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Manga Creations / MR War Arc Interlude: Lego
« on: Today at 10:10:06 AM »
MR WAR ARC: LEGO
1 Legoh - Clear Night
2 Legoc - Vigilante
3- The Forge
4 Legoc - The MR Sentai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqfLTCdwlkc&list=PL7MtScAWA30hmwiZ5FU4SyZ066cS94Wda
Legoc had never felt so foolish in his life, and yet so epic. He was running across rooftops, dammit, and his scarf went woosh behind him. And people cheered.
The guards hated him and always seemed to be one step away from him.. As far as the suit itself went, it was pretty great. It had a cool heads-up display, nullified attacks that would’ve been quite fatal, and it made him almost impossibly good at group confrontations. Everytime he was surrounded he found himself able to battle without being overwhelmed or pressured. It was like the reality of being a Sentai forced the 4kids guards to be half as effective as they normally would. And to top it off, there was a themesong that always played whrn he fought.
His days consisted of going to the Literature Bloc in the day, and being a Sentai at night. In the city of 4kids, there were still guest spectres and Raiders in mortal danger, and he had plenty of people to save and leave in confusion as to what they’d actually seen.
He wondered who’d sent him the paper aeroplane though. Was it Litt? But no, he hadn’t seen the man in ages.
Regardless, he would keep on wearing the suit.
And he wouldn’t admit it even under torture, but he was enjoying it, very very much.
For the first time in what felt like ages, Legomaestro the cat smiled.
1 Legoh - Clear Night
Spoiler
It was a cold and lonely spring night in MR, and that suited Legoh just fine. His head felt like elephants had been tap dancing there, throwing nails, singing annoying kindergarten songs that were too happy and too upbeat for how wasted he felt.
It almost felt as bad as when Megadegik had punched him in the head. The bastard. He would have his revenge. He felt it then again - that ache-spark. That utter inspiration and sense of direction and purpose that meant that he would absolutely, eventually rise up to the occasion, rejoin with Legoc, regain his fighting spirit and destroy 4kids where it stood.
He chuckled to himself, knowing that he was telling himself yet another lie. He tucked his hands in the pockets and walked down an alley way that was all too familiar, over to the sombre welcoming light of his favourite watering hole, the MR Pub.
It had been renovated. Looked a lot more modern than the homely rustic look it used to have. It had a lot more glass and fancy lighting. Like the emblems of the invaders that Legoh sometimes saw around, this felt like another violation that compounded his misery.
Despite these changes, however, the powers that be had let the name of the pub stand. It was under new management and didn’t have Pub-tan serving familiar patrons, but at least the population of 4kids soldiers was miniscule if not non-existent.
Nevertheless, Legoh walked in here in his new look - utterly bald and without spectacles, with a slight modification to his jawline using femtomachines to make his face unique enough so as not to be identifiable.
If he rose suspicion, a thorough check would reveal who he was, but he hadn’t been doing much to warrant that kind of attention. He’d only been mostly guzzling whatever the bar had to offer and making a fool of himself. Between horrible karaoke, lost poker games and getting kicked out of the pub due to curfew or general craziness, nobody expected much from the local bald drunk in a trenchcoat who called himself Mister Mann.
Well, Mister Mann was going to have a ‘clear night’ today - transparent alcohol only. Vodka and all its friends. It was Wednesday, after all. Wednesday was always a ‘clear night’.
The small bell rang as he stepped on the hardwood floor, and a few heads glanced his way,
“Hey, Mister Mann! You singing with us today?” Haru, an orange haired young 4kids recruit in a white sailor’s outfit raised his beer glass at Legoh.
“Time will tell.” Legoh - Mister Mann - replied in his horrible approximation of a Jamaican accent.
For all his hate for 4kids, the kid was okay. He had some obscure apprenticeship with a Data Miner. Data Miners were highly trained but unfortunate souls tasked with excavating and exploring the bowels of Mangaraiders and recovering whatever useful information they could from the remains of the labyrinth that was Coryn’s lab. Odds of death or worse were at 64% if Legoh remembered correctly - Haru had talked about it once in his eternally cheerful voice. The kid was smart though, and his commanding officer seemed to be one of the best.
“Ola, Mann-san.” Said another voice.
“Hi.”
He shared more greetings as he sat at his stool. (It had ducttape on its legs because he’d broken it falling off.) Alice the bartender looked at him with her bored expression,
“Vodka?” She asked. The bottle was already in her hand.
“You know me so well.”
“Don’t puke this time.”.
“Cross my bleeding heart behbeh.” Legoh winked and took his first shot for the day.
He took it, whispering the names of all his friends - family - that were missing or dead. It was the only few seconds he risked sparing thoughts about the others before he focused on the matters of drink. He couldn’t risk any more than that- It hurt too much and annoyed him.
Finished with that secret toast, Legoh glanced around the pub. Some stools were filled, some groups were huddled together in conversation and other than Haru, he didn’t notice any 4kids troops. He recognized one Raider he hadn’t expected to survive the attack, but hadn’t talked to him even after the city had fallen.
There was even a guest spectre he knew.
All in all, there were many people in the pub at this time of the night.
Ah, there was Harley Diamond, who was unfortunately a stripper. Unfortunate in that Legoh had to try extra hard not to bleed from his nose - that’d increase his chances of being discovered. Short jet black hair, Blue headphones, a short leather top and skirt and a bosom blessed by the gods, Legoh had to drink himself into a coma when he realised she had a cat tail as well.
Though severely discriminated against, kemomimis had a level (a very, very low level) of freedom to exist in the city. Legoh had no idea there were anything like kemomimis. In fact, after the invasion of 4kids more than the city becoming one flat sea of featureless soldiers hell bent on their ideology, it seemed to have filled up with quite a mix of different characters that hadn’t even been present in MR City at the time.
There was CopyCop the cyborg chef, trying to start a restaurant in “this hell hole of a city with no sense of taste.”
There was Utter the drunkard pirate poltergeist who Legoh always challenged to a drinking match. They shared stories of lives at sea. Legoh had the advantage (read: Trauma) of knowing what it was like to be a pirate, so they got along pretty swell.
