his guilt is absolute, the townspeople become so fond of him, so convinced of the innocence he now exudes, that the magistrate reverses the court's verdict and he is freed; even Laure's father is enthralled by the new scent and asks if he would consider being adopted as his son. Soon the crowd is so overcome with lust and emotion that the entire town participates in a mass orgy of which no one speaks afterwards and which few can clearly remember. The magistrate reopens the investigation into the murders and they are eventually attributed to Druot, who is tortured into making a false confession and later hanged without ceremony. The effect his scent has had now confirms to Grenouille how much he hates people, especially as he realizes that they worship him now and that even this degree of control does not give him satisfaction. He decides to return to Paris, intending to die there, and after a long journey ends up at the fish market where he was born. He approaches a crowd of criminals gathered in a cemetery and pours the entire bottle of his final perfume on himself. The people are so drawn to him that they are compelled to obtain parts of his body, eventually tearing him to pieces and eating them. The story ends with the crowd, now embarrassed by their actions, agreeing that they did it out of "love". ===== Seventy years after the events of Rendezvous with Rama, a second Raman vessel enters the Solar System. Its arrival was expected, and on Earth the chosen crew of twelve readies for the voyage to unlock more of Rama's mysteries. Interpersonal conflicts among crew members begin prior to the launch date. After arriving, an accident kills the leader of the group while still outside Rama, and there is debate over who the replacement should be. The tools and vehicles the crew bring to Rama, based on knowledge from the first expedition, make exploring Rama easier. The novel ends with three of the twelve astronauts abandoned inside Rama as it travels out of the Solar System. ===== Prelude to Space recounts the fictional events leading up the launch of Prometheus, the world's first spacecraft capable of reaching the Moon. Prometheus consists of two components, named Alpha and Beta. Alpha is designed for travel from Earth orbit to the Moon and back. It is not capable of independent atmospheric flight. Beta is a nuclear-powered flying wing which carries Alpha into orbit. Beta uses a nuclear reactor to superheat either air (when flying in the lower, denser, part of the atmosphere) or its own internal supply of methane (in the higher reaches of the atmosphere and in space) to achieve thrust. Beta functions as a ramjet in the lower atmosphere and must be launched using an electric launch track. The return journey to the Moon proceeds as follows: Beta carries Alpha into orbit; Alpha separates from Beta and refuels from tanks previously carried into orbit by Beta; Alpha flies to and lands on the Moon while Beta remains in Earth orbit; Alpha returns to Earth orbit and the crew returns to Earth aboard Beta; Alpha remains in orbit to await the next flight. Prelude was written before the Apollo program landed men on the Moon and follows the ideal that space travel is realistic and within the grasp of the population. Clarke wrote a new preface in 1976 in which he admits that he had some propagandist goals in writing Prelude to Space — he was an influential member of the astronautics community when the idea of rockets leaving Earth's atmosphere was scoffed at by many scientists. The novel ends with the launching of Prometheus; the entire plot consists of scientists, engineers and administrators showing Dr. Dirk Alexson how the mission was planned and how the technology will work. Dr. Alexson is the historian assigned to prepare the official history of the Moon mission.Fantastic Fiction entry. Retrieved 21 December 2010. Prelude to Space has also been published under the titles Master of Space and The Space Dreamers. ===== The series' main character, Geraldine Antonia "Jerri" Blank (played by Amy Sedaris), was a "junkie whore"/runaway returning to high school as a freshman at age 46 at the fictional Flatpoint High School (home of the Concrete Donkeys) in the town of Flatpoint. According to the show's animated introduction,The animated introduction was used only after the first season. In the first season, Jerri would give the introduction during the episodes' beginnings before the song started. Jerri ran away from home and became "a boozer, a user, and a loser" after dropping out of high school as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she, in her words, "stoled [sic] a TV." Every episode featured a theme or moral lesson, although the lessons were often amoral or warped; in an episode about eating disorders, Jerri learns that it is acceptable to become bulimic because it will get people to pay attention to you. When Jerri's father dies in the episode "The Goodbye Guy", Jerri learns the valuable lesson, "You never really 'lose' your parents. Unless of course they die. Then they're gone forever. And nothing will bring them back." In another episode, "Bully", Jerri learned that "violence really isn't the only way to resolve a conflict, but it's the only way to win it." Each episode ends with the