Suggested changes: {before : after}
I changed all the fancy punctuation (, . and ...) to ASCII.
On 05/25/2005 09:10 AM, DB Sommer said:
While there had been a real Senator Timely, Kang had him quietly
killed and his remains disintegrated, subsequently replacing him with
a robotic duplicate. The man had been a reclusive bachelor with no
family, so having the robot behave as though he were the real thing,
using the same itinerary the senator had and mirroring every official
decision the original had made meant no one picked up on any
discrepancies between the two. Besides, the public tended to see
politicians as caricatures rather than real people anyway, and people
tended to see what they wanted to.
Wouldn't a politician being consistent be a (dead) giveaway too?
However, there were times when important matters, like now, that Kang
needed to change things to his liking. To ensure success and make
onsite decisions should the need arise, Kang took personal charge of
the situation with a holographic projector and voice scrambler. Some
things could not be left to chance.
This is really going to blow up on him. Isn't it?
At last. It was time to set the wheels of his latest plan into
motion. "You read the file I sent you {on the matter :} regarding the
Hulk?"
The president paled. "My god, the damage to the environment, it's
like ground zero of an extinction level event. It'll take hundreds of
years for that forest to grow back, and that hill will never
return."
Has he seen recent pictures of Mt St Helens? Would it have been okay if
some beavers had cut down the trees?
"It's a miracle something worse than this hasn't happened already,"
the president concluded. "Victor, you'll get a green light on this
'Hulkbusters' unit you're clamoring for.
It will be interesting to see how much environmental damage they do
getting set up and in their fights with Hulk.
The president nodded. "Yes, that might work. And after the Hulk
matter is taken care of, we'll bring it up again at a later time.
Good plan. I actually have a close friend high up in the Diet, too.
She can probably help grease the wheels as well, since she's of a
like mind when it comes to environmental dangers like this creature.
We'll have Gyrich as the liaison. He's been to Japan before, and he
has the right sort of enthusiasm when it comes to situations with
{super-}powered beings."
Through gritted teeth Gyrich spat out, "Their name is Jamie Madrox.
All of them are, including the pilot. He's a mutant that likes making
bad Matrix jokes and can create an exact duplicate of himself with a
kinetic impact."
Kaori's worst nightmare. Even if she kills one off, she'll have twins
again. Maybe she should off the Saeba twins before they learn the trick.
"You will date my goddaughter over {my : your} dead {body, : bodies.
All of them}" Gyrich said in a tone that could chill ice. He returned
his attention to Kaori. "All of the equipment was sent ahead of me
and should be enroute to the rendezvous point. There isn't all that
much. We only have one specialized squad for the actual field
operation, some support personnel for the equipment, and a platoon of
normal grunts to help with any manual tasks. How about things on your
end?"
Kaori began leading him to a large structure next to field. "This
whole school will be our base of operations. Space has been made in
that gym over there. I'm actually just a liaison for the local
police, though. I'm to keep our people out of the way of your people
and the ministry's."
Furinkan?
"Where is Hulk?" the Hulk bellowed.
Ummm. Right here?
However, after smashing his way through the castle's defenses, the
Hulk discovered Chi was not a robot at all, but a pretty girl (though
not as pretty as the Hammer Girl). When the tiny girl on Chi's
shoulder asked the Hulk what he was doing there, and he explained he
was there to destroy the evil robot, Chi, the pretty girl began
crying. She said Dr. Doom was a bad person that wanted to do bad
things to Chi, who was a poor helpless girl that was trying to help
the world.
Chi's ultimate weapon.
"Cats are so dangerous in Japan you need an automatic rifle to take
them out?"
"Some breeds."
Cat girls? I'm not sure automatic weapons would be enough.
"Soldier boys coming. They hunt us all the time, all because my
Kenny's different. It ain't his fault he is, Mister. No one would
want to be the way he is. But 'cause he's different, we keeps getting
{hunting : hunted}. First by the townspeople in our fishing village,
then by everyone we meet. People don't like it when other people are
different, they don't. They hates what's different and {drive :
drives} it away. But it ain't my Kenny's fault for being different.
It ain't."
Ryouga knew what it was like to be different. He had always been
stronger and tougher than the other kids. And there was his terrible
sense of direction. And he was shy, especially around pretty girls.
Combined, his characteristics had made him a social outcast. And
then along came Ranma, who was the epitome of all Ryouga was not. He
was even a better fighter {that : who} had picked on Ryouga
mercilessly, just like people picked on poor, hideous Kenny. Probably
the only difference was Ranma hadn't stolen Kenny's bread every day
for a month.
Maybe he had, Ranma did get around a lot when he was younger.
A sound came from one of the holes. Kenny moved surprisingly {swift :
swiftly : quickly} for a man his size. He peeked down the hole, and
then drew back.
Ryouga looked through the bottom of the hole, keeping as close to the
edge as he could without giving away his position. There were only
two people dressed in military uniforms. Surprisingly, one was a
gaijin who had some sort of box in his hands. The other was a girl.
Ryouga didn't like hitting girls, but sometime it had to be done.
Besides, girls tended to have little reluctance when it came to
smacking men around, when they felt there was just cause.
Maybe she should be Narusegawa.
