Post by Tako on Jun 27, 2015 20:42:20 GMT
“I can’t believe the Administrator has gone rogue… what the hell do we do now?”
It was a question that the Blue Banner had been trying to avoid asking, let alone answering, ever since the alert had been sounded. The average Blue Banner troop held the KAOS forces in a mixture of awe and fear, but the Administrator – or at least, the possibility that the Administrator had gone rogue and turned into an enemy of Earth – was something that made even KAOS nervous. The fear and doubt of the elite forces made the regular troops figuratively – and in some cases literally – quake in their boots.
Now all they could do was sit there and wait whilst the world went mad around them. Without the Administrator overseeing things, hundreds of routine tasks that he completed effortlessly simply weren’t being taken care of. Some of the more violent and ambitious parts of the Blue Banner were starting to rally together to try and buy themselves freedom from the tight strictures of the rules and regulations. Everything they had trained and prepared for had brought them to this place, this moment, and it was the first time most of them would be tested.
All things told, so far, they were doing surprisingly well. Although the organization was under stress, it hadn’t yet cracked in any serious way. I would probably make it though this. But as the soldiers stood around the makeshift communications array, they didn’t seem very sure of themselves. Who could, when the very foundations of their world had been pulled out from underneath them?
“Uh hey guys, what’s going on?”
The soldiers blinked, and turned to look at the source of the voice. The teenager had been standing there a few minutes, and it seemed weird that they had managed to miss a girl who was so brightly coloured. If the rainbow dye job she had wasn’t enough, you’d have thought they would have seen the sky blue sports gear, but no, they were completely oblivious to her until she said hi.
“… What the hell do you want, kid?”
Tako scratched behind the back of her head, smiling a little. “You uh, you guys are part of the Blue Banner Army, right?”
The gate captain puffed himself up and strode forward to stand in front of the small girl, shadow falling over her face, not that she seemed all that intimidated by the physical difference between them.
“That’s right, kid! You want to join the Blue Banner, do right by Earth and make the world a better place?”
Tako laughed, and kept scratching behind the back of her head.
“Not… exactly.”
One of the other guards peeked around the larger man, looking at Tako, then at the little tablet in his hand, then back at Tako again. “Uh, Sir. I think this girl matches the description of that dangerous anarchist Captain Maroon filed a report on a few weeks ago.”
Tako grinned, and nodded her head. “Yup, that sounds about right to me.”
“You mean, the one who took out an entire company, including the experimental Battle Suit?”
Tako nodded her head, cheerfully, “Ayup!”
After the fire fight finally died down, Tako was left whistling a merry tune to herself, and the small contingent of Blue Banner guards had been knocked unconscious. The gal took the time to carefully bend the barrels of each of the soldier’s guns, and then she actually stopped to look around at the place the troops had been defending. Really, she’d just recognized the uniforms and assumed that they would be up to no good – now that she was looking at it, she didn’t see any screaming, crying children, captured innocents or evidence of mass graves, so she actually started to feel a little bit guilty. What were they doing out here?
She reached down and picked up the large man by the scruff of his neck, giving him a heavy shake which… did not get any response at all from the unconscious man.
“Hey, hey come on, don’t be lame. I didn’t hit you THAT hard.”
When the man failed to magically recover, she sighed and discarded him, looking around the camp with her hands on her hips. It looked, to her inexpert eye, like a campground. There were a bunch of tents, a few military jeeps, and a makeshift tower which they’d studded a few radio dishes to. Maybe that was a hint about what they were here to accomplish?
The girl walked over to the tower, and cast her gaze over the strange structure. She really had no idea what to make of it. Some of the satellite dishes looked really huge to her untrained eyes, but she didn’t know if the size meant that they were more expensive or… useful, or, what. There were also quite a few smaller ones, and she couldn’t even begin to guess what the purpose of having so many dishes was. The best guess she had was that they were trying to point in lots of directions at once, but she was pretty sure radio signals didn’t work that way – didn’t they always show them going in all directions in the cartoons?
Stepping into the dark shade of the tent, the rainbow-haired girl was immediately beset by the dozens of screens haphazardly set up all over the place. They were stacked one atop the other like bricks, and each one showed flickering images, text, or reports in countless different styles. She couldn’t tell whether the images were live or recordings, whether the numbers scrolling down the screens were supposed to mean anything to anybody… really, she couldn’t tell anything about anything, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the girl to make sense of what she was looking at.
Then someone shot her in the face.
The bullet flattened itself against Tako’s skin, and she looked faintly confused as it did, the girl blinking in the aftermath of the lead shot. Now it was her turn to peek around the corner at the girl in the labcoat who was waving a revolver in her general direction.
“Uh, hi?”
“Stay back, criminal!” The technician screamed, waving her gun around even more.
“If you want? What’s going on here?”
At which point the technician burst into tears, and Tako looked deeply uncomfortable. Of all the things that she’d expected the woman to do, that ranked pretty low on the list. Why weren’t things making sense any more?
“You… want some water or something?”