cast and other featured actors from the episode dancing. The last episode features Flatpoint being turned into a strip mall because the show was cancelled to make room for a TV show called Strip Mall. ===== ===== The story is set on Werel, the third planet of the Gamma Draconis system. The planet has an orbital period of 60 Earth years, and is approaching its correspondingly long winter. The main characters belong to one of two major groups: Wold and his daughter Rolery are members of the Tevarans, a tribe of humanoid extraterrestrial indigenous to the planet. Jakob Agat is a young man from a dwindling colony of Earth humans that have been effectively marooned on the planet. Although both populations share a common genetic heritage in the Hainish people, the difference is significant enough to prevent interbreeding. The relationship between the two groups has long been tense and characterized by limited interaction. However, with the approaching dangers of winter and marauders, the visit of curious young Rolery to the colony becomes a sign of coming changes. ===== A German oom-pah band — composed of Axis powers leaders Joseph Goebbels on the trombone, Heinrich Himmler on the snare drum, Hideki Tojo on the sousaphone, Hermann Göring on the piccolo and Benito Mussolini on the bass drum — marches noisily at four o'clock in the morning through a small town where the trees, windmills, fence posts, and even the clouds are shaped like swastikas while singing the virtues of the Nazi doctrine. A familiar character, Donald Duck lives in a nightmare world, a Nazi forced to produce artillery shells under terrible conditions. His cuckoo clock with a bird that is dressed up as Adolf Hitler heils as a clock chime, only for Donald to throw a shoe at it. Passing by Donald's house (the features of which depict Hitler), the band members poke him out of bed with a bayonet to get him ready for work. Here Donald then faces and heils the portraits of Der Fuehrer (Hitler), the Emperor of Japan (Hirohito) and Il Duce (Mussolini) respectively, then goes to make breakfast. Because of wartime rationing, Donald's breakfast consists of bread that is so stale and hard it resembles wood (and must be sliced using a saw), coffee brewed from a single hoarded coffee bean, and a bacon and egg-flavored breath spray. The band shoves a copy of Mein Kampf in front of him for a moment of reading, then marches into his house and escorts him to a factory, with Donald now carrying the bass drum and Göring kicking him. Donald "heil[s] right in Der Fuehrer's face" Upon arriving at the factory (at bayonet-point), Donald starts his comical 48-hour daily shift of screwing caps onto artillery shells coming at him in an assembly line. Mixed in with the shells are portraits of Der Fuehrer, so Donald must perform the Hitler salute every time a portrait appears, all the while screwing the caps onto shells, much to his disgust. Each new batch of shells is of a different size, ranging from individual bullets to massive shells as large as Donald (if not larger). The pace of the assembly line intensifies (as in the Charlie Chaplin comedy Modern Times), and Donald finds it increasingly hard to complete all the tasks. At the same time, he is bombarded with propaganda messages about the purported superiority of the Aryan race and the glory of working for the Führer. After a "paid vacation" that consists of making swastika shapes with his body for a few seconds in front of a painted backdrop of the Alps as exercise, Donald is ordered to work overtime. He has a nervous breakdown with hallucinations of artillery shells everywhere, some of which are snakes and birds, some sing and are the same shape of the marching band from the start, music and all (some of the animation from this sequence is recycled from the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence from Dumbo). When the hallucinations clear, Donald finds himself in his bed, and realizes that the whole experience was a nightmare; however, he sees the shadow of a figure holding its right hand up in the form of a Nazi salute. He begins to do so himself until he realizes that it is the shadow of a miniature Statue of Liberty, holding her torch high in her right hand. Remembering that he lives in the United States, Donald embraces the statue, saying, "Am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America!" The short ends with a caricature of Hitler's angry face, and a tomato is thrown at it, forming the words The End. ===== At Coal Hill School, teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) have concerns about pupil Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), who has an alien outlook on England. When the teachers visit her address to investigate, they encounter a police box and hear Susan's voice inside. An old man (William Hartnell) arrives, but refuses to let the teachers inside the police box. They force their way inside to find Susan in a futuristic control room that is larger than the police box exterior. Susan explains that the object is a time and space machine called the TARDIS and the old man is her grandfather, who reveals that he and his granddaughter are exiles from their own planet. Refusing to let Ian and Barbara leave, he sets the TARDIS in