Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2017 4:30:24 GMT
Gage has had his hand smacked on several occasions, the most severe of which was not too long ago. He had fought against a surprisingly sturdy Arrancar, the female keeping him on his toes and shredding his armor in an instant. His arm was broken within the first minuet and by the time the fight was over he had to flee as his entire arm and shoulder was literally missing. The woman, regenerating faster than he could do damage, was at least pushed so far as not to follow him as he bled out. It was only by coincidence that he was found by a passing Shinigami, healing him enough to survive the fight.
This however paled in comparison to the absolute domination that he underwent by the soul of the Dawning/Dusking Ingot. The soul, a beast of a human, towered at just under seven foot with a massive clay more like weapon just as long as he was tall. Clad in golden gleaming armor the man seemed to be more like a glinting angel, massive metallic geared wings stretching open behind its back. Gage was strong, made even stronger in this 'spiritual' world as it was a construct of his own programing. However even with his immense power and the unorthodox boost in strength that the programming gave him he was not even in the same scale of power as the Angel.
Twice he attempted to fight, the angel cutting him down each time with little to no effort. Each lethal wound was healed, made anew so that Gage could stand as if he were never injured. Even with this neigh impossible healing factor he found that not a single time he was even able to damage the halo of light, its armor tough enough to shrug off his most powerful attacks, his missing arm not aiding him in his efforts to fight as he was still adjusting to both the weight shift and the lack of balance.
The second time that he went in to fight the Soul he was quiet literally cut down into smaller pieces, bits and chunks missing with each swing of the claymore. Devotion to this project was quickly fading, Gage giving up on defeating the angel halfway into the second visit, stuck on one knee as he was too exhausted to stand. Breathing ragged he just watched in defeat as the angel stood back, tip of the sword embedded into the ground as he observed Gage. After that he needed a break, not returning to the spirit of the angel for three days as he rested, his nights kept up with thoughts of how he was supposed to defeat this obstacle. Time for rest was done.
Gage stands in front of the Angel, a span of ten feet in between them. His right arm would have been in his pocket had he still had it, his left hand on his hip. The angel in front of his draws the claymore from its back, the blade swinging silently through the air, stopping just shy of the ground. It did as it always did, standing there waiting for him to make the first move and preparing a counter that would either sever his other arm off or hurl him away with enough power and speed to take down a house on collision.
Gage paid no mind," LANI, load the scene from east Karakura town where I found the hollow that is powering your fourth processor." The world fades in and out before loading a dock, the sky that day cloudy and the sun over head setting. Gage watches silently, the sound of his breathing overly obvious to him. Then the sound begins to load in, the waves of the ocean breaking against the dock braces. Gage heads to a bench with a light flickering overhead, passing the angel as he moves.
"Who are you?" Gage had once tried to speak to it...him...her? The thick nature of the armor left much to the imagination. "I can't win. I know that." His eyes watch the waves cresting in the distance. The clink of armor behind him approaches until it is literally just behind him and the bench.
"I am many," the voice was quiet but carried the vocal patterns of tens of people all speaking at once. "I am no one, but most of all, I am all of us." The armor slowly walks its way around the bench, each of its steps making the wood underfoot creak. Turning his head to look Gage watches, the golden armor, shining slightly less like the sun, moves to sit beside him. Turning his head back to the ocean it flickers once, the rendering of the scenery overlapping so that the sun comes back up and restarts the whole process of setting again.
"So you speak for all the souls?" Gage could only assume so much was true, it makes sense that there would have been a dominate personality surfacing in the swarm of souls. However as there was no actual composition of souls it seemed that all the souls had an equal share in the surface personality. "And what do you want?" Gage immediately stopped after he said it, wondering what in the world he could have meant with the question.
"What do we want?" Taking a seat beside him Gage can feel the bunch underneath him buckle slightly under the weight of the angel. "What...could we want? Is it not true that we are dead? What more could we want from life but peace? It is you that seem so devoted to fighting."
