SmackDown: Back to Our Roots

Round 6: Array - @sacredlilac

Array

by sacredlilac

The noise in the courtroom was rising as the cavernous chamber slowly filled up around Joe Williams. 

His manacles clinked slightly when he shifted in his hard, plastic seat. He didn't dare complain about the growing ache in his rear-end ache though, because then they might take it away and he'd have to stand. He didn't think he'd last more than an hour standing.

The last three months in isolation they'd fed him just enough to keep him alive, which hadn't helped his already wasted muscles - muscles that had slowly atrophied from sitting and watching the Array. Now he was just a thin stalk waiting for a puff of wind to blow him away.

He hands twitched reflexively thinking of the Array. He ran his hands over his thighs recalling the smooth flexi-plas.

He shivered at how the goons who arrested him had ripped it right off the wall without even letting him show them, just show them. Because then they'd understand. When they asked him what it was, he'd just had time to reply, "The answer to everything!" before they'd crumpled it up, then knocked him out with one punch.

There was a small table off to the side of the judge's bench. Was his Array on it? He craned his neck to see, hope rising in him. Could he finally be in the same room with it again?

Was it really his, anyway? Could any one person claim ownership of such a thing?

He sighed and stared hard at the table, willing it to topple and show him what was on it.

Even if they did destroy the Array, if he somehow managed to get out of this and they gave him his old room back untouched, he could make a new one. It was highly unlikely anyone would have figured out the mad scribbles all over the walls of his room were the algorithm he'd used to program the flexi-plas in the first place.

Starting over at the beginning would suck, but then again, maybe not! It would make sense this time! All those early images to examine again... Would it start over at the same place? Or somewhere new?

A smile stretched across his face. That would be awesome.

"Ugh!" He clapped his hands to his face when his nose exploded in pain. He somehow managed to pinch his top lip between the manacles making it smart too.

Riotous laughter sounded from the second tier. "Good shot, Lund!"

"I didn't think I'd be able to hit him from way up here!" Lund, apparently, replied.

Joe kicked at the heavy chunk of plastic laying at his feet and took a good look around.

Reporters from all the channels had jostled for the best positions in the court rows lining either side of the main floor. They'd set up their heavy cameras on sturdy tripods ready to catch the courtroom drama. Some had trained the large unblinking eye on him for now while others were panning around the ten overhead tiers.

He imagined the commentators were having a heyday getting everyone watching at home riled up for this case. Judge Marjory Stephenson hadn't tried anyone in a dog's age.

Back during the Implementation, when Joe was a kid, she'd had to try multiple people at once. Her harsh punishments were part of the reason the populace fell into line so quickly. Now things ran so smoothly, she only had the occasional person like him who dared step out of line. If that's what they could really call what he'd done.