I love TV and books.  Sometimes I mash them up on Twitter.  Which I also love.

“Boyd; the Digital Boy” Isaac Asimov examines a computer program that downloads into a real child and runs away from home #TVbyNovelists

“Citizen Goode” W.E.B. Du Bois’ HBO miniseries about Philadelphia’s first black Mayor; focusing on his violent term in office #TVbyNovelists

“Gypsy Fables” JK Rowling’s Twin Sisters weave a secret fairy tale to escape from poverty in the frozen, Michigan wasteland #TVbyNovelists

“Murder Inc” Truman Capote’s hospital drama about a well-paid hatchet man for an insurance co and his sudden organ failure #TVbyNovelists

“Closed Circuit PD” Ray Bradbury’s panopticon procedural about cops solving crime in a misleading world of endless recordings #TVbyNovelists

“Lost Signal” Tennessee Williams’ character study of a cell phone salesman & his mad schemes to control everyone in his life #TVbyNovelists

“future me,” EE Cummings story of a man who receives letters from his 9 year old self that inspire him to finally become a writer #TVbyNovelists

“Anywhere Engine” Carl Sagan’s ensemble about engineers of a machine that moves in time/space and accidentally erases them from history #TVbyNovelists

Imaginary TV shows I dreamed up in the vein of 20th century-ish novelists.  Join in on twitter with #TVbyNovelists – We’ll retweet you!

“Billion Year Bandit” H.G. Wells’ time traveling thief steals priceless art from history and sells it in the distant future #TVbyNovelists

“Cupid Jones” G. B. Shaw’s FOX cartoon about the outrageous sex life of a rich, immature bachelor looking for his true love #TVbyNovelists

“Anchorage” Jack London’s frontier, legal drama about a prosecutor who frames a potentially innocent man for murder #TVbyNovelists

“Scotland Attic” Arthur Conan Doyle’s sci-fi procedural about steampunk detectives, Abigale & Ernest, hunting monsters for the Queen #TVbyNovelists

“Drama of Dreams” L.F. Baum’s traveling sideshow use smoke and mirrors to rob banks and spread hope in depression era Kansas #TVbyNovelists

“Daddy” Upton Sinclair introduces us to a man who must secretly return to performing in gay porn to support his wife and kids #TVbyNovelists

“Alter Boys” Kafka’s teen drama about catholic school kids given god-like mental powers and how it mangles their friendships #TVbyNovelists

“Source” Joseph Conrad’s prime-time soap about 1940’s gossip mongers for a trashy celebrity tabloid and the dirty secrets they keep #TVbyNovelists

“Super Ali” Rudy Kipling’s spy show about a Pakistani Scientist forced to create super-soldiers for the American Empire #TVbyNovelists

This is my new favorite thing to do on Twitter; elevator pitches in the style of 20th century authors:

“Dot Com” Tom Wolfe’s period piece about the love lives of 20 year old millionares before the Web bubble burst #TVbyNovelists

“The Kane Party” J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1843 western about a caravan of Irish immigrants on the Oregon trail #TVbyNovelists

“The Partners” Frank Herbert’s crime thriller about a lawyer who must work for the mob when he inherits his father’s firm #TVbyNovelists

“Drive” Jack Kerouac’s hour long drama about a Cabbie driving cross country in his yellow taxi, solving people’s problems #TVbyNovelists

“Machine World” Harper Lee’s coming of age story about a girl growing up fast when her father goes to prison for embezzlement #TVbyNovelists

“The Round Room” Joseph Heller’s political thriller about a man elected to President of the US who cracks under the pressure #TVbyNovelists

“Jupiter Project” L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi mystery about a satellite that begins receiving messages from the future #TVbyNovelists

“Zombie” Albert Camus’ medical show about a brilliant physician who loses his job to drugs and becomes a back alley doctor #TVbyNovelists

“The Cola Barons” John Steinbeck’s day time soap opera about The greedy and fabulous heirs of a soft drink empire #TVbyNovelists

