Copyright 1999 --- Robert Baer Jr. The Renegade Files - "Guantanamo Project -- Part 1" PROLOGUE >This is the story of a superhero, The Computer Renegade, as told through >the eyes of his faithful bionic German Shepard Otto. Disguised as >Accountant Nathan Lovejoy, the Renegade and his friends fight a never >ending battle against crime, injustice and danger. This is yet another >entry from Otto's 'personal' log. > The Renegade Files -- "Guantanamo Project -- Part 1" It was Wednesday evening and all of us were getting ready for a pleasant, quiet evening watching television in the living room. Wanna and Nathan were all huddled together on the couch, while Samantha and I were all curled up next to the coffee table. We were watching one of our favorite movies: "Big Jake". I've seen it many times before, but I must admit I do enjoy listening to John Wayne's voice anytime! "Oh, I LOVE this movie!" Samantha barked happily,"it has a faithful dog in it!" "Too bad he dies near the end of it," I said sadly,"obviously that dog needed a force field, and laser beam eyes, and ....." "Shhhhhhh!" Wanna motioned to us,"I can't hear!" "Sorry, ma'am," Samantha whispered back to her. "Honey, shall I go make some popcorn?" Nathan asked,"and maybe get some kibble for our canine friends?" "Well, maybe a little later," Wanna said softly,"right now I have something else in mind!" As Wanna reaches over to kiss her husband, the movie is interrupted by a news bulletin, which causes Nathan to turn towards the set as Wanna attempted to kiss him on the lips. "HEY!" Wanna yelled,"YOU MOVED!" "Sorry," Nathan said as he turned and kissed his wife,"I was watching the news report." "This is a special report!" the voice on the television blarred,"we take you now to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where there is general panic in the streets. Someone calling themselves the Dream Team has threatened to destroy the entire city if their demands aren't met. We take you now live to the business district where our own Felica Lopez is standing by with a live report." "OH NO!!!" Samantha barked,"we had better do something about this!" "Shhhhhhhh." Wanna urged,"let's listen to the rest of the report first." "Sorry, ma'am," Samantha whispered. "This is Felica Lopez on the scene, behind me is what was once a distribution warehouse, as you can see it's been completely destroyed. This is the work of the Dream Team, two masked individuals and their large dog, which appears to be a dalmation. They claimed that this was just a sample of what they'll do to the entire city if their ransom demands aren't met. What? I've just been told we're switching to Manuel Ortiz who is standing by at the city government buliding." "This is Manuel Ortiz, as you can see behind me, the Dream Team is here. We dare not attempt to get any closer to them. The male member of the group appears to be pointing towards the front of the building, the female member is holding some sort of device in her hands.... it looks like a remote control of some kind. I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!!! Is that dalmation firing laser beams our of it's eyes?" A loud explosion follows, which shakes the ground and causes the transmission to be lost, within seconds Felica is back on the screen. "MANUEL!!! MANUEL!!!!" she shouts on her remote mike,"We've lost contact with him for the moment, but to repeat, Buenos Aires is under terrorist attack from a group calling themselves the Dream Team.. we'll have more details on this story as it develops...." Nathan uses the remote to turn the television off. "We have to get to Buenos Aires now!" Nathan said to the rest of us,"Wanna and I will get into our costumes, you two go and tell Starlight ...." Nathan was interrupted by a loud BOOM!!! It was Xeren Zzoom and the Computer Gila Monster who zapped themselves into the living room. "We saw the TV report," Xeren said excitedly,"so I got into my Mr X outfit and we came as soon as we could!" "Yeah," the Gila Monster growled as he held his 2 x 4 like a bat,"it's time to clobber the Dream Team!" "Ok, you guys, we'll all go together as soon as Wanna and I get into our suits!" Nathan yelled as he and his wife ran upstairs. I ran out to Starlight's stable and told her what was going on, she knew it already since her internal systems were monitoring the broadcast. Within a minute, all of us were gathered together outside and with a loud BOOM!!!!! we were all instantly standing on a street in Buenos Aires. "Look!" the Masked Melitta shouted as she pointed,"the Dream Team is over there!" "Otto, Samantha, keep force fields around all of us," Nathan said as we all ran towards them,"Starlight, can you get in front of the government building and stop them from damaging it any further?" "Consider it done!" Starlight answered as she ran, using her super speed, directly in front of the Dream Team, startling them. