------------------------------------------- G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N A Thrash's chronicle by ROMeo Thrash is a Role Playing Game (RPG) about videogame fighting games and anime martial arts created by Blackbird (AKA Ewen Cluney). G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N is the settig of my current Thrash's campaing and, in fact, this writing is the product of my current game which is being translated here in 90% original form. Also, this is my first attemp in writing a fic, so I really hope you like it and the flames don't go up too high. ------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: Erasure <11:30 PM> The office is dark as any office would be at 11:30PM. Except for the lamp in Lou Shelldon's desk and the moonlight permeating trough the large window just behind it, there are no other light sources in the office, and he likes it that way. A prominent executive of Tolwin Industries, he is in charge of Tolwin's base of operations in L.A . He likes specially handling all deliveries and transactions, specially since that task also allows him the privilege of choosing which deals to take and which persons to deal with, not to mention doing the job himself. It is because of that self-appointed privilege that Lou closes deals with more than one minor head of the underworld on a monthly basis. A dark patron, Lou is becoming each passing day a more significant figure in the west coast underworld... an empire he dreams of controlling one day. Not only a bussinesman, but also a fighter. Years before donning the grey suit, Lou used to walk the way of the warrior. The underworld's deadliest assasin back then, Shelldon is still a powerful fighter. However, his actual posistion and base of his power is also his bane, for now he is a public figure and respectable man, his position in society would be jeopardized should he decide to stain his hands with blood once more. Still, Shelldon, as any man with power, has enemies, very powerful enemies, from the underworld and otherwise. In fact, an assasination attemp knock at his door on a weekly basis; more than once he has seen himself forced to repel an assasin-would-be himself, but he knows he ought to avoid that practice; even if the police is relatively harmless for a man of his influence, his enemies' combined influences can use the police to nail him. And so, he needs somebody else to do the jobs he can no longer perform himself. Precisely, on the other side of his desk is the answer to that dilema: Kurt Resnor. Coming from a humble family, his father left them for another woman when he was five. His mother became the family's only support; unfortunately, adversity descended over them once more and his mother fell to stress and disease. With her last breath, she asked Kurt to take good care of his little brother... a task he wasn't able to perform, for as he worked as hard as he could in his 15 years, he was powerless to prevent his brother from dying of pneumonia once the hospitals rejected him, Kurt lacking a job that provided him a medical insurance plan or the money to pay for the proper medical treatment. Kurt's faith in the future faded with his brother's life and was replaced with an intense hatred for everything and everyone... starting with himself, that's when he was found by Shelldon. Shelldon was able to see the power of that hate for humanity hosted in kurt's eyes as well as his yet-undeveloped psychic potential; sum that to a man who has just lost everything he had and you have the perfect assasin: cold, efficient, and ready to be molded to your needs. As his training took place, Kurt proved too emotional to handle the cold efficiency of Koppo, still, he developed a special love and talent for the lightning-fast ruthlessness of the praying mantis' Kung Fu. Also, his need to see his pain reflected in others made him advance astonishingly fast in the ways of vital points. His psychic potential quickly advanced too, complementing his talents. Soon, Kurt was already taking jobs that Shelldon would only trust in himself to acomplish. It didn't take long for him to become Lou's right hand and personal bodyguard. Tonight was very special, for this was the assignment Kurt was waiting for years since he was recruited by Shelldon. The old Chevrolette car factory served as meeting hall for many meetings of the heads of the underworld. It also served as a repository for many incriminatory evidences and a place for many of the city's papers to conveniently disapear to(*). With the NAFTA treaty signed and a new assembly factory to be opened in Mexico, tomorrow morning all possible evidences of the underworld's meetings, crimes, and important papers there will vanish along with the factory itself, when its demolition takes place. The heads of the underworld accorded to let the evidences be destroyed along with the building; however, Lou Shelldon had other plans for all that stuff, for all that information can turn into gold in the right hands. Tonight, Kurt was to retrieve all the useful material in the factory and return with a smile... and there would be a reason to smile, for once all that information was put to good use, Shelldon's power would increase. Who knows? He may even need someone trusted to take charge when his hands are too full to handle everything. Once the task was discussed in detail, Kurt departed, mighty confident in his success. A few seconds after his departure, Shelldon's cellular phone rang. "Yes Duncan? -- Yes, he has already departed -- Don forget I want every single piece of information -- Yes, and your money is already in your swiss bank account, so you better don't fail me, and remember that should the extra guests fail to do their job be prepared to acomplish it yourself". Also, there was something else about Kurt, for as his training advanced and time passed by, Shelldon realized that there was more of himself in Kurt than he realized when he recruited him. His own story was repeating all over in Kurt... and he knew what the end would be like if he didn't correct the mistake his own mentor and patron commited years ago... because of that, tonight is the night Kurt Resnor would be erased. Lou Shelldon dismissed the phone call and made another, this one to different persons... "L.A police