“Bliss” Philip Roth’s FX series about a runaway bride addicted to weddings and her fresh start in 1960’s Las Vegas. #TVbyNoelists

“Channel 1″ George Orwell’s sitcom about the staff and the spin of a 24 Hour cable news network #TVbyNovelists

“The Dream Box” Ayn Rand’s high concept drama about a woman who wakes up as a different person in a new body every day #TVbyNovelists

“Two Wrongs” Mark Twain’s slow and poignant procedural about a Con Man and the US Marshall out to catch him #TVbyNovelists

“The Boy’s League” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s teen drama about feuding prep schools in 1920’s Manhattan #TVbyNovelists

Read Part 1 HERE.

Nikita drives through the midnight desert alone.

The weight of her mission hangs heavy on her shoulders. A killer is on the loose. Her orders are clear. Her mind is clouded.

Suddenly something appears on the road; a blur on the horizon, small and red. A goat? A man?

The experienced spy jerks the wheel to avoid collision. The car slides into a tail spin and flips end over end until the steel body is a tangled wreck.

“Help!” Nikita screams but there’s no answer, “Help! I’m trapped!” Nikita discovers she is bleeding out from a gaping belly wound. “No…”

She struggles to climb from her twisted cage but the darkness takes her.

Nikita’s eyes flutter shut.

Doctor Egon Spengler unveils a tattered book concealed in Mylar. “These are the Tales of The Crypt Keeper.”

“I think this is a bit out of my jurisdiction.” Detective Frank Pembleton picks up the book with suspicious disdain. The cover is worn and the pages made of cheap pulp.

“It’s scripture that describes ancient rituals of the out world.” Spengler’s voice softens as if telling a ghost story, “It warns of a man who lives in our nightmares. He goes by many names; Mr. Gone, Dream Master, Sand Man… most know him simply as BOB.”

“I’m catholic, you know? I don’t believe in any of this.” Frank tosses the book back at Spengler.

“Careful! Only a few copies remain!” Spengler barks.

“Other people know about Bob the Dream Man?”

“In some cultures he’s worshiped as a god.”

“So we could be dealing with a copy cat.” Finally, Frank feels like his feet are back on the ground. “Some nut who thinks killing innocent girls makes him special.”

“Or an immensely powerful, telekinetic psychopath.” Spengler adjusts his glasses. “Regardless, our next move should be calling for back up. Bob and his disciples are not to be taken lightly.”

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Alley springs up from her desk sending tangled, blond hair in every direction. She’s stiff and disoriented from one of her particularly odd dreams.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

The only visitors a Boston lawyer gets this late are from the public defender, Alley thinks. As she opens the office door a very different figure stands revealed.

A tall, bald man with a mangy beard seems to float weightlessly in the hall, “Ms. McBeal, so pleased to make your acquaintance. I have need of your very particular talents.”

“I’m sorry,” Alley wipes the sleep from her eyes, “Who are you?”

“My friends call me, Bob.”

To Be Continued…

If you enjoyed The League of Obscure 90’s Characters please check out Black Cherry Bombshells, LaMorte Sisters or Moon Girl - web comics written by me and my partner Tony Trov.

I could have sworn ‘Universal health Care’ meant insurance coverage for poor people but the right wing media was lying.

It’s actually a program to end US dependency on foreign oil and prescription meds by gifting all Americans with super powers. I read the transmogrification process is powered by recycled plastic bottles, too.

Just filled out my application on Friday. I voted Libertarian in the last election but Barrack doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to hold a grudge.

Click HERE for high rez Prez.

-Johnny Zito

I think; some people get stuck in a past that never happened.

The ‘dot com’ I started with my student loan went bust in 1999. I sunk a lot of money into a Super Bowl commercial. Unfortunately the audience for online book auctions just wasn’t watching prime time football.

The investment didn’t yield conversion. I was bankrupt.

With no money for a going-out-of-business-party we ended up at The Bean Traders on 7^th. I didn’t want to go home but no one wanted to hang out with the woman who just ruined their life. I apologized a lot.

