In the multiverse of Braneworld, on a planet very similar to that of Earth in the Sound Worlds known as Symphonica. A young man works tirelessly underneath an alien machine. Then the metal doors to the ship hanger open as a chrome humanoid walks in. A streamlined automaton, with a very feminine figure walks slowly as it carries a strange rectangular device. "MASTER ALVIN... ... ... YOU HAVE A PHONE CALL... ... ... FROM YOUR MOTHER," said the robot. For a long while, the boy continues to work on the machine. The robot finally taps his foot; he slowly slides out from underneath the machine and cocks his head to the side looking annoyingly at the android.
"Sterling? Is you vocalizer off?" said the boy.
"I BELIEVE IT IS..." replies the robot rather loudly
"I thought so, you sound so unbelievably robotic?" said the boy.
"YES... ... ... MASTER ALVIN... ... ..." said Sterling, as Alvin is now sitting up with his index finger pointing up towards the ceiling.
"Ah-ha! I just knew it. You know Sterling, I am a machine genius!" The robot nods.
"YES... ... ... MASTER ALVIN... ... ..."
"Remind me to fix you..." Sterling pushed the device into Alvin's hands. "Oh, right mother," said Alvin. "Hello? ... ... ... Yes, mother... I have.... Well, I'm working on the... No... ... Yes... ... ... ... What? But I don't want to go to her party? Yes. All right. I'll talk... ... Yes, I will talk to you later." as he hands the device back to Sterling. He stands up and brushes off his overalls. Then grabs Sterling by her arm and they walk over to a glass-like, clear working bench. "Okay, Sterling, lay down." said Alvin, with a slightly annoyed tone in his voice.
"WILL IT HURT?" asked Sterling. Alvin laughs to himself as the robot lies down on the clear workbench.
"Don't be silly Sterling... even if it were to hurt. You cannot feel it. No 'bots ever been given a sense of touch..." as he begins the machine. Two small robotic arms appear and begin moving across her body. "I think it's because if you did have senses, you wouldn't be able to perform your duties to mankind?" as the diagnostic found the problem circuit. "Ah-ha! There it is! Your A-12, seems it has a short. That's why you're having a problem and cannot control the volume of your voice, course, because of this circuits malfunction it's also giving you that PC voice. And I much rather hear that lovely voice that I gave you." as Alvin places his arms into two spherical orbs, suddenly, four smaller arms extend out from the two scanning arms. "Now, let me just get in there and Zap that problem away, then I can go in manually and solder in a new fiber set." An alarm chimes, as one of the doors to Alvin's think-tank is being breeched. Only a handful of people knew the codes so he disregarded the warning. Their were several more to follow it, twelve in total, as the final chime echoed as the door to the room where he sat opens and in comes a slightly older looking youth. He resembles Alvin in many ways, attempting to sneaks up behind his younger brother. Who is working on their loyal servant?
"What do you want Graham?" asked Alvin as he did not even need to look away from his project.
"What are you doing little brother." as he notices Sterling on the table. "What did you do to my baby?" said Graham.
"I'm doing nothing! Her vocalizer was just, off... and I was." the man cut the boy off and pushes him over taking the controls over for the robotic arms.
"Let's see what Alvin did to you?" said Graham as he immediately sees the problem and begins to move the arms in. "You pinched these together with a different fiber setting didn't you?" as he turned and looked at his brother. "I see you didn't like her default voice... What did you customize its settings to?" as the arms whirled and spun on their joints.
"None of your business. I was doing a fine enough job Graham. So stop messing with her... I don't want her to sound like a machine!" Graham immediately stops moving the arms and took his own arms off of the orbs.
"What would you prefer a robot to sound like? Mom?" said Graham. "These aren't toys Alvin, their tools. Tools to help us and make our lives easier." he turns his head to face his brother's face which has now flushed with his growing anger. He pushes his brother away from the table.
