David Andersson wrote:
--- DB Sommer <sommert@connecttime.net> wrote:
for the occasion. All of the big gatherings were held
there. No press was allowed, as some of the tactics
the ALF had employed were technically illegal, if
morally right.
Of course they’d get much better effects if they
simply legally lobbied for stricter laws against
unnecessary amounts of animal testing than releasing 1
thousandth of a percent into a wild habitat the
animals had never had time to adapt naturally for. :D
Some people actual results are what counts. In any event, Man Beast will
be changing operations somewhat in the near future.
Luckily only minimal property damage had been
inflicted during most of the rescue operations, and
since the leadership had been adamant about *not*
publicly claming responsibility for their actions
Which either makes them pragmatic or genuine.
% A bit of both.
they had managed to fly under the radar for the most
part. Though there was a segment of the leadership,
led by Shinjiro Hikami, who wanted a more public image
for their heroic deeds.
Foreshadowing for involvement with Arioshi or just a
footnote?
% Footnote. Overrider is responsible for the influx of cash. More on
that later.
Still, few complained about the current leader,
founder Itsuki Mikura.
It may be an idea to run a short roll call the end of
each chapter, describing from which animes you’ve
plucked some of the new or long-absent characters, so
readers can keep track of if they’re unique to the
story or not.
% The Handbook has that. I should post the updated version of it now
that Act II is done. If they aren't in there, they're almost certainly
originals.
A rescue operation, headed by Yakumo Matsui, had
great success in liberating what might very well be
the greatest rescue of animals to date. Sadly, he
could not be with us today, his fate unknown.
He’s sitting in a tree eating bananas, throwing poo
and plucking fleas from his back… Speaking of which,
I had the impression that the KOW only planned to keep
him in that state for a few days at most. They seemed
too civilised to let him stay devolved on indefinite
time. Has he stayed in Wundagore to support the HE
afterwards?
% He's been a bt traumatized by everything. And one thing the HE was
infamous for was not using humans to help him outside of his very
earliest days. There was a guy that claimed he worked for him, a
knockoff called the High Technition, that was never validated.
panese. In a firm, yet gentle voice, he said, “I
am the Man Beast, an innocent wolf changed into human
form unwillingly by a truly evil being who refers to
himself as the High Evolutionary. I find myself a
strange creature in a strange land, at least from my
perspective. An individual of both the world of nature
and the world of man, but truly belonging in neither.
Torn in two directions, not knowing which way to go.
Playing on the appropriate emotional strings as
always.
% Yep. He talks good, telling people what they want to hear. As a
general rule, MB preferred using minions and manipulations to personal
confrontation, though he wasn't above getting down and dirty when the
situation called for it.
“Yes, my friends, let today mark the dawn of a new
beginning of the ALF. You can count on me to
personally spearhead the effort to release all those
who have suffered as I have at the hands of cruel,
inhuman monsters.
Including incarcerated super-criminals? ;)
% No. He wants one already in the movement, though he'll be relying on
the Ani Men more than anything.
The crowd roared in approval, reenergized and
sounding like they were ready to march on the enemy
then and there.
Does he possess large-scale emotion-manipulating
abilities like the other Hate-Mongers?
% No. He does have the ability to use insidiously powerful mental
blasts, though they are physical in nature.
Tabur held his hand to his chin in thought. “Oh,
that makes sense. Yes, I suppose all the animals would
be emancipated then, wouldn’t they?”
With all the humans dead? Of course.
% We'll see later when he tells the reader of his scheme. :)
Something else is going on there. If you’re not
careful, your balls might end up in a mousetrap. And
if you screw things up for me with your lust,
remember, I can rip your throat out as easily as I did
him.” He pointed at the body.
An upcoming Man-Beast/Phantom Cats alliance? They’re
both striving for human eradication and MB (good
corporate director initials if you wish to use them)
would welcome to rule an army which already possess
militant, ruthless mindsets reminiscent of his own.