The party thinned out quickly.

Frank, this nebbish programmer I had ignored since hiring, kept me company. He was blah-blahing about hindsight and the edit/undo option when they kicked us out.

I pretended to live in his direction. When we got to his apartment I invited myself up for sex.

I liked his optimism and he had nice teeth. We moved in together. I wouldn’t say we were in love but we made a pretty good team.

Frank found a job programming y2k date changes for nonessential software. By the time I started looking for startup capital to finance my next venture; 9/11 threw the whole market into flux. 2.0 was the new thing and content delivery was king.

I was out of my element. I retreated further.

It’d been almost 5 years since I held a job. YouTube sold to Google and Yahoo bought Flickr. I had those ideas when I was younger but convinced myself out of it. I wasn’t that clever anymore.

I researched other investment opportunities on line and met a guy. We exchanged phone numbers and got together for coffee at The Bean Trader’s on 7th. We laughed about reruns, his big family and the weather. We were in his bed together before I realized Frank would get home from work before me.

But he wasn’t there. He didn’t come home that night and I didn’t hear from him all week. I was certain he caught me, that he’d left. The thought was surprisingly uncomfortable.

It wasn’t long before my paranoia had me snooping through what he left behind. Frank kept a cluttered desk full of computer junk in what would have been our second bedroom. It became his personal space littered with notes and equations, endless lines of java script and binary, times and dates… A cell phone wired to a crown of electrodes was carelessly dropped under the desk.

I concocted a twisted scenario in which Frank, enraged over my romantic indiscretion, built his edit/undo machine to go back and prevent me from ever being born. The self induced panic attack was short lived. What I was describing was impossible.

Incredulous; I boxed up everything and piled it in the hall closet. I pretended the last 5 years didn’t happen and took a job as a museum tour guide. That’s where I met Kevin. He was a physicist. We took things slow.

After a picnic at the shore I ask his professional opinion on time travel. It was the sexiest thing a woman ever said to him.

Kevin says all time happens at once so there is no going back. You’d just be creating a deviant time line; one that would zap itself out of existence eventually.

When Kevin fell asleep in the bed I used to share with Frank, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own.

The crown of electrodes fit loose on my head. I hit the redial on the cell phone remote and felt a slight static shock. The phone’s LCD read ‘connected’ but nothing happened. After several frustrating and humiliating minutes of wearing this silly hat I tossed it all back in the closet.

On my way to bed I became very dehydrated. I turned back towards the kitchen and noticed I wasn’t standing in my hallway anymore. No sooner had I scanned my surroundings I found my pajamas replaced with jeans and my over all demeanor loose and sloppy. I was drunk. I was waking up drunk and standing in the middle of a sentence.

This was the Bean Traders 1999, our going out of business bash.

I stopped dead in my apology to Dirk Reid, the ad sales guy. This was insane I was there, this was then. Dirk pretended not to be devastated about losing his job and moved on when I froze up.

It was all too much to handle and I bolted. Never slept with Frank.

He came to see me the next day. He knew something was up because history hadn’t repeated itself. This was my Frank, the Frank that left me months ago.

Frank wanted to come back and save my business. He programed his machine to see all of time at once but it could only dial back as far as its own conception. In other words; Frank could only travel as far as the night he thought the thing up – The night I lost my company – The night we got together.

He was still pretty into me. All this had just happened for him. I had to explain that I’d gone on living my life for almost five months. I had another boyfriend. I had a job finally. Frank was still stuck in our future’s past. It was a weird conversation.

Everything was weird.

On the day we should have been falling into a relationship I went home alone. Exhausted from the ‘trip’ I fell asleep soon as my head hit the pillow… but then; morning. It was a very fast eight hours.

I didn’t call Frank. I was pretty used to not having him in my life at this point. Instead I made a list of everything I could remember about the next seven years; anything that might give me an advantage. People pray for this everyday. They ask Jesus for a second chance and I actually had one.

Writing letters to investors I bought bandwidth, server space and employed the services of two young programmers still in university. Describing the function and iconography of YouTube; I paid them to invent it for me.