"Get away from Sterling! She is not a tool!" said Alvin, Graham began to grind his teeth as he grabbed his brother by the collar and slams him down onto the table.
"You know if you ever left your little hyperbaric chamber here. Maybe you could have more friends than just the families maid!" yelled Graham. Alvin furious throws a punch, striking his brother in the face. Graham stumbles back as his little brother lunges forward and continues to punch his brother.
"Take-it-back! Take-it-back! Take-it-back! Take-it-back!" as with each declaration he dug his fist again into his brother. Suddenly, his fist is caught; he turns to see Sterling holding his arm. Alvin shocked stands up and looks at his only true friend. "St, Sterling..." he said meekly as he looks down at his brother who nose is now bleeding. Alvin turns his arm becomes his again as he leaves his brother and the room.
*** *** ***
Floating high up over the city hiding inside a large cumulous cloud, a gigantic silver UFO spins in unconditional indifference. From vents along it pumps out its camouflage from this world. Inside a man dressed in a white robe looks over multiple spheres that float around his throne. Each shows the people of Symphonica as they proceed with there daily activities. Some are eating ice cream, others walking hand in hand with their significant other. But all are oblivious to the fact that floating all around the world are trillions of small silver orbs, these are the saucers eyes and ears. Another steps out of the darkness that surrounds the man.
"These things, the animals that have the gall to call themselves human... these things are like the countless others that we've sacrificed to the void. They have a certain, je ne sais quoi about them? Wouldn't you agree Fuehrer?" said a dark haired woman, in a long red button down sun dress, what sets her apart is her set of piercing green eyes.
"Je ne sais quoi, Oration? How about you drop a few persona agents down... Have them collect some Id and let us see if these things are truly worthy to join our Black Cross Empire." as the two share a psychotic laugh. The one in red pulls out a cell phone looking device. Then on all of the screens appear three dark silhouettes.
"Parley! Dissonya! Go and collect as much Id as you can?" as the Fuehrer. "And let no one, absolutely no one get... in... your... way." as the three silhouettes vanish.
"Fuehrer, what shall we do about N.O.T.E?" asked Oration. The man's smile curls maliciously from under his draping hood. The spheres all return back to random Symphonicans humans, which are going about their lives in pleasant bliss.
*** *** ***
Alvin is now standing in his alien bedroom; he is dressing for a social gathering his parents, his mother. He is standing before his mirror adjusting his outfit, which looked like a cross between 18th century aristocrats dress and something the cool kids would be wear during the mid-1980's. He hears a knock on his bedroom door as Graham slowly walks in. "Al... I'm sorry, about what I said... about Sterling... she's... she's not just a tool." as he walks in, the door slowly closes behind him. Walking up to his brother, he helps adjust the puff on his shirt. "Sometimes, I forget, that she has been something more like a mother than our actual mother."
"Don't." said Alvin, rather snippy. "Sterling is the only one in the 'Family' that I care about. All three of you, are so busy that the only thing I can relate too is a five and a half foot tall can of circuits and wires." Graham was beginning to smile at his brother's comment but held his tongue. He grabs Alvin in a headlock and begins digging his knuckle into the top of his head.
"Lighten up, little brother. You know that boyish figure of your will get old fast if you can't laugh now and again." Graham let's him go and he stewing for a moment before smiling to let his brother know that he understood.
They are walking down the hallway that leads to their family parking garage. Which needless to say was the size of a football stadium. It was packed full of inventions their father, world-renowned businessman and inventor Thomas Edison. But that a different matter, Graham was taking his 16 year old brother to a social gathering, what here on Earth we'd call a spring fling or in any case a formal party for all the up and coming socialites. To meet, greet and make connections. Alvin hated these 'parties' with a passion, mostly because 'she' would be there. She being Alexandra Bell, a know it all that usually gave her fathers money to fund the event and for some strange reason she's chosen Alvin to be her personal slave and whipping post to all her other friends.