It took the girl a few minutes to calm the technician down, but when she had convinced the woman – mostly by not doing it – that she had no interest in punching the poor woman’s face clean off, she was much more amenable to explaining the situation to her. The fact that the Administrator had gone rogue, that terrible things were happening all over the world… and that the Blue Banner Army had been trying to do everything they could to keep a lid on it all.
Mostly, Tako remained quiet through the explanation, trying to work out how much she should care or what the worst possible outcome could be. She saw the surveillance footage of the crazed Administrator going…. Crazy, and really, he didn’t look all that dangerous to her! The dude was definitely no Bear King, that much she could tell just from looking at him. Nobody with hair that fabulous was a really dangerous fighter. Except for her, of course, she was the exception to the rule.
“So… are you gonna help us?”
The question took Tako by surprise, and she blinked a few times, looking between the monitors of various world disasters and the technician who had put them right in front of her.
“Uh, no? Why would I?”
“Because you’re strong!” The Technician shouted, waving her hand at the monitors, “I saw what you did out there! You took out my entire guard in less than a minute! Just think of all the good you could do if you put your mind to it! You’ve got a responsibility to help us out!”
Tako laughed at the idea, and shook her head, standing up from the floor where she had been kneeling before one of the monitors. “Well, no, see… there’s five very good reasons why I can’t do that.
The woman put her hands on her hips, “Oh really? What would those be?”
Slowly, deliberately, Tako began to count on her fingers.
“Well, first, I’m sixteen. Secondly, I’m not a member of the police or military services, not even a cadet! Thirdly, I’m not the one who made this whole mess, that’d be you guys and your stupid, lets put the whole world under the watch of a crazy robot plan! And fourth, I’m on a journey of self discovery, and I don’t really want to do this, so… that doesn’t seem like a good way to find myself.”
The Technician grunted, and folded her arms over her chest. “So you’re not gonna help because you’re a selfish little brat, and you only provided four reasons, not five.”
“Oh yeah.” Tako said with a grin, “Reason number five, I don’t like you guys! You’re jerks! Doing bad things because you think there’s good reasons for them doesn’t make it okay, and you guys keep doing bad things! You shot me! In the head!!”
The girl actually laughed with exasperation, shaking said head. “You actually think you can convince me to do ANYTHING after that? Get real.”
And with that, Tako burst from the ground, shooting straight up into the sky and leaving a brilliant trail of bright white light in her wake… and a crumbling tower of communication dishes which toppled slowly over to the ground behind her. The technician would be fine but… none of this would help the Blue Banner Army stick together, because screw those guys!
It was a question that the Blue Banner had been trying to avoid asking, let alone answering, ever since the alert had been sounded. The average Blue Banner troop held the KAOS forces in a mixture of awe and fear, but the Administrator – or at least, the possibility that the Administrator had gone rogue and turned into an enemy of Earth – was something that made even KAOS nervous. The fear and doubt of the elite forces made the regular troops figuratively – and in some cases literally – quake in their boots.
Now all they could do was sit there and wait whilst the world went mad around them. Without the Administrator overseeing things, hundreds of routine tasks that he completed effortlessly simply weren’t being taken care of. Some of the more violent and ambitious parts of the Blue Banner were starting to rally together to try and buy themselves freedom from the tight strictures of the rules and regulations. Everything they had trained and prepared for had brought them to this place, this moment, and it was the first time most of them would be tested.
All things told, so far, they were doing surprisingly well. Although the organization was under stress, it hadn’t yet cracked in any serious way. I would probably make it though this. But as the soldiers stood around the makeshift communications array, they didn’t seem very sure of themselves. Who could, when the very foundations of their world had been pulled out from underneath them?
“Uh hey guys, what’s going on?”
The soldiers blinked, and turned to look at the source of the voice. The teenager had been standing there a few minutes, and it seemed weird that they had managed to miss a girl who was so brightly coloured. If the rainbow dye job she had wasn’t enough, you’d have thought they would have seen the sky blue sports gear, but no, they were completely oblivious to her until she said hi.
“… What the hell do you want, kid?”
Tako scratched behind the back of her head, smiling a little. “You uh, you guys are part of the Blue Banner Army, right?”
The gate captain puffed himself up and strode forward to stand in front of the small girl, shadow falling over her face, not that she seemed all that intimidated by the physical difference between them.
“That’s right, kid! You want to join the Blue Banner, do right by Earth and make the world a better place?”
Tako laughed, and kept scratching behind the back of her head.
“Not… exactly.”
One of the other guards peeked around the larger man, looking at Tako, then at the little tablet in his hand, then back at Tako again. “Uh, Sir. I think this girl matches the description of that dangerous anarchist Captain Maroon filed a report on a few weeks ago.”
Tako grinned, and nodded her head. “Yup, that sounds about right to me.”
“You mean, the one who took out an entire company, including the experimental Battle Suit?”
Tako nodded her head, cheerfully, “Ayup!”