Legoh was seven shots in before the emotions finally started kicking in. This was the point of the evening that would decide which way his night would swing: Would he be a happy drunk, singing and talking to everyone? Would he sink in to the waiting warm arms of despair, the one that made him cold and crushed and more than alone? Wrapped up in self pity and a sickened anger? Would he be philosophical and empty, nihilistically void of any emotion and able to - for a blessed few moments before he had to puke - just be a part of the canvas that was a bar? Just an odd Mister Mann at a counter staring empty at nothing? He hated and loved every facet of his drunken self, but he found them interesting too. They were a good way to pass the time, when you had utterly lost and been betrayed.
“God-damn you 4kids.” Legoh muttered under his breath.
He froze.
Alice was staring at him,
“Say that a little louder please. Get yourself arrested.” She commented.
“You heard nothing.”
“Uh-huh. You think you should call it a night? Looks like you’re going to have an emo-bender this time.”
Legoh grinned, “You know me so well. Nah. One more shot and then we’ll see. I’m feeling lucky.”
Alice, with her itrulydontgiveaDamnWhatyoudowithyourlifesolongasyoudontmesswithMine - expression turned and served the other customers. Legoh meanwhile practically inhaled his last shot and started seeing colours. He was thankful that his femtomachines were still out of wack. He could really get buzzed these days.
Time cut to him being at a table with Haru again, slapping the teenager on the shoulder and laughing like a madman. He tried to follow another critical rant by CopyCop on the lack of good cuisine in the city, sang a pirate song
Time cut to him peeing in the pub toilet and humming the song. A man told him to shut up and he laughed.
And then, when people were just about to leave and Legoh was a hopeless mess hugging a wooden round table and drinking his last vodka from a bottle - knowing his future self would curse him for this - he was murmuring in an approximation of a conversation with Haru, equally drunk.
“What?” Legoh slurred.
“They found something called a forge haha.” Haru chuckled. But it was a half-hearted chuckle. He seemed off, somehow. Or maybe Legoh was off and too drunk.
Struggling to keep to his fake accent but failing even more miserably, Legoh looked up at him,
“Forge?”
Haru looked at him, then looked around in that too-obvious way that people who are about to share a secret do then he leaned in,
“It’s foreign architecture. It’s… Not from the city itself. Or maybe it is, but it’s built… Different.”
“A forge that’s built differently. “ Legoh chuckled, “Sorry, Haru, I have no idea what we’re talking about right now.”
He leaned back and felt his brain protest. He slumped onto the table again and gripped it for stability,
“Oh Haruhi I am going to hurl.”
Haru ignored him and looked into his beer, “Captain says it’s what they used to make the Banhammer. Or at least, it’s filled with adminatorium.”
The black essence of moderation. The code that could warp reality. Legoh sobered up a tick and felt his heart pounding, but strangely enough felt more apprehension than anything.
“You should go home, Haru.” He chuckled to try to add humour, “Let’s talk about something else. Work is boooring.”
“I’m going to be with Captain tomorrow but I’m scared. I don’t know. I think there’s no traps or anything but… That much power. I didn’t see any of the fighting here, but I know a lot of people died and I think… I don’t know… Haha.” Haru chuckled half-heartedly, and a silence fell between them.
Legoh had no idea how to proceed. Thankfully, the rising gorge up his throat gave him the perfect excuse. He almost made it to the bathroom before he spewed his guts, and Alice kicked him out with her patented Football drop kick.
Lego landed out on the street, hazy and aching, but his eyes held a glint all of the sudden. It was the sharp glint of a wolf that just saw a hunk of raw meat. In his haggard form he looked terrifying. In his chest he was terrified - terrified of the hope that something like a secret forge could give him.
He looked at his hand and felt his femtomachines stir within his blood. He felt something wash over him, he felt something fall from his eyes, and in that instance - he knew exactly what he must do.
It almost felt as bad as when Megadegik had punched him in the head. The bastard. He would have his revenge. He felt it then again - that ache-spark. That utter inspiration and sense of direction and purpose that meant that he would absolutely, eventually rise up to the occasion, rejoin with Legoc, regain his fighting spirit and destroy 4kids where it stood.
He chuckled to himself, knowing that he was telling himself yet another lie. He tucked his hands in the pockets and walked down an alley way that was all too familiar, over to the sombre welcoming light of his favourite watering hole, the MR Pub.
It had been renovated. Looked a lot more modern than the homely rustic look it used to have. It had a lot more glass and fancy lighting. Like the emblems of the invaders that Legoh sometimes saw around, this felt like another violation that compounded his misery.
Despite these changes, however, the powers that be had let the name of the pub stand. It was under new management and didn’t have Pub-tan serving familiar patrons, but at least the population of 4kids soldiers was miniscule if not non-existent.
Nevertheless, Legoh walked in here in his new look - utterly bald and without spectacles, with a slight modification to his jawline using femtomachines to make his face unique enough so as not to be identifiable.
If he rose suspicion, a thorough check would reveal who he was, but he hadn’t been doing much to warrant that kind of attention. He’d only been mostly guzzling whatever the bar had to offer and making a fool of himself. Between horrible karaoke, lost poker games and getting kicked out of the pub due to curfew or general craziness, nobody expected much from the local bald drunk in a trenchcoat who called himself Mister Mann.
Well, Mister Mann was going to have a ‘clear night’ today - transparent alcohol only. Vodka and all its friends. It was Wednesday, after all. Wednesday was always a ‘clear night’.
The small bell rang as he stepped on the hardwood floor, and a few heads glanced his way,
“Hey, Mister Mann! You singing with us today?” Haru, an orange haired young 4kids recruit in a white sailor’s outfit raised his beer glass at Legoh.
“Time will tell.” Legoh - Mister Mann - replied in his horrible approximation of a Jamaican accent.