"Al, maybe she won't be attending this year?" said Graham to help his brother's feelings.
"I doubt that... Ever since mom's forced me to go 'she's' been there." as he shuttered at the thought of her. "I swear if she and her cronies make one joke about dad's research I'll punch her square in the nose."
"Alvin you can't hit a girl." said Graham.
"Oh, I'm not striking a female... I'll be attacking a demi-human, sent from the bowels of the Negative Zone."
"Whoa, there kid. Alexandra Bell is a twit, but a creature from the Negative Zone? Even those things have standards," said Graham as they both stopped walking for a moment, before they burst out laughing.
Outside the Piu Corporation.
A group of elongated silhouettes creep across the parking lot. The shadows reach a guard station as a sleepy eyed man, sits with feet propped up he is watching several monitors. Outside he hears a rustling, he turns for a moment just as a large black claw was the final thing he will ever see. The dark beings flood into the room and swirl amassing as the monitors go off. Then flood like a dark cloud-like mass into the dead guards nostrils, his mouth, even in through his eyes and ears. A moment lapses as the body is suddenly reawakens with a deathly gasps. The body stands and types in a sequence of numbers. Suddenly the roadblocks began to lower. Suddenly the guard looks sick as his skin begin to fill up. Than, exploding covering the room in blood and body parts. The smoke shifts out of the cracks, reassembling into a black silhouette, with porcupine quills sticking out of its back. One more appears looking like a broken metal assemblage of random hand-to-hand weapons.
"Dissonya... how many do you think are in there?" said the weapon monster.
"I can. They're..." said Dissonya as she scans the room with her helmets visor. "Fifteen, no, maybe, Sixteen Id's." the shadowy one form shifts as it returns to it's human form. That being a woman in an orange jump suit, a small golden handled holstered at her side.
"Then I think I can handle these myself. You can head to one of the other hot spots." said the Orange clad woman they share a uniformed salute and disperse.
"For the glory of Fuehrer!" they both say in unison. Then quickly run in separate directions.
Inside groups of men and women worked their days and nights away for the goals of Piu Corporation. The company thrives for and from the ideals, goals for the benefit of all of Symphonican people. Piu was a company of the people by the people for the people. It gathered no income, demanded no tax for their goods. In fact, it should be noted that Symphonica is a world that is driven more to the worlds ever changing needs. A world that is not run by men who thirst for only power or glory, but for helping and nurturing it's people.
Alvin and Graham's father, Dr. Samuel Edison Jr. the current president of Piu Corp. He to is working hard, actually in the middle of the company's revolutionary new mode of exploration into inner space. Code-named the N.O.T.E, it was an acronym for Neutrino Oscillating Tachyon Engine a device that when operational, could puncture a stability channel that, in theory, create a link system so someone could traverse the extra dimensions that exist parallel to our own. But in his personal laboratory he is putting the finishing tweaks on a side project he had begun several months earlier. Letting out a sigh of relief Dr. Edison fell into his work chair. He continues to hold the object of his current obsession.
One of his assistants walks in carrying a stack of pages. The good doctor looks up uninterested at his undergraduate. "What is it Paul? I'm not really in the mood to go through any establishment requests." said Edison. The man continues in and set the stack down on the doctor's desk.
"These are output readouts on the current limitations on N.O.T.E, we're catching a glitch while running the algorithm from station 47 through 62." said Paul.
"Well," said Edison. While only half-listening he looks over the item in his hands. "I'll come down in a while and look over the problem."
"Sir? What are you working on here?" asked Paul. This broke Dr. Edison out of his train of thought and brought him into the now.
"Yes, um, well, I've been having this premonition about... Well, never mind. A pet project, I haven't come up with a good name for it yet. But I think this will answer this ill feeling I have been having. Or at least give me a piece of mind for the future." with that the undergrad smiles sincerely at his teacher and friend. "You know we've made contact with some of the other worlds. I've spoken to the leaders of Machine World and Junk World."
