The Business of War

Anime Master (Drillman)

I currently do not have the epic AIM convo, but I can look for it. I think I still have it.
I do have your original offers:

--------------------

This is an offer you will not like...but you won't be able to refuse either.

The SA is knocking on your door. General Cutman has every intention of killing Dr. Cossack and has endless means and inventive minds to do that. Escape plan or not, the fact is that Cossack, without some kind of miracle on his side, will probably not even come close to surviving the next fight.

Cutman's own analytical nature, his general genius, and the forces at his disposal and the powers they command insure that you are not only outnumbered and outgunned, but completely overwhelmed before the battle even begins. Some of your friends are deserting you, some are making their heroic 'last stand' and some are just curling up into a ball until its all over.

Somewhat pathetic really.

And so, I come to you, as a leader of men, as a leader of one of the top ranked Megaman Teams still left in relative cohesion, and as the most trusted bodyguard of Dr. Cossack, with an offer you will not like, nor can you refuse.

Dr. Cossack will live through Stage 4, but not because you'll win, or because he'll escape in some fantastic way. No, he will live because I shall give you a way out. My... abilities are well suited to this sort of use. I can fake the good doctor's death, as well as your own and a few choice others, and then, under the cover of the explosive confusion I can drive Napalmman to create, I can relocate you all to a safe haven of my own, far outside the grasp of either the SA or the RPD. Hell, not even Wily will be able to touch you.

You will be perfectly safe.

I can supply the good doctor with room and board, along with his daughter, and the materials necessary to make your planned changes and upgrades, as well as put you all in the best condition possible. You'll be in top fighting form, even better than you all were before the War began.

I even promise I won't influence any of you at all.

Of course, I have conditions. You must wait in my safe haven, safe, until I allow you to leave. This is not for some nefarious reason, but rather to make your deaths more believable, and cover my own tracks. The General will of course be... miffed if he discovers my plan this early, and it is imperative to the continuation of human life on this planet that I be successful.

Another condition I have is that, once back in action, you do not use any knowledge you might glean in your time in seclusion about me against me until such time as the threat presented by General Cutman is ended. This is for much the same reason as before. I also will request that you do not share any such information with the other Megaman Teams, specifically the Mechanical Maniacs, for what I hope are somewhat obvious reasons.

Realistically, this is not your best option. It is your ONLY option for Cossack's continued survival. I can only hope you accept my offer. You can't, after all, save anyone if you're dead.

-With all due consideration and respect.

Mesmerman

--------------------

Needless to say, I'm going to trust you and the other CC to write our plan into action. Mesmerman is too obsessed with his own genius to keep himself from giving anything too obvious away, ESPECIALLY if I start writing him, because oh god I cannot resist subtle hints at my big plot twists. That said, I believe a nice twist to the story would be the hologram plan (where they try and smuggle Cossack out behind the SA's back to a mobile base) should be hilariously reverse, where the Cossack that acts as bait IS Cossack, and the rest of the faction escorts the holograms.

This does two things. It fixes the mess up you guys have so far in the plan (The CC are Cossacks bodyguards. If they AREN'T with whatever Cossack we happen upon as the SA, the General is smart enough to realize something is amiss) and it gives me the opportunity to screw everyone else on the Cossack faction up indirectly by having you end the thing with Cossack's hologram (the one that escapes safely according to plan) smiling, revealing himself to be a Mesmer robot and then self destructing after taunting them all.

Just to fill my mind screw quota for the Stage.

Thoughts?

--------------------

My response (All questions were sorted in the AIM chat though)

...you really do propose an interesting offer. However, before I agree to ANYTHING I have questions/ comments:

1) Will Cossack, Kalinka, Jay, and Silent Bob (They would come too) be used for your...food is the best word here?
2) There has to be a catch outside of the few things you mentioned. The tools used to upgrade the Comrades...you claim YOU wont influence them, but this would be TOO convenient if you didnt try SOMETHING to the SA's Advantage.
3)I want you to swear (be it Elysium or whatever you consider Holy) that if we do agree to this, you will not change/ alter my friends (You say choice others. I want my entire team, and Regulus to be that choice few) at all! I know your tricks. We do not give a shit about Elysium or the General, or even you for that matter. You claim not influence us...but I want to make sure as hell that there isn't some damn loophole...
4) In the ensuing Chaos, I want Zymeth to be freed from Wraithman. Excluding Ringman, I want my entire team.
5) How do we know that you will keep your word and keep THE REAL Dr. Cossack (Or Jay, Bob, Kalinka, or any of us) alive throughout all of this? And how do we know that the Cossack that you...save... if the REAL one and not one of your tricks?
6) After the ordeal before, why would you consider sparing us?

I would like your answers to these before I decide anything. I am aware that you would like this completely private, which I understand completely, but I assume I will not be able to talk this over with my team about whether to accept it or not. Very well. I agree, yet I DO want to make sure that we are not getting screwed over here.

PM me back. And if possible try to go on AIM tomorrow night 8:30 PM EST where we can talk further if your answers leave more to be desired.

Yours truly,

Drillman.

--------------------

As for Drillman himself...I really tried to emulate the Obi-Wan type character, as the wise leader that balanced out the team, and eventually faction. Of course he is driven by anger due to the loss of his love. Of course, he really isn't a complete pussy about it either.

