The ATF Saga – part I: Beginnings
are supposed to be
humble…
The bounty hunter waited patiently in the darkened,
abandoned building, wanting to say more, wanting to ask for his reward,
but too
intimidated to speak up. The darkness-shrouded figure examined the
strange
magical device that he had returned, seemingly manipulating it to
replay what
had transpired just this afternoon. Finally he nodded, and reaching
into a sack
he wore over his shoulder, tossed a rather sizeable bag of gold coins
at the man.
Not wanting to remain in the place any longer, he scooped up the
clinking
leather bag and quickly hurried out, while trying not to appear to be
hurrying.
“Excellent,” the figure said to himself. “It went just as
well as I had imagined. Time to take this back.” With that, the air
behind him
started to shiver as the fabrics of two dimensions came perilously
close to one
another, then were ripped open briefly to create a dimensional portal.
The
figure stepped through and vanished.
Despite the intimidating edifice the transaction had taken
place in, where the mysterious figure ended up was by no means dark,
musty,
intimidating or anything of the sort. No, instead it took the form of a
skyscraper jutting up into a clear blue sky. This was the World Famous
ATF Building™.
(Trademark and copyright reserved for Bridge Enterprises, Inc. ©
2004. Tax,
title and license extra.)
Jaynin was just returning from the
From inside the building, a few flashes of yellow light lit
off, before the entire top half of the building was consumed in a
massive
explosion, flinging debris and several people into the street before
the debris
reversed course and returned to its shape as the ATF building. However,
the
people were not so lucky and cratered the street as they fell. Not
bothered in
the slightest by this, Jaynin stepped around the smoking forms of
1LigerZero
and Abadon XXX on his way into the building. “That auto-regeneration
has to be
the best investment we’ve ever thought up,” he mused as he pushed open
the twin
glass doors.
An attractive secretary sat at the desk just inside the
doors, a cute but serious-looking girl wearing a tan business suit and
skirt,
albeit with a cute blue bow where the tie would normally be. “Good
morning,
Jaynin,” she said, punching a few keys on her keyboard. “You’re logged
in. Have
a nice stay.”
“Thanks,” he said distractedly, eager to get the tape in
the secure vaults before any more
portions of the building were blown off, however temporarily. Stepping
over to
the elevator bank, he punched “2” to take him to the Video Clips floor.
While
waiting for the elevator, another tone sounded, indicating another
person had
entered. The chime proved to be unnecessary, however.
“OMG COFFE!” a hyper voice shouted as the doors opened. “I
DRANK 4 CUPS OF COFFE THIS MORNING LMFAO!” The shorter-than-average
male rushed
up to the desk and yelled with manic energy, “Guess what I’ve got?”
Before the
secretary could answer, he yelled, “A GRANADE!” Chibi tossed a hand
grenade
into the air, where it exploded into a pile of confetti that drifted
down over
the unperturbed secretary.
“Good morning, Chibi, you’re now logged in.” She took a
small vacuum from under her desk and began to clean the confetti off of
her
workspace as the crazily grinning kid swept past the desk and to the
elevator
bank. By that time Jaynin’s elevator had already begun its ascent. But
that was
okay, because midway to the elevator Chibi’s brain caught up with him
and he
changed tack for the restrooms.
Jaynin checked his personal data on the elevator’s terminal
and reviewed what new things had gone on since his last visit. Before
he could
finish, the elevator arrived at the second floor, with a cute girl’s
voice
announcing “Second Floor, Video Clips.” With a shrug he stepped out,
intending
to check the whole thing later.
On the way to the video vault, passing the viewing rooms,
Jaynin came upon DarkstormXAlpha (call me Bridge)’s office. This
reminded him
of something he had meant to do, so he knocked on the door. “Bridge?
You in
there?”
Bridge, inside his office, jumped in surprise, scattering
the dominoes he had so laboriously set up in a tower. “I’m writing,
dammit,” he
said reflexively. “I’ll be done soon. I promise.”
“Okay. I just wanted to tell you I’ve finished the latest
story. It’s Slayers.”
“Ah. I’ll be sure to tell you what I think.” With that,
Bridge grumbled and returned to his “writing”.
Jaynin found the video vault, ejected the tape with the
Slayers scene on it, and filed it away, setting the switches that let
everyone
know there was something new to see. After giving it a clear label, he
went
back to the elevator and this time punched “7”.
Waiting for him in the elevator when it opened was a
shadowy being looking miserable and trying to shield himself from the
light. As
Jaynin entered the car it scurried into his meager shadow, such as it
was. The
car doors closed and the elevator began its ascent again.
“I wish they’d not make these elevators so bright,”
HisDivineShadow groused.
“Why don’t you buy an umbrella or something? You complain about
the light every day,” Jaynin replied in good humor. “The rest of us
like the
light, you know.”
