Part two was my first real challenge to write and I shuffled a lot of plot points and racked my noggin getting into the mindset of someone else's character, Sparkplug. The story was supposed to double as both a 'eulogy' of sorts to part one and convey that deep thinking characteristic of him. I'm not a 100% happy with the final product but I think it achieved the solemn yet powerful tone.
I had this sub-plot involving the Carnival but I felt it detracted too much away from the Massacre and spun it off for part three.
NOVEMBER 27
My nickname for this section was 'The Revenge Squad Strikes Back.' I wanted to the reveal of Trevor, Mack, and John to be loosely based on the bad-assery from that one scene from The Matrix when the whole team appears in the Matrix to meet the Oracle. Going with the pov of Sparkplug, I replaced the phone as the medium of introduction with a streetlight.
Saved from last issue, I decided to reveal the final words of Phillip DeParis for this one and delivered it through an evolution of Sparkplug's power, to generate an electromagnetic pulse. The writers of the show seem to bounce from reason to reason, but I'm pretty sure emotions are a sticking point for controlling powers. Here, it comes into play. Since Sparkplug is a reserved and introspective person, being able go beyond what he knows of his power requires a lot of anger.
Of course, we've got Trevor and his gun but the majority of the story is Mack in action. Then to cap off the attack with another cool use of a power, I wrote in Azuteor to demolish the building and send the faction leader down to the center of the earth, not the best way to die but justifiable?
NOVEMBER 28
I starting writing this issue with the idea that Mack would narrate the majority of it as he speaks to Blue at his grave and explain to him what happened after he died. It was his way of resolution and saying goodbye to a good friend. Another idea I had was to have Sparkplug have his interpretation of teammates revealed, Trevor and Seal in particular. It's always interesting to me to see how people view each other.
Then to end the day, I imagined Mack would make a gesture to Blue's grave and nothing was more fitting than using his iconic baseball hat.
2000
I've been a fan of the implied optimistic endings so I decided to stick in this flashback of when Mack first discovered his power. In comparison with the A-Plot, this epilogue of sorts is meant to strike home that even in the darkest hour of life, there is always hope.
NEXT TIME...
Tattoos, Gypsies, Props, and Choices
November 30, 2009
November 29, 2009
Part Five - The Beginning of The End - Part Two
As I hinted in one of these previous posts somewhere, I was going to experiment with making more stories that come from the point of view of someone other than Trevor. This, hopefully, is the first of many to come. It was a challenge to write and I'll talk more about it, tomorrow:
Time is that quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately, it doesn’t seem to be working.
NOVEMBER 27, 2007
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
It’s evening. There’s an empty bench and flickering streetlight. A newspaper blows past as the streetlight flickers off.
The light flickers back on and now standing in front of the bench and light are Trevor Tanaka, Mack Johnston, and John Bishop. They look across the street at a seemingly innocent looking five story building.
Trevor - “The only access points are through the ground level and it’s been outfitted with safeguards salvaged from Primatech. It generates a field that disrupts our capacity to use our abilities. If were to just storm in now, we’d be powerless.”
[Volume One to Three - Primatech prison cells]
John Bishop - “Just the three of us? Tell me this doesn’t sound just a little insane?”
Mack Johnston - “I know. They don’t stand a chance.”
Trevor - “I’ve got another on his way but in the meantime, we can clean house. Johnston, I need you to generate an electromagnetic pulse and overload the building’s power grid. Then we can slip in and say howdy.”
Johnston - “Alright.”
Johnston focuses. A brief hum is heard, the streetlight turns off, then the hum fades and the streetlight turns back on. He tries again and fails. Johnston is about to try again when Trevor interrupts.
Trevor - “Most advanced abilities are empathic in nature. Think of a memory, an event, something that happened to you that you can never forget, something terrible.”
Johnston - “I got just the thing.”
Sparkplug closes his eyes as does the camera then opens again.
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Johnston - “Are you sure your parents won’t mind?”
Phillip DeParis - “ ‘Course not. They’re used to me bringing friends over for dinner all the time. Thanksgiving isn’t any different.”
Johnston - “Thanks, Blue. I owe you one.”
DeParis - “No prob.”
DeParis shapes his hand into a gesture.
DeParis - “Live long and pros…”
[Star Trek]
Bone protrusions erupt into the scene. Close up on DeParis’ face as he gets stabbed below his chest. He falls over offscreen.
Johnston - “Blue!!”
Johnston kneels and holds Blue in his arms.
Johnston - “I’m going to get help…Just put pressure on it and you’ll be fine!”
DeParis - “There is no time…It’s okay, man…”
DeParis is dead. Johnston looks up and electricity surges from his body. He screams. The scene shifts back to the present, with the exact position on Johnston. He screams as an electromagnetic pulse emanates from him. The building blacks out. The trio walks forward, and then they notice the rest of the city blacks out in succession.
Trevor - “…They probably have candles…flashlights…back-up generators.”
Bishop - “Yeah…”
Johnston - “Let’s do this.”
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END - PART TWO: THERE IS NO TIME - in Heroes title font -
NOVEMBER 28, 2007
SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST, ILLINOIS
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Johnston is talking to someone, offscreen.
Johnston - “They never stood a chance.”
Scenes from the building raid are interlaced with Johnston.
Johnston shoots down the door with electricity. Bishop generates a force field on himself and Trevor. Trevor goes in. Shots are heard soon after.
Johnston - “Trevor went in guns a blazing. I’d bet money he had the blueprints memorized, how many of them were in there, what their powers were, and what size jeans they wear.”
Johnston turns into pure electricity and parts of the room light up as he races forward, Trevor and Bishop are unaffected, various people are jolted and fall offscreen. Trevor comes into view and shoots down at them.
Johnston - “He’d never admit it but Trevor was just as affected by all this like the rest of us. Maybe more. Maybe he blamed himself for not figuring out it was going to happen in time and save everyone. He wasn’t going to let any of them get away. There was this rage in his eyes during the attack, like you’ve never seen before.”
Camera focuses on Trevor. His eyes are cold and full of death. He’s staring at the man whose duplicates were sent to Colorado.
Johnston - “You’d think I was nuts to say this, but past all that brooding and sarcasm, is a heart. A big one. We all have one to stay together this long.”
The man shoots several bone protrusions at Trevor. Trevor is about to shoot but a bolt of electricity shoots past him, slithers around each bone, and pierces the man. He goes flying backward into the wall.
Johnston - “Seal sounds corny sometimes but he’s always right. We’re simple folk that don’t like being bothered with.”
The trio exits an elevator and enter the last room. A lone man is waiting for them. He is shrouded in the dark. Johnston is about to act when Trevor says something and stops him.
Johnston - “But then we always return in kind.”
Bishop places a force field around the man. Trevor sheathes his gun in its holster. The camera zooms out behind them. They turn to greet the fourth Undaunted. It is Azuteor.
Johnston - “Then Trevor reveals his ace in the hole, as usual.”
Azuteor uses his gravity repulsion power on the man. The gravity around him gets stronger and stronger. Then he falls through the floor, and the next floor, and the next, until finally dropping through the earth, never to be seen again.
Johnston - “But he’s kept us alive like that and being two steps ahead of us.”
Bishop shields everyone. Azuteor brings the building down. After the dust settles, the four are standing on the ground floor nonchalant, like nothing happened.
The scene shifts back to the present. Johnston takes off his signature baseball hat and walks forward offscreen.
Johnston - “They all needed to know we’re not going anywhere. Not by a long shot. That it’s not all for nothing…Rest in peace, bud.”
Johnston walks away without his cap on. The camera abandons him and turns around to reveal who he was talking to. A grave with a pile of rocks as a headstone. The cap is resting on the headstone.
The camera pans out to reveal several rows of graves and similar headstones. The sun is about to set and illuminated the sky in an orange glow as Johnston walks into a nearby forest. He looks back one more time at the graves, then turns and disappears into the brush.
Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in life.
Boise, Idaho; in the year 2000. A 16 year old, Mack Johnston is working on an engine in his parents’ garage. His back is turned to the sky and a solar eclipse.
If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to think, you’re no longer in control of your life.
[David Kekich]
The engine roars to life, much to Johnston’s shock and curiosity. He notices electricity coming from his fingertips. Close up on Johnston as he looks closely at his finger. Nothing. Then a jolt of electricity jumps from his fingertip. Johnston smiles and laughs at his new discovery.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Time is that quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately, it doesn’t seem to be working.
NOVEMBER 27, 2007
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
It’s evening. There’s an empty bench and flickering streetlight. A newspaper blows past as the streetlight flickers off.
The light flickers back on and now standing in front of the bench and light are Trevor Tanaka, Mack Johnston, and John Bishop. They look across the street at a seemingly innocent looking five story building.
Trevor - “The only access points are through the ground level and it’s been outfitted with safeguards salvaged from Primatech. It generates a field that disrupts our capacity to use our abilities. If were to just storm in now, we’d be powerless.”
[Volume One to Three - Primatech prison cells]
John Bishop - “Just the three of us? Tell me this doesn’t sound just a little insane?”
Mack Johnston - “I know. They don’t stand a chance.”
Trevor - “I’ve got another on his way but in the meantime, we can clean house. Johnston, I need you to generate an electromagnetic pulse and overload the building’s power grid. Then we can slip in and say howdy.”
Johnston - “Alright.”
Johnston focuses. A brief hum is heard, the streetlight turns off, then the hum fades and the streetlight turns back on. He tries again and fails. Johnston is about to try again when Trevor interrupts.
Trevor - “Most advanced abilities are empathic in nature. Think of a memory, an event, something that happened to you that you can never forget, something terrible.”
Johnston - “I got just the thing.”
Sparkplug closes his eyes as does the camera then opens again.
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Johnston - “Are you sure your parents won’t mind?”
Phillip DeParis - “ ‘Course not. They’re used to me bringing friends over for dinner all the time. Thanksgiving isn’t any different.”
Johnston - “Thanks, Blue. I owe you one.”
DeParis - “No prob.”
DeParis shapes his hand into a gesture.
DeParis - “Live long and pros…”
[Star Trek]
Bone protrusions erupt into the scene. Close up on DeParis’ face as he gets stabbed below his chest. He falls over offscreen.
Johnston - “Blue!!”
Johnston kneels and holds Blue in his arms.
Johnston - “I’m going to get help…Just put pressure on it and you’ll be fine!”
DeParis - “There is no time…It’s okay, man…”
DeParis is dead. Johnston looks up and electricity surges from his body. He screams. The scene shifts back to the present, with the exact position on Johnston. He screams as an electromagnetic pulse emanates from him. The building blacks out. The trio walks forward, and then they notice the rest of the city blacks out in succession.
Trevor - “…They probably have candles…flashlights…back-up generators.”
Bishop - “Yeah…”
Johnston - “Let’s do this.”
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END - PART TWO: THERE IS NO TIME - in Heroes title font -
NOVEMBER 28, 2007
SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST, ILLINOIS
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Johnston is talking to someone, offscreen.
Johnston - “They never stood a chance.”
Scenes from the building raid are interlaced with Johnston.
Johnston shoots down the door with electricity. Bishop generates a force field on himself and Trevor. Trevor goes in. Shots are heard soon after.
Johnston - “Trevor went in guns a blazing. I’d bet money he had the blueprints memorized, how many of them were in there, what their powers were, and what size jeans they wear.”
Johnston turns into pure electricity and parts of the room light up as he races forward, Trevor and Bishop are unaffected, various people are jolted and fall offscreen. Trevor comes into view and shoots down at them.
Johnston - “He’d never admit it but Trevor was just as affected by all this like the rest of us. Maybe more. Maybe he blamed himself for not figuring out it was going to happen in time and save everyone. He wasn’t going to let any of them get away. There was this rage in his eyes during the attack, like you’ve never seen before.”
Camera focuses on Trevor. His eyes are cold and full of death. He’s staring at the man whose duplicates were sent to Colorado.
Johnston - “You’d think I was nuts to say this, but past all that brooding and sarcasm, is a heart. A big one. We all have one to stay together this long.”
The man shoots several bone protrusions at Trevor. Trevor is about to shoot but a bolt of electricity shoots past him, slithers around each bone, and pierces the man. He goes flying backward into the wall.
Johnston - “Seal sounds corny sometimes but he’s always right. We’re simple folk that don’t like being bothered with.”
The trio exits an elevator and enter the last room. A lone man is waiting for them. He is shrouded in the dark. Johnston is about to act when Trevor says something and stops him.
Johnston - “But then we always return in kind.”
Bishop places a force field around the man. Trevor sheathes his gun in its holster. The camera zooms out behind them. They turn to greet the fourth Undaunted. It is Azuteor.
Johnston - “Then Trevor reveals his ace in the hole, as usual.”
Azuteor uses his gravity repulsion power on the man. The gravity around him gets stronger and stronger. Then he falls through the floor, and the next floor, and the next, until finally dropping through the earth, never to be seen again.
Johnston - “But he’s kept us alive like that and being two steps ahead of us.”
Bishop shields everyone. Azuteor brings the building down. After the dust settles, the four are standing on the ground floor nonchalant, like nothing happened.
The scene shifts back to the present. Johnston takes off his signature baseball hat and walks forward offscreen.
Johnston - “They all needed to know we’re not going anywhere. Not by a long shot. That it’s not all for nothing…Rest in peace, bud.”
Johnston walks away without his cap on. The camera abandons him and turns around to reveal who he was talking to. A grave with a pile of rocks as a headstone. The cap is resting on the headstone.
The camera pans out to reveal several rows of graves and similar headstones. The sun is about to set and illuminated the sky in an orange glow as Johnston walks into a nearby forest. He looks back one more time at the graves, then turns and disappears into the brush.
Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in life.
Boise, Idaho; in the year 2000. A 16 year old, Mack Johnston is working on an engine in his parents’ garage. His back is turned to the sky and a solar eclipse.
If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to think, you’re no longer in control of your life.
[David Kekich]
The engine roars to life, much to Johnston’s shock and curiosity. He notices electricity coming from his fingertips. Close up on Johnston as he looks closely at his finger. Nothing. Then a jolt of electricity jumps from his fingertip. Johnston smiles and laughs at his new discovery.
TO BE CONTINUED...
November 24, 2009
Commentary - The Beginning Of The End - Part One
So I think I went a little over in page length but who cares!
Part One starts with the second time November 26 happened, continuing directly from the end of Phase Three. Some things repeat and some things are different, such is time manipulation and butterflies. I throw the first hint of how they got murdered with the bone. And a bit gruesome, but the running joke was that in each scenario of November 26, Trevor always gets injured. And it's so weird how instead of Trevor being hit in the gut and in the arm, that allows him to scan the field and ask Nox to save three other people.
Then I use the rewind as a legitimate way to reveal the second part of Trevor and Seal's visit to Leona from the first arc. The things being discussed make more sense here so that's why it got held off until now. I had fun with the dialogue because eventually you left wondering at what point is Trevor talking about, the omelet or the scheme or both? I must have had some weird craving at the time and threw in the honeycomb metaphor. But "Bears named Sylar?" had me rolling in laughter when I first thought it of it because I imagined a bear with Quinto's eyebrows.
