First chapter sample, First Draft, UNISON: ARC

ONCE AGAIN THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT OF THE OPENING TO UNISON: ARC, ITS NOT GREAT BUT ITS A CONCEPT AND NEEDS EDITTING AND SUCH. MUCH LOVE

The densely forested area whistled as four shadowy figures ran at extreme speed between its trees. Leaves ripped from low bearing branches as air sheared around the figures’ bodies, cutting what they passed. Dusk-light pierced through the balconies of treetop, casting beams down to what was mostly shadowed ground. Like spectres the figures disappeared into the darkness, only to flash through the light beams as the continued their sprint. Little amounts of light left them running blind, only the sounds of crunching foliage and rushing air punctuated their movement, keeping them together.

                Their movement was relentless, unyielding and constant.  In the distance ahead of where the four were running a colossal weight slammed to the earth, rattling the ground. The figures disappeared into shadow and silence. After a short silence a flame began to burn from the origin of the crash, revealing a felled tree across the ground. Fire spread across the bark and began to smoke.

No sign of the figures remained. However, from the scolding flames slowly engulfing the surroundings, another figure came into focus, seemingly untouched by the blaze around it. Despite the light of the fire, this figure remained black with its arms folded, unmoving against the animate flames. Suddenly the folded arms were thrown out, away from the body and in tandem the flame erupted outwards, spreading over a wider area but thinning around the figure. But the figure transformed, what once seemed to be a normal human was now an anthropomorphic wolf creature. Even stranger though was the wolf-man’s body, it was almost transparent and glowing gold with burning white eyes. The wolf flexed its muscles, as it moved each limb a spiked collar formed around its neck, wrists and ankles.  A bestial roar erupted from it and the glow of its body intensified, illuminating a large area around where it stood.

                The four hidden figures had remained still and silent but they began to talk amongst themselves.

                “Target acquired, ARC squad maintain positions. This is ARC-1 maintaining visual. Target is preparing volatile projectiles.” The First of the four said. As she finished, the great wolf reached back, as if to grab the fire, as he did so a large ball of flame isolated itself from the blaze.  As the beast swung its arm forward the fireball followed the motion.  The projectile rocketed and hit into one of the seemingly infinite number of trees. Excess flames sprayed from the impact and singed the ground’s plant life.

                “This is ARC-2, preparing to engage a deflection procedure, leave the flame projectiles to me.”

                “Good plan ARC-2, I’m recommending we flank and sting the target, I will spear head with physical combat while 3 and 4 focus on co-ordinating ranged strikes.” Two more voices spoke, saying “agreed”.

                ARC-2’s voice appeared again, “Okay I will alternate between support and debilitation tactics”

                “Perfect, let’s power up and go.” In a similar way to the wolf ARC-1 appeared, crouched behind a tree. She became visible when a faint blue, slightly transparent form transformed her skin. The glow was weak because her body was clad in strong, metal-lined, leather clothes, revealing only her face. Even her head looked ghostly as the night-vision goggles stopped her eyes from being visible in the dark, showing what appeared to be only an eye-less head floating in the shadow. Some parts of the clothing were slightly brighter as the porous gaps in their design released the light from her skin. She rolled out from behind her cover and produced a Shamshir blade made of the same substance that her skin now radiated and that formed the body of the wolf target, different tones of light defined the weapon in its silvery blue colour. The blade was not drawn from a sheath nor was it picked from the ground, this weapon materialised from handle to tip from her hand. The white eyes of the beast tracked onto her position, it took only a moment for her glow to be noticed. She picked herself up from the ground, blade hand in front of her waist, blade pointed up and across to her opposite shoulder. She ran towards the wolf at impressive speed, a testament to her fitness. The target did not move from its position, instead it began to scoop and launch more fireballs, this time aimed at ARC-1.  The first missile came at her, almost half her body size; she immediately ignored it and looked off to her right. ARC-2 was just visible in the shadow running slightly ahead of her. Suddenly her ally’s skin started to glow yellow and he sharply shifted his direction 90 degrees anti-clockwise. ARC-2 then ran directly towards ARC-1’s path and leapt over where they would have crossed. He did so in such a way that he could nearly collide with the fireball, but instead of impacting it he swept an arm across himself in mid-air. This motion caused a flash of yellow light to form a short lasting barrier in front of his body, of which absorbed the hit of the fireball. ARC-1 ran underneath, completely protected from the attack.  A second arm sweep eradicated the flame completely and he dropped back to the ground. Once planted, he stopped glowing and ran back through the shadows. The wolf launched three more fireballs, the first two were removed in the same process by ARC-2 but he was too strained by the energy-use to dispatch the third. Instead ARC-1 threw her sword directly into the ball which caused a small explosion.