Gage stops and thinks,"Yeah, I think you are right. I suppose I came a bit forward." Putting his face into his palm he rubs his eyes trying to clear his head, something clouding his head. He has tried to avoid the sensation but it has been getting worse with the passing weeks. Eventually he even found himself wrapped in thoughts of power and how he was going to get more gear to fight Olympus, the sacrificial nature of his thoughts giving him the creeps as he realizes how outlandish they were.
"I just...I am reaching this point...its like I don't know what to do about it any more. There is just so much fighting. So many people paying the price for others lust for power...attention...money...love. Its all...everything is falling apart." Gage didn't know why he was opening up. Maybe it was the connection forged when you get into a fight with someone. You just naturally feel closer to them and with the way that he lost the fights against the Souls...he was like a brother.
"Is it true that you do not know what to do?" the Souls staring off into the distance beside him. Its armored glove-resting on one knee. It was unusual that something so armored and prepared for battle seemed to be so calm and relaxed. "We have tasted your soul. We know all that you know and feelw hat you have felt. You know what you feel you have to do. Don't you."
Gage was not used to being told how to behave or what to feel. However he felt more like these souls were his guardians, trying to push and guide him. "Yes. I wasn't sure for the longest time. But one day about three months ago it dawned on me. These fights, these battles between nightmarish armies. They are going to keep happening on human land with us as the casualties until someone can stop it." Gage sits up as the hands of the Souls move to unclip the buckle holding its gloves on. The motion was uncalled for, surprising him to the point of almost flinching.
"Is that so. And it seems that there is little that anyone can do about that. War seems to be everywhere. What could you possibly do about it? You are only one man. Perhaps you would be capable of affecting change if you were not just that but how far can a single soul stretch themselves?" Gage listened. He was right. The Soul knew the thing that has been irking him in the back of his mind for weeks now. How was Gage, just another human, supposed to change the pattern of war that has been going on for so long? The only thing that he could imagine is to wage a war so bloody and inhuman that is scares those involved from ever trying to wage their battles in the human world ever again.
"I don't know. I have been toying a lot of ideas. None of them good and most of them evil. The best one that I can figure is...well. I don't like it. Basically I become the next after-world Hitler. Anything that is a soul that enters the human world gets killed. Mass genocide. I start with Hueco Mundo and then move to soul Society but I don't know. It is literally against everything that I have ever tried to be. Its wrong but what else can I do? They will keep coming and keep spilling the blood of people that have nothing to do with the war." Gage could feel frustration welling up inside him., driving him to levels of aggression that he really disliked.
"Genocide. Is that really what you think is the best option? Are the hollows so evil that they deserve that? Not that you can provide it but is it necessary? And what of the shinigami? Are they as evil as you seem to believe?"
Gage stopped. He has pondered the situation on several occasions, always coming to the conclusion that Shini and Hollow alike need to be removed from the equation for Humans to live safely. Each time he thinks about it all he can do to justify the act is say to himself that it has to be done, not that it is deserved. But why this act? He has not always felt like this forever. There was a time where his best option was to defend the souls around him, to treat them as family and protect them with his life. When did the Soul Society stop counting as human in his eyes? "No, they are not evil. I just...I can't think clearly." Gage rubbed his chest, the small pinprick of where he was run through with the Seele aching now more than usual. "I didn't always want this. There was a time where I wanted to help humans and Soul Reapers alike...but ever since I had..."
The thought struck Gage like a brick wall, he had never once tied this odd feeling of dissent and hatred towards shinigami with anything in particular but his aggression had begun the instant that he had his heart patched with the hollow mask. "No, its not what I want. I don't see that as actually being a solution. The Soul Society has its purpose, its has an important one. They are just...overwhelmed. They need more people with power and more souls with the drive to help."
"And what do you think that means for you?" The angel reaches up, clicking a latch on the base of its neck. Gage looks over, surprise at the action. Was it really about to take off its helm?