Trevor's snide remark with 'Punch God in the face' was another favorite line of mine from Sin City. I also tend to use it a lot in real life along with dancing with leprechauns and riding unicorns under a rainbow with the Irish Spring commercial cast. Golden toilets, too. Hmm...but it is also supposed to imply and remind those that Trevor has grown to care more about the faction than going after the agents that killed his fiancee, whose name I never gave away yet.
I still love the Leona and Trevor scenes. He knows he's being manipulated but Leona makes light of it. With everything, Trevor loses it and his power takes over, hence he recites that line about point of view, sorta like with Charlie in "Once Upon A Time in Texas." And to remind the audience about the main story, I put in the line about deja vu. Since this is happening again because of Redo, I'd think a few specials would at least sense something was up. Since Seal is an empath, maybe he would most of all. And no, I don't hate Connecticut. Neither does Trevor, I think he just had low blood sugar or something.
The title, It's All Relativity is definitely a reference to messing with timelines and taking different frames of reference (in this case points of view) to see the big picture. It's the overarching lesson of this arc, which I hope pays off in the finale.
And I guess in a weird twist, Eli appears in the graphic novels and I bust out duplicates. But they had it first since these things are written way ahead of time. Another case of being on the same wavelength.
Blue's death was the big shocker scene. After some events with someone leaving the faction on his own accord, I got a brainstorm and did a rewrite to kill off Blue, his character, and make Sparkplug's anger more justified and tie-in the two are close. There a few hidden homages that are only for fellow Undaunted members. I know one figured them out already. Sparkplug's display of powers is all taken from his HSG bio and for interested parties, he'll come into play in at least Part Three and this death will play a big role in it.
After seeing Ando bust out red lightning in Volume 3, I feel in love with the shiny FX. So I knew it immediately when I read Luna Yu's bio on HSG, I would use her a couple times as I wrote. It was on the to-do list to have this big scene for her when she used the power on a whole heap of people at once.
And always, ton of 9th Wonders! references, good and bad. Undaunted appears to be on the verge of losing its lofty #1 spot but hey, it helped me write an awesome line. And something I don't thing I did in awhile was reference another Undaunted character, Karma. When I was flipping through the roster, I almost thought Undaunted had no healers but we got one! Phew. Trevor would have been in trouble since Nox and Redo died for good this time in the third November 26th.
Lot of people totally got murdered (94 Undaunted and the 36 duplicates=130 deaths) but that is only to tip off the readers that the scales are getting higher, to emulate Trevor's word of caution with Seal in the Diner scenes, and foreshadow the rest of the arc. Ooh, and I kinda hinted at who the enemy is in the line after the Karma reference. Whew, good thing there is a second Garden of the Gods or everyone would be crashing at Mr. and Mrs. Zhang's house.
Earlier, I said this arc will be a four parter, but now after proofing and plotting out, I might tighten it a little and make a three parter. We'll see. I don't plan on making the last part a total downer but to end it on a good note, somehow, whether it's implied or totally out there plain as day. After that, I'm pretty sure I'm going to take the rest of the year off from writing and start fresh posting in January. I say that now, but things can change.
Part One starts with the second time November 26 happened, continuing directly from the end of Phase Three. Some things repeat and some things are different, such is time manipulation and butterflies. I throw the first hint of how they got murdered with the bone. And a bit gruesome, but the running joke was that in each scenario of November 26, Trevor always gets injured. And it's so weird how instead of Trevor being hit in the gut and in the arm, that allows him to scan the field and ask Nox to save three other people.
Then I use the rewind as a legitimate way to reveal the second part of Trevor and Seal's visit to Leona from the first arc. The things being discussed make more sense here so that's why it got held off until now. I had fun with the dialogue because eventually you left wondering at what point is Trevor talking about, the omelet or the scheme or both? I must have had some weird craving at the time and threw in the honeycomb metaphor. But "Bears named Sylar?" had me rolling in laughter when I first thought it of it because I imagined a bear with Quinto's eyebrows.
Trevor's snide remark with 'Punch God in the face' was another favorite line of mine from Sin City. I also tend to use it a lot in real life along with dancing with leprechauns and riding unicorns under a rainbow with the Irish Spring commercial cast. Golden toilets, too. Hmm...but it is also supposed to imply and remind those that Trevor has grown to care more about the faction than going after the agents that killed his fiancee, whose name I never gave away yet.
I still love the Leona and Trevor scenes. He knows he's being manipulated but Leona makes light of it. With everything, Trevor loses it and his power takes over, hence he recites that line about point of view, sorta like with Charlie in "Once Upon A Time in Texas." And to remind the audience about the main story, I put in the line about deja vu. Since this is happening again because of Redo, I'd think a few specials would at least sense something was up. Since Seal is an empath, maybe he would most of all. And no, I don't hate Connecticut. Neither does Trevor, I think he just had low blood sugar or something.
The title, It's All Relativity is definitely a reference to messing with timelines and taking different frames of reference (in this case points of view) to see the big picture. It's the overarching lesson of this arc, which I hope pays off in the finale.
And I guess in a weird twist, Eli appears in the graphic novels and I bust out duplicates. But they had it first since these things are written way ahead of time. Another case of being on the same wavelength.
Blue's death was the big shocker scene. After some events with someone leaving the faction on his own accord, I got a brainstorm and did a rewrite to kill off Blue, his character, and make Sparkplug's anger more justified and tie-in the two are close. There a few hidden homages that are only for fellow Undaunted members. I know one figured them out already. Sparkplug's display of powers is all taken from his HSG bio and for interested parties, he'll come into play in at least Part Three and this death will play a big role in it.
After seeing Ando bust out red lightning in Volume 3, I feel in love with the shiny FX. So I knew it immediately when I read Luna Yu's bio on HSG, I would use her a couple times as I wrote. It was on the to-do list to have this big scene for her when she used the power on a whole heap of people at once.
And always, ton of 9th Wonders! references, good and bad. Undaunted appears to be on the verge of losing its lofty #1 spot but hey, it helped me write an awesome line. And something I don't thing I did in awhile was reference another Undaunted character, Karma. When I was flipping through the roster, I almost thought Undaunted had no healers but we got one! Phew. Trevor would have been in trouble since Nox and Redo died for good this time in the third November 26th.
Lot of people totally got murdered (94 Undaunted and the 36 duplicates=130 deaths) but that is only to tip off the readers that the scales are getting higher, to emulate Trevor's word of caution with Seal in the Diner scenes, and foreshadow the rest of the arc. Ooh, and I kinda hinted at who the enemy is in the line after the Karma reference. Whew, good thing there is a second Garden of the Gods or everyone would be crashing at Mr. and Mrs. Zhang's house.
Earlier, I said this arc will be a four parter, but now after proofing and plotting out, I might tighten it a little and make a three parter. We'll see. I don't plan on making the last part a total downer but to end it on a good note, somehow, whether it's implied or totally out there plain as day. After that, I'm pretty sure I'm going to take the rest of the year off from writing and start fresh posting in January. I say that now, but things can change.
Part Five - The Beginning Of The End - Part One
After taking time to do other projects and make sure this one got done right...without further ado, the third arc begins:
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Dozens of corpses are strewn across the field. Trevor lays motionless, lying on his stomach, with his back to the camera, and a bone-like protrusion is sticking out of his left shoulder. The bone looks broken off from its original source. There is silence for what feels like an eternity.
Then, Trevor gasps for air and wheezes, blood is pooling somewhere in his body. He reaches behind himself with his right hand and rips out the protrusion and tosses it aside. Trevor struggles to stand up and winces over to two bodies that are barely breathing. Trevor kneels between them and uses all his remaining strength to flip them over. One is Regan "Redo" McCairn and the other, Dixon "Nox" Cheung.
Trevor - "Nox…you got to…undo this from ever happening to me…"
Trevor looks around frantically at the dead.
Trevor - "Luna Yu. Mack Johnston. Lilia Chacon. Make them survive, too."
Nox struggles to concentrate then it works, Trevor is unwounded. Nox hacks out blood, then his head drops. Nox is dead. Trevor closes his eyes. Redo was watching what happened.
Trevor - "Reset us as far back as you can, McCairn. Farther than you’ve ever gone. Everyone’s lives depend on it."
Redo uses her time reversing power. Things start to go backwards like a video tape rewinding, then everything turns into a blur of images and sound. Then a white flash envelopes everything.
LATE SUMMER 2007
LYNEBORO, CONNECTICUT
MABLE'S DINER
Leona Mills sits down. Trevor scoots over. He doesn't take his eyes off her. Seal finishes his breakfast. Silence.
Leona - "Well, say it Trevor."
Trevor - "The Omelet Surprise is terrible."
Seal - "You want me to consolidate every faction into one and lead it?"
Leona - "It's more than that."
Trevor - "Tell Mable to lower the heat, next time."
Leona - "All we've ever done was protect each other. But now, all these little honeycombs are popping up and doing whatever they please. Too many. You know what that attracts? Bears. Big, hungry bears."
Trevor - "Bears named Sylar? Yeah, sure. Right away. No problem."
Leona - "The omelet isn't that bad."
Trevor - "But it doesn't mean you could try harder."
Leona - "You can do this. I know you can. You want to."
Trevor - "Don't worry. I'll put it on the to-do list, right under 'punch God in the face.'"
[Sin City - Marv]
Trevor looks away and finishes his food.
Leona - "Seal, you’ve been quiet. What do you think of all this?"
Seal - "Between the Carnival and other factions attacking us for resources…"
[Volume 5 and Heroes Survival Game - Phase Three]
Leona - "You can't. Now's not the time."
Seal - "I'm sorry, it's a great idea."
Leona - "Don't be. These things, they require timing, finesse, and a lot of luck."
Trevor - "Schemes. Do you forget that every time you come up with one, the price goes up? You're willing to sacrifice us like chess pieces but what about Rachel? Would you strap a bomb on her and parade her through Washington?"
[Partial quote from anonymous person and Volume 4 - Matt Parkman - Washington D.C.]
Leona - "Trevor, I'm disappointed. You always had a healthy disregard for the impossible…I'm on the clock. You boys come back again when you can."
[Larry Page]
Leona walks away like nothing happened and right as rain.
Seal - "She was convincing when I read her."
Trevor - "That only means she believes in the lie, too. Think hard about this, Seal. Doing great deeds requires…equal suffering."
[Plutarch]
Seal - "Take her point of view, Trevor. She's been around longer than us and…"
Trevor is worked up and cuts Seal off.
Trevor - "Point of view? Oh, the scarcest of resources. The quintessentially human solution to information overload! An intuitive process of reducing things to an essential, relevant, and manageable maximum…"
[Paul Saffo]
Everyone in Mable's Diner is staring at their booth. Trevor stops. He exhales.
Trevor - "Let's go. I hate Connecticut."
Seal - "Hm. Déjà vu. Feels like I heard you say that before."
[Implied reminder that the timeline is repeating itself thanks to Trevor and Nox]
They exit the Diner and find James.
Seal - "Are we going to do it? Help her?"
Trevor - "To her, this is one big game of survival. Let's go with the Big Stick Diplomacy for now."
[Heroes Survival Game and President Roosevelt’s foreign policy]
The trio teleports away.
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END - PART ONE: IT'S ALL RELATIVITY - in Heroes title font -
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
About half of Undaunted is gathered in the main field. Among them are Trevor Tanaka, Seal, Lilia Chacon, Mack Johnston, Luna Yu, Phillip DeParis, Clara Zhang, Dixon Cheung, and Regan McCairn.
Seal - "I want to thank everyone for coming today and checking in. A little goes a long way to say you're committed to this. Only so many people in the world get to have two families that love them, much less one. I don’t want to ramble so ummm…that's all. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!"
[Places this story during Volume 5 "Thanksgiving" and 9th Wonders! Forum - The good kind of rambling happens among Undaunted members]
The crowd happily murmurs and separate among the main field chatting. Lilia is with Seal, Johnston with Blue, Clara and Luna, Dixon with Redo, and Trevor, by himself as usual. The Heroes theme plays over the muted scene.
What is life?
It becomes apparent there are some here who don't belong.
A madness.
Their faces dissolve, revealing they are all the same man.
[Appearance Alteration, the power of evsdropr, one of them anyway]
What is life?
Trevor, Luna, Mack, and Lilia all notice.
An illusion.
The men, 36 in number, all grin evilly.
[9th wonders! - HERO - 3+6=9]
A shadow.
Bone protrusions, dozens of, erupt from each duplicate and impales everyone.
[Graphic Novel - Perrin Crocker's power]
A story.
Mack Johnston turns his body into electricity and avoids the spikes. DeParis isn't as lucky. Johnston is in shock as DeParis falls over, dead.
And the greater good is little enough.
Lilia Chacon grabs Seal and protects him.
[Chacon was created in HSG to protect Seal]
For all life is a dream.
[A quote from Pedro Calderon de la Bara]
Trevor lunges away but still gets impaled in his left leg. He lets out a scream of pain, then quickly breaks the bone off with the butt of his gun.
[In every timeline, Trevor gets impaled]
Luna pushes herself and Clara out of harm's way. Red lightning litters the area. Redo and Nox are impaled and die immediately.
Bodies stack up on the field. Trevor, Chacon, Seal, Johnston, Clara, and Luna eye out the 36 duplicates.
Trevor shouts an order to Clara. She runs to Chacon and Seal. The three teleport away as several bones barely misses them.
In slow motion, they march on the remaining three but the camera focuses on Luna. She stands tall and raises both hands in the air. Red lightning sparks and shoves the duplicates into the air and the frame speed slows down. The camera pans onto Johnston. He is still kneeling over DeParis and whispers something.
Sparkplug - "No."
He looks up at all the duplicates in mid-air, shifts his entire body into electricity, and surges through all of them violently as the camera frame speed goes to normal. Miniature explosions pop from each duplicate as Johnston passes through them. The duplicates all drop to the ground with huge, black scorch marks on their chests. One is still alive and feebly crawls away. A foot stomps down in front of him and blocks his escape path. It is Johnston. He arcs electricity and a screeching sound makes the duplicate scream in agony as blood trickles from his ears. A hand comes over Johnston's shoulder. It is Trevor.
[Johnston's power, listed on HSG, is Electric Mimicry. What he do with it is only limited by his own experience]
Trevor - "That's enough."
Trevor kneels down to the duplicate, who is panting irregularly.
Trevor - "I know you can't hear me but…what you did today was really, really stupid. We don’t like being bothered."
[Ghostbusters - Winston and The Undaunted mandate]
The duplicate spits out blood and gloats.
Duplicate - "Undaunted's…days…are…numbered…"
Trevor smiles, stands back up, and shoots him; twice in the head and twice in the chest. He sheathes the gun back in his holster.
Luna Yu - "Trevor, your leg."
Trevor - "I'll ask Karma to fix it later. Appearance Alteration. Limited to 24 hours. Tactile Organic Duplication. Spike Protrusion. No one faction alone has any of these three specials in combination."
Trevor rips the rest of the spike out of his leg. He tosses it then rips off part of his sleeve and ties a tight knot over the wound. James teleports in.
James - "Okay, who’s…first."
From James' point of view, the camera surveys the massacre. Then pans to Trevor.
Trevor - "Take us to the alpha site in Shawnee. Put out the word…this place is scrubbed."
[Alpha Site term taken from Stargate SG-1 and 9th Wonders - Two Garden of the Gods exist in the USA]
Luna Yu - "It's not over, is it?"
