...the only part of this that disturbs me is that I can't place the background theme- and I watched all of StrikerS, all of three weeks ago, just for this. If you could Youtube the theme you mentioned, I'd be much less disturbed.
Also, if you look into what happened to people post-StrikerS, most of them are just doing civil service, the way Fate did. Most of the Numbers got adopted. I think JS, Uno, and Quattro are the only ones that got locked up, actually- and Uno chose to be locked up. All Ford has to do is turn coat at the right time, not cause fatalities, and avoid being an unrepentant psychopath, and he can go straight into being a probationary Enforcer or what have you.
Also, due to events, the ending you've envisioned isn't going to happen on several levels.
On a legitimately unrelated note, transformation sequences are far harder to write than I'd expected, especially since I actually have an idea of what's going to happen in mine. It just comes out as a wall of description.
I may just do a basic 3D model of some of it, and post a pic of that in place of a lot of description. Thoughts?
**********
Yep. Definitely more SCIENCE!
We were down in the depths of the giant lab complex Jail Scaglietti called a base, and I was already confused. I'd been walking as fast as I could- stupid short legs!- to keep up with the doctor,
through paths I'd never taken. All of them looked the same, of course.
I was actually confused because I wasn't confused. I knew where I was- not to some arbitrary measure of precision, but in terms of the maze the doctor called a lab. I knew the path I'd taken, and where I was in relation to the main lab. Heck, if asked, I could've led us back there.
I shouldn't know any of that.
All too soon, we were standing in front of a rather thick-looking set of blast doors. Scaglietti held up his Device, the gem on the back of it glowing red with power, and the door responded, lowering slowly into the floor. Oddly enough, it sounded sort of like the door to a holodeck, if slower and more drawn-out.
What I saw inside was a big ol' load of nothing. Well, that, and a set of walls, all of them liberally covered with hatches. As I looked around, I heard the sound of hydraulics behind me, and whirled around- only to see one of the hatches on the floor had opened. A new floor section- this one equipped with some sort of freestanding rack and what looked like the shooter's end of a pistol range- smoothly rose out of the hole, connecting up with the floor around it.
Hmm. The range looks fancier than the ones on Earth- no telling what all it does. Maybe scanning? Shielding? And that looks like a spear rack, but... oh no.
"Can you hear me? Good."
Freaking doctor didn't even let me answer. Wait- where is he?
Scaglietti was, in fact, nowhere within sight. His voice was quite literally coming out of thin air- a rather interesting effect, especially since it sounded like he was on all sides of me at once.
"Right now, you are standing in the most potent magical containment room this base possesses. You will have noticed that I did not follow you in; in fact, neither Uno nor I am within a quarter kilometer of you at the moment. There is a very good reason for that." All of the man's usual... how should I put it... 'affable maliciousness' was absent from his voice; what I was hearing right now was Doctor Jail Scaglietti, master engineer and lost logia expert.
Gulp. This could be nothing, or it could be very, very bad."I have made of you a weapon unlike any other. Unfortunately, that means that nobody- not even me- knows precisely what you can do. Only a fool wields a weapon without first learning its capabilities, and I am not a fool.
Today, you are going to perform a series of standard testing exercises. This will allow me to measure your magical power, endurance, and total capacity.
You will find a standard TSA Storage Device resting in the rack to your left. Pick it up, and proceed to the firing range in front of you."
What a relief. It's just magical training. For a second, I thought he'd decided to kill me.Picking up the Device, I walked over to the range, stopping in one of the shooting positions. Suppressing a grimace, I hefted the mook-stick I'd been issued. I really hope I'm not stuck with this thing. It's like wearing white armor over a red shirt.
I feel less important already.
"You will find an indentation in the top of the panel in front of you. Set the shaft of your Device in that hole, and slide it forward until it balances."
I did as instructed, lifting the Device up to almost shoulder level, and setting the 'neck' of it in the indent that the doctor mentioned. It slid forward about six inches, before reaching equilibrium with a surprisingly audible click. The air above the Device rippled, turning slightly more blue with a quiet hum of power. A shield? Clever.
"Good. Now, pull up some mana into your linker core. If your reading list is any guide, you should already know the procedure...," he said, sounding faintly amused for a moment. Sobering up, he went on. "...and if my work was successful, you'll already have a familiarity with it."
Wouldn't you know it? He was right. I'd never tried to link mana before, not having the ability, but it felt like I'd been doing it for years. Not many of them, and I had to consciously work through parts of the process, but it felt more like shaking the rust off an older skill than learning a new one.
The core of the Device I was holding lit up, somehow managing to brightly glow a darker shade of blue, and began to hum. The pitch and volume of the hum went up sharply, going from a low, quiet sound to a piercing howl, over the next .3 seconds.
I didn't bother watching the process. The instant I heard it start to hum, I hit the deck. Good thing, too- after that three-tenths of a second, the Device ceased to exist- explosively. From behind the range and its shield, I heard the boom, and felt the force of it pushing on the range... but that was all.
Once the last bits of Device had settled to the ground, I got back up, brushed the dust off my clothes, and went around to the other side of the range to check out the damage. Nothing. Not a scratch on the range, nor the floor. The head of the Device had been blown to bits, of course, and the bits had been scattered across the area, but that was it. That was the second-wimpiest overload I've ever seen. Stupid things can't even explode correctly. Oh, well.
The room didn't have any windows, obvious cameras, or other features that said 'mad scientist observing from here', which sort of made it hard to snark at Scaglietti. I settled for looking up at the ceiling in front of me, smirking. "What now?"
