Knights of New York

[jetfire85]

As I said in another thread, Knights of New York is a concept story. I'm taking an unused Sentai mecha design and using it as the inspiration for the entire fic. In this case, it's the unused Maskman design from an "Early Sketches" section of the Sentai Mecha book. http://www.thai-toku-v3.us/koro/Sentai_Robo_1975_2002/3026.jpg shows the design; it's the one at the top.

Brief teaser: the dragon of greed, Grendel, has awoken from his slumber after his fight against the Geat king Beowulf. The ancient smith Wayland has returned as well, bringing with him a reborn Beowulf, calling himself "Wolf Baer". Wayland and Wolf fight against Grendel and his army of mythological demons, but are defeated time and again. But then, Wayland discovers a way to defeat Grendel and his army.

It involves an ancient and abandoned set of Zords...

The powers that go with them...

And five teens from New York, drawn together to help defeat one of the world's most ancient demons.

[Splush]

Interesting...

[jetfire85]

Just a quick update with some character previews. I finished the resumes and I might post them later.

*Wolf Baer/Black Knight: a reincarnation of Beowulf, this gigantic brawler uses his fists, hates weapons and wants to fight Grendel on his own.

*Scott Chou/Red Knight: a martial artist. He is the strategist of the team, able to calm Wolf down and keep the team in line.

*Christina Salana/Pink Knight: a socialite. She rebels against her controlling father and learns to accept the differences of her teammates.

*Theo McKane/Silver Knight: an urban youth. A grant allowed him to go to school with the other future Knights, and decided to help out his old slum.

*Becky Sonderman/Blue Knight: a runner. She experiments with sex and drugs while trying to find herself.

*Jorge Rodrigues/Gold Knight: a weightlifter. Christina's cousin, he is a gentle soul who works to avenge his father's murder by his uncle.

[jetfire85]

One: Hot Night in New York City

Frank Salana looked at the family picture and scowled. Not at his wife Ruth, or his daughter Christina. Them he loved. No, it was Ruth’s brother and that God-awful son of his. His marriage to Ruth brought him into a gigantic Portuguese family that he usually avoided. But when Ruth pressured him to hire her brother Miguel as his chief foreman, he knew things wouldn’t end right. After a year of fights and three broken contracts, Frank decided that Miguel had to go.

Frank glanced at the picture once more, then at the dead body in front of his desk.

“Goodbye, you useless Spic,” he spat.

As he turned away, Frank pressed a button, and two guards came in.

“Yeah, boss?” asked one.

“Get that filth out of here,” he ordered.

The guards nodded, picked up the corpse, and took him out a side entrance. The easy part was done; now all he had to do was to tell Ruth that Miguel had died when a beam collapsed. Then there would be the funeral, and the whole mess would be over. As he left his office and locked the door, he thought he heard someone run past. He took a quick look around the hallway outside his office.

Nothing.

“Must be tired,” he chastised himself.

Then he screamed as he was pulled down through the floor.

#
#
#

Slowly, carefully, Scott Chou hovered over his target. Then he struck with a quick motion, the paper cup coming down over the annoying bee. Now the bee was trapped, and it buzzed around within the cup angrily. Scott high-fived Jorge and Theo as Becky took a five dollar bill out of her wallet.

“Okay, you win,” she said with a groan.

“Keep your money,” Scott said.

“Hey, you deserve it.”

“Becky, you’re givin’ away money?” asked Theo. “Hey, if Scott doesn’t—”

“Nice try, Theo. Didn’t they give you a raise?”

“We both got a ‘daddy raise’,” Jorge said. “Dad gave us both an extra fifty cents an hour starting last week. Not like Mr. Salana would notice; he hates my dad anyway.”

“No kidding. Frank Salana hates your father? I had no idea.”

Jorge rolled his eyes. “Not in the mood, Scotty.”

“Paige on the brain, eh?” Theo joked with a smile.

“You want a broken skull, I take it?” Jorge replied. He wasn’t smiling.

“Christ, man, I was just kiddin’!”

Scott sat back and sighed. They were sitting at the table outside his grandfather’s do jang, or training hall. It wasn’t a Saturday night without Jorge and Theo cracking on each other. They never meant anything they said, but they liked being able to get their frustrations out. Becky daydreamed, flickering in and out of the conversation if she wasn’t too high. And Scott?

He looked at the trapped bee, which buzzed angrily.

“I feel your pain,” he said. “Your imprisonment is over.”

Scott lifted the cup and the bee flew off, forgetting to sting them.

“Jorge!” a voice called out through the night.

“Is that Christina?” Becky asked us.

Christina Salana rushed across the street, narrowly avoiding a honking cab. She was sobbing lightly, her eyes red. Christina embraced her cousin Jorge tightly and began to cry harder.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jorge.

“Something horrible happened,” she said. “Your father… he…”

Jorge released her from his grip.

“What happened?” Jorge screamed.

“A beam hit him on the head at the site. He’s… they…”

“Oh God,” said Becky as she began to cry. Theo put his arm around her shoulder while Jorge sat down in shock. Christina and Scott sat on either side of him. They all knew Miguel Rodrigues; he was a constant source of advice and monetary aid.

“Why?” Jorge finally whispered

“Fate works in strange ways,” Scott replied, shaking his head.

“Dad didn’t deserve this. He… he did everything right…?”

“Jorge, I want to talk to you about it later. I think there was foul play,” said Christina. “Uncle Miguel wasn’t careless. We both know that. Someone planned for him to be killed.”

The two cousins looked each other in the eye.

“If he was murdered,” said Jorge, “there’ll be hell to pay.”

“Oh, he was murdered all right,” a strange voice said.

A gigantic man nearing seven feet tall had approached while they weren’t looking. He had long red hair and wore leather gloves. His accent was bizarre, sounding Scandinavian and German simultaneously.

“You bastard!” snapped Jorge as he stood.

“Sit down,” the stranger sneered. “It wasn’t me. We’re on the same side.”

“Who are you?” asked Theo.

“I am Wolf Baer. I have come to… you are very young.”

“Eighteen isn’t exactly kid material,” replied Becky.

“I’m never forgiving Wayland for this,” Wolf muttered. Becky’s eyes widened.

“Wayland? Any relation to the ancient Norse god of the forge?”

“Ah, so you know your history.”

“No, I know my mythology.”

“You would be surprised as to how much they blend. Now, to the cycles.”

He pointed across the street, where six bikes stood in an alley.

#
#
#

The dragon-man cracked his knuckles as he stared out of the glass window of his lair. He watched a school of guard-eels slither by through the much of the East River and grinned. No one would find his lair; they wouldn’t survive the pollution.

“Sir? Another has been conscripted.”

“The murderer.”

“Yes. He is now undergoing the procedure.”

“Make sure he can return to the surface.”

Ravana was confused. “You have a plan, I take it?”

“Don’t doubt me.”

The dragon of greed called Grendel turned to face the ten-headed and twenty-armed warrior-priest called Ravana. He was a capable lieutenant, and his Rakshasas were quite effective. But even with ten heads, Ravana could still be stubborn.

“I never doubt you, sir. I just don’t understand your plan.”

“Let the spirit merely inhabit the body. Don’t let the spirits wrangle out of it.”

“Ah. Espionage.”

“Most certainly; after all, we do need a way to counter our enemies.”

“Enemies?”

“The smith and the knight have arrived here. They have begun recruiting.”

“Shame it will be meaningless,” Ravana said with ten grins.