A Stroll Through Washington Park.

 
     The golden glowing machine people angel, as she hovered at one thousand meters above the Arch did not have to enhance her sight to see the ugly dirty snow covered eastern horizon much to see in noxious detail the hideous dark urban scar upon an otherwise beautiful Earth that coursed the Mississippi River at Saint Lois, Missouri. Anywhere else in this blessed North America, the Reconciliation War's cleanup provided Americans with an urgent excuse to remedy such faults.

     East Saint Louis City, Illinois was in the iron hand of the Sietom Family. You could not call them, the Sietoms, precisely, an organized crime family, Karen supposed, for they stood just within the limits of the Illinois state law. The only reason that such a situation could exist right next to Saint Louis, Missouri; the Avatar's city, was the firm political dividing line between the states of Missouri and Illinois, called federalism in the form of the Mississippi River.
 
     Karen Aster was about to do something about that cruel dividing line that hurt so many people she was not allowed to protect from the cruelty she saw everyday with her enhanced senses from across the river.
 
     It angered her that people who traveled and committed crimes across state boundary lines could feel her righteous wrath with the new Federal Posse Comitatus Act, but local political Illinois 'petty crooks' could zip around in their fancy levitator cars and actually thumb their rotten noses at the Missouri vigilante as they roared around western Illinois oppressing the local poloi.
 
     Well: Karen had worked around that problem within the recent Reconciliation War. She put her sights on Delilah Strong, the mayor of Chicago, with exactly this terrible situation in mind. Surviving Purples across the border, the Sietoms and other malefactors she could not touch relied upon that Chicago mayor for their Illinois state law legal defense against people such as the Avatar.
 
     Karen had tried to explain her peculiar Reconciliation War logic to the Seraph at the time of the civil war's outbreak, but Susan de Vries had her own agendas and either did not care or had some end design of her own to push through. She ignored Karen's request for her help which did not sit well with the Avatar. Ever since the Battle of the North American Nebula, the Seraph had sided with the blessedly deranged Kherab in some For-the-Love private-shared crusade that made no sense to Karen, something that involved shot-up war-damaged Colorado. Karen, who had her own Vendetta planned against the Powers-that-be, had not seen the Seraph's side-show as the war’s primary issue. It seemed at times almost as if Susan intended to return to the Truce after she helped Laurette O'Hare.. That was not acceptable to the Zombie-bot once-enslaved super soldier who had long since outgrown evil Philip Fox's original intent for her when he damned her to this unwelcome angelic beatitude. Susan and Karen at odds was an uncomfortable feeling for the head of House Aster.
 
     That thought chain that Karen mulled over as future business between the Seraph and her would have to wait. Here was her antidote to Mister John Sietom and his gang of local crooks flying in now. Karen descended to the south end of the Gateway Arch to be ready to meet her answer to the Sietoms.
 
     Karen didn't like the latest names the Chicagoans had saddled onto the glowing incomer, their city defender. They called her the Scarlet Strumpet, the Fuschia Floozy, the Cerisien Concubine, the Vermillion Vixen among many waggish insults. At least the very very happy to have her on their side at last Chicago cops called her Big Red. That was a good name for the red glowing angel now in descent and in the process of landing at the south of the Saint Louis Gateway to the West Arch.
 
     Big Red descended feet first making the traditional braking turn that would bleed her speed down from the Mach eight to a more safe to thud onto the ground at about fifty meters per second stock landing for her kind.
 
     THUD.
 
     “Hello, Mom.” said Big Red.
 
     Karen embraced her daughter, Andromeda Aster, and whispered in the red-glowing woman's ear. “I'm proud of you, Andromeda. The Chicago Outfit fears you. You've only been after them for a month.” Karen gave Andromeda the usual planet-crushing bear hug. “How did you like my... er... the wedding present?”
 
     Andromeda whiffed from her mama's crushing embrace. She knew that her mother was probably one of three people in known space-time who could crack her ribs like this. CRACK! She said; “I'm all right with it, with Beaver Island; but the giant carnivorous beavers you planted all over the residence, they freak my husband out. They keep chasing him around the island and try to make a meal out of him.”
 
