Deep Dive • Project Superman (05) Was Andy Pero A Super Soldier?

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Some Dare Call It Conspiracy.
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Welcome to the Some Dare Call It Conspiracy podcast, hosted
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by Brent Lee and Neil Sanders. After nearly 20 years
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exploring the world of conspiracy culture, We're taking our guests
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and listeners on a guided tour of the rabbit hole.
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Our mission, to discover where the truth lies.
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Anyway, they experiment on Andy. The juice. Now with the
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new head man, the experiments seem to have increased in
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their viciousness. Now it was back to the table where
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they would strap me down and begin giving me shock
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treatments again. They would hook me up with electrodes and
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give me the juice, giving me shocks through my genitals,
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through a needle in my ear. They were on, in,
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and all over my body. The man in the blue
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lab coat instructed me to turn off all of my
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nerve endings at the main junction box in the blue
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room in my mind. Oh, bit of blue for dads.
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I remember looking at the ceiling, and then this sort
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of tickling or numbing sensation comes over me. As it
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continues to increase, I start to switch. Hold it back,
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I say to myself. Hold it back. Until finally, I
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just cannot. I begin to start screaming as I'm now
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violently shaking on the table. Everything is black for a while,
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but then they see my body. I'm floating upwards and
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I see myself with people all around me and they're
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trying to restart my heart. Then everything goes black again
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and I flash into the blue room in my mind.
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I'm dragging myself towards the healing pool as I'm hurt badly.
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and struggle over the short wall and flop into the pool.
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In my mind, I close my eyes and submerge under
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the green bubbling water and just think, heal yourself, heal yourself.
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When I open my eyes again, I am back in
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the lab. Now, it's not for me to say that
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this was in any way taken or informed by pop culture.
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This is clearly the very real recovered memories of Andy Pirro.
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But what I am saying is that there was a
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very famous story scene of electroshock torture in the popular
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film lethal weapon a film about a man trained programmed
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if you will to be a ruthless killer that is
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having a hard time dealing with his traumatic memories but
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again this is just it's just one of those weird
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things that the universe just spits out another time they
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put me in a tank of water and sealed the
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top to see if i could breathe underwater the first
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few times i managed to escape before i drowned to
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death I love that. Drowned to death. But then finally,
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they finally got a tank that I could not break
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and had a sealed top. Ah, top. Why don't we
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think to put a top on it? A sealed one. Brilliant.
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I remember violently trying to get out, but could not.
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I drowned and I black out. I see my body
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again as I'm floating above it again. This time they're
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pumping my chest to get the water out of my lungs.
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I see my face, my eyes and my mouth are open.
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And again, I flashed to the healing pool, I flopped
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myself in. At some point, I don't know exactly when
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I had added a little handicapped ramp to the pool,
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so I wouldn't have as much trouble when I had
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to enter the pool. But again, when I opened the eyes,
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I'm looking at the ceiling again. So I think we
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all picked up on this. Andy cannot die. Or more accurately,
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in the extreme circumstances that can cause him to die,
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he has the power to bring himself back to life,
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which is, you know, That is, if you had that
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on your CV, people would be impressed. Like, you know,
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it's better than took a gap year to find myself.
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You can bring yourself back to life. That is interesting. Anyway,
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they were trying to see what I was capable of doing.
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They were obsessed with asking me if I could move
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objects with my mind. There should be objects. If I
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could float in the air, if I could make objects
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float in the air. What they were trying to do
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was place a suggestion in my subconscious and then see
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if I could do it. They were asking you if
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you could do stuff. Never mind. See, if I really
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believe that I could do it, like telling me that
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I could breathe underwater and then locking me in the
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tank until I drowned and then revive me again, telling
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me that I could fly and then push me off
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a ledge, things like that. Here's the limitation as to
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what I could do and what I couldn't do as
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best as I could figure out. You see, I had
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already learned as a child that humans physically cannot breathe
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underwater and humans physically cannot fly. I already knew this
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and it was embedded too far in my thought process
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to be removed. What about jumping out of fucking airplanes
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or running up vertical walls? Five step, 90 degree vertical, whatever.
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Like they can't do them either. But anyway. So even
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with their hypnosis and conditioning, somewhere deep down inside, I
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knew I could not do these things. So naturally, I
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could not do them when they asked me to. However,
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what they could do is fool my mind, telling me
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things like I had an egg in my hand and
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to crush it. When in reality, it would be a
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tennis ball or a can of soda. That's no good
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at all in like a field scenario. And that's also bollocks.
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You've been crushing people's skulls with your hands. So never mind.
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falling my mind into thinking that everything I jumped off
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was only as high as a footstool, falling my mind
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into believing that I could run as fast as a
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cheetah and as agile as a gazelle, falling my mind
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into believing that when I shot a gun, I was
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a computerized robot that shot with pinpoint accuracy. But they
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weren't falling you into thinking that you were jumping off
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at one step. You knew that you were jumping out.
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It was about if you could survive terminal velocity by
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pretending that your legs were springs. So, He's incoherent in
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his own theory here. But there's another point as well.
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It's like, if you could convince yourself that you were
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as light as a bubble, why couldn't you then float?
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But the text stubbornly refuses to address this. Then, incredibly weirdly,
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he segues into some self-help stuff about the power of
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positive thinking. And it's all written mostly in shouting. Why
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can't you go after your dream? Who says that you
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cannot do it? I know that's a natural pause there,
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but there is dot, dot, dot in between who says
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and that you cannot do it. It renders the sentence meaningless,
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but let's not get bogged down. You are never too
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old and it's never too late unless you're on your deathbed.
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I say and I believe. life all boils down to
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fear whether or not you really have the courage to
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find out what you are really made of although this
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does feel i mean it's very nice and all like
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and you know rah rah rah etc and like you
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know encourage people to follow their dreams and stuff like
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that but it does feel somewhat redundant when you realize
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that he's basically saying look if i could jump out
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of an airplane and come back from the dead what
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the hell is stopping you from living your dream doesn't
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doesn't really it rings somewhat hollow doesn't it when you
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realize that despite the seeming positive intentions and even the
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good nature of the message that it is delivered by
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a man who at best is completely full of shit
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never mind anyway andy keeps trying to escape after each
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treatment one time i remember walking up and down uh
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waking up now in the lab are several men i
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get off the table and i'm standing They try and
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force me to the ground. No, I scream. And all
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of a sudden it was like I had the strength
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of 10 men. You've had that before. I threw those
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two to the ground and then three more grabbed me
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and I'm wrestling with them to get. And then three
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more grabbed me. Some around my waist, some around my body.