[In her HSG bio, Yu grew to be wary and skeptical of things]
Sparkplug - "This is just the beginning."
Trevor nods as they all teleport away.
TO BE CONTINUED...
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Dozens of corpses are strewn across the field. Trevor lays motionless, lying on his stomach, with his back to the camera, and a bone-like protrusion is sticking out of his left shoulder. The bone looks broken off from its original source. There is silence for what feels like an eternity.
Then, Trevor gasps for air and wheezes, blood is pooling somewhere in his body. He reaches behind himself with his right hand and rips out the protrusion and tosses it aside. Trevor struggles to stand up and winces over to two bodies that are barely breathing. Trevor kneels between them and uses all his remaining strength to flip them over. One is Regan "Redo" McCairn and the other, Dixon "Nox" Cheung.
Trevor - "Nox…you got to…undo this from ever happening to me…"
Trevor looks around frantically at the dead.
Trevor - "Luna Yu. Mack Johnston. Lilia Chacon. Make them survive, too."
Nox struggles to concentrate then it works, Trevor is unwounded. Nox hacks out blood, then his head drops. Nox is dead. Trevor closes his eyes. Redo was watching what happened.
Trevor - "Reset us as far back as you can, McCairn. Farther than you’ve ever gone. Everyone’s lives depend on it."
Redo uses her time reversing power. Things start to go backwards like a video tape rewinding, then everything turns into a blur of images and sound. Then a white flash envelopes everything.
LATE SUMMER 2007
LYNEBORO, CONNECTICUT
MABLE'S DINER
Leona Mills sits down. Trevor scoots over. He doesn't take his eyes off her. Seal finishes his breakfast. Silence.
Leona - "Well, say it Trevor."
Trevor - "The Omelet Surprise is terrible."
Seal - "You want me to consolidate every faction into one and lead it?"
Leona - "It's more than that."
Trevor - "Tell Mable to lower the heat, next time."
Leona - "All we've ever done was protect each other. But now, all these little honeycombs are popping up and doing whatever they please. Too many. You know what that attracts? Bears. Big, hungry bears."
Trevor - "Bears named Sylar? Yeah, sure. Right away. No problem."
Leona - "The omelet isn't that bad."
Trevor - "But it doesn't mean you could try harder."
Leona - "You can do this. I know you can. You want to."
Trevor - "Don't worry. I'll put it on the to-do list, right under 'punch God in the face.'"
[Sin City - Marv]
Trevor looks away and finishes his food.
Leona - "Seal, you’ve been quiet. What do you think of all this?"
Seal - "Between the Carnival and other factions attacking us for resources…"
[Volume 5 and Heroes Survival Game - Phase Three]
Leona - "You can't. Now's not the time."
Seal - "I'm sorry, it's a great idea."
Leona - "Don't be. These things, they require timing, finesse, and a lot of luck."
Trevor - "Schemes. Do you forget that every time you come up with one, the price goes up? You're willing to sacrifice us like chess pieces but what about Rachel? Would you strap a bomb on her and parade her through Washington?"
[Partial quote from anonymous person and Volume 4 - Matt Parkman - Washington D.C.]
Leona - "Trevor, I'm disappointed. You always had a healthy disregard for the impossible…I'm on the clock. You boys come back again when you can."
[Larry Page]
Leona walks away like nothing happened and right as rain.
Seal - "She was convincing when I read her."
Trevor - "That only means she believes in the lie, too. Think hard about this, Seal. Doing great deeds requires…equal suffering."
[Plutarch]
Seal - "Take her point of view, Trevor. She's been around longer than us and…"
Trevor is worked up and cuts Seal off.
Trevor - "Point of view? Oh, the scarcest of resources. The quintessentially human solution to information overload! An intuitive process of reducing things to an essential, relevant, and manageable maximum…"
[Paul Saffo]
Everyone in Mable's Diner is staring at their booth. Trevor stops. He exhales.
Trevor - "Let's go. I hate Connecticut."
Seal - "Hm. Déjà vu. Feels like I heard you say that before."
[Implied reminder that the timeline is repeating itself thanks to Trevor and Nox]
They exit the Diner and find James.
Seal - "Are we going to do it? Help her?"
Trevor - "To her, this is one big game of survival. Let's go with the Big Stick Diplomacy for now."
[Heroes Survival Game and President Roosevelt’s foreign policy]
The trio teleports away.
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END - PART ONE: IT'S ALL RELATIVITY - in Heroes title font -
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
About half of Undaunted is gathered in the main field. Among them are Trevor Tanaka, Seal, Lilia Chacon, Mack Johnston, Luna Yu, Phillip DeParis, Clara Zhang, Dixon Cheung, and Regan McCairn.
Seal - "I want to thank everyone for coming today and checking in. A little goes a long way to say you're committed to this. Only so many people in the world get to have two families that love them, much less one. I don’t want to ramble so ummm…that's all. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!"
[Places this story during Volume 5 "Thanksgiving" and 9th Wonders! Forum - The good kind of rambling happens among Undaunted members]
The crowd happily murmurs and separate among the main field chatting. Lilia is with Seal, Johnston with Blue, Clara and Luna, Dixon with Redo, and Trevor, by himself as usual. The Heroes theme plays over the muted scene.
What is life?
It becomes apparent there are some here who don't belong.
A madness.
Their faces dissolve, revealing they are all the same man.
[Appearance Alteration, the power of evsdropr, one of them anyway]
What is life?
Trevor, Luna, Mack, and Lilia all notice.
An illusion.
The men, 36 in number, all grin evilly.
[9th wonders! - HERO - 3+6=9]
A shadow.
Bone protrusions, dozens of, erupt from each duplicate and impales everyone.
[Graphic Novel - Perrin Crocker's power]
A story.
Mack Johnston turns his body into electricity and avoids the spikes. DeParis isn't as lucky. Johnston is in shock as DeParis falls over, dead.
And the greater good is little enough.
Lilia Chacon grabs Seal and protects him.
[Chacon was created in HSG to protect Seal]
For all life is a dream.
[A quote from Pedro Calderon de la Bara]
Trevor lunges away but still gets impaled in his left leg. He lets out a scream of pain, then quickly breaks the bone off with the butt of his gun.
[In every timeline, Trevor gets impaled]
Luna pushes herself and Clara out of harm's way. Red lightning litters the area. Redo and Nox are impaled and die immediately.
Bodies stack up on the field. Trevor, Chacon, Seal, Johnston, Clara, and Luna eye out the 36 duplicates.
Trevor shouts an order to Clara. She runs to Chacon and Seal. The three teleport away as several bones barely misses them.
In slow motion, they march on the remaining three but the camera focuses on Luna. She stands tall and raises both hands in the air. Red lightning sparks and shoves the duplicates into the air and the frame speed slows down. The camera pans onto Johnston. He is still kneeling over DeParis and whispers something.
Sparkplug - "No."
He looks up at all the duplicates in mid-air, shifts his entire body into electricity, and surges through all of them violently as the camera frame speed goes to normal. Miniature explosions pop from each duplicate as Johnston passes through them. The duplicates all drop to the ground with huge, black scorch marks on their chests. One is still alive and feebly crawls away. A foot stomps down in front of him and blocks his escape path. It is Johnston. He arcs electricity and a screeching sound makes the duplicate scream in agony as blood trickles from his ears. A hand comes over Johnston's shoulder. It is Trevor.
[Johnston's power, listed on HSG, is Electric Mimicry. What he do with it is only limited by his own experience]
Trevor - "That's enough."
Trevor kneels down to the duplicate, who is panting irregularly.
Trevor - "I know you can't hear me but…what you did today was really, really stupid. We don’t like being bothered."
[Ghostbusters - Winston and The Undaunted mandate]
The duplicate spits out blood and gloats.
Duplicate - "Undaunted's…days…are…numbered…"
Trevor smiles, stands back up, and shoots him; twice in the head and twice in the chest. He sheathes the gun back in his holster.
Luna Yu - "Trevor, your leg."
Trevor - "I'll ask Karma to fix it later. Appearance Alteration. Limited to 24 hours. Tactile Organic Duplication. Spike Protrusion. No one faction alone has any of these three specials in combination."
Trevor rips the rest of the spike out of his leg. He tosses it then rips off part of his sleeve and ties a tight knot over the wound. James teleports in.
James - "Okay, who’s…first."
From James' point of view, the camera surveys the massacre. Then pans to Trevor.
Trevor - "Take us to the alpha site in Shawnee. Put out the word…this place is scrubbed."
[Alpha Site term taken from Stargate SG-1 and 9th Wonders - Two Garden of the Gods exist in the USA]
Luna Yu - "It's not over, is it?"
[In her HSG bio, Yu grew to be wary and skeptical of things]
Sparkplug - "This is just the beginning."
Trevor nods as they all teleport away.
TO BE CONTINUED...
November 19, 2009
Commentary Part 2 - Phase Three
In my haste to post my thoughts about Phase 3, I forgot to mention a few things. So I'll do them here and throw in some more food for thought in terms of the third arc that I will start posting next week.
THE DREAM
The dream did come in part from my disappointment that Uluru would never appear on the show they way he did when Isaac Mendez got high in the graphic novel, at least that's what Kring confirmed. And in equal disappointment, I hated how the Hunger was the mechanism used on the show. It made no sense to me after awhile. When Sylar was powerless in Volume 2, he still suffered its effects and fixated on Maya.
Story-wise, when Trevor was a child, his nightmare always ended on when Uluru grabs him and there's darkness. All those images up to that point is enough to freak out a child. Figuratively, it's something that Trevor had to solve, something about himself, he had to admit to himself what his purpose was and accept it. Up to this point, it was a finality he was ignoring by drowning himself in faction affairs and organically presented itself as faction fighting intensified.
The final line when Uluru scuttles away as a roach, was another nod to the show's motifs (haven't seen one in awhile...) and tied in with Trevor and the game (a symbol of survival). But more importantly, his last line of advice was drawn from the idea that the journey, the growth is more important than the end. Indeed, this was Kaito Nakamura's lesson to his son in season one when he struggled with finding his power again and pushing himself to kill Sylar.
INARI SHRINE
Clearly, on some deep level, Trevor enjoys trading quips with James. However, he can't do it here because Zhang is a different type of person and he's sort of flabbergasted in trying to keep talking to her. He tries to talk about hair and has an epic fail. He tries to be serious (or is it macho?) but fails. She sort of chips away at the chinks in his armor and we get to see a rarely seen side of him.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
After a week of outlining and drafting some scenes I knew I wanted to do, it looks like this will be another 4 parter. Things got confusing since I introduced the concept of 'messing with time' so I had to do a different type of flowchart and map out this happened first and as a result this changes and do that for everytime the timeline changes. So yes, Redo and Nox will appear again.
-DISASTER
Something is coming for Undaunted and they will have to deal with it right away but there will be a reveal that will be OMG, I hope. Then we will have to deal with the how this came to happen in the first place and a final battle. I'm still making decisions on will stay dead and who will get a second lease on life because of the timeline shifting, I'm not even sure if Trevor is going to survive for that matter. The fun parts of this is creating the big fight scenes, who will appear, how they use their power in battle, and how it sucks for the person on the receiving end.
-THE PAST
Surprise. One or two more pieces of Trevor's past will figure into this arc as well as the meeting with Leona Mills. But there will be more shifts in point of view. This arc won't be as heavily from Trevor's perspective as the past two arcs...so far...but sometimes Trevor takes control of the keyboard.
-SUGGESTIONS
If anyone is reading this and has a member in Undaunted and wants their character used in a certain way, feel free to pitch it to me in a Private Message in the 9th Wonders! forum and we can talk further. Otherwise, it's up to my evil mind to think of ways. Just kidding.
THE DREAM
The dream did come in part from my disappointment that Uluru would never appear on the show they way he did when Isaac Mendez got high in the graphic novel, at least that's what Kring confirmed. And in equal disappointment, I hated how the Hunger was the mechanism used on the show. It made no sense to me after awhile. When Sylar was powerless in Volume 2, he still suffered its effects and fixated on Maya.
Story-wise, when Trevor was a child, his nightmare always ended on when Uluru grabs him and there's darkness. All those images up to that point is enough to freak out a child. Figuratively, it's something that Trevor had to solve, something about himself, he had to admit to himself what his purpose was and accept it. Up to this point, it was a finality he was ignoring by drowning himself in faction affairs and organically presented itself as faction fighting intensified.
The final line when Uluru scuttles away as a roach, was another nod to the show's motifs (haven't seen one in awhile...) and tied in with Trevor and the game (a symbol of survival). But more importantly, his last line of advice was drawn from the idea that the journey, the growth is more important than the end. Indeed, this was Kaito Nakamura's lesson to his son in season one when he struggled with finding his power again and pushing himself to kill Sylar.
INARI SHRINE
Clearly, on some deep level, Trevor enjoys trading quips with James. However, he can't do it here because Zhang is a different type of person and he's sort of flabbergasted in trying to keep talking to her. He tries to talk about hair and has an epic fail. He tries to be serious (or is it macho?) but fails. She sort of chips away at the chinks in his armor and we get to see a rarely seen side of him.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
After a week of outlining and drafting some scenes I knew I wanted to do, it looks like this will be another 4 parter. Things got confusing since I introduced the concept of 'messing with time' so I had to do a different type of flowchart and map out this happened first and as a result this changes and do that for everytime the timeline changes. So yes, Redo and Nox will appear again.
-DISASTER
Something is coming for Undaunted and they will have to deal with it right away but there will be a reveal that will be OMG, I hope. Then we will have to deal with the how this came to happen in the first place and a final battle. I'm still making decisions on will stay dead and who will get a second lease on life because of the timeline shifting, I'm not even sure if Trevor is going to survive for that matter. The fun parts of this is creating the big fight scenes, who will appear, how they use their power in battle, and how it sucks for the person on the receiving end.
-THE PAST
Surprise. One or two more pieces of Trevor's past will figure into this arc as well as the meeting with Leona Mills. But there will be more shifts in point of view. This arc won't be as heavily from Trevor's perspective as the past two arcs...so far...but sometimes Trevor takes control of the keyboard.
-SUGGESTIONS
If anyone is reading this and has a member in Undaunted and wants their character used in a certain way, feel free to pitch it to me in a Private Message in the 9th Wonders! forum and we can talk further. Otherwise, it's up to my evil mind to think of ways. Just kidding.
November 12, 2009
Commentary - Phase Three Part Three and Four
Sort of like a save the best for last and tie everything all together conclusion.
THE DREAM
The dream continues with Uluru transforming into the symbol and attacking Trevor, mirroring how Trevor was overwhelmed by his power and went insane. Then he learns to control the 'evils' that come with that power. So what do I think Uluru is...a metaphysical manifestation of the negative aspects of mankind embedded in the souls of all human beings? Yeah. Way better than the way the Hunger was used on the show.
THE OPERATION
Like Part One, I adapted a faction message from Heroes Survival Game and made a plot out of it. Doing a telekinesis free for all and the line about Trevor aiming for the head was on the to do list so I used them here and loved how it came out. Instead of making it another faction, I wanted to tie it into iStory and Volume 4 with a group of ex-Building 26 folk since Tracy Strauss didn't kill them all.
