|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 2, 2011 15:06:57 GMT -5
Issue No. 1 (Prelude): The First Day
Writer's comment: I've read some amazing stories on this forum, and I felt that I had some great stories that I wanted to share as well. So, I decided to start with my main, probably the one that I have the most story for (I'm actually not sure). While I write quite a lot, I've never done it in this context, so I ask you to cut me a bit of slack for that reason. I'm also sorry that it's so short, further issues will be longer, I suspect. Other than that, enjoy.
As the teacher raised her hand, the new first graders of Detroit Elemtary School got to their places and sat down. They sat in pairs, sitting next to their friends, but one boy in the back sat next to an empty chair. The teacher frowned as she noticed, but proceeded to calling out those who were there.
As she had called out a couple of children, she reached the name: ”Montgomery James Harrison?” No response. She tries again: ”Montgomery Harrison? No Montgomery? Okay, so let's hope he'll...” She was interrupted by the door opening. The whole class turned to the entrance, where a short boy with a toolbox under his arm stood, his red hair covering his eyes and his blue clothes hanging from his thin body.
”Ah, you must be Montgomery Harrison! Welcome, you can sit down next to Michael over there.” The boy went into the very back of the room, placed the toolbox onto his desk with a bang, and jumped onto his chair. The boy next to him turned to him and extended a hand towards him. ”Hi! I'm Mike Richards, pleased to meet you!” Montgomery gave him a quiet look, then grabbed his hand carefully, and whispered: ”Monty.” Before turning towards the teacher again.
”So, children, since this is out first day together, I thought we would have to get to know each other for a bit! Feel free to talk a little to your deskmate, and I will walk around and talk to you. Go ahead!” As the teacher started walking around like a vulture finding prey to socialize with, Monty immediately opened his toolbox. He picked out a screwdriver and a small device-like box, and started turning a screw back and forth. Michael watched, intruiged.
”You shouldn't screw that so hard.” He said after a short while. Monty suddenly stopped screwing, slowly turning his head to Michael. ”What... did you say..?” Michael cleared his throat, since a lump was forming there. ”Y-you shouldn't screw that so tight. It might cause a... jam...” Monty kept staring at him, and then laid down his screwdriver and stared him into his eyes. ”No... it won't.” Michael straightened up and repeated: ”It will jam. I've worked with those a lot. You need to be careful, that's all I'm...” ”No!” Monty exploded. ”I've taken precautions! It won't jam!” The outburst caught the teacher's attention, and she started walking over there. Michael didn't give up. ”There are no precautions! It will jam! I know it!” ”Don't you think I know what I'm doing?” Monty responded. ”I've taken precautions, I know what I'm doing!” ”No, you don't!” As a response to this, Monty grabbed the ear of Michael, pulling them both off their chair, crashing to the ground. The whole class turned around and watched them, and then mayhem broke loose. The boys of the class crowded around the two, cheering on them. The girls went to the other side of the room, screaming. The teacher dived in between the fighters, pulling them apart and lifting them in their collars. ”What's going on here?” she shouted. ”Why are you fighting?” The two boys stayed silent, simply glaring at each other. And so started the rivalry of Michael Eric Richards and Montgomery James Harrison. Little did they know that it would come to develop during the next thirty years to grow into epic proportions.
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 2, 2011 15:07:33 GMT -5
Issue #2: Invention and Intervention
Fast forward to Third Grade...
The room was dark, save for the dim light of the desk lamp. All that was heard was the buzzing and clanking from the device on the desk in front of the boy. As he was building, he kept track of a couple of lights, alternating between red, green and blue light. The experiments of a little boy on a metal box about the size of a laptop were intense and secret. He had thought of an idea that could, and would, help him and others for years to come.
But that is another subject. What is more important is what happened that night, what happened on the floor right next to the desk, where a small metal aracnoid climbed the wall.
*Click, click, click* was the sound it made as it walked ahead. Once it reached a high position it would turn its snail-eye-like head towards the desk, and a red light on its back would light up.
In his own room, in front of his computer, sat another wonderchild, a boy named Mike Richards. On the screen before him, he could see the other boy, Monty Harrison, build his newest invention.
"So..." he said, under his breath. "You think you can best me with a rebuilt computer, a contraption used for extracting information? Well, not when I'm around."
The next day...
The class was there much before the teacher that morning. They decided not to go rampage on the room like any normal third graders, but rather sat down and spoke to their friends in a surprisingly socialized manner. Monty sat on his seat, as always with something on the desk before him. Today, that something was a fairly large cardboard box, with a lid on top.
