Croot

***Croot*** is the third issue of *Before the Incal*. It's divided in three chapters. In this issue DiFool starts to uncover the secret behind the aristos.

It was published in 1991 by Les Humanoïdes Associés. It was written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, illustrated by Zoran Janjetov.

## Plot

### **Hope, Wretched Hope**

John meets with Luz in her conapt, and she
gives him a tour, showing him the house. When they enter her anti-g bedchamber, Luz tries to use her charms to manipulate John into becoming her mandog (men who have their humanity removed leaving them with only their
animal self, humanimals). She wants him to sign a contract
with his handprints, saying that he relinquishes his human will and intelligence
over a span of ten years. John signs it, falling into the Prime Minister's trap,
since now they can erase his memory. However Koblos-5, driving the moto-vette, manages to save John by blowing up the wall of Luz's conapt. A battle begins between the cybo-cops and John, and
Koblos-5 takes out the modified Cogan to shoot at them. John’s eye-cop decides to call on all
eye-cops, saying they’re under illegal attack by Police Central. Meanwhile, Diavaloo starts reporting on the battle.

Supra-divinoid is worried that the holovid cameras will
uncover the scandal, so he uses the chain-of-command to contacts the cybo-commander at
Police Central, who in turns contacts Sergeant P-938K, to order a cease fire.
Finally safe, John and Koblos-5 return to their hideout, and figure out that there’s been a
cover up (the press now says that what happened was an officially scheduled
demolition), making the eye-cops think it was a false alarm. Eye-cop asks them
to install a new camera on him so that he can be of help.

### **Cocaloco Dark**

Outside John’s hideout security-robots, the
prime minister lackeys, the Techno-pope’s subordinates, and the Prezident’s
hunchbacks wait for an attack. Meanwhile, Eye-cop has
convinced fifty other eye-cops to help them, and they all get their camera
replaced. Eye-cop also asks to be painted green, so that it can be easily differentiated from the other eye-cops.

The conspirators argue about how they should procede: The cybo-commander wants to drop a megaton in
their heads, while the Prime Minister wants her daughter to have her vengeance
on John DiFool. The Prezident wants to liquidate the Prime Minister but the
Supra-divinoid suggest against it, since it would bring too much attention. The
Supra-divinoid recommends waiting for John to make the first wrong step.

To continue his investigation DiFool
decides to disguise himself as a mentally defective pregnant prostitute, calling himself “Lolly Pop” and hiding a camera inside a doll he names “Mopsy”, with the intention of acting as bait for the
Technos.

Upon arriving to the Red Ring she’s harassed by
other prostitutes and Kaganu calls the HIC (Holy Industrial Church) so that the
Techno-technos can get another pregnant woman. Kolbo-5 intercepts the call and
tells Eye-cop, now named Greenie, to
prepare to head for the slaughter-clinic and start gathering bio-vitasteaks. Meanwhile,
in the Techno craft DiFool finds other pregnant prostitutes, who don’t know
what will happen to their babies and are just interested in getting some kublars in exchange. He also learns that the Techno craft
is headed to the Cocaloco headquarters (the Technos and the Prezident being
important shareholders of that company).

Once they arrive, the pregnant ladies are ordered
to lie in the operating table and are hypnotized, but John resists to fall asleep. He sees how the newborns are injected with “Top-33”
(a mysterious liquid from the Paleo-science lab) in their pineal gland and
taken to the aristo-maternity ward, so it seems that all the major industries
are involved in the sordid affair. When the Technos are about to perform a
caesarian on John, Deepo jumps from under the disguise, and DiFool starts to
shoot. The plan goes into action: the eye-cops, who have connected themselves
to the biovitasteaks (bringing them through seven levels by pretending it was a
publicity parade) start attacking the facility.

The Supra-divinoid is not happy with the
developments, so he orders the cybo-cops to chase John and execute him, excusing it
as a “national security” issue if necessary. The eye-cops put into action
operation kamikaze: they will blow themselves up to slower down the police.
Thanks to their sacrifice John escapes, and he and Kolbo-5 go into an underwater hideout (where Kolbo-5
used to spy the Ionist Brigaede). Meanwhile, the Supra-divinoid is dissappointed with how
the Prime Minister is handling the situation and wants him dismissed. After the evens of the day John now has
two leads to follow: Either go to the Paleo-science lab, where the
Top-3 comes from, or go to the aristo-maternity ward, where the modified babies are
sent.

### **Top-33 From the P.S.L**

Deepo and Greenie infiltrate the Paleo-science lab, entering
through a small hole, transmitting everything they see to Kolbo-5 and John. They
observe how the Techno-technos are using a gamete extractor to extract the ova
and sperm of two non-putrefied corpses from the mythical “terra prima”. Thus,
Top-33 is made from the living chromosomes of those two “saints”. However, Deepo and Greenie are discovered after making a noise, and the Technos sent cybersphynxes and the Craven after
them. They manage to escape though an airshaft, thanks to Greenie sacrificing
himself to kill the Craven.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister De Garra is dismissed
from his position, and becomes an administrator of correction Center 315 for
Cocaloco Dark (the company also funds these type of correction centers). Back
in the hideout, John wants to go to the aristo-maternity ward, but he's aware that the place has a
strong protective shield and only aristos are allowed inside. John will need a
real aristo, Luz, to get inside.

## Other issues

1. *Farewell, Father* (1988)
2. *Class "R" Detective* (1990)
3. ***Croot*** (1991)
4. *Psycho Anarchist* (1992)
5. *Vhisky, SPV and Homeo-Whores* (1993)
6. *Suicide Alley* (1995)