"Weren't their some emissaries riding on a train that looked like an Elephant?"
"You mean Kyoretsu and the Go-Ongers. Yes, a very bright group of people. They were very helpful in my research. But I'm looking to travel even further then they are. Into the realms of the inner worlds." said Edison.
"Hey, do you ever worry that you might be pushing it... Maybe there is someone out there that might find us messing with inner space?" said Paul.
"What are you getting at?" suddenly Paul pulls out a gun that looked ripped right out of a Space Opera books from the 1950s.
"Because the Black Cross Empire does not like opposition." said Paul with his empty hand he tears away his face revealing a petite Asian woman. She winks as she fires a swirling bolt of energy, Dr. Edison never saw the second and third shots as the first entered through his left eye, spiraling out and splattering out of the back of his head. She drops the gun as it sparks and explodes into nothing. She salutes the dead body. "Long live the Black Cross!"
*** *** ***
Alvin is sitting in the back of the room. He catches a glimpse of the girl, which made his hot blood run cold. Alexandra Bell was the daughter of his father's corporate rival. She smugly smiles as she makes her way through the casual party. "I didn't think they allowed your kind here?"
Just then the building shakes. Everyone is knocked to the ground with the tremendous shaking. Then the ceiling begins to crumble above them. Large pieces of ceiling debris fall. Alvin covers his head and as he lowers his hands standing before him are five females standing dead center of the room. The one near the center of the group steps out.
"Evil Foundation-Invasion Squad Discordia asan~jou!" the other four spread out they seem to be searching for something. Someone. Then one dressed in a ninja outfit looked over at Alexandra and Alvin. Her face twists in a sadistic smile as she kicks her way through the people.
"Hey boy, you're Alvin Edison aren't you?" Alvin nods his head. The woman smiles and twirls a small kunai between her fingers. "Discordia Invasion Squad Captain Colloquy, is here to escort you with us." the main doors burst open as Symphonican Self-Defense Force cascade into the room firing a bombardment of energy weapons at the girls.
The five girls spread out as all of a sudden the lights explode and the room goes black. Alvin feels a sudden jolt as the wind is knocked out of him. Attempting to get out of his captures arms he struggles until he hears a frustrated voice of some one very familiar. "Al stop it!" then as they both emerge out of the darkness. He is draped over the shoulder of his brother Graham. He is wearing a power suit, one of the last creations of their now late father. He leaps from the balcony and pumps his legs as he lands on an adjacent building.
Graham continues to run as a hail of windmill shurikens just barely miss them both as he tumbles over a cooling unit on the building. The unit showers them in sparks as a stray shuriken soars by and ricochets off of the cooling unit grazing Graham in the arm. He stumbles forward and readjusts Alvin. "You know you can set me down, right?" said Alvin. He catches a glimpse of his older brothers smile.
"I could? But you wouldn't be able to keep up with me considering I have one of the power suits on." said Graham as Alvin's eyes opened wide with astonishment. Then a few more random shurikens strike the unit they are hiding behind.
"Really? How'd you manage that? I thought it hadn't even been finished yet?" asked the younger brother.
"Obviously, it's still in the testing phase. But it'll do just fine for my impromptu rescue mission. Now let's get going?" as Alvin was readjusted on Graham's shoulder. Then he notices that Graham was pressing a sequence of buttons on the forearm of the suit. The suit begins to vibrate as suddenly the space around them began to change as though they had become much heavier. The ground around them is flying up around them and they were sinking into a dark abyss. Then a shining light rose up as they continue to be propelled downward. Alvin shut his eyes for fear of this blinding light to come. Then as though the earth all of a sudden began to push back they felt lighter.
"It's alright baby-brother. We're home." said Graham as Alvin opened his eyes and realized that they were in fact back at their home. Graham rushes off and leaves Alvin in the receiving room of their large abode. A few tense minutes pass as Alvin is overcome with a gut wrenching of pains. Suddenly he cannot contain himself as he vomits all over his party clothes. Graham comes back right after that and does not, in the least seem surprised by the sight.