% Again that will be coming up in the future chapters. Not the next one,
which involves the Avengers not present here, but the ones after that,
the edge of madness. “Oh yes, the times are
changing, as you’re about to find out, you aberrant
sacks of flesh. You’ll get what’s coming to you
for trying to jump the evolutionary chain ahead of
me.”
I don’t remember if he had such a complex original
motivation or if he simply had in-born animalistic
sadistic bloodlust (which he didn’t evolve beyond
like the other animals due to an unstable isotope) and
enjoyed killing and torturing people? In any case
it’s a good idea to expand a little in the
explanation here for reader perspective. Perhaps
highlighting that he, being a wolf, views himself as
_the_ apex predator in nature and would get incredibly
insulted by the notion that any species could stand
above him without strictly basing society on sheer
bloodthirsty medieval social-Darwinism. Especially not
a bunch of physically and emotionally ‘weak’
omnivores who should be rightful easy prey for a
predator of his standing.
Perhaps something in the spirit of:
“Oh yes, the times are changing, as you’re about
to find out, you tasty litters of cowering prey.
You’ll get what’s coming to you for trying to get
ahead of a true predator in the evolutionary food
chain.”
% In this universe MB's motivations are slightly different (though he's
still insane and damn near a personification of evil as you can get).
I'll go ahead and say it now since he'll be saying it at some point in
the future chapters, but basically the HE discovered that humanity was
given a evolutionary boost by the Celestials. MB also discovered this
which is why he refers to them as genetic aberations.
% The opening of Act IV will reveal what happened to the Eternals and
Youma, who were also created at the same time.
blackouts were a fairly recent occurrence. Curiously,
finding himself in strange locales was not. Evidently
he was as directionally challenged as his emerald
alter-ego.
Tofu could play the role of Doc Samson to hypnotise
the very similar personalities into merging.
An amusing counter to Banner’s and his alter ego’s
mutual antagonism would be if Ryouga and Hulk met up
on an astral plane and immediately became best
friends. :D
% Heh.
Reed Richards was off in some other dimension with
the Challengers of the Fantastic
Heh. A semi-DC/Amalgam crossover? Will more DC-related
characters show up?
% Nah. This is the same team from 'What if the FF had no Super Powers'
with a different name, which predated the Amalgam xover.
Seeing he had an audience, Ryouga unburdened himself.
“It was three years ago that a backstabbing jerk
named Ranma Saotome backstabbed me.”
Heh.
% And yes, the repetition there was deliberate.
for a week straight, leaving me with nothing to eat.
Yup. What most of the more condemning people forget is
that Ryouga’s direction sense really made it a
severe problem for him, since he’d be starving
without available recurrent meals. Of course, while
Ranma knew about his handicap, he probably didn’t
think that far.
% No. Ranma's not all that forward planning, and at that age, not that
bright either.
“He offered to share it with me.”
I think canon Ryouga would have been somewhat pacified
by a sincere apology of this sort.
% It's coming.
Ryouga’s nostrils flared in anger. “He
apologized, saying it was the responsibility of the
strong to help the weak.
And what narrow definition does he use to define
strength?
% Back then, physical. He was being taught by Genma. But it mostly
consisted of 'the strong help the weak and don't take from them even if
it would be easier.' kind of thing.
There are plenty of paths and mindsets and
burdens, which take different types of great strength
to shoulder. For example, contrary to popular notions,
it takes far less strength to dehumanise and numb
oneself than growing enough of a backbone to maintain
empathy and conscience. Calling someone inferior and
useless to his or her face like this is incredibly
insulting… but hardly enough of a reason for a
vendetta.
% Oh no, there's more.
arely able to move his arm. He said I was the only
guy his age that had ever made him work so hard for an
arm wrestling match. When he found out I knew martial
arts, he suggested we become friends. Then we could
spar and stuff like that.”
So you already considered the above aspects. Good for
you. :)
% Yep.
