In the final of the tournament, most of the time was spent collecting evidence to prove that the Secretary was in fact behind the whole plot. Every possible trail was followed to its end; most ended in dead ends, but there was enough evidence to conclusively prove that the Secretary was behind everything.
In a side note, Claw decided that the country’s problem was that everyone was not happy, so he contacted a sleazy publisher to have billboards put up around the country telling people to be happy. One of the GMs went behind a blackboard and started drawing, then later when Claw was asked by the press to comment on the billboards, the blackboard was turned around, which showed a grinning Claw (with lots of teeth, brandishing his claws) with the command “Claw say: ‘Be Happy!’ ”
Finally the Rangers managed to get to Washington with the evidence to confront our adversary on national TV, just as he was being sworn in as President. (Along the way we managed to avoid being shot down by air defenses around Washington; one of the missiles was decoyed into hitting the Washington Monument. It was the only time ever during the four hours we rolled dice.) He acknowledged all of the plots instead of denying them, saying that he had done this so that he could take control and lead the country and the world into perfection, which he had himself attained. And he was right: nothing we did to him hurt him, and he picked up one of the Rangers and threw them into the sky at almost escape velocity. Then he turned and offered perfection to each one of the Rangers. This was the final confrontation: we each had to deny him in order to make him doubt his own perfection, which would be his undoing. However, you try denying perfection!
Sphinx (played by an old friend of mine, the guy who introduced the locals to tabletop roleplaying gaming) was offered a place by his side, second only to himself. Monk (myself in this round, quite a change from my previous character) was offered inner peace and unity with the universe. Steel was offered a chance to be normal and to have a normal life and family. Firestar was offered the chance to be rid of his powers, which were slowly killing him. Claw was offered the chance to be intelligent and not looked down upon as an animal. Thunderson was offered the opportunity to have the land returned to the Indians, without the deprivations of the white man. White Lightning was offered maturity (he was the youngest of the Rangers.) Weatherman was offered release from his life-support suit and the ability to do even more amazing stunts.
All of us, except Weatherman, resisted him. He jumped at the chance, ripped off his suit and gladly started doing handsprings and cartwheels across the White House lawn.
Sphinx said that he could not accept such domination over others. Monk (I) replied that peace and unity must come from within, and can never be given from without. Firestar declined, saying that he accepted the price of that his power was costing him in order to do good. Claw looked to Sphinx for guidance, and also declined. Thunderson refused, saying that what was offered must be won by the people themselves, or else they would not value it. White Lightning wavered, but in the end went along with everyone else.
Steel wavered until I walked up to him, put my hand on his shoulder and reminded him “Steel, we are your family.” I remembered from reading the character’s sheet that Steel had the Disadvantage “Big Momma Steel”. When he rejected the Secretary his face lit up and you could almost hear “The Star Spangled Banner” playing in the background, saying something along the lines of “You Don’t Mess with the United States of America and You Don’t Mess With Texas!”
Even Weatherman eventually declined, because he finally realized that if everyone was perfect, then he couldn’t be better than anyone, so he would never get any headlines anymore.
Thus, when everyone had denied him, he doubted himself, and all of our attacks that he shrugged off before now came back to harm him, and he disappeared. Everything would go back to normal, right?
No.
Word had come that Reagan had just died on the operating table. The country was still looking for a leader, and everyone now looked to Sphinx with the same desire that they had shown earlier. Sphinx hesitated a moment, when I quietly remarked about “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one,” then he agreed to be sworn in as President of the United States. That decision would affect the course of the tournament for years to come.
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