It was almost identical. I got rid of the comments though. Sorry. YouTube commenters were the worst. We sold out to Google a little sooner than the original and for a little less but I was tired of working.

I moved to a penthouse in New York, took a job as a consultant, put on a few pounds and got new friends. I lost track of Frank. I assumed he’d show up to give me shit after I stole YouTube but I never heard from him.

I started suffering black outs. I’d lose hours or days at a time, a whole week once. People around me didn’t seem to notice but I had certainly come unhinged from time. The more incredibly different this new time line became from the original the more unstable it grew. I tried to remember more of what Kevin said. I looked him up at the Institute and called him but it was before he’d actually thought up the theory he told me before… or later.

See, it’s confusing. The human brain isn’t meant to withstand time displacement.

I do remember Kevin saying this new time line would probably explode that I’d probably die or… I don’t know. I started a search for Frank. I thought I could get him to build another time machine so we could go back, again and do things the way we did them the first time and easily slip back into our future and go about our lives. It would stink to give up all my fame and fortune but it beat being dead.

It wasn’t hard to find Frank with all my money. He moved to Portland for the pot; working fast food, hanging out in strip clubs and paying 20 bucks for a hand job when it counted. I explained my plan but he was already ahead of me. Said he thought about it but figured we’ll be too far removed from the original time line to make it back. We’ll just get stuck in an ever shrinking time loop until we fade out anyway.

Noticing my blackouts had stopped since finding Frank I dragged him back to the East Coast with me. Exploiting my connections with Google I spoke with some of the greatest minds in physics, computer language and theoretical parascience. Crap. Dead ends.

I adopted Frank’s philosophy. I started keeping myself doped to the eyeballs. Prescriptions mostly. Grown up drugs. It was hard to talk to people cause I knew they were all going to die. I felt pretty bad about being the reason their universe was going to end.

All of this reminded me of the Super Bowl commercial incidentally. It was a parody of that old Twilight Zone where the guy survives the end of the world and he can finally just sit around reading books. Then, in a twist of cruel fate he breaks his glasses. I wished for a time proof bomb shelter.

Frank liked the idea but said he wouldn’t know how to begin even conceptualizing one and we didn’t have much time left. The day I cheated on Frank – the day he first traveled back and created this divergent time line – was barely a week away.

To celebrate we skipped The Bean Traders and hit the bar this time. Percs, booze, pot, x, Oxy – I tried to get my hands on some acid tabs too, I’d never tried acid.

I pretended not to be as drunk as I was and slept with Frank. Didn’t feel like being alone at the end. I think there was a little guilt left over from cheating on him not to mention ending the universe by trying to change the past. He was just happy to get laid. I liked his optimism. Once upon a time we made a pretty good team.

The world and I assume all of existence ended with a hollow, baritone pop. Not being of that time line but stuck there when it ended I appear trapped in some eternally blank existence without form or direction. No way to tell how long it’s been, lost track of Frank, harder and harder to remember how I got here.

I think…

I think; some people get stuck in a past that never happened.

Apparently Grant Morrison and some other comic names got to pitch Superman Movie reboots to Warners at that big film pow wow after Iron Man but before Dark Knight. Not gonna lie, I’m a lil jealous no one asked for my opinions.

Actually the night before we left for San Diego I tried to keep my mind off the plane trip by typing up my ‘ideal’ Superman flick. Since no one at Warner Brothers cares to hear it I figure I’ll throw it up here.

The Superman: Man of Action

Directed by: Terry Gilliam

Sound Track by: The Flaming Lips

Starring: Peter Gallagher, Joan Allen and Terry O’Quinn

The whole story is from Lois Lane’s perspective. She’s this cynical journalist for the Daily Planet who doesn’t believe in honest politicians or innocent bystanders. For the last year she’s heard rumors of a costumed strong man playing hero in Suicide Slums. Eye witnesses claim This Superman has powers far beyond those of mortal men. Lois aims to prove it’s all tourist trap/urban legend nonsense.