“Well, I couldn’t let these guys pick on her. So
I walked over and told them to knock it off. Then they
called me a mutie-lover and tried to beat me up. I
tossed them aside without even working up a sweat.
Like most bullies that get stood up to, they were
cowards at heart. They started bawling their eyes out
and ran off.
Hmm. I recall that you implied to use randomly
magical-powered individuals or something similar in
place of the mutant term with Xavier heading Gakuen
Academy (name?).
% Nononononono. Mutants most definitely exist as mutants here. In fact
that's a major plot point later on in this arc. Wolverine and Sabertooth
were already mentioned (and dead) as proof of canon mutants. The
renaming of some as 'Alice's was to mute the negativity behind the name.
“He tricked me with his superior height and
strength!” Ryouga shouted. “Worse, the next day,
he lied to everyone claiming I was the bully, dirtying
my name. Everybody treated me like I was a leper or
something. So I challenged Ranma to a duel to get my
revenge for tricking me and dragging my name through
the mud. Only the jerk didn’t show up for it. I
waited two days and he never showed.”
That’s actually a pretty inventive solution to the
origins of the feud. Severely dirtying Ryouga’s
reputation for something he didn’t do through a
misunderstanding would do it.
% Yeah. For all the changes in Ranma, history happened largely the same
way anyhow.
“I knew it,” Iron Rose mumbled.
On the other hand it’s not like Ranma or most others
wouldn’t know that Ryouga has brain damage in that
area, so it’s hardly unexpected or something he
could help.
% Heh
�I traveled all around Japan, and even China,
searching for him. It was there that something…
horrible happened to me.”
Constantly living in fear of being turned to lunch by
any passing stranger or animal coupled with always
being lost away from home, school, friends and any
luxuries of civilisation makes Ryouga the most
miserable character in the entire series. It’s hard
not to feel sorry for him.
% True
“In any case, I’m seeking revenge on Ranma for
all
the wrongs he did to me.”
Well, he didn’t get you cursed here, so it’s not
like he did something truly unforgivable.
% I don't think Ryouga was aware of it until later. It was just one more
thing added to the list when he found out..
change back and forth. What if you were to change in
the middle of a fight? Why, Ranma would end up a big
red splotch, and we’d have to arrest you ourselves
for murder, and we wouldn’t want to do that to a
teammate.”
They handle Ryouga perfectly. Much like the Hulk
he’s a nice guy at heart, but you have to explain
things slowly and calmly for his benefit. ;)
% And in deference, Ryouga's only now learning of his emerald alter ego.
And he's not all that worked up about changing. I should have mentioned
again that turning into the Hulk actually ends up draining a lot of his
anger in his normal body. Changing is actually theraputic for Ryouga. I
implied it in the 'What's for dinner chapter in Act II. I'll have to
mention it again to remind the reader.
“Body language, which is just as good and nowhere
near as invasive. Mind reading is a gray area when it
comes to the law,” Daredevil said.
Daredevil consistently uses gaps in heartbeat to
determine lies.
Yeah, I remember pacemakers can throw him as well as compulsive liars.
“Someone stole my set of mechanical arms. A nutcase
that named himself, ‘Dr. Octopus’. I believe he
was Japanese, actually. He evidently read an article
about the arms, thought they would be a wonderful
addition to his villainous repertoire, and decided to
steal them from me. He hit me in the face with a
pastry, and while I was blinded by a tasty cream
filling, he put them on and fled with them.”
Nice with a Defending reference. Have you heard any
words of its current status?
% Thanks. And no, I haven't. I should get back to him as I was enjoying
the story.
% I should also note the only thing I have to do with Defending is
okaying the use of characters. Plot and characterizations are all
David's doing. I get a little jealous sometimes because of hsi writing,
which at times I find better than mine.
However, the fact he is still alive and with no
visible affects from his exposure seems to bare out a
theory several gamma theorists, such as myself, have
postulated, but had no way of testing.