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And they're trying to get me to the ground. I'm
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freaking out and fighting back with all my might. And
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I throw them off me like they were the size
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of five-year-olds. What the fuck is this obsession with five-year-olds?
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you spotted it as well I saw your face respond.
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I was waiting for it this time actually I was
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like oh are they going to be five year.
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Olds there's always five year olds in Andy Piro's world
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apparently but like ants they kept swarming on me and
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no matter how many I threw off more were always
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on me there were at least six guys on me
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and they thought I was spent but I paused for
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that exact reason Then in one burst, I was driving
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with all my might towards the man in the blue
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lab coat. I got to only a few feet away
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when they wrestled me to the ground and stuck me
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in the ass again with a syringe. Just before they
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stuck me, and then after, but before I blacked out again,
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I remember the men screaming, hurry up and just stick
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him anywhere. Then as the drugs disabled me to move,
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I could still hear them for a minute or two.
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It was black, but I could still hear them talking.
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And one guy said, Jesus Christ. That was like trying
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to wrestle a bull for Christ's sake. And the other
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guy says, I don't know about a bull, but how
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about a rhino? And they all laugh. First of all,
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top bands, that's extremely witty. Congratulations on spotting that Andy's
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nickname is also an animal that is big, belligerent and
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indelicate around fine China. But again, more significantly, What is
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this fucking obsession with throwing five-year-olds around them, sexually or otherwise? Like,
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it's troubling. I don't know how many times this happened.
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It was all the same night. If it was all
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the same night or if it was during different nights,
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as I became stronger and stronger. Finally, I ripped free
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of the straps. I didn't rip the thick leather straps themselves.
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I ripped them off from where they were connected to
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the table. Then when I had my left arm free,
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I unbuckled my right and undid my legs. I was
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off the table. The lab is empty except for that
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son of a bitch in the baby blue lab coat,
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Bill Nye. His back is, oh, and his assistant. His
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back is turned to me and I walk up very
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quietly over to him. I want to see the look
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on his face when he sees me free. I walk
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up behind him and when the son of a bitch
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turns around and sees me, all he says with no
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change in his facial expression is, What do you want?
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I instantly grab him by the throat with my left
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hand and with my arm. This is like a hydraulic vice.
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I crush his throat as easily with as much effort
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as it takes to crush an empty beer can. Then
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I let him go. He flops around. You see, there's
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no you've just murdered a man. You've not convinced yourself
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that you're crushing a beer can like you like. So again, whatever.
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He flops around for a while like a fish out
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of water, gasping for air, holding his throat. Within seconds,
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he stops moving. I turn to my right and look
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at the lab assistant. He sees me looking at him,
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and he drops his clipboard. The look of fear in
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his eyes is unforgettable. He has short brown hair and
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brown eyes. He's about 5'9, with a thin build. I
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start to walk over to him. He's backing up as
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far and as fast as he can go. When he
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reaches the wall, he looks away from me as he's
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pressing his body as flat as it goes. He starts screaming. No, please, no.
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I grab him by the shirt. He passes out and
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I just drop him to the floor as I had
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nothing against him personally, for he was just the assistant.
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And so I let him live. I head for the
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door and turn right in the hallway. I start running
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for the outer doors and I'm about halfway down the
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hallway when about six or seven guys leap out of
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nowhere from a connecting hallway and tackle me. I'm wrestling
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with them again and I throw some off. and some
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more jump on the pile. They stink me with the
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needle again, and then again, and then again, until I'm subdued.
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And when I wake up, I'm standing in front of
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this body. The man with the white hair is yelling
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at me. I felt like a puppy who'd just gone
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to the bathroom on the good rug. What is this?
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He yells. What did you do? Look at what you've done.
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And he was yelling at me. I didn't feel bad
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about it. I felt no shame. All I could think
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about was, you're next, you piece of shit. And if
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I could move, I would kill you right here, you
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fucking asshole. But they were controlling my body. And somehow,
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inside my mind, I was still trying to fight on.
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Even though I couldn't move my body, Andy was still
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inside somewhere. And again, it's incredibly lucky that he recovered
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these memories of him being so fucking cool and generally
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impressive so that he could retell them to the rest
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of us. We are deeply, deeply fortunate. Now, I wouldn't
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dream of looking askance at any of these memories, but
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I am aware of certain parallels between this story and
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that of the popular comic book hero, Wolverine. Now, Wolverine
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is the alias of James Howlett, also known as Logan,
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a mutant born in Canada in the late 19th century.
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And he possesses a range of superpowers, including highly advanced
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self-healing abilities, a significantly prolonged lifespan, animal keen sentencers, and
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retractable claws. His skeleton is reinforced with unbreakable fictional male adamantium,
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which he acquired after becoming an unwilling test subject in
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the Weapon X super soldier program. Wolverine is commonly depicted
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as a gruff loner susceptible to animalistic berserker rages who
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struggles to reconcile his humanity with his wild nature. So
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Weapon X in the Wolverine, um, Law is a fictional
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government genetic research facility appearing in Marvel Comics, and they
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were conducted by Department K, which turned willing and unwilling
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beings into living weapons to carry out covert missions like
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assassinations or eliminating potential threats. Some of the work of
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Weapon X was based on experiments detailed in the journals
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of Nazi scientist Nathan Essex. So Wolverine is a natural
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born fighter. And one of the key characteristics is he
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struggled to main his humanity and reconcile it with his
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wild animalistic nature that the government seek to try and enhance.
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This theme occurs through various Wolverine stories, such as the
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period where he temporarily regresses into a bestial state and
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has sex with a doctor's wife. No, that made that bill.
