On Sun's High Day

Khomeini glared down at the crowd of spectators. "Fools!" he cried, and his voice was deep and terrible. "You deny My rule, My divine right? Begone, before I reduce you into cinders!"

But there came an answer from the crowd, proud, defiant. "We fear you not, old man!" came the protest. "Your power is gone, your time is past! Step down, before it is too late!"

"Ha!" replied Khomeini, his gaze as a terrible fire. "And how will you do that? In my left hand is the power of the State; in my right, the glorious righteousness of the Mosque! In me they are conjoined; how can you think to defy it?"

"Thus!" came the response, as a half-dozen young women and men leapt onto the platform. They stared down at Khomeini's feet; and to his very great surprise, Khomeini felt the ground beneath him crumble and vanish. With a cry of surprise and alarm, he tumbled into the depths of the earth; and above him, a barrier of earth appeared, sealing off the only exit.

"How have you done this?" Khomeini shouted, his voice filled with wrath. "How dare you? How can you? By the power invested in me, as the rightful Supreme Leader, I demand you release me at once!"

The earthen barrier at the top of the tunnel vanished.

"Good!" Khomeini said. "I am glad you have seen the folly of your ways! Now, lower down a ladder!"

A wave of water came pouring down the hole, filling it completely. The barrier at the top reappeared.

This was not what Khomeini had expected.

So Khomeini, floating at the bottom of the shaft (and feeling rather blue), indulged in a rare moment of reflection. "It is for the good," he thought, "that I am not drowning, and indeed, show no particular inclination to begin doing so. It is not what I might normally anticipate, but this situation is normal in very few respects."

"But," Khomeini continued, "while the powers of Mosque and State, righteously and lawfully combined within my person as Supreme Leader, excel when used for the arts of warfare, repression, and Pokémon battling - "

"It appears that they are very poor indeed at digging."