For all his hate for 4kids, the kid was okay. He had some obscure apprenticeship with a Data Miner. Data Miners were highly trained but unfortunate souls tasked with excavating and exploring the bowels of Mangaraiders and recovering whatever useful information they could from the remains of the labyrinth that was Coryn’s lab. Odds of death or worse were at 64% if Legoh remembered correctly - Haru had talked about it once in his eternally cheerful voice. The kid was smart though, and his commanding officer seemed to be one of the best.
“Ola, Mann-san.” Said another voice.
“Hi.”
He shared more greetings as he sat at his stool. (It had ducttape on its legs because he’d broken it falling off.) Alice the bartender looked at him with her bored expression,
“Vodka?” She asked. The bottle was already in her hand.
“You know me so well.”
“Don’t puke this time.”.
“Cross my bleeding heart behbeh.” Legoh winked and took his first shot for the day.
He took it, whispering the names of all his friends - family - that were missing or dead. It was the only few seconds he risked sparing thoughts about the others before he focused on the matters of drink. He couldn’t risk any more than that- It hurt too much and annoyed him.
Finished with that secret toast, Legoh glanced around the pub. Some stools were filled, some groups were huddled together in conversation and other than Haru, he didn’t notice any 4kids troops. He recognized one Raider he hadn’t expected to survive the attack, but hadn’t talked to him even after the city had fallen.
There was even a guest spectre he knew.
All in all, there were many people in the pub at this time of the night.
Ah, there was Harley Diamond, who was unfortunately a stripper. Unfortunate in that Legoh had to try extra hard not to bleed from his nose - that’d increase his chances of being discovered. Short jet black hair, Blue headphones, a short leather top and skirt and a bosom blessed by the gods, Legoh had to drink himself into a coma when he realised she had a cat tail as well.
Though severely discriminated against, kemomimis had a level (a very, very low level) of freedom to exist in the city. Legoh had no idea there were anything like kemomimis. In fact, after the invasion of 4kids more than the city becoming one flat sea of featureless soldiers hell bent on their ideology, it seemed to have filled up with quite a mix of different characters that hadn’t even been present in MR City at the time.
There was CopyCop the cyborg chef, trying to start a restaurant in “this hell hole of a city with no sense of taste.”
There was Utter the drunkard pirate poltergeist who Legoh always challenged to a drinking match. They shared stories of lives at sea. Legoh had the advantage (read: Trauma) of knowing what it was like to be a pirate, so they got along pretty swell.
Legoh was seven shots in before the emotions finally started kicking in. This was the point of the evening that would decide which way his night would swing: Would he be a happy drunk, singing and talking to everyone? Would he sink in to the waiting warm arms of despair, the one that made him cold and crushed and more than alone? Wrapped up in self pity and a sickened anger? Would he be philosophical and empty, nihilistically void of any emotion and able to - for a blessed few moments before he had to puke - just be a part of the canvas that was a bar? Just an odd Mister Mann at a counter staring empty at nothing? He hated and loved every facet of his drunken self, but he found them interesting too. They were a good way to pass the time, when you had utterly lost and been betrayed.
“God-damn you 4kids.” Legoh muttered under his breath.
He froze.
Alice was staring at him,
“Say that a little louder please. Get yourself arrested.” She commented.
“You heard nothing.”
“Uh-huh. You think you should call it a night? Looks like you’re going to have an emo-bender this time.”
Legoh grinned, “You know me so well. Nah. One more shot and then we’ll see. I’m feeling lucky.”
Alice, with her itrulydontgiveaDamnWhatyoudowithyourlifesolongasyoudontmesswithMine - expression turned and served the other customers. Legoh meanwhile practically inhaled his last shot and started seeing colours. He was thankful that his femtomachines were still out of wack. He could really get buzzed these days.
Time cut to him being at a table with Haru again, slapping the teenager on the shoulder and laughing like a madman. He tried to follow another critical rant by CopyCop on the lack of good cuisine in the city, sang a pirate song
What will we do with a drunken sailor
What will we do with a drunken sailor
What will we do with a drunken sailor
Early in the morning!
[/i]What will we do with a drunken sailor
What will we do with a drunken sailor
Early in the morning!
Time cut to him peeing in the pub toilet and humming the song. A man told him to shut up and he laughed.
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning!
He danced a jig on a relatively free space on the pub, joined by two other scruffy men and the poltergeist. Tiffany stepped up and danced along with them. The floorboards blammed and trammed at the sound of their beating legs. Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning!
And then, when people were just about to leave and Legoh was a hopeless mess hugging a wooden round table and drinking his last vodka from a bottle - knowing his future self would curse him for this - he was murmuring in an approximation of a conversation with Haru, equally drunk.
“What?” Legoh slurred.
“They found something called a forge haha.” Haru chuckled. But it was a half-hearted chuckle. He seemed off, somehow. Or maybe Legoh was off and too drunk.
Struggling to keep to his fake accent but failing even more miserably, Legoh looked up at him,
“Forge?”
Haru looked at him, then looked around in that too-obvious way that people who are about to share a secret do then he leaned in,
“It’s foreign architecture. It’s… Not from the city itself. Or maybe it is, but it’s built… Different.”
“A forge that’s built differently. “ Legoh chuckled, “Sorry, Haru, I have no idea what we’re talking about right now.”
He leaned back and felt his brain protest. He slumped onto the table again and gripped it for stability,
“Oh Haruhi I am going to hurl.”
Haru ignored him and looked into his beer, “Captain says it’s what they used to make the Banhammer. Or at least, it’s filled with adminatorium.”
The black essence of moderation. The code that could warp reality. Legoh sobered up a tick and felt his heart pounding, but strangely enough felt more apprehension than anything.
“You should go home, Haru.” He chuckled to try to add humour, “Let’s talk about something else. Work is boooring.”
“I’m going to be with Captain tomorrow but I’m scared. I don’t know. I think there’s no traps or anything but… That much power. I didn’t see any of the fighting here, but I know a lot of people died and I think… I don’t know… Haha.” Haru chuckled half-heartedly, and a silence fell between them.
Legoh had no idea how to proceed. Thankfully, the rising gorge up his throat gave him the perfect excuse. He almost made it to the bathroom before he spewed his guts, and Alice kicked him out with her patented Football drop kick.