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Starlight shouted at them,"YOU'VE CAUSED ENOUGH DAMAGE HERE TODAY!" "It's Starlight!" the male Dream Teamer shouted. "I'll fix her!" the female Dream Teamer yelled as she pushed buttons on her remote control device, causing the large dalmation to turn and shoot laser beams at her. The beams bounced harmlessly off of Starlight's force field. "GIVE IT UP!" the Computer Renegade shouted,"YOU'RE LITTLE EXTORTION GAME IS OVER!" "SO, YOU'RE HERE AT LAST!" the male Dream Teamer shouted out,"NOW SPOT!!" The large dalmation turned and fired laser beams at us, my force field was protecting us from harm. Starlight took that opportunity to fire laser beams at Spot, but he also had his force field surrounding him and his masters. "YOU SEE, WE'RE EVENLY MATCHED!" the male Dream Teamer laughed,"OUR REMOTE CONTROLLED CANINE IS SUPERIOR ANY OF YOUR PETS, RENEGADE!" "YES!" the female Dream Teamer shouted as she pushed more buttons,"WATCH THIS!" Spot turned towards a nearby statue and quickly fired his laser beams at it, destroying it instantly. "YOU CAN NOT DEFEAT US!" the male member chuckled,"CHOOSE ANOTHER TARGET!" The female member pushed more buttons, causing the large dalmation to turn and move. Suddenly, to her surprise, Spot turned towards her and fired his laser beams at the remote control she was holding, melting it instantly. "SPOT!" the male Dream Teamer shouted,"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" "OBEY US!" the female Dream Teamer added,"WE'RE YOUR MASTERS!!" "Not any more!" Spot barked loudly,"now I have control of all of my internal systems!" "SPOT, DESTROY OUR ENEMIES! I COMMAND YOU!!" the male Dream Teamer screamed. "ALL HUMANS ARE MY ENEMIES!" Spot shouted as he fired laser beams at his masters. The Dream Teamers ran away screaming towards us. "SAVE US!" the male Dream Teamer yelled,"SPOT IS OUT OF CONTROL!!!" "THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" the female Dream Teamer yelled as she ran,"WHAT COULD'VE GONE WRONG?" "Otto, Starlight, try to establish links into Spot's computer core," the Renegade yelled,"try to shut him off!" Starlight and I tried to use our transmitters to link into Spot's systems, but his internal codes were well encrypted. "So, you're attempting to access my programs!" Spot shouted out,"that's not very polite!" Spot sent a energy spike through our data links which caused both Starlight and I to fall to the ground. "OTTO!" my wife barked,"are you alright?" "STARLIGHT!" Melitta yelled as she used her black box to zap herself to her horse's side. "Spot sent an energy surge through our wireless link conections," I said,"all of my communictions circuitry has been damaged, and it looks like the same thing has happened to Starlight." "WELL, LOOKS LIKE I'M THE ONE IN CHARGE NOW!" Spot roared,"NONE OF YOU CAN STOP ME!" It was at that moment that Argentine Army forces arrived on the scene and quickly surrounded the wild dalmation. "So, send in the clowns!" Spot giggled,"I'd destroy all of you, but I just don't have the time! I wonder if you lousy humans enjoy flying?" In an instant, Spot fired yellow beams out of his eyes, causing all of the soldiers to rise off the ground quickly. "ANYONE ELSE WANT TO TRY TO STOP ME?" Spot barked defiantly at the crowd of people who had gathered all around him,"it's time I left and enjoyed my newly found freedom!" Saying this, the dalmation sped off at lightning speed and Starlight got back up on her feet. "We have to follow him!" I said to the others,"Starlight and I are the only ones fast enough to pursue him." "But both of you are damaged!" Samantha barked,"neither one of you can radio for help if you get in trouble!" "We have no choice, darling," I said sadly,"we'll be careful, gotta go now!" Starlight and I turned on our super speed to follow Spot, as we were on our high speed pursuit, the rest of my friends questioned the two bewildered Dream Team members. The two confused villains remove their masks and through them in the air in anger. "I wish Otto or Starlight was here to ID these two!" Wanna sighed. "We don't need them," Mr X (Xeren Zzoom in disguise) said,"I've seen these two before! You're Phillip Waldare and Julia Kibler, you worked on that secret government project called Guantanamo, didn't you?" "How do you know about Guantanamo?" Phillip shouted,"that was a top secret operation!" "Yeah, twenty years ago!" Mr X explained,"that's when the military wanted to attempt to create robot dogs for things like survalience and suicide missions. But you two went too far in your experiments and were removed from the project!" "We had the right idea!" Julia screamed defiantly,"make dogs lethal weapons, capable of mass destruction, so we make our dog Spot our first model!" "And now it's out of control, ma'am," Samantha barked,"how did you create him?" "The same way I'm sure your masters here created YOU, silly collie!" Phillip snorted,"by performing surgery on him! But what does it matter now? Our plans for riches and conquest are ruined because that stupid dalmation turned on us!" It was at this time that the Buenos Aires Chief of Police came over with a dozen of his officers. "We will take this 'Dream Team' into custody now," the Police Chief said,"gracious for your help, Computer Renegade!" "It's not over yet, amigo!" the Renegade said sadly,"if we don't somehow deactivate Spot, he may try to take over the world himself!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ to be continued....