The sound of screaming echoes through the cavern. As it dies down once more, The Chauvinist speaks. “Patience, Doctor. Man is both marble and sculptor. I cannot remake you without suffering.”
Standing atop a hastily made wooden balcony inside a room carved out of rock is The Chauvinist. His room contains a splintery table with an old television sitting upon it. His balcony overlooks a pool of water and a set of wooden contraptions attached to a table at the edge of the water facing The Chauvinist, who leans over the wooden railing.
“Please,” the man on the table pants in agony.
Sighing, The Chauvinist recites once more a piece of his manifesto, “A man does not beg. A man does not plead. A man gives commands. A man gives orders. It is the woman’s place to beg, to plead, and to serve. If you are to be more than a servant, then you must become a man.”
Dr. Oubt rasps through his damaged mouth, “Release me.”
Looking down at him from the balcony where he sits upon a throne of chains, The Chauvinist’s expression is impossible to read. When he speaks, disappointment colors his tone. “No,” he replies before repeating his manifesto.
With the failure of yet another avenue of escape, Dr. Oubt begins to scream once more as The Chauvinist pulls a lever and begins to lower him into the water once more. Submerging the thrashing figure, The Chauvinist resets his time and waits for it to finish counting down before pulling another lever that activates a mechanism that lifts the sodden form from the water. As Dr. Oubt sucks in greedy breath after breath, The Chauvinist’s words reverberate throughout the room once again.
Turning to the lone television, The Chauvinist watches as Beacon and Eldritch duel with Becca from the vantage point of a television camera that struggles to zoom close enough to make the figures any larger than toy figurines. Turning the television off he turns back to his project chuckling, “It seems she will not miss me while I forge you into a proper man Dr. Oubt. We have quite some time together ahead of us.”
Two weeks pass in the dismal cavern. All the while Dr. Oubt’s education continues. Slowly, his mind begins to crack under the pressure of being The Chauvinist’s prisoner. He wakes in agony each morning as his bonds dig into his skin and falls asleep in exhaustion after hours of torture at the hands of The Chauvinist. This particular morning however, the sound of the television wakes him.
Pulling the lever that pushes his captive into the water, The Chauvinist settles in to listen to the announcer. “Still no sign of the escaped inmate, The Chauvinist, or Dr. Dwight Oubt, who is now presumed dead. In other news, the city has finished building a memorial in Harry’s park where Becca, Beacon, and our hometown heroine, Eldritch Maiden fought into a memorial for the deceased. Eldritch has not been seen since that day and did not appear for the christening. Beacon recorded a video that played during the event, which we will play for you now.
As the television shifts to the image of a thin blonde man with torch insignias on his shoulder lapels, The Chauvinist pulls his captive out of the water and paces to the edge of the balcony. There, he leans over and says, “You see? Weakness is everywhere.”
Below, Dr. Oubt shouts at him, “Weakness is relying on delusions. Magicless fool, why don’t you come down here and face me you-”
Sighing, The Chauvinist pulls a lever and sends Dr. Oubt back into the water. When the man is submerged, he turns back to the television and the anchor.
“Our other local hero, Ginger Snap, has made quite a name for herself of late, taking down several members of the infamous criminal syndicate, The Deck. Police took a set of men into custody after last weekend when she busted a drug smuggling operation down at the docks. One local guard who nearly lost his life had this to say afterwards.”
Sighing, The Chauvinist turns the television off before turning back to his dripping wet victim. “So, Dr. Oubt, you continue to defy me. Do you continue to defy the existence of magic as well?”
Angry, Dr. Oubt begins to thrash about in his restraints. Failing to find any wiggle room, he spits back, “I do! I deny it! You’re a madman with abilities, and not magical in any way! Magic is a lie, a filthy lie perpetuated by the insane and the dangerous like you!”
The Chauvinist, fuming, leans on the balcony squeezing the railing in his oversized hands. “Insane? I am not insane doctor! Call me that one more time and I will drop you back into the water and leave you.”
Laughing manically, Dr. Oubt replies, “You can do nothing to me! Nothing at all you deluded liar!”
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Slamming his fist into the railing, The Chauvinist snarls as splinters of wood rain down on Dr. Oubt’s head. “I can kill you!”
“Come kill me then! Come down here and finish me yourself. Strike at me with your vaunted magic,” taunts Dr. Oubt.
Roaring in rage, The Chauvinist rips the railing apart and hurls the wood down towards the pool below. Biting back his anger, he turns back to the television and away from Dr. Oubt. Screaming his chains hurl forward and hammer the television. Smashing the unit, he stomps away from the pool and into the rest of his safe house. But no matter how far he goes, he cannot escape Dr. Oubt’s taunting laughter, which echoes throughout the cave.
Staring down at his the manacles snaking their way around his fist, he clenches and unclenches his fingers. Muttering to himself, he says, “Madman. The moment I regain my powers to enslave women I will execute you and liberate this city. The moment I understand how your ability works…” Promise made The Chauvinist heads out of his cave to find a new television.
Upon his return, several hours later, he finds his base echoing with the hollow laughter of Dr. Oubt. Frowning, he marches into his back room overlooking the prisoner. As his chains begin to thread through the room, wrapping around the cords for the television, Dr. Oubt taunts him. “Ha-ha, the impotent madman returns!” His insane laughter begins once more, causing The Chauvinist to throw his hands up in anger. Smashing the lever to drop Dr. Oubt into the water once more, The Chauvinist takes in the blessed silence until the timer hits zero. Reluctantly, he pulls the other lever to drag Dr. Oubt back out of the water.
Soon as his head breaks the surface, Dr. Oubt begins laughing once more. When he finishes his hysterical laughing, he howls out across the water, “You can do nothing! You have no power, no strength, no abilities, and no magic.”