flight and ends up in the Stone Age. Za (Derek Newark), the leader of a primitive Paleolithic tribe, attempts to make fire. A young woman called Hur (Alethea Charlton) warns him that if he fails to do so, the stranger called Kal (Jeremy Young) will be made leader. After exiting the TARDIS, the unnamed old man, whom Ian and Barbara refer to as the Doctor, is kidnapped by Kal, when he witnesses him light a match. Kal takes the Doctor back to the tribe and threatens to kill him if he does not make fire; Ian, Barbara and Susan intervene, but the group is imprisoned in a large cave. With the help of Old Mother (Eileen Way), who believes that fire will bring death to the tribe, they escape from the settlement but are intercepted and recaptured before reaching the TARDIS. Kal says they will be sacrificed if they do not make fire. While Ian tries to start a fire, Kal enters the cave and attacks Za, but is killed. Ian gives a burning torch to Za, who shows it to the tribe and is declared leader. Susan notices that placing a skull over a burning torch makes it appear alive; when the tribe enters the cave, they are faced with several burning skulls, and are terrified, allowing the group to flee to the TARDIS and escape through time and space to a silent and unknown forest. Unnoticed by the crew, the radiation meter rises to "Danger". ===== In 1981, Camp Firewood, a summer camp located near Waterville, Maine, is preparing for its last day of camp. Counselors have one last chance to have a romantic encounter with another person at Camp Firewood. All the while, Ben and Susie, two overzealous drama instructors, attempt to produce and choreograph the greatest talent show Camp Firewood has ever seen. Beth, the camp director, struggles to keep her counselors in order—and her campers alive—while falling in love with Henry, an astrophysics associate professor at Colby College. Henry has to devise a plan to save the camp from a piece of NASA's Skylab, which is falling to Earth. Shy Coop has a crush on Katie, his fellow counselor, but has to pry her away from her rebellious, obnoxious, and obviously unfaithful boyfriend, Andy. Only Gene, the shell-shocked Vietnam war veteran and camp chef, can help Coop win Katie—with some help from a talking can of mixed vegetables. Gary, Gene's unfortunately chosen apprentice, and J.J. attempt to figure out why their friend McKinley has never been with a woman. They are surprised to find that McKinley is in love with Ben, whom he marries in a ceremony at the lake. Victor attempts to lose his virginity with the resident loose-girl Abby, but a series of mishaps get in his way. ===== Three years ago, members of a cult sabotaged Tokyo's water supply, killing hundreds and poisoning thousands, before committing mass suicide on the outskirts of town and having their ashes supposedly dispersed by a lake. On the anniversary of the attack, four members of the families of the perpetrators make the trek to that lake to remember them. When they arrive, they find that a motorcycle was there parked before them. At the dock, they see a former member of the cult, Sakata, who had trained for the attack but had defected at the last minute. He is distant and doesn't interact with them. At the end of the day, they return to their vehicle only to find it missing. While they are discussing what to do as night approaches, Sakata comes and, finding that his motorcycle is also missing, leads them to the cabin where he and the deceased cult members stayed prior to the attack, and they pass the night reminiscing about people they have known and lost. Flashbacks illuminate the moments when the cult members told their families about leaving the real world to join the cult, Sakata's time with the cult and eventual escape, and the ensuing police investigation after the attack. Sakata and Atsushi talk about Yûko, Atsushi's sister, whom Sakata had a very close relationship with and had asked to run away with him the night before the attack. Atsushi, according to Sakata, looks nothing like Yûko. The next morning, they return by train to the city. On the train ride back, Sakata asks Atsushi who he really is, saying that Yuko told him her brother had killed himself a few years before. Atsushi says she was probably lying, and Sakata replies that she would not have said it that way if she were lying. When Atsushi goes to see the old man he had been visiting in the hospital, the man has died. The nurse says that she had thought Atsushi was the old man's son, as he visited often, until the old man's actual son had come to the hospital after his death. The film ends with Atsushi returning to the lake and putting flowers in the lake for his father. He then burns family photos and memorabilia on the dock of the lake. The fire grows larger, and becomes a large conflagration as Atsushi walks away. ===== Set in the 1930s, the novel follows the misadventures of Fang Hung-chien (方鴻漸 Fāng Hóngjiān), a bumbling everyman who wastes his time while studying abroad, then secures a fake degree when he runs out of money and must return home to China. Onboard the Vicomte de Bragelonne, Fang meets Miss Su (蘇文紈 Sū Wénwán), a young woman in her late 20s. She is quite pretty, if thin and pallid, but her pickiness means she is still