Lego landed out on the street, hazy and aching, but his eyes held a glint all of the sudden. It was the sharp glint of a wolf that just saw a hunk of raw meat. In his haggard form he looked terrifying. In his chest he was terrified - terrified of the hope that something like a secret forge could give him.
He looked at his hand and felt his femtomachines stir within his blood. He felt something wash over him, he felt something fall from his eyes, and in that instance - he knew exactly what he must do.
2 Legoc - Vigilante
Spoiler
Legoc was furious. Legoh had let him down for the last time, and he was done being practical about the whole situation. He swore, MR saved or not, he would never team up with that part of him ever again. He needed to forge a path for himself that wasn’t tied down by the drunkard moody whims of that side of him.
Not that he didn’t enjoy a drink or two.
In fact, he was taking one now as he sat in the “Literature Bloc” (once known as The Writers’ District’) and reviewed countless works made by Raiders over the years using Kaos Kubes. All these stories, these creations that barely qualified as fiction because of their ability to become real living breathing worlds were now being analysed, dissected and censored according to the regulations set by 4kids.
From what Legoc knew about this, it was a completely new initiative from 4kids. They usually worked on a military basis: The utter destruction and annihilation of any community that celebrated and supported manga and anime. Before bankruptcy things had been different. They’d taken part in manga and anime distribution with their caveat of censorship. Now they were back at the game, with a new twist. Rumour had it that they were not only producing censored work, but looking to create original new material under a wholly new name and brand. Safe, non-lewd, non-controversial original entertainment that educated future generations about the correct things in culture to enjoy and how to differentiate between bad words and good words.
Legoc was not one of these new agents in training. He was part of the Corrections Department that only catalogued the creations of the Raiders and sent them along the conveyor belt for their packaging and processing. However even this work made him sick, albeit nostalgic.
“Halloween Nights… Takeo. Haven’t seen him in ages. Spellcooks by Austadophilus… Haven’t seen her in a while.”
He input the appropriate keys and catalogued their genres and color coded them for how urgent they needed censorship. Going through training had only been a matter of ingesting a pill with a neural download that told him all about what 4kids wanted on the job. Thank Haruhi for technology. It made getting this cover job that much easier.
As for the matter of being a green alien cat… Femtomachines son. He’d changed his fur black and his eyes dark brown. He shaved his hair too. His disguise was a bit more elaborate, but he had to make do with still being a cat. Kemomimi were sub-citizens in this new age, but they could still get a job if they stayed in line.
Legocs’ days were taken completely up by his work and navigating the office life. It fascinated him how easily he sunk into this. Even though he wanted to crush his deskmates’ head in his fist and eviscerate his manager with the high-pitched voice and sneering demeanour, even though he wanted to fight Megedekik and destroy Narcissus and General Bethuw’el, he knew that he couldn’t.
He just wasn’t strong enough. He’d even considered saving some of the works that were being catalogued and censored, preserving them somehow, but his defeat was deeper than the superficial lack of strength. Something in his soul had been defeated. It was depressing seeing the victory of 4Kids every day, seeing how well they’d conquered the land. It made him almost wish they’d been destroyed fighting. Going out in a blaze of glory was better than having a new world built on top of the ashes of the one that you knew.
Because he was miles away from being a strategist, the best he could do was try to be patient and wait. Because he knew one thing: No Raider had truly given up just yet. They were surviving. And soon surviving would turn to fighting, and when they were all ready… Then maybe then.
Maybe even Legoh would grow balls during the interim.
After some time, Legoc got into the routine. He even took a strange pride in cataloguing the work. For the first time in a while he really was acting like the moderator of the Writers’ District as he had originally been charged. He found stories he’d even forgotten to think about before MR got invaded, so that was a boon. Legoc couldn’t wait to rub this fact into Legoh’s face when he was done.
In his down time Legoc would’ve loved to sit on rooftops and survey the city, but they all tended to be heavily guarded, so he made do with the old Haruhi church in the MR Park. Long gone were its garish walls filled with images of the goddess. Now it was a featureless stone thing that served as a ‘Museum of Manga and Anime.’ A totally heartless, innocuous thing that was more of a showcase of 4kids previous work during their bureaucratic days than a place of worship.
Ignoring all that, it was open to all, and though not as towering as a skyscraper, its central steeple was perfect to look out at the park and some of the city from. Legoc always went up there at the end of a long work week to reminisce and to keep his anger in check.
Because no matter how much he got into his routine, he would never stop being angry.
Pok.
A paper aeroplane hit him on his nose.
Legoc hissed and grabbed the thing, but missed.
It floated backwards out of his reach and unfurled itself into a paper. On its surface written in black was,
“The Sentai Live.”
Legoc felt a shudder down his spine.
The note folded itself into a plane and floated away, going down the stairs and vanishing from sight. Legoc followed it.
It always stayed just out of sight enough not to be seen by passerbys but enough for Legoc’s sharp eyes to pick it up. He followed it across roads and streets, seemingly at random. Finally he happened upon a red phone booth.
Legoc looked left and right before entering it, and it lit up with a blue light and a scanner that ran over his form.
“Sentai 009 confirmed. Are you ready to batto!?”
Legoc was suddenly blinded by green light and felt himself floating in infinite space - quite naked - as a theme song played and he found himself making poses.
“SENTAI NINE! READY TO BATTO!”
All of a sudden he found himself in green armour with a helmet and a red scarf tied around his neck. And he was standing in the middle of a street, quite in view of a view 4kids officers on night patrol.
“What the hell-!?” Started one.
Legoc ran as fast as he could. He felt light, somehow, and quite terrified.
“Hey-stop! Captain, this is Unit 0411, we’ve spotted a - ”
But he was gone in the next few moments.
“Was that one of those weirdo vigilantes? The ones in armour?” Said one of the officers, panting hard after running so much.
“Yeah. They’re pretty damn weird though. They usually just appear and run away. And even when they fight… Well you’ll have to see it to believe it. They’re more of a nuisance than anything. Just keep on your toes.”