                She jumped through the flames as they died down and used the energy- manipulated blaze as a catalyst to make reproducing her sword easier.  She was now close enough to engage the wolf in combat. She jumped and flipped once through the air. Her effortless leap gained her a height of three metres. The soldier began to drop down upon her target. Her bestial enemy, however, was around 50% larger than her in all ways so it pulled its arms up as if to catch her with its savage claws. As the beast prepared to clamp her in its hands a whip-like beam of light restrained its arms from either side, with both bounds being a bright green hue. This surprised the beast and let ARC-1 swoop a downwards blade sweep straight down its chest, completely undefended. ARC-3 and 4 had remained hidden and deployed their powers in perfect timing. ARC-1 put her blade to the neck of the beast and pulled herself up to its face. “Not so tough like this, are you Amon” she laughed at him. He tried to bite at her head, causing her to lean back. Amon roared and contracted every muscle he could, causing the bounds on his arms to rip and fade away. He lashed at her rapidly with both arms; ARC-1 timed a swift backflip manoeuvre to evade this attack. She held her ground as he lashed further, using her blade to block the hits. Occasionally ARC-2’s yellow barriers appeared to protect his ally and some temporarily blocked Amon so she could get in close for a few strikes. This process repeated. Amon was easily distracted by 3 and 4 shooting green projectiles at him from all angles.

                ARC-2 dropped from a branch above Amon and landed on the wolf’s shoulders. He used as much power as he could muster to hold Amon completely still. “Now! Like we planned!” he shouted to the team.

                ARC-1 turned her Shamshir around in her grip so it was pointed behind her. She vaulted at Amon and jumped onto his chest, kicked off, and knocked him stumbling backwards. Number 4 in the group seemed to teleport behind Amon and landed a few punches into the base of his spine, the continuous strikes kept him from falling back. He regained balance but bent forwards, reeling from the hits. ARC-2 returned, once again from above, with a yellow energy knife.  He dropped on Amon’s back and lashed at him frantically while he screamed and twisted, trying to break free. In the process the last of the group, ARC-3 quickly zapped from location to location with energy-made pistols and shot rapid fire pellets of energy at the beast. ARC-4 stood beside 1 with his fists glowing blue with power, they both waited for an opening. It came as Amon lifted both arms over his shoulders to try and grab 2 from his back. They both ran in at extreme speed and began to violently unleash hit after hit.

                In a sudden shift, Amon stopped reacting to the hits he was taking and smiled. He then laughed at his attackers. His body exploded, blowing the four away and into the air. A few seconds after the initial explosion all four were stopped in the air and held in place by an unknown force.  They could all then see a pulsing golden light where Amon once stood.

                “Damn! Break free!” cried ARC-1

                “I’m trying but I’m drained of strength” replied ARC-4

They were not in pain but they were unable to do anything but speak.  They all felt a great level of power building around them, the trees swept in a clockwise direction, as if a powerful tornado was building. They could not feel anything on their bodies, but the trees began to rip from the earth. Soon enough the entire forested area was a mass of loose nature swirling around them, the golden light being the centre point. The ARC team were hopeless to do anything

                As the motion of the forest accelerated the golden eye of the storm contracted and took form.  The figure was human and had the same golden and transparent features as Amon had had. He was dressed in a smart shirt, unbuttoned at the top, with a waistcoat. His trousers were very smart and the whole look was topped off with an armoured gauntlet on one hand and a glistening metal shoulder-guard. The colour of his clothes was unclear as every part of him was gold and glowing. The man clapped to his detained guests then clicked his fingers close to his face. Upon the click the forest vanished and became an enormous open hall, all white, all blank and empty.  He released the ARC’s and walked through them as they stared. The looks on their faces depicted disappointment. The man was quietly chuckling as he left the room. ARC-1 removed her goggles and ruffled her wavy short hair. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”

                ARC-2 copied this motion and leant against her. “Don’t let it get to you Skye. We are never going to be able to beat him. But we’re getting better”. He sounded proud and determined. He lightly punched her arm.