     Karen did a double-take. “Really? They don't like him? Good beavers. And Herodotus de Gabrielle needs to remember that he is a man.”
 
     Andromeda taken aback; said, “What makes you say so?”
 
     Karen said matter of factually without rancor and humor, “He was mine, before he was yours, Andrea. I do know what he is underneath, maybe better than you do. Besides, the Seraph allegedly cured his errant cowardice, didn't she?” the Avatar smirked.
 
     Andromeda squirked a wry smile in reply. “Cured his cowardice? You believe that?”
 
     Karen laughed; “She did reprogram him for you. He learned a courage of a sort. He still balks at unnecessary risks.”
 
     “Nonsense then, his fear!” the Chayote decided her mother meant, “The giant carnivorous beavers are tame enough. You can walk up to one and pat him on the nose. There is no risk at all.”
 
     Karen bent over in silent laughter as she visualized the image of Herodotus plying swift knees in front ofone of her Service-supplied 'Castor Ohioensis specials', the giant beavers she asked her friend, Colonel Dietrich Walker, to have made at Fort Dietrick for her to protect her daughter's privacy and the Beaver Island residency on the Great Lakes. That island group in Lake Michigan was a bit west of the Tuesday Free Canada Terrorist Group's favorite smuggling route across Lake Huron, but that was yet another good reason Karen had arranged her daughter to become Chicago, Illinois city hero and defacto BOSS. Anything Karen could do to make her daughter happy and to make life miserable for evildoers every-where was Karen's fondest desire. The Chayote liked the woods, she liked to tell people what to do and she liked to play with dangerous (well not to her) Pliocene era resurrected mammals. Herodotus, the Chayote's husband, would have to adapt to those circumstances or die. Still Karen coyly asked Andromeda, “You don't let Herodotus play with the beavers without his bodyguard?”
 
     Andromeda not quite understanding the humor (or perhaps she did) said,.”I put Ronald-the-worm on Hero to make sure he stays on the straight and narrow moral path for me in public. If you call that little detail body-guarding my would-be philandering husband, I think I do it more to protect the beavers from Hero than I do it to protect him from me. I don't need any complaints from the Humane Society that I mistreat my pets.” The irony of the Chayote's statement went forth without Karen's comment. Andromeda changed the subject abruptly, “You didn't call me out here to talk about Herodotus and the beavers." she frowned. “What's really up, Mom?”
 
     Karen said to Andromeda, “Look east and tell me what do you see?” As she said this, she radio-telepathed a data dump to Andromeda so that the Chayote would understand why Karen called her forth from Chicago.

Andromeda shrugged. She said aloud, “East Saint Louis, so what?”
 
     It started snowing suddenly, almost a blizzard in intensity. Karen switched to mind-to-mind speech <<Look again, daughter, but this time as a protector.>>
 
The Chayote scrunched her face up in disgust.

     Karen took her daughter's hand and asked her, <<Do you see and perceive now?>> Karen pointed. <<It is a foul; blemish that I cannot remedy, but which you can. It is in Illinois and subject to your remediation. I want us to go over there and fix it.>>

     And with that said both women strolled down to the Mississippi River and started to walk across it... under the Mississippi River of course.
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Re-normalized Yuletide
 
They said it would be a Merry Christmas.
They said there would be peace on earth.
But instead it just kept on snowing;
A veil of white for the virgin's birth.

I remember that Christmas morning
A winter's light and a distant choir,
And the peal of a bell and that hospital smell,
And my eyes full of fury and fire.

They sold me the dream of Christmas.
They sold me the silent night.
And they told me this little story,'
til I believed in the Israelite,

And I believed in that old Christmas,
And I looked at the light with excited eyes,
Until I woke with a fear in the first gleam of dawn
And saw me glow to my surprise.

They reformulated me that Christmas,
In time for the brave new year,
In anguish, pain and sadness;
Empowered me; my mind instantly clear.

They said it would be a merry Christmas.
They said there would be peace on earth.
Hallelujah, oh swell, it sure hurt me like hell.
The Christmas I got I deserved!
 
