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11-28-2009, 11:57 PM | #11 |
G.I.Joe medic
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Litchfield, ME
Posts: 3,160
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I can't wait to see what you've got planned, especially since you have a chapter on my favorite Joe, Lifeline.
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11-29-2009, 03:01 AM | #12 |
Darth_Henning
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 21,174
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Quote:
Quote:
Hopefully you'll both be pleased with their appropriate bad-assedness. Thank you. |
11-29-2009, 02:12 PM | #13 |
Darth_Henning
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 21,174
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05/15/2021 - Chuckles (Part 1)
Philip M. Provost walked through the winter streets of Calgary. A city that still housed the offices of most of Canada's big oil companies, even as alternative energy began to take hold, sometimes with their offices just across the street. The Bow Building, the largest office tower in western Canada when it was built, housed Canada's largest oil and gas companies, was now across the street from an even larger company that provided simple in-home hydro-power generators, perhaps the biggest coup in clean energy. A simple engine the size of a dresser that powered itself and just about anything else in a home. Larger commercial versions now sat in the basements of, and powered most of the buildings he passed, making the old power grids obsolete. But much though the emerging world power hub interested him to take a closer look at, he only had a couple hours before he would be missed, and he had to talk to someone about this. It had been at least 10 years, probably close to 15 since he'd last talked to Edwin, but if anyone in this city could help, he'd be the only one. In front of the Bank of Montreal, Philip paused, looking at the church in the next block. It hadn't been hard to find out that Edwin still volunteered to help out there. Despite the fact he could have bought his own Caribbean Island and disappeared, he still worked at the hospital every day and volunteered in the community every weekend. Real freaking bleeding heart that one. Philip shook his head. That was uncharitable, much though he had never really liked Edwin, he had to respect what he'd accomplished. Mind you, he thought, it didn't hurt that he was the only person Philip knew with the connections to get him out of this mess. Slipping across the streets between floods of cars, he walked up the steps to the church and entered the vestibule. He had no idea where to look for Edwin, or if he'd even still be here. It was almost 5:00pm after all. An elderly couple strolled out of the sanctuary, giving him barely a glance as they headed out into the crisp spring air. Philip smirked a little, global warming was devastating the tropics, but up here, it was cold as hell. Well, or the opposite of hell...whatever. He shook his head, he needed to find edwin, he didn't have time for idle thoughts. Glancing left and right, he walked through the inner doors to the scantuary and looked around. The pews were all empty, and though the scantuary was brightly lit, no one appeared to be around. "Great. Just great, the once chance I get at this and he's not even freaking here." As if in answer to his frustration, a door just to the right of the choir loft opened, and a man in a suit walked out just throwing on a duffel coat. Without even seeing his face, Philip recognized the coat from dozens of pictures. Edwin may be rich and brilliant, but like any man, he didn't see the need to bother with some giant wardrobe, wearing the same thing so long as it was clean (or at least close enough) and intact (again, or at least close enough). Philip cut through the pews, and headed for Edwin, not wanting to raise his voice. He was fairly sure he hadn't been followed, but then again, if he had been, he'd never know. The last guy who'd tried to run had had a quite unpleasant run-in with a certain white-robed ninja. Philip shuddered at the memory of the eviscerated carcass on display for the ensuing weeks. Edwin had his head down, consulting something on a blackberry and almost ran into Philip on his way out, "Oh, I'm sorry, I was ju.....Philip?" Skepticism quickly flashed across Edwin's face. Here was a man with no love lost on his former high school classmates, not that Philip blamed him given the hell they'd put him through. Ironic wasn't it? In school, everyone makes fun of the nerds, and they're the ones who wind up running the world. "I need your help Edwin." "If its a procedure, you book through the hospital. If you need help cheating on a test, screw off, though I expect you might be a bit too old for that. If you wan't to appologize for the past, screw yourself. If its anything else, see a shrink." Philip was pretty sure the only reason Edwin hadn't spit in his face was because he had too much class for that. So much for the pleasantries. He had only one card left to play. "I know who's responsible for the terrorist attacks on the 21st." Edwin didn't laugh. Big surprise. Just raised an eyebrow. "Sure you do. Next your going to tell me your the one who engineered the bombs." Philip winced, he had in fact done some of the work on those. He wished he could change that but he couldn't. "Please Edwin, you've got to believe me. Would I have come here to talk to you about this if I was lying?" Edwin paused, clearly evaluating Philip's claim. Well damn him, if he couldn't see that Philip was desprate, he'd just have to make him believe. This could change the future of the free world. "You'd better have something to prove this." In response, Philip turned and raised his left earlobe exposing the snake tattoo there. The same one found on every terrorist's body from the April 21st attacks. "You were one of the surgeons who examined the bodies. I know you know what this means." "You could have copied it." "Your team released altered pictures. No one could match this based off those. You could see the difference in an instant." Edwin nodded, but didn't look