Better make that ‘radiation theorists’.
‘Theorists limited to a particular wavelength
spectra of light’ sounds pretty silly, comic book or
no.
% Heh
The surrender would be coming soon, once the real
bombs dropped. Even that knowledge didn’t affect
him. Despite being in the Japan of the past, he felt
no surge of patriotism or sense of loss over what was
to come.
So he’s Japanese at least? Then again you could have
turned an alien like Kagato Japanese for all I know,
so it’s not much of a clue. :D
% No, I didn't. He's a Japanese native in anime canon. Still not saying
who he is. That's a long time coming.
All that mattered was saving his love in *his* past,
so that he could have a future. He’d personally drop
the bombs himself to prevent the Tragedy. He’d
sacrifice anyone, everyone, if it meant saving her.
Wait a minute… I remember skimming an introduction
text to an anime show based on this premise a while
back. A schoolboy skipping back and forth in time over
the summer break to prevent his girlfriend from dying
I believe.
% I read a blurb for it. But it was only 2 or 3 eps long, and reviews
for it said it was just done way too quickly and not that good, so I
skipped it.
% Not like I have any shortage of things to watch, just little time to
do it I'm finally finishing up Trinity Blood, which I had laying around
for over a year and at last got around to watching the last few weeks.
Definitely not my type of show, so I never
took much notice and definitely didn’t watch it, but
could he be Kang’s new identity? After all, given
that Ariyoshi wasn’t a villain in her original
setting, you seem to play a bit loose with character
roles. He could be based on a good guy.
% I am playing a little loose, but not in some ways either. I'll
eventually build up to his identity as he becomes more panicked as time
begins to run out. Right now he still has lots of breathing room to
change things the way he wants.
And the seeds for their destruction would be planted
now. He had checked the timeline furiously. Removal of
them at the juncture he would travel to changed
nothing of Kang’s own past. She would live, he would
be who he was, and all would be well.
Can he change his own previous timeline without a
major paradox preventing it? I don’t think Marvel
rules allow it except though higher-dimensional
interference. Though I’ve heard that certain
mathematicians theorise that a person can exist
without a past.
% He thinks he can. In any event he's basically only trying to prevent
one event in such a way as to not negate his existance as Kang.
Everything else can go to hell as far as he's concerned. Of course, that
might be a problem itself as well
Of course, he was shared with the Germans and
Italians too, but that was inevitable, given the
contributions all had made before Agent Axis’
creation.
Damn, you’re getting really obscure here. I read an
issue of Invaders where he was the central hive
intelligence for an army of cloned superhuman chock
troops, but otherwise have virtually no recall of him.
% In the original Invaders series? It's been so long I've forgotten
those. If it was in the updated version of them, I skipped it due to bad
artwork.
Now he was an amalgamate of the best spy from each
country, thanks to a freak accident. He had the
strength, agility, and intelligence of all three, and
his skills in espionage were unparalleled on the
planet.
That is a pretty cool premise I’ll admit. Though as
far as nazi-themed villains go I prefer Baron Strucker
and the original Master Man & Warrior Woman.
% He was incredibly generic in appearance, and the only time i recall
him being seen outside of WWII was when the Thin Man killed him in the
modern era in Marvel Comics Presents.
% As to MM and WW, I'm thinking they probably didn't exist here. One
complication that came about due to Steve Rogers not getting the Super
Soldier formula was that a lot of other people didn't try to put
everything they could into their own SS programs since they didn't know
if it could be done. In the canon universe, Captain America was living
proof it could succeed, so everyone tried making their own, which is how
there was MM, WW, the 50's Cap, Victorious, the version that helped
create the Man Thing, the man named 'X' (from Power Man), etc, etc. :)
On
suo. “Sorry about that. Sometimes I’m of three
minds on matters. Luckily majority rules, and all of
us are quite rational.” He handed Kang a small metal
box with a single button and a mesh, like on a
walkie-talkie. “Push that and the robot activates.
