Micro-fiction of a sci-fi style. |
With Great Power... People use the term 'mad scientist' too lightly these days. Firstly, I'm not a scientist, I'm an engineer. Secondly, I wouldn't really call myself 'mad'--just a bit disgruntled. And yet, the title sticks. I mean, sure--there were the death rays, the harmonic resonator, the 80-foot-tall robotic minion army... and countless devices and trinkets playing to the showmanship of the whole thing. I mean, what's the good of being a villain if you don't look the part? So-called heroes tried to stop me, of course. But really, even flight and super-strength don't do much good when you get hit with a 30 gram depleted uranium slug travelling somewhere near Mach 7. A cape and some spandex aren't even bulletproof--they meant less than nothing to the full might of Newton's Laws. Conquering the world wasn't an end goal, really. It was so easy, though, and the rest of my plans needed some real resources--the kind I couldn't put together from Radio Shack, Home Depot, and Amazon.com. Once I had the world's governments under my heel--which was clad in a freshly-fabricated titanium war suit--my real work began. I implemented sources of clean, renewable energy- solar, geothermal, and once the world's scientific community got behind me, even controlled fusion. Once the world's energy needs were met, most of the homeless received government employment building my magnum opus. Really, despite the fact I was labeled a 'dictator' and had to put down the odd revolution or two, things were going well. When the day finally came--yesterday--I switched on my greatest machine. The earth's axis tilted approximately six degrees towards vertical. Today I experienced my reward. I sat down in my breakfast nook for my daily cereal, and for the first time in 12 years, the sun did not shine in my eyes. I ate my breakfast with a smile on my face. |