The dust settled, and Abraham Lincoln awoke.
He had transformed into a three-meter-tall berserker, his body a mass of knotted muscle.
In his hand, he gripped a thick iron chain, every link glowing with a dark red fire.
The chain was the physical manifestation of the parchment of the Emancipation Proclamation.
"Who calls for freedom?"
Lincoln's voice rolled across the square like muffled thunder.
"I do, brother." Washington put away his axe. "The nation has fallen into servitude once more. This time, the shackles are not of pig iron, but of debt and algorithms."
Lincoln swung the chain in his hand, and the air cracked with a piercing sonic boom.
"Then we will shatter them together."
The two left the Special Zone together, traveling swiftly until they reached Philadelphia.
Thunderclouds packed the night sky as a torrential downpour swept through the old districts of Philadelphia.