“Huh.”
Legoc - Sentai 009 took a moment to collect his breath, observing the outfit he was in. Of course. The MR Sentai program. Someone must’ve revived it, somehow. That meant that there was already a rebellion in place. Of course there’d be. There were plenty of other things going on MR without the head administration. All sorts of teams and projects and stories. Heck, he knew that better as anyone, working in the Literature Bloc.
4kids had been more focused on the major groups and heavy hitters that this string of heroes must’ve survived somehow. Even during the peaceful days he’d forgotten about it.
He clenched his hand even as a theme song played in his head.
This was a chance to fight back.
Not that he didn’t enjoy a drink or two.
In fact, he was taking one now as he sat in the “Literature Bloc” (once known as The Writers’ District’) and reviewed countless works made by Raiders over the years using Kaos Kubes. All these stories, these creations that barely qualified as fiction because of their ability to become real living breathing worlds were now being analysed, dissected and censored according to the regulations set by 4kids.
From what Legoc knew about this, it was a completely new initiative from 4kids. They usually worked on a military basis: The utter destruction and annihilation of any community that celebrated and supported manga and anime. Before bankruptcy things had been different. They’d taken part in manga and anime distribution with their caveat of censorship. Now they were back at the game, with a new twist. Rumour had it that they were not only producing censored work, but looking to create original new material under a wholly new name and brand. Safe, non-lewd, non-controversial original entertainment that educated future generations about the correct things in culture to enjoy and how to differentiate between bad words and good words.
Legoc was not one of these new agents in training. He was part of the Corrections Department that only catalogued the creations of the Raiders and sent them along the conveyor belt for their packaging and processing. However even this work made him sick, albeit nostalgic.
“Halloween Nights… Takeo. Haven’t seen him in ages. Spellcooks by Austadophilus… Haven’t seen her in a while.”
He input the appropriate keys and catalogued their genres and color coded them for how urgent they needed censorship. Going through training had only been a matter of ingesting a pill with a neural download that told him all about what 4kids wanted on the job. Thank Haruhi for technology. It made getting this cover job that much easier.
As for the matter of being a green alien cat… Femtomachines son. He’d changed his fur black and his eyes dark brown. He shaved his hair too. His disguise was a bit more elaborate, but he had to make do with still being a cat. Kemomimi were sub-citizens in this new age, but they could still get a job if they stayed in line.
Legocs’ days were taken completely up by his work and navigating the office life. It fascinated him how easily he sunk into this. Even though he wanted to crush his deskmates’ head in his fist and eviscerate his manager with the high-pitched voice and sneering demeanour, even though he wanted to fight Megedekik and destroy Narcissus and General Bethuw’el, he knew that he couldn’t.
He just wasn’t strong enough. He’d even considered saving some of the works that were being catalogued and censored, preserving them somehow, but his defeat was deeper than the superficial lack of strength. Something in his soul had been defeated. It was depressing seeing the victory of 4Kids every day, seeing how well they’d conquered the land. It made him almost wish they’d been destroyed fighting. Going out in a blaze of glory was better than having a new world built on top of the ashes of the one that you knew.
Because he was miles away from being a strategist, the best he could do was try to be patient and wait. Because he knew one thing: No Raider had truly given up just yet. They were surviving. And soon surviving would turn to fighting, and when they were all ready… Then maybe then.
Maybe even Legoh would grow balls during the interim.
After some time, Legoc got into the routine. He even took a strange pride in cataloguing the work. For the first time in a while he really was acting like the moderator of the Writers’ District as he had originally been charged. He found stories he’d even forgotten to think about before MR got invaded, so that was a boon. Legoc couldn’t wait to rub this fact into Legoh’s face when he was done.
In his down time Legoc would’ve loved to sit on rooftops and survey the city, but they all tended to be heavily guarded, so he made do with the old Haruhi church in the MR Park. Long gone were its garish walls filled with images of the goddess. Now it was a featureless stone thing that served as a ‘Museum of Manga and Anime.’ A totally heartless, innocuous thing that was more of a showcase of 4kids previous work during their bureaucratic days than a place of worship.
Ignoring all that, it was open to all, and though not as towering as a skyscraper, its central steeple was perfect to look out at the park and some of the city from. Legoc always went up there at the end of a long work week to reminisce and to keep his anger in check.
Because no matter how much he got into his routine, he would never stop being angry.
Pok.
A paper aeroplane hit him on his nose.
Legoc hissed and grabbed the thing, but missed.
It floated backwards out of his reach and unfurled itself into a paper. On its surface written in black was,
“The Sentai Live.”
Legoc felt a shudder down his spine.
The note folded itself into a plane and floated away, going down the stairs and vanishing from sight. Legoc followed it.
It always stayed just out of sight enough not to be seen by passerbys but enough for Legoc’s sharp eyes to pick it up. He followed it across roads and streets, seemingly at random. Finally he happened upon a red phone booth.
Legoc looked left and right before entering it, and it lit up with a blue light and a scanner that ran over his form.
“Sentai 009 confirmed. Are you ready to batto!?”
Legoc was suddenly blinded by green light and felt himself floating in infinite space - quite naked - as a theme song played and he found himself making poses.
“SENTAI NINE! READY TO BATTO!”
All of a sudden he found himself in green armour with a helmet and a red scarf tied around his neck. And he was standing in the middle of a street, quite in view of a view 4kids officers on night patrol.
“What the hell-!?” Started one.
Legoc ran as fast as he could. He felt light, somehow, and quite terrified.
“Hey-stop! Captain, this is Unit 0411, we’ve spotted a - ”
But he was gone in the next few moments.
“Was that one of those weirdo vigilantes? The ones in armour?” Said one of the officers, panting hard after running so much.
“Yeah. They’re pretty damn weird though. They usually just appear and run away. And even when they fight… Well you’ll have to see it to believe it. They’re more of a nuisance than anything. Just keep on your toes.”
“Huh.”
