August 5th, 1950, Phoenix, Arizona

"You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go;
I owe my soul to the company store... "

Joe Stevens moored his Mississippi Motorworks Southron Speeder car into his family's parking lot. "Hey, Pop, I'm home!" He turned off Tennessee Ernie Ford's Sixteen Tons song on his car radio. Joe put his baseball kepi on his greased hair and exited his car. He had gotten the cap for his 12th birthday, four years ago, and he still wore it. The Vicksburg Vultures was his favorite team, and the kepi had their logo emblazoned on the front. It was hot, as usual, in Phoenix, and the kepi's squared bill did very little to shade him from the scorching sun. He raced up the stairs and opened his front door. His father, Robert, was sitting on his recliner, as usual, listening to the radio.

The radio newsman read the international news. "In other news today, 91 year-old Kaiser Wilhelm II, of Germany, said in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate that Germany will resign the Germanic Alliance, firmly entrenching Wilhelm's German Empire with that of Charles I's Austro-Hungarian one. Thomas Wilkinson, our reporter in Berlin, sent us photos of the frail Wilhelm waving to the crowds. Wilkinson said the elderly potentate appeared to have trouble breathing and was constantly under the watch of his Imperial Grenadiers. Also today, Carlo-Napoleon, Napoleon V, Emperor of the French, announced a new attempt to wipe out resistance in French Indochina. Bonaparte's generals have reported 200 casualties in the last two months, the highest number since November of 1942. In matters closer to our hearts, rebels claiming to be servants of the United Pacific Republic, that island country we let become independent in 1934, pirated one of our own vessels, the CSS Baja, off the coast of Hawaii. President Shivers said in a briefing in Richmond that "The CSA will not stand for these acts of piracy." The Fleet of the South-Pacific has been mobilized and Admiral Fischer has stated that all pirates will receive the death penalty, i.e. execution by firing squad. He also said that pirate leader Hideki Toshiba has been seized and is under intense watch at our naval prison at Pearl Harbor, current location of the now-scrambling Fleet of the South-Pacific."

Pop grinned. "I hope your brother watches himself out there at Pearl Harbor. So many threats! Like gambling and booze." He chuckled lightly. Joe's brother Randy was in the CSA navy. Joe had thought about joining the Army of the West, but decided he would rather be a civilian and go to college.

Joe laughed. "Yeah! I remember when he said that one sailor was cheating at cards, and he got a black eye! I hope he learned his lesson. Old Willy is up and about, the radioman said. 91! Can you believe it! 91! He actually remembers the First Great War, back when the South pulverized his father. Why, he even remembers before the South was an independent country! I hope I live that long."

Pop snorted. "Heh, he has all the good doctors, you can count on that. Monarchs and leaders always do."

Joe nodded. He went into the kitchen and opened the chromed refrigerator. He grabbed a Coke and took a sip. "What makes this stuff taste so darn good?!" He had heard its inventor, John Pemberton of Atlanta, had put actual cocaine in his recipe. "Naw. That's a bunch of hooey. "Want a tonic, Pop?"

"Yeah! Okay." Joe brought him one and they sat around the radio listening.

The newsman was delivering national news. "In Mississippi today, a race riot erupted in Jackson. The police were soon on the scene, however, allowed peaceful protesters to deliver their message, and locked up rabble-rousers. President Shivers says he will uphold freedom of speech to the letter, black, white, or Hispanic. Today marked the 60th anniversary of the End of Slavery, August 5th, 1890. Also today, government officials announced their observations about the current situation for the CSA. They stated that France is now surpassing Great Britain in strength, which means if war broke out, God forbid, Napoleon V would unhesitatingly join us. Kaiser Wilhelm, as of late, has been trying to seemingly improve relations with our great country. However, his grandson, Wilhelm IV, has been openly antagonistic toward President Shivers. Last May he went into a lecture on monarchy when President Shivers refused to bow to him in public during the President's trip to Prussia. This is John Hutchinson reporting, Southern Radio News Corporation. Have a good afternoon!"

"I don't trust Wilhelm IV at all," said Joe. "He's only in his forties, and he seems really hostile to us. I hope he changes his tune when he becomes Kaiser."

Pop finished off his soda, or as Southerners called it, tonic. "Yeah. I don't like 'im either. Well, if you want to catch that movie, ya better get goin'!"

"See ya, Pop!" He rushed out the door again.

Cool what is the situation, is the south free from the north or anything like that?

@Daken - asuming this is from Napo's alternative timeline (just scanned the text, and it indeed looks like), yes, the South won the Civil War, but did not completely eliminate the North. If you're interested in the timeline, I recomend taking a look at the other stories (here on BF, among other places), and the Flickr group Napoleons Alternate History.

Wow, I am excited to see what comes next! It looks like the Kaiser was never kicked out of Germant after all...

Thanx AlbaVik I've been trying to get around to reading 'A Nation divided' and its sequel.

Thanks, guys!



Nope. You can probably guess what I'm building up to with him.



Here's a direct link to the website in case you don't have one: http://napoleonscivilwaralternatehistory.webs.com/


Cheers!

Thanx Napoleon, I already had the link but it's the thought that counts.