For a moment, The Chauvinist stares at his victim. Then his rage overflows and whirls about, hammering the balcony with his chains. Angry he continues to lash out, bashing at the railing until it is nothing more than a pile of splinters. As he fumes, the mocking voice of Dr. Oubt continues to chant, “No magic, no magic, no magic.”
Irate, The Chauvinist casts his eyes about the room, looking for something else to destroy. Flailing about in an unreasoning rage, he begins to hammer the floor of the balcony. Below him, Dr. Oubt repeats his mantra endlessly. The Chauvinist screams down at the man, “Shut up! Be silent! Just stop… stop laughing!”
His entreaties, however, fail to sway the sopping wet psychopath lying on the table below. In an effort to stop the noise, The Chauvinist slams the lever pushing Dr. Oubt back into the water. As he sinks into the murk, Dr. Oubt continues to laugh. His laughter seems otherworldly as it begins to bubble up from under the water, echoing throughout the cavern. At the sound, The Chauvinist begins murmuring curses under his breath as he brings his hands up to the sides of his head. Clutching his ears, he howls in rage in the tiny cavern. Vociferously, he slams his fists into the lever until it snaps in half. Smashing his hands against the mechanisms, he continues to pound at the wood until it splinters and falls apart.
As the mechanism begins to crumble, the restraints on Dr. Oubt snap and allow him to come free from the bindings. His body floats to the surface of the pool, but he seems not to notice his changing situation as he resurfaces. Continuing to laugh manically, Dr. Oubt bobs on the surface of the water. Enraged beyond rational thought, The Chauvinist continues to destroy his balcony, heedless of the damage his actions do to the structural integrity of his perch.
Panting, The Chauvinist pauses to survey the destruction he wrought. Beneath him, in the water of the pool pieces of snapped wood float next to shattered remains of his mechanism for submerging and lifting the mad doctor. Summoning his chains, he begins to form his mail. As the links rustle, passing over one another until they form his suit, he cannot drown out the sound of Dr. Oubt. Determined to regain control of his prisoner he grasps one of the planks and rips it from the balcony floor. Using his prodigious strength, he snaps the wood in half creating two makeshift javelins.
Aiming at the broken doctor, he throws the first down into the pool dangerously close to the doctor. Grinning up at him, Dr. Oubt asks, “Such poor aim, poor, poor magicless madman who can’t aim properly. Is this what makes a man?”
Roaring, The Chauvinist screams, “That was just a warning, fool! This next one will end you!”
Leaning back in the water, Dr. Oubt howls to the celling, “Do it! I want you to do it!” Then his irritating laughter begins to reverberate off the walls once more as his madness returns.
The sound seems to hammer down on The Chauvinist’s ears, penetrating to the insides of his skull. As it does, he finds it more and more difficult to aim the javelin. His hand wavers and his concentration breaks as the sound echoes inside his mind. He does not realize, but the chains that form his armor begin to wither and shrink as they did when he escaped. Shaking his head, The Chauvinist tries to clear his mind. Fixating his gaze on the object of his enmity, he raises the weapon and hurls it down into the water below. As he launches the weapon, the chains that cover his hands break, and the javelin flies off target, missing his intended victim.
Immediately, he turns back to the balcony and rips out another beam. But his actions are finally more than the dilapidated and abused structure can handle. With a groan, the support beams begin to buckle and with a sudden motion, snap. Taken off guard, The Chauvinist tumbles into the water and into the radius of Dr. Oubt’s magic-nullifying aura. As he transforms back into his mild-mannered self, Dr. Oubt swims his direction.
When the doctor reaches The Chauvinist, he smiles and grasps the thin-limbed boy by the head, forcing him down under the water. Giggling to himself, Dr. Oubt counts backwards until he reaches the same amount of time The Chauvinist kept him under. Then, smiling, he pulls the gasping boy above the water just long enough for him to catch a few greedy breaths before pushing him back under once more. The process repeats itself until The Chauvinist is unconscious.
Sliding the body up to the table he lay upon, Dr. Oubt looks down at him and whispers in a tone that punctuates his insanity, “No magic, told you.”
As he turns back, as if by magic, the television flickers to life. On it, the announcer behind his desk says, “-up by fifty-six percent. Indeed, professors say that the recent actions of Eldritch Maiden have students clamoring for spots in the occult studies classes. Some students have gone so far as to create an Eldritch Maiden fan club, we interviewed one young lady who says she was inspired after meeting Eldritch’s sidekick, Ginger Snap-”
Looking at the wrecked remnants of the balcony, Dr. Oubt mumbles once more, “No magic, no magic. Time to expose all the liars, all the deluded crazies. Time for the insane to see the doctor, time to save them Dwight. Time to save them all Dr. Oubt, time to show them the truth of their madness.”
Stumbling to the wood, he begins to pull himself up the makeshift ladder and makes his way out into the rest of the abandoned home. As he walks out of the front door and confronts the sun once more, he murmurs to himself, “The doctor is now in. Dr. D. Oubt,” pausing Dr. Oubt’s eyes widen as his twisted mind makes a hilarious realization. Then he shouts out through laughter, “Dr. Doubt will see you now!”
Falling to his knees he clutches his stomach as he begins to chortle, finally breaking out into hysterical laughter. Back in the cavern, on the table, The Chauvinist’s body begins to cough up water as the chains burst back out from under his skin once Dr. Oubt leaves the cavern.
Join us next week, dear reader, as Dr. Doubt makes his way to the city below! Danger is sure to follow his path as he marches forth on his mission. But for the unsuspecting citizens of Liberty City and students of St. Cecilia High the night brings a different clash in… “The Power of Music!”