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     When Andromeda walked up the bank on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River she shed water off her almost frictionless skin and clothing as if it were droplets skatingoff glass. Next to her, her mother, that small silver-skinned perfect Mercuric form of feminine beauty flash vaporized herself dry in a hot puff of water vapor. Riverbank tourists along that stretch of East Saint Louis, took one look at the two women and fled in terror. Andromeda flash vaporized her own wetness to instant dryness.
 
     Karen looked at the fleeing people. she said laconically. “Smart evil-doer sheeple.” She smiled, <<My Missourians don't flee when they see me.>>

  <<That is because they don't know your kindness like I do, mother.>> retorted Andromeda.
 
<<As the Illinoisans know yours, Andromeda?>> Karen replied
 
     Andromeda nodded her head.
 
     Karen Aster shrugged; <<You need acting lessons.>> Karen looked around a bit and then pointed; <<Fly over that patch and look down, daughter.>>

Andromeda stepped up into the air and complied with the Avatar's wish. Call it curiosity.
 
     Here is what Andromeda saw and thought as she flew parallel to the Avatar about thirty meters above the landscape:
 
     **The once proud homes I see are in shambles. Bags of garbage dot the landscape. Most of the people who live here appear to be parasites on society. Personal responsibility, work ethic, education and marriage seem to be unknown concepts in this community?** as Andromeda reads their surface thoughts. **More than 50% of the people...** she scans below her, sherealizes in astonishment, **have dropped out of school? The personal aptitude Human skills scores of the people below me are lower than some ofthe non-sentient robots I have as household workers on Beaver Island Major minding Herodotus** With a shock the Chayote observes a new school/prison under consatruction to babysit the human derelicts and future prison inmates she sees below her. **The windows do not have Pittsburgh steel bars installed yet,** she thinks **still the architect is smart to put all the windows at least eight meters above street level so the future inmates can't easily escape.**
 
     Andromeda looked across at her mother. <<This must be rectified.>>
 
     <<The sooner the better.>> agreed Karen. She flashed the method she preferred to purify the problem as an image to her daughter.
 
     Andromeda objected to the massive carnage involved, <<That involves too much collateral damage to the innocents and would bring the Navy down on top of us.>>
 
    <<Do you have a better idea?>> transmitted Karen. <<My method is sure and certain. Any plan your bleeding heart compassion would entertain has too much uncertainty built in. No more infection spread means no more epidemic to quarantine.>> The Avatar smiled grimly. <<I am not about half measures, Andromeda.>> She flew alongside her daughter as the Chayote considered whether or not to go biblical on East Saint Louis. It would be so simple to burn it down to bedrock...
 
     Meanwhile, as the Chayote wrestled with her conscience, it did not take long for the police levitators to show up and flank the two angels as they flew lazy eight orbits over Washington Park. The aircars showed East Saint Louispolice livery. The levitators slowly started to crowd the two angels toward the river, Andromeda, as she made her left-hand turn, watched the cops warily. The police soon called forth on loudhailers; “Unauthorized flyers. You have not registered a flight-plan, nor scheduled a permit application to overfly this city with our transit authority. You are therefore trespassing in East Saint Louis flight space. Depart at once!”
 
     Karen looked at Andromeda. Her eyes lit up like suns, as her golden yellowed aura darkened toward the ultra-violet.violent. Karen attuned her senses for what she expected the police to do next.
 
     Andromeda could sense through her own esoteric abilities, the local cops charging up their aircars' meson cannons to engage the two flyers. The Chayote could scarcely believe that the cops could or would be that stupid.

     She applied a little radio-telepathy toread the minds behind the acts underway. She sensed their fear of course. The cops were about to try to use force on a pair of beings who could shatter planets with their bare hands, or lay waste to the solar system with energy manipulation in a matter of hours. These' cops', who were actually criminals aiding and abetting the crimes she saw below her, were not stupid. They had to know that if they opened fire, she herself would return measured force for force. Inevitably, since these 'cops' were inept as well as cowardly, as she read them, some of them would misuse their weapons and then the spillover wouldinevitably kill some of the guilty bystanders below. She said to them in a loud stentorian voice without malice; “You, police, assert authority upon me that you do not have under the 'privileges and immunities clause' of our federal constitution. It states that; 'The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.' which means that I have the right of free transit throughout the territories under our nation's control. That includes East Saint Louis, Illinois. Incidentally, if you don't stand down right now, I will arrest you for malfeasance of your office and abuse of delegated authority.” Andromeda added, “If you think I do not have that legal authority, or that I won't exercise that authority as the Illinois State Assembly designated defender of Chicago city and of Illinois state... Well, my friends, you just open fire on me and see what happens to you.”
 