Legoc - Sentai 009 took a moment to collect his breath, observing the outfit he was in. Of course. The MR Sentai program. Someone must’ve revived it, somehow. That meant that there was already a rebellion in place. Of course there’d be. There were plenty of other things going on MR without the head administration. All sorts of teams and projects and stories. Heck, he knew that better as anyone, working in the Literature Bloc.
4kids had been more focused on the major groups and heavy hitters that this string of heroes must’ve survived somehow. Even during the peaceful days he’d forgotten about it.
He clenched his hand even as a theme song played in his head.
This was a chance to fight back.
Spoiler
Legoh got over his hangover and followed Haru to the dig site. It was easy enough.
Stalking was in fact, Legoh’s speciality. You don’t drive a black van around attempting to kidnap people without learning one thing or two about stealth. Haru never had a chance: At the break of dawn Legoh wore a non-standard black hoodie hoodie instead of his trenchcoat and set out to follow the 4kids. He wasn’t counting on his outfit helping with his stealth: He’d use the his van-tactics and the crash course in Ninjaology that he’d picked up from Coryns’ student everlastin (wherever she was.)
At this point, going underground was as familiar as taking a walk to Legoh. Being lost in the catacombs that Coryn had constructed over an already cavernous underground made it easy for him. But they were going deeper than he’d ever expected. Haru was with his captain: A surprisingly beautiful woman with purple hair and a horn growing on the center of her forehead. She looked sleep deprived, and yet had a sad smile on her face. For a 4kids Captain she looked very anime, but the rapier on her belt emanated an ominous energy. Legoh’s instincts told him she wasn’t as powerful as the others in The Chorus, but she was competent and dangerous enough to warrant keeping an eye out for.
Haru, his captain and five other faceless mooks were with them. They were literally faceless. In another stroke of unfortunate genius, 4kids had taken to conscripting Guest spectres and pressing them into their service. Legoh had no doubt that they were doing something about spam ninjas as well. 4kids was all about using everything to their own gains. They were glorified recycling bins.
The dig site was guarded by no less than a regiment of about 40 people. The entrance to the place was an ominous looking metal scaffolding surrounding a hole with a saucer shaped elevator. Haru and The Captain showed their identification and were let through. They were already getting on the elevator, and Legoh wanted on. It was going to be tricky getting past all of them, but he’d had a plan.
“Legobunshin-no-jutsu!” He whispered as he made a hand sign. No, he did not know ninjutsu, but as a fun little side project he’d taught his femtomachines to react to certain handgestures to execute certain forms and programs without him thinking about them. The ‘Legobunshin-no-jutsu’ was programmed, as expected, to make shadow clones that all sang the nyan song as they floated in the air. It was supposed to be used for a joke, and was a perfect distraction.
The guard reacted as expected
“Hey!”
“What is that god-awful music?”
In the midst of their confusion and even as they called for backup, Legoh refleted twice and got into the elevator. He set off an alarm as he passed through the gates, but he was counting on his diversion to be the one responsible.
But he hadn’t thought it through about finding a hiding place. The interior of the elevator was quite boring - it was simply a room. And now he was surrounded by Haru, his captain and four 4kids guestmooks.
“Um… Hi?”
“Mister Mann… I- is that you?” Haru asked.
Legoh scratched his chin, “Well, I seem to be lost - hahaha- YOW!”
He ducked just in time to avoid the rapier blade that thrust out to impale him.
“You... You’re not as you seem.” The woman said, thrusting the blade some more.
Legoh dodged as he spoke, “I - have- no idea what you’re talking about. AHA” He yelled in triumph as he gripped the blade.
The 4kids captain was almost apologetic,
“You… touched the blade.”
“Yeah, so?”
The whole room warped around Lego, he felt himself become naked on a fundamental level. In fact, he looked at his arms as they became see-through with mathematical grid lines all over them. There were red points all over his body. The Captain struck one on his arm and he felt his arm die, even as a beautiful multicoloured explosion rippled down his now transparent-grid form.
“Ah… What the…”
“Sleep.” The captain said as she struck him on his forehead. The last thing Legoh saw was her glowing purple eyes and Haru watching on with concern on his face.
They were somewhere deeper than they’d ever been before. Legoh could feel it in the air. It felt - wrong. Well if he had to physically describe it then it was like being in a gravitational chamber, or under the effects of Coryns’ Bankai Plimmyrismeno Potami Epistaxis!
He coughed and looked at his arms again. He was still transparent, and his arms were both dead. He could still stand up, though.
“Heavy…” Said the Captain. She was standing on nothing. Come to think of it they were all standing in a mauve darkness. The only sense of ‘room’ was the white shadows that the surface cast where they stood. But then Legoh understood that the area was not dark... No when he looked closer wasn't this pretty much like a city? Yes, those were windows, that was a road, that was a bin, a side-walk, a curb. It felt like MR, but different, somehow.
Other than The Captain there was only Haru, and he was breathing heavily as he drooped. He was still standing, though. The guestmooks were nowhere to be seen.
The Captain didn’t look at Legoh as she spoke. She was busy holding out her Rapier towards what Legoh thought was a dead end on a street alleyway, and a white beam of light was burning through the wall. It impacted across the surface in a flurry of white sparks, and it was clearly slow work, but it was chipping away at the darkness. Haru was holding up a device that let off a rythimic peeping sound, exactly like Sonar. He glanced worridly at Legoh,
“Mister Mann… To think that you were a rebel.”
Legoh smiled,
“I’m going to say something I never thought I’d say: But being a rebel is subjective. “
“His name is not Mister Mann.... He’s the one and only legomaestro. Or rather his human half.” The Captain said. She had sweat on her brow as she focused her rapiers’ powers, “Tell me, do you know about this place? The Forge?”
Legoh focused on collecting what femtomachines he had in him, but their production had been halted by whatever this woman had struck him with. His body felt frozen in stasis, and he felt like every single thing he did was known intimately to her.
“Yes. I did. Somewhere.”
In a bar, by her subordinate, but even though he was a 4kids soldier, Legoh didn’t feel like throwing his drinking buddy into trouble.