"Don't worry that happened to me the first few times. These miniature N.O.T.E jumps can really do a number on your stomach."
"Ugh, I feel so gross." as Alvin begins to look as though he is going to throw up again. Graham hands him a clear blue pill.
"Well, we cannot stay here much longer. Those people probably figure I only have a short jump radius and we'd have to..." just as Graham tried to finish his sentence the entire house begins to tremble. Then as they are searching to see where the disturbance is originating a taloned foot comes crashing down into the room. Alvin falls back on his butt as Graham grabs him by the collar and pulls him awkwardly to his feet. Then the head of a gigantic Spinosaurus as it roars like thunder. As the dust cloud begins to settle in swaggers a delicate feminine figure clad in an orange suit that looks similar to the design of her dinosaur compadre.
"Spinosaurus Ranger, Confabbu has arrived!" said Confabbu and Alvin felt that there is something just not right in the visual he was seeing and he was accounting some of it to the ill feeling he is going through. But the small girl dressed in her dino-uniform but in her hands she is holding a strange looking weapon. A sword that resembles a very rigid large toothed chain saw, the blade itself is about 4-4 and half feet long with a 2 and a half-foot handle. She has it resting on her shoulder as she walks up to the boy with an air of supremacy. Her companion is snarling as it watches the two of them.
Then enters another girl who is looking very frustrated. "Damn it Confabbu! Why can't you be more subtle like Hakai~san."
"Shut up rookie! We're fighting in a man's world, you can't wait around for opportunity like that idiot Shinobi! You have to forge your own destiny and I won't be stuck in this dead-end Invasion Division not with my power!" then the girl's both turn and look around to see an empty receiving room. Then Confabbu let's out a bloodthirsty bellow as she brings down her sword upon a poor defenseless table shattering it into kindling. Continuing with her angry rampage she begins to gouge out the walls with her saw-like blade.
Beneath the house in their father's bunker Alvin and Graham are sneaking through one of the cramped hallways. Plumes of dust cascade down as the lithium ion light shutter to the beat of the destruction above the two boys. Alvin is still feeling a tad sick from his first jump. Too make matters worse Graham was dragging him along at almost a runners pace. That coupled with the tremors above where not complimenting his still fragile state of his stomach. Then the thought popped into his head and he spoke before he even realizes what he is saying. "Graham, where's dad?" this stops Graham dead in his tracks. He turns around slowly and looks somberly at his younger brother.
"Al... ... ... Dad?" Graham is cut off as another violent tremor. Graham shook his head and grasps his brother's hand. A few more minutes of silence pass between them as they hurry through the thread thin passageways. Then, the two stop as Graham let's go of Alvin as he beings to recite the passwords that their father drilled into their muscle memory, his fingers flying over the keys as his eyes watched the list of asterisks grow across the LCD screen. Then the mechanism behind the doors began to whirl, the two boys watch as the large blast doors slide apart, a second set follow suit and a last blast door rise into the ceiling.
They quickly enter as the room opens up into a large more grandiose coliseum sized chamber with a large sleek crystalline cylinder sitting amidst the enormous room looking tiny by comparison. Graham leads them to an elevator shaft as the noise and tremors seem to fade. His brother becomes very tense as he turns away staring at the cylinder that was coming into their view. "Alvin. Dad... Dad's" next the chamber begins to fill with the screeching of warping metal. They are both looking up towards the noise as an explosion erupts overhead. They catch a glimpse of a metallic looking suit and accompanying her is the dinosaur girl, Confabbu. Alvin can hear his brother curse under his breath. As the two look down and the mechanical ones laughs.
"So you guys thought you'd outsmart us? Just thought you'd know that we've done this once or twice." said Dissonya. The Invasion Division's Ensign her suit is a light blue with two bright yellow eyes piercing out from her helmets visor.
