Untitled

By Tom

Act One

Fade In:

Int: 
GENUS MAXIMUM SECUIRTY PRISON
SUB SECTOR "UACSC DECK"

There is a long, cylindrical shaft leading from unseen ceiling to an
unseen floor, both shrouded in a deep shadows.  
Along the walls are prison cells, all unoccupied - there are no
catwalks along these walls, simply an entrance and a long drop. A
chain of steel bars, which surge with brief shocks of electricity now
and then, secure the cell doors. There is a single tube running down
the center of the empty shaft, an obvious lift and the only access to
the outside world. 
 This chamber is where the jailers keep the criminals held for the
most terrible crimes possible.

POV Upward Angle - Extending walkway from the lift

The lift door hisses open, followed by the roar of poorly subdued
hydraulics. A male humanoid shape exits the door, which quickly closes
behind him. He walks now, displaying a limp on his right leg as he
makes his way to the end of the platform. Halfway to the end, he
pauses. The character is taken back slightly, almost refusing to
continue. He balls his hands into fists and nudges himself to
continue.  

Reveal- BUCKY O'HARE in blue officer's uniform. He wears an admiral's
cap, with military braids strung along his right shoulder. On his
chest are dozens of medals, reflecting his many accomplishments. His
face shows minor factors of the time that's passed, with small furrows
in his hair along the cheeks and forehead. BUCKY soon reaches the end
of the plank, where he is greeted by a series of metal pillars surging
with energy. Obviously not all the cells are empty.

Inside the cell is a toad, of average build and appearance. This toad
is like no officer seen before, with many slight warts under his lower
lip and a scar along his throat. He is sitting on a cot with his head
in his hands, awaiting his guest. He glances at the doorway, seeing
BUCKY approach. He rises and meets BUCKY halfway, where the two stare
at each other through the bars.






BUCKY: Hello Toadborg. It's been a long time.

The toad is unveiled as Toadborg, but he is not the evil murderer we
know. He is composed of smooth amphibian flesh now, perhaps the image
of what he was under the cybernetic armor he wore so proudly. The toad
turns on an arrogantly superior grin for someone held behind bars. 

TOADBORG: Greetings, Captain O'Hare.  [Pause for thought] Why do I
find it hard to believe you came for a visit purely because you miss
our feverous chats?

BUCKY: [Sigh] Cyrus the Wort, AKA Toadborg of the former Toad Empire -
You have been found guilty of committing crimes against Aniversians
abroad, without any physical or mental coercion. Unlike all other
toads, you provided your services of your own free will. As such, you
must remain imprisoned on Genus until your final day.

TOADBORG: A day that will not come for some time, it would appear.

TOADBORG flexes the lanky fingers in front of his face. BUCKY simply
looks on with bitter tolerance. The hare casts a mysterious smile and
leans in towards the cell.

BUCKY: At least there's one positive aspect to your jail time here.

TOADBORG: And that is?

BUCKY: You have a permanent base on Genus at last.

TOADBORG: Amusing. So, what does bring you here, Captain O'Hare?

BUCKY: An evaluation. It has been sixteen years since the end of the
Toad Wars, and you have been in captivity for twelve of those years.
The UAC Council agrees even though you were not forced into performing
the task you did during your time as Toadborg, they agree that due to
the environment you grew up in, you could not draw the line between
good and bad.
And as such our officials cannot justly try you. So they have sent me
to determine whether or not you could change your ways so that you
could be sent to a minimum-security prison.

TOADBORG: Grant me no favors, Captain O'Hare.

BUCKY: This is your only chance to ever see daylight again, Toadborg.
Take it.

 BUCKY's verbal expression of a 'helping hand' is studied by TOADBORG
for a second, if no less, and is quickly refused with a violent
gesture towards the electrified bars of his cell. The toad stops short
of the energized prods and stalks back. 

TOADBORG: Bah! The council seems more intent on mocking me that seeing
justice be done. If they wished to assess my behavior they could send
a professional, but instead I get my enemy from a war we toads lost! 

BUCKY: And that's why I'm the best hare for the job. If you can put up
with me for the time we're together... You'll be transferred.

TOADBORG lets BUCKY finish his measly offer, and then looks downward
most dissatisfied. His eyes are veiled in shadows, with only narrow
slits of his glassy pupils showing. He speaks; in a raspy tone we've
heard all too many times before-

TOADBORG:  Then let us begin.


Fade Out



Act Two

Ext: TOADBORG's PRISON CELL

Angle on BUCKY O'HARE, who is sitting on a metal chair in front of
TOADBORG's cell - TOADBORG sits so he can look at BUCKY. They are both
uncomfortable with each other, once because of their past, and twice
because of the dead silence

TOADBORG: Tell me, Captain O'Hare-

BUCKY: [interrupting] Its Admiral now.