unattached. He also meets the tanned and voluptuous Miss Pao (鮑小姐 Bào xiǎojiě), whom Fang pursues with some success during the voyage. However, when the boat reaches Hong Kong, Miss Pao disembarks into the embrace of her fiancé, a middle-aged, balding doctor, and Fang realises he has been used. After disembarking at Shanghai, Fang looks for work and is forced to attend matchmaking sessions arranged by his parents. When visiting Miss Su he meets her cousin, Miss T'ang (唐曉芙 Táng Xiǎofú), and promptly falls for her. Fang wants to pursue Miss T'ang, but Miss Su expects him to propose to her instead. When she discovers the truth, she ruins any chance of Fang getting with her cousin. His heart broken, Fang leaves Shanghai and gets a teaching job at a recently-opened university in the interior, where he discovers one of his new colleagues also has a bogus doctorate from the same institution. At the university he meets Sun Roujia (孫柔嘉 Sūn Róujiā), an assistant professor of English. After his contract is not renewed, they get married and go back to Shanghai, where their relationship worsens. The novel ends with his wife leaving him as he listens to the chiming of a clock. ===== The two youngest Pevensie children, Lucy and Edmund, are staying with their odious cousin Eustace Scrubb while their older brother, Peter, is studying for an exam with Professor Kirke, and their older sister, Susan, is travelling through America with their parents. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are drawn into the Narnian world through a picture of a ship at sea. (The painting, hanging neglected in the guest bedroom in which Lucy was staying, had been an unwanted present to Eustace's parents.) The three children land in the ocean near the pictured vessel, the titular Dawn Treader, and are taken aboard. The Dawn Treader is the ship of Caspian X, King of Narnia, whom Edmund and Lucy (along with Peter and Susan) helped gain the throne of Narnia in Prince Caspian. Also present on board are the Lord Drinian (the captain of the Dawn Treader) and the first mate Rhince. Peace has been established in the three years since then, and Caspian has undertaken a quest in fulfilment of his coronation oath to sail east for a year and a day and find the seven lost Lords of Narnia: Argoz, Bern, Mavramorn, Octesian, Restimar, Revilian, and Rhoop. He mentions that Trumpkin the dwarf has been left in charge of Narnia as Lord Regent in his absence. Lucy and Edmund are delighted to be back in the Narnian world, but Eustace is less enthusiastic, as he has never been there before and had taunted his cousins with his belief that this alternate universe had never existed. The Talking Mouse Reepicheep is also on board, as he hopes to find Aslan's Country beyond the seas of the "utter East". When Eustace teases Reepicheep, much is revealed about the mouse's pugnacious character. They first make landfall in the Lone Islands, nominally Narnian territory but fallen away from Narnian ways: in particular the slave trade flourishes here, despite Narnian law stating that it is forbidden. Caspian, Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and Reepicheep are captured as merchandise by a slave trader, and a man "buys" Caspian before they even reach the slave market. He turns out to be the first lost lord, Lord Bern, who moved to the islands and married a woman there after being banished from Narnia by Miraz. When Caspian reveals his identity, Bern acknowledges him as King. Caspian reclaims the islands for Narnia, and replaces Gumpas, the greedy governor, with Lord Bern, whom he names Duke of the Lone Islands. At the second island they visit, Eustace leaves the group to avoid participating in the work needed to render the ship seaworthy after a storm has damaged it, and hides in a dead dragon's cave to escape a sudden downpour. The dragon's treasure arouses his greed: he fills his pockets with gold and jewels and puts on a large golden bracelet; but as he sleeps, he is transformed into a dragon. As a dragon, he becomes aware of how bad his previous behaviour was. He attempts to shed his dragon skin without success. It is only with the help of Aslan that he is able to become human again, though the process is very painful. Caspian recognises the bracelet: it belonged to Lord Octesian, another of the lost lords. They speculate that the dragon killed Octesian — or even that the dragon was Octesian. Aslan turns Eustace back into a boy, and as a result of his experiences he is now a much nicer person. They narrowly escape being sunk by a sea-serpent and stop at Deathwater Island, so named for a pool of water which turns everything immersed in it into gold, including one of the missing lords who turns out to have been Lord Restimar. Then they land on the Duffers' Island, where Lucy removes an invisibility spell from the Duffers (later Dufflepuds) at their request and befriends the Magician who cast it. At the Island Where Dreams Come True – called the Dark Island since it is permanently hidden in darkness – they rescue a desperate Lord Rhoop. Eventually they reach the Island of the Star, where they find the three remaining lost lords in enchanted sleep. Ramandu, the fallen star who lives on the island with his daughter, tells them that the