TREVOR'S PAST
Been saving this one for awhile like the last puzzle piece in the sorted past of an enigmatic figure. It wasn't just a girlfriend he lost. Trevor really was the man who had everything, he was going to get married to his soul mate and about to have a child with her. Then everything was gone in an instant. I think it was a good idea to hold back to here and relate to the overall theme here that Trevor traded one family for another and he's not going to lose this one, no matter what, even if he has to go on his killing ways and give up his obsession with revenge for good, which I implied with the lines about the Haitian/Rene and Thompson Jr..
THE CONSULTANT
I had this scene planned for awhile (yeah, the had the ending before the beginning written sort of deal) and it came out great. Here is Trevor at his best, he completely defeats the Consultant and outsmarts him then ends it. And I tried to make the Consultant seem as pathetic as possible, a total reversal of his other appearance, the tides have turned on him. Also took care of a loose end and revealed who that dude was that was stalking Trevor in my first arc. Ten you are supposed to get this Aha moment when you realize the Associate may have been beating the crud out of Trevor as retribution along with doing his job.
INARI SHRINE
If you didn't believe me that Trevor cares about his faction, this conclusion where he meets up with Zhang will seal the deal for you. And it takes some edge off the violence and ends things with a lighthearted beat...thanks in part to a random Zoolander quote and a favorite scene from Memoirs of a Geisha. What an unlikely combination.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Then I totally kill the happiness with a cliffhanger ending. Born out of my desire to make a jaw dropper cliffhanger, it also was my sendoff to the writers of Heroes. If you want to alter the timeline (and make it three years instead of one!), this is how you do it!! Note that Nox prevented Trevor from getting fatally wounded permanently so we'll see if that's enough to prevent the Garden massacre. Massacre? What is this massacre? I can confirm it's not aliens nor an apocalyptic natural disaster. It's definitely people-related and tied to the desire to 'survive.' Remember I haven't given away the conversation between Trevor, Leona, and Seal yet...could it be related? Hmmm. Will I give away Trevor's real name at last? Only if it's a super cool bro-mance moment like how Peter and Noah had in season one, then the answer is a resounding "yes."
THE DREAM
The dream continues with Uluru transforming into the symbol and attacking Trevor, mirroring how Trevor was overwhelmed by his power and went insane. Then he learns to control the 'evils' that come with that power. So what do I think Uluru is...a metaphysical manifestation of the negative aspects of mankind embedded in the souls of all human beings? Yeah. Way better than the way the Hunger was used on the show.
THE OPERATION
Like Part One, I adapted a faction message from Heroes Survival Game and made a plot out of it. Doing a telekinesis free for all and the line about Trevor aiming for the head was on the to do list so I used them here and loved how it came out. Instead of making it another faction, I wanted to tie it into iStory and Volume 4 with a group of ex-Building 26 folk since Tracy Strauss didn't kill them all.
TREVOR'S PAST
Been saving this one for awhile like the last puzzle piece in the sorted past of an enigmatic figure. It wasn't just a girlfriend he lost. Trevor really was the man who had everything, he was going to get married to his soul mate and about to have a child with her. Then everything was gone in an instant. I think it was a good idea to hold back to here and relate to the overall theme here that Trevor traded one family for another and he's not going to lose this one, no matter what, even if he has to go on his killing ways and give up his obsession with revenge for good, which I implied with the lines about the Haitian/Rene and Thompson Jr..
THE CONSULTANT
I had this scene planned for awhile (yeah, the had the ending before the beginning written sort of deal) and it came out great. Here is Trevor at his best, he completely defeats the Consultant and outsmarts him then ends it. And I tried to make the Consultant seem as pathetic as possible, a total reversal of his other appearance, the tides have turned on him. Also took care of a loose end and revealed who that dude was that was stalking Trevor in my first arc. Ten you are supposed to get this Aha moment when you realize the Associate may have been beating the crud out of Trevor as retribution along with doing his job.
INARI SHRINE
If you didn't believe me that Trevor cares about his faction, this conclusion where he meets up with Zhang will seal the deal for you. And it takes some edge off the violence and ends things with a lighthearted beat...thanks in part to a random Zoolander quote and a favorite scene from Memoirs of a Geisha. What an unlikely combination.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Then I totally kill the happiness with a cliffhanger ending. Born out of my desire to make a jaw dropper cliffhanger, it also was my sendoff to the writers of Heroes. If you want to alter the timeline (and make it three years instead of one!), this is how you do it!! Note that Nox prevented Trevor from getting fatally wounded permanently so we'll see if that's enough to prevent the Garden massacre. Massacre? What is this massacre? I can confirm it's not aliens nor an apocalyptic natural disaster. It's definitely people-related and tied to the desire to 'survive.' Remember I haven't given away the conversation between Trevor, Leona, and Seal yet...could it be related? Hmmm. Will I give away Trevor's real name at last? Only if it's a super cool bro-mance moment like how Peter and Noah had in season one, then the answer is a resounding "yes."
Part Four - Phase Three Part Three and Four
The two part conclusion to the Phase Three arc! I loved it more than anything else I wrote so far. It's got revelations, even more subtle humor, a different side of Trevor, some jaw dropper moments, and some pwn'ing. Anyway, here it is:
When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do.
DREAM
There is only a Void, Bird's Eye Point of View, on Trevor Tanaka. He is standing in it somehow. The camera view pans down slowly to close up on Trevor's face. His eyes and mouth are covered by a DNA Symbol each. Flames appear from the void. Trevor is standing on a rock.
Uluru - "Who dares to defy me?! I am Uluru the Invincible!"
Trevor turns to face Uluru, his face is back to normal.
Trevor - "I dare!"
Uluru reaches to grab Trevor with his right hand. Uluru clenches his hand with Trevor sticking half way out. He brings Trevor closer to his face.
Uluru - "How your world is filled with filth and lies. The comingling of good and evil in mortals only upsets the natural balance."
Uluru transforms into a giant DNA Symbol, it slithers around Trevor and constricts on him and like a snake and they fall into the flames. Black out.
[The Helix references the DNA Symbol and the numbers, his power]
Trevor jolts awake. He is standing in a dark alley with four others. They are looking to him to say something.
NOVEMBER 1, 2007
WASHINGTON D.C.
Trevor - "A splinter cell composed of former Building 26 special agents are based in this abandoned hotel. There are seven of them. And they have an old database with files on highly evolved beings compiled by the Primatech Company. The intelligence is too dangerous to for them to keep. We're here to liberate that database."
[Volume Four and iStory Book Six]
Marcus Kane - "And to maximize this effort, you brought in as many absorbers as you could on short notice?"
Trevor - "Something like that. I need telekinetics. Since you power absorbers are so fond of telekinesis, it would be more expedient to use you. Two on the roof. Four on perimeter. One on guard."
Kane - "I call roof."
Trevor - "Wait. Tell the security system to shut down with your technopathy."
Kane - "My what now?"
Trevor - "Technopathy. You can talk to the machines. Disable the security system with your mind. They are connected wirelessly so it should be even easier for you."
Kane shrugs and closes his eyes and focuses.
Kane - "Okay. Now if you'll excuse me."
Kane telekinetically pushes himself up. Trevor, Radburn, Phillip "Blue" DeParis, and Antonio Dourado look up. Two agents are telekinetically pushed onto the rooftop edge. Their guns fall over. Kane looks over and waves them on.
Radburn opens the door with telekinesis. The four walk into the hotel lobby. Four agents stare at them. They are armed with shotguns and tasers.
[Kane's use of telekinesis references Sylar speculation.]
Trevor - "Four of us. Four of them. Nobody miss."
[A loose reference and pun on "One of Us, One of Them.]
Trevor shoots one and he goes flying. The second gets shot into a nearby wall. The third's legs are blown out and his face crunches onto the floor. The fourth is launched up into the ceiling and dropped.
[References when Noah Bennet shoots people, they go flying. Various references to uses of telekinesis seen on the show.]
Dourado - "Never saw one of these up close."
Dourado telekinetically opens the shotgun into pieces and floats them as he observes them with earnest interest.
[Heroes Survival Game - Dourado has a keen interest of the world.]
Radburn - "This wasn't that hard. It could have waited."
Trevor - "It was a limited time offer. Four hours tops. If we didn't take advantage of time differences, another faction would have pounced on this place."
[Heroes Survival Game - Faction Urgent Request]
Kane walks down the stairway and rejoins them. There is a gunshot wound on his left ribcage that is healing. His body pushes out a bullet. No one knows speaks.
Blue - "Let's Scooby Doo it and split up."
[Heroes Survival Game - Blue is a nerd and would know animation]
They hear someone laughing in the background.
An agent is reading a 9th Wonders! comic book, with Uluru on the cover. His earpiece is removed. He sees the evolved beings and almost jumps off his chair. He puts his earpiece back in and aims his gun, shaking.
[9th Wonders! comic book, Issue #13. Loosely ironic with Trevor's nightmare]
Double doors flap open as the agent backs up with his gun still aimed. He fires at them. The bullets are frozen in mid-air and fall on the ground like rain.
[Volume One "Parasite."]
Agent Johnson - "Damn…"
Blue telekinetically knocks the gun out his hands. The team walks forward unafraid. The agent backs away and screams into his earpiece.
Agent Johnson - "They found the pigeon coop! Repeat, they found the pigeon coop! Respond!!"
[9th Wonders! Forum - The Hang Out - The Burnt Toast Diner]
Johnson is agitated by the lack of any response.
Agent Johnson - "Where is everyone…"
He realizes what happened and runs.
Trevor - "He's going to wipe the hard drives."
Kane - "Can't have that can we?"
Trevor shoots in the right leg. The agent falls forward and skids onto the floor.
Dourado - "Nice shot."
Trevor - "I was aiming for his head."
They walk up to Agent Johnson.
Johnson - "You're all a symptom. A disease. This is our world."
Blue telekinetically flips him out a nearby window.
Blue - "The moron was asking for it."
Trevor looks ahead to a door. He has a running start and kicks in the door. Everyone looks in and is in shock. The room is in disarray, wires dangling everywhere, and hard drives are emptied out. There is a key laid on the floor.
Dourado - "A key?"
Trevor picks up the key and examines it.
Trevor - "I know the place. It’s in California, 1319 Racing Avenue."
[Volume Four - Noah Bennet has a storage unit there]
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
PHASE THREE - PART THREE: OFF THE BOOKS PART ONE - in Heroes title font -
COSTA VERDE, CALIFORNIA
Trevor, alone, stares at the key then walks up to storage unit 108. He unlocks the unit and walks in. There is only a camcorder sitting in the center of the room. He walks up to it, turns it on, and flips open the viewer.
Woman - "Is it on? Wait, what are we going to say?"
Offscreen Man - "Anything!"
The point of view starts rocking and Trevor appears next to the woman. He is holding the camcorder in his right hand.
Trevor - "It's December 28, 2004. We're in Tokyo to visit her parents."
Trevor walks up to the camera and whispers.
Trevor - "Her dad hates me."
Woman - "Yeah, whatever."
The woman walks up to the camera.
Woman - "Daddy adores Trevor."
Trevor - "We weren't supposed to be here until the 30th but we wanted to take in the sights."
Trevor points the camera down at the snow.
Woman - "Shh…hey, that's a secret."
She giggles at the notion of it.
Trevor - "I love you."
Trevor kisses her on the cheek.
Woman - "Love you, too."
Trevor - "Color me toxic, but this looks like a great spot for something I have planned."
[9th Wonders! Forum Member]
Woman - "Yeah…what's that?"
Trevor - "This."
He gets on one knee and brings out a ring with his left hand.
Trevor - "Will you marry me?"
The woman lights up.
Woman - "Of course! Yes!! Yes."
Trevor exhales in delight.
Trevor - "Yes? Great."
She takes the ring. Trevor stands up and puts the ring on her left ring finger. She smiles at it then looks up at Trevor. They kiss again. The footage ends.
Trevor freezes up and the camcorder drops to his side. His other hand is trembling. He stares into the storage unit wall in disbelief.
The video is still running and sounds like it jumping to another recording. The voices can be heard, slightly muffled.
Trevor - "What color is it?"
Woman - "I don't know…Oh my God…We're…"
Both cheer in excitement.
Trevor drops the camcorder onto the storage unit floor. He rests against the unit wall and slides down. He stares at the camcorder then bangs his head against his knees. He stops and starts crying uncontrollably.
SOME TIME LATER
Trevor is standing. He wipes his face with his arm. Clara Zhang teleports in.
Zhang - "Got your text. Where to…were you crying?"
Trevor - "Yes."
Zhang - "Oh. Uhhh…"
Trevor - "Take me to Tokyo."
Zhang - "Okay."
Zhang shuffles through her purse, skimming post cards.
Zhang - "Wait, weren't you supposed to go back to Colorado?"
[9th Wonders! Forum - The Garden of the Gods]
Trevor - "I've got business, first."
Trevor's face has formed a murderous look as he faces away from Zhang, staring at the camcorder.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: PART FOUR - OFF THE BOOKS PART TWO
Life is a game of patterns and chance, and those who play well will win.
DREAM
There is only a Void, Bird's Eye Point of View, on Trevor Tanaka. He is standing in it somehow. The camera view pans down slowly to close up on Trevor's face. His eyes and mouth are covered by a DNA Symbol each. Flames appear from the void. Trevor is standing on a rock.
Uluru - "Who dares to defy me?! I am Uluru the Invincible!"
Trevor turns to face Uluru, his face is back to normal.
Trevor - "I dare!"
Uluru reaches to grab Trevor with his right hand. Uluru clenches his hand with Trevor sticking half way out. He brings Trevor closer to his face.
Uluru - "How your world is filled with filth and lies. The comingling of good and evil in mortals only upsets the natural balance."
Uluru transforms into a giant DNA Symbol, it slithers around Trevor and constricts on him and like a snake and they fall into the flames.
Upon impact, the flames disperse like water and turn into ones and zeroes.
Trevor - "What you represent is a constant. An element. Equilibrium isn't as predictable…it is caught in a cycle of paradigm shifts…"
The Symbol breaks off. Trevor coughs and gasps for air. The Void has returned.
Uluru - "How can a variable like you tell the difference?"
Trevor turns and sees himself, but with Uluru's demonic eyes.
Uluru - "Do you have what it takes to be like me?"
Uluru transforms again, into classic dressed in black Sylar, with the demon eyes.
Uluru - "To be the most special?"
[Repeated by Sylar]
Uluru transforms into Adam Monroe.
Uluru - "And have the discipline of the gods?"
[Graphic Novel, "Revolutionary War" Part Two]
Trevor - "To believe in that would only lead to arrogance and subjectivity."
Uluru transforms into Arthur Petrelli.
Uluru - "That's not a belief, it's a fact."
[Volume 3, "Eris Quod Sum"]
Uluru transforms into a common cockroach and crawls away into the Void.
Uluru - "Always seek the truth, mortal. Never find it."
[A loose reference to Andre Gide]
Black out.
TOKYO, JAPAN
NOVEMBER 2, 2007
A room. It is pitch black except for the center where there is a man waiting at a table with a closed box. Another man enters the room.
The Consultant - "You've secured the database and left the bait?"
The Associate nods and gestures at the box.
The Consultant - "Good. The sniper team is on standby if we need them. The powers that be will be satisfied after that fiasco in Peru."
[Reference to Angel and Destiny webisodes]
A gunshot goes through the Associate's heart. His body falls over onto the table. Smoke wafts in the shadows. A voice emerges.