"It means that...I was wrong. I need to get out there and stop butting heads with Soul Society and meet them on a middle ground. They need my help. If I can finish this then maybe it will do more good than damage to the Soul Society." Gage stood up, not sure of how long they were sitting there, the time seeming to have flown by. Even the playback of the moving water had stopped, stuck in a single frame.
"Well, if that's true then I can speak for us all when I say that we would be willing to help you conquer your demons and make a change in the world for the better." Pulling a second latch on its shoulder the armor plating all over the body falls away like a second skin revealing a woman, ever so pretty and more so some how familiar. Tall and slender she was still obviously strong and lean. Her figure was rather impressive, the entirety of her body wrapped in what looked like a massive length of pearl white ribbon.
*********
Back in Gage's lab a glass cup of golden sand sits on top of a ceramic table, the actual material of the table being a low conductivity pottery that he had made just for this purpose. Sitting just above the glass is three balls, each hooked up to a trashcan sized capacitor, each one humming silently to themselves. Surrounding the table on all sides is tens of cameras, all recording various individual readings like visuals, energy, temperature, magnetic. Anytime that there was even the smallest of changes in readings in the room everything would kick on, all recording and saving data in bulk to be analyzed later.
Eventually though there is one thing that happens that actually kicks the system to active. In time with Gage coming to an agreement with the soul the sand begins to emit low levels of energy along with produce its own heat increasing its ambient temp to just shy of one hundred and two degrees. Overhead the capacitors go from a soft hum to a low whine while slowly getting more and more intense until it finally reaches the shrill screech of a thousand tires on pavement. In each Capacitor is enough energy to jump start a small battleship, the three of them cumulatively carrying enough energy to match that of a lightning strike.
Dumping their cumulative charge at once they energy goes down and into the nearest target, the high conduction energy of the sand drawing the electricity. In the intensity of the heat the electricity seems to keep pushing, the blinding white light frying the cameras and the magnetic pulse shutting off all nearby electronics. The glass shatters, black residual sand scattering into the corners of the room as the direct impact site leaves a single red gem, balanced perfectly on end as it is rounded perfectly into what looks like an egg. Finally, months of work finally amounts to a single moment of clarity, developing this one material for his work. Time was approaching for the turning point of the world. Gage would be sure of that.
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This however paled in comparison to the absolute domination that he underwent by the soul of the Dawning/Dusking Ingot. The soul, a beast of a human, towered at just under seven foot with a massive clay more like weapon just as long as he was tall. Clad in golden gleaming armor the man seemed to be more like a glinting angel, massive metallic geared wings stretching open behind its back. Gage was strong, made even stronger in this 'spiritual' world as it was a construct of his own programing. However even with his immense power and the unorthodox boost in strength that the programming gave him he was not even in the same scale of power as the Angel.
Twice he attempted to fight, the angel cutting him down each time with little to no effort. Each lethal wound was healed, made anew so that Gage could stand as if he were never injured. Even with this neigh impossible healing factor he found that not a single time he was even able to damage the halo of light, its armor tough enough to shrug off his most powerful attacks, his missing arm not aiding him in his efforts to fight as he was still adjusting to both the weight shift and the lack of balance.
The second time that he went in to fight the Soul he was quiet literally cut down into smaller pieces, bits and chunks missing with each swing of the claymore. Devotion to this project was quickly fading, Gage giving up on defeating the angel halfway into the second visit, stuck on one knee as he was too exhausted to stand. Breathing ragged he just watched in defeat as the angel stood back, tip of the sword embedded into the ground as he observed Gage. After that he needed a break, not returning to the spirit of the angel for three days as he rested, his nights kept up with thoughts of how he was supposed to defeat this obstacle. Time for rest was done.
Gage stands in front of the Angel, a span of ten feet in between them. His right arm would have been in his pocket had he still had it, his left hand on his hip. The angel in front of his draws the claymore from its back, the blade swinging silently through the air, stopping just shy of the ground. It did as it always did, standing there waiting for him to make the first move and preparing a counter that would either sever his other arm off or hurl him away with enough power and speed to take down a house on collision.