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He has a tendency to lapse into these berserker states
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whilst in close combat, lashing out within such intensity that
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and the aggression of an enraged animal. And despite his
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apparent ease at taking lives because Wolverine kills loads of people,
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he mournfully regrets this and does not enjoy killing. Is
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this all sounding rather similar? Wolverine's primary mutant power is
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an accelerated healing process, typically referred to as a healing
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factor that regenerates damaged or destroyed tissues of his body
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far beyond that of normal humans. His stamina is sufficiently
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heightened to the point that he can exert himself for hours.
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Wolverine's agility and reflexes are also enhanced to levels that
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are beyond the physical limits of the finest human athlete.
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And due to his healing body, in fact, his constant
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regenerative qualities, he can push his muscles beyond the limits
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of a human body without injury and therefore has superhuman strength,
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which all sounds rather familiar, doesn't it? Another thing is
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that I was having a look at the Weapon X
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website um, motion comic the other day. And there appears
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to be quite a lot of scenes where Wolverine is
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in a tank of water, um, either healing or being enhanced.
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So again, some similarities, shall we say before the, um, so, um,
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so basically, yeah, like, um, what happens in Wolverine is they,
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they graph this adamantium to his, his bones, but there's
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several things that, um, are also similar. Basically, one of
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the running themes is that the government are trying to
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control this beast that was created, but Logan's unbreakable spirit
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keeps fighting back. And so they attack parts of his
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mind and they basically, they, well, at one point they,
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they drop him in the snowbound countryside to see if
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he could stand the cold. And then he's attacked by wolves,
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which is never a good time, but luckily he kills them.
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And so Logan, During this time, Wolverine Logan is kept
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in this constant loop of consciousness and unconsciousness inside this
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water tank without daylight, without normal time or without human interaction.
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And they're trying to destroy his sense of self, basically.
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But Weapon X didn't just push delete on Logan's brain.
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Using advanced technology, they implanted false scenarios, fake relationships and
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fabricated backstories into his subconscious. And they wanted to overwrite
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his real past with a fictional reality. where he was
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entirely dependent on and loyal to the program. Now, ultimately,
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the Weapon X program failed. Logan, his primal feral instincts
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overrode their mental conditioning. And guess what he did? He snapped,
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broke out of his healing tank, went on a bloody
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rampage throughout the facility, slaughtered all the guards and doctors
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that had worked on him, and then escaped into the
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frozen Canadian wilderness. But unfortunately, then he had to sort
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of live like a wild animal in the woods with
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no idea of who he was, what his real name
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was or where he came from, carrying only a jumbled
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mess of fragmented nightmares. So again, you'd be forgiven for saying,
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hang on, was Wolverine popular at the time that, um, that, um,
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that this was being written? Yes, very.
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Yes.
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So anyway, Andy escapes, uh, in a very similar fashion. Um,
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after being sick of being electrocuted and basically winds up
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back at his dorm, which is a bad plan because
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as we know, but he doesn't know Brian is in
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with all the Nazis. And so he calls Adolf. And
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at this point I was thinking, why has nobody missed
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Andy at any of his classes? Like surely this must
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take up a huge amount of his time, but apparently
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no one gives a shit. back in the dorm meanwhile
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what is happening back in the dorm room and during
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school while all this is going on i remember strange
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things happening in my normal life during school my high
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high school sweetheart dawn had gone to a different college
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oh fuck off so i was not interested in meeting
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different girls anyway as i was loyal to her and
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alone just because she went to a different school she
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was far prettier than no no you don't know her
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no no you right anyway But all the girls, as
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well as most of the people I knew, thought I
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was the biggest asshole because I didn't talk much to anyone.
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During classes, in the hallways, at parties or anywhere, the
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only people I'd spoken to were the football players and
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the coach. This is my world as far as walking
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to and from classes. I always had my Walkman on.
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People always made jokes that they thought they were glued
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to my head. First off, Andy, mate, nobody believes the
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girlfriend at another school. And secondly, are we picking up
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that this is like, This is probably these elements of
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truth in this is is Andy expressing that he was
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probably very withdrawn and socially awkward at college the story
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is the fantasy of why people should have realized that
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he was a superman because he was a superman like
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you see anyway Andy goes to a stage hypnotist and
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he's about to walk on stage and volunteer. But then
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Adolf and Dr. Green appear and go up on stage
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and have a word with the hypnotist to make the
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hypnotist refuse. And the hypnotist looks terrified. But as Andy's
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walking home, something strange happens. So I remember walking back
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to my room from practice one day and a skinny kid,
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about 180 pounds, comes up to me in front of
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my dorm room and says, you're Andy Piro, right? And
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I say, yes. And he says, you live with Brian
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from Iron Diddy Quite, right? And I say, yes. And
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then he says, I don't know who the hell your
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roommate is, but I'm Brian from Iron Diddy Quite. And
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I said, don't be ridiculous. You don't look anything like
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Brian from Iron Diddy Quite. And I go inside and
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tell my roommate, Brian, who's in case you've missed from
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Iron Diddy Quite, Hey, Brian, some kid out in the
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parking lot says he's you. And I start laughing. And
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he says, what kid? And I pointed him through the
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window while my roommate, Brian, from Iron Diddy Quite, in
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case you'd forgotten, runs out of the door and goes
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out to talk to the kid. I never saw the
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kid again. OK, several things. One, why did they monitor
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him so closely that they happened to stop him speaking
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to a stage hypnotist? but missed him speaking to the
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guy that his handler is impersonating. Also, why did they
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steal someone's identification? Why not just use a new name
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or even his own name? It doesn't matter what his
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name is, isn't important. He's just got to pretend to
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be and his roommate. That's all that matters. There's no
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need to steal someone's identity. Did they steal this guy's
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room too? So what did they do? Did they kill
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this guy? Did they warn him off? Why was he
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compelled to speak to Andy in the first place? Why
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not confront the person who, you know, stole his ID?
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Because you know where he lives, at your house. Like,
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it doesn't make a lot of sense. I remember Mrs.