Sleeper? Tough, but not Sentinel level.
Nowhere near it. Actually, they were all pretty cheesy. One of them was
just a big bomb in the shape of the Red Skull's head. ^_^
He pushed the button and said to the speaker,
“Activate and kill everyone in the building above
you.”
Smooth idea for a set-up. :)
% Thanks.
However transporting Kang in space as well as time
without any explanation to how the robots were hidden
below Kuno Manor destroys a bit of it.
% I thought I set it up well. Kang has always been able to teleport
anywhere as well as time travel. And the Kunou mentioned in the past is
obviously an ancestor of Kodachi's, and burying it is mentioned.The
location of Avenger's Mansion and who owns it is public knowledge, as
evidenced by all the super villains that have been captured there, as I
mentioned in the Hercules chapter. Not sure what was missing.
Fifty meters beneath the earth, entombed in a
concrete chamber with no way out, surrounded on all
sides by tons of earth, the Fourth Sleeper activated.
It processed its orders and raised its head up toward
the
surface.
Just _one_ Sleeper!? That’s not nearly enough to
handle Hulk & Thor and I don’t think Kang would be
foolish enough to make such an uncertain gamble. Bury
at least 8 of them to be on the safe side.
% There was only one 4th Sleeper. It was only dangerous in that it could
trigger miniture volcano anywhere, and could turn ethereal, like the
Vision. He was pretty sure with surprise he could kill, if not all of
them, at least some.
% Actually the original version I was going to come up with was more
comedic in nature. Agent Axis kidnapped Howard Stark, who created the
much more dangerous Arsenal robot, which had been buried in the canon
version of Avengers Mansion. Only in this version Arsenal had no decent
weapons due to insufficient money from the cost of the war, had to dig
its way out of its chamber, which collapsed upon him due to substandard
materials, and was basically nearly destroyed by the time it emerged in
the Ranmaverse Avengers mansion. I think this worked out better, though.
It was a doomsday device created in a freak accident
by scientists of the Third Reich in the waning days of
the war. Its method of destruction was simple. It had
the ability to combust any material known to man.
Well, it’s not nuclear fire and thus not nearly
enough to bother the Hulk. Mjolnir/Mjölner should
protect Thor as well. Good trap othervise. There’s a
difference between straight battle and an unexpected
raid after all and Hulk&Thor don’t constitute a team
by themselves (and thus presumably won’t cause the
accident Kang worries about).
% Yep. Good call.
Ryouga didn’t like robots. He didn’t know why. He
just didn’t. In fact they bothered him almost as
much as Ranma. He didn’t care for hills lately
either, and he didn’t know the cause of that either.
Just that they made him uneasy, no matter how serene
they might appear.
Heh. That would explain a lot.
% The whole Spragg thing is just too wonderful to forget.
% In a way, I am sorry I haven't had the time/resources to keep up a lot
of Marvel titles, as I saw a resurgence in the pre FF monster lately. A
retcon with Ulysses Bloodstone (A decent characterthat should never had
been killed, and miraculously stayed dead) and Doc Druid hunting some
classic monsters way back when. Something with Fin Fang Foom, and a
number of others.
“Sorry,” Hulk said, then heard a thumping.
Turning, he saw the Fourth Sleeper running at him.
Rather than becoming angry, the Hulk laughed and stood
his ground. “Stupid No-Neck Robot thinks Hulk will
fall for the
same trick twice.”
:D
% It's real sneaky though and tricks him again. ^_^
The Hulk said, “Hulk will help take robot apart.
Hulk is good at it.”
Funny
% Thanks. Hulk dialogue lends itself to humor. He's like a big, eager
child a lot fo the time, and kids do say the silliest things.
Kang screamed in rage for an eternity that literally
only lasted a second.