As the door opened, everyone went silent. Once it had opened completely, and revealed Mike Richards, they continued their chatter. He, too, had a box with him, although that is more rare. He took a step in, and then glared at Monty in the corner. Monty glared back, tapping the sides of his box carefully.
A tention between the two arised, and held through the whole class. They barely heard what the teacher was saying, as Monty was trying to figure out what was in Mike's box and Mike tried to prevent him from doing so.
They couldn't do it for long, however, before the teacher raised her voice substantially, saying: If you could please open your books at page 59, and read to page 64? Monty threw a smug smirk to Mike and took the lid off his box. He raeched into it and lifted a box-like metal device, with a lens on one end and some flickering lights all over. Mike watched, smiling. Monty opened his book at the aforementioned page, and held the device before it. The lens hummed and twirled, and then a click. Monty turned page, and the humming and twirling commenced once again.
Mike watched while the device "read" all the paged in the book. When it was done, Monty looked at him again. His smirk was still intact. He whispered: "What do you think of my latest invention, huh? I call it the Information Drone v1.0, and I've worked on it for quite some time now. It is able to store tons of information, which I can then access through this. He picked up a PDA from his pocket, and touched it. The pages from the book appeared, bright and clear.
Mike smirked, opening his own lid. "I have an invention of my own." As he had said those words, a clicking sound was heard, and the very same eight-legged machinery which had recorded Monty's experiments climbed over the wall of the box. "Cute." Monty said. "But what does it do?" Mike merely smiled, and said: "Oh, you'll see." The small robot hopped onto the ground, and walked over to Monty's Drone. The boy tried to keep it away from the little creep, but it was too fast, and jumped onto the device. From there, it pointed its eye downwards, and a small beam was seen between the machines. After a couple of seconds, the lens on the Drone looked saddened, and the lights flickering went dark.
Mike burst out into laughter. "Yeah, I saw your work last night. I could have stopped you there and then, but I thought it would have been more fun to let you come to school and see the humiliation in your eyes when I powered it down in class. How do you feel now, huh?"
Monty looked down, his eyes obscured by his red bangs. He tapped the desk with one finger, with exactly one second intervals. Soon, he said: "Yeah, you beat me. You predicted my move, did research on my work, prepared for what I would bring, and brought a countermeasure. For that, I applaud you. But I have to ask you one thing..." He made a pause, and Mike closed in to hear his question while smiling widely. "How... How can you think I would make a device... without a failsafe?"
At that moment, an electro-magnetic pulse emitted from the Drone, shutting Mike's metal spider down cold. Mike sat there, with his mouth open wide. Monty giggled, and looked at him. "Don't you see? You can't win! I'm always two steps ahead of you! Always! There's no use in trying!" Mike grunted loudly in despise, grabbed his robot and box, and stormed out of the classroom. He wasn't seen for the rest of the day, and Monty could spend it testing his Drone in peace.
As their devices get upgraded, and their minds evolve, they will have bigger feuds than this. Don't miss future issues!
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 2, 2011 15:07:44 GMT -5
Issue #3: Robot Wars
Fast Forward to fifth grade...
The schoolyard was silent. Nothing moved, save the creaking swing as a gust of wind blew past. As the penetrating sound of a bell ringing cut through that silence, the door of the school opened, children pouring out.
As the stream of children thinned out, two boys remained, walking calmly and silently with boxes under their arms. They glanced at each other with suspicious eyes, but both walked along side one another, straight to the meadow at the other side of the schoolyard.
Today was the day that the two prodigies were going to measure their intelligence against one another. Both of their projects, that had been ongoing for years now, were being put to the test. Today, their inventions were being pitted against one another in a battle that would last until one stopped moving.
By the time the boys reached the meadow they had gathered a crowd of children. The group assembled in a ring, leaving an arena in the middle. One of the children emerged. He was bigger than the others, a sixth-grader, surely. He raised his voice.
"Today, we're going to witness the epic showdown between Montgomery James Harrison and Michael Eric Richards. There are only two rules. 1: No interaction must be made from the inventors. The robots must be working off of AI alone. 2: No harm must be done to the spectators. Understood?" The boys nodded in response. "Then let the battle..." Monty and Mike dropped theit boxes onto the ground. "... begin!"
As the larger boy stepped away, the two boxes exploded and the devices contained within were set free. Out of Monty's box, the familiar box-with-an-eye sprang out and landed softly on the ground before it. It looked slimmer than last time he brought it out, and the lights have been neatly integrated into the chassis.
More could be said about the opposing device, however. Its size had been increased by almost 500 %, its chassis updated. The "eye" was now surrounded by outwards-facing spikes, and similar spikes adorned its back in two rows.