When he came back to life, kinda, he was less of an Obi-Wan and more of an Anakin (Not the pussy), for now he had the dark side corrupt him. What I had originally planned was that Drill was the backup host for Mesmer. Of course, it turns out that practically everyone was Mesmer.

Jack Vulcan

For most of the war, Vulcan wasn't much of a driving force. God knows I would have liked to work a good bit harder on some scenarios, but not everything can be a winner. He really came through during Stages 3 and 7, though.

The inspiration for those moments of glory were the chance to elaborate on a sub-plot in regards to CrystalChan that reflected my personal life. It's no surprise that I have a very close relationship with Crys, and I poured a good bit of heart and soul into co-writing those two combat scenes with her. The confrontations took a sexual turn, but I doubt either of us feel bad about it.

Now, I don't get asked questions, nor much recognition, but for those two Stages, I felt completely in control. For both of those points in the war, I pretty much took a stern seat as the director and editor. I'm proud of what I and my comrades all accomplished for those Scenarios. They came out very good, all things considered.

The character of Vulcan himself is very subtle, I think. Nothing is too grandiose about him and he really is more of a soldier than some of the Rambo-minded Cossackers from Stage 4. Most of his appearances didn't have an impact on the war as a whole, but the Battle of Elysium was epic, and despite my lackluster effort for most other stages, it was the blaze of glory I was waiting all war to participate in.

A turn that I surprised myself with was the last-minute decision to reveal that Vulcan died at Cossack's Citadel before being revived in his current body. It came out of my ass, but I did consider the idea for a long time. The fact that the Crystalgirl from the previous Ascendant Androids had inherited biomechanical research from her parents gives reasonable stability to say that the technology exists to transfer a human into a full prostehic body, complete with all mortal functions (if you know what I mean).

All in all, he could have done more to be an attention whore, but saving my efforts for the occasional spotlight worked better in the end. It wouldn't have been quite as rewarding to be such a ham anyway. I had no sub-plots to work with beside "Vulcan vs. the Androids" and the Vulcan-Makenshi team-ups. If I went and made myself a Mary Sue like Pluto, I'd have just wound up being some goofball who couldn't be taken seriously.

In short, the war was mostly foreplay, but it had a sweet, sweet climax. Vulcan

Scenarios

STAGE 1
Not one of my finer moments. Surviving Berlin was fun, because we DID get to murderize a couple wannabe godmodders. At that point in the war, Rich was playing Captain Napalmman, which is quite interesting to think back on. Sao Paulo Cannot Stop was a good bit of a bomb, however. I originally intended my single contribution to be a "WIP", set to change once I had better focus. Turns out I got distracted by this thing called a social life and I left myself to an embarrassing right-out-of-my-ass film noir sequence with goggles that did NOT do nothing and some preggo giving birth on the battlefield. Oh well, like I said before... not everything can be a winner.

STAGE 2
Rematch in Alaska was experimental. Maks and I were toying with the film noir thing and Hunter jumped in with Riff. It wasn't a terribly bright idea in the end. We had too much shifting between perspective without the reader realizing who the hell was talking. Raijin's summary of that scenario was blunt and cynical, but he hit the nail on the head. Tyrannical Androids was pretty good, though. Spark showed up out of nowhere and retook his mantle as Napalmman, as I had offered him before the war began. It turned out pretty well, but I wish I was more active. I was straining myself on being active with two sides of the dice seeing how, yet again, I was distracted by a social life.

STAGE 3
This was the first Stage I was truly proud of. When the hat raffle gave us the Androids and Vulcan in the same scenario, I was pumped. Because of my excitement, I automatically took a leadership stance. A surprise while we were writing, was Makenshi and the Comrades wandering in after their previous scenario, but the more the merrier. Things got rocky for me during the editing process when Drill got a little too antsy and posted the incomplete version for all to see. As a result, I myself got a little too antsy and put a good bit of panic into making a hasty bargain with Raijin. Though I had plenty of time to finish the REAL edits, I rushed myself and gave a scenario that was more or less two thirds completely edited. Eh... at least my showdowns with Napalm and Crys were fun.

STAGE 4
I put Vulcan on hiatus, realizing that I worked better when I focused on just one scenario. I wanted to flesh out Gravityman, who I had decided, was going to be my SA alter ego. This didn't happen quite as well as I hoped. In fact, those plans fucking bombed. The Citadel battle happened. God damn was that Scenario a mess. It only shaped up once Rich barged in and absolutely decimated Pluto, who was a MAJOR source of frustration. We had a lot of Yugioh punks who wanted to have a duel and win with the heart of the cards. Quite thankfully, it never happened. I wasn't in the right state of mind to keep up with all that nonsense, so I had no lasting contributions. What I did give was rather embarrassing, and I decided to take a much needed break. The ending was a shocker, though.

STAGE 5
For me, the second installment in the ongoing Vulcan & Makenshi Power Hour was no better than the last one. It may not have been bad, and we did drop the noir crap, but my heart wasn't in it. Of course, the fact that the "Rebel Rebellion" caused the war to become invitation-only was a major factor in this. I only got back into the swing of things after a few weeks had passed. I tried to pull my weight around, but I failed at it because everything was such short notice, leaving me disoriented. Bummer. At least Slaughterhouse was decent.