Gage paid no mind," LANI, load the scene from east Karakura town where I found the hollow that is powering your fourth processor." The world fades in and out before loading a dock, the sky that day cloudy and the sun over head setting. Gage watches silently, the sound of his breathing overly obvious to him. Then the sound begins to load in, the waves of the ocean breaking against the dock braces. Gage heads to a bench with a light flickering overhead, passing the angel as he moves.
"Who are you?" Gage had once tried to speak to it...him...her? The thick nature of the armor left much to the imagination. "I can't win. I know that." His eyes watch the waves cresting in the distance. The clink of armor behind him approaches until it is literally just behind him and the bench.
"I am many," the voice was quiet but carried the vocal patterns of tens of people all speaking at once. "I am no one, but most of all, I am all of us." The armor slowly walks its way around the bench, each of its steps making the wood underfoot creak. Turning his head to look Gage watches, the golden armor, shining slightly less like the sun, moves to sit beside him. Turning his head back to the ocean it flickers once, the rendering of the scenery overlapping so that the sun comes back up and restarts the whole process of setting again.
"So you speak for all the souls?" Gage could only assume so much was true, it makes sense that there would have been a dominate personality surfacing in the swarm of souls. However as there was no actual composition of souls it seemed that all the souls had an equal share in the surface personality. "And what do you want?" Gage immediately stopped after he said it, wondering what in the world he could have meant with the question.
"What do we want?" Taking a seat beside him Gage can feel the bunch underneath him buckle slightly under the weight of the angel. "What...could we want? Is it not true that we are dead? What more could we want from life but peace? It is you that seem so devoted to fighting."
Gage stops and thinks,"Yeah, I think you are right. I suppose I came a bit forward." Putting his face into his palm he rubs his eyes trying to clear his head, something clouding his head. He has tried to avoid the sensation but it has been getting worse with the passing weeks. Eventually he even found himself wrapped in thoughts of power and how he was going to get more gear to fight Olympus, the sacrificial nature of his thoughts giving him the creeps as he realizes how outlandish they were.
"I just...I am reaching this point...its like I don't know what to do about it any more. There is just so much fighting. So many people paying the price for others lust for power...attention...money...love. Its all...everything is falling apart." Gage didn't know why he was opening up. Maybe it was the connection forged when you get into a fight with someone. You just naturally feel closer to them and with the way that he lost the fights against the Souls...he was like a brother.
"Is it true that you do not know what to do?" the Souls staring off into the distance beside him. Its armored glove-resting on one knee. It was unusual that something so armored and prepared for battle seemed to be so calm and relaxed. "We have tasted your soul. We know all that you know and feelw hat you have felt. You know what you feel you have to do. Don't you."
Gage was not used to being told how to behave or what to feel. However he felt more like these souls were his guardians, trying to push and guide him. "Yes. I wasn't sure for the longest time. But one day about three months ago it dawned on me. These fights, these battles between nightmarish armies. They are going to keep happening on human land with us as the casualties until someone can stop it." Gage sits up as the hands of the Souls move to unclip the buckle holding its gloves on. The motion was uncalled for, surprising him to the point of almost flinching.
"Is that so. And it seems that there is little that anyone can do about that. War seems to be everywhere. What could you possibly do about it? You are only one man. Perhaps you would be capable of affecting change if you were not just that but how far can a single soul stretch themselves?" Gage listened. He was right. The Soul knew the thing that has been irking him in the back of his mind for weeks now. How was Gage, just another human, supposed to change the pattern of war that has been going on for so long? The only thing that he could imagine is to wage a war so bloody and inhuman that is scares those involved from ever trying to wage their battles in the human world ever again.