“I don’t need the light,” Shadow scoffed. “The light is for
the weak.” The elevator pinged and
the voice announced, “Floor Four, Discussion Rooms.”
“This is my stop,” Shadow said, scuttling out into the hall
and more substantial shadows. Behind a potted plant, he drew himself up
to his
full height, and in a deeper voice, said, “New story?”
“Yeah, going to post it now. Take a look, will you?”
“I always do,” he replied, heading off to join the general
mayhem. Before he could take a step, the hallway filled with flame and
smoke,
blasting out the windows and burning everything in the hall to a crisp,
including HDS and Jaynin, as the doors were still open. “Agh! They
started
without meeeee!!!”
Jaynin, eyes closed and sooty, grumbled as the doors
closed, complaining the whole way up to the seventh floor as the soot
gradually
flaked off and disappeared. “Seventh Floor, Stories,” the voice
announced.
“About time,” Jaynin sighed, having finally checked the
status of the entire building. Walking down the hallway, this time
heading to
the story depository, Jaynin again came upon Bridge’s office, this time
with an
“I’m writing, dammit” sign hung on the door.
From the opposite end of the hallway came a guy who looked
somehow demonic and had a large serpentine being growing from his
posterior. He
stopped by the office door, and knocking, asked, “Hey, X, when’s your
next
story going to be finished?”
Bridge’s card tower fell at the sudden jerk caused from
AW’s knocking. “I’m writing, dammit. I’ll be done soon. I promise.”
“I hope so, it’s been a while since your last story.” With
that, AW grinned and headed on to the elevator. “Morning, Jaynin.”
“Hey, AW. How’s the ATF manga coming along?”
“Eeeee! It’s great! I just finished the last part and I’m
about to post it! Come see come see COME SEE!!!!”
“I will! I will!” Jaynin replied hastily, as AW was shaking
him by the shirt collar. “Just let me finish posting my story and – “
The entire hallway began to flash red and sirens started to
go off. “Warning, warning, a newbie has just entered the building,”
dozens of
automated speakers blared. “A newbie has just entered the building.
Warning,
warning.”
“A newbie???” Jaynin and AW exclaimed together. With a
glance at each other they raced for the elevator, punching the “down”
button as
hard as they could as the lights and sirens continued to announce the
newbie’s
presence.
“Yes!!!” AW yelled in triumph as his elevator arrived
first. “I’m gonna be the first one to – “
The sirens, lights and noises all died down at once. “The
newbie has been greeted by Chibi. Have a pleasant day, everyone.”
“Dammit!” Jaynin yelled. “He got the last three! That’s no
fair!”
AW banged his head on the elevator, leaving a dent in the
wall that quickly fixed itself. “Arg, I’m gonna need to find a faster
way to
get there… Maybe next time I’ll just smash the doors open and JUMP
down!
Heeheehehee!!!” AW’s slightly maniacal laugh followed him down the
elevator
shaft.
Jaynin decided to finish posting the story before he
greeted the newbie. Bridge, by contrast, hadn’t moved a bit. Jaynin
almost
knocked before noticing the “I’m writing, dammit” sign hung on the
door. With a
shrug he moved onto the story vault.
This was undoubtedly one of the largest areas of the ATF.
Volumes and volumes of stories were on the shelves here, some big, some
small,
some newer than others, and some starting to disintegrate with time.
Choosing a
new file from the rack on the wall, Jaynin used a marker to label it
“Slayers”
and filed it in the latest spot on the shelf. Again, he set the
switches to
indicate that there was something new to be seen in the story vault.
With that,
there remained only one last thing to do.
Leaving the story vault, Jaynin headed further down the
hall, to the room at the end, and the real source of a story’s power
here at
the ATF. It had some long and complex name that no one bothered to
remember,
and everyone called it the Plot Generator. The way it worked was rather
simple,
although the device took up most of the room, humming silently to
itself in the
darkened, temperature-controlled room. Heading over to the input
console,
Jaynin scanned the monitor, which would give him a quick overview of
what, if
any, stories were in progress. He found the line which listed the story
he had
just written, and the various data lines that described how the machine
was
altering reality to cause the scene that he had just written to play
itself out
in that dimension. Leaving a dimension with an altered reality for too
long
could possibly produce unpleasant side effects.
The input scanner just an arm’s length away, and it was
where the real magic of this device was worked. Upon scanning the words
that
were written upon a piece of paper, it would distort the desired
dimension as
described. In this way was it possible to write tickling scenes for any
anime
that could be thought of. With a beep, the machine reported that the
Slayers
dimension had returned to normal. And with that, Jaynin was finished
updating
the ATF, at least for the moment.
As he left the hallway, heading for the elevator, bursts of
what seemed to be plasma cannon fire incinerated the entire floor,
dropping
Jaynin down one floor, now scorched again and black with soot. “At
least they
waited until all of my stuff was done this time,” he replied, joining
in the
fray this time with a few administrative attacks, deciding to be
content with a
few shots of Fire 3 back the way the plasma cannon bursts came – and
getting
completely toasted and launched out the window with the return burst of
black
fire.