     It was a bluff against a bluff to see who would break the law first. If the local cops had any brains, they would call up the line until the Navy showed up, and then Andromeda knew she would have to leave under Navy guns. But the East Saint Louis cops were more afraid of their criminal bosses, the Sietoms, than they were of her. They thought she would never endanger civilians, that she would meekly back down if they pushed the issue of her forced compliance.
 
     That was pre-Reconciliation War thinking and preposterous. The Chayote was as likely to back down to the East Saint Louis cops as the giant beavers were likely to stop chasing Herodotus de Gabrielle, her husband, all over Beaver Island, or Ronald-the-worm not to encourage the giant beavers to run after Herodotus a little faster. East Saint Louis Police Air-car Fifty-Four made the blunder. They shot a warning shot at the Chayote that missed her and hit her mother, the Avatar, by mistake. The meson beam bounced off the startled Avatar. The ricochet could have bounced up if the fortunes of probability had smiled on the collective city criminals of East Saint Louis, both uniformed cops, the Sietoms watching from their own air-car and the crowd of drug dealers below on the corner of Washington Park Flyway South and Forest Boulevard Flyway East.
 
     Not to be lucky, were any of them.
 
     The nine drug gang member 'citizens' were incinerated inside the one hundred meter shallow crater the cops blasted in their own city. **Military grade meson cannons? What were the fools doing with such banned and powerful weapons?** both angels thought. Karen instantly aimed a laser blast from her sun-hot eyes at the offending police car and shot it down. 
 
     As for Andromeda, her eyes turned fierce red-violet, her aura also became scarlet violet ultra-violent and she reached out with her own unique power to seize control of every mindwithin East Saint Louis. She put them all to sleep with a simple algorithmic auto-hypnotic suggestion.
 
     She then turned to her mother, who had meanwhile raced off to seize the Sietoms in their air-car, before they could flee her wrath. An attack on a federal officer, (Of the Service no less), which the Avatar was, was a federal offense and she, Karen, had her legal excuse to grab them at last.
 
     Karen said to Andromeda, <<Do you have all of the city's inhabitants, below, in your control?>>
 
     Andromeda replied; <<I do. Do you understand what I propose to do? >>
 
     Karen asked, << Of course. Can you march that many people out of the city under auto-hypnosis?”
 
     Andromeda said; <<I do not know. I never tried to mind-control so many before. If I can, it will take me eight hours to walk them a safe distance to a rally point where we can herd them up for processing The question, I have, is who will take in such riff raff?>>
Karen had a quick answer for her daughter; <<The twenty percent who are guilty guilty will be federally tried, quickly convicted and suitably reformed through hard labor on federal infrastructure projects easily enough with the trumped up evidence I'll collect from them before I raze this city and its burbs. The other eighty percent, your problem, are the future colonists for Benton's Planet. They can Darwin their futures out there in the wild black yonder unbothered by Human laws.>>

That was an answer the Chayote could accept with a clear conscience. A quarter of a million people soon formed a column of marching morons, four abreast and marched east out of East Saint Louis. The big column soon split into two smaller ones. One went along the old Interstate seventy route to an assembly area near Collinsville. This was about fifty thousand evil people who would take a couple weeks to try, convict and ship off to Titan to build at forced hard labor the new navy base there. The bigger column continued east along the interstate sixty four route to arrive at O'Fallon. There, a Service-supplied Einstein Rosen catapult soon had a transit path set up between Sol/Earth and Battledores/Benton's Planet. The Chayote had lots of Illinois National Guard help shoving the “volunteer colonists” through the gate.

As for East Saint Louis? It becomes an Illinois state park. There are not too many glass bottom lined perfect craters like it that prove suitable for fishing, water skiing or protective habitats for giant meat-eating beavers.

The End.

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Copyright 22 October 2017 Protected under United States and International Copyright and Trademark Laws this date.