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Perizza and the woman with the black hair. It's a
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bit rude. All the stuff that he's done with this woman,
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he's not bothered to, like, find out her name. Like,
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but hey, hey. They came up to Rochester several times
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and wanting me to take her and a friend to
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a hotel room. I told her that I could not
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because I already had a girlfriend, even though nobody knew
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her because she went to a different college. And it
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wouldn't be right because I didn't want it done to me.
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She said that I was more addictive than pure cocaine
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and she was addicted. She must have me. Again, I
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told her no. Her and her friend came up three
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or four times. I let them buy me dinner once,
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but that was it. Once after I shot them down,
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they met some of the seniors on the football team
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out at a local bar and had made it with them.
399
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I heard about it. They gave me a lot of
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shit because I must have been crazy because these women
401
00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:22.839
were beautiful. So why did I shoot them down? They
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kept asking me and I would just tell them it's
403
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a long story. So, again, everyone that remembered him as
404
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a bit of a loser and a bit socially awkward
405
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and certainly not a ladies man. You were wrong. He
406
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was cooler than you. He was cooler than you'll ever know.
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So fuck you. So anyway, this physics professor approaches Andy
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and he's concerned. He had figured out that the jump
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in Wilson's Commons should have for all intents and purposes
410
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killed me. How I was close to going to 32
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feet per sec sec and how the military probably was
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having me jump off high things and out of planes.
413
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And he asked me if he was right. Then he
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told me not to tell anyone that they were they
415
00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:11.109
were organising a case against the government. Now, you don't
416
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really have to be a physics professor to figure out
417
00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:17.880
that jumping out of an airplane would kill you. But also, bizarrely,
418
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this physics professor's physics are wrong. So you need to
419
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fall exactly 16 feet to hit the ground at 32
420
00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:29.329
feet per second. Impact at 32 feet per second carries
421
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a significant risk of injury, physical trauma from such a height.
422
00:24:32.470 --> 00:24:37.559
can lead to fractures, concussions or other serious medical complications,
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depending on the landing surface. Anyway, they kill or disappear
424
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this professor. He completely vanishes. And again, nobody really seems
425
00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:54.079
that bothered. So Andy, finally, despite being able to grow
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his muscles with his mind, despite having literally world record
427
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breaking feats of lifting, decides that he should probably get
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on steroids because his roommate Brian's on steroids. And he figures,
429
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why not do steroids? And he becomes even more massive.
430
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And then he explains how to do a steroid cycle
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in painstaking detail that I won't repeat here, but indicates
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to me that he knows more about that than anything
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else that he's mentioned in the book this thus far.
434
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So all of this talk about they were accusing me
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of taking steroids. I wasn't taking steroids. He talks about
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00:25:36.569 --> 00:25:39.529
how to do a cycle and what doses to do
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and when and how long and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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As if he's been doing it a long time. Again,
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who can say purely probably just a coincidence. By the
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end of the sixth week, my muscles had grown so
441
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much that they were so tight that the needle would
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not go through my skin. It was like trying to
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put a needle into wood, and that was with the
444
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muscle in my leg being relaxed. I was also having
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severe chest pains. My heart felt like it was going
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to explode, so I never finished the steroid cycle. The
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00:26:12.900 --> 00:26:15.720
massive steroid doses is just about the time I was
448
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being pushed out of the airplanes. For some reason, Brian
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gets on my case about not finishing the steroid cycle. Dude,
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finish your cycle. You've got to finish your cycle. Don't
451
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masturbate so much, he tells me. How would he know
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what I do when he was never there? I gave
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myself the injection, or if I masturbated, they must have
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had a camera in my room, I remember. You notice
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that he doesn't deny masturbating too much. He's just like, oh,
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don't masturbate so fucking much. Ah. The only explanation is
457
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that they must have a secret camera watching me. That's
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that's slightly telling. Searching the room and finding the camera
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in the light where they've been watching me. As soon
460
00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:03.440
as I found the camera, a camera, some men came
461
00:27:03.579 --> 00:27:07.200
pounding on my door. And that's all I remember. So
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it's not all beer and Skittles being in the Illuminati.
463
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Imagine like spending a whole shift watching roided up Andy
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Piro furiously discovering his body. and presumably having to write
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a report on this and let his roommate know exactly
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00:27:23.900 --> 00:27:28.140
where in their shared living space this unrelenting onanism was
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00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:32.099
taking place. Like, yeah, he sits on your bunk. He
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00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:34.539
sits on your bunk and does it. Yeah, it's all here.
469
00:27:34.619 --> 00:27:38.619
It's all here in the detailed 40-page report. Anyway, see
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00:27:38.660 --> 00:27:43.630
you tomorrow. I remember Brian and his girlfriend Gwen. The
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first eight weeks of the second semester, Brian was never there.
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I had the room to myself. totally by myself. I
473
00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:54.410
wonder how he spent his time. The second eight weeks
474
00:27:54.630 --> 00:27:57.369
Gwen had moved in, she was always there. And let
475
00:27:57.390 --> 00:27:59.549
me tell you, this was annoying. I bet it was
476
00:27:59.970 --> 00:28:05.230
like constant trips to the bathroom. After the school, Gwen
477
00:28:05.279 --> 00:28:07.680
made several passes at me and I turned her down
478
00:28:07.740 --> 00:28:10.460
every time. I'm not surprised. He's probably knackered. There'll be
479
00:28:10.500 --> 00:28:13.099
no fluid left in his fucking body. Apparently you only
480
00:28:13.140 --> 00:28:16.839
get to book it anyway. Anyway, After the school year
481
00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:19.420
was almost over, Brian and Gwen sit me down and
482
00:28:19.460 --> 00:28:21.849
tells me, dude, this is going to blow your mind,
483
00:28:22.109 --> 00:28:25.109
but we're not really boyfriend and girlfriend. What do you mean?
484
00:28:25.190 --> 00:28:25.650
I ask.
485
00:28:26.130 --> 00:28:28.230
We've been assigned together and we have been watching you.
486
00:28:28.650 --> 00:28:29.509
Who has been watching me?
487
00:28:29.589 --> 00:28:30.029
I ask.
488
00:28:30.349 --> 00:28:32.930
The people we work for, he says. Which is who?
489
00:28:33.329 --> 00:28:33.650
I ask.
