“Due to the format of the summit, the time it will take to pass Article II will lead to unacceptable delays. Thus, I will now use one of my remaining demands from the surrender accord to pass my proposal without amendment.”
The entire room fell into a suffocating silence. Then, a wave of clatters rang out as pens dropped from the hands of the surprised attendees, who had thought that Aron would simply just threaten them into passing his suggestion for the article.
“Thank you for your time, Mr. Chairman. I yield the floor,” Aron continued as if he hadn’t just put more than two hundred world leaders into a collective stare state, then retook his seat.
President Nazarbayev cleared his throat after realizing that he had frozen in shock. He banged his gavel and announced, “With Mr. Michael using one of his demands from the surrender accord, Article II has passed without amendment and with no vote required.”
“Now to the third article....”
The summit meeting continued, but far fewer people were paying attention to it after Aron used his trump card to ram his proposal down everyone’s throats.
……
Herschel broke out into loud, braying laughter. “That damn brat did it again!” He was equally amused and angered by Aron’s ability to continuously pull rabbits out of his hat at the perfect time.
“No one, not even me, stopped to think about the surrender accords. They all probably thought they wouldn’t be used, since there was an alternate way to get his proposal passed. But he just straight up said ‘no votes allowed’ and slapped everyone in the face with a reminder of their unconditional surrender to him,” Herschel continued, still laughing.
Virginia, as uninterested in politics and conflict as she may be, still understood that point even without her dear husband explaining it to her. She was a highly intelligent woman with both IQ and EQ to spare, and if she were to be honest, her husband’s habit of explaining everything to her as if she didn’t understand it was rather amusing to her as she considered it his expression of love. And despite more than forty years of marriage, she was still to get used to it and just enjoyed it as a happy grin crossed her face.
Herschel finally calmed himself and returned his focus to the broadcast, where the world leaders had already recovered and begun discussing the next amendment on the list. But something seemed missing; their dispirited appearances—well, most of them anyway—showed that Aron setting a precedent by using one of his “free” demands had demoralized them. Now, no matter what they did, they had to consider that he might just bring his demands in to not level, but flatten the playing field and everyone on it.
……
The moment the day’s broadcast ended, people once again took to the street. The day before, they had been protesting his desire to be the emperor of mankind, and today their protests had grown with all the people who were in a frothing rage over his short-circuiting of the summit proceedings.
That wasn’t the only thing that had changed, either. Not only were there more protesters out, they were also far more united. After all, Aron had just thrown up a giant middle finger to the world, then used it to crush the freedoms of everyone alike; thus, the protesters were very much united as compared to the day before.
Police everywhere were overwhelmed by angry protesters and began calling in ARES support....
……
“Good, good, good!” Rick Ashley, the leader of the underground cult arrayed against Aron, laughed. His recent losses caused by the devil, who was acting in the name of “eliminating vile drug dealers” were finally looking like they would reverse.
(Ed note: Not gonna lie, I was a bit sad that nobody got the rickroll from chapter 404.)
His ultimate enemy had gained much goodwill over the past few days as his actions in combating substance abuse issues and stabilizing the global economy caused a significant number of people who had been enraged by his conduct in the war to change their faces.
It was just more evidence that what was said about the attention span of humanity only surviving a single news cycle was true.
“Looks like you really are my lucky star. You were the one that put me in my position, and now you’re becoming the perfect catalyst for me to use to increase my power as I gather up the disaffected and disenfranchised scum that are willing to be cannon fodder in a fight against you and your power-hungry, mad actions.” He thought of all the wannabe freedon fighters and defenders of democracy that would soon come flocking to his organization in order to etch their names into the history books and madly cackled again.
Once he got himself back under control, he picked up the landline phone handset on the table in front of him and dialed a number.
“Orders, sir?” a woman said on the other end of the line.
“Prepare a dinner party for after the concert is over. We’ll be inviting new people to each party from now on, just to keep things fresh,” Rick said, speaking in code.
The woman on the other end heard it as ‘call for another meeting after the constitution is signed. It’ll be the best time to recruit new people to our cause’ and replied, “We can do that, sir, but I’m worried that we might not have enough silverware to host dinner parties if the number of invitees grows too large.” (We might run out of money if we grow too fast)
“I know, I know. But we can always ask our guests, new and old alike, to turn our dinner parties into backyard potlucks and they can bring whatever dish they can make.” (We can raise funding from the people in the organization)
“Will do, sir,” the woman replied after a brief pause.
“Also, have you heard any news from our friends who moved away and went overseas?” he asked. (What’s the update on the envoys we sent to other groups?)
“They haven’t emailed anyone that I know of, but from what I can tell, no news is good news. They’re busy living their lives and settling down after the moves, and I’m sure they’ll let you know when they get settled. You’re all good friends after all, and it’d be rude of them to ditch the old when they find the new,” she replied. (Nothing yet, secure communications haven’t been established and we’re still looking for a method that can’t be spied on other than face-to-face meetings)
“I guess they’ll let us know when they can. But I can’t help but worry about them. Should we send a care package? It’s been a long time since I’ve heard from them. What if they got in an accident or something?” (We need to hurry and find a secure communication method. Do you suppose they’ve been captured or discovered?)
“I’m sure they’re all fine. After all, even though accidents happen, they don’t happen that often! It just takes time to settle into a new place is all. After all, they got important jobs high up in their offices, so it’s sure to take longer to adapt to their new workplaces and responsibilities.” (It’s only been a week, so it isn’t time to really worry yet. Chances of them having been caught are slim, so it’s probably just the negotiations that are taking a longer time)
“If you hear from them, call me. You know me and my worrying, after all!” Rick said, then hung up after more small talk. (Call me immediately when they return, no matter what I’m busy doing at that time)
Rick returned his focus to the ongoing broadcast from the summit meeting, then muttered, “Yes, yes! Go on, continue campaigning for me!”
He broke out in maniacal laughter and slumped back in his seat, continually giggling to himself as the broadcast went on.