STAGE 6
Pallbearers was an excellent surprise, seeing how Spark managed to suddenly produce a backstory for Walter. I had little involvement with that Scenario, and honestly, I didn't have to worry about the Ascendant Androids since the Cap'n was quite capable. Again, I let myself get distracted and Bad Enough took a lame turn despite the overall influence it had on the war. There was a scene I'd been waiting a long time to write, which was a swordfight with Quint. I never got around to it, because my distractions demanded my attention. I left it to Gauntlet to finish the scenario. It was anticlimactic, but I appreciate that he mentioned how Vulcan lost because he was distracted. It was true enough for both the character, and myself.

STAGE 7
As with Stage 3, I was in my element. We had three weeks to get it done. First week was planning, and the following weeks were nothing but progress. It all went smoothly sans a few prideful speed bumps, which kinda shows, and although I left a couple mistakes on the final version right at the end, my editing did turn out pretty good. Infamously, I jettisoned Makenshi's contributions at the last minute, telling him to put them in a War Journal. The fact of the matter was that Spark and I both felt that, although related, it was a completely different storyline. To give better focus on both plot lines, I made the decision to isolate the two. The result was a fantastic War Journal that better emphasized Shiken's death and even tied up a couple loose ends everybody had otherwise forgotten about. Again, good work Maks.

STAGE 8
So, it ain't a secret that the 8th and final Stage to the Business of was intended to be MM3-only as far as the action went, but, eh... everybody had a fighting chance to produce Aftermath Journals to tie up any loose ends.

This particular compilation covers the Ascendant Androids in several areas, and last time I checked at 11:30pm on March 31st, one half hour before the War Room was closed, it was the longest of all the aftermaths.

Now, as you may notice under the author credits, Rich was involved in a portion of the project. His part was the first scene, which was written mid-way into WANTED. I named it "Tonight the Stars Revolt!" after one of my favorite albums (not coincidentally, Blast Off to Nowhere is a song from it). The purpose behind the short was to set the team up for future events, but what's brilliant was that I never credited him the first time I posted it. As a result, it went over many people's heads. Well, just to make sure people DID finally read it, I decided to be resourceful and use it for the Aftermath Journal.

During the early stages of the war, Crys and Stryker did a one-off short called "Reasons for Leaving," which brought much-needed dimension to the authors' alter egos. It better explained their status as background characters during the war. Now, when it was first posted on the MM3 forum, many ideas were presented that had been scrapped or reworked shortly thereafter, which I deleted or edited.

Anyway, because neither of those two stories had already been made public anywhere else beside the MM3 forum, I decided to be resourceful and turn them into a pair of flashback sequences for the MM5 Aftermath Journal. Both of them had a relationship to the war, and there was no better way to make sure that the reader got a chance to better understand the team's situation... whether they cared about it or not, I don't give a shit. So nyah.

So, three new segments were made to outweigh the flashback scenes. The first one was titled "Heroes Welcome" and was written by Spark. The character of Walter had found closure at the end of Stage 6, but even then, it seemed like a good idea to outright state that he was going to be a member of the Ascendant Androids. It was my way of telling the reader "Yeap, he was there for a reason."

The second was my handiwork. I never gave it a title, as I always intended it to be brushed under the "Blast Off to Nowhere" blanket. For a long time, I wanted to directly elaborate on Vulcan's relationship with Dr. Cossack through methods other than narration. I wanted there to be interaction between them. Everything seems a little too happy, but hell, we just won the war, so of course everybody's gonna be elated.

As a side note, the deadline for Stage 8 was April 1st, one day before before the third anniversary of my father's death. The relationship between Vulcan and Cossack is not a coincidence. As a tribute, I made the very first recorded mention of Jack's uncle, Kieth, explaining that he and Cossack were very much alike in their personalities.

To further the personal nature of the scene, I chose to narrate it in the first person using Vulcan himself. I feel as though there's more that I could have done, but in the end, I really am my own worst critic, so it doesn't matter. The scene came out being very warm, and that's exactly the feeling I was aiming for. Mission Accomplished.

Now, the final scene is quite the story. Spark produced it as "Last Rites" and it very much sets us up for the next story arc that the Androids will be following. Would I like to share any details other than that? Not a chance, as you can see, we've got a good launch pad for any and all future shenanigans. There ain't no way we can follow up the war and hope to best it, but I'm ready to tell a damn good story.

Seadragon

Junkman

With Junkman, I took what was used in the Drastic Measures series and created him to fit within the parameters of the story. Now, for those who have read any of the epilogues for Drastic Measures will notice that Junkman is probably the most serious member of the team. This fits perfectly with the story. Granted, it wouldn't be easy trying to transition a team more known for it's humor then it's seriousness.

As for the Junk Staff, it was the first weapon created in the Drastic Measures series. Over time, a few of the others got weapons themselves (For example, Turboman's Scorch Saber appeared a few times during the story). But, when I think of weapons, the Junk Staff comes to mind. It's shaped similar to the staff used by Kilik in Soul Calibur, except that it's made of junk that has either come off of Junkman or from junk that's lying in the area.

The addition of two different types, as I call them, came as a way to prepare for the war. I knew that a single weapon probably wouldn't cut it against the Scissor Army, so that's why two different forms were created. The Power Type Axe is based off of the Terror Moon axe used by Asteroth in Soul Calibur, with the exception that the blade is shaped moreso like a traditional axe and not a half-moon shape like said axe. It can only be used by Junkman because of it's weight and the amount of strength it takes to properly use it as an offensive weapon.

