Technolized
Plot
Year 2450, 5 years after the 200 year war, 60% of the world's populace live in the Capital Hishansho. The rest of humanity outside the country is controlled by the world government, who started the war dubbed as the "Technological War" for unknown reasons. Some countries are governed by a leader chosen by the WG (World Govt.) while others are desolate wastelands compared to what they used to be, the vast majority live in slum like conditions, with barely enough food or water to support them. Some speculate that the war was to gain control over growing rebellious groups that spiralled out of control, whereas some believe it was for their own malicious intentions. Even after 200 long years the war was won by the government using powers that people could only relate to as "the power of gods".
Year 2452, in the city of Rifton, a young boy of around 10 can be seen playing around the ruins of an old factory searching for old pre-war relics, when he spots something shiny underneath some rubble. He picks it up for a close examination and sees that it is a chip or sorts. Wires suddenly spring out of the chip and latch themselves onto the boys left arm as they start digging into his skin. The chip springs out of the boy's hands as he falls to his knees in crippling pain. The chip starts burrowing its way into his skin and blood begins to spurt out of the opening wounds, forcing the child to collapse to the ground and writhe in the pain as he let out a blood curdling cry. He felt like his arm was being torn apart and then being reconstructed over and over again. Suddenly, as quickly as it has started, the pain subsided and he sad up still in tears. He looked at his arm and it was covered in blood and looked like it had been burnt, but it didn't hurt. He immediately stands up and sprints with all of his might towards a set of buildings, as he reaches the doorway a woman appears looking pale faced.
"Mum..." He whimpers as she drags him up a floor and into a small room.
The woman embraces the child and begins to weep.
"I... I heard a scream." She manages to say "I thought you'd..."
The woman, now revealed as the child's mother looks at his bloodied and burnt arm. Her face contorts from sadness to a look of horror.
"What happened to you arm Tanshin?" She mutters as what little colour in her face drains.
"I was... in the fac-factory." he chokes "And th-there was a chip, a-and i..."
The woman looks away from the child, trying to hide her obvious face of terror as she begins to well up again.
"I TOLD YOU NOT GO THERE, WHY DID YOU NOT LISTEN TANSHIN, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN PUT IN SO MUCH D-"
A loud explosion shoves the two into a cloud of smoke, as it settles a large hole has been blasted out of a nearby wall, and two men are stood in the opening. One is a male of around 40, wearing a fedora and trench coat, with a WG suit on underneath, and the other wearing just the WG suit. The man wearing the fedora faces towards Tanshin and see's his arm; he lifts up his own, his hand pointing in the direction of Tanshin as bright red flames start to glow from it and a large fireball begins to hurtle towards Tanshin and his mother. An intense light illuminates the room and as it fades the mother can be seen on one knee with Tanshin behind her, and a large shield where her right arm had just been.
"So you're one too." The man in the fedora grunts as a wide grin appears on his face.
He quickly releases larger fireball but the mother deflects it, she picks up Tanshin (who is frozen with fear) under her left arm and begins to sprint towards the door to the hallway, her shield behind them in an attempt to cover them as they escaped. A sudden jet of blue strikes her heel completely severing her Achilles; she collapses to the ground dropping Tanshin in front of her just before the doorway. She turns around to see the second man walking towards her, a jet of water circling his legs like a snake. She desperately sits up and strikes him with her shield, sending him flying to the other side of the room. Another fireball is thrown at her and she quickly grabs Tanshin and hold him tight as her shield expands, encasing them within the protective barrier.
"Tanshin listen to me, you need to run, run as fast you can and I'll be right behind you." She says tearfully as she smiles at him, stroking his hair.
"But mum... I-I'm scared." He whimpers, not knowing the extent of his mother's injury.
"I know, but you need to go, you need to stay safe... When I let this shield down, you need to run for the door, okay?" she says, sweat dripping from her face, showing how tired she is from using her power.
Tanshin nods in agreement, tears still streaming down his eyes.
His mother lets down the shield partially and he immediately bolts for the door, as he reaches it he turns around to see his mother smiling at him as tears roll down her face, she moves her shield towards him and covers the door as a huge ball of fire hurtles towards her.
"MUM, NO!" He bellows as an explosion shakes the building.
Tanshin drops to his knees as he begins to scream, his mothers shield begins to wither away as if it was dust, and his mothers charred body drops to the floor. Standing over her body is the man with fedora, with a large smile on his face. A sudden rage fills Tanshin and out of his left hand shoots a large bolt of lightning, hitting the man square in the chest and launching him through a wall. As Tanshin stands up shaking with rage he is suddenly picked up and dragged away, he begins to kick and scream as he tries to escape his captors grasp. The shock of what has just happened kicks in and he blacks out.
A day later, Tanshin wakes up in a small, familiar room. He bolts up and begins to look around in search for his mother, only to see a large figure sitting in the corner of the room, hidden by shadow. As he stands up and walks into what little light is in the room Tanshin's face turns from petrified to relieved.
"GRAM!" He bellows as he begins to well up again remembering what had happened the prior day.
"So you're finally awake, kid." Gram grumbles, as if he had only woke up minutes ago.
Gram was an old man, but was nonetheless extremely strong. He was a high ranking member of the WG officials in charge of Rockwell, the country Rifton was part of. He had always had a soft spot for Tanshin and the rest of their village, and was often kind. He was like a father figure to Tanshin. Gram wears a different coloured GW uniform, indicating his rank.
"Mum... she's-" Tanshin begins to cry out but it stopped as Gram embraces him and holds him tight.