                “Whatever”. She, in return, elbowed him in the chest and walked away, towards the same door the other man had just left through. “We need to be stronger Hertz, this isn’t a game.”

First chapter sample, Second Draft, UNISON

THIS IS ONLY THE SECOND DRAFT, FIRST TYPE-UP OF THE FIRST CHAPTER, ANY MISTAKES HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED IN THE PROOF STAGES AND SOME CONTENT MAY BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. CHEERS-MA-DEARS

Jason Rider- ex-military technician

                    Current: computer software developer

Mr Rider, it has come to our attention that your recent ‘curiosity’ led to a breach of UNI protocols. The United Nations Intelligence takes such a frivolous act from an ex-military member to be an insult to our privacy. As such, we are entitled to take the exposure of project ‘HONESTY’ as an act of treason. By exposing the files you exposed yourself; thus, to seal the breach you must also be sealed.

       Under UNI security protocol 11, sub section 4.9, we hold the right to have you placed under house arrest awaiting trial for acts against the UN conglomerate presidency; starting immediately.

       However on inspection of your data files we have extracted sufficient information to deduct that there is a high probability that you could prove useful to our current projects. Therefore we are offering employment in UNI’s secret branch; this work is classified but rewarding. To decline this permanent position would lead to your arrest.

         At 22:00 tonight, messengers will come to receive your decision, if you wish to join us pack your bags and be ready.

  

                         Fenworthy,

                                           UNI-Operative.

 Jason Rider brushed his hand through his brown hair. He contemplated how it was possible that he had been discovered, he backtracked through every security system he penetrated and erased each virus he had installed.  All of which would return the security levels back to the usual.

      “Impossible! How?” Rider questioned further, each query pressing his fingers harder into the crimson leather of his armchair.

       The room was dark, lit only by the simulated Victorian fireplace wired into the centre of the wall. The Victorian wooden room was alien from the rest of the home, being metallic and electronic. The rest of the house was chilled and clinically sterilised by the chemical balancer vent placed, as standard, on the walls of every home. However, Rider hated the cold, solid feel of the titanium rooms. The custom fit living room was warm crimson and soothing; even the computer generated flames felt relaxing. Apart from the fire, armchair and antique replica carpet, the room was unusually bare. A single suitcase rested against the door behind him, the only new item in the room. Rider was used to being alone but the flickering flames in his eyes revealed the fear of being exposed. He was pale against the darkened room.

        Suddenly a soothing vibration filled the room and a female voice appeared. “Activating 30 second timer. Current time, 21:59 and 30 seconds”. The voice dispersed for a full five seconds. “UNI personnel detected at a 100 metre radius, proximity closing”.

         “So it comes to this…” Rider sighed, raising to his feet and activating the close proximity circumference monitor. “…what have I got to lose?”

15 seconds flashed in the upper right corner just as two men clad in black military jackets power-walked past the monitors view.

10 seconds.

     Rider rested his elbow on the indent of the monitor’s wall panel. He bowed his head and pressed his fingers onto the bridge of his nose, disrupting the balance of his glasses.

5 seconds.

     He twisted a wall dial, dissipating the vibrations of electricity and extinguishing the CG-fireplace.

3… Rider turned on his heels and faced the door, bracing himself against the wall.

2…1…times up.

      Rider was a tall and thin man; the weakness in his emotions made him look feeble at best. He marched up to the door and opened it a moment before the visitors had time to rap his knuckles.

      “Mr J Rider, I presume?” The man stood tall and stocky, a shadow in the dusk of the street. A single emblem, a rectangular bar, struck horizontally across his left breast pocket; the emblem was marked “KNOWLES”.

      “Can we just go, I am ready”

       “So you have chosen to work with us?” Rider nodded, taking this opportunity to scan the second soldier; it was too dark to see any difference in him. The speaker resumed “excellent, if you would follow us please”.

       Rider stumbled out of the doorway and was received by the two men, who then escorted him to a thin and streamlined vehicle which looked alien in the white waves of moon-light that striped across the roof. The second soldier pulled open the rear door. A hand gesture swept towards the inside of the vehicle. The first soldier pressed his palm on to Rider’s shoulder blade. Rider entered the slender, expensive vehicle. Knowles followed and took up Rider’s left flank. The other soldier sat on the right. The vehicle was silver on the inside with bars of black metal separating the seats. There was white copperplate writing on the back of the front seats. “Blackhawk”. Rider noted the name and noticed the driver was dressed similarly to the soldiers, except for the golden arrowhead on his right arm. In the rush of the moment and the burst of engine force, Rider had neglected to notice the steering console was shaped like a widened “W” and series of numbers and lights on the panels around it.