"Try more like a thousand times before." said Confabbu. Dissonya scoffs at her teammates comment, slightly loosing her footing. The more brash of the two leaps forward and with a mighty swing severs the cables. Graham turns and grabs Alvin they leap up the suit shimmers as they pass through the elevator land on the floor without any event. Graham sets his brother down who is quickly overcome with sickness Alvin is on the floor but lucky for him he is only dry heaving. He looks up at his brother a look of fear, utter and crippling fright.
Graham begins to bear his teeth as a bellow comes forth. Alvin begins to stand as he looks to his brother now.
"Graham? What? What do I do? Can I..." Graham cuts his brother off mid-sentence. He is holding out an object in his free hand a device, somewhat resembling a microphone but very much similar to the handle of a sword. Alvin looks up doe-eyed and confused.
"Al, you have to take this and get as far away from here as you can." he sees questions beginning form in his baby-brothers mind. But he could not answer them. "Listen. You have to take this. This is the key to everything Dad was working on, his greatest invention. You must run and keep running, so that they can never get their hands on this. The Golden Key to bring forth the Mightiest Song. Become the light to swallow the oncoming darkness!" he lets go of the device, Alvin catching the device just as he is engulfed in light.
As his eyes attempted to adjust he realizes he is now aboard the cylinder and it is in fact a ship. A familiar voice sounds out to him, "Master Alvin, I hope your trip was well."
"Sterling where is Graham?" said Alvin and if his loyal servant could have shown any emotions she would like to have shown him sadness or remorse but her silver mask was impenetrable to the facade known as emotions.
*** *** ***
An explosion erupts as Graham covers his face. As the dust begins to settle Confabbu launches out of the cloud with sword poised swinging at his abdomen. Graham takes a step back as the blade grazes the skin of his power suit. Dissonya smiles as she drives towards him scrapping the blade along the ground sparks flashing as the teeth cut out part of the cement floor. Then out of the corner of his eye a twinkle of light caught his eye as two large windmill shurikens come whizzing towards him. He has neither the time nor the convenience to dodge them because even in evading them perfectly. He would still have to deal with the carnivore drudging towards him with the large broadsword.
So in that instance Graham chose what option seemed best for him. His hand hovers over a strange configuration of keys the suits circuitry begins to glow as it let's out a burst of electrified energy. Halting both his oppressors in their tracks. But he could not breath a sigh of relief yet, for now the suit was counting down to something and he has one moment to spare. He runs forward towards Confabbu and jackknifes her before grabbing her blade and impaling it with all his strength into the ground approximately where the shurikens are flying. Then the suit sounds off, "Hyper Mode power down... 3... 2... 1. Cool Down." the suit fizzes as the circuitry dims and the world returns to its normal speed with Graham looking drained. The clash of metal as the shurikens buzz saw through the blunt side of the sword. Confabbu cursing as she now lay on her back.
Now he would have been washed head to toe in relief but just as he began to let himself smile the flash of metal severed his head from his body. As his head spun around he sees the poised and positioned stance of an assassin of the night. No doubt the assailant who had been throwing the shurikens. She does not smile, in fact there is no emotion upon her face. A cold calculated strike so in this final fleeting moment Graham has but one last lingering thought. Will his little brother stand any kind of chance. The odds were clearly stacked in the opposing sides favor.
The entire room begins to tremble as the cylinder begins to tremble. A high frequency begins to sing out as the three women do there best to cover their ears. The song changes notes a few times before setting itself on a particular pitch, low and high with a somber timber to it. Then the cylinder explodes with a myriad of colors all shades of the rainbow almost singing out the devices song with the spectrums of hues. The trembling intensifies as the song grows louder as the echoes thunder throughout the room. With one final brilliant show it is simply there one second and gone the next. The sound lingers as merely echoes but those to fade into the silence that engulfs the room. The three women remain on looking with bewilderment and shame as they stare amazed at vacant room.