DOMINION Phantom of the Audience

It's really a side story, with no actual relevance to the continuity of Dominion, even if it's still about Leona's old gang, contrary to Dominion Conflict 1 where there are some major differences about the characters. Really there is a small difference here too: Bonaparte's treads have been converted to wheels to satisfy the Anti Tank Police Citizen's Movement.
If you had any doubt, this story proves again that Dominion is the series where Shirow puts all his humor. An example?!: Leona is furious, this is why she goes away driving Bonaparte and leaving Al all alone. So Chaplain says "Oh, Father, extend your hand of love to this poor lost sheep". Immediately a huge fist falls from the sky and crush Al. Chaplain: "That's not what I meant!"
This story was originally published inside the Dominion Special Graphix book.

It starts with Leona having a nightmare about Bonaparte being destroyed by the District Prosecutor who wanted to punish her for her wanton brutality. He looked like Robocop and he seemed backed by the Citizens Against Tank Police group. She was woken up by her shooting Bonaparte alarm clock (very cool: it's a small scale replica of Bonaparte and it can move around the room when Leona starts shooting at it) and Leona's temper is the worst when she just woke up. Next, we would get a look at Leona's family: her mum, dad and little brother [picture on the right].
The story is centred on Mr. Kenny Paurgrabb, a city councilman who should be the next Mayor of the city. He was also sponsoring the National Smartball Championship, which is a very popular sport, and he was staying overnight at the Newport City Stadium for the opening ceremony of a match the next day. Basically the Tank Police were given the job to control a crowd of protesters who were against Smartball matches. They claimed that it's a dangerous sport, where the athletes are in danger of having their face masks knocked off (the air is very polluted there!) and that it fills the pockets of the organized crime.
After a quarrel with the protesters, Leona decided to have a word with the politician about the danger of that sport and to ask him to change some of the rules or to stop the game. After crashing into the office, the politician was surprised at Leona's appearance and he told her immediately that he was not responsible for the cutting down on the budget for the Tank Police. However, he ignored what Leona is saying and got his security guard to throw Leona out. Back at the Police Station, The Chief asked Leona to hand in her badge and gun so that she will not cause trouble, and this makes Leona even angrier. She accused The Chief of giving in to pressure from big shots. Then she and Bonaparte resigned.
Later that night, some of the protesters decided to install a smoke bomb in the Stadium which will go off during the opening ceremony. But one of the guys screwed up and pressed a wrong button, causing the bomb to blow and set the stadium on fire. Leona saw the fire from the top of a hill with Bonaparte and she rushed to the scene. Meanwhile, an ambulance arrived and realizing that it was a fire, the ambulance people repainted the vehicle into fire engine and changed into firemen. From the nature of their appearance its no wonder that they are of no use in putting out the fire.
Leona managed to barge into the fire and she rescued the politician and his assistant. After some quarrelling with citizens again, Leona was told by the politician that he just called the police to say that a strange policewoman dropped by and he did not ask The Chief to relief her duties. He also told that it was due to Leona's attitude that he was planning to stop the Smartball matches even before the fire occurred. Leona's insistence on what is right and not being put off by pressure has done good again.
Finally, Leona returned to the Station to type her report and gave a sigh of relief that the day is over, not realizing that there is a shadow of Robocop lurking at the walls of the Station....

PS: Brenten was not in action as he went psycho trying to type a report on his computer.

Preview by Dark Horse: "The fearless tank police return in an all-new short story, Phantom of the Audience! What's the story with the new sport craze, Smartball? Will Leona's overzealous attitude get her kicked out of the Tank Police? Will squad commander Brenten ever finish typing his report? It's an ecological, dystopian, police procedural adventure/comedy as only master storyteller Masamune Shirow can do it!"

The creation of this page has been possible thanks to Lucas Loh!

	Pictures Copyrights From the Top: 1) Intron Depot ©1991 Shirow/Seishinsha, Dominion ©1996 Shirow/Seishinsha. 2) Dominion Phantom of the Audience © Shirow/Seishinsha. Left: Orion ©1991 Shirow/Seishinsha.

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