flash-back-tracking http://forums.megatokyo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB8&Number=400521#Post400521 Wed Feb 20 2002 03:08 AM [!--OOC: this post is somewhat out-of-joint with the current story. It's just something I wanted to write, so consider it a scene that got edited out, but is now being released on the "Normal Day in MT" DVD... That said, rewind with me to just after Echo, Queslin, and Yukiko get EMPed. Squee, I hope you don't mind these couple functional details about Queslin's architecture that I'm sticking in here... Just watch out for flying clichés again... Oi, I'm never sure about my dialogue, it all sounds cheezy to me... ^^;;; --] Echo sat, stunned, for several long moments. Attitude and positional sensors told him his body had frozen in place and fallen over against a piece of rubble. Damn those energy weapons, he thought. His processors were all electrically shielding to the point where he could just about kiss a lightning bolt (or a fuzzy cat on a dry winter day) and care less. But clearing the polarization out of his servos and control lines, that was another story. And so he was forced to wait through agonizing seconds as his anti-EMP systems purged the disruptions. And wait he did. He was pissed. Someone had potentially damaged Queslin. And you only mess with someone that a Doll cares about at your own peril. Your *extreme* peril. Lucky for the Sega guys they had helicopters. They were gone, save for some supporting units running around still on the ground. Echo knew there were other, more important priorities though. As soon as he could move again he jumped up and headed over to Queslin, movements still somewhat shaky as the purge finished. Relief flooded him when he saw that she was sitting up, though visibly angry. He was now on his knees by her side. "You ok?" he asked shakily. Her mask of anger melted as she turned to look at him. "You're... bleeding," he added uncertainly, having just noticed the cut running from her shoulder halfway down her arm. He wasn't entirely sure weather a 5A Daughter was supposed to be able to bleed or not. "Ye-yeah..." Queslin's voice was shaky and there was static in the audio feed. She concentrated for a moment and the angry red line on her arm closed up, reabsorbing all the fluid that had already leaked out. [!--OOC: Queslin's self-healing is courtesy of her unique nanobot construction. Anything more major than this would take a fairly sizable amount of energy, though.--] "EMP just popped a blood ves... a lubricant line is all," she explained, rubbing at where the cut had been. What Echo did next caught her very much off guard, because without thinking he reached out and gave her a hug. "Good to hear," he said, the relief thick in his voice. Queslin stiffened for a moment before returning the gesture. She smiled, her chin perched over his shoulder. "j00 too--ooxx..&#%" The static in her audio feed was becoming more pronounced. Echo pulled away only to have her jump up and start running in the direction the helicopter had gone. "Hey wait! Where are you going?" he cried, now on his feet again. He was beside her in a flash and grabbed her arm, halting her near where Jones lie, collapsed. "T$#!o%@$ fi$$^#nd Ki%#&tty!" Echo could barely understand her through the static in her voice now. "Hold on, we need to know where we're going first!" [!--OOC: taken, slightly edited, from Shinobi Jones' post --] "NO! I wanna go find her NOW!" Her voice was at least clearer. "Calm down ok? We'll find her soon but we need to get organized." "NOW! They're already far away, we'll lose her!" "Calm DOWN!" "WAH, you yelled at me!" Echo had barely raised his voice. Something was obviously wrong with Queslin. "I'm leaving and you're not stopping me!" Echo could feel her connection link go up as she started hacking inside his head, trying to find the program routines that controlled his motor functions. Trying to make him release her arm. Hacking, violating his mind? What the hell...? Luckily for him, her skill at hacking seemed to be nearly non-existent at the moment. Double what-the-hell...? He pulled her in close to him, embracing her again. SOMETHING had to snap her out of this. "Please wait. I'm sorry. We'll leave soon... but please, wait!" He was pleading now. Maybe it was his tone of voice, maybe the physical contact, but something clicked inside Queslin's head. "...fine, but we better hurry." The static was gone from her voice. She pulled away from him slightly so she could look into his face. A tear was in her eye, and Echo's digital heart almost broke from the kawaii. Cripes, she was cuter than Ping! She began again "s..sorry... that EMP weapon was..." she searched for the right word, "new stuff. It's taking a while to get my thoughts straight." He hugged her close for