After the fire fight finally died down, Tako was left whistling a merry tune to herself, and the small contingent of Blue Banner guards had been knocked unconscious. The gal took the time to carefully bend the barrels of each of the soldier’s guns, and then she actually stopped to look around at the place the troops had been defending. Really, she’d just recognized the uniforms and assumed that they would be up to no good – now that she was looking at it, she didn’t see any screaming, crying children, captured innocents or evidence of mass graves, so she actually started to feel a little bit guilty. What were they doing out here?
She reached down and picked up the large man by the scruff of his neck, giving him a heavy shake which… did not get any response at all from the unconscious man.
“Hey, hey come on, don’t be lame. I didn’t hit you THAT hard.”
When the man failed to magically recover, she sighed and discarded him, looking around the camp with her hands on her hips. It looked, to her inexpert eye, like a campground. There were a bunch of tents, a few military jeeps, and a makeshift tower which they’d studded a few radio dishes to. Maybe that was a hint about what they were here to accomplish?
The girl walked over to the tower, and cast her gaze over the strange structure. She really had no idea what to make of it. Some of the satellite dishes looked really huge to her untrained eyes, but she didn’t know if the size meant that they were more expensive or… useful, or, what. There were also quite a few smaller ones, and she couldn’t even begin to guess what the purpose of having so many dishes was. The best guess she had was that they were trying to point in lots of directions at once, but she was pretty sure radio signals didn’t work that way – didn’t they always show them going in all directions in the cartoons?
Stepping into the dark shade of the tent, the rainbow-haired girl was immediately beset by the dozens of screens haphazardly set up all over the place. They were stacked one atop the other like bricks, and each one showed flickering images, text, or reports in countless different styles. She couldn’t tell whether the images were live or recordings, whether the numbers scrolling down the screens were supposed to mean anything to anybody… really, she couldn’t tell anything about anything, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the girl to make sense of what she was looking at.
Then someone shot her in the face.
The bullet flattened itself against Tako’s skin, and she looked faintly confused as it did, the girl blinking in the aftermath of the lead shot. Now it was her turn to peek around the corner at the girl in the labcoat who was waving a revolver in her general direction.
“Uh, hi?”
“Stay back, criminal!” The technician screamed, waving her gun around even more.
“If you want? What’s going on here?”
At which point the technician burst into tears, and Tako looked deeply uncomfortable. Of all the things that she’d expected the woman to do, that ranked pretty low on the list. Why weren’t things making sense any more?
“You… want some water or something?”
It took the girl a few minutes to calm the technician down, but when she had convinced the woman – mostly by not doing it – that she had no interest in punching the poor woman’s face clean off, she was much more amenable to explaining the situation to her. The fact that the Administrator had gone rogue, that terrible things were happening all over the world… and that the Blue Banner Army had been trying to do everything they could to keep a lid on it all.
Mostly, Tako remained quiet through the explanation, trying to work out how much she should care or what the worst possible outcome could be. She saw the surveillance footage of the crazed Administrator going…. Crazy, and really, he didn’t look all that dangerous to her! The dude was definitely no Bear King, that much she could tell just from looking at him. Nobody with hair that fabulous was a really dangerous fighter. Except for her, of course, she was the exception to the rule.
“So… are you gonna help us?”
The question took Tako by surprise, and she blinked a few times, looking between the monitors of various world disasters and the technician who had put them right in front of her.
“Uh, no? Why would I?”
“Because you’re strong!” The Technician shouted, waving her hand at the monitors, “I saw what you did out there! You took out my entire guard in less than a minute! Just think of all the good you could do if you put your mind to it! You’ve got a responsibility to help us out!”
Tako laughed at the idea, and shook her head, standing up from the floor where she had been kneeling before one of the monitors. “Well, no, see… there’s five very good reasons why I can’t do that.
The woman put her hands on her hips, “Oh really? What would those be?”
Slowly, deliberately, Tako began to count on her fingers.
“Well, first, I’m sixteen. Secondly, I’m not a member of the police or military services, not even a cadet! Thirdly, I’m not the one who made this whole mess, that’d be you guys and your stupid, lets put the whole world under the watch of a crazy robot plan! And fourth, I’m on a journey of self discovery, and I don’t really want to do this, so… that doesn’t seem like a good way to find myself.”
The Technician grunted, and folded her arms over her chest. “So you’re not gonna help because you’re a selfish little brat, and you only provided four reasons, not five.”
“Oh yeah.” Tako said with a grin, “Reason number five, I don’t like you guys! You’re jerks! Doing bad things because you think there’s good reasons for them doesn’t make it okay, and you guys keep doing bad things! You shot me! In the head!!”
The girl actually laughed with exasperation, shaking said head. “You actually think you can convince me to do ANYTHING after that? Get real.”
And with that, Tako burst from the ground, shooting straight up into the sky and leaving a brilliant trail of bright white light in her wake… and a crumbling tower of communication dishes which toppled slowly over to the ground behind her. The technician would be fine but… none of this would help the Blue Banner Army stick together, because screw those guys!