The Speed Type Nunchucks never did appear in the story itself, but they play a role as the quick strike weapon for Junkman. It's base was the Falcon nunchucks from Soul Edge/Calibur. The main exception is that it did not have the blades on the end of the sticks. Like I said, it never appeared in the story but it was created.

Now, for myself, the hardest part was to decide the fates of the other members of the team. It was either kill them off or let them stay on and have me write for them. I went with the first option, although it was not an easy choice. But, I thought that giving Junkman a chance to stand out on his own without the other members of Drastic Measures in the way would help him out more because of his solo status.

Overall, I had fun doing this. Granted, there were some bumps in the road, but this was really worth the time and the work put into. I want to thank all who have worked with me on the writing, like Gemini, Naop, and Hunter Chemeleon for the work they did with me. I also want to thank everyone for making this possible. It was a blast to read this and I think that it was a great idea. Hats off to everyone!

Makenshi

Makenshi

War has been a great learning experience for me. I've been trying a hand at creative writing, but it really, really sucked. It's embarrassing to look at all the early ideas I had, which can be seen at the beginning stages of the War. This event worked out all those creative juices, and I've been able to work out so many plans and details about the characters I create, their actions, their backgrounds, and actually feel good about them. Makenshi's background isn't explicitly written out for the public yet, but I wrote up A LOT of references to his backstory anyway in this event. It took a while for me to actually realize how nonsensical it looked to the ordinary reader, so I tried to shed some light on what the hell was going on.

Makenshi is a calm, sagacious person that cares for other people, even if they were on opposing sides. He's got his flaws, though, like being vain and occasionally lacking common sense. However, in the past he was apparently some horrible, evil guy, and underneath his cool exterior the crimes he had committed gnaw at his fractured psyche. Many years ago I wanted him to have that overused evil alternate personality shtick, but I find this approach was much better. I don't know why, but I really wanted this guy to have a seriously screwed up past. I guess it was because people rarely took such an approach.

Makenshi's personality, jacket, and previous hairdo is loosely based off of Jing from King of Bandits. His dual wielding pistols were taken from GunZ, which I don't play anymore but still think it's an awesome game. The variety of elemental bullet cartridges he used were supposed to be reminiscent of Megaman. His personality, glasses, and gunslinging abilities were also taken from Vash the Stampede from Trigun.

The current generation of the Ascendant Androids' armors was thought up of by me, what with the whole watches and having access to two bodies (one being the original, the other their robotic RM forms.) It's really complicated so that it would fit with War, and important parts of the armors' functions come into play throughout the War.

I really wasn't aware that Neptune was not only based on Poseidon, but his design was ripped off of Waveman's. So, I unintentionally ripped off of Neptune when I was coming up with the current design for Makenshi's armor, giving him a fish-like look. The huge spear-launcher named Iormungandr is a modified version of the hookshot Makenshi had before War.

And for the last time, it's pronounced SHY-ken MAWKS. As in shy like timid, ken like the name, and mach except plural. And Makenshi's nickname Maks is pronounced like maximum.

So, in "Predecessor," Makenshi dies in an attempt to kill SA Wave. I've had this planned somewhere in the middle of the War, and I'm glad I still had the opportunity to write up the big showdown. I was a bit reluctant to let go the character I've been using for so many years, but with this I can get a fresh start. Will Makenshi ever come back to life? Does this mean that I'm quitting the Ascendant Androids? The answer will come all in due time.

Nicholas D. Spiegel, Lieutenant Vatnick, Doctor Natalie Beeson, and Makenshi's SF body guards

First I'm going to say that the Captain's name was NOT taken from Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop. But his first and middle initial are taken from Wolfwood from Trigun. It is only a coincidence, but only now do I realize how the relationship between Makenshi and Spiegel is a lot like Vash and Wolfwood. They have a different set of morals and because of that things get tense between them. Eventually though they start understanding eachother.

The names of all listed above are the names of random people I know in real life (though the first names of Spiegel, Vatnick, and Beeson are different.) I was just pulling them all out of my ass to be bit characters that get acquainted with Makenshi, but all of a sudden I wanted to develop them further. Also as a fun fact: the people I named Spiegel and Beeson after are actually female and male (respectively), and their personalities are completely opposite of the Captain and the Doctor. That's just my way of secretly poking fun at them :P

I was originally going to have the bodyguards miraculously start breaking free from their AI restraints and having unique personalities, but thank god I scrapped that and rid them from the story altogether. Vatnick didn't get much attention and Beeson only started having character development at the end, but I started to really get into fleshing out Spiegel, starting with having his father be the maniacal cyborg in "Hellmetal Zoo: The Fields of Mars!" (and before I forget, I have Avi to thank for coming up with Dr. Wolfland's name, while I in turn along with Seadragon named the love-to-hate politician she thought up, Hugo Jorgunsson.) And now, his personality has made a complete 180 since the war, and I plan to have him as a prominent supporting character in the Androids' mythos.

SA Wave

Wow, this guy is totally fucked up. His personality is based on Kefka from Final Fantasy 6 and Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist, and I pretty much tried to do everything in my power to make the reader go, "Holy shit, this guy is BEYOND batshit crazy." I also wanted to give him a fearsome aura, with all the gruesome ways he kills his victims and his inappropriate attitude. He's childish, but then people started to write him as being nauseatingly pouty. So I decided to put him in a downward spiral of madness, making him much more cruel and sadistic, and making him snarl instead of whine. It's best not to try and understand what the hell goes on in this guy's mind. Basically, I had to let my cuh-razy imagination run lose when thinking of what his actions would be.

