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Terror Has No Holidays
By Paul Stark
Special to the Gazette
15 years after Dr. King's death, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law making the third Monday of January Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Each year schools, federal offices, post offices and banks across America close as to celebrate the birth and life of a great American figure. But this year the holiday brought disaster and shock to the Los Angeles International Airport as a team of terrorists named Apocalyspe Now bombed the bustling facility. If it wasnt for the presence of the costumed heroine Blur, the incident would have been even more devastating."Well, I was only able to react based on what Captain Infinity had told me," said Blur. Apparently she was encountered by the spectral figure just moments prior to the explosions at Los Angeles International. "I was just doing my rounds throughout the city when, all of a sudden, he appeared out of nowhere like some sort of ghost. He asked me why am I not at the airport stopping a group of men, all looking like Michael Douglas, Jr. He said I should be saving thousands of innocent people."
But from news articles about him, Blur knew that Captain Infinitys involvement in crimefighting and counterterrorism fluctuated, making him an unpredictable figure to try and work with. And the obscure hero was nowhere to been seen after Blurs encounter with him, and thus had to trust his word and investigate the airport alone. Using her metahuman speed, Blur scouted the airport and identified ten men dressed just like Infinity described, each carrying a briefcase. A closer look revealed to the super-powered sprinter that each man was wearing a mini-earpiece.
"They looked like Secret Service agents, but their masks were a definite warning sign," remarked Blur.
She stripped one of the men of the earphone and microphone, and then incapacitated him with rapid-fire maneuvers. A look inside the briefcase revealed to the heroine explosives. She deposited the explosives along the expansive strip of a runway, the most convenient open space she could find away from the population of civilians inside the building. Using the same techniques, Blur started with the other men. She found that the men were sporadically placed about the airport, most of them at different gates within the facility. And with blistering reflexes, the teenaged speedster incapacitated four more terrorists. And then placed their explosives along the same runway, eventually informing a nearby security guard the reason of her actions.
Unfortunately, Blur was racing against exponential odds. Upon reaching the sixth terrorist, who she found stationed within the control tower, a bomb within abruptly exploded.
Blur knew disaster in the tower was apparent and tried whatever was within her power to prevent it. Using her hyper-speed and reflexes, she raced towards the door, but the explosion rocked the entire superstructure and sent the young heroine hurtling backwards. The interior of the control tower was destroyed from the blast and the crew within was instantly killed.
"She came to the tower like a gust of wind," said Terri Levine, the security guard that witnessed the incident. "The terrorist must have seen her, but I didnt. I heard the terrorist blurt out Boss, it's Blur! and then a flash of light followed."
Dazed and slightly injured, Blur didnt halt from her intrepid actions. In fact, upon seeing a man approaching the explosive briefcases she had previously piled on the runway, she mustered all the strength within her to outrace time and chance. The cases erupted as she reached them, the tremor shocking outwards in a massive radius. But even in the heart of disaster, Blur was unrelenting in dampening the fires of this terror. She reacted with blinding quickness, parrying the shrapnel that spewed out of fiery explosion. She was unfortunately unable to save the male civilian, but she the bystanders surrounding the blast were protected by her fleetly actions.
But shrapnel wasnt the only item expelled by the explosions. Propaganda leaflets reading "The Unabomber Was Right! There are too many people. The Earth needs Apocalypse Now!" were also found about the crime scenes. Most of the flyers were burnt and destroyed by the explosions, but forensics was able to reconstruct the messages through special digital graphics and laser scanning.
Detective Dick Copper, of the Los Angeles Police Department, said, "These terrorists are extreme radicalists. The briefcases were each filled with jacks and the flyers. The plastique within the cases was carefully triggered and definitely intended for the public. They wanted to kill innocent lives with the shrapnel and send out a verbal message at the same time. They had definite goals here."
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was observed on Monday, January 19 this year. However, civilians at the Los Angeles International Airport would have observed extreme heroics on this day. There were injuries and deaths, but true to Infinity's word, Blur did save thousands of people by disposing of six of the bombs. Terrorists might not respect holidays, but heroes like Blur do not respect terrorists. Alone and outnumbered, the teenage crimefighter displayed valiant heroism even in the face of forlorn hope.
While five Apocalyse Now members narrowly escaped from the heroine and airport security, the five terrorists that Blur had subdued were taking into custody by the LAPD authorities. The Los Angeles International Airport was closed for two day, undergoing severe repairs and reconstruction. All flights scheduled to stop there were rerouted to other neighboring airports.
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