16

Like a god of lizards and crocodilians, Gatorella glares down at Hannibal Tran, shamed and defeated. Just a man, Hannibal is trapped among the excessive flotsam and jetsam of the Lynch, the Decker, and the Crane.

I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY, HANNIBAL, Gatorella says telepathically. JUST LISTEN, AND I WILL PROMISE YOU A DEAL SO GREAT, IT WILL SEND YOUR HERO CAREER THROUGH THE ROOF. THAT...IS WHAT YOU HUMANS CALL THE TOPS OF YOUR STRUCTURES, IS IT NOT?

"One way or another," Hannibal spats, "I will slay you, Gatorella! All of Austroasia will see my self-worth for what it is! I will gladly die for who I love!"

LOOK AROUND YOU. DOES THE MESS YOU'VE MADE RESEMBLE THE LEGACY OF A MAN WITH A HEART?

Hannibal looks around. "They all had families," he spits. "You took them away from them!"

AND YOUR FAMILY? DOES THAT NOT MATTER MORE?

"SCREW FAMILIES! I ran away from mine when I was a boy! All they ever do is make things worse! They never get better! There's no such place as home! God forbid if anyone ever changes my mind!"

Gatorella scratches his chin with his claw. Hannibal sighs, as he clings to the piece of ship he's trapped on. Why doesn't the monster just kill him already? Where's the monster when you need him?

I AM NOT A GOD, Gatorella admits. BUT I THINK MAYBE THERE'S A CHANCE I CAN CHANGE YOUR MIND."

Hannibal scoffs. "About what, exactly?"

WELL, FOR ONE THING... ME.

Hannibal looks up at him, confused.

YOU WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG, HANNIBAL TRAN. I AM YOUR DESTINY. JUST NOT THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN TAUGHT TO EXPECT."

With that, Gatorella flexes his muscles, and generates an illusion from his hands. The illusion surrounds them, and the sea, the flotsam, and the jetsam all fades...

Hannibal is now a slave, in chain mail drawers. He holds a claymore. Around him, cliffs tower, and the soil is warm and red. He looks around, trembling...

A dragon wanders into his midst. Its scales are copper. His eyes glow red. Hannibal's heart freezes in his chest.

"Tell me, Hannibal," the dragon speaks, "which version of this vision do you prefer? This one..."

A whirlwind surrounds Hannibal, and takes him into the POV of the dragon. Through the canyon, he can see the mail-clad peasant he was, trembling, with a sword and shield in hand.

"Or this one?"

The vision changes again. Hannibal looks around. He looks like Charles Darwin. And his surroundings look like the island of Komodo.

Near him, many female Komodo dragons feast on a carcass. Banded sea kraits crawl out of it, as they feast.

Just above Darwin/Hannibal, a male of the species lumbers up, and rests atop a rock. He startles Hannibal, when the latter acknowledges him. The great monitor licks his clawed hand. Banded sea kraits crawl from his mouth, as he does.

"You could have a harem of me," the male dragon says, "if you'd like. Sex with them would be exquisite. Would you believe me if I told you that the female Komodo dragon has TWO pussies?"

Hannibal gapes.

"Don't get excited, though; one would be too small for your cock. It only reproduces asexually, see."

Hannibal sighs. "Well... You're certainly no salesman."

"Reluctantly, I am the ruler of the South China Sea. Theoretically, you could command a battalion...or a destroyer at sea. But of course, why assemble the manpower, when you could just as easily BE the manpower?"

The vision changes again. Hannibal is surrounded by 243 clones of himself. They're all armed with .243-caliber lever action rifles, and dressed in red robes.

"You could command 243 privates and privates first class in a marine battalion," one of the clones imagines.

"In the other sitch," another clone of him says to him, "you'd command the same number of recruits, apprentices, and seamen aboard a destroyer. Their armament would be different," the lever-action rifles transform into shotguns, "but they would still all answer to you."

The vision changes again. Hannibal's standing in a bayou in Louisiana. He's dressed in white, blue, and silver, and holding a menorah.

Nearby, an alligator leaps, and bites his hand off. He looks around, and sees that he's surrounded by alligators.

One rises, and speaks to him. "This is your chance, Hannibal Tran. This is your chance to become all you can be."

"You will finally find balance," a lovely Frenchwoman in a nearby airboat tells him, caressing the water with her soft hand, "between your need to be a law-abiding citizen of Roman Austroasia, and your desire to die for the people." She adjusts her top. "Even if the ladies would miss you..."

The vision changes again. It seems to take longer, this time around...

Hannibal's in a Malaysian jungle. It's nighttime. A purple moon glows through the trees. Not a frog sings. Instead, new age music can be heard through the shadows...

From a pool nearby, a green water dragon surfaces...like Ducky's grand entrance in the Land Before Time... If anyone would call that grand...

"All you need," it says, in a squeaky voice, "is the faith of a mustard seed." He looks around. "Or in this case, a green water dragon."

Hannibal looks around, and sighs. "I don't know..."

"This could be your life," the green water dragon tells him. "All you've got to do is ask Gatorella, king of the South China Sea, to be your lord and savior...so that he can become Roman Austroasia's...and, just possibly, DeJarro's doomsday!"

Hannibal sighs, bends over, and cups his hands. He takes some water up into them.

The green water dragon leaps, and splashes into his hands. Without spilling a drop, Hannibal stands, and smiles down into the pool before him.

"You can do it, Hannibal," the wee dragon says. "Just let go of everything, and let Gatorella become half of it."

Without trying to, Hannibal rears back, and releases his entire soul. It spews out of him, and cloaks Gatorella's vision.

Hannibal wakes. Beneath him, the South China Sea passes. Algae breeds. The sun shines...

On an island ahead, there's a solar farm. A dragon, resembling Gatorella, flies in circles around it. He blows fire around it. The solar cells collect the fire's light, and cause several light bulbs in Guangdong to spike.

WELL DONE, a voice inside Hannibal's voice tells him. NOW WE ARE ONE.

"All right," Hannibal says, in his mind. "Let's giddy on up, and get DeJarro to giddy on out of Ho Chi Minh City!"

With that, Hannibal ascends, roars, and breathes a big breath of fire. At long last, Roman Austroasia's favorite hero has FINALLY put his full self-worth on display. And with that said, DeJarro had better beware...