The design was thought up of by Rich. Along the course of the event what he could and could not do was put into question, and we had to get into all this chemistry and physics stuff. His mere existence is a sin against nature and physics, which made things even more complicated. Thankfully we got passed that though, and I did learn some things about chemistry, so the debating wasn't a complete loss.

A lot of SA Wave's attacks are derived from Venom in Marvel VS Capcom 2.

Pride

Eh, I mainly put him in here to be sort of a wild card, and he certainly saved me the headache of finding a plot device for Makenshi to receive his armor. I had the feeling this character was causing a stir amongst the orchestrators of this event, especially being that it appeared like he was random non-epilogueverse character I pulled outta my ass, so I tried minimizing his participation in the War as much as possible. His hounds were supposed to be a pride of lions (har har,) but after playing some Resident Evil..... yeah.

Prior to War he states that he used to be extremely powerful but lost his abilities, reflecting a fallen angel like Lucifer was. I considered him with an electric guitar/rocket launcher as a primary weapon before I was aware of Harp Note from Megaman Star Force's existence, but when I did play that game I decided to follow through with it. His appearance is based on the manga version of Zazie the Beast from Trigun. Or maybe he's a male Viera from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance without the huge pointy ears. Hmmm....

Scenarios

Stage 1, "Standoff in Alberta!"
This was a pretty fun scenario, and the most active one I've participated in. Unfortunately, this meant it was more like an RP, making it really cluttered.

Stage 1, "Surviving Berlin"
I chose Waveman to take the form of a giant alligator during the sewer chase because of the urban legend. Look it up.

Stage 1, "Combat in London"
This was a pretty significant scenario for Pride. It's Spark-Chan that makes him start questioning his programmed hatred for humanity. Behind the scenes her words have been gnawing at him, and in the end this ultimately causes him to take a more anti-hero approach.

Stage 2, "The World is my Rome..."
Another RP-like scenario, but at least it was more organized with less filler sentences, right?

Stage 2, "Rematch in Alaska!"
I decided to experiment with writing in the first perspective since other people were doing it. This is the only scenario where I used an existing landmark as the crux of the plot, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

Stage 3, "War of Souls"
Wow, I really got hammy here, especially in Makenshi's fight with Mesmer. That's all I can say, really.

Stage 4, "Hellmetal Zoo: The Fields of Mars!"
I confess: I'm secretly a fan of horror fiction. So when coming up with ideas I said, "I know! We should write something creeeeepy with lots of plot twists!" And so we did, with Avi and I coming up with a lot of the plot and Hunter Chameleon pitching in with creature designs. I don't know where the cyborg animals came from, I just pulled them out of the hat. I came up with Wolfland because I liked the idea of having one-timers being the main antagonists (I couldn't think of any good plots with a simple faction VS faction slugfest)

Stage 4, "The Old Citadel"
Regulus wrote the fight with SA Wave, but I edited it to inject more craziness. 'Twas fun.

Stage 5, "Live and Let Die"
This was the scenario where I fell into a rut. Thankfully we managed to turn it into something.

Stage 5, "Slaughterhouse"
It was kinda disturbing to write all those gruesome scenes with Waveman, especially the "show" he put on for Grenademan. I am so fucked up.

Stage 6, "Pallbearers"
I don't think I wrote anything in this at all. But I must say that Regulus did a very nice job interpreting SA Waveman.

Stage 6, "Silence End"
I was still in my rut and couldn't think of anything as good as Hellmetal Zoo, nor did I really know what important points I was supposed to address, if any. In the War humans have always been helpless before the robots, so I decided to turn things around and have some robocidal rebels brainwashed by a lunatic to hunt down robots. The Black Angel was based on Nemesis from Resident Evil, which you can especially see because of the rocket launcher. Eliza, the girl all the robocidal humans adored but was actually a robot that neutralized Robot Master weapons can represent something that happened in the community that I'd best not talk about (those who were there should know what I'm talking about though). It wasn't intentional, but I guess I was doing it subconsciously.

Stage 7, "Kill Now, For Elysium Awaits"
Yeah, I was kinda wondering why everyone was forgetting that Makenshi wasn't present when they were about to leave. I rectified that in "Predecessor" though :P

Spark Mandrill

Diveman

Way, WAY before the war was brewing, Diveman was originally supposed to be me in real-life as a robot master. However, that concept made it easy for me to put him on autopilot, because hey, I don’t care enough to RP myself. I do that on a day-to-day basis. Honestly, if the War hadn’t come along, he probably would’ve been doomed to be a lame duck.

But when the War came along, I saw the perfect chance to really give my boy some zazz. Hell, I had his persona picked out the day after I got welcomed back on board. I had absolutely zero interest in playing yet another damn do-right superhero who fights for the American dream of truth, liberty, four day work weeks, and kissing the gym teacher. I wanted him to be a more hardened, jaded and cynical character who doesn’t have much respect for anybody. I thought if done right, he could stir up some drama in the Cossack camp, adding a layer of drama and realism to an already desperate team scene. Besides, I thought of it as taking the “What are you willing to sacrifice?” dogma to a new level since he’s throwing out morality, ethics, civility and some hygiene in order to help his side come out on top. So, I stitched together the dirty, underhanded fighting of Blades, the Protectobot helicopter from Transformers, the belligerence and rebellious streak of Jayne Cobb from Firefly, and the original Superdick himself, Superman.