Serves him right for only sending a single robot,
though unless it had malfunctioned everyone would have
died from the initial magma blast, so it wasn’t
entirely his fault.
% True. He'll go on the backburner again for a while as we focus on the
main villains in this arc. The only other planned 'delay' is when the
mysterious business woman gets fed up with the Avengers screwing up her
schemes and hires a pair of assassins to kill them. That one will have
long term effects on one of the characters as well. I neat twist I think
people will enjoy.
Oh? I didn't know it was. It was a play off the old
'Mutant Liberation Front' from the X-Titles.
You could make a Youkai, Bakemono or Phantom Cat
liberation front instead. ;)
% Nah. They aren't run by them. More on the PC's shortly. They'll tie in
to the Avegers fate on more than one front later.
Nah. They were being tortured with soup.
Turned into soup you mean?
% No, the wonton cruelty was in the form of being tortured with soup. ^_^
Could be. Some heroes are going to become their canon
counterparts. Nova, for instance.
So he becomes a big deal in America now that none of
the usual A-listers show up?
% Actually there will be a number of very familiar American heroes that
will pop up eventually. But not until several acts from now.
% Actually Nova's always been underutalized, and Richard Rider's later
character could have made for great reading, since he turned into a bit
of a slacker horndog as he got older. Bad writing and then Erik Larsen
messed up the two attempts to solo him again. I saw he has a new title
out, but since it's only tied to an intersteller storyline, it'll be a
short run.
Also forgot to add Eliot Franklin (Thunderball of the
Wrecking Crew) to the list. He was brilliant enough to
make miniature Gamma Bombs and was referred to as the
African American version of Bruce Banner.
Low-level exoskeletons seemed to be his limit.
% Only lately. Originally he was a pretty smart guy. In any case he'd be
familiar enough to be mentioned with gamma energy, which was the
criteria for the ones Octavius mentioned.
% Plans are for Double A to have an impact in the
current timeline, though. So he's not a one shot
character.
The remote-controlled spy army could have potential.
% No. He'll be seeking something to prolong his life again, as his aging
was only cut by a third and he's starting to feel old.
% The other three had far different, less impressive
abilities (especially since it was only when all 3
combined that they were a doomsday weapon). They were
actually part of a different program from the 4th, and
were created by different, more conventional means.
The 4th was just given the label since its objective
was similar to the other three.
There was only 1 semi-powerful Sleeper robot? Oh well,
it was over 10 years since I read the profile.
% The other three consisted of an actual giant robot, a giant jet pack,
and the Skull head shaped bomb. They combined into one big Doomsday
Device. Kirby and Lee had fun with Cap back then.
I messed around with its canon control as well. The
original means of awakening it, and subsequently
defeating it, were... well, Sailor Moonish in nature.
Pink big-eyed fuzzy animal perfumed love-bomber
strike! Or was it Dragon Man-style falling in love
with a beautiful girl who patted it on the head?
It was a crytsal transiever that responded to emotions. Sharon Carter
had it in her hand and, when she became frightened that Cap was going to
be killed by the 4th Sleeper (he was getting his ass royally kicked) the
fear was transmitted to it and it weakened to the point it seemed to
dissipate from its ethereal power. In later years it was revealed it was
still whole, and the Red Skull retrieved it, though its volcano powers
no longer worked.
% Heh. Looked over some of the old Caps since I needed to read how the
4th Sleeper worked. Sharon Carter back then went between two extremes.
Sometimes she was a damsel in distress, while other times she was a
highly competent SHIELD agent that could be quite ruthless when it came
to completing a mission. Now she's been modernized into a fairly
unlikable bitch. Then again, Cap probably has the worst cast of love
interests of any Marvel character due to blandness. Tony Stark probably
had the best, and in Stark's case, he slept with damn near all of them.
One thing Marvel did do with Tony was have him really be a playboy and
end up in the sack with a lot of women.
% Thanks for the comments. They are greatly appreciated.
DB Sommer
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