[color=lime][b][u]Letters to Cripto: #53[/u][/b][/color] ------------ [color=gold][b]IMPORTANT![/b] This letter was written before the two individuals in question met one another in person for the first time.[/color] --------- [i]Dear Cripto, How do you do? I am the squadron leader in charge of the C.I.D.F. soldiers who parade and patrol around Washington, D.C. I'm also a drum major who leads Caticonian musicians on the march, and I play the trombone. Because I was named official C.I.D.F. soldier in charge of examining anybody who plays a musical instrument but has been affected by CNG when it was still around, I helped make the discovery I announced to all those Drumbums: 1. All musical G-52s and/or allies have the ability to manipulate sound. 2. All musical G-52s and/or allies can summon any instrument and play it professionally, though most of them they just play the instruments they play to start with; i.e., Corps Coon playing all his marching drums. I don't picture you playing anything other than guitars, though, because that's you. 3. All musical G-52s and/or allies can wave their hands in front of them and change their clothes on the fly, without the need of T2's automatic clothes changer. 4. All musical G-52s and/or allies can summon portals even as you can. This applies as well to your other friends, like Zachary Chandler, and any of those canon characters in your "army." Several of my squad members, however, have been researching your specific case, because it illustrates how unpredictable CNG was, even though nothing it ever did made any sense. The common story we've heard is that you didn't receive your superpowers until you were 15 years old, even though CNG clearly had an affect on you since birth, since it was just 24 hours after you were born that you turned from a human being to a tiger, and have been stuck as a tiger ever since. Then you factor in the old Bendraqi's hypnosis leading to your troubled childhood and adolesence, but that's a different story. There is a chance you may have actually had superpowers your entire life, but didn't really notice it until you turned 15, when CNG got to you again. Why? We read your autobiographical novels, and in them, you mentioned that in between the ages of 14 and 18, you had the period where everything you said was treated as the absolute law, with severe consequences for those who disobeyed you. It does not stack up to Leo the Patriotic Lion's period, which lasted way longer, but a few of the same things that happened to him happened to you. (The one I speak about is now known as "the Leo effect.") I'm not saying this to tell you your autobiography is wrong; there's no way you could have known that this was the truth. Yet from what we have seen, you learned from your mistakes and improved over time, so you have earned the list of accomplishments, including those you weren't counting on to add to your list of accomplishments (i.e. the high dive the cousin of Louis the Merciless forced you to do). I would like to know your thoughts on these topics, as well as any other thoughts you might have, but please note I wrote you a letter because it would have been too dangerous to speak to you in person at the time. CNG might have done something even more rash just to tempt you in doing something rash. It did that with Leo, and it got him to fall for it. Thanks for letting me write to you. Our organization is thankful to be the sister organization of the G-52s. Sincerely yours, Commander Thierry J. Anderson, age 42 (white lion) Washington, D.C., USA Serving with pride as a member of the Caticonian Intergalactic Defense Force[/i] ---------- [b]NOTE:[/b] Because this was written by a C.I.D.F. Commander, Super C automatically approved the letter for a response. ---------- Cripto's response: [color=white][i]Dear Commander Anderson: When I wrote the autobiographical novels that I have, I had a ghost writer help me, and my friends, fellow G-52s, and family all pitched in to help, so there won't be any changes to them anytime soon since they've all become best selling books on the NY Times Bestseller's Lists. The NY Times assured me that my books would have sold out even without CNG's influence. The books should still be accurate, because we have knowledge now that we didn't have before. The phase I had where everything I said was treated as the absolute law did begin when I was 14, not 15; you're absolutely right. What I haven't been able to remember is which of the many embarrassing meltdowns I had was the exact meltdown that triggered the phase. I was disciplined accordingly for the meltdowns, yes, but the other kids took a long time to get over the guilt that thy felt for the things they did to me (or the other things they did wrong that I chose to let bother me). I also agree with your other theory. If I had superpowers my whole life, they must have been dormant. Everything happens for a reason, and everything happens when it happens for a reason. The boss (Super C) thinks my powers did not activate until my 15th birthday because it would make the math easier to remember. The year I was born in ends in a zero (1990) so the year I first got active superpowers ends in a five (2005). Thus, they weren't fully activated when I was 14; just partially activated. If you were to ask any of my former classmates, however, they would tell you that their lives had actually changed for the better because of this. Contrary to what the tabloids claimed (before they all went out of business when Leo was elected), I didn't actually intend to enslave them and violate the 13th Amendment to our Constitution, which, as you know, abolished and outlawed slavery altogether. I wanted them all to be like me, but that was strictly because I felt their parents didn't do a good job of establishing good moral boundaries; I assumed that what my parents said I could and could not do applied to everybody. (It also goes back to my unconscious craving to hog the spotlight.) I look back at it now in hindsights with regrets, but there was good as well as bad that came out of all that. I'm working to focus on the good parts, but it's not as easy it as it sounds. I thank you for letting me know about these things; the truth sets us free, after all. There's a chance I may talk to you in person because the boss periodically sends me to the nation's capital to check in with Leo; this is because he was worried that the job of being President, which Leo initially did not want, would lead him to blow his top again. Miraculously, that never happened. Let's keep in touch regardless, though; it's always a joy to make new friends, especially in the fight against the evils that plague this world. Yours truly, Nathan Knight, a.k.a. CriptoCat (Cripto for short) Frontman for the rock band Furry Fury[/i][/color]