Blades and Superman were the ones who really drove Diveman to being the dick he is. Every scenario he played a major role in, I wouldn’t call the job done until he screwed somebody over something fierce, and enjoyed the hell out of it, like Superman as he’s killing Lois Lane on the cover on his comic books.
For those keeping score, there was infamous bridge incident in Stage 2 that he bragged about to Mysteryman, the school he got blown up in Stage 3, leaving Aquaman to rot after Stoneman walloped him, driving Frostman temporarily insane AND getting Neptune manhandled in Stage 4, and lastly, using Multiman as a suicide bomber factory, then blowing him up to cover his ass in Stage 7. However, I wanted to keep his dickery fun and simple, rather than do something as wild and improbable as blowing up RPD HQ, and threatening a watcher. No offense, but it's kinda overdoing it.

Jayne factored in every now and then too, since I thought he and the crew of Serenity mirrored the Comrades in a myriad of ways, since they’re both outlaws struggling to survive with an oppressive regime nipping at their heels. Hell, some of Diveman’s lines came straight from the show including, “I’ll be in my bunk”, “Big damn heroes,” “I aim to misbehave”, and “They believe they can make the world better,”

The hard drinking and smoking was a simple touch I added in to establish the fact he’s a bad boy. And for the record, the Hemmingway cigarettes Dive pesters Vulc for in Stage 7 is yet another Silent Hill reference. According to a billboard in Silent Hill Origins, Hemmingways are the cigs of choice in that little bit of Hell on Earth, which probably explains why they’re so hard to come by.

By now, I reckon he’s become one of the War’s more infamous characters. The only thing he has in common with me is my real name, and that’s it. I only wish is that I didn’t get off my ass to join in the War before Stage 1 was finished. Because now he looks silly as he berates the other Comrades for graverobbing in the beginning. :P Superman, eat your heart out.

Captain Napalmman aka Captain Asshat

Rich had a lot to do with his design, from his appearance, to his powers, to his demeanor, so he deserves most of the credit. I was mostly just playing off the hand he dealt me. But that said, it was a damn fine hand.

Naturally, Napalmman wants humanity just as dead as Cutman does. But I wanted to imply that Napalmman has given more thought about his cause than just “Kill now, for Elysium awaits!” otherwise, he’s just a foul-mouthed SA Joe who gets to play with cooler toys. That’s where Stage 3 comes in. Even though the banter between Starman and Napalmman wasn’t exactly the most action-packed part of the story, it at least set Napalmman apart from the millions of Joes who are just as single-minded in their belief in Elysium as he is. Rather than loathing humanity simply because Cutman said so, he flat-out tells Jackie Boy that humanity oughta go because they’re gross, smug, panicky maggots that exploit others (namely robots) for personal gain, refuse to learn from their mistakes, and then bill themselves as top dogs. That’s why he initially saw Cutman as more than just his leader; he saw him as his leader, his god, and his father.

Napalmman’s mostly based off of the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. It’s where I got the idea to call his Androids things like, “Shit Piles”, “Pissbag”, “Brickback Mountain” and so on. Hell, that one gruesome (if not slightly improbable) scene where Napalmman is feeding his troops bits and pieces of Gravityman, Chargeman, and SA Joes was inspired by the scene where the drill sergeant forces Private Pyle to scarf down a jelly donut while the rest of the detachment did push-ups. Whenever I was writing for Napalmman, I’d frequently have Full Metal Jacket on in the background as inspiration.

I tried to make Napalmman’s treatment of his troops is mostly a form of…tough love. His job was to drive his troops to be ruthless killing grace of Elysium. By riding their asses, I figured he created an atmosphere of hatred and resentment that in turn, fueled them into being more ferocious killing machines. After all, he’s supposed to be their superior officer, not their friend *glares at Captain Frog* And it worked, at least on some level, since the AA actually achieved their objectives most of the time, unlike certain nameless Captain Frogs *glares at Captain Frog*.

But on the other hand, I wanted Napalmman to genuinely hate his comrades/lackeys at the same time. Just take a look at the shit list in my sig (which he really does have). After all, for a unified force of destruction, they can get sloppier than they should. What kind of perfect killing machines would they be if they end up just as flawed and weak as the humans they were built to destroy? It’d make Napalmman and his forces into a walking hypocrisy. “OH NO! CHARGEMAN’S OUT OF CONTROL!! AGAIN!!” was his fear made flesh. But the real kicker was when Napalmman realized that he was flawed himself when he learned the hard way that Cutman wasn’t the savior he thought he was. I think it went a long way to blow his mind and make him an even more bitter asshole.

Still, I wanted the Captain to every now and then to refer to the AA by their actual name to indicate brief (very brief) shining moments when he’s proud of and/or sympathizes with his troops. The most notable case was when Starman gave his speech on why the evil AA sucked, which really just reminded Napalmman that despite his troops’ shortcomings, in his eyes, they’re (usually) still better than all of humanity. He could still at least respect the fact they were all fighting for the same cause. So he wasn’t cool with using his troops as tools the way Cutman did which is what led him to his disillusionment with his leader. Otherwise, he just would’ve been a spazzy bootlicker that’s oblivious to Cutman’s own hypocrisy. But none of that will give Chargetard a free ride. And that won’t stop him from, say, sticking shards of a dead Gyroman inside the wounds of his subordinates to correct his troops after screwing up a mission.