        “Just relax Mr. Rider” the first words to emanate from soldier two. “we’re taking you home”.

        “Home?” Rider queried with disbelief. “I’m still outside my door, yet I feel like I’m not going to feel at home for a long time”

       “Hah! I like this one Knowles”

Knowles responded to his name instantly. “Well, let’s just get him to UNIS-”. He stuttered. “UNI”

        Rider noticed the size of the second soldier; he was at least 4 inches taller than Knowles, on estimation. He was also brutishly more muscular, on estimation. Bordering on intimidating.

       A beep interrupted the silence and green lights turned on in the back of the front seat headrests. The driver twisted round, glared at Rider, and then eyed the soldiers.

       “Preparing to launch the blackhawk, strap him in boys”

       “Sir!” the men responded in unison. Suddenly the men turned to Rider and each placed a hand behind his shoulder. They pulled two belts that quickly clipped into place in the centre of Rider’s chest. This made him feel particularly claustrophobic. Knowles kept hold of the centre buckle and they both pulled the lower straps into position. The soldiers saw the discomfort in Rider’s eyes and smirked at each other. Both soldiers repeated the same procedure for themselves.

       “Firing up secondary engine. Maintaining sound dampener”. The engines roared into life but quickly a mechanical sliding noise reduced the roar to a small whimper.  “Hang on there Mr. Rider we are about to go pretty fast, don’t go breaking down on me.”

         Rider watched as the streets rolled by in a blur of horizontal blues, black and grey. The driver was accelerating to well over 140MPH but this “car” was clinging almost magnetically to the road. He tapped on his headset and the static became audible.

        “Wing units. Approaching aero-zone. Arrival in five seconds. Be prepared” A mumble in reply crackled back. The vehicle skimmed round a bend going right. Lights lashed into the Blackhawk’s windows. The vehicle came to a sharp stop.

        2 groups of 5 men flanked the vehicle and begun attaching more metallic plates to the doors. Rider knew the control systems were too advanced for this to be an ordinary car. It was a jet. The Blackhawk was being reconstructed by these engineers at double speed; tightening bolts, fuelling engines, aligning plates and even polishing. The vehicle had wings, jet-tipped wings with the power capacity to reach almost near orbital altitude in 30 seconds. Rider let out a quick exhale, followed by a sigh.

       Knowles elbowed Rider in the side. “Ain’t she a beauty? Just relax and you might enjoy the trip to base” Knowles tapped a wave to one of the technicians who replied with a thumbs up. “Base, that’s where the real work begins”

          The steering wheel, now being used on an x-y axis, controlled the newly converted Blackhawk. Rider felt at ease for the first time in the vehicle, the mechanical rumble that rattled his teeth was gone and was replaced with a soothing whistle. Soldier two nudged him and pointed out of the window. It was only then that he noticed-partly because he could see the clouds and stars around him- that they were flying already. He felt stunned; he just laid back and shut his eyes in disorientation.

         One hour passed.

         “Incoming message from UNI Agent Dean Anderson” The female voice sounded identical to the voice in Riders home.

          “Perfect timing as always”. The driver said irritably. Three keys on the dashboard were quickly tapped by his digits and the windscreen displayed a message.

“Lieutenant Harley, on closer inspection of your “cargo’s” bio, we have concluded that his assistance would be of more use to us in colony base- MANHATTEN; rather than headquarters. We thank you for your cooperation”

UNI Agent D.A

Security division.

Knowles’s calm demeanour flared and blazoned. “Damn those suits! What gives them the right to play us like this?”

        “Calm yourself soldier, the ‘suits’ happen to be the ones who call the shots around here. They also just happen to be our employers; though I question whether employer is the right word”

         “Sorry sir”

Harley tightened his grip on the steering control and tapped a calculation into the navigational conduit. He pressed out a tiring sigh. “However, they do have a habit of complicating things. It just so happens we were 30 minutes from HQ. I recommend getting some sleep, we have a six hour flight ahead of us.” He turned to his passengers. “But I see our ‘cargo’ is quite at ease. Shame. He won’t get peace like that again for a while.”