Trevor - "The Associate, I presume. You were the one chasing me in Costa Verde four months ago. Small world."
[See Undaunted Part Three]
The Associate doesn't respond.
Trevor - "Oh, right. Dead."
[Loose reference to a scene in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker]
The Consultant - "H…how…"
Trevor - "What? Didn't do that good a job researching me? I'm smarter than the average bear. Kidnap me…I let it slide. Screw with an urgent request…I swallow my pride. Taunt me like you did…your days are numbered. My power was already activate during the video. Did you think I would be so upset that I wouldn't remember the building in the background or the faint chlorine smell from storing medical supplies in there between then and now?"
[Yogi Bear and Urgent Request - Heroes Survival Game]
Trevor holding his gun out at the Consultant slowly emerges from the darkness, like a film breaking off of him.
Trevor - "The thing you don't seem to understand is: I'm the same with or without my power. It's not a crutch, it's a gift. A godsend, even. Now, call off the snipers."
[Volume 1, Ando Masahashi translates Takezo Kensei's symbol as "godsend"]
The Consultant slowly shaking, pulls his Sprint cell phone and makes a call.
The Consultant - "Stand down. Repeat: Stand down. Do not engage."
The Consultant gulps, fearing his impending death.
The Consultant - "The Haitian…last sighted in Arlington, Virginia before Halloween."
[Volume 5 "Shadowboxing"]
Trevor - "The Haitian? He's got a name. He's not some blunt object. He's a human being."
The Consultant -"Er…Eric Thompson, Jr. he…"
Trevor - "You're not saying anything I don't already know."
The Consultant sweats.
Trevor - "Did you ever think about what's more dangerous than an enemy?"
The Consultant nervously shakes his head.
Trevor - "Standing in the way of someone who had everything…who found someone to share it with, unconditionally. Then she dies because of a lie. Something she never knew about. Your heart breaks in half and you try to fill it with revenge…to only end up stained a color you can never get rid of. Try to defeat that person."
The Consultant - "You should get some sleep."
Trevor - "No thanks."
The Consultant is shocked. His power didn't work.
Trevor - "I was too busy staying up doing my homework."
Trevor taps a skin-colored ear plug in his left ear.
The Consultant - "But how…"
Trevor - "Do I understand what you were saying? I keep up with reading. Society is flooded with this hyper-abundance of content but I love a good book, you can always find something amazing, like how to read lips. It's a useful skill, especially if you have to deal with a highly evolved being with the advanced ability of sedation through modular suggestion. Having one of your colleagues mess with my dreams was a nice touch."
The Consultant - "I don't know what you're talking about. Only myself and the dead man over there were assigned to you, and he was…ordinary."
Trevor focuses his eyes on the Consultant and realizes he is telling the truth. Trevor smiles and laughs at himself, realizing the nightmares came on their own accord.
Trevor - "I'm sorry to leave now, but I have a family to help take care of and in my line of work, it is better to apologize than ask for permission."
[Trevor mocks something the Consultant told him two stories ago]
The Consultant grits his teeth. Trevor shoots and the bullet connects with the Consultant's head. He falls over. Trevor shoots him in the head once more and twice in the chest. He checks the contents of the box, closes it, takes it, then walks into the darkness. From the darkness, Trevor shoots the light bulb, turning the room completely dark.
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
PHASE THREE - PART FOUR: OFF THE BOOKS PART TWO - in Heroes title font -
ONE DAY LATER
FUSHIMI INARI SHRINE, KYOTO, JAPAN
Clara Zhang walks up a path of the famous torii columns. She is taken aback by the sight of them. Up ahead, Trevor is waiting near the entrance to the inner shrine.
Zhang - "Done with your business?"
[Irony. Inari is the god of business.]
Trevor - "Yup."
Trevor holds up a USB thumb drive and puts it away. A fox darts out onto the path. Zhang is surprised. Trevor walks up to it and holds out the storage key unit from part one. The fox takes it in its mouth and runs away.
[Foxes are thought to be messengers, are often seen in Inari shrines. Statues depict them with a key (for the rice granary) in their mouths.]
Zhang - "That was so cool!"
Trevor - "Y'know, With your complexion…you really shouldn't be wearing your hair pulled back that tight."
Zhang - "What are you talking about?"
Trevor - "It pulls back the skin on your forehead...creating a tension which clogs the pores. That's why you have some light pattern dryness around your scalp. Read it in a magazine once."
[Zoolander]
Zhang - "C'mon d-bag. Let's go make an offering before I return you to your life of high fashion."
Trevor sighs but waivers.
Trevor - "I miss James."
Zhang - "What?"
Trevor - "Nothing."
Zhang tries to look authentic and makes an offering in the shrine. Trevor just stands there.
Zhang - "Aren't you going to do it, too?"
Trevor - "I already did."
Zhang - "Back there with the fox?"
Trevor nods.
Zhang - "Cool. But don't you want to make a wish or something?"
Trevor - "No…I've got what I want."
Zhang - "And what's that?"
Trevor - "A purpose. Kindred."
Zhang - "So you don't want like a new scarf or something?"
Trevor squints at Zhang.
Trevor - "Colorado, please."
Zhang - "You're no fun."
Zhang puts her left hand on Trevor's right shoulder.
Trevor - "Pft. Define fun."
They teleport away.
THE END OF SPECIAL TWO: PHASE THREE - in Heroes title font
SPECIAL THREE
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Dozens of corpses are strewn across the field. Trevor is wounded somewhere in his abdomen. He crawls over to two bodies that are barely breathing and leaves a trail of blood. Trevor uses all of his remaining strength to flip them over. One is Regan "Redo" McCairn and the other, Dixon "Nox" Cheung.
[Two characters from Heroes Survival Game and part of Undaunted]
Trevor - "Nox…you got to…undo this from ever happening to me."
Nox struggles to concentrate then it works, Trevor is unwounded. Nox spits up blood laughing then his head drops. Nox is dead. Trevor closes his eyes. Redo was watching what happened.
Trevor - "Reset us as far back as you can, McCairn. Farther than you've ever gone. Everyone's lives depend on it."
Redo uses her time reversing power. Things start to go backwards like a video tape rewinding, then everything turns into a blur of images and sound. Then a white flash envelopes everything.
NOVEMBER 25, 2007
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
A laptop is turned on but the seat in front of it is empty. Pan right, Trevor is standing, hunched over on a window. Point of view on his back. He shakes his head.
Trevor - "It's finally happened. They're coming."
[Homage to Lost Season Six Finale]
TO BE CONTINUED...
When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do.
DREAM
There is only a Void, Bird's Eye Point of View, on Trevor Tanaka. He is standing in it somehow. The camera view pans down slowly to close up on Trevor's face. His eyes and mouth are covered by a DNA Symbol each. Flames appear from the void. Trevor is standing on a rock.
Uluru - "Who dares to defy me?! I am Uluru the Invincible!"
Trevor turns to face Uluru, his face is back to normal.
Trevor - "I dare!"
Uluru reaches to grab Trevor with his right hand. Uluru clenches his hand with Trevor sticking half way out. He brings Trevor closer to his face.
Uluru - "How your world is filled with filth and lies. The comingling of good and evil in mortals only upsets the natural balance."
Uluru transforms into a giant DNA Symbol, it slithers around Trevor and constricts on him and like a snake and they fall into the flames. Black out.
[The Helix references the DNA Symbol and the numbers, his power]
Trevor jolts awake. He is standing in a dark alley with four others. They are looking to him to say something.
NOVEMBER 1, 2007
WASHINGTON D.C.
Trevor - "A splinter cell composed of former Building 26 special agents are based in this abandoned hotel. There are seven of them. And they have an old database with files on highly evolved beings compiled by the Primatech Company. The intelligence is too dangerous to for them to keep. We're here to liberate that database."
[Volume Four and iStory Book Six]
Marcus Kane - "And to maximize this effort, you brought in as many absorbers as you could on short notice?"
Trevor - "Something like that. I need telekinetics. Since you power absorbers are so fond of telekinesis, it would be more expedient to use you. Two on the roof. Four on perimeter. One on guard."
Kane - "I call roof."
Trevor - "Wait. Tell the security system to shut down with your technopathy."
Kane - "My what now?"
Trevor - "Technopathy. You can talk to the machines. Disable the security system with your mind. They are connected wirelessly so it should be even easier for you."
Kane shrugs and closes his eyes and focuses.
Kane - "Okay. Now if you'll excuse me."
Kane telekinetically pushes himself up. Trevor, Radburn, Phillip "Blue" DeParis, and Antonio Dourado look up. Two agents are telekinetically pushed onto the rooftop edge. Their guns fall over. Kane looks over and waves them on.
Radburn opens the door with telekinesis. The four walk into the hotel lobby. Four agents stare at them. They are armed with shotguns and tasers.
[Kane's use of telekinesis references Sylar speculation.]
Trevor - "Four of us. Four of them. Nobody miss."
[A loose reference and pun on "One of Us, One of Them.]
Trevor shoots one and he goes flying. The second gets shot into a nearby wall. The third's legs are blown out and his face crunches onto the floor. The fourth is launched up into the ceiling and dropped.
[References when Noah Bennet shoots people, they go flying. Various references to uses of telekinesis seen on the show.]
Dourado - "Never saw one of these up close."
Dourado telekinetically opens the shotgun into pieces and floats them as he observes them with earnest interest.
[Heroes Survival Game - Dourado has a keen interest of the world.]
Radburn - "This wasn't that hard. It could have waited."
Trevor - "It was a limited time offer. Four hours tops. If we didn't take advantage of time differences, another faction would have pounced on this place."
[Heroes Survival Game - Faction Urgent Request]
Kane walks down the stairway and rejoins them. There is a gunshot wound on his left ribcage that is healing. His body pushes out a bullet. No one knows speaks.
Blue - "Let's Scooby Doo it and split up."
[Heroes Survival Game - Blue is a nerd and would know animation]
They hear someone laughing in the background.
An agent is reading a 9th Wonders! comic book, with Uluru on the cover. His earpiece is removed. He sees the evolved beings and almost jumps off his chair. He puts his earpiece back in and aims his gun, shaking.
[9th Wonders! comic book, Issue #13. Loosely ironic with Trevor's nightmare]
Double doors flap open as the agent backs up with his gun still aimed. He fires at them. The bullets are frozen in mid-air and fall on the ground like rain.
[Volume One "Parasite."]
Agent Johnson - "Damn…"
Blue telekinetically knocks the gun out his hands. The team walks forward unafraid. The agent backs away and screams into his earpiece.
Agent Johnson - "They found the pigeon coop! Repeat, they found the pigeon coop! Respond!!"
[9th Wonders! Forum - The Hang Out - The Burnt Toast Diner]
Johnson is agitated by the lack of any response.
Agent Johnson - "Where is everyone…"
He realizes what happened and runs.
Trevor - "He's going to wipe the hard drives."
Kane - "Can't have that can we?"
Trevor shoots in the right leg. The agent falls forward and skids onto the floor.
Dourado - "Nice shot."
Trevor - "I was aiming for his head."
They walk up to Agent Johnson.
Johnson - "You're all a symptom. A disease. This is our world."
Blue telekinetically flips him out a nearby window.
Blue - "The moron was asking for it."
Trevor looks ahead to a door. He has a running start and kicks in the door. Everyone looks in and is in shock. The room is in disarray, wires dangling everywhere, and hard drives are emptied out. There is a key laid on the floor.
Dourado - "A key?"
Trevor picks up the key and examines it.
Trevor - "I know the place. It’s in California, 1319 Racing Avenue."
[Volume Four - Noah Bennet has a storage unit there]
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
PHASE THREE - PART THREE: OFF THE BOOKS PART ONE - in Heroes title font -
COSTA VERDE, CALIFORNIA
Trevor, alone, stares at the key then walks up to storage unit 108. He unlocks the unit and walks in. There is only a camcorder sitting in the center of the room. He walks up to it, turns it on, and flips open the viewer.
Woman - "Is it on? Wait, what are we going to say?"
Offscreen Man - "Anything!"
The point of view starts rocking and Trevor appears next to the woman. He is holding the camcorder in his right hand.
Trevor - "It's December 28, 2004. We're in Tokyo to visit her parents."
Trevor walks up to the camera and whispers.
Trevor - "Her dad hates me."
Woman - "Yeah, whatever."
The woman walks up to the camera.
Woman - "Daddy adores Trevor."
Trevor - "We weren't supposed to be here until the 30th but we wanted to take in the sights."
Trevor points the camera down at the snow.
Woman - "Shh…hey, that's a secret."
She giggles at the notion of it.
Trevor - "I love you."
Trevor kisses her on the cheek.
Woman - "Love you, too."
Trevor - "Color me toxic, but this looks like a great spot for something I have planned."
[9th Wonders! Forum Member]
Woman - "Yeah…what's that?"
Trevor - "This."
He gets on one knee and brings out a ring with his left hand.
Trevor - "Will you marry me?"
The woman lights up.
Woman - "Of course! Yes!! Yes."
Trevor exhales in delight.
Trevor - "Yes? Great."
She takes the ring. Trevor stands up and puts the ring on her left ring finger. She smiles at it then looks up at Trevor. They kiss again. The footage ends.
Trevor freezes up and the camcorder drops to his side. His other hand is trembling. He stares into the storage unit wall in disbelief.
The video is still running and sounds like it jumping to another recording. The voices can be heard, slightly muffled.
Trevor - "What color is it?"
Woman - "I don't know…Oh my God…We're…"
Both cheer in excitement.
Trevor drops the camcorder onto the storage unit floor. He rests against the unit wall and slides down. He stares at the camcorder then bangs his head against his knees. He stops and starts crying uncontrollably.
SOME TIME LATER
Trevor is standing. He wipes his face with his arm. Clara Zhang teleports in.
Zhang - "Got your text. Where to…were you crying?"
Trevor - "Yes."
Zhang - "Oh. Uhhh…"
Trevor - "Take me to Tokyo."
Zhang - "Okay."
Zhang shuffles through her purse, skimming post cards.
Zhang - "Wait, weren't you supposed to go back to Colorado?"
[9th Wonders! Forum - The Garden of the Gods]
Trevor - "I've got business, first."
Trevor's face has formed a murderous look as he faces away from Zhang, staring at the camcorder.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: PART FOUR - OFF THE BOOKS PART TWO
Life is a game of patterns and chance, and those who play well will win.
DREAM
There is only a Void, Bird's Eye Point of View, on Trevor Tanaka. He is standing in it somehow. The camera view pans down slowly to close up on Trevor's face. His eyes and mouth are covered by a DNA Symbol each. Flames appear from the void. Trevor is standing on a rock.
Uluru - "Who dares to defy me?! I am Uluru the Invincible!"
Trevor turns to face Uluru, his face is back to normal.
Trevor - "I dare!"
Uluru reaches to grab Trevor with his right hand. Uluru clenches his hand with Trevor sticking half way out. He brings Trevor closer to his face.
Uluru - "How your world is filled with filth and lies. The comingling of good and evil in mortals only upsets the natural balance."
Uluru transforms into a giant DNA Symbol, it slithers around Trevor and constricts on him and like a snake and they fall into the flames.
Upon impact, the flames disperse like water and turn into ones and zeroes.
