Jess Plant, the former Sir Justin Plantagenet of Camelot, felt sick to his stomach. It was several hours since Agent57 had detailed the insidiousness of the current MBL, but the shock of it all had yet to fully sink in. Meanwhile, the thought that it might possibly be true was making him feel nauseous.

He recalled with perfect clarity the conversation Agent57 had with him:

quote:
Several hours ago...

"I've become aware of all that you know about the MBL and more. I know who runs the damn thing..." Agent57 had said to him after he landed the hovercab in a secluded area in one of the fields of England.

Jess waved his arm as if waving away anything he was saying. "Yes, Peter Campbell, but--"

"No, you know what I mean. Campbell's only the figurehead. I know who the true power behind the current MBL is."

"Then tell me," Jess said, unimpressed.

"Not so fast, sir knight. First, let me tell you a little story..."

"I'm listening..."

"Once upon a time, the world knew freedom. The Message Board League, the MBL of Europe, and other groups before it, such as the Message Board Society and the All-Ass Squadron, protected the citizens of Earth from many threats."

"I am very aware of this. My father was the Green Knight."

"Then you should all the more appreciate what I have to say. Please, be quiet until I'm finished. As I was saying, the world knew freedom, or at least much of the world did. But there were those who saw the MBL and its like as a threat to their own plans. To them, a free world had no value in and of itself, and the more freedom people had, the less these people were able to profit and take power for themselves."

"Yes, but all the corrupt governments of the world are no longer in power anywhere, thanks to the MBL."

"Who's talking about governments here? I'm talking about big corporations. They're the ones who held the REAL power in the latter half of the 20th century, and they are the ONLY power of the 21st century, now that government depends so much on them. And you're interrupting me again. Let me continue...

"When the MBL was formed, the plans of several corporations were threatened, and they knew it. They therefore responded in a fashion intended to test the MBL's power. Many of the most powerful heads of the biggest corporations had formed a 'secret society' of sorts years earlier, one which formed a plan for complete and total economic domination of the world by the year 2025. Political domination would not be necessary, since they could always shape politics through the wielding of their collective economic power. Many of these corporations and banks were far richer than the countries of the world! And indeed, the countries of the world owed their debts to the world banks, which was also a part of this secret society.

"Well, shortly after the formation of the third version of the MBL, led by Rypta Gud'n, of which I was a member as Agent57, this secret society used one of their branches, which was composed of the heads of three different corporations, and which was called the TriVex Group, to attack this MBL directly. These three businessmen were General Gerald Forrest, Eric Peters of Redshack Chemicals, and Stephen Magnus. Yes, the same Stephen Magnus of MagnusCorp. The TriVex Group attacked the MBL with the brute force of their technology and then clumsily attempted to disband the team by buying the headquarters the MBL was occupying at the time in Thunder City. Peters and Magnus soon realized that General Forrest, the one behind this idea in the first place, was completely power-mad, and they cut their losses. The TriVex Group became TriVex Corp, and Forrest was left to battle the MBL himself. He later attained the power of the Dragin Stone and became almost godlike in his power, but, as predicted, he bit off more than he could chew and died upon the conclusion of his battle with the MBL. TriVex was no more.

"Magnus was the next to battle the MBL more or less directly, though he was little more successful than Forrest had been. Peters took a more subtle approach and financed a relative of his, named Shock-Headed Peter, to battle the MBL, even going so far as to create a new 'super-hero' named Johnny Monolith, cloned from SHP himself, to join the MBL. But those plans came to nothing. The MBL was too powerful, and we always stopped the villains in whatever form they took before it was too late. The world continued to live in freedom, though most people never knew how close the world had come to being dominated by any number of threats.

"Things would change. As time went on, I became less and less involved with the MBL, so my information is second- and third-hand from this point on. After a stint in M.A.N., I successfully faked my death -- don't ask me how -- and I left my whole life, and even my wife and children, behind in order to go completely underground. By that time I had heard whispers and rumours of insidious threats far worse than alien invasions and super-villain attacks, and I could not trust that the MBL, TOMB, or any number of super-hero teams would be able to combat these threats. Thus I founded a more-secret-than-top-secret organization with a few handpicked agents, and we began planning. We also made sure to keep our existence a complete secret, even from our own allies, in case of security breaches.

"Unfortunately for us, the powers behind the TriVex Group had been planning as well. They realized that the MBL was too powerful, and that it could not be defeated by conventional means. Their clumsy attempts at infiltration had not worked, either. They needed to do something drastic..."