That sets up a Citizen Kane structured plot where Lois investigates The Superman by talking to people who claim to have encountered him during rescue or incarceration. The interviews provide opportunity for flashbacks in which characters describe their personal recollections of The Superman.

Instead of toying with ‘how’ people remember it I’d rather draw a juxtaposition to the normalcy of ‘real life’ and when Superman is actually on screen. When an interviewee describes their experience and Superman arrives, whatever fantastic action is taking place is larger than life, fuller, grander. Their world is suddenly bigger and brighter when a man who can defy physics is standing within a few feet. His presence has a way of altering probability and possibility towards the fantastic.

The Superman is always moving too. He literally is a man of action. When he arrives there are no flowery words, just amazing feats of super human ability. We’ll see in the flashbacks that he’s a good guy through and through. He’ll let the villain get away to save a life. He doesn’t have a problem taking out a crooked cop or saving a criminal from wrongful incarceration. Hes about righting wrongs and he’s genuine.

Lois starts to fall in love with the idealized image her sources are describing. She allows herself to believe more and more that it’s possible. That maybe a man can fly. That he helps people. That he does it just because he can.

In the course of her research she continually crosses paths with her mild mannered rival from the Daily Star, Clark Kent. His newspaper is looking for the exclusive too. He proposes they team up. Even though his ‘aww shucks’ attitude infuriates her Lois accepts, she thinks he’s a hayseed and that she’ll scoop him anyway. Kent is much smarter than he lets on, like Andy Griffith. He lets her think she’s getting away with something but he’s on to her.

Between interviews we get to know Lois and Clark. Clark seems like a schmuck and it becomes apparent that he has it hard for Lois. She’s gorgeous, smart and strong. However, Lois never looks him in the eye. She’s always reading a newspaper, jotting down notes or glancing at the sky to make sure The Superman doesn’t just happen to zoom by. She hardly notices that Clark keeps disappearing. She is that focused on Superman.

The only other person in the world obsessed as Lois Lane is Lex Luthor. Ex fortune capitalist, Ex Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Ex Olympian, ex President, current resident of Stryker’s Maximum Security Prison off the coast of Metropolis. Lex used to be the most famous and respected person in the world. In truth he was an evil psychopath that preyed on his fellow man to fuel his own wild ambitions. Reports are sketchy and Lex aint talking but rumor has it The Superman brought him to Justice.

Over the course of her investigation Lex’s name keeps coming up. It turns out he is eager to speak with Lois Lane. Lois ditches Clark for the exclusive interview. It’s conducted between glass; Hannibal Lector style. He’s tall, fit, bald since childhood – some traumatic/repressed event one suspects.

During the course of their tense exchange Lex reveals that he believes The Superman to be no man at all. He insists the mystery hero is an alien. Only an alien could have bested Lex Luthor because Lex is the epitome of humanity. There is no human, alive or dead, that can compete with his talents or accomplishments.

Lois says it sounds a little far fetched but her inner cynic is taking over. Lex is actually making sense to her.

That sets up my third act which is Lex’s escape from prison and murder of what he deems an alien invader. Lois tags along in an effort to uncover the truth about her super powered infatuation. Then we see The Superman on screen in ‘actual’ time for the first time as he and Lex come head to head. Again; when Superman is on screen everything is brighter, fuller, more exaggerated.

Lex is very prepared to murder The Superman from bringing disgrace to him and having him caged like a common criminal. Laws don’t apply to him, not those of man and certainly not the strong arm judgments of a gaudy alien. Using a booby trapped city as his weapon, Lex Luthor lures The Superman into a trap.

Lex’s spent a fortune on eBay and countless hours on message boards but he knows all about the Superman’s past… and future. He knows more than the Superman. He breaks out some Kryptonite, just the tiniest sliver, and it sends The Superman into radioactive seizures.