particularly mollified. "Fine, I'll hear you out." Philip moved aside so Edwin could lead the way, but Edwin made no movement. "Not here, anyone could hear." "If your pulling my l-" "Please, just LISTEN to me for Christ's sake!" "This way," Edwin replied, leading the way back through the door he'd just recently exited, closing it behind them, then down a flight of stairs and through a small wooden door. Based on the stone walls, they were now in a small storage room built into the foundation of the church, cramed with microphone stands, music stands, and a bunch of other stuff Philip couldn't identify in the half-light permitted by the frosted glass panel in the door. "You have 5 minutes to convince me. After that," Edwin said, producing a pistol, and silence from somewhere under his coat, "I'm taking you in." Philip gulped in a breath of air as Edwin fit the silencer without looking. "You have a license for that?" "You'd be amazed what you can get a license for when your surgery saves the life of the Prime Minister's son. Four minutes, forty seconds." Well, the man was still a human clock it appeared. Philip plunged right in. "You remember the Cold Fusion lab that Dallas and I worked on in Ontario? Well right after the disaster, I was stripped of any qualifications to practice engineering in any country, and lost everything." "This was all in the news, tick tock." Clearly Edwin still wasn't taking him seriously. "Shortly thereafter, while I was living in a halfway house, I was approached by a man-" "Who?" "A MAN who called himself "The Commander" who promised me a way to get back at the megacorporations and governments that had thwarted my project. He knew everything about me. He said he was building an organization and needed my help with some logistics. He offered me a position at the top if I'd join. I had nothing left, I listened to him, I believed him. We spent the next five years-" "When was this?" "Just over five years ago. As I said, we spent the next five years building up the organization with some help from others. Even when he recruited me he had a thousands of followers, they were from everywhere. I didn't find out about them until over a year after I joined him. By then, I think I'd earned his trust. He had me start working on explosives, with some Scottish nut-job named Destro. He's like someone out of Star Trek, crazy ideas you'd never think would work. Teleportation, laser pistols and the like." "Look," Philip said, producing a small journal, "Everything I know is in this journal, or on these CDs. I wanted to come in after we tested the bombs, but I ne-" "Tested?" "Yeah, on a small village in the Sudan. Killed a few hundred women and children. CHILDREN! That's not what I signed up for. Enlightening the people? Getting government out of bed with big business? Yeah. Wholesale slaughter and terrorism? No!" Edwin took the book and flipped through it. Nothing registered on his face. "What's this drawing on the first page?" he asked, pointing to a 6 surrounded in coiled lines. "Sorry, that's unimportant, just drew it. It was the symbol on the reactor that blew." "Sigma 6 right?" "Yeah, that's the one." "Could your replicate that drawing again?" "Yeah, why?" "Because your going back." "What the hell?!?! I want no part of this." Edwin sneered. Something he did quite well when addressing those he felt to be inferior. "Your the only person who's ever gotten away form them alive right? If I don't miss my guess, you were here doing some business for them, and the only reason you've gotten a chance to meet with me is because you have a sight-seeing break. Right?" He pushed on, not waiting for confirmation. "That means that in a very short period of time, they're going to notice your gone, and they're going to kill you. If your notes about these 'shadow vipers' are the truth, you have about another 15 minutes to get back into the open. You don't know, or at least your journal makes it look like you don't know how deeply some governments are infiltrated, but all the terrorists we got alive were killed within 12 hours of capture with no evidence. Clearly this organization is in a lot deeper than you think. Right now, your the only link anyone has to the inside, so we need you to go back in, and find out what you can. When you can, get a book with this symbol on the front page together and mail it to me. Make sure you don't get any fingerprints or anything else on it. I'll make sure it gets into the right hands. Once someone gets an infiltration agent into the organization, they'll get you out. But until then, your immeasurably valuable." "But if they catch me, they'll kill me." "Then don't get caught." Edwin made this sound as simple as taking a stroll through the park. "Now get out of here before they realize your gone." Edwin tucked the pistol and journal inside his coat and they headed out the door, Edwin taking the lead up the stairs. A janitor was just coming down. "Oh, excuse me sir." "No problem." Edwin replied as he passed. Edwin had no sooner passed the janitor than a pistol appeared in the man's hand. Crud, though Philip, this really is my day for getting shot at isn't it. He closed his eyes, waiting for the gunshot that would end his life, but none came. Instead, a strangled cry followed by a crunching sound and gurgling. Philip dared to open one eye, and saw that Edwin had turned around and thrust a pocket knife through the man's carotid artery, no doubt the cause of the strangling cry, and draged it through his trachea resulting in the crunching and the other carotid. His other hand was pressing an already blood soaked pocket puff to the man's throat. Trust the surgeon, Philip thought, to know how to cut a man's throat. "Belt." "What?" "Give me your belt laughing boy, I need a turnkey to stem the blood flow or its getting all over the floor." "You just killed him. IN A CHURCH!!!" "Would you prefer that I'd let him kill you, you ungrateful bastard? Give me the belt!" Edwin hissed. Philip tore it off as fast as he could and handed it to Edwin, who promptly looped it around the man's neck and pulled it taught. More crunching emerged as the trachea was crushed, but Philip was fairly sure the man was