          The soldiers laughed at the sleeping Rider who was “like a baby”. Rider, however, was awake the whole time, listening to them and concentrating on what was yet to come. He had no idea at the time what he was heading into, but it was clear he had to be prepared.

The Voice of Dynaemis

"For millennia I waited, trapped in the darkness of my creations, trapped in the void of the reality I weaved to be my limitless canvas. I am the architect of everything that has come to be and my power is the breath of creation that has grown into this maelstrom of uncontrolled madness. Reality itself must be unwritten.

                "What is left of my legacy? An all-seeing, yet blind, ‘God’ who is incapable of even thesimplest free thought and act of free will; A tyrannous child, born from the broken ‘God’, gifted with my inspiration and destructive rule of order yet lacking the limitless potential to create the perfect world that he envisages; and now the third is born, my personal selection, the hero from amongst the God’s own created children, the mortals. I have helped him become powerful through my transient existence in this reality and now he shall be the one that destroys these false-gods and returns the fragments of my own physical manifestation back to me. I will walk again upon the surface of the universe and upon that day I shall reclaim existence as my own and destroy all impurities, or, if need be, all shall be erased.  The human hero shall slay the fallen prince and his spirit will return to the broken God. My champion shall sacrifice his own strength to free the God of his physical torment and then the three will become one once more and I shall return to the physical that I abandoned long ago in order to preserve the sovereignty of my power.

                "But who am I? In truth I am simply the creator; the architect; the origin; the destroyer. I have no identity yet I can create a form for myself in reality and be amongst my creations; but those amongst the first-born of my universe know nothing of who I really am and my legacy. They only know of me as the flow of power that remains in reality, the very energy that created all and keeps all in balance and allows me to still have asmall influence on my creations.

They call me the Voice. The Voice of Dynaemis."

The Multiverse of Fiction II

Well hello again. I've recently been thinking over my post, The Multiverse of Fiction. I think I have a really skill for rambling on about my insane thoughts on strange things that no-one cares about, without making thing exceptionally clear. In my original post, which is linked above, I think I mentioned narrative crossovers and the clashing of themes and characters from across multiple fictional universes (I can't be bothered to check). If not, I know that its somewhere. Soz. The point is that I related my little narrative theory to some very odd scenarios when I have neglected some awesome examples that quite recently have become much more popular and are easier to explain.

The Marvel Universe.

Marvel is a brilliant model for looking at fictional crossovers. It is not exactly a representation of 'Multiverse Narrative', where multiple narrative universes cross into each other, each with its own limits, concept of reality and forms of life. I think Marvel is more of a 'Horizontally Multi-stranded Narrative' where many characters exist within near-enough the same physical locations but are isolated from each other except for when special stories bring them together. In essence, the parts which resemble my concept are the character's creative, unique characteristics and abilities. Nonetheless the concepts are still similar and the crossover elements are what I'm getting at.

If we consider the recent Avengers film, which I highly recommend :), this image alone shows the potential for how epic such an unusual combination of characters can be. The thing that made this film so epic and brilliant for watching, despite the lack of Marvel knowledge, is that the previous films, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man 1&2 set up the essential knowledge of the character's lives and their behaviours, emotion, values and powers within their own narrative events which do not actively have any effect on the other characters. You can watch each of the seperate films and feel that they are perfectly established narratives to function as standalone films, which they do. With that set up, the Avengers film doesnt need to waste time telling us about more information we don't need and instead punches straight through to the visuals and the epic scenes which really appeal to fans and non-fans alike.

If we made The Hulk an alien from his own universe, Thor a resident of Asgard which has no link to any other planet or civilisation, Iron-Man a machine from a mechanical reality and Captain America the human soldier in our reality as he already is then we can see how a Multiverse Narrative would work.

I may get round to making an image to represent Multiverse Narratives in a similar way to the Avengers wallpaper, but while googling I did find this cool little thang which does a pretty good job of it :) For the record, combining Superman and Goku together would be a nice combination. Hopefully this is a better way of explaining my madness. Hopefully if my writing does get more imaginative and I find the time to write much more than I can at the moment, I will be able to explore Multiverse fiction with my own characters eventually!

Hoping You Are Well

Keep On Trucking

L.H