Generally, I’m happy with how he turned out. In a few ways, he turned out to be a sounding board for some of my…darker views on the world. In some ways, I guess he’s what an SA Diveman would’ve been like. Considering how he treats his troops, Crorq might’ve made for a good drinking buddy. I should’ve played more on his rebellious streak in Stage 7, but then I guess he wouldn’t take control over the Napalm Forces as easily. And in the end, Rich is the one who deserves the credit for this guy. *glares at Captain Frog*

Corporal Walter Henry Garland

For those who (more than likely) don’t remember, Walter was supposed to be Napalmman’s human alter ego. Originally, I was gonna make him the chief rival to Elecman, but that went up in smoke when the S6 closed down. After that, he just sorta…languished. Honestly, I didn’t think he was ever going to see the light of day. But when Vulc told me Walt would get some action once the war was over, I figured Stage 6 was the perfect place for me to plug him in and get him some good ol’ fashioned notoriety.

In Stage 6, he was basically just being introduced, so y’all haven’t even begun to see what’s up his sleeve. I was originally gonna make him an average guy who shit the job of being in the Sandbox. But then he went on to frag not one, but two robots that stage…Yeah…His thoughts and opinions on the Iraq snafu were added in at G’s behest, who suggested that we use the stage to voice our own thoughts on the war. So if I came off as preachy or lame that stage, sorry. But now that the war’s over, I think he’s ready to crack some skulls. And for the record, Walter’s now an avid fan of the Incredible Hulk. In fact, he’s even got a tattoo of the Hulk on his right bicep.

Regulus

Blizzardman

The whole entire point in Blizzardman joining Cossack was the thought that he could work from the shadows of the severe underdogs that supposedly no one was going to pay attention to. Obviously, this blew up in his face as Cossack's Citadel was basically Cutman's first major target of the writing project, and then Blizzard decided to work for Wily, who got taken down the very next stage, so I wouldn't ask this Russian which horse to bet on at the races unless you plan on tearing your hair out in frustration.

Now, some of you may hate Blizzardman, and all I got to say is "mission accomplished!" Ever since day one I've been doing everything I can to get Blizzardman the bastard title on the Cossack faction which I think I've managed to secure, being put up there with Diveman, hands-down the biggest dick in BoW. Honestly, watching Geminiman mention Officer Garmel and immediately assume it was Blizzardman brought a warm feeling to that block of ice located in my chest cavity. And of course, like any true bastard, he's going to get away with it. Overall, BoW has really allowed Blizzardman to flesh out his character and really sets the scene for why he's so messed up in 21XX as Chill Penguin. Had it not been for this event, he might have ended up a much less satisfying character.

Tomahawkman

I basically ghosted for T. Hawk during the whole project, since he's not too big into writing but knows how to roleplay. In case anyone DIDN'T pick up on the blatant homages, T. Hawk is a mixture of several elements from the Metal Gear Solid games. Seriously, I think the only thing T. Hawk didn't do to tip people off was sneak around in a cardboard box. Most of his badass gunslinging moments are elements taken either from Revolver Ocelot or Boondock Saints, given that one of Regdar's favorite weapons is the single action colt army revolver.

T. Hawk didn't get much character development, but that's really part of his charm as a character. There's a sort of purity in his simplicity as a character that you really have to admire in an age where every character has some sort of emotional side-story *coughmyselfcough*. Just about the only backstory T. Hawk has manifests itself in amusing anecdotes shared between friends at the bar.

Unused Material

The Heist

Oh, God... I SO wanted a chance to pull off a heist in this war. I mean, we had a freaking gunslinger on the Armored Assassins and everything. Blame Rich and his bloody Cutman for busting down Cossack's door the moment I got the idea in my head. It's all your fault this story never had a good ol' fashioned hold-up, General Cutman. You really are evil.

Stage 5

I don't think anyone was truly satisfied with how Stage 5 turned out because of all the mass cleansing of continuity that had to be done, but I was disappointed to have to basically skimp out on showing people just how low-down a bastard Blizzard can be when he puts his mind to it. The whole idea basically centered around Blizzardman keeping every last one of his promises, except in a very morbid, Calypso-from-Twisted-Metal kind of way. Basically, Rich had been threatening to come and clean a certain clawed Robot Master's clock for all the smack he'd been talking about how he'll kill General Cutman himself in a one-on-one. I talked with Rich and convinced him to hand their already bleak-looking fate over to Blizzardman, promising a more or less similar end for the characters involved. The plan that Naop and I had agreed on was that Slashman, Pirateman, and I think Tenguman were going to need full reboots on account of Blizzardman. The deal was that in exchange for defending Kalinrad from the incoming invasion, the Cossacks would be rewarded with as much scrap at they could teleport in, as in the max scrap value for each character (Promise no. 1). Astroman is pretty uneasy because by now Blizzard's easily been one of the most shady characters hanging out with Cossack, but since the RPD won't win against an SA commander with superior forces and a fully-assembled Armored Assassins team, he agrees.