quite dead by now. "Get his pants off." Philip didn't bother asking again, knowing this would just engender further scorn. He pulled off the man's shoes, followed by his overly tight jeans. "Wrap them around his neck. That will catch the rest of the blood as it drains from his head." Philip complied, and tied them off. "Ok," Edwin said, carefully withdrawing his hand from the man's neck, "Help me put him in the storage room, and get out of here." I'll get this blood washed off, then I'll deal with corpse-boy." The body was quickly hauled into the storage room and locked in. Philip chuckled with nervous laughter. "Thank you." "Ok laughing boy. You have a job to do. Get back there, and keep taking notes. Get them to me when you can. Consider yourself drafted." "Your not the army." "No, but I know someone who is, and they'll deal with the paperwork. I'll get this journal to the right people, and keep up contact with you. Just make sure your stuff is marked with that sigma-6 logo so I know its you." "Could we use something else? That could be tied to me a bit too easily." "Well, what do you know Philip, you have a brain afterall." "Need I remind you-" "Lets get something strait Philip, I know your a good engineer, and a good person. I just don't like you. Your useful to me, and to the world right now, so I'll work with you. But that's only because your useful. Got it?" "Got it." "You have a code-word you'd like to use instead of the sigma-6 thing?" "Yeah, Chuckles." "Do I want to know?" "More importantly Edwin, its none of your business." Philip retorted and stormed out. Great, thought Philip as he strode out of the church. I have to deal with that pain in the ass again. I should have just gone to the government, at least they're professional about stuff. Still, prick or not, I have what I came for. Contact. He pulled out a crumpled photograph from his pocket. Three faces stared out at him, his wife and his kids. He hadn't decided to defect when they tested the bomb, far from it, he'd reveled in its use and the plans for the 21st. But the Commander had lied to him. He'd begged to be able to meet his family in New York after the attacks and bring them with him. The Commander had agreed, telling him to have them wait at the Statue of Liberty. He'd never bothered to mention that the statue was on the list of targets for bombing. When Philip had found out about it, he'd stormed into the commander's office with every intention to hill him. Storm Shadow had stopped him in an instant, and the commander had reminded him that as a member of Cobra, he didn't need attachments to decadent western society. To get out alive, Philip had agreed, but had plotted his revenge. And now he had an avenue to do it. With cobra he would stike back at the countries and corporations that ruined his life. But he'd pass just enough information back to the good, ever-so-trusting Dr. Edwin Steen to appear that he was working for the new UN organization that was being formed to track down Cobra. Just enough so that when they brought down the Commander that he'd have clemency. The best of both world. Code Name: Chuckles File Name:Philip M. Provost Birthplace: Calgary, Alberta Rank: N/A Primary Military Specialty: Infiltration Secondary Military Specialty: Engineering
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Last edited by Lifeline_MD; 11-29-2009 at 02:49 PM.. |
11-29-2009, 02:40 PM | #14 |
Samurai Bunny
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Tulsa, OK
Posts: 3,551
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Looks great so far, DH. My only complaint is that I somehow got the impression that it would be two parts because it involved two characters. Oh well, I guess I'll get another part later. Keep up the good work, bro.
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SIZE=4]Netbook..$299[/SIZE] One month of internet service $50 Cost of the class that I should be doing homework for right now $1300 Skinning Some Snakes and Melting Some Iron Grenadiers.... Priceless |
11-29-2009, 02:44 PM | #15 |
Darth_Henning
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 21,174
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Chuckles introduction wound up being longer than I thought at first. Lifeline will get his own chapter, he just appears in this one also.
Even in these introductory pieces, there will be characters who appear in other character's stories. Some get their own, some share, some have 'guests' appear. |
11-29-2009, 03:11 PM | #16 |
Iron Grenadier Sorcerer
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The Silent Castle
Posts: 34,271
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I'm liking this interpretation!
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11-29-2009, 04:45 PM | #17 |
Darth_Henning
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 21,174
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Thanks BFJ.
There's a lot of work to come on it, but its a start. |
11-29-2009, 05:07 PM | #18 |
Darth_Henning
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 21,174
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On the bright side, this thread has 204 views. On the down side, only 8 people have responded...
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11-29-2009, 09:22 PM | #19 |
G.I.Joe medic
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Litchfield, ME
Posts: 3,160
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Nice. Quite a different interpretation of Joe. My man Lifeline is a badass, all right! Can't wait to see what's next.
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11-29-2009, 10:23 PM | #20 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2,294
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That is awesome DH! Loving it. I like the way you're exploring the character motivations which for me was always lacking in most Joe media. The desire to separate govt and big business is not only one of the big conspiracy theories of the ages but also a very real thing, like the G8, G10, G20 protestors, That's an awesome start and I really look forward to reading more. :)
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