Jaynin recovered in time to at least fly up to the ATF
Building’s roof as the damage caused by the brief spurt of explosions
was
repaired in an instant. Alighting onto the roof, he used a few curative
spells
to hasten his recovery and looked around.
A brilliant sunset blazed across the sky, casting long
shadows and turning the sky various shades of orange and red. Jaynin
took a
moment to admire the sunset before opening the roof door and taking the
stairs
back down into the building proper. But when he passed the first window
on the
stairwell, he noticed that it was mid-morning and the sky was still a
clear
blue. He ran back up the stairs to the roof, and the sun was setting.
Back down
in the stairwell it was mid-morning. Now Jaynin was puzzled.
Heading back up to the roof, wondering if maybe someone was
playing a joke on him, he quickly checked around to see if anything was
obviously amiss. Nothing was wrong, but he found the source of the
sunset on
the other side of the roof, behind the small shack that held the
stairwell
going down. FF7 was staring into the sunset, his head bent over a stack
of
paper, reading to himself quietly. He looked up at Jaynin’s approach
but said
nothing, and continued to read, muttering what sounded like derogatory
comments
to himself.
“You know, FF7,” Jaynin spoke up, “the only one who ever
flames your work is you.” FF7 responded only with a shrug and read the
last
page of his stack of paper, straightening the sheets before leaping off
the
edge of the building. Walking to the edge, Jaynin saw the last ripples
of a
portal fade away into the air. “You could have just opened a portal
like
everyone else,” he said to the air before heading back down into the
ATF
building.
The upper floors were mostly deserted, including the Sounds
and Chat rooms. They were only used infrequently, and by a few people
at that.
The more often visited rooms were lower, being usually Stories,
Original
Artwork and Discussion. Not quite ready to join the madness in
Discussion,
Jaynin found the elevator and punched the button for the Artwork to see
if
anything was new down there.
The Artwork floor was usually full of the sound of
giggling. The various artists worked here, drawing the scenes acted out
by
their models. Since some work of art or another was often in progress,
it was
never silent here. One of those artists was looking through the halls
at this
very moment, in fact. But he was dragging himself around as if he were
a
zombie.
“Mi…ho…shi…” Kahoshiden gasped, leaning on the wall for
support as he stumbled towards Jaynin. “I need… Mihoshi…”
“Then go and get her,” Jaynin replied. “You know how.
Besides, it’s not as if you haven’t drawn her enough…”
“I can never draw her enough!” he burst out, suddenly
getting up and running towards the artroom with frantic energy. Shaking
his
head in exasperation, Jaynin continued onwards, idly checking to see if
anything was new.
A few of the studios did indeed have new things, and Jaynin
entered them to check out the new artwork and updates that were posted
today.
The finished artwork was always fun to look at, of course. But what was
even
better was when the artists were in the artroom itself, drawing the
scenes
depicted by the models. The room itself was soundproofed, lest the
laughter inside
become too loud. Besides that, most of the artists didn’t want to be
distracted
by the frequent explosions and fighting, so it, like the Plot Generator
room,
had a static-anchor field around it to keep it in place even when the
rest of
the building was blown to rubble. After all, the artists, like the
storywriters, tended to become irritated when interrupted while working.
However, because everyone liked to watch the art in
progress, there was a viewing room off to the side so people could come
in and
watch without being a bother. However, when Jaynin entered the viewing
studio,
there wasn’t anyone drawing anything at the moment. The other room was
silent
and motionless. It, like the Stories floor, was equipped with a device
similar
to the Plot Generator so the artists could make use of live models for
concept
sketches. It pulled various anime characters, whether known or simply
generic,
into this room and compelled them to act out the schemes the artists
wished
them to. Often, this room was home to gigantic plants to disembodied
hands and
everything in between. But not today. Apparently, Kahoshiden had gone
somewhere
else, probably to think of what he wanted to draw. Jaynin shrugged and
decided
to try again later. You never knew when someone was going to be
updating.
Speaking of updates, Jaynin had his own work to do. And he,
like Bridge, could only put off his work for so long. So he decided to
head
back up to the Stories floor and start drafting a new story for
everyone to
read. So he took the elevator back up to the Stories floor. As he rode
the
elevator, a distant boom shook the car and the elevator jerked to a
halt.
Shaking his head, he couldn’t suppress a smile as he climbed out of the
top and
flew up to the seventh floor. Today, like most other days, was just
business as
usual at the ATF. That’s what went through his head as he sat down in
an empty
drafting room and pulled out a fresh sheet of paper.
Business as usual at the ATF…
The thought was enough to evoke another smile as Jaynin put
pen to paper and started to work on another new story.