That’s when Lois steps in and saves the Man of Steel’s life by choosing a side and choosing to believe despite what Lex Luthor says. The Superman is not an invader he’s a hero. Lois attacks Lex. He loses the Kryptonite down the sewer. The Superman isn’t very super yet but he and Lex come to blows now. Like two men in the street, equally matched in strength they have it out.

Obviously Superman wins and then summoning everything he has he leaps into the sky and leaves Lex to be recaptured by the police. The Superman needs a running start and Lois buys him time with the cops so he can built his momentum and take flight.

Lois Lane speeds back to the Daily Planet to file this amazing story. When she gets to her editors’ office, a complete mess from her adventure, she finds rival Clark Kent there. He’s sold The Planet an exclusive interview in exchange for a job. While Lois was tagging along with Lex, Kent had tracked down The Superman for an interview. There’s even a picture.

Lois and Clark go out for coffee. She’s a lil bummed. She’s fallen hard for this Superman character now that she’s seen him in person. She asks Clark if he thinks Superman will remember her. Clark thinks there’s a strong possibility he might.

She goes home to get a shower and finds a sticky note on the window of her 31st floor apartment ‘thanks for the save, Ms. Lane.’ She lifts the window and sticks her whole torso out to look for him. He’s flying up, up and away into the distant setting sun.

The End.

I would avoid all the Krypton origins and Smallville stuff. Or showing it at least. The less we see of them the more ‘fantastic’ Superman’s feats will be.

I imagine this as part of three movies (duh, what isn’t now a days?). Man of Action, Man of Steel and Man of Tomorrow. Action is this psuedo origin with Lois as our entry point. Steel focuses on Luthor’s rise and fall Godfather II style. Man of Tomorrow introduces the twist ending and focuses on the mysteries of Jor-El and ‘Krypton’.

I just don’t think you can do a paint by numbers for Superman mass media anymore. It needs to be bigger, not just in terms of villains or actions, I mean in themes and ideas. It needs to be like a fairy tale from the future.

-Johnny Zito

Nikita’s fingers shuffle down a row of dusty book spines. Finally, she snatches up a thick tome. It’s binding cracks open like arthritic knuckles and reveals pages of foreign script.

How such a valuable book ended up hidden in a high school library is of immediate interest to the Special Agent.

“Where did you get this?” Nikita emerges from the stacks barking at her hostage.

“PTA Donations.” The British librarian deadpans.

Nikita cracks him across the jaw with the ancient book. “You’re lying. Who are you?” But it’s no use – he’s passed out.

With the priceless text in hand Nikita steals a Porsche from the student lot and speeds East, towards the desert, away from Sunnydale, California.

* * *

“May I have one of those?” President Bartlett thinks a Morley might keep his hands from shaking. “They don’t like me smoking in the Oval but, hey, it’s one of those nights.”

A cigarette smoking man, the only other person in the room, hands Bartlett the whole pack.

The President lights up, “When you get the job there’s no mention of all this ‘top-top-secret’ business.”

“Best not to think about it.”

A call from Nikita interrupts them. She’s on a pay phone along the I-Five. Everything is going to plan.

The President enjoys a moment of relief, his sense of control returns. “These conspiracies; it’s over. After this mess is straightened out I’m shutting it all down. Tell that to your paranoid masters.”

The smoking man shows himself out, “Your time here is limited, Mr. President… but the Syndicate is forever.”

* * *

Johns Hopkins University is a place where new ideas and old ghosts intermingle freely. Here; Detective Frank Pembleton expects to solve a murder.

“I’m a scientist. I don’t have psychic abilities.” Dr. Spengler points to the ‘Paranormal Psychology’ plaque on his door. “I can’t do your job for you.”

“An educated guess then? Please? I’m at a dead end.” Frank lays out crime scene photos of a woman wrapped up in plastic and washed up on the Patapsco River. “She used to be on that news show out of DC; the one with the single mom and the two dollar Dan Rather.”

“I don’t watch TV.”

Frank sucks his teeth, “There’s a dozen dead women across the country that fit the profile.” Frank hastily gathers up the photos.

“Not sure what makes you think I can help.”