490
00:28:33.690 --> 00:28:36.970
He says, dude, who do you think runs the country?
491
00:28:37.470 --> 00:28:41.289
The government, I answer. They both start laughing. Dude, are
492
00:28:41.309 --> 00:28:43.710
you really ignorant enough to believe that the country is
493
00:28:43.809 --> 00:28:46.859
really run by the government? The country is really run
494
00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:51.160
by special interest groups, very, very powerful groups. And they
495
00:28:51.220 --> 00:28:54.549
want you to be a part of their group. And
496
00:28:54.569 --> 00:28:57.190
then they do experiments where he's submerged in freezing water
497
00:28:57.230 --> 00:28:58.789
for hours at a time. And he's trained to be
498
00:28:58.829 --> 00:29:02.910
an expert marksman and have detailed knowledge of guns, how
499
00:29:02.950 --> 00:29:05.950
they work, how to take them apart and how to
500
00:29:06.029 --> 00:29:10.720
rebuild them. Chapter four.
501
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:15.299
Blam, blam, blam.
502
00:29:16.309 --> 00:29:21.109
Blam blam step back remove the clip from the pistol
503
00:29:21.509 --> 00:29:24.630
clear the last round from the chamber place both the
504
00:29:24.690 --> 00:29:27.930
clip and the pistol back on the ledge and take
505
00:29:27.970 --> 00:29:32.210
two steps back this all took place in probably under
506
00:29:32.210 --> 00:29:34.609
10 seconds i did all this just like i'd done
507
00:29:34.650 --> 00:29:37.150
it a thousand times before and like i knew it
508
00:29:37.250 --> 00:29:40.640
like the back of my hand the instructor comes by
509
00:29:40.700 --> 00:29:43.819
my side and starts lecturing me about squeezing gently on
510
00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:46.440
the trigger and how to shoot my rounds one at
511
00:29:46.519 --> 00:29:49.339
a time and in control. I have tuned him out
512
00:29:50.059 --> 00:29:52.019
as I am focusing on the small crowd which is
513
00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:55.240
now gathered around the target within a matter of seconds
514
00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:58.279
and there seem to be mixed reviews about my performance.
515
00:29:59.140 --> 00:30:02.309
and a large amount of discussion is going on. It
516
00:30:02.380 --> 00:30:05.069
seems I'd hit the target exactly in the centre of
517
00:30:05.109 --> 00:30:10.390
the head, but only once. Finally, Adolf walks back and
518
00:30:10.430 --> 00:30:14.210
stands in front of me. Rhino, he says. Why did
519
00:30:14.230 --> 00:30:16.700
you shoot the target once and then deliberately waste the
520
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:21.339
rest of your rounds, he asks. I didn't, I answered. Rhino,
521
00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:24.799
there's only one hole in the fucking target. Now answer me.
522
00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:28.200
Why did you deliberately miss with the rest of your rounds?
523
00:30:29.539 --> 00:30:32.839
I didn't. It's just random.
524
00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:33.480
I'm telling you.
525
00:30:36.150 --> 00:30:38.769
I didn't answer. And at that point, I remember a
526
00:30:38.789 --> 00:30:41.369
feeling of such pride and such arrogance, a feeling that
527
00:30:41.450 --> 00:30:45.029
I'd never felt before. This feeling overwhelmed me and I
528
00:30:45.109 --> 00:30:48.109
could not help but smile. And I stood there. I
529
00:30:48.170 --> 00:30:50.539
stuck out my chest and in the cockiest demeanor I
530
00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:55.799
could muster, I answered, look again. Adolf is looking at
531
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:57.900
me with a sort of puzzled look. and his face,
532
00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:00.779
and he turns and walks back to the target. He
533
00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:03.700
moves the people aside, and he looks at it. He
534
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:06.000
turns and looks back at me, then looks at the
535
00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:10.079
back of the target. He takes three steps towards me. Rhino,
536
00:31:10.099 --> 00:31:13.960
there's only one. Look again, I yell. And he walks
537
00:31:14.029 --> 00:31:17.269
back to the sandbags, and the group follow. They're looking
538
00:31:17.309 --> 00:31:19.910
for the bullet holes, and I'm watching as all eyes
539
00:31:19.970 --> 00:31:23.599
are scanning the wall of sandbags. I hear, here it is.
540
00:31:24.740 --> 00:31:26.480
And I see one of the lab instructors stick his
541
00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:29.819
finger into one of the sandbags. There is still puzzlement
542
00:31:29.859 --> 00:31:32.480
and confusion among the group. They can find only one
543
00:31:32.549 --> 00:31:35.289
bullet hole. Finally, I see a man with white hair
544
00:31:35.369 --> 00:31:37.869
pull out his pocket knife and cut into the sandbag.
545
00:31:38.730 --> 00:31:41.410
I cannot see what is going on as the group
546
00:31:41.490 --> 00:31:43.730
closes around him. But all of a sudden, I hear
547
00:31:43.750 --> 00:31:46.930
this roar of approval from the crowd. And Adolf emerges
548
00:31:46.970 --> 00:31:49.920
from the crowd with his hand outstretched and something in
549
00:31:49.960 --> 00:31:53.200
his palm. He approaches me. There's a small pile of
550
00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:56.720
bullets in his hand. You shot all your rounds through
551
00:31:56.769 --> 00:32:00.230
the same hole, didn't you? Of course. That's what you
552
00:32:00.269 --> 00:32:02.630
told me to do, I answer. And as I answer,
553
00:32:02.890 --> 00:32:06.369
the roar erupts again. I remember standing there feeling very
554
00:32:06.470 --> 00:32:09.599
proud of myself, yet at the same time feeling very puzzled.
555
00:32:10.059 --> 00:32:12.460
What are they so excited about? I was asking myself.
556
00:32:12.759 --> 00:32:14.960
To me, it was as easy as taking the cap
557
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:17.759
off a ballpoint pen and putting it back on really
558
00:32:17.819 --> 00:32:22.029
fast five times. Simple. A child could do it. What
559
00:32:22.049 --> 00:32:27.349
was all the hoopla about? I had absolutely no clue. So, yes,
560
00:32:27.880 --> 00:32:30.359
he shot all the bullets through the same hole. He's
561
00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:35.880
like Robin Hood, but with guns. Yeah, exactly. The 1991
562
00:32:35.880 --> 00:32:39.200
movie Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Is there a bit
563
00:32:39.240 --> 00:32:41.599
where he shoots? Well, it's the tournament. He splits the
564
00:32:41.819 --> 00:32:43.059
arrow in half, doesn't he?