a moment more before she released. "We'd better go find the others... My god, Yukiko!" she cried, remembering who else had been affected by the energy weapon. Jones, the ninja who had more-or-less quietly been tagging along ever since their doomed helicopter ride, chose this moment to stand up. Bad timing. Queslin was in his face instantly, yelling about not stopping them from taking WoK. There was a hint of static in her voice again. She froze in mid-sentence, then spun around and bolted, clutching her head. Echo followed. Jones looked dazed. Five yards away Queslin dropped to her knees, still clutching her head as though in pain. Echo was on his knees beside her for the second time in five minutes, an arm around her shoulder. [I]"Cripes, there've been a lot of killer damsels in distress today"[/I] an annoying little part of him thought. [!--OOC: it's all the male authors here, that's why...--] "I'm... I'm human," she sniffed quietly. "I'm not supposed to have trouble with EMPs..." "Hush," he began softly. "You may be different from most people, but you're not alone. Nev-ver." A post-EMP hitch in his own voice punctuated the remark. "Echo..." she reached a hand up to rest gently on the side of his head. Then they stood together and walked back toward the group. Echo noticed Jones taking some pills, drinking from a pilfered water bottle. "What are those?" The oddly dressed ninja threw the bottle to Echo. Holy crap. "YOU CANT TAKE THESE, WE HAVE A JOB TO DO!" "Whatever. I have a headache. Give me a few secs and I'll be fine." He walked over to the pair. "And Queslin, you were right. I should've done something instead of worrying. We'll leave as soon as possible." "Sure," Queslin smiles weakly, not wanting to remember her (mostly) out-of-character outburst. Jones then pulled her aside, much to her surprise, to a distance that he hoped was out of Alek's hearing (not knowing about said person's cybernetic hearing enhancements). She was now preparing to kick this near-stranger's can, but he spoke too quickly. "Look, I don't trust him," he indicated Alek, "he might try and stop us. We need to track the 'copter down and get some food, then we will get WoK. Ok?" Queslin, somewhat dumbfounded, noded an affirmative. He walked off and she headed back the few steps to Echo. "We need to find Yukiko an' BG," she said, looking concerned again. They headed off. Stepping around another large piece of rubble provided a much better view of the street. BG and a thankfully functional Yukiko could be seen. "j00 4r3 0k?" Queslin hollered. Echo smiled. l33t, she must be feeling better. "Yeah, I'm fine. How about you two?" Yukiko called back. "We're---" began Echo, only to be cut off by a man addressing BG. Queslin was about to rush the man, mini-RPG already instinctively transferred out of her backpack, through her body, and into her hands. Echo held her back. "What the--?" Echo cut her off, "I recognize the make of the Sony armor suit that guy's wearing. If he goes up against BG he's---" a gunshot sounds and Echo winces visibly, "--toast. Definitely toast." Yukiko came over to the pair. Jones did likewise from another direction. [!--OOC: at this point it should be pretty clear what happens. A discussion of how to find WoK starts up, BG gives Queslin the cell phone, and everyone rushes off to save Kitty. Yukiko stays behind w/ BG. And it grafts onto my previous post from there. Apparently Queslin is particularly vulnerable to that freaky new kind of EMP weapon that Sega used... Hope you don't mind, Squee. Willing to edit, per usual. I know Echo & Queslin are acting kinda familiar here, but there's a good reason for it. They're already friends thanks to some Deathmatches they played together between CoM and Normal Day, which Squee (assuming he agrees to this development) and/or I will go into greater detail about in upcoming posts... As an added bonus, they've learned to work together in Deathmatch-style combat situations fairly well, too. Anyway, their familiarity is part concern for a friend, part stress-of-battle, and part romantic feelings. Also, Echo's romantic feelings for Queslin are stronger than they realistically should be. See, Mode 7A (which, yes, adapts his systems to properly deal with love) mis-configured when it loaded back in my first post, and Echo now feels more for her than he technically should at the beginning of a relationship. He doesn't *quite* understand these new feelings he's loaded either... He knows how to act properly thanks to "instincts" that came with Mode 7A, but it'll take some time for everything to settle right in his mind. SimS, I was just joking about you doing fanart. I meant that you should *call* it WoK fanart since it was a little off-model, and fanart drawings aren't required to be accurate. Just a dumb joke.--]