A mysterious announcement for DEFIANCE 8!
Posted by Lance Warner on 23 Jul 2012
A video arrives at DEFIANCE headquarters! Who is the Rider?
A video came to the DEFIANCE home office in the mail.
Old school VHS, addressed to go directly to the DEFIANCE Production Office. And return addressed from the DEFIANCE building. Someone was obviously playing coy.
When played, the following video-clip was found, and promptly hosted on the DEFIANCE webserver. And it likely will be soon played on ESEN.
Over the Rocky Mountains, thick black stormclouds gather. Pulses of brilliant light flash deep inside them as burbles and rumblings of thunder echo out into the valleys and passes of the range. The tall thunderheads reach high into the sky, constantly shifting, changing, always in flux.
To the canny viewer, one could make out distinct shapes in the clouds. A bald-headed man with piercing, falcon's eyes and a moustache. A man with beady, narrow eyes and slicked-back hair. A guy with a high-topped flat cut. Sunglasses. Masks. Money.
Either someone had paid big money for Christopher Lee to do the voiceover, or this video's creator knew a bang-up impersonator.
"The evil forces of the world had mustered their manpower, and send an army directly to the battlefront."
Rapid-fire clips of Alceo Dentari adjusting his tie in an expensive Italian tailor's shop. A close-up of Bronson Box in a darkened warehouse, snarling and twitching his moustache most menacingly. Jonny Booya, posing muscularly for the camera.
"DEFIANCE was withering under the onslaught of the COOL, the cash, the monsters and the fallen heroes. With the other side having all the cards, having played masterful hand after masterful hand, it meant that the world of the Faithful, the Just, the True and Honest and Brave was withering alongside."
A slow fade in of a picture from the left, with a fade out following behind. Edward White, smoking a cigar smugly, and then Cancer Jiles, smoking a... cigarette COOLly.
"That would not stand."
Cut back to the image of the highway in the Plains, just a ways down the road from the mountains.
"That could not stand."
A woman's voice, quiet and subtle, yet thrilling and sharp in the whistling wind over the Rockies.
"In the desert, prepare the way for the WORD."
In the distance, a gleam of light suddenly shone... And came racing up the asphault.
"Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our Hope."
The Honda VF1000 F-II raced through the night, zipping past startled animals and much slower Winnebagoes. The Rider was being conscientious, true. He wasn't shifting lanes like a lunatic, wasn't zipping down the shoulder. But he was driving fast, and hard. He had a destination in mind.
A long-ago movie quote, playing through the dim memory of history. The voice was hazy, and distant. Del Close, from a flick with De Niro, Connery, 1987...
"You fellows are untouchable, is that the thing? No one can get to you? Hey, everyone can be gotten to."
Del Close sounded awfully similar to Alceo Dentari in that sound-clip.
The woman's voice, again.
"If the Untouchables cannot reunite, the forces of evil, of villainy, of crime and sin and darkness get the advantage."
The Rider shifted, and his motorcycle's motor screamed in pure rage, engine vibrating between his knees as it shot him across the countryside.
"Thus, the Rider shall come to HERITAGE 8. The Rider shall become the King of the Bittermen's partner. And the Rider shall make the first strike of the renewed assault on the Dark."
The camera slid down to the roadside, where a low angle captured the Rider flying up on the camera, and zooming past without a single thought, a pause or a hesitation. He still had a long way to go. And he was still the only man capable of making the journey.
The video from there turns into an old recording of "The Price Is Right".
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