Tanshin quickly pushes him away, with sudden rage in his eyes.
"You... your people did this." He mutters as he grinds his teeth. "YOU'RE ALL MONSTERS, MY MUM'S... MY MUM'S DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU STOOD THERE AND DIDN'T DO A TH-"
Gram grabs Tanshin by the collar and lifts him up
"Did nothing, did I?" He growls, trembling with anger "Do you really think that if I didn't save you, you wouldn't be here right now? If I had tried to help before hand, we would have all been killed... do you really think your mother would have wanted that, kid?"
Tanshin falls silent, Gram drops him and he begins to tremble on the bed, hands grasping at his face as he weeps, tears streaming through his fingertips.
"I'm... sorry." He whimpers as he embraces Gram "Who where those people, and what-" he looks at his arm "What happened to my arm?" he says, his breathing slowing down slightly.
"Those two men?" Gram replied, sitting down next to Tanshin. "Those two men hunt down other Technolizers, so they can't oppose the WG, you're one now by the looks of it." He says as he looks at Tanshin's arm, and your mother was one too."
"What's a Technolizer?" Tanshin questioned "How did they know where we were?"
Gram sighed slowly, leaning back and scratching the back of his head as he thought of how to explain it.
"A Technolizer... is someone who has used an upgrade such as you. The upgrades forcefully latch on to the skin, and once they do there is no going back, they dig in and completely rewrite your DNA structure. That arm isn't fully your arm anymore either." He explained, looking at Tanshin's arm. "You're lucky you know; when you first use one you have a 25% chance of dying immediately. Children have a much higher chance of dying too, around 90%. You're the first case I've ever heard of a child surviving the upgrade, and as to how they found you I have no idea. I don't even know what power you got either."
"I shot lightning out of my hand..." Tanshin replies, grasping his left arm.
"I see." Says Gram as he stands up "You need to get some sleep kid; we have to move soon... It's not safe here."
A week later, in the north of Rockwell, Gram and Tanshin appear out of a dense set of woods into a small clearing, a large bungalow type structure in the middle, with a man chopping wood next to it.
"CESAR!" Gram bellows as an axe whizzes past his head.
"Gram!" he replies, clearly shocked as to who he threw the axe at. "What are you doing here?"
Cesar's eyes dart towards Tanshin and then back towards Gram, his eyes widening.
"No, no I already told you I'm not taking him in!" He grumbles "I already have enough mouths to feed and I am not adding another."
"It's already been decided!" Barked Gram "I can't exactly take him in now can I? I mean, you could spend the rest of your life in jail if you'd like?"
"I... fine." Cesar replies, he looks towards Tanshin and tilts his head back towards the house "Get in; we'll prepare you a bed."
"Old man..." Tanshin says as he looks up toward Gram, tears appearing in his eyes.
"Who are you?" Asks Gram "You're just some random kid I came across on my travels and needed a home, I found you one. Now go, live your life as a normal person."
"Wha..." Tanshin begins to say, but turns and runs towards the house, understanding what Gram was doing. If the WG found out he had helped an enemy, he would surely be executed.
Gram starts to walk back toward the woods, Tanshin looks behind him at the door.
"OLD MAN!" He shouts "I'M GOING TO STOP THE GOVERNMENT, I WILL SAVE THIS WORLD AND IT'S PEOPLES LIVES EVEN IF IT MEANS PUTTING MY OWN IN DANGER. I WILL BECOME STRONGER THAN YOU OR ANYONE ELSE! COUNT ON IT OLD MAN."
"I'd like to see you try." He says as he disappears into the woods.
8 years later...
"Are you ready, you lousy kid?" Cesar asks as Tanshin puts on his backpack
"I guess." Tanshin replies
"And here I was thinking you were gonna laze around here forever... not that I want you to."
"Ha!" replies Tanshin "Like I'd stay in this dump longer than I neede-"
Cesar slams his fist into Tanshins head and he buckles over in pain.
"This place wouldn't be a dump if you didn't keep messing it up!" He says angrily "So you're really going then... Gram risked his life to save you, and this is how you repay him"
"The old man may have saved my life." Tanshin replies, rubbing his head "But I need to save this world, I need to find out what the world government are up to and why they are doing it. More importantly, I need to find the man who killed my mother and make him pay!"
"Your mind is really set then." Cesar says smiling "Well then, if you want to start your search I suggest you go southwest of here to Polemos, at one point there was a mass grave there and if you want answers that might be the best place to start. Here's a map of the far west, you'll probably need it so you don't get lost, and I provided you with some rations so at least you won't starve until you get there. You're on your own from then."
"Thank you Cesar, for everything." Tanshin replies as he faces him and smiles.
"Don't come with that, now go on, get out of here you got some world saving to do." Cesar says as he turns away, wiping a single tear from his face.
Tanshin just smiles and begins to run towards the woods, knowing he has a long and dangerous journey ahead of him. After hours of walking, he reaches the border of Rockwell and Polemos. As he crosses the border an explosion sends him flying, as he stands up to face his attacker he freezes up, his eyes widen.
"You..." He grumbles
Stood before him was the man in the fedora, he looked older but it was definitely him. He lifts up his arm and a bolt of lightning shoots out of his hand, but the man dodges it with ease.
"Ohhh, so it's you." The man replies, with the same evil grin on his face. "You survived huh? Well, that trick isn't going to work twice Technolizer."
"Well then." Tanshin said with a menacing smile "It's a good thing I've learned some new tricks then."
Tanshin moves his arm in a whipping motion, and out of thin air a whip made out of lightning appears in his hand.
"It's time for you to pay for what you did."