Dark Lord Rob's DarkForce

Destiny?

     There was a flash and a blink and the picture on the screen changed. The washed out colors and barely-framed image immediately told me that I had surfed into the land of Cable Access. My thumb twitched to hit the button again reflexively.
     "Stop!" The Dark Lord commanded. "Don't thumb your nose at the Gods. This is their message."
     "Okay, okay," I said. "Just a reflex. I mean, who watches local cable?"
     "At least it's not the 'Crazy Nun' channel," Maggie said.
     "Or The Monster Truck Network," Shana offered.
     "Just what is this supposed to mean?" Nathan asked.
     "Turn up the volume," the Dark Lord said.
     I touched the volume button with my thumb. There was this guy standing at a kind of podium, dressed in a dark suit that had these weird padded shoulders and an armband with a cross on it. He looked to be in his late twenties, with long hair and round glasses. Everything about him shouted 'Religious Wacko!', but as soon as I heard him speak I revised my opinion to 'Extreme Religious Wacko'. I'd love to tell you what he was saying but with those guys my ears just filter it all out until it's just a drony buzz with an occasional bit about 'The Beast' or 'The Power of Jaysus' popping out.
     I've got nothing against religion; I went to church a few times last year. But, come on! You've got a world where in some countries the blood runs so freely that I swear they wash their cars with it and what's God all concerned with according to these guys? Gays and porno. "Thou shalt not kill" is one of the biggies, guys, I know, I looked it up. "Thou shalt not Know thy brother biblically" is only a footnote.
     I mean, everyone's got a right to see God however they want to as far as I'm concerned. But if you're gonna be in my face about it, at least have your God make sense.
     So while I was tuning this guy out, Nathan was starting to get interested. "I've seen these guys before! 'The Brotherhood of Guardians'."
     "Yeah," Maggie added, "They own one of those mansions in the historic district. But they've got it outfitted like a fort."
     "Some sort of cult," Shana nodded. I looked at her face, then at Nathan's, and Maggie's. There were gears turning in there, for sure. They were starting to think, hey, maybe this IS something worth checking out.
     "Wait a minute," I said. "We're not looking to get involved with cults. We just wanted to expose new age con artists."
     "Some of these cults fit that description," Nathan said.
     "Maybe we should think about looking into this," Maggie said. "This could be a chance to stop something that could get out of hand."
     "Like Heaven's Gate or the Solar Temple," Shana nodded.
     "Look," I said, "It's never a good idea to mess with people's religion. I say, if they wanna drink the Cosmic Kool-Aid and ride the comet, let 'em."
     "I disagree," Nathan said. "It's a form of mind control. Think. If you could have stopped Manson, wouldn't you have done it?"
     "Depends how dangerous."
     Maggie rolled her eyes. "It's not going to hurt to check it out."
     The Dark Lord was smiling inscrutably.

Next: Excelsior!