department, ¿How can we help you?" (*) Yes, I know it's stupid to keep incriminatory evidence instead of destroying it, but for some reason, many ficticious villanious figures tend to store 'em somewhere. Don't ask, genre conventions. ***************** The Chevrolette factory closed its doors more than six months ago. Of course, that wasn't any impediment for the underwolrd's meetings to keep taking place there. Kurt was searching all over for folders, negatives, etcetera, when suddenly what seemed like a reddish light caught his attention beyond the window of the second floor of the offices... something has gone wrong, the police was coming this way... and there were a lot of 'em... something has gone wrong, something has gone terribly wrong, and Kurt knows what it is... he has been set up. Stepping out of the room, Kurt focused his psychic energies and channeled them trough his hand, letting everything inside burn in purple flames. ***************** On the first floor of the offices, Duncan is also collecting all important papers when he hears the doors slamming open and several footsteps... the other guests have arrived to the party it seems. Picking the folders, he heads silenthly to the assembly room, now its only a matter of waiting for the police to find their prey to pick up the rest of the papers and stuff while Kurt and the police have their private party. Already in the assembly room, it was just a matter of waiting. The occasional policeman passed by every now and then, but years of training his stealth assured that this freelance spy will not get caught easily. Unfortunately, years of training seemed not to cover a randomly damaged piece of floor in the darkness. More unfortunately, this big accident occurred way too near of a policeman who didn't hesitate in open fire once his "freeze" shout was ignored... as one would expect, a shout and a gunshot is sure to atract quickly the other cops. ***************** Kurt opened the elevator's door and was sliding down the ropes of the inoperate elevator when the sound of shouts and gunshots stoped him dead just before reaching the first floor. He descended carefuly to take a peak... if the trap was for him then ¿Who the hell was with the cops out there?. Upon opening the elevator's door as quiet as he could (not that anyone would notice him in the midst of that ruckus anyway) he saw that the machinery in the assembly room was all turned on and functioning, and a stranger running for dear life while dodging rain after rain of bullets. The guy had to be good to keep himself alive against all of them at once, but one bullet had already pierced his shoulder, so only god knows how long it would take him to fall. Anyway, as long as it was not himself the one becoming instant sieve everything would be alright. Still, when Kurt was about to retire, the stranger, already surrounded by the cops, suddenly charged his hand with energy not unlike Kurt's own, and released a red energy ball that crashed itself in the ceiling above him with a big explosion that distracted the cops with its blast radius and the following rain of debris enough for the stranger to run trough the cops and give him a chance of escaping. Following that, the stranger released another exploding energy blast behind him to cover his jumping escape trough the stairs and to the roof. That guy was definitely something, but there was no time to appreciate his tactics... hmmm, come to think of it, his tactics would have been perfect if it wasn't for the fact that turning on an assembly room that should not be functioning must have created a ruckus that attracted the rest of the cops faster than just a shout and a gunshot. Nevertheless, his tactics DID result perfect... for Kurt at least, for now that the cops were all looking upstairs, trying to nail his anonymous savior, the exit from the assembly room and outside was now open and free. It was almost perfect when Kurt passed trough that door, now the only thing that would make Kurt's day will be nailing the only person that knew about this operative. One second, one second to think about what he would do when he finds him, one second was all it took for the person waiting for Kurt the other side of the door to knock him out with a cold strike in the back of his head. ***************** Duncan finally made it to the roof. It would take a minute or two for the cops to reach him, but they surely undesertimate Duncan if they expect him to just wait for them there. Duncan was preparing to jump when he saw the other condition of his contract: Kurt Resnor was lying on the floor just outside the factory, and a stranger was taking him to the factory's garage. Furthermore, this stranger didn't look like a cop, but was instead wearing some kind of plastic armor. A contract is a contract, and Duncan has already heard of Lou Shelldon's wrath. Dropping a heavy object from a roof on top of someone always hurts, and dropping a 75kgs trained acrobat on top of someone with the purpose of smashing him to the ground hurts just as good. In fact, the impact knocked the stranger instantly. Now it was Duncan who was taking an unconscious Kurt to the garage, for he had an idea... while he could just finish Kurt then and there and retire peacefuly, for someone as challenge hungry as a freelance spy, it is always more satisfactory to play a prank on inferior minds and later let them realize how stupid they are. In a matter of seconds, he readied a truck to run on its own in a straight line and let the cops believe he is escaping and go after him... too bad that, as he entered the truck to set it up, both doors closed, filling the truck's interior with K.O gas. Seems like Kurt wasn't the only one being setup. ------------------------------------------- As you may have noted, these 2 chapters each represented one player character's introduction to the setting that awaits them (two players in this case). I'll just ask from you some patience, as it will take another 5 chapters of "isolated stories" before I can get them all together (on chapter 7). Remember to send your feedback and flames to azalin1@lycos.com Visit G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N's HQ at: http://g-u-a-r-d-i-a-n.net AND the Thrash's Official homepage can be found at: http://www.blackbird.nu/thrash/ CYA!