only way to awaken them is to sail to the edge of the world and there to leave one member of the crew behind. Lord Rhoop wishes to "sleep without dreams" beside his friends until they wake and everyone agrees before they set out again. The Dawn Treader continues sailing into an area where merpeople dwell and the water turns sweet rather than salty, as Reepicheep discovers when he belligerently jumps in to fight a mer- man who he thinks challenged him. At last the water becomes so shallow that the ship can go no farther. Caspian orders a boat lowered and announces that he will go to the world's end with Reepicheep. The crew object, saying that as King of Narnia he has no right to abandon them. Caspian goes to his cabin in a temper, but returns to say that Aslan appeared in his cabin and told him that only Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, and Reepicheep will go on. These four named venture in a small boat through a sea of lilies until they reach a wall of water that extends into the sky. Fulfilling Ramandu's condition, Reepicheep paddles his coracle up the waterfall and is never again seen in Narnia. Edmund, Eustace, and Lucy find a Lamb, who transforms into Aslan and tells them that Edmund and Lucy will not return to Narnia and that they should learn to know him by 'another name' in their own world. He then sends the children home. It is mentioned that the four lords woke again when Caspian returned to the island and he married Ramandu's daughter. Eventually, the Dawn Treader and everyone else safely return to Narnia. Back in the human world, everyone remarks on how Eustace has changed and "you'd never know him for the same boy" – although his mother believes that Edmund and Lucy have been a bad influence on him in the way that they have made him "commonplace and tiresome". ===== Eustace Scrubb, now a reformed character following the events of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, encounters his classmate and new friend Jill Pole at their school, Experiment House, where they are miserable. Jill has been tormented by bullies and is hiding from them. Eustace tells Jill about his Narnian adventures, and how his experiences there led to the changes in his behaviour – which Jill warns is likely to see him targeted by the bullies as well. Eustace suggests asking for Aslan's help, and as the bullies converge on them, the two blunder through a gate that leads them to Aslan's Country. They encounter a cliff, where Jill shows off by approaching the edge, and Eustace, trying to pull her back, falls over the edge. Aslan appears and saves Eustace by blowing him on a magical wind stream to Narnia. He charges Jill with helping Eustace find King Caspian X's son, Prince Rilian of Narnia, who disappeared some years earlier. He gives Jill four Signs to guide them on their quest and then blows Jill into Narnia, where Eustace is already waiting by a great castle. They watch as an elderly and frail man takes ship and sails from the harbour. To Eustace's dismay, they learn that the elderly man is actually King Caspian; by failing to greet him they have missed the first Sign. Seventy years have passed since Eustace was last in Narnia, even though less than a year has passed in his world. They also learn that Caspian has sailed off to visit again the lands they had sailed to when he and Eustace were young, although many Narnians believe that he has set off to seek Aslan in order to ask who can be the next King of Narnia when he dies. Caspian is obviously deteriorating with old age, and his people fear that he will not live for much longer. Caspian's Lord Regent Trumpkin the Dwarf, now very elderly and deaf, provides Jill and Eustace with rooms in Cair Paravel, but on the advice of Glimfeather the Owl, they make no mention of their quest. Glimfeather summons them to a Parliament of his fellow talking owls, who explain that Prince Rilian disappeared a decade earlier while searching for a large green serpent that had killed his mother. Jill and Eustace are flown to the marshes on the northern edge of Narnia where they meet their guide, Puddleglum, a gloomy but stalwart Marsh-wiggle. They journey toward the giant- lands north of Narnia. Hungry and suffering from exposure, they meet the Lady of the Green Kirtle accompanied by a silent knight in black armour. She encourages them to proceed northward to Harfang, the castle of the "Gentle Giants", who she says would be glad to have them at their Autumn Feast. Jill and Eustace, overcome at the thought of comfort and warmth, are eager to go; only Puddleglum argues against the journey to Harfang. After a long journey in harsh weather, and braving a mysterious chasm in a driving snowstorm, they are welcomed at Harfang. From the castle the three see that in the snowstorm they had blundered through the ruins of a giant city in the valley below, thereby missing Aslan's second Sign. They also see the words "Under Me" engraved on the road, which is the third Sign. Discovering from a cookbook in the kitchen that they are the main course for the Autumn Feast, they make a narrow escape from Harfang. Following the Sign, they take shelter in a cave under the ruined city, where they fall down a long dark slope into Underland. They are found by an