Yumi said, "We're only on the second floor. There's a stairwell
behind that pillar there. You go down one floor, then exit. Any
direction you go will lead out. Whatever you do, don't try going down
to the basement. Them stairs is crumbling bad and you'll fall
through for sure. Go out the first door you come to and you'll be
fine."
Now Ryouga's really in trouble.
Eyes rimmed in red from pain and rage, the Hulk drew back his fist
and struck the incoming mass of flesh hard in the stomach with an
uppercut. The blow sent Kenny sailing back where he had originally
been tossed, this time {impacting with : slamming into} the ceiling.
He bounced off and back to the ground where he lay motionless for
several seconds. Then he began to rise again.
Some mornings it just don't pay to chew through the straps. Kenny's
body may never be discovered, and even if it is, the Hulkbusters will
want to pin all the dead bodies on Hulk. Hulk probably doesn't like
irony any more than he likes fuchia.
The Iron Rose replied, "While I will concede Stark's inventive genius
might rival my employer's own, I'm afraid that what you're wearing
is a mass-produced, cost-efficient production model, while my own
armor is a unique, highly customized, prohibitively expensive armor,
which means I can afford to have the absolute best of every piece of
technology there is, all of it {handmade : lovingly hand crafted} by
the person who developed it."
Unit 3 suddenly felt very uneasy. He tried to prove the Iron Rose
wrong by firing {upon : at} her. However she proved far too fast and
nimble, deftly evading his energy blasts in an elaborate aerial
ballet. She literally flew circles around him, lashing out everywhere
with her repulsor beams and causing warning lights to flash all
across his readouts. Then she became creative, using lasers, tasers,
and a dozen other exotic weapons, as though she were testing out
their capabilities, on him. Within minutes his armor was reduced to a
useless hunk of metal.
Unit 5 laughed even harder. "Oh yeah, a water balloon. Now that's
dangerous. I guess I'd better surrender before you make me rust
solid."
He's smarter than he knows. It's a shame he doesn't take his own advice.
"You already messed up {by : my} windshield," the soldier said.
Unless he has a stuffed ub noze.
It now occurred to him that her smile wasn't all {the : that}
pleasant, at least not as far as he was concerned. He knew enough
about the specs of the Mandroid armor to know the faceplate was the
weak point, and that at such a close range he couldn't do anything to
the Wasp that wouldn't cause him considerable damage as well.
"I have no interest in wasting the taxpayers' money in trashing this
armor." He held his hands up in surrender.
He's the smartest one there.
A loudspeaker burst out in Narusawa's voice. "Sir, I can positively
confirm that the Hulk is not responsible for any of the deaths here."
I wasn't sure she'd have noticed or remembered.
Ross reluctantly nodded. "All units, this is General Ross speaking.
Stand down. Repeat, stand down."
Amazing. I thought he'd try to carry through regardless.
Talbot turned off his radio. One of the Avengers had obviously hacked
into the military's radio frequency and impersonated the general's
voice. Most likely it was the Iron Rose. Major Glenn Talbot was not
some mindless automaton. He knew what he had seen. The Hulk was a
menace that needed to end, and the glory would belong to Talbot.
This is more like what I expected.
Bruce Banner arrived at the scene just in time to see the Hulk
lumbering toward the fallen Mandroid. While Talbot had made his
contempt for Banner known from the outset, the doctor had ignored it
for the most part. He was used to being picked on since his college
days. He didn't get angry. Not anymore. Becoming angry reminded him
of his father. Made him like his father. Better to keep the anger
bottled up, ignore it until it went away.
Besides, Betty wouldn't like him when he's angry.
The Hulk looked disdainfully at the man, then walked away, holding
his wounded shoulder gingerly. Now the Hulk was in the clear,
allowing Banner to finish the matter once and for all. A simple pull
of the trigger to clear his conscience, but instead of firing, the
weapon fell to Banner's side. He wasn't sure of exactly what
happened, but anything... no, anyone that could show mercy to a foe
like Talbot would not die at the hands of Robert Bruce Banner. Nor
would he create anymore weapons to capture {of : or} kill the Hulk.
Upon returning to the base, he would break the Gamma Imploder and
destroy the plans to it.
"Hulk is good at listening. When tree fall in forest, Hulk knows he
can hear it, even if he not there to hear it."
Most profound.
"So long as he's in Japan, he's a Japanese problem, though." Irie
held a hand up to keep the general from protesting further. "I'll
personally see to it our government guarantees yours that if there is
some further complication from the Hulk arises later on, we won't
blame you for it. I'll have someone contact your embassy staff with
the proper paperwork by morning. So pack up your things, General.
This operation is {cancelled : canceled}."
Ross grumbled under his breath, but ordered his men to begin
dismantling all of the equipment for shipment back to base.
I imagine Banner's already dismantled the Gamma Imploder.
"I will," Kaori shuddered. She'd prefer a date with both Saeba twins
then spend one minute longer around Irie Soyozoh. Worse, she had a
terrible feeling she'd be meeting him again whether she wanted to or
not.
Since she has to work with them, a date would be superfluous.
Are Irie Soyozoh and the Hounds from another manga or anime I haven't
seen yet?