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Also, if you look into what happened to people post-StrikerS, most of them are just doing civil service, the way Fate did. Most of the Numbers got adopted. I think JS, Uno, and Quattro are the only ones that got locked up, actually- and Uno chose to be locked up. All Ford has to do is turn coat at the right time, not cause fatalities, and avoid being an unrepentant psychopath, and he can go straight into being a probationary Enforcer or what have you.
Also, due to events, the ending you've envisioned isn't going to happen on several levels.
On a legitimately unrelated note, transformation sequences are far harder to write than I'd expected, especially since I actually have an idea of what's going to happen in mine. It just comes out as a wall of description.
I may just do a basic 3D model of some of it, and post a pic of that in place of a lot of description. Thoughts?
**********
Yep. Definitely more SCIENCE!
We were down in the depths of the giant lab complex Jail Scaglietti called a base, and I was already confused. I'd been walking as fast as I could- stupid short legs!- to keep up with the doctor,
through paths I'd never taken. All of them looked the same, of course.
I was actually confused because I wasn't confused. I knew where I was- not to some arbitrary measure of precision, but in terms of the maze the doctor called a lab. I knew the path I'd taken, and where I was in relation to the main lab. Heck, if asked, I could've led us back there.
I shouldn't know any of that.
All too soon, we were standing in front of a rather thick-looking set of blast doors. Scaglietti held up his Device, the gem on the back of it glowing red with power, and the door responded, lowering slowly into the floor. Oddly enough, it sounded sort of like the door to a holodeck, if slower and more drawn-out.
What I saw inside was a big ol' load of nothing. Well, that, and a set of walls, all of them liberally covered with hatches. As I looked around, I heard the sound of hydraulics behind me, and whirled around- only to see one of the hatches on the floor had opened. A new floor section- this one equipped with some sort of freestanding rack and what looked like the shooter's end of a pistol range- smoothly rose out of the hole, connecting up with the floor around it.
Hmm. The range looks fancier than the ones on Earth- no telling what all it does. Maybe scanning? Shielding? And that looks like a spear rack, but... oh no.
"Can you hear me? Good."
Freaking doctor didn't even let me answer. Wait- where is he?
Scaglietti was, in fact, nowhere within sight. His voice was quite literally coming out of thin air- a rather interesting effect, especially since it sounded like he was on all sides of me at once.
"Right now, you are standing in the most potent magical containment room this base possesses. You will have noticed that I did not follow you in; in fact, neither Uno nor I am within a quarter kilometer of you at the moment. There is a very good reason for that." All of the man's usual... how should I put it... 'affable maliciousness' was absent from his voice; what I was hearing right now was Doctor Jail Scaglietti, master engineer and lost logia expert.
Gulp. This could be nothing, or it could be very, very bad."I have made of you a weapon unlike any other. Unfortunately, that means that nobody- not even me- knows precisely what you can do. Only a fool wields a weapon without first learning its capabilities, and I am not a fool.
Today, you are going to perform a series of standard testing exercises. This will allow me to measure your magical power, endurance, and total capacity.
You will find a standard TSA Storage Device resting in the rack to your left. Pick it up, and proceed to the firing range in front of you."
What a relief. It's just magical training. For a second, I thought he'd decided to kill me.Picking up the Device, I walked over to the range, stopping in one of the shooting positions. Suppressing a grimace, I hefted the mook-stick I'd been issued. I really hope I'm not stuck with this thing. It's like wearing white armor over a red shirt.
I feel less important already.
"You will find an indentation in the top of the panel in front of you. Set the shaft of your Device in that hole, and slide it forward until it balances."
I did as instructed, lifting the Device up to almost shoulder level, and setting the 'neck' of it in the indent that the doctor mentioned. It slid forward about six inches, before reaching equilibrium with a surprisingly audible click. The air above the Device rippled, turning slightly more blue with a quiet hum of power. A shield? Clever.
"Good. Now, pull up some mana into your linker core. If your reading list is any guide, you should already know the procedure...," he said, sounding faintly amused for a moment. Sobering up, he went on. "...and if my work was successful, you'll already have a familiarity with it."
Wouldn't you know it? He was right. I'd never tried to link mana before, not having the ability, but it felt like I'd been doing it for years. Not many of them, and I had to consciously work through parts of the process, but it felt more like shaking the rust off an older skill than learning a new one.
The core of the Device I was holding lit up, somehow managing to brightly glow a darker shade of blue, and began to hum. The pitch and volume of the hum went up sharply, going from a low, quiet sound to a piercing howl, over the next .3 seconds.
I didn't bother watching the process. The instant I heard it start to hum, I hit the deck. Good thing, too- after that three-tenths of a second, the Device ceased to exist- explosively. From behind the range and its shield, I heard the boom, and felt the force of it pushing on the range... but that was all.
Once the last bits of Device had settled to the ground, I got back up, brushed the dust off my clothes, and went around to the other side of the range to check out the damage. Nothing. Not a scratch on the range, nor the floor. The head of the Device had been blown to bits, of course, and the bits had been scattered across the area, but that was it. That was the second-wimpiest overload I've ever seen. Stupid things can't even explode correctly. Oh, well.
The room didn't have any windows, obvious cameras, or other features that said 'mad scientist observing from here', which sort of made it hard to snark at Scaglietti. I settled for looking up at the ceiling in front of me, smirking. "What now?"
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.