Trevor - "What you represent is a constant. An element. Equilibrium isn't as predictable…it is caught in a cycle of paradigm shifts…"
The Symbol breaks off. Trevor coughs and gasps for air. The Void has returned.
Uluru - "How can a variable like you tell the difference?"
Trevor turns and sees himself, but with Uluru's demonic eyes.
Uluru - "Do you have what it takes to be like me?"
Uluru transforms again, into classic dressed in black Sylar, with the demon eyes.
Uluru - "To be the most special?"
[Repeated by Sylar]
Uluru transforms into Adam Monroe.
Uluru - "And have the discipline of the gods?"
[Graphic Novel, "Revolutionary War" Part Two]
Trevor - "To believe in that would only lead to arrogance and subjectivity."
Uluru transforms into Arthur Petrelli.
Uluru - "That's not a belief, it's a fact."
[Volume 3, "Eris Quod Sum"]
Uluru transforms into a common cockroach and crawls away into the Void.
Uluru - "Always seek the truth, mortal. Never find it."
[A loose reference to Andre Gide]
Black out.
TOKYO, JAPAN
NOVEMBER 2, 2007
A room. It is pitch black except for the center where there is a man waiting at a table with a closed box. Another man enters the room.
The Consultant - "You've secured the database and left the bait?"
The Associate nods and gestures at the box.
The Consultant - "Good. The sniper team is on standby if we need them. The powers that be will be satisfied after that fiasco in Peru."
[Reference to Angel and Destiny webisodes]
A gunshot goes through the Associate's heart. His body falls over onto the table. Smoke wafts in the shadows. A voice emerges.
Trevor - "The Associate, I presume. You were the one chasing me in Costa Verde four months ago. Small world."
[See Undaunted Part Three]
The Associate doesn't respond.
Trevor - "Oh, right. Dead."
[Loose reference to a scene in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker]
The Consultant - "H…how…"
Trevor - "What? Didn't do that good a job researching me? I'm smarter than the average bear. Kidnap me…I let it slide. Screw with an urgent request…I swallow my pride. Taunt me like you did…your days are numbered. My power was already activate during the video. Did you think I would be so upset that I wouldn't remember the building in the background or the faint chlorine smell from storing medical supplies in there between then and now?"
[Yogi Bear and Urgent Request - Heroes Survival Game]
Trevor holding his gun out at the Consultant slowly emerges from the darkness, like a film breaking off of him.
Trevor - "The thing you don't seem to understand is: I'm the same with or without my power. It's not a crutch, it's a gift. A godsend, even. Now, call off the snipers."
[Volume 1, Ando Masahashi translates Takezo Kensei's symbol as "godsend"]
The Consultant slowly shaking, pulls his Sprint cell phone and makes a call.
The Consultant - "Stand down. Repeat: Stand down. Do not engage."
The Consultant gulps, fearing his impending death.
The Consultant - "The Haitian…last sighted in Arlington, Virginia before Halloween."
[Volume 5 "Shadowboxing"]
Trevor - "The Haitian? He's got a name. He's not some blunt object. He's a human being."
The Consultant -"Er…Eric Thompson, Jr. he…"
Trevor - "You're not saying anything I don't already know."
The Consultant sweats.
Trevor - "Did you ever think about what's more dangerous than an enemy?"
The Consultant nervously shakes his head.
Trevor - "Standing in the way of someone who had everything…who found someone to share it with, unconditionally. Then she dies because of a lie. Something she never knew about. Your heart breaks in half and you try to fill it with revenge…to only end up stained a color you can never get rid of. Try to defeat that person."
The Consultant - "You should get some sleep."
Trevor - "No thanks."
The Consultant is shocked. His power didn't work.
Trevor - "I was too busy staying up doing my homework."
Trevor taps a skin-colored ear plug in his left ear.
The Consultant - "But how…"
Trevor - "Do I understand what you were saying? I keep up with reading. Society is flooded with this hyper-abundance of content but I love a good book, you can always find something amazing, like how to read lips. It's a useful skill, especially if you have to deal with a highly evolved being with the advanced ability of sedation through modular suggestion. Having one of your colleagues mess with my dreams was a nice touch."
The Consultant - "I don't know what you're talking about. Only myself and the dead man over there were assigned to you, and he was…ordinary."
Trevor focuses his eyes on the Consultant and realizes he is telling the truth. Trevor smiles and laughs at himself, realizing the nightmares came on their own accord.
Trevor - "I'm sorry to leave now, but I have a family to help take care of and in my line of work, it is better to apologize than ask for permission."
[Trevor mocks something the Consultant told him two stories ago]
The Consultant grits his teeth. Trevor shoots and the bullet connects with the Consultant's head. He falls over. Trevor shoots him in the head once more and twice in the chest. He checks the contents of the box, closes it, takes it, then walks into the darkness. From the darkness, Trevor shoots the light bulb, turning the room completely dark.
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
PHASE THREE - PART FOUR: OFF THE BOOKS PART TWO - in Heroes title font -
ONE DAY LATER
FUSHIMI INARI SHRINE, KYOTO, JAPAN
Clara Zhang walks up a path of the famous torii columns. She is taken aback by the sight of them. Up ahead, Trevor is waiting near the entrance to the inner shrine.
Zhang - "Done with your business?"
[Irony. Inari is the god of business.]
Trevor - "Yup."
Trevor holds up a USB thumb drive and puts it away. A fox darts out onto the path. Zhang is surprised. Trevor walks up to it and holds out the storage key unit from part one. The fox takes it in its mouth and runs away.
[Foxes are thought to be messengers, are often seen in Inari shrines. Statues depict them with a key (for the rice granary) in their mouths.]
Zhang - "That was so cool!"
Trevor - "Y'know, With your complexion…you really shouldn't be wearing your hair pulled back that tight."
Zhang - "What are you talking about?"
Trevor - "It pulls back the skin on your forehead...creating a tension which clogs the pores. That's why you have some light pattern dryness around your scalp. Read it in a magazine once."
[Zoolander]
Zhang - "C'mon d-bag. Let's go make an offering before I return you to your life of high fashion."
Trevor sighs but waivers.
Trevor - "I miss James."
Zhang - "What?"
Trevor - "Nothing."
Zhang tries to look authentic and makes an offering in the shrine. Trevor just stands there.
Zhang - "Aren't you going to do it, too?"
Trevor - "I already did."
Zhang - "Back there with the fox?"
Trevor nods.
Zhang - "Cool. But don't you want to make a wish or something?"
Trevor - "No…I've got what I want."
Zhang - "And what's that?"
Trevor - "A purpose. Kindred."
Zhang - "So you don't want like a new scarf or something?"
Trevor squints at Zhang.
Trevor - "Colorado, please."
Zhang - "You're no fun."
Zhang puts her left hand on Trevor's right shoulder.
Trevor - "Pft. Define fun."
They teleport away.
THE END OF SPECIAL TWO: PHASE THREE - in Heroes title font
SPECIAL THREE
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Dozens of corpses are strewn across the field. Trevor is wounded somewhere in his abdomen. He crawls over to two bodies that are barely breathing and leaves a trail of blood. Trevor uses all of his remaining strength to flip them over. One is Regan "Redo" McCairn and the other, Dixon "Nox" Cheung.
[Two characters from Heroes Survival Game and part of Undaunted]
Trevor - "Nox…you got to…undo this from ever happening to me."
Nox struggles to concentrate then it works, Trevor is unwounded. Nox spits up blood laughing then his head drops. Nox is dead. Trevor closes his eyes. Redo was watching what happened.
Trevor - "Reset us as far back as you can, McCairn. Farther than you've ever gone. Everyone's lives depend on it."
Redo uses her time reversing power. Things start to go backwards like a video tape rewinding, then everything turns into a blur of images and sound. Then a white flash envelopes everything.
NOVEMBER 25, 2007
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
A laptop is turned on but the seat in front of it is empty. Pan right, Trevor is standing, hunched over on a window. Point of view on his back. He shakes his head.
Trevor - "It's finally happened. They're coming."
[Homage to Lost Season Six Finale]
TO BE CONTINUED...
November 8, 2009
Commentary - Phase Three Part Two
So yeah, part two was a smaller story to slow down after the big op tale and prepare readers for a multi-part big op filled with intrigue, suspense, and death. But right now, as I mentioned, this is a more Trevor-centric story set pretty much in line with the current timeline of the show. The first line is a quote from the late Muhammad Ali. Below Trevor's wit and sarcasm, he's actually speaking his mind and no one realizes that, that's what he thinks is the best joke of all.
And I continue to reveal more about Trevor's nightmare. Uluru makes an appearance after I referenced him in the first story arc. Continuing on my interpretation of the nightmare: The nightmare, itself, is up to interpretation. To me, I think the void represents Mu, nothingness, from Buddhism. From it comes Trevor, whose senses are covered up and he is in a state of ignorance, powerless and without a purpose in life. Trevor connects this nightmare to his lover's death as the jolt that made him reach his full potential. Now the flames, a symbol of destruction and Uluru, the inner demon within everyone (at least how I see it), appear to threaten Trevor and he turns, with the symbols gone, implying experience and activation of his power challenges the dark forces within him.
And coming along with the present story, the idea came from my list of to do. I always wanted to make a story where Trevor gets kidnapped and the punching shtick is the sequence I wrote. I matched this up with my desire to expand on the mystery company that tried to recruit Santiago in the Destiny webisodes. To make sense, an alliance of faction leaders but some bills together and hired these people to kidnap and interrogate Trevor for his intelligence. Obviously, among these five people, I didn't exactly state who had what power. At least for the Consultant, I want to keep it vague for a future story. I threw in the nullifier to prevent Trevor from using his power and show he's the same with or without it.
I prodded a little more with the mystery behind his name mainly because its a typical warm up question during an interrogation. Then things get frustrating for them as Trevor outwits them most of the time. My favorite word at the time was proclivity. But mainly, the interrogation was to integrate the arc of volume five and phase three of the survival game into this story to frame it.
I also felt the need to revisit the possibility that Trevor could walk away or even betray Undaunted for his own interests. Why is he still with them? By this point, the viewer should start wondering what the conversation between Leona Mills, Trevor, and Seal was and when it will be revealed. Since Seal now knows everything Leona is planning and how he's using that information is very interesting to know.
Then for the last half, Trevor encounters Jasp, Marc, and Seal, from Undaunted. I wanted Jasp and Trevor's relationship to be more cordial as contrast to Trevor and James'. And with Marc and Seal, Trevor pretty much concluded who the faction leaders that commissioned his capture are but doesn't really care. Obviously this op he's talking about is...well bigger in importance. Does it have to do with the Timewave Zero software he was running? Soon.
And I continue to reveal more about Trevor's nightmare. Uluru makes an appearance after I referenced him in the first story arc. Continuing on my interpretation of the nightmare: The nightmare, itself, is up to interpretation. To me, I think the void represents Mu, nothingness, from Buddhism. From it comes Trevor, whose senses are covered up and he is in a state of ignorance, powerless and without a purpose in life. Trevor connects this nightmare to his lover's death as the jolt that made him reach his full potential. Now the flames, a symbol of destruction and Uluru, the inner demon within everyone (at least how I see it), appear to threaten Trevor and he turns, with the symbols gone, implying experience and activation of his power challenges the dark forces within him.
And coming along with the present story, the idea came from my list of to do. I always wanted to make a story where Trevor gets kidnapped and the punching shtick is the sequence I wrote. I matched this up with my desire to expand on the mystery company that tried to recruit Santiago in the Destiny webisodes. To make sense, an alliance of faction leaders but some bills together and hired these people to kidnap and interrogate Trevor for his intelligence. Obviously, among these five people, I didn't exactly state who had what power. At least for the Consultant, I want to keep it vague for a future story. I threw in the nullifier to prevent Trevor from using his power and show he's the same with or without it.
I prodded a little more with the mystery behind his name mainly because its a typical warm up question during an interrogation. Then things get frustrating for them as Trevor outwits them most of the time. My favorite word at the time was proclivity. But mainly, the interrogation was to integrate the arc of volume five and phase three of the survival game into this story to frame it.
I also felt the need to revisit the possibility that Trevor could walk away or even betray Undaunted for his own interests. Why is he still with them? By this point, the viewer should start wondering what the conversation between Leona Mills, Trevor, and Seal was and when it will be revealed. Since Seal now knows everything Leona is planning and how he's using that information is very interesting to know.
Then for the last half, Trevor encounters Jasp, Marc, and Seal, from Undaunted. I wanted Jasp and Trevor's relationship to be more cordial as contrast to Trevor and James'. And with Marc and Seal, Trevor pretty much concluded who the faction leaders that commissioned his capture are but doesn't really care. Obviously this op he's talking about is...well bigger in importance. Does it have to do with the Timewave Zero software he was running? Soon.
November 7, 2009
Part Four - Phase Three Part Two
Without further ado, here is my latest story. Ultimately, the plan is to wedge smaller character stories that rest the reader between the big op stories I have planned and set up future story plots. Commentary to come:
My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world.
DREAM
There is only a Void, Bird's Eye Point of View, on Trevor Tanaka. He is standing in it somehow. The camera view pans down slowly to close up on Trevor's face. His eyes and mouth are covered by a DNA Symbol each. Flames appear from the void. Trevor is standing on a rock.
[Expanding more and more on Trevor's childhood nightmare each chapter]
Uluru - "Who dares to defy me?! I am Uluru the Invincible!"
[Uluru the Invincible from the 9th Wonders! comic book]
Trevor turns to face Uluru, his face is back to normal.
Trevor - "I dare!"
Uluru reaches to grab Trevor with its right hand. Black out.
Trevor jolts awake. He is sitting down on a wheelchair, restrained with a black bag over his head and hands and legs tied down. He is being wheeled somewhere. The chair comes to a stop. Trevor hears a door close. A switch is thrown. A bright light glitters through the bag fabric.
OCTOBER 31, 2007
[In Late October 2006, Peter Petrelli was in a coma from absorbing too many powers and experienced a frightening dream. The date was intentional because, similarly, Trevor had a dream on the same postulated day, one year later.]
LOCATION UNKNOWN
The Consultant - "Hello. Trevor. We've never met but you can say you are my current assignment. I am masking my voice to protect myself and those who contracted me. I apologize that we are meeting like this, but in my line of work, it is better to apologize than ask for permission."
[The last line is a clue on who the Consultant works for. In the Destiny webisodes, SLW makes a similar comment.]
A garbled laugh comes from the black bag over Trevor's head. He raises his restrained hands as far as they can to show - "Like I have a choice."
The Consultant - "I am going to ask you a series of questions. You will answer them. If that becomes a problem, my associate, who happens to hate lies, will correct you."
The Consultant - "Remove the bag."
From Trevor's point of view, the bag is lifted from his head. He is also blindfolded.
Trevor - "And you also have a nullifier. That's remarkable. They're so hard to come by."
[Term from the Evsdropr arc in the graphic novels. Also comments how only the Haitian and a DHS agent from an alternate future had the ability to nullify other people's.]
The Consultant - "You have no idea."
The Consultant - "Tell me your name."
Trevor - "You just said it."
The Consultant - "Your real name. Tell me your real name. The one you were born with."
Trevor - "It is irrelevant because in the fullness of time, we are all dead. Hmm. I had a chicken sandwich with avocado for lunch, today."