565
00:32:43.140 --> 00:32:45.859
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
566
00:32:46.119 --> 00:32:46.420
Yeah.
567
00:32:46.640 --> 00:32:46.839
Yeah.
568
00:32:50.210 --> 00:32:50.930
Yes, yes.
569
00:32:50.950 --> 00:32:52.210
Good spot. Good spot.
570
00:32:53.680 --> 00:32:56.480
So Andy claims that he wasn't allowed toy guns or
571
00:32:56.539 --> 00:32:59.200
weapons or toys like any sort of violent weapons when
572
00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:02.200
he was a kid, despite his dad being in the military.
573
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:07.690
When my father came with my father coming back from Vietnam,
574
00:33:07.710 --> 00:33:10.150
a different man and having severe mental anguish about what
575
00:33:10.190 --> 00:33:12.750
happened over there and the whole experience. And after what
576
00:33:12.789 --> 00:33:15.150
happens to Mr. Johnson, I can't really blame her for
577
00:33:15.170 --> 00:33:19.650
the gun hysteria. I can only try to understand. But anyway,
578
00:33:20.230 --> 00:33:22.150
here I was a 19 year old kid and all
579
00:33:22.170 --> 00:33:24.089
of a sudden I got to fire all of these
580
00:33:24.230 --> 00:33:27.130
really cool guns. And they had all this really cool
581
00:33:27.170 --> 00:33:30.960
stuff like knives, killing wires, night vision goggles, and all
582
00:33:30.980 --> 00:33:33.599
of these adults were running around as fast as they
583
00:33:33.640 --> 00:33:38.259
could for me. Um, but he did, he gave his
584
00:33:38.299 --> 00:33:41.980
father's life story earlier and he didn't mention Vietnam. Uh,
585
00:33:42.019 --> 00:33:43.640
as far as I can see, his father didn't serve
586
00:33:43.700 --> 00:33:48.519
in Vietnam, but, um, Hey, Hey. So anyway, Andy obviously
587
00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:51.940
becomes an expert with all these types of guns and
588
00:33:52.119 --> 00:33:54.119
shooting them in all types of different ways from all
589
00:33:54.200 --> 00:33:59.900
types of crazy distances. I could hit any target still
590
00:33:59.960 --> 00:34:02.519
or moving at any range with any of the guns
591
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:05.880
in the exact center every time. Except for some reason,
592
00:34:05.940 --> 00:34:08.670
I remember having some trouble with the semi-automatic type stuff
593
00:34:08.929 --> 00:34:11.389
because the gun was not designed for accuracy. It was
594
00:34:11.409 --> 00:34:14.369
designed for speed. So it would fire so fast that
595
00:34:14.389 --> 00:34:17.730
the distribution pattern just wasn't accurate enough. And by not
596
00:34:17.809 --> 00:34:20.909
accurate enough, I mean instead of having one bullet hole
597
00:34:21.309 --> 00:34:24.030
in which all the spent rounds would pass through in
598
00:34:24.070 --> 00:34:26.469
the exact centre of the red dot, which the targets
599
00:34:26.530 --> 00:34:30.360
now came with already painted on, the semi-automatics would basically
600
00:34:30.420 --> 00:34:33.139
just eliminate the entire red dot, which was the size
601
00:34:33.159 --> 00:34:35.519
of a half dollar. If I emptied the clip in
602
00:34:35.619 --> 00:34:39.949
one burst, this was basically still an unbelievable bullseye and
603
00:34:40.010 --> 00:34:42.849
show of marksmanship, but it was not what they wanted.
604
00:34:43.269 --> 00:34:46.349
They wanted every bullet through the exact same hole every time,
605
00:34:46.590 --> 00:34:49.230
all the time in the exact center of the red dot.
606
00:34:49.329 --> 00:34:52.750
No exceptions and no excuses. So they backed off using
607
00:34:52.789 --> 00:34:56.619
these guns for that for a time period. So when
608
00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:59.860
he moves outside, because he's been doing all this practicing inside.
609
00:34:59.880 --> 00:35:03.539
So when he moves outside this, this slight change in
610
00:35:03.619 --> 00:35:07.980
environment causes like small errors in his shooting. And so
611
00:35:08.039 --> 00:35:10.199
to get rid of this, Andy uses the silver mind
612
00:35:10.239 --> 00:35:14.000
control to create a supercomputer interface in his brain so
613
00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:19.110
that they could directly program skills into his mind. I
614
00:35:19.170 --> 00:35:20.869
don't know exactly what they did to me, but I
615
00:35:20.889 --> 00:35:23.409
remember suddenly being able to run as fast as a cheetah,
616
00:35:23.710 --> 00:35:25.909
as fast as I needed to run, being able to
617
00:35:25.989 --> 00:35:28.809
leap like a gazelle and being able to traverse any
618
00:35:28.909 --> 00:35:31.679
obstacle with ease, having the feeling of being a puma
619
00:35:31.719 --> 00:35:35.920
as I stalked my victim with patience, stealth and cat-like reflexes,
620
00:35:36.309 --> 00:35:39.570
totally camouflaged in the tall grass, yet patiently waiting for
621
00:35:39.610 --> 00:35:43.119
the moment to pounce. Of course, also being able to
622
00:35:43.219 --> 00:35:46.300
climb like a monkey. Any object, no matter how tall
623
00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:48.579
or smooth, I can figure out a way to get
624
00:35:48.639 --> 00:35:52.239
up there without any hesitation and without any fear. They
625
00:35:52.300 --> 00:35:55.199
instill these attributes directly into my mind and into my
626
00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:59.719
personality using the helmet of knowledge. Anything these animals could do,
627
00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:06.030
I could do, only better, because I was the rhino, unstoppable, undefeatable.