army of underground-dwelling earthmen, who take them aboard a boat across the subterranean Sunless Sea to the city ruled by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. She herself is away, but her protégé, a young man, greets the travellers pleasantly. He explains that he suffers from nightly psychotic episodes, and during these episodes he must, by the Lady's orders, be bound to a silver chair; for if he is released, he will turn into a deadly green serpent and kill everyone in sight. The three travellers determine to witness the youth in his torment, as they sense it could be the key to their quest. When the young man is tied to his chair, his "ravings" seem instead to indicate desperation to escape an enchanted captivity. After several threats, the youth finally begs the three to release him in the name of Aslan. Recognizing this as the fourth Sign, they hesitantly do so, believing that he could indeed be Prince Rilian. The young man immediately destroys the silver chair. Free from enchantment, he thanks them and declares that he is indeed the vanished Prince Rilian, kept underground by the Lady of the Green Kirtle as part of her plot to conquer Narnia. The Green Lady returns and tries to bewitch them all into forgetting who they are, but the barefoot Puddleglum stamps out the enchantress's magical fire and breaks her spell. The enraged Lady transforms herself into a green serpent, and Rilian kills her with the help of Eustace and Puddleglum,This scene echoes Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto I, stanzas 17–24. realizing that the Green Lady was herself the serpent who killed his mother. Rilian leads the travellers to escape from Underland; the gnomes, who had also been magically enslaved by the Lady, are now freed by her death and joyfully return to their home even deeper in the earth: a land called Bism. One of them shows Rilian's party a route to the surface, and Rilian returns to Cair Paravel as King Caspian is returning home. Caspian is reunited with his long-lost son but dies moments after giving his blessing. Rilian is then declared King of Narnia amid the weeping crowd. Aslan appears and congratulates Eustace and Jill on achieving their goal, then returns them to the stream in his country where Jill first met him. The body of King Caspian appears in the stream, and Aslan instructs Eustace to drive a thorn into the lion's paw. Eustace obeys, and Aslan's blood flows over the dead King, who is revived and returned to youth. Aslan promises Eustace and Jill that, while they have to return to their own world for a while, they will one day return to Aslan's Country to stay. He then allows Caspian to accompany Eustace and Jill back to their own world for a brief time, where they drive off the bullies before Caspian returns to Aslan's Country. Experiment House becomes a well-managed school, and Eustace and Jill remain good friends. Back in Narnia, Rilian buries his father and mourns him. The kingdom goes on to have many happy years, but Puddleglum often points out that "dry mornings bring wet afternoons" and that you can't expect good times to last. ===== The novel takes place in two interwoven time periods: the first deals with the Binewski children's constant struggle against each other through life. They especially have to deal with the Machiavellian Arty as he develops his own cult: Arturism. In this cult, Arty persuades people to have their limbs amputated (so that they can be like him) in their search for the principle he calls PIP ("Peace, Isolation, Purity"). Each member moves up in stages, losing increasingly significant chunks of their body, starting with their toes and fingers. As Arty battles his siblings to maintain control over his followers, competition between their respective freak shows slowly begins to take over their lives. The second story is set in the present and is centered on Oly's daughter, Miranda. Nineteen-year-old Miranda does not know Oly is her mother. She lives on a trust fund created by Oly before she gave up her daughter to be raised by nuns. This had been urged by her brother Arty, who was also Miranda's father (not through sexual intercourse, but by the telekinetic powers of Chick, who carried Arty's sperm directly to Oly's ovum). Oly lives in the same rooming house as Miranda so she can "spy" on her. (The rooming house is run by "Crystal" Lil, who is so addled that she doesn't know Oly is her daughter.) Miranda has a special defect of her own, a small tail, which she flaunts at a local fetish strip club. There she meets Mary Lick, who tries to convince her to have the tail cut off. Lick is a wealthy woman who pays attractive women to get disfiguring operations, ostensibly so they may live up to their potential instead of becoming sex objects; it is implied, however, that Lick's real motivation is to punish them for being more attractive than she is. Oly plans to stop Lick in order to protect her daughter. ===== Byron Orlok, an aged, embittered horror movie actor, abruptly announces his decision to retire and return to his native England to live out his final days. Orlok considers himself outdated because he believes that people are no longer frightened by old-fashioned horror, citing real-life news stories as more horrifying