TOADBORG: Permit me some familiarity, will you? Over all these years,
your rank has become more of a first name that your given one.

BUCKY: Have it your way. What is it?

TOADBORG: How is your crew? The hairless baboon, Blinky, the Aldebaran
and the Canard? I haven't had the honor of their good graces during my
stay.

BUCKY: You wont either. By duty and choice I imagine. [Sigh] Dead Eye
returned to Canopis Three after the war and put up with the heroes
welcome he feared. I haven't seen him personally in three years or so
but last I heard he was working with the UAC as a heavy weapons
tester. Right up his alley. Blinky on the other hand took up a
teaching position at the Genus Institute of Ethics. You'd be happy to
know the little fella has immortalized you... "Toadborg and the
examination of evil deeds." Is his most popular lesson.

TOADBORG: It fills my heart with joy to know I'll live on long after
I'm dead.

BUCKY: You made certain of that before Blinky even picked up a pen to
write about you, Toadborg.

TOADBORG: So I did. Tell me more, Captain. Of the Aldebaran and the
Baboon.

BUCKY: Willy has returned to his dimension indefinitely. I made him
promise to destroy his Photon Accelerator before any dangers could
cross over from our respective worlds. 

There is an intentional pause as BUCKY recognizes his loose lips.
TOADBORG poses no threat, but the sheer knowledge may be too much for
him to know. 	

BUCKY: And... As for Jenny...

TOADBORG: Yes? 

BUCKY: [Happily] we've been together for seven years. 

TOADBORG: You... Joined in life? But she is an Aldebaran! A cat!

BUCKY: Tell me about it. I've had my fill of reminders how the
relationship would get a lot of unwarranted attention purely because
of breed, but we didn't care. All the flak in the Aniverse couldn't
set our paths apart.


BUCKY takes a moment to hear his own words, and allows a humble grin
even now, with his most deadly enemy present.

TOADBORG: Have you... Reproduced?

BUCKY: Why is it that even the most wonderful things in life can
become so sour when you say them?

TOADBORG: I don't know, mammal.

BUCKY: Maybe it's that sunny disposition.

TOADBORG: [Frustrated] Answer my question!

BUCKY: Yes. We have. A litter of five.

TOADBORG: Ha Ha Haaaah! Oh, how amusing a place the Aniverse has
become since it was rid of me!

BUCKY: What's that supposed to mean?

TOADBORG: Surely you don't need an explanation.

BUCKY sits back and sneers inwardly, awaiting TOADBORG's reply. The
toad throws his head back and laughs, purposely disrespecting his
guest. 

TOADBORG: Of all the inferior tick ridden hair bags that have decided
to mate, you two find each other. I should have split that cat in
halves when I had the chance... Like I did your Berserker Baboon
friend.

A sudden pause goes by.
BUCKY roars. His nostrils contract reflexively, and his teeth grind
across each other. He leaps up and throws his chair at TOADBORG who
cringes in a mixture of shock and fear. Before the chair rebounds off
the prison bars, BUCKY advances towards the cell lock and begins to
punch in a sequence of code.

TOADBORG: What are you doing?

BUCKY: [Eyes on the lock] giving you what you want.

TOADBORG: Come now Captain! Lets cease the play-acting and admit we
both need this! You wouldn't have accepted this assignment unless you
wanted something out of it!

BUCKY: I thought seeing your toad warts rot away for a second time
would be satisfying enough... But I was wrong. This has been a
lifetime coming.

TOADBORG: Indeed.

The prison bars retreat into the ceiling.
BUCKY hurls himself at TOADBORG, who counters with a quick dash to the
side. The toad reaches out and grasps the hare's throat, squeezing it.
With obvious strain on his arm, TOADBORG lifts BUCKY into the air. He
motions to throw the hare into the wall, but BUCKY repositions his
body. He grabs TOADBORG's wrist and places his feet on the toad's
chest, 'wheel barrowing' the toad overhead and into the wall. With the
toad still on the ground, BUCKY lunges at him and begins to pound his
fists into the prisoner's head. With every punch BUCKY appears more
vicious, until his breathing becomes heavy and his hands cease their
assault.
The hare stands up from his opponent who is still floored.
 
TOADBORG: You stopped! You coward!

BUCKY: I'm no coward and I'm certainly not afraid of you. I'm afraid
to help you - give you the release you want.

BUCKY exits and closes the cell door. 

BUCKY: You're nothing to me now.

TOADBORG pants heavily, holding his bloodied head. BUCKY arranges his
seat so that he is once again in front of the cell, pleasantly set
before his humiliated foe.
  
Fade Out



Act Three

Fade In

Int:
TOADBORG's PRISON CELL.

POV- Over TOADBORG's shoulder looking to BUCKY 'OHARE. The green hare
laid back in his chair, his right arm on the back support and legs
crossed over one another. He has placed his officer's cover in his
lap, revealing the top of his head, sprinkled with gray hairs.
TOADBORG is writhing on his cot, with his fingers clasped around his
jaw and head sunken into his knees.