"What's wrong, Monty?" said Mike with a smirk. "Not updated enough?" As Mike let out his trademark, high-pitched laughter, Monty stood silent. If you looked closely enough, you could make out a smug smirk in the shade of those long bangs. "Just make your move, Richards..."
Michael shrugged, and snapped his fingers that would start the AI program installed in the aracnoid. It snapped to attention, and then its eye started glowing increasiongly stronger as the spikes around it started rotating. Monty's Drone stood still.
"What's wrong Monty? Your machine malfunctioning?" Michael laughed even harder. The crowd became uneasy. Monty stayed silent. As the glow reached its brightest point, Mike's robot let out a beam of energy, directed at the Drone. Mike watched in excitement, but his smirks swiftly faded as the beam changed its course and directed itself straight towards the Drone's eye. As it connected, it was surged into the eye, and the Drone's lights pulsed, signalling it was being powered up by the beam. Mike grunted.
"That's all you can do? Well, that won't last you long, I can tell you that much!" As he said that, the spider robot moved, as if on command, towards the Drone at an astounding speed. It pounced toward it, ready to shut it down the same way as it did before, but, at the last second, the Drone made a surprising maneuver.
It left the ground.
Suddenly, the Drone was flying, levitating a few feet above the spider. Mike looked surprised, astonished even, and so did his invention. It was certainly something they didn't expect at all. The spider responded by firing its lasers at the Drone, using its swift legs to keep hitting it where the eye can't absorb them. The Drone seemed to take some damage, but then it countered by releasing the energy it had previously gathered in a discharge towards the aracnoid.
The spider took a hit, but now something happened. The spider seemed to power down, and stopped moving. Everyone went quiet, but then cheered. Monty had won. He rose his hands in a gesture of victory, and his Drone moved towards its box once again, seemingly letting out a sigh of relief. But Mike did nothing. He stood still. Monty turned towards him. "That's all you can do?! I thought more of you, Michael. Seems you're not worth playing in my league." Mike looked up. He didn't look half as sad as he should. He looked... happy.
"Why are you so happy, Mikey? You just lost, didn't you notice?" Mike snickered. "Or did I?" In a heartbeat, Michael's droid powered up and was in the middle of a pounce towards the Drone. It didn't stand a chance. By the time the Drone figured out what was happening, its inner circuits was ripped out, and it lied motionless on the ground. Monty was speechless. The robot had... pretended to be powered down, and then powered up again. He'd never seen AI of that complexity, of that power. The crowd was silent. No one really knew what had happened, but then Mike's robot returned to its box, and Mike picked it up. The children that stood on his side cheered. Monty looked at him for a long time, before storming off, his Drone lyind dead on the ground still.
Monty doesn't cry. He just sat there, under the big tree in the middle of the meadow, and stared into the ground. He was a failure. His Drone didn't stand a chance. "You're good at this, you know." said Mike as he came. Monty looked up at him. "You're just saying that. You crushed me, and you know it." Mike smiled. "Listen, you're a smart guy. Everybody knows that. There's just one thing you're missing." He laid something in Monty's hand. "You have to do anything, anything, to win." With those words and a pat in the back, Michael left for home. Monty opened his hand and looked at what he had left there. It was a remote, with a big red button on it. An on/off switch... Monty thought. He remote controlled the fake death... That settles it. He stood. I'll do anything.
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 2, 2011 15:08:00 GMT -5
Reserved for Issue #4
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 2, 2011 15:08:18 GMT -5
Reserved for Issue #5 (In case I need it)
|
|
|
Post by knowledge3754 on Apr 6, 2011 8:23:45 GMT -5
real good start but where's the rest?!
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 6, 2011 11:46:07 GMT -5
real good start but where's the rest?! Don't worry, I'll have Issue #2 up in the next couple of days
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 8, 2011 16:42:35 GMT -5
Issue #2 is up! I'm sorry for the delay, I ended up having less time to write than I thought, and when I got the time I had a lack of inspiration. But it's up now, and upcoming issues will be increasingly exciting! Hope you enjoy!
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Apr 19, 2011 11:14:57 GMT -5
Sadly, I won't be able to get another issue up this week, because I am leaving tomorrow (more info here.) But after I'm back, I hope I will be able to get an issue up!
|
|
|
Post by Roxstar on Apr 19, 2011 12:12:21 GMT -5
More...I want MOOOOOAAAAARR!!
|
|
|
Post by PoochieHellhound on Dec 24, 2011 8:08:39 GMT -5
So after a long...
LOOOOOONG
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG[/i]
(I might be missing some O's there...)
... time I'm gonna try to start this thread up again. Issue #3 is up, will try to keep this SOMEWHAT updated furthermore.
|
|