Click for part one and part two of this synopsis. This final entry will cover the events of City of Bears Series 2: Special Delivery, and the events leading up to City of Bears Series 3: Rising Powers.
His foothold in the city now established and manned by Scuzz, Brute and their thralls, and with enough power in the pendant to effectively fuel the conversion, Tristan left the work in their hands. The events on campus, rather than settling down, were only growing more heated with each passing day. Apparently, the students resistant to the conversion were more numerous than initially thought, and had organized much faster than Tristan or Erikson had anticipated. Erikson was demanding more direct control over the campus security forces to coordinate the suppression effort, but Tristan was highly unwilling to give Erikson any more power than he already had.
Meanwhile, Scuzz and Brute were at a loss–the store just didn’t seem to interest many people, and they were only managing a couple of conversions a day–not nearly enough to meet the high quota Tristan had set for them. Scuzz, in a bit of a gambit, decided that all they needed to do was send out some samples of their products around the city, in order to get their customer base growing. However, when Tristan found out after the packages had been sent, he was understandably angry–having been thrown yet another variable out of his control. Still, there was nothing he could do about it, so he returned to the growing conflict on campus.
Not even Scuzz was certain how many packages were sent out over the coming months, however, it was more than enough to push the city past the tipping point, beginning a cascade of transformations over the coming months. The packages included everything from mind control collars and body swap rings, to robot butlers, DVDs and even pieces of art. The Boars of South Hill High, long considered the underdogs of the high school football teams, ravaged their competition, taking home their first championship in thirty years. The police department had an inexplicable change in uniforms sometime around Thanksgiving. And a new pipe bar opened on Christmas day, soon becoming one of the hottest clubs in the city.
However, by Christmas, a strange sluggishness had descended over the city and the campus. None of the students went home for winter break after finals, instead returning to their dorms in twos and threes, falling into a deep hibernation which quickly consumed the city as well. No one seemed to notice this or regard it as strange, and the city essentially shut down as the snow blew in far thicker than any winter in memory. There were signs that a few souls struggled on through the winter sleep, smoke and steam rising from the chimneys of the building housing Erikson’s lab, the sound of strange carols rising up from the manholes on Christmas day. The lights of others kept awake by unremembered nightmares and the dread of what the spring might hold for them, the campus, and the entire city around them.
The story begins to end tomorrow! Hope some of you are as excited as I am.
Bracken's Corner 