Joe Stevens parked in the movie theater parking lot. He was almost late. He took off his baseball kepi and brushed through his greased hair. He leaped out of his Southron Speeder and ran over to the theater doors. He opened them and quickly bought a ticket to see "The Day the World Stood Still." He found himself a seat and watched the melodramatic B-film. It was about an alien who landed on earth and pretended to be a human. Then, he and his metallic robot warned Kaiser Wilhelm, Emperor Napoleon, and all the others to stop fighting and bickering or suffer the consequences. At the end, the superpowers agreed. Fat chance.

He got up from his seat and exited the building. Then he saw him. Sandy Saunderson. His mortal enemy. Sandy and Joe and fought each other time and again. Sandy had already seen him and was coming over. With his switchblade. Joe backed off. "Look, Sandy. We've gotten into trouble for fighting before. Just back off. We don't have to be enemies.

"Come over here, runt! C'mon, you little coward! I'll show you!" Sandy made cutting motions with his knife.

Joe pulled out his Swiss and flipped up the blade. First, Sandy lunged at him, but Joe dodged. Joe got behind him and planted a boot on his rear, which sent Sandy sprawling. Already, a crowd of bystanders had gathered around to watch the showdown.

Sandy scored a small nick on Joe's face, but then slipped and fell. Joe knocked Sandy's knife away and threw his own next to it. He landed on top of Sandy and started hauling back and walloping him. Sandy's face was bleeding, and Joe was starting to really let loose.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" the crowd chanted.

Sandy blacked out. Joe stopped punching and picked up his knife.

A whistle sounded and a gray van pulled up. Out of the back came a squad of riot-shield-holding military policemen. "All right, you two!" yelled the Chief. "Get up! You know what's gonna happen!" In the CSA, 10 instances of street fighting got you impressed into the army to teach you a lesson.

"No! He started it!" Joe pointed rapidly at Sandy.

"Well, kid, both of you are comin' 'long anyway, so d'ain't matter! Come on!" They dragged Sandy over and threw him into the wagon. Joe started to run. He pushed the shocked bystanders away and ducked into an alley."

"Dang it! After him!" The officers darted after the fugitive and pulled out their stun guns. "Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him!" They fired several times at Joe's back, but he reached up and grabbed a flagpole. He did two 360's on the pole and leaped up to the rooftop. "Dang it, boy! He's on the roof! Get up there! Now!" The CSA MP's dashed around the back of the building and climbed the rusty metal stairs. Joe knew what he needed to do. He picked up a brick and bashed the staircase's grips off. The whole thing, MP's and all, went crashing to the ground. The Chief pushed the debris off of himself and unleashed a string of expletives. "Dang, that boy's good. Get up ladies! Are you gonna be defeated by a punk kid? C'mon!" The MP's slowly got up and began the chase again. They spotted him on an apartment building's roof. "Fire!" They once again fired and missed. More curses. The soldiers rushed over to the building, only to see Joe take a leap from the top. "No!" screamed the Chief in horror, then in amazement as Joe landed on a cloth awning. "No way! After him!" Joe was now running for his car. He jumped in and started to pull out. "No! No! In the van, ladies! In the van! Hup, hup, hup!" They practically threw themselves through the van's backdoor and closed it behind them. The chase was on. Sirens wailing, they went after his car. Right past the Arizona capitol building, the chase went on. The van driver pulled out his stun pistol and fired a few shots at Joe. Joe saw what was happening and immediately pushed the button to bring up the convertible's roof, shielding him. He led them on a wild chase.

Finally, he thought he lost them. He pulled up behind an old cafe, where some of his friends worked, and turned his car off. He jumped out and inspected himself. His brown jeans had been torn at the knee and he had a few small cuts, but he seemed fine. He looked out in the street to see if the soldiers were parked out front. They were not. Phew. He opened the backdoor to the cafe and went into the kitchen. "Hey, Max, I got problems."

Max Mathews stared at him. "Not another fight!"

"Uh, yeah. The MP's are after me."

"That was you! You're becoming a regular Billy the Kid!"

"They're trying to impress me into the army."

"Impressment! That's only for the worst of punks."

"I don't want to go into the army! At all! You gotta help me."

Max's sister Kate, who also worked at the cafe, entered the kitchen. "What is going on here? What happened to Joe?" She seemed more than just worried about him. She had always liked him.

"He got in a fight and now the men in the gray suits are after him!" Max tossed his spatula onto the grill. "Our jobs are to make coffee and pressburgers and franks, not hide fugitives, no matter how lovey-dovey some people might be. A-hem."

Kate rolled her eyes. "We've got to do something. We can't just let them take him."

Max pointed to the front window. "Too late for that." The van was parked in front, and the soldiers were piling out. They almost took the glass front door of its hinges when they barged in.

"That's him! That's him! Halt in the name of the Confederacy! Halt! Give yourself up and we'll go easier on you," shouted the Chief.

Easier.

"All... right. All right." Joe put his hands up. "Good-bye, guys. Thanks for everything all these years."

The MP's took him down.

Colorado smuggler from a chapter I'll put in just a bit.

Ahh the story is getting more exciting! More. More. More! More!
Nice smuggler BTW.