"I don't know. I have been toying a lot of ideas. None of them good and most of them evil. The best one that I can figure is...well. I don't like it. Basically I become the next after-world Hitler. Anything that is a soul that enters the human world gets killed. Mass genocide. I start with Hueco Mundo and then move to soul Society but I don't know. It is literally against everything that I have ever tried to be. Its wrong but what else can I do? They will keep coming and keep spilling the blood of people that have nothing to do with the war." Gage could feel frustration welling up inside him., driving him to levels of aggression that he really disliked.
"Genocide. Is that really what you think is the best option? Are the hollows so evil that they deserve that? Not that you can provide it but is it necessary? And what of the shinigami? Are they as evil as you seem to believe?"
Gage stopped. He has pondered the situation on several occasions, always coming to the conclusion that Shini and Hollow alike need to be removed from the equation for Humans to live safely. Each time he thinks about it all he can do to justify the act is say to himself that it has to be done, not that it is deserved. But why this act? He has not always felt like this forever. There was a time where his best option was to defend the souls around him, to treat them as family and protect them with his life. When did the Soul Society stop counting as human in his eyes? "No, they are not evil. I just...I can't think clearly." Gage rubbed his chest, the small pinprick of where he was run through with the Seele aching now more than usual. "I didn't always want this. There was a time where I wanted to help humans and Soul Reapers alike...but ever since I had..."
The thought struck Gage like a brick wall, he had never once tied this odd feeling of dissent and hatred towards shinigami with anything in particular but his aggression had begun the instant that he had his heart patched with the hollow mask. "No, its not what I want. I don't see that as actually being a solution. The Soul Society has its purpose, its has an important one. They are just...overwhelmed. They need more people with power and more souls with the drive to help."
"And what do you think that means for you?" The angel reaches up, clicking a latch on the base of its neck. Gage looks over, surprise at the action. Was it really about to take off its helm?
"It means that...I was wrong. I need to get out there and stop butting heads with Soul Society and meet them on a middle ground. They need my help. If I can finish this then maybe it will do more good than damage to the Soul Society." Gage stood up, not sure of how long they were sitting there, the time seeming to have flown by. Even the playback of the moving water had stopped, stuck in a single frame.
"Well, if that's true then I can speak for us all when I say that we would be willing to help you conquer your demons and make a change in the world for the better." Pulling a second latch on its shoulder the armor plating all over the body falls away like a second skin revealing a woman, ever so pretty and more so some how familiar. Tall and slender she was still obviously strong and lean. Her figure was rather impressive, the entirety of her body wrapped in what looked like a massive length of pearl white ribbon.
*********
Back in Gage's lab a glass cup of golden sand sits on top of a ceramic table, the actual material of the table being a low conductivity pottery that he had made just for this purpose. Sitting just above the glass is three balls, each hooked up to a trashcan sized capacitor, each one humming silently to themselves. Surrounding the table on all sides is tens of cameras, all recording various individual readings like visuals, energy, temperature, magnetic. Anytime that there was even the smallest of changes in readings in the room everything would kick on, all recording and saving data in bulk to be analyzed later.
Eventually though there is one thing that happens that actually kicks the system to active. In time with Gage coming to an agreement with the soul the sand begins to emit low levels of energy along with produce its own heat increasing its ambient temp to just shy of one hundred and two degrees. Overhead the capacitors go from a soft hum to a low whine while slowly getting more and more intense until it finally reaches the shrill screech of a thousand tires on pavement. In each Capacitor is enough energy to jump start a small battleship, the three of them cumulatively carrying enough energy to match that of a lightning strike.
Dumping their cumulative charge at once they energy goes down and into the nearest target, the high conduction energy of the sand drawing the electricity. In the intensity of the heat the electricity seems to keep pushing, the blinding white light frying the cameras and the magnetic pulse shutting off all nearby electronics. The glass shatters, black residual sand scattering into the corners of the room as the direct impact site leaves a single red gem, balanced perfectly on end as it is rounded perfectly into what looks like an egg. Finally, months of work finally amounts to a single moment of clarity, developing this one material for his work. Time was approaching for the turning point of the world. Gage would be sure of that.