“It’s something that no foreign forum has ever been able to obtain. In fact it’s something that’d break Internet Law. Something that could destroy 4kids completely if we ever obtained it…” The Captain said. There was a dreamy expression on her face, “But with my powers ‘to strip bare’ and ‘to see’. If I… If we manage to obtain a banhammer from a foreign forum, then there will be hope for more than this place. We’ll be able to obtain power and spread the light of 4kids everywhere. We’ll paint the world clean.” She chuckled.
“Monologuing. Jeez. Why don’t you throw me in a prison already?”
“That’s because I wanted to test a theory. Look, you’ve already gotten used to the atmosphere here right? Our soldiers dissociated by the mere pressure of the place. Only Haru is strong enough to accompany me.” The Captain said, pausing for a moment. She was breathing heavily.
She raised a hand and smoky strands of black coiled around her fingers, “Moderatium is something that you’ve gotten used to wielding. And now that I’ve struck you with my blade, I’ll be able to understand what exactly makes you able to withstand this. Count yourself lucky you didn’t land in the hands of one of the scientists. This way, ther’ll be no need to dissect you for me to bestow your bodies’ characteristics upon the others.”
Legoh did indeed feel less pressure from the surroundings,
“You’ve got our tans’ in tow. And the stuff a moderator is made of is nothing compared to what an Administrator has.”
“Yes, well, we both know they’re no administrators around, don’t we?” The Captain said, and Legoh snapped.
He lunged at her, throwing a punch.
She dodged it quite easily and struck more red points on his arms. This time they literally disassociated. With another punch she stopped his heart, and Legoh collapsed, gasping for air as the last of his femtomachines repaired the damage. He lie there on the ground. Something he’d been getting used to in the past few days.
The Captain smiled as she slashed at the darkness before her.
“I’m finished.”
And the curtain of black opened up to show a beautiful horizon with a setting yellow sun.
There were ruins, old Grecian temple ruins that reminded Legoh of ecchi world, and there was something poigantly sad and nostalgic about the scene. Tears came to his eyes. There was also the taste of death in the air.
“A place where time stops, where life and death are connected. The Forge. This is where universes are created.” The Captain said, and Legoh was not surprised to see tears in her eyes too.
He followed her in a sort of shuffle to the center temple, and without much romance there stood the banhammer before them (Though, everyone saw the banhammer as something else. Haru, for example saw an infinite coil of police tape, and The Captain saw a stamp. Only Legoh saw a hammer. A gargantuan thing, made of destruction, creation, life and death, and infinite power.)
It was beautiful.
Beth’uwel recieved the news in his ivory tower: Legoh had been captured, and The Banhammer had been discovered.
It was such an expected grand victory, that he only needed to stare out the window and bask in the sunlight of his kingdom. With this, he had won.
Stalking was in fact, Legoh’s speciality. You don’t drive a black van around attempting to kidnap people without learning one thing or two about stealth. Haru never had a chance: At the break of dawn Legoh wore a non-standard black hoodie hoodie instead of his trenchcoat and set out to follow the 4kids. He wasn’t counting on his outfit helping with his stealth: He’d use the his van-tactics and the crash course in Ninjaology that he’d picked up from Coryns’ student everlastin (wherever she was.)
At this point, going underground was as familiar as taking a walk to Legoh. Being lost in the catacombs that Coryn had constructed over an already cavernous underground made it easy for him. But they were going deeper than he’d ever expected. Haru was with his captain: A surprisingly beautiful woman with purple hair and a horn growing on the center of her forehead. She looked sleep deprived, and yet had a sad smile on her face. For a 4kids Captain she looked very anime, but the rapier on her belt emanated an ominous energy. Legoh’s instincts told him she wasn’t as powerful as the others in The Chorus, but she was competent and dangerous enough to warrant keeping an eye out for.
Haru, his captain and five other faceless mooks were with them. They were literally faceless. In another stroke of unfortunate genius, 4kids had taken to conscripting Guest spectres and pressing them into their service. Legoh had no doubt that they were doing something about spam ninjas as well. 4kids was all about using everything to their own gains. They were glorified recycling bins.
The dig site was guarded by no less than a regiment of about 40 people. The entrance to the place was an ominous looking metal scaffolding surrounding a hole with a saucer shaped elevator. Haru and The Captain showed their identification and were let through. They were already getting on the elevator, and Legoh wanted on. It was going to be tricky getting past all of them, but he’d had a plan.
“Legobunshin-no-jutsu!” He whispered as he made a hand sign. No, he did not know ninjutsu, but as a fun little side project he’d taught his femtomachines to react to certain handgestures to execute certain forms and programs without him thinking about them. The ‘Legobunshin-no-jutsu’ was programmed, as expected, to make shadow clones that all sang the nyan song as they floated in the air. It was supposed to be used for a joke, and was a perfect distraction.
The guard reacted as expected
“Hey!”
“What is that god-awful music?”
In the midst of their confusion and even as they called for backup, Legoh refleted twice and got into the elevator. He set off an alarm as he passed through the gates, but he was counting on his diversion to be the one responsible.
But he hadn’t thought it through about finding a hiding place. The interior of the elevator was quite boring - it was simply a room. And now he was surrounded by Haru, his captain and four 4kids guestmooks.
“Um… Hi?”
“Mister Mann… I- is that you?” Haru asked.
Legoh scratched his chin, “Well, I seem to be lost - hahaha- YOW!”
He ducked just in time to avoid the rapier blade that thrust out to impale him.
“You... You’re not as you seem.” The woman said, thrusting the blade some more.
Legoh dodged as he spoke, “I - have- no idea what you’re talking about. AHA” He yelled in triumph as he gripped the blade.
The 4kids captain was almost apologetic,
“You… touched the blade.”
“Yeah, so?”
The whole room warped around Lego, he felt himself become naked on a fundamental level. In fact, he looked at his arms as they became see-through with mathematical grid lines all over them. There were red points all over his body. The Captain struck one on his arm and he felt his arm die, even as a beautiful multicoloured explosion rippled down his now transparent-grid form.