[The first sentence is a quote from Justice League Unlimited in the episode "Dead Reckoning."]
The Consultant - "How many people have you killed?"
Trevor - "I don't know. I'm far from done."
The Consultant - "You say you're one of us. You walk among us but you aren't anything like us. Who are you? Who is Trevor Tanaka?"
[The first two sentences are a reference to Lost in the episode "Stranger in a Strange Land" and the last question is a reference to a blog of the same name.]
Trevor - "My name is Undaunted, for we are many."
[A pun on the Bible verse of when the Devil tried to tempt Jesus Christ.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face.
Trevor - "I plead the Fifth."
[A reference to Chappelle's Show, and the character Tron.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face again.
The Consultant - "What do you know?"
Trevor - "The truth. The truth is there is no good and evil left in the world. There are no monsters. Just visions that are placed in our minds."
[Heroes, Volume One, Future Hiro's Yamagato blog.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a third time.
Trevor - "I, an outcast, never belonged. I longed to bleach this dark world with the truth. But our lives are timed to a precision and cross with each other. Communication is the conductor of truth."
[Heroes, Volume One, Future Hiro's Yamagato blog.]
The Consultant - "Your proclivity towards deflection amuses me. What do you know about the factions?"
Trevor - "We're all pawns of watchers and dreamers. No matter what initiatives we take, what precautions we imagine…the factions will continue to fight each other. Fear and distrust are the foundations of each faction's tenant."
[Trevor refers to the Watcher and Angela Petrelli. Also a loose reference to the paranoia and hype surrounding Phase Three of the Heroes Survival Game.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a fourth time.
Trevor - "It is all a distraction. There is something gathering strength in the shadows…gathering the strongest of us all. Then, it will swallow us whole in one gulp. Heh. And you are so focused on stealing my toilet paper."
[A joke about Phase Three and what Resources are.]
The Consultant - "The Carnival?"
[Heroes, Volume Five]
Trevor - "Samuel Sullivan. Sylar."
[This places the story after Sylar is recruited to the Carnival.]
Distorted voices murmur among each other.
The Contractors - "…Sylar?!...Isn't he dead?...He's bluffing…They don't kill kindred…"
The Consultant - "Do you mean to say this Carnival is a threat to evolved humans and humans, alike?"
Trevor - "Yes. Especially if you start a sentence with a no."
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a fifth time.
Trevor - "This is getting old. Throw in a kick or something fresh."
The Consultant - "Does Seal know any of this?"
Trevor - "Yes. He knows what I know. Doesn't matter if he does or doesn't know."
The Consultant - "Why?"
Trevor - "He is a fan of democracy and diplomacy. By the time there is a consensus among the factions on what to do about the Carnival, we'll all be six feet under. All they're good at is pushing buttons."
[Another joke about the nature of Heroes Survival Game.]
The Consultant - "Then why did you even join Undaunted?"
Trevor - "The insurance benefits."
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a sixth time. Trevor looks up with a grim expression, a scowl and bleeding.
Trevor - "This is who we are."
[Reference to the code used by the Millennium Group in the series Millennium.]
There is silence for a minute.
Trevor - "I would be happy if one of you out there were a healer because I can confirm that I am bleeding and my face hurts."
There is another minute of silence.
A hand comes over Trevor's face. It heals him.
Trevor - "Thank you."
The Consultant - "I will ask you one more question then I will release you."
Trevor - "Release release me or release me, throw me out an airplane, release me?"
The Consultant - "How many of us will it take to destroy the Carnival?"
Trevor - "None. It's not our fight. Besides, I have a gut feeling they sowed the seeds of their own destruction. Until then, it's a game of survival."
[A bad pun on Heroes Survival Game.]
The Consultant - "Go to sleep."
[Samson Gray's Sedation power or an aspect of Telepathy?]
Trevor's head drops down. Black out.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
TWO HOURS LATER
Trevor is sitting at his computer. The program he was running on it is still on. It looks like a graph with a constantly moving oscillation. In one corner, the words "Timewave Zero" are visible. A hardcover book is opened next to the keyboard. Two parts of a page are highlighted in yellow. They read, "Genes determine obesity, blood pressure" and the second, "out of the thirty billion possibilities, one might contain the potential for human flight." The book is Activating Evolution. A cell phone, the battery, and the chip are laid out next to the book. Trevor's eyes flicker and he wakes up.
[Reference to Timewave Zero, a way of calculating the apocalypse, and Dr. Chandra Suresh's book, Activating Evolution. The quotes are from "One Giant Leap."]
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
PHASE THREE - PART TWO: THE CONTRACT - in Heroes title font -
Trevor grabs a piece of paper from his desk and jots down words very quickly: Voice modulation, Nullifier, Telepathy (?), Healing Touch, Consultant (2), Faction (3 Males Present), Medical Supplies-Wheelchair, Warehouse (Abandoned?), Chlorine scent, Floodlights.
Trevor - Just because my ability is Enhanced Memory doesn't mean my regular memory is terrible, Consultant.
Someone knocks on the door in Trevor's room, three times, three seconds apart.
Trevor - "Come in."
The door opens and in walks Jasp.
[Jasper "Jasp" Red from Heroes Survival Game.]
Jasp - "Ready?"
Trevor - "Yeah."
Jasp - "Where to?"
Trevor - "The Garden."
[9th Wonders! Forum]
Trevor tucks the paper in his shirt pocket. He closes the book and puts it under his left arm. He types in a combination in the keyboard. He reaches under the desk.
Jasp stares at the door and concentrates. He grunts then holds the door open, Trevor walks in then Jasp.
[For long distance travel, Jasp has to concentrate a little harder.]
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
The restrooms are locked. The door opens. Jasp and Trevor walk outside.
Trevor - "Thank you, Red. Good luck with the new semester."
[Jasp is in college but stays in contact with his allies.]
Jasp - "Welcome. Most people don't call me that."
Trevor - "I'm not most people."
Jasp closes the door.
Trevor exhales. He looks at the book. Then looks up to the sky. He marches up to the path. The field is within sight. Marc and Seal are there.
Marc - "How're you feeling?"
Trevor - "Much better, thanks for asking. Here's your book back."
Marc - "Oh yeah, thanks. What'd you think?"
Trevor - "Mmm, no potential for a TV movie. Maybe nine seasons."
[A loose reference to the X-Files]
Seal chuckles. Marc laughs nervously. Trevor pulls out the paper he wrote on. Trevor's demeanor changes.
Seal - "What? You were kidnapped…by a faction."
Trevor - "It shouldn't be too hard to find out which one."
Trevor waives the paper.
Seal - "But who were these people that interrogated you, freelancers?"
Trevor - "Awhile ago, there were numerous companies that employed highly evolved beings, not just Primatech and Pinehearst. Others who have no names, no initials. I heard a rumor once that there is a company that contracts out evolved beings to people with deep pockets. Assassination. Intelligence. You name it, there's a price. They were last sighted in Chicago and Peru a couple months ago. Fits the M.O., could be them. "
[Webiseries - Destiny]
Marc - "What do we do?"
Trevor - "When's the next inter-faction assembly?"
Seal - "It's a secret. Your idea. Might be in two days."
Trevor - "Someone wanted to do their homework before then. Make sure you watch for any changes in attitude."
Seal - "You're not coming?"
Trevor - "Doubtful. Paranoid and all that."
Marc - "I can help you with that."
Trevor - "No, I've got bigger fish to fry. I need these people for a special op I was about to commission before I was distracted by my new friends."
Seal looks at the back of Trevor's paper.
Seal - "But they're all investigating active events with their teams. They'll ask what this is for. Things are shaky enough as it is."
Trevor - "They'll understand. I can be persuasive. We'll all meet at the secondary site."
[Two Garden of the Gods were considered on 9th Wonders!]
Seal - "Fine. Extend an olive branch to whoever you're going after, first."
Trevor - "I'm not sure they understand that currency."
Seal - "Make the bird want to sing."
[Reference to the book, Taiko]
Trevor - "That I can do."
Seal - "Without your gun."
Trevor - "Oh. Right. The semantics again. Ever tell a fish not to swim? Order a bird not to fly? I have no illusions about what I do, but it must be done."
[Biology/Darwin]
Seal - "Trevor. Do you really think any of us are going to get through this?"
Trevor - "Well, I might."
[Serenity - The Operative and Zoe & Jayne]
Trevor walks away back down the path as Seal and Marc look at each other.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: PART THREE - OFF THE BOOKS PART ONE
My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world.
DREAM
There is only a Void, Bird's Eye Point of View, on Trevor Tanaka. He is standing in it somehow. The camera view pans down slowly to close up on Trevor's face. His eyes and mouth are covered by a DNA Symbol each. Flames appear from the void. Trevor is standing on a rock.
[Expanding more and more on Trevor's childhood nightmare each chapter]
Uluru - "Who dares to defy me?! I am Uluru the Invincible!"
[Uluru the Invincible from the 9th Wonders! comic book]
Trevor turns to face Uluru, his face is back to normal.
Trevor - "I dare!"
Uluru reaches to grab Trevor with its right hand. Black out.
Trevor jolts awake. He is sitting down on a wheelchair, restrained with a black bag over his head and hands and legs tied down. He is being wheeled somewhere. The chair comes to a stop. Trevor hears a door close. A switch is thrown. A bright light glitters through the bag fabric.
OCTOBER 31, 2007
[In Late October 2006, Peter Petrelli was in a coma from absorbing too many powers and experienced a frightening dream. The date was intentional because, similarly, Trevor had a dream on the same postulated day, one year later.]
LOCATION UNKNOWN
The Consultant - "Hello. Trevor. We've never met but you can say you are my current assignment. I am masking my voice to protect myself and those who contracted me. I apologize that we are meeting like this, but in my line of work, it is better to apologize than ask for permission."
[The last line is a clue on who the Consultant works for. In the Destiny webisodes, SLW makes a similar comment.]
A garbled laugh comes from the black bag over Trevor's head. He raises his restrained hands as far as they can to show - "Like I have a choice."
The Consultant - "I am going to ask you a series of questions. You will answer them. If that becomes a problem, my associate, who happens to hate lies, will correct you."
The Consultant - "Remove the bag."
From Trevor's point of view, the bag is lifted from his head. He is also blindfolded.
Trevor - "And you also have a nullifier. That's remarkable. They're so hard to come by."
[Term from the Evsdropr arc in the graphic novels. Also comments how only the Haitian and a DHS agent from an alternate future had the ability to nullify other people's.]
The Consultant - "You have no idea."
The Consultant - "Tell me your name."
Trevor - "You just said it."
The Consultant - "Your real name. Tell me your real name. The one you were born with."
Trevor - "It is irrelevant because in the fullness of time, we are all dead. Hmm. I had a chicken sandwich with avocado for lunch, today."
[The first sentence is a quote from Justice League Unlimited in the episode "Dead Reckoning."]
The Consultant - "How many people have you killed?"
Trevor - "I don't know. I'm far from done."
The Consultant - "You say you're one of us. You walk among us but you aren't anything like us. Who are you? Who is Trevor Tanaka?"
[The first two sentences are a reference to Lost in the episode "Stranger in a Strange Land" and the last question is a reference to a blog of the same name.]
Trevor - "My name is Undaunted, for we are many."
[A pun on the Bible verse of when the Devil tried to tempt Jesus Christ.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face.
Trevor - "I plead the Fifth."
[A reference to Chappelle's Show, and the character Tron.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face again.
The Consultant - "What do you know?"
Trevor - "The truth. The truth is there is no good and evil left in the world. There are no monsters. Just visions that are placed in our minds."
[Heroes, Volume One, Future Hiro's Yamagato blog.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a third time.
Trevor - "I, an outcast, never belonged. I longed to bleach this dark world with the truth. But our lives are timed to a precision and cross with each other. Communication is the conductor of truth."
[Heroes, Volume One, Future Hiro's Yamagato blog.]
The Consultant - "Your proclivity towards deflection amuses me. What do you know about the factions?"
Trevor - "We're all pawns of watchers and dreamers. No matter what initiatives we take, what precautions we imagine…the factions will continue to fight each other. Fear and distrust are the foundations of each faction's tenant."
[Trevor refers to the Watcher and Angela Petrelli. Also a loose reference to the paranoia and hype surrounding Phase Three of the Heroes Survival Game.]
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a fourth time.
Trevor - "It is all a distraction. There is something gathering strength in the shadows…gathering the strongest of us all. Then, it will swallow us whole in one gulp. Heh. And you are so focused on stealing my toilet paper."
[A joke about Phase Three and what Resources are.]
The Consultant - "The Carnival?"
[Heroes, Volume Five]
Trevor - "Samuel Sullivan. Sylar."
[This places the story after Sylar is recruited to the Carnival.]
Distorted voices murmur among each other.
The Contractors - "…Sylar?!...Isn't he dead?...He's bluffing…They don't kill kindred…"
The Consultant - "Do you mean to say this Carnival is a threat to evolved humans and humans, alike?"
Trevor - "Yes. Especially if you start a sentence with a no."
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a fifth time.
Trevor - "This is getting old. Throw in a kick or something fresh."
The Consultant - "Does Seal know any of this?"
Trevor - "Yes. He knows what I know. Doesn't matter if he does or doesn't know."
The Consultant - "Why?"
Trevor - "He is a fan of democracy and diplomacy. By the time there is a consensus among the factions on what to do about the Carnival, we'll all be six feet under. All they're good at is pushing buttons."
[Another joke about the nature of Heroes Survival Game.]
The Consultant - "Then why did you even join Undaunted?"
Trevor - "The insurance benefits."
The Associate punches Trevor in the face a sixth time. Trevor looks up with a grim expression, a scowl and bleeding.
Trevor - "This is who we are."
[Reference to the code used by the Millennium Group in the series Millennium.]
There is silence for a minute.
Trevor - "I would be happy if one of you out there were a healer because I can confirm that I am bleeding and my face hurts."
There is another minute of silence.
A hand comes over Trevor's face. It heals him.
Trevor - "Thank you."
The Consultant - "I will ask you one more question then I will release you."
Trevor - "Release release me or release me, throw me out an airplane, release me?"
The Consultant - "How many of us will it take to destroy the Carnival?"
Trevor - "None. It's not our fight. Besides, I have a gut feeling they sowed the seeds of their own destruction. Until then, it's a game of survival."
[A bad pun on Heroes Survival Game.]
The Consultant - "Go to sleep."
[Samson Gray's Sedation power or an aspect of Telepathy?]
Trevor's head drops down. Black out.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
TWO HOURS LATER
Trevor is sitting at his computer. The program he was running on it is still on. It looks like a graph with a constantly moving oscillation. In one corner, the words "Timewave Zero" are visible. A hardcover book is opened next to the keyboard. Two parts of a page are highlighted in yellow. They read, "Genes determine obesity, blood pressure" and the second, "out of the thirty billion possibilities, one might contain the potential for human flight." The book is Activating Evolution. A cell phone, the battery, and the chip are laid out next to the book. Trevor's eyes flicker and he wakes up.
[Reference to Timewave Zero, a way of calculating the apocalypse, and Dr. Chandra Suresh's book, Activating Evolution. The quotes are from "One Giant Leap."]
UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.