Frank snickers bitterly, “Just this stupid dream I keep having. A little man in a red suit comes to me and says your name over and over. So.” He sighs, “Here I am.”

“Detective,” Spengler touches Frank’s arm, “This man in your dream; is he cloven hoofed?”

To Be Continued…

If you enjoyed The League of Obscure 90’s Characters please check out Black Cherry Bombshells, LaMorte Sisters or Moon Girl - web comics written by me and my partner Tony Trov.

So, picking up the gauntlet thrown down at Lurking Rhythmically, I now present to you Aquaman as written by Arron Sorkin.

(The continuity is loose and fast like the dialogue)

ACT II

EXT./EST. The Atlantean Capital Building – Day

Senators, lawmakers, lawyers and lobbyists, representing hundreds of species of evolved sea life, mull about the capital steps and busy forum.

INT. Capital Building Corridor – Cont

Garth swims along, Lorena catches up to him.

Lorena
I need a copy of the Nemo Act.

Garth
Try the library of Arion.

Lorena
Let’s pretend that I don’t know what that is.

We follow them into:

INT. lobby – Cont

Garth
What do you need with a 200-year-old border settlement?

Lorena
Sub-Diego City Council thinks it might clear up some–

Garth
Can I ask you a question?

Lorena
I haven’t finished answering the last one.

Garth
You heard about the Ocean Master thing?

Garth and Lorena continue into:

INT. Senate Chamber – Cont

The underwater environment allows for three-dimensional travel through space. Garth and Lorena enter through the top tier, the Senate is not currently in session and the hall is empty bellow them.

Lorena
He’s the King’s brother.

Garth
I know.

Lorena
If the World Court decides –

Garth
Yea.

They stop moving, hanging motionless in the water.

Topo enters on a lower tier, speeding back the way they came.

Topo
Vulko’s office.

Garth
What?

Topo
It’s happening.

INT. Vulko’s Office – Moments Later

Lori Lemaris floats by the window looking over the Forum.

Topo and Garth enter.

Topo
It’s happening?

Lori Lemaris
I’m not at liberty to –

Topo
Agent Lemaris, please spar –

Vulko enters from behind them.

Vulko
The declaration was given at 8 past the tide. Code name: Shipwreck Blue. A rescue team will cross the reef, retrieve personnel and destroy any proprietary technology.

Topo
Is there time for a release?

Vulko
We go live in an hour. He wants to address the people before he leaves.

Topo bolts out the door.

Garth
leaves for where?

Vulko
He’s leading the operation.

Garth
Does he know about Orm?

Vulko
Yea.

Garth
We have to extradite him.

Vulko
Why?

Lori Lemaris
Death penalty.

Vulko looks back at Lori and pauses.

Vulko
Perhaps Her Highness will draft a letter.

Garth is appalled, he exits.

INT. King’s Chamber – Moments Later

Arthur’s office is huge, filled with maps and books. He dresses in armor.

There’s a knock.

Arthur
Come in.

Garth enters.

Garth
Lord, if I may–

Arthur
Spit it out, Garth?

Garth
This is unnecessary.

Arthur
We’ll have to agree to disagree but, OK.

Garth
This is an overwhelming response.

Arthur
I don’t want to meet King Shark and his Axis of Awesome with just –

Garth
Why are you — excuse me, why are you going at all? It’s a rescue mission.

Arthur
As sovereign, I made a pledge to keep those soldiers safe.

Garth
You’re running away.

Arthur
Here we go.

Garth
A human court has your brother–

Arthur
He’s my brother but let’s not make this like he’s my brother.

Garth
It requires a political solution.

Arthur
He is a criminal.

Garth
They’ll kill him!

Arthur
He murdered my son!

Garth
The King is sworn to protect all Atlanteans not just the ones he deems worthy!

Arthur pauses, stops himself from shouting.

Arthur
You may go.

Garth
I –

Garth chokes back his emotion and straightens up.

Garth
As you wish, Your Majesty.

Garth exit.

Arthur dresses in armor.

End of Act Two