“Ah… What the…”
“Sleep.” The captain said as she struck him on his forehead. The last thing Legoh saw was her glowing purple eyes and Haru watching on with concern on his face.
They were somewhere deeper than they’d ever been before. Legoh could feel it in the air. It felt - wrong. Well if he had to physically describe it then it was like being in a gravitational chamber, or under the effects of Coryns’ Bankai Plimmyrismeno Potami Epistaxis!
He coughed and looked at his arms again. He was still transparent, and his arms were both dead. He could still stand up, though.
“Heavy…” Said the Captain. She was standing on nothing. Come to think of it they were all standing in a mauve darkness. The only sense of ‘room’ was the white shadows that the surface cast where they stood. But then Legoh understood that the area was not dark... No when he looked closer wasn't this pretty much like a city? Yes, those were windows, that was a road, that was a bin, a side-walk, a curb. It felt like MR, but different, somehow.
Other than The Captain there was only Haru, and he was breathing heavily as he drooped. He was still standing, though. The guestmooks were nowhere to be seen.
The Captain didn’t look at Legoh as she spoke. She was busy holding out her Rapier towards what Legoh thought was a dead end on a street alleyway, and a white beam of light was burning through the wall. It impacted across the surface in a flurry of white sparks, and it was clearly slow work, but it was chipping away at the darkness. Haru was holding up a device that let off a rythimic peeping sound, exactly like Sonar. He glanced worridly at Legoh,
“Mister Mann… To think that you were a rebel.”
Legoh smiled,
“I’m going to say something I never thought I’d say: But being a rebel is subjective. “
“His name is not Mister Mann.... He’s the one and only legomaestro. Or rather his human half.” The Captain said. She had sweat on her brow as she focused her rapiers’ powers, “Tell me, do you know about this place? The Forge?”
Legoh focused on collecting what femtomachines he had in him, but their production had been halted by whatever this woman had struck him with. His body felt frozen in stasis, and he felt like every single thing he did was known intimately to her.
“Yes. I did. Somewhere.”
In a bar, by her subordinate, but even though he was a 4kids soldier, Legoh didn’t feel like throwing his drinking buddy into trouble.
“It’s something that no foreign forum has ever been able to obtain. In fact it’s something that’d break Internet Law. Something that could destroy 4kids completely if we ever obtained it…” The Captain said. There was a dreamy expression on her face, “But with my powers ‘to strip bare’ and ‘to see’. If I… If we manage to obtain a banhammer from a foreign forum, then there will be hope for more than this place. We’ll be able to obtain power and spread the light of 4kids everywhere. We’ll paint the world clean.” She chuckled.
“Monologuing. Jeez. Why don’t you throw me in a prison already?”
“That’s because I wanted to test a theory. Look, you’ve already gotten used to the atmosphere here right? Our soldiers dissociated by the mere pressure of the place. Only Haru is strong enough to accompany me.” The Captain said, pausing for a moment. She was breathing heavily.
She raised a hand and smoky strands of black coiled around her fingers, “Moderatium is something that you’ve gotten used to wielding. And now that I’ve struck you with my blade, I’ll be able to understand what exactly makes you able to withstand this. Count yourself lucky you didn’t land in the hands of one of the scientists. This way, ther’ll be no need to dissect you for me to bestow your bodies’ characteristics upon the others.”
Legoh did indeed feel less pressure from the surroundings,
“You’ve got our tans’ in tow. And the stuff a moderator is made of is nothing compared to what an Administrator has.”
“Yes, well, we both know they’re no administrators around, don’t we?” The Captain said, and Legoh snapped.
He lunged at her, throwing a punch.
She dodged it quite easily and struck more red points on his arms. This time they literally disassociated. With another punch she stopped his heart, and Legoh collapsed, gasping for air as the last of his femtomachines repaired the damage. He lie there on the ground. Something he’d been getting used to in the past few days.
The Captain smiled as she slashed at the darkness before her.
“I’m finished.”
And the curtain of black opened up to show a beautiful horizon with a setting yellow sun.
There were ruins, old Grecian temple ruins that reminded Legoh of ecchi world, and there was something poigantly sad and nostalgic about the scene. Tears came to his eyes. There was also the taste of death in the air.
“A place where time stops, where life and death are connected. The Forge. This is where universes are created.” The Captain said, and Legoh was not surprised to see tears in her eyes too.
He followed her in a sort of shuffle to the center temple, and without much romance there stood the banhammer before them (Though, everyone saw the banhammer as something else. Haru, for example saw an infinite coil of police tape, and The Captain saw a stamp. Only Legoh saw a hammer. A gargantuan thing, made of destruction, creation, life and death, and infinite power.)
It was beautiful.
Beth’uwel recieved the news in his ivory tower: Legoh had been captured, and The Banhammer had been discovered.
It was such an expected grand victory, that he only needed to stare out the window and bask in the sunlight of his kingdom. With this, he had won.
4 Legoc - The MR Sentai
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqfLTCdwlkc&list=PL7MtScAWA30hmwiZ5FU4SyZ066cS94Wda
Legoc had never felt so foolish in his life, and yet so epic. He was running across rooftops, dammit, and his scarf went woosh behind him. And people cheered.
The guards hated him and always seemed to be one step away from him.. As far as the suit itself went, it was pretty great. It had a cool heads-up display, nullified attacks that would’ve been quite fatal, and it made him almost impossibly good at group confrontations. Everytime he was surrounded he found himself able to battle without being overwhelmed or pressured. It was like the reality of being a Sentai forced the 4kids guards to be half as effective as they normally would. And to top it off, there was a themesong that always played whrn he fought.
His days consisted of going to the Literature Bloc in the day, and being a Sentai at night. In the city of 4kids, there were still guest spectres and Raiders in mortal danger, and he had plenty of people to save and leave in confusion as to what they’d actually seen.
He wondered who’d sent him the paper aeroplane though. Was it Litt? But no, he hadn’t seen the man in ages.
Regardless, he would keep on wearing the suit.
And he wouldn’t admit it even under torture, but he was enjoying it, very very much.
For the first time in what felt like ages, Legomaestro the cat smiled.
.