628
00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:10.239
I could anything, anything they asked me to do, I
629
00:36:10.300 --> 00:36:14.940
could do. That's not a correctly formulated sentence, but never mind.
630
00:36:15.460 --> 00:36:18.960
I was the perfect killing machine because the perfect killing
631
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:22.550
machine was the rhino. And for some reason, I was
632
00:36:22.590 --> 00:36:26.909
very proud of this fact. I would be, you know. Now,
633
00:36:26.989 --> 00:36:29.130
I don't wish to suggest that this might have been
634
00:36:29.170 --> 00:36:32.409
somewhat informed by pop culture, but that doesn't half sound
635
00:36:32.469 --> 00:36:36.480
like the I know Kung Fu scene from The Matrix. Now,
636
00:36:36.500 --> 00:36:41.260
of course, that did actually come out after Project Superman.
637
00:36:41.860 --> 00:36:47.809
So he didn't get it from that. However, the Matrix
638
00:36:47.889 --> 00:36:52.230
was actually heavily influenced by the manga Ghost in a Shell,
639
00:36:52.530 --> 00:36:57.239
which has incredibly similar themes of downloading people's using the
640
00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:01.320
mind as a literal computer interface and downloading skills into it.
641
00:37:01.559 --> 00:37:02.750
And that came out in 1995. So who can say?
642
00:37:06.829 --> 00:37:09.469
Andy recalls running at night, being chased down by a
643
00:37:09.530 --> 00:37:11.650
car that was trying to run him over. And it's
644
00:37:11.690 --> 00:37:15.000
the fear of death that causes this adrenaline rush that
645
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:19.719
basically spurs him on. I hear the car coming to
646
00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:22.639
run me over. Then the rush would kick in again.
647
00:37:22.820 --> 00:37:24.860
That feeling of running for your life when your heart
648
00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:27.570
starts to pound and the adrenaline starts to flow. When
649
00:37:27.590 --> 00:37:30.409
the instinct takes over and you don't look back, you
650
00:37:30.429 --> 00:37:35.190
get tunnel vision. And all you think is about faster, faster, faster.
651
00:37:35.769 --> 00:37:37.710
I don't know how fast I was running, but I
652
00:37:37.769 --> 00:37:41.550
remember them yelling from the car, run Rhino, run like
653
00:37:41.590 --> 00:37:44.650
a cheetah. And afterwards I hear the jokes about how
654
00:37:44.690 --> 00:37:47.449
they should put me in the Olympics and bet money
655
00:37:47.530 --> 00:37:51.059
on me because what I was doing was not humanly possible.
656
00:37:51.980 --> 00:37:57.880
They seem surprised at the, the abilities of the being
657
00:37:57.920 --> 00:38:06.900
created in this super soldier program. Like anyway, He then
658
00:38:06.940 --> 00:38:09.480
remembers that he could run extremely fast at high school,
659
00:38:09.539 --> 00:38:12.579
but just like with the football, none of his teachers
660
00:38:12.639 --> 00:38:17.130
believed him. And this happened not only at freshman year college,
661
00:38:18.150 --> 00:38:22.469
but also high school. They repeatedly timed him doing the
662
00:38:22.489 --> 00:38:26.010
40-yard dash, but it was always dismissed as the result
663
00:38:26.030 --> 00:38:28.530
of an error or some sort of type of cheating
664
00:38:28.570 --> 00:38:32.340
because the times were all so unbelievably fast. So rather
665
00:38:32.380 --> 00:38:35.280
than like go, maybe we've got someone really fast here,
666
00:38:35.619 --> 00:38:39.980
They just like dismiss this. So, again, despite all these
667
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:42.579
people believing that he was shit at this, he was
668
00:38:42.619 --> 00:38:47.269
actually better than you. Something must be wrong. That's not right,
669
00:38:47.289 --> 00:38:49.489
they would say. That's not possible. In high school, the
670
00:38:49.530 --> 00:38:52.389
coach thought I was cheating and running only 35 yards.
671
00:38:52.690 --> 00:38:55.090
And he made me run it five times. Even as
672
00:38:55.130 --> 00:38:57.590
the other kids ran in between my runs, when I
673
00:38:57.650 --> 00:39:00.030
got to the line and ran my time, he would
674
00:39:00.070 --> 00:39:02.110
run back and accuse me of cheating and running from
675
00:39:02.150 --> 00:39:05.019
the wrong line. even with the other kids swearing that
676
00:39:05.079 --> 00:39:07.820
I wasn't cheating. He called the whole team a bunch
677
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:11.679
of liars. In his senior year of high school, a
678
00:39:11.739 --> 00:39:14.840
new coach called Doug Parcells joins the staff. And Doug
679
00:39:14.880 --> 00:39:17.989
Parcells did actually work at this university. He's the younger
680
00:39:18.030 --> 00:39:21.670
brother of an NFL coach for the New York Jets,
681
00:39:21.750 --> 00:39:28.670
Bill Parcells. So this guy knows his shit, apparently. Why
682
00:39:28.730 --> 00:39:31.940
isn't Andy a captain? Parcells asked. He's pound for pound
683
00:39:31.960 --> 00:39:34.340
the best blocker I've ever coached, and he's the best
684
00:39:34.380 --> 00:39:37.820
defensive player I've ever seen. And the smugness of Hyman
685
00:39:38.119 --> 00:39:41.380
finally aired its ugly head. Parcells tried to tell Hyman
686
00:39:41.400 --> 00:39:44.280
that he recognised that I had a certain mental condition.