BUCKY: We should have let you die in the war, Cyrus.

It was the first time BUCKY had ever called TOADBORG by his real name,
as shown in the expression of shock the beaten toad gives his visitor.
The look of shock melts into anger as TOADBORG speaks through his
teeth.

TOADBORG: My revivication was not asked for, mammal! I would have died
for KOMPLEX if not for you and your miserable scientists!

BUCKY: Heh... That's it, isn't it? You're angry because you didn't get
to go out fighting for the glory of KOMPLEX?

TOADBORG gnashes his teeth and looks away from the hare. BUCKY curls
his lip and looks away in nauseating revulsion.

BUCKY: Aw, poor little toady got his destiny taken away. The remorse
swells inside me, I guarantee you.

TOADBORG: I have no doubt it does. After all, we are what
circumstances make us, aren't we Captain O'Hare? If I were in you're
position, I'd tout my superiority over your gangly ears myself. 

BUCKY's pitiless manners are noticeably diminished by TOADBORG's
words. The thought of being like the toad monster plucks a string
inside the hare, quickly bringing him back to his normal self.

There is a brief silence until -

TOADBORG: Do you know that old saying, "To the victor go the spoils"?
No doubt you do. If you are the observant rodent I always assessed you
to be, you've noticed that one of those spoils is that you mammals get
to choose the destiny of the Aniverse now. Take for example my current
situation. In my final battle with you, you severed my motor linkage,
disabling me. You could have destroyed me, thus sparing me the
dishonor of seeing my master die... But no. You detained me, bringing
me back to this miserable jungle to have my DNA studied, a new organic
toad body grown and my brain transplanted into it so I might live out
the remainder of my life set to your standards of that life! Do you
understand that this is by no means LIFE to ME?! That this is not MY
destiny!? I will NOT - Rghhh...

TOADBORG stands. He walks - soon developing into a march. As one
straight leg rises to the toad's waist, the other falls. With each arm
he raises and hand he places across his chest, another falls. He now
stands so close to the bars that the sparks of electricity now stink
in his nose. He turns on his heel, facing away from BUCKY. He repeats,
turning back to BUCKY. As if the entire Toad Empire were behind him,
TOADBORG salutes with a perfectly extended right arm.

BUCKY: [Unimpressed] are you through?

TOADBORG: Sarcastic mammal. Do you know how many of you I've destroyed
wit the push of a button? Millions... Billions. You are nothing to me.
Dry, hairy, lumbering nothings that are not worth the skin you evolved
into. 

TOADBORG Smiles fiercely as his lower eye lips roll up in content.

TOADBORG: You are vermin. Easily annihilated... And easily forgotten.  

BUCKY: Okay Toadborg. You wanna play - I'm game.
[beat]
The mammals beat the toads. The war is over, and you're a relic.
KOMPLEX was destroyed because he couldn't hack it.

Where has that cold-blooded superiority gone to? I can't sense it
anymore. Oh, I see. Its only here when no ones around to argue the
idea. Too bad for you.

TOADBORG's bottom lip curls inward and climbs up his mouth in a
disgusted expression, like he's about to burst. 

BUCKY: Our time is up. You'll be notified of the results of this
evaluation in the morning. Good day.

BUCKY stands up from his chair and about-faces. He limps away, leaving
TOADBORG to his caged existence. The prisoner noticeably reclaims his
cool, and reexamines his lanky fingers as he had when their
conversation began. He makes a fist and smiles.

TOADBORG: Are you afraid now, Captain O'Hare? [Vindictively] That
someday I will escape this prison you mammals have made for me? That I
will make it my priority to find you - and your family- before the
authorities manage to find me? That I will steal from you as you have
stolen from me?

BUCKY pauses. He does not turn around, simply waits and listens. His
calmed pose does not satisfy TOADBORG, as he twists deeper.

TOADBORG:
But don't you worry, O'Hare. I'll be certain to paint the walls with
the blood of your mongrel offspring... before I deal with you. 

BUCKY continues to look ahead. He has made no jerky movements, no
heated attacks against the bars, no drama whatsoever. TOADBORG's
vicious attempt to pick at BUCKY is failing.

TOADBORG; Look at me. You look at me you dry skinned vomit colored
rat! I'll never forget you... and you'll never forget me.

BUCKY keeps his body trained towards the lift doorway. With one last
exhale from his calmed face, BUCKY responds to TOADBORG for the last
time they would ever see one another.

BUCKY: What I will never do is give up the fight against the monsters
out there- and the ones here already.

But our fight is over, Toadborg. You lose.

BUCKY exits with such grace it was as if he had never really entered.

The Toad Wars are finished - All of them. 

The End