than anything in his films. However, after much persuasion, particularly from young director Sammy Michaels, Orlok agrees to make a final in-person promotional appearance at a Reseda drive-in theater before leaving Hollywood for good. Bobby Thompson is a young, quiet, clean-cut insurance agent and Vietnam War veteran who lives in the suburban San Fernando Valley area with his wife and his parents. Thompson is also deeply disturbed and an obsessive gun collector, but his family takes little notice. One morning, after his father leaves for work, Thompson murders his wife, his mother, and a delivery boy at his home. That afternoon, Thompson continues the killing spree, shooting people in passing cars from atop an oil storage tank that sits alongside a heavily traveled freeway. When an employee at the storage tank comes up to investigate the gunshots, Thompson shoots him as well. Leaving some of his guns and ammo at the scene of the crime, Thompson flees to the very same drive-in theater where Orlok is set to appear that evening. After sunset, Thompson kills the theater's projectionist and perches himself on the framing inside the screen tower. While the Orlok film is shown, Thompson takes aim at the patrons in and around the parking lot via a hole in the projection screen. After Thompson wounds Orlok's secretary, Jenny, Orlok confronts Thompson, who is disoriented by Orlok's simultaneous appearance before him and on the large movie screen behind him, allowing the actor to disarm Thompson using his walking cane. Looking at the now-defeated Thompson, a visibly shaken Orlok remarks, "Is that what I was afraid of?" Moments later, police officers arrive to arrest Thompson for the murders he has committed; as they lead him away, Thompson states with apparent satisfaction that he "hardly ever missed." ===== The Kree hero Captain Marvel, arriving on Earth after an extended stay in the alternate dimension the Negative Zone, is captured by several members of the superhero team the Avengers — Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and the android hero the Vision — with aid of Mar-Vell's (the hero's true Kree name) sometime companion Rick Jones, and Mar-Vell himself. It is later revealed that he conceived a child with the Skrull princess Annelle during this period of time. This is necessary, as Mar-Vell has inadvertently absorbed a lethal amount of radiation from spending weeks in the Negative Zone, and it will prove fatal unless treated. With the aid of a scientist, the Vision drains the excess radiation from Mar-Vell. A flashback sequence explains that the Avengers detect an alarm from the Baxter Building, the headquarters of the Fantastic Four. The Avengers arrive at the building and find Mar-Vell using the portal to the Negative Zone — created by Reed Richards — to try and free Rick Jones from their need to "share molecules" (alternating between the same space, one on Earth and one trapped in the Negative Zone until swapping). Mar-Vell is successful, although while the portal to the Zone is open, the Avengers are forced to drive back the entity Annihilus, who attempts to escape the Zone. Mar-Vell takes advantage of the distraction to steal an Avengers quinjet, which is tracked once the Avengers realize that the Kree hero has absorbed a lethal amount of radiation. The flashback ends and the group are then attacked by a robot Sentry, who captures Mar-Vell and escapes. The Avengers are questioned by Mar-Vell's former colleague, Carol Danvers. The Avengers respond to a call from fellow member Goliath, who advises that he is answering a distress call from Avenger Janet Pym, also known as the Wasp. With husband and fellow member Henry Pym, the pair were en route via ship to a research base in the Arctic Circle, there to study the effect of oil exploration on the environment. The pair apparently found a lush island, and investigate as the Wasp and Yellowjacket. Yellowjacket guesses the truth and pushes the Wasp away before reaching the island. When he disappears, the Wasp in turn summons Goliath. The Avengers arrive and are attacked once again by the Sentry, now aided by a hypnotised Goliath. The Avengers defeat Goliath but cannot stop the Sentry, who captures all but Quicksilver. The culprit is revealed to be Ronan the Accuser, now a Kree outlaw. Ronan begins "Plan Atavus", intending to devolve Earth to a prehistoric time to use as a base in the war against the Skrulls. Ronan shows the heroes how the research scientists at the base and Henry Pym have devolved into cavemen, who now lust after Janet Pym. Quicksilver arrives and attacks, and Ronan ends the battle when contacted and advised of an impending attack by the Skrulls on the Kree homeworld of Hala. Lacking purpose, the Sentry self- destructs. The Avengers and Mar-Vell recover and find that Pym and the other scientists, like the environment, have reverted to normal. Mar-Vell's existence is revealed when the scientists advise the authorities as to what they witnessed, and the "Alien Activities Commission" is formed, led by Senator H. Warren Craddock. The Avengers agree to participate in a hearing, but this is abandoned when the Avengers refuse to hand over Mar-Vell. The Avengers encourage Mar-Vell to go with Danvers to a private farm, and although pursued by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. escape. The Avengers deal with frustrated members of the public, who picket Avengers Mansion and then force their way in to vandalize the building. Avengers Captain America, Iron Man and Thor apparently return to the Mansion and announce that, due to the behaviour of the team, it is now disbanded forever. Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and the Vision decide to leave and check on Mar-Vell, but while there they are attacked by what at first appear to be three cows. The cows fire energy beams that cripple the Vision who, while able to turn intangible, cannot move. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are captured when the cows turn into three members of the Fantastic Four, and then reveal they are in fact Skrulls, the ancient enemies of the Kree. At the same time, Danvers has led Mar-Vell to a Skrull vessel she claims to have found, and persuades Mar-Vell to build an "Omni-Wave Projector", a communications device that in the hands of non-Kree is a deadly weapon. Mar-Vell, however, sees through the deception (as no humans, only Skrulls, know his true name) and destroys the device, but he is captured by Danvers (now revealed to actually be the Super-Skrull) and, along with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, is taken off Earth. Although injured, the Vision is able to return to Avengers Mansion, where founding members Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Henry Pym (now in his original identity of Ant-Man) have gathered. Ant-Man reduces himself to microscopic size and enters the Vision, and is able to repair the android. Ant-Man departs and on questioning the recovering Vision, the Avengers determine it was the Skrulls – previously disguised as cows – that dissolved the team. The four Avengers find and capture the Skrulls for interrogation, and determine that the aliens are in fact three of the four members of the original exploration team that once visited Earth and battled the Fantastic Four.Fantastic Four #2 (Jan. 1962) The Avengers are then attacked by a team of three Mandroids, sent by Senator Craddock to apprehend the heroes for failing to cooperate. Iron Man (secretly Tony Stark) designed the Mandroids and overloads their armour with an electrical discharge. At the same time Triton of the Inhumans arrives, and unable to locate the Fantastic Four, asks the Avengers for aid in locating their ruler Black Bolt, needed as his brother Maximus the Mad has seized power in their homeland Attilan. The Avengers aid Triton and, after locating Black Bolt, accompany the Inhumans to Attilan. Maximus is revealed to have entered into an alliance with the Kree, and in exchange for rulership uses Kree technology to control the population, intending to use them as soldiers against the Skrulls. The Avengers defeat Maximus and his minions, and after restoring Black Bolt to power leave (with Goliath) for Skrull space, intent on rescuing their comrades. Mar-Vell is taken to the heart of the Skrull Empire and, after being advised that the captive Avengers will be executed, is forced to build another Omni-Wave Projector. The Avengers arrive in Skrull space, and hold off the alien fleet while Mar-Vell is forced to use the Projector, which casts a temporarily freed Rick Jones back into the Negative Zone. Jones is rescued from the Zone by the Kree ruler the Supreme Intelligence, who unlocks hidden mental powers (the Destiny Force) in Rick Jones himself, Rick then sends a wave of Golden Age heroes with the Avengers against the Skrulls, ending the war. The Destiny Force also reverts Senator Craddock on Earth to his true Skrull form, revealing he was the fourth Skrull from the Earth expedition, and he is subsequently killed by an angered mob. The heroes return to Earth to discover that the real Senator Craddock has been found, and the Avengers' reputation has been restored.Avengers #89 – 97 (June 1971 – March 1972) The secret superhero group the Illuminati are eventually revealed to have visited both the Kree and Skrull Empires and advised the aliens that involving Earth in their war would not be tolerated.New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1 – 5 (Feb. 2007 – Jan. 2008) ===== City of Illusions takes place on Earth, also known as Terra, in the future, twelve hundred years after an enemy named the Shing has broken the power of the League of All Worlds and occupied Earth. The indigenous people of Earth have been reduced in numbers and are widely separated and live in highly independent rural communes or nomadic tribal societies. The Shing exercise control over these people by using various strategies of indirect control which include divide and rule as well as deceptive telepathic mental control also known as mind-lying. In contrast, innately truthful telepathy is known as mindspeech. Prior to the opening scene, the main character, who is a descendant of the protagonists in Planet of Exile, has been involved in a ship crash, and since the Shing do not believe in killing, has had his memory erased and been abandoned in the forest; this leaves his mind as a blank slate or tabula rasa. As the story begins he must develop a new self-identity ex nihilo. =====