PHASE THREE - PART TWO: THE CONTRACT - in Heroes title font -
Trevor grabs a piece of paper from his desk and jots down words very quickly: Voice modulation, Nullifier, Telepathy (?), Healing Touch, Consultant (2), Faction (3 Males Present), Medical Supplies-Wheelchair, Warehouse (Abandoned?), Chlorine scent, Floodlights.
Trevor - Just because my ability is Enhanced Memory doesn't mean my regular memory is terrible, Consultant.
Someone knocks on the door in Trevor's room, three times, three seconds apart.
Trevor - "Come in."
The door opens and in walks Jasp.
[Jasper "Jasp" Red from Heroes Survival Game.]
Jasp - "Ready?"
Trevor - "Yeah."
Jasp - "Where to?"
Trevor - "The Garden."
[9th Wonders! Forum]
Trevor tucks the paper in his shirt pocket. He closes the book and puts it under his left arm. He types in a combination in the keyboard. He reaches under the desk.
Jasp stares at the door and concentrates. He grunts then holds the door open, Trevor walks in then Jasp.
[For long distance travel, Jasp has to concentrate a little harder.]
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
The restrooms are locked. The door opens. Jasp and Trevor walk outside.
Trevor - "Thank you, Red. Good luck with the new semester."
[Jasp is in college but stays in contact with his allies.]
Jasp - "Welcome. Most people don't call me that."
Trevor - "I'm not most people."
Jasp closes the door.
Trevor exhales. He looks at the book. Then looks up to the sky. He marches up to the path. The field is within sight. Marc and Seal are there.
Marc - "How're you feeling?"
Trevor - "Much better, thanks for asking. Here's your book back."
Marc - "Oh yeah, thanks. What'd you think?"
Trevor - "Mmm, no potential for a TV movie. Maybe nine seasons."
[A loose reference to the X-Files]
Seal chuckles. Marc laughs nervously. Trevor pulls out the paper he wrote on. Trevor's demeanor changes.
Seal - "What? You were kidnapped…by a faction."
Trevor - "It shouldn't be too hard to find out which one."
Trevor waives the paper.
Seal - "But who were these people that interrogated you, freelancers?"
Trevor - "Awhile ago, there were numerous companies that employed highly evolved beings, not just Primatech and Pinehearst. Others who have no names, no initials. I heard a rumor once that there is a company that contracts out evolved beings to people with deep pockets. Assassination. Intelligence. You name it, there's a price. They were last sighted in Chicago and Peru a couple months ago. Fits the M.O., could be them. "
[Webiseries - Destiny]
Marc - "What do we do?"
Trevor - "When's the next inter-faction assembly?"
Seal - "It's a secret. Your idea. Might be in two days."
Trevor - "Someone wanted to do their homework before then. Make sure you watch for any changes in attitude."
Seal - "You're not coming?"
Trevor - "Doubtful. Paranoid and all that."
Marc - "I can help you with that."
Trevor - "No, I've got bigger fish to fry. I need these people for a special op I was about to commission before I was distracted by my new friends."
Seal looks at the back of Trevor's paper.
Seal - "But they're all investigating active events with their teams. They'll ask what this is for. Things are shaky enough as it is."
Trevor - "They'll understand. I can be persuasive. We'll all meet at the secondary site."
[Two Garden of the Gods were considered on 9th Wonders!]
Seal - "Fine. Extend an olive branch to whoever you're going after, first."
Trevor - "I'm not sure they understand that currency."
Seal - "Make the bird want to sing."
[Reference to the book, Taiko]
Trevor - "That I can do."
Seal - "Without your gun."
Trevor - "Oh. Right. The semantics again. Ever tell a fish not to swim? Order a bird not to fly? I have no illusions about what I do, but it must be done."
[Biology/Darwin]
Seal - "Trevor. Do you really think any of us are going to get through this?"
Trevor - "Well, I might."
[Serenity - The Operative and Zoe & Jayne]
Trevor walks away back down the path as Seal and Marc look at each other.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: PART THREE - OFF THE BOOKS PART ONE
Commentary - Phase Three Part One
My second arc or 'Volume' as it were for my self-written stories has begun. I've named it Phase Three in honor of the Heroes Survival Game. In phase three of the game, factions now declare enemies and drain each other's Resources by members answering Faction Urgent Request messages. In the spirit of that, I crafted part one around this element. A faction stole Resources from Undaunted, and now its time to take back what's theirs.
I also had this desire to start writing big op stories where teams of various members of Undaunted team up and go on missions together which is what the B-plot of my first arc was setting up and comes to a head in part five. For research, I sat down and went through every member's bios for about five days total, wrote down important things (i.e. name, power, location, personality) I found off their bio and then organized them into a Word document by the four advanced ability categories given by the Primatech Assignment Tracker 2.0 files.
And so I narrowed it down even further by trying to match specific powers and personalities into a team for this part one. I needed a teleporter, some long range, some mid-range, some melee fighters...some recon that sort of thing. Once I had that list squared away, then I began to outline how I would use them in the story and drew place markers, they'd be here at this point, then here at that point, they use their power this way and so on.
Once the outline for that story was penciled, I then began to focus on Trevor's part in all this. Story-wise, part one jumps weeks ahead from part five's late summer 2007 to September 10, hopefully right around where Volume 5 of Heroes starts off. All I had going on that were the time cues from previous Volumes and the fact that Claire is starting college at Arlington U. Anyway, I toyed with the idea of putting it out there that all these factions attacking Undaunted is beginning to put a strain on Trevor and making him more paranoid.
At first, he was going to just download building blueprints and join the team but it seemed like overkill with what the recon team was already doing so I started to edit that as a boon to Zhang and then Trevor's story grew into this confrontation with a small, lesser known faction that attacks Trevor. I think it subconsciously grew out of how in HSG, Undaunted was fighting a page nine faction that was, like its namesake, pretty dead and I created a couple characters from scratch.
I also am going to start a C-plot that begins each part. Story by story, I'm going to reveal what Trevor's childhood nightmare was (see part four) and fitting with his current lack of sleep, these nightmares organically surface at odd times. The nightmare will feature one of my favorite 'never gonna appear on the show, allegedly' characters. I also decided that the first line of the story will be a specific favorite quote.
In part one, the lines start with quotes from Marv, of Sin City, then melts into the nightmare and connects with Trevor's past struggle with finding a purpose in his life. The nightmare, itself, is up to interpretation. To me, I think the void represents Mu, nothingness, from Buddhism. From it comes Trevor, whose senses are covered up and he is in a state of ignorance, powerless and without a purpose in life. Trevor connects this nightmare to his lover's death as the jolt that made him reach his full potential.
Then here we are in present day, Trevor is in Chicago. I purposely picked the city to set up a reference in part two. His monologue speaks volumes of what is going on in the Heroes Survival Game, none of it was my idea originally. Then his thoughts slowly shift to paranoia and insecurity. And the implied lack of sleep isn't helping him either. Thus, I reference Marcus "Marc" Stark which comes into play in part two, as well.
The inclusion of this faction also gave me the opportunity to use a scene that's been on my to do list for awhile. A sun setting, light leaks in through dirty windows. It's definitely a metaphor for Trevor's search for truth.
Then ever since the Peter vs. the Vault Door in Volume Two "Powerless," I wanted to use that similar notion of an evolved being using his or her power on a big honkin' door so I knew I wanted to use a ferrokinetic like the German. The part where Riedel holds his finger to Trevor like a gun is an homage to the late Elle Bishop.
Trevor's line about being a janitor, gives away the title of the story, but more importantly establishes his mindset into what he thinks of himself and his position in the story. Sure, one could surmise he's anything from an inner circle elitist, a leader, a general, the intel guy, or the crazed loner but to him, he likens himself to an unlikely and ironic occupation. And in the bit where he names everyone and their powers, that's a loose reference to a minor gripe I have about the minor specials that appear in the Heroes Evolutions with part of or no name at all.
"That's not the magic word" is another reference from my favorite movie, Ghostbusters, when Walter Peck first meets Dr. Venkman.
This scene with the telepath is my attempt to explore the facets of Enhanced Memory a step more. For the most part, it's a non-offensive, even wimpy power to have. But use it the right way and maybe, one could even kill a telepath. I imagined that since the power makes someone store data like a computer does in 1's and 0's, it can equally upload data, too. Hence, when you have a amateur telepath trying to open your mind, you just release it like a breached damn and upload way too much data at once into the telepath's brain.
And the next chunk is plain classic Trevor along with a reference to Beatrix Melody, a member of Undaunted in HSG. I imagine in this story, she'd be a major behind the scenes player that helps set up missions and strategy. But for Trevor, he's still skeptical, nothing is 100% to him.
Visually, this next part comes from Sin City again, when Miho saves Dwight from the tar pit but with Trevor and James. And I couldn't resist another smartass line from Trevor to James. And so the story shifts into the big op. Melody figures out who stole the resources, and Trevor sets up an op with three teams. While Athena Leuce keeps everyone hidden, Frank Tanner and Alexander Minner do their recon. Clara Zhang fills multiple roles, she's tips off the other teams and ultimately transportation. I knew Kurt Hasian is a comic book geek so I had to work his personality out into the story. And to avoid a gaff from the first part, Trevor used up all his bullets and we didn't see him replace them yet so I opted to do it here in a badass way.
Then everything was written according to my outline and it was smooth sailing and let the characters shine. Then we have the return of Carson Ford who briefly appeared in my first story. I always wanted to see Aerokinesis tackled on the show and decided to do it here. Rather than create some giant hurricane, it's used in a subtle manner, neutralize the person by extracting all their oxygen.
And I knew I was going to use Kurt's power and make it cool and still funny at the same time, hence turning the invisible man turquoise. I don't know, that strikes me as funny and ridiculous. And then cap off with some dark humor as Trevor all of sudden just shoots behind him without any care.
Then I decided to end this story with a shout out to a discussion I took part recently in the 9th Wonders! Forum.
I also had this desire to start writing big op stories where teams of various members of Undaunted team up and go on missions together which is what the B-plot of my first arc was setting up and comes to a head in part five. For research, I sat down and went through every member's bios for about five days total, wrote down important things (i.e. name, power, location, personality) I found off their bio and then organized them into a Word document by the four advanced ability categories given by the Primatech Assignment Tracker 2.0 files.
And so I narrowed it down even further by trying to match specific powers and personalities into a team for this part one. I needed a teleporter, some long range, some mid-range, some melee fighters...some recon that sort of thing. Once I had that list squared away, then I began to outline how I would use them in the story and drew place markers, they'd be here at this point, then here at that point, they use their power this way and so on.
Once the outline for that story was penciled, I then began to focus on Trevor's part in all this. Story-wise, part one jumps weeks ahead from part five's late summer 2007 to September 10, hopefully right around where Volume 5 of Heroes starts off. All I had going on that were the time cues from previous Volumes and the fact that Claire is starting college at Arlington U. Anyway, I toyed with the idea of putting it out there that all these factions attacking Undaunted is beginning to put a strain on Trevor and making him more paranoid.
At first, he was going to just download building blueprints and join the team but it seemed like overkill with what the recon team was already doing so I started to edit that as a boon to Zhang and then Trevor's story grew into this confrontation with a small, lesser known faction that attacks Trevor. I think it subconsciously grew out of how in HSG, Undaunted was fighting a page nine faction that was, like its namesake, pretty dead and I created a couple characters from scratch.
I also am going to start a C-plot that begins each part. Story by story, I'm going to reveal what Trevor's childhood nightmare was (see part four) and fitting with his current lack of sleep, these nightmares organically surface at odd times. The nightmare will feature one of my favorite 'never gonna appear on the show, allegedly' characters. I also decided that the first line of the story will be a specific favorite quote.
In part one, the lines start with quotes from Marv, of Sin City, then melts into the nightmare and connects with Trevor's past struggle with finding a purpose in his life. The nightmare, itself, is up to interpretation. To me, I think the void represents Mu, nothingness, from Buddhism. From it comes Trevor, whose senses are covered up and he is in a state of ignorance, powerless and without a purpose in life. Trevor connects this nightmare to his lover's death as the jolt that made him reach his full potential.
Then here we are in present day, Trevor is in Chicago. I purposely picked the city to set up a reference in part two. His monologue speaks volumes of what is going on in the Heroes Survival Game, none of it was my idea originally. Then his thoughts slowly shift to paranoia and insecurity. And the implied lack of sleep isn't helping him either. Thus, I reference Marcus "Marc" Stark which comes into play in part two, as well.
The inclusion of this faction also gave me the opportunity to use a scene that's been on my to do list for awhile. A sun setting, light leaks in through dirty windows. It's definitely a metaphor for Trevor's search for truth.
Then ever since the Peter vs. the Vault Door in Volume Two "Powerless," I wanted to use that similar notion of an evolved being using his or her power on a big honkin' door so I knew I wanted to use a ferrokinetic like the German. The part where Riedel holds his finger to Trevor like a gun is an homage to the late Elle Bishop.
Trevor's line about being a janitor, gives away the title of the story, but more importantly establishes his mindset into what he thinks of himself and his position in the story. Sure, one could surmise he's anything from an inner circle elitist, a leader, a general, the intel guy, or the crazed loner but to him, he likens himself to an unlikely and ironic occupation. And in the bit where he names everyone and their powers, that's a loose reference to a minor gripe I have about the minor specials that appear in the Heroes Evolutions with part of or no name at all.
"That's not the magic word" is another reference from my favorite movie, Ghostbusters, when Walter Peck first meets Dr. Venkman.
This scene with the telepath is my attempt to explore the facets of Enhanced Memory a step more. For the most part, it's a non-offensive, even wimpy power to have. But use it the right way and maybe, one could even kill a telepath. I imagined that since the power makes someone store data like a computer does in 1's and 0's, it can equally upload data, too. Hence, when you have a amateur telepath trying to open your mind, you just release it like a breached damn and upload way too much data at once into the telepath's brain.
And the next chunk is plain classic Trevor along with a reference to Beatrix Melody, a member of Undaunted in HSG. I imagine in this story, she'd be a major behind the scenes player that helps set up missions and strategy. But for Trevor, he's still skeptical, nothing is 100% to him.
Visually, this next part comes from Sin City again, when Miho saves Dwight from the tar pit but with Trevor and James. And I couldn't resist another smartass line from Trevor to James. And so the story shifts into the big op. Melody figures out who stole the resources, and Trevor sets up an op with three teams. While Athena Leuce keeps everyone hidden, Frank Tanner and Alexander Minner do their recon. Clara Zhang fills multiple roles, she's tips off the other teams and ultimately transportation. I knew Kurt Hasian is a comic book geek so I had to work his personality out into the story. And to avoid a gaff from the first part, Trevor used up all his bullets and we didn't see him replace them yet so I opted to do it here in a badass way.
Then everything was written according to my outline and it was smooth sailing and let the characters shine. Then we have the return of Carson Ford who briefly appeared in my first story. I always wanted to see Aerokinesis tackled on the show and decided to do it here. Rather than create some giant hurricane, it's used in a subtle manner, neutralize the person by extracting all their oxygen.
And I knew I was going to use Kurt's power and make it cool and still funny at the same time, hence turning the invisible man turquoise. I don't know, that strikes me as funny and ridiculous. And then cap off with some dark humor as Trevor all of sudden just shoots behind him without any care.
Then I decided to end this story with a shout out to a discussion I took part recently in the 9th Wonders! Forum.
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