687
00:39:44.579 --> 00:39:47.289
Of course, the name escapes me. where when some kids
688
00:39:47.329 --> 00:39:49.860
growing up have such superior abilities to all the other
689
00:39:49.909 --> 00:39:53.219
kids in a given area, whether it be sports, mathematics
690
00:39:53.539 --> 00:39:56.920
or musical talent, these kids have such natural abilities that
691
00:39:56.960 --> 00:39:59.360
for some reason they can literally blow anyone else away
692
00:39:59.420 --> 00:40:02.039
at will. They don't because they want to be liked
693
00:40:02.099 --> 00:40:04.670
by everyone else. They want to fit in and be
694
00:40:04.730 --> 00:40:07.489
like everyone else. They want to have friends and not
695
00:40:07.510 --> 00:40:09.670
to have everyone jealous of what they can do. So
696
00:40:09.690 --> 00:40:12.769
they unconsciously don't do their best. They can do much
697
00:40:12.829 --> 00:40:15.650
better if they really wanted to, but they don't really
698
00:40:15.710 --> 00:40:19.630
want to. He recognized this in me almost instantly when
699
00:40:19.739 --> 00:40:21.840
everyone else for years would give me the cold shoulder
700
00:40:22.039 --> 00:40:26.099
from Hyman's verbal slander over the years. It's funny because
701
00:40:26.119 --> 00:40:28.659
when coach Parcells was talking to the Penn state football
702
00:40:28.679 --> 00:40:31.059
staff about our football abilities, he said to them, you
703
00:40:31.079 --> 00:40:32.760
have to be very careful what you say when you're
704
00:40:32.780 --> 00:40:35.420
around Andy, because anything you tell him, he will literally
705
00:40:35.480 --> 00:40:37.699
do to the letter. And I mean, to the letter,
706
00:40:38.079 --> 00:40:41.510
if you give him some sort of unsolvable problem days later,
707
00:40:41.570 --> 00:40:43.610
he will come back and blow your mind with some
708
00:40:43.650 --> 00:40:45.909
sort of solution. And that, so you just have to
709
00:40:45.949 --> 00:40:48.909
be careful. what you say when you're around him. Yeah,
710
00:40:48.929 --> 00:40:51.150
because that'd be fucking awful, isn't it? Like solving all
711
00:40:51.170 --> 00:40:55.010
your problems all the time, like some sort of multifaceted
712
00:40:55.210 --> 00:41:02.369
fucking Goodwill hunting. Nightmare. When we get to the field,
713
00:41:02.690 --> 00:41:04.320
they open the trunk of the car and there are
714
00:41:04.360 --> 00:41:06.360
five or six of these cases. And as I stood
715
00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:08.760
there and watched, they opened these cases and inside of
716
00:41:08.800 --> 00:41:12.539
these huge rifles for everyone. And they start assembling them
717
00:41:12.599 --> 00:41:15.829
except me. I just stood there. I knew what those
718
00:41:16.349 --> 00:41:20.090
things were used for. Assassinations was the only answer. And
719
00:41:20.150 --> 00:41:22.969
somewhere inside me, I said, they're going to want me
720
00:41:23.010 --> 00:41:26.250
to kill. They're going to want me to kill someone.
721
00:41:27.030 --> 00:41:30.119
And I knew that if I shot well, what other
722
00:41:30.199 --> 00:41:33.199
answer could there be? And thinking to myself, I want
723
00:41:33.239 --> 00:41:36.579
no part of this, you fucking sons of bitches. At
724
00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:39.179
that moment is when this all was no longer a
725
00:41:39.239 --> 00:41:42.360
game to me. I finally realized what their intentions were.
726
00:41:43.860 --> 00:41:45.460
What the fucking hell did he think all the other
727
00:41:45.500 --> 00:41:48.900
shooting was for? All the training in combat with killing
728
00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:52.630
wires and knives. What did he think? What did he
729
00:41:52.690 --> 00:41:59.130
think was the purpose and function of the killing wire? Also,
730
00:41:59.150 --> 00:42:03.289
hasn't he already killed about five people? He killed three
731
00:42:03.329 --> 00:42:06.860
people in that initial account. He killed Bill Nye, the
732
00:42:06.900 --> 00:42:12.469
science guy. Yeah. Yeah. He's killed like four or five people,
733
00:42:12.710 --> 00:42:15.710
and that's just the ones that he can remember. God,
734
00:42:15.730 --> 00:42:20.789
he's so like Wolverine. Anyway, I tried to explain to
735
00:42:20.849 --> 00:42:24.349
him why I couldn't shoot the assassin rifle. I explained
736
00:42:24.369 --> 00:42:25.710
to him that when I shot the pistol or the
737
00:42:25.769 --> 00:42:28.489
regular rifle, that I didn't aim with the gun. Yes,
738
00:42:28.550 --> 00:42:30.960
I would shoulder the weapon, but I aimed with my mind,
739
00:42:31.039 --> 00:42:33.260
not the gun sight. I had to see the target
740
00:42:33.280 --> 00:42:36.599
with my own eyes, and then I shot automatically without thinking.
741
00:42:37.119 --> 00:42:40.690
With the rifle, the key was this huge scope. And
742
00:42:40.710 --> 00:42:43.739
when I looked through it, it was somehow different. And
743
00:42:43.800 --> 00:42:45.750
I said I was sorry, but I just couldn't do it.
744
00:42:46.039 --> 00:42:48.900
To this day, I'd never seen a grown man throw
745
00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:52.579
such a temper tantrum. He was absolutely livid and freaking
746
00:42:52.619 --> 00:42:54.739
out with rage. And he gets in my face and
747
00:42:54.760 --> 00:42:58.340
begins to scream at me again. I'm sorry. I just
748
00:42:58.400 --> 00:42:59.070
can't do it.
749
00:42:59.579 --> 00:43:00.119
I answer.
750
00:43:01.300 --> 00:43:03.440
What do you mean you can't? You can't. He's not
751
00:43:03.510 --> 00:43:07.889
in your vocabulary. He screams. I just step back. I'm sorry.
752
00:43:08.050 --> 00:43:10.250
I just can't do it. That's not how it works.
753
00:43:10.679 --> 00:43:13.010
And I proceed to go back into how I aim
754
00:43:13.050 --> 00:43:16.710
with my mind, not the gun. And he cuts me off. Fuck.
755
00:43:16.969 --> 00:43:18.889
Now what are we going to do? I felt a
756
00:43:18.909 --> 00:43:21.570
surge of power as I'd fought back somehow and won.
757
00:43:22.190 --> 00:43:25.289
We pack up, get back into the car and start driving.
758
00:43:26.030 --> 00:43:29.409
But that's all I remember about the assassin rifles.
759
00:43:37.730 --> 00:43:38.550
Thank you.