THE THUNDER STRIKES

That year,for the first time, The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists and The Gays Are The Scourge That God Hates Above Alls held their Annual Conventions together. "Well, why not?" said Fredrick Homophobe. "After all, we're both really playing for the same team." "True enough," echoed Wayne Moses Colt the Forty-Fifth. All was set to begin, as the two leaders of the two movements took to the stage to thunderous applause from all of the Conservative Crowd gathered inside, drowning out the voices of the unexpectedly sparse number of protesters outside. "I guess they have finally realized the pointlessness of fighting the inevitable," said Homophobe. "It would seem so," agreed Colt. Then he turned to the mic. "Friends and Allies in Arms against the Liberal Agenda of taking our guns and allowing fags and queers to practice their vile arts against the Order of Nature and Nature's God, welcome. We are gathered here today to. . ." Suddenly, the entire stadium went dark. When each tried to tell the crowd not to panic, that it was just a short in the lights, they found their mics were dead too. "How did those silly protesters knock out all of our electricity?" asked Homophobe. "How did they find a way around our internal back-up. . ." "Gun Nuts and Gay Haters, your attention please," said a voice like thunder from the shadows, it seemed like from every direction at once. "This convention is CANCELLED, as are all future activities of this nature. The Thunder Boys are here in force to end such activities." Suddenly, there were roars of thunder and bolts of lightning from every direction, and in each bolt of lightning a new pair of young men with incredibly big noses appeared. Colt shouted "Fire," but without the mic, his voice only carried a short distance. His followers, however,already had the idea, for a volley of bullets rained down on all of the invaders. However, they all seemed to have some kind of invisible force field around them, for every bullet vanished no less than what Colt guessed to b about six inches before it hit their bodies. "Nice try," said a different voice, again seeming to come from every direction. "But bullets can not harm Thunder Boys. They automatically dissolve six inches from our bodies." "How about this," said someone, and a knife flew at one of the newcomers. However, the strange being merely gave a casual wave of his left hand, the sound of a thunder bolt issued from it, and the knife also vanished. "We can do that to any weapon," said one of the self proclaimed "Thunder Boys", then he turned to his partner. "I thunk it's time we make our point a bit clearer, don't you, John?" The sightly older looking Thunder Boy nodded. "I think so, Mark." "Matt and I will help," said the younger boy of another pair. "Good, Luke," said John. "The more the better." Before anyone could say or do anything, all four "boys" swept their arms in wide arc, throwing Thunderbolts in all directions, and suddenly every firearm and any other weapon in the place dissolved right in its owner's hands. "Now," said a still different boy. "The killing ends now, at least by everyone here. No more gun runs with every lunatic criminal being able to buy any gun they want as long as they have money, and no more hate action or even hate speech against those of us who are gay. Anyone who can live with those terms has two minutes to leave this convention center. And make no mistake, as the door guards, Paul and I will know if you are lying. Not all Thunder Boys can read minds, but we can." "Right, Jeremiah," said his partner. There was a pause, and then a few people walked towards the door, and Paul and Jeremiah let all but two of them pass. "What are you going to do to the rest of us, or what do you think you're going to do, I should say?" said a husky voice as an eight feet tall man who looked to weigh four hundred pounds approached. When he swung at them. However, Matthew threw a thunder bolt before it hit Paul's face and the hand disappeared. "Any weapon," All of Th Thunder Boys repeated as the man cried out, cradling what remained of his arm. "Kill them," cried Colt and Homophobe together. "Wrong answer," said Luke. Suddenly, before anyone else could act, all of The Thunder Boys made wide arcs with both arms. Instantly, a tremendous thunder storm erupted in the hall. Not just A thunder storm, a countless number of thunder storms. "It's a Thunder War," cried on of the conventioneers as bolts of lightning clashed and struck at each other, setting fire to everything and everyone in between. The man went ablaze thee seconds later, and screamed as his body was reduced to dust and ash. Several tried to flee, but Paul and Jeremiah still blocked the door. "You chose this," they told people as they started to cry and plead fir their lives. Suddenly, there was a great boom as a canon ball was shot at John and Mark from somewhere. "They'll never learn," said John to Mark in a bored tone. Mark nodded. The cannon ball also dissolved six inches from their bodies. "How did we miss that earlier though?" he asked. "We only set out to destroy what we could see," said Matthew. "That must be it." THe other two nodded. Suddenly, though, Matthew cried out and dropped to the floor, dead. "How?" asked Mark. "Nothing struck him." "The bond," said John. "Luke must have somehow been killed, and since no one can be A Thunder Boy, as we already knew, I guess when one part of a pair dies, both die." Across he room, they saw some of their comrades cradling Luke's dead body, a knife that looked like it could have been concealed in a boot stuck through his chest, blade in front, hilt in his back. "They can be killed," shouted Colt. "Men. . ." But that was as far as he got. The death of two of their own caused all of the remaining Thunder Boys to erupt with such an explosion of Thunderbolts and lightning strikes that in seconds, not one conventioneer remaining in the tent was anything more than a pile of smoldering ashes. Moments later, twin bolts of lightning engulfed the still bodies of Luke and Matthew, and when the lightning faded, not even ashes remained. of their dead companions "I guess that's what happens when THunder Boys die," said Mark, weeping openly. "When we brought them into this. . ." "It could just as easily have been us, Mark," said John. "There are always risks when you fight for what is right, not that this does not upset me too, it certainly does." All present grieved the dead in their own way, but all silently vowed that Matthew and Luke would not have died for nothing. "Now," said Mark. "I think we've made our point here." All nodded, then waved both hands and a bolt of lightning engulfed each pair and when it cleared, they were gone. Moments after the last pair departed, there was the loudest clap of thunder yet and the convention center itself exploded and moments later was nothing but a smoldering pile of ashes.