At this point, the plot more or less progresses like it actually did in the final cut of stage 5 and we get to the infamous backstab scene. Everyone's loading the mountains of scrap and while it was kinda messed up Blizzard felt the need to light Kalingrad on fire and slaughter the opposition in the confusion, why nit-pick, eh? Job well done, everyone.

This is where things were SUPPOSED to get ugly. Basically, Blizzardman whips out his trump card, the snow-white Devil unit he had specially-made to accompany him to Kalingrad's snowy city, and threatens the Technical Tyrants that if their leader doesn't fight him in a one-on-one match, he'll crush their microchips in the palm of his hand (Promise no. 2). Astroman is obviously not built for melee and Blizzard... damn, what a sand-bagging bastard. He probably still would have picked Astroman even if he WASN'T the TT leader just because he knew this fight would be slanted in his favor. Astro can't use the Astrocrush because his friends are so close by and Blizzardman would inevitably pound the crap out of the selfless TT leader, after which he orders the TT to be dismantled and thrown into the assorted bits of Scissor Joes, RPD troops, and Wily mis-fits. This just BARELY meets the two terms he stated at the beginning of the stage. The first promise was that they'd get a crapload of scrap. Check. The second promise was that he would not allow their microchips to be harmed, but bastard that he is, never specified the conditions of their actual body. Check.

So, ideally, the original end of stage 5 for Kalingrad was supposed to be much more disturbing and serve to further crush the already dampened spirits of the Cossackless Cossack faction. It's not a horrible travesty, though. Stage 5 still had its moments and overall it was pulled off rather well considering we had so much more crammed into the list of things to do.

Hunter

Quint and the 7M

Actually, my role was determined ever since the middle of WANTED. For those who remember, I had long ago written 7M:SA, which featured an Orange Hell-verse version of my Team.
Sometimes around mid-July, I received a copy of WANTED, followed by this message :

Hard to say no to such an invitation, isn't it ?

Anyway, I've been able to develop the Captain in the way I wanted : some guy blindly loyal to the General, but in the end, he put his own interests before the Army's as he betrayed in Stage 7. After all, he was only hired for the job.

Captain Quint's appearance is heavily based off Captain Harlock, a personal hero of mine : cape, pistol-rapier, battleship... However, Harlock never had views of mass genocide as far as I know.

His "database" didn't get as much use as I wanted, and it had some definitive holes (Madrid, anyone ?). But I kept it, as it related to my own "I find something useful-looking and keep it somewhere" behavior.

Originally, no one was going to have ranks and stuff, and Quint's motivation was to get Captain ASAP. Finally, this was changed, and here you had the second half of the SA.

On a final note, this Captain Quint is watered-down compared to his AU counterpart, who was a true Merc (as in, backstabber and all).

Now, switching on the Team itself, I don't have much to say. Nearly all the upgrades are courtesy of the General's brainstorming.

A quick note, however : In the end, the AA and 7M became quite antithetic.

-7M was to focus on CQC and AA on long-range support.
-7M work more like a team, while the Androids are only kept in line by Napalm's orders.
-7M seem reasonable compared to other SA Officers, while AA has at least a half of trigger-happy/psychos.
-7M can follow orders without having to be threatened by Napalm Bombs.

I had somehow intended a larger role for the Marauder, but as Reg pointed it out in Murmansk, this would have been quite the overkill, and the safest way to lose my base. However, it got nice parts (car-jacking by Gem, fight and takeover by CG) so it's fine.

Searchman

With the War's happenings, that guy became more or less Deep impact's second-in-command, and then temporary leader (which was something I didn't want to, as I'm not the leader type IRL). I blame it a bit on my teammates' writer's block.
Evil Energy (and then, Mesmer possession) was an unexpected development. Gotta thank Raijin for it.
Originally, Searchman was to have a new body after Stage Four, but the design got lost somewhere...

The Fatal Five

Them Fatalists are my "babies", and as such, I tend to get overprotective with them, which was one of the reasons they lingered in the background. That's more or less how I write them, anyway.
The batteries part in Stage 1 was to avoid any "Onoes Warpman is out of energy ! Again !" situation. It would have been as annoying as its SA "counterpart". ^^
Finally, they got to shine in the end of the War (defending Murmansk, finding the way to Eden and taking over the Marauder). Quite good for newbie villains, eh ?

Henry

Quite a minor guy. He was only in because Hard suggested me to put him in as a NPC.
In the end, he had quite a carrier : distracting Wily, helping in the Marauder's takeover ... Seems like bartenders never get a free day.

Roland Silver

My incursion in the RPD. He had quite a twisted origin.
Y'see, at the end of Stage 6, I wanted Junk and Slash sent to the closest RPD base. Twas Brussels. I needed some Belgian name, and in an amazing lack of imagination, borrowed the pseudonym of a Belgian friend of mine.
We chatted together about how he wanted me to develop his guy, so I did as planned, and got to keep him alive at the end of Stage 7. Quite cool.

Scenarios

STAGE 1

"Standoff in Alberta" : We got extremely active in this one. Marked the beginning of Evil Energy infection.

"La batalla de Ciudad de Mexico" : Probably the biggest victory of the SA (and Quint) in Stage 1. I mean, there even was a worldwide broadcast. I actually went soft on Saturn's fate at the end.

"Sao Paulo cannot stop" : the beginning of the TT-F5 alliance, and the creation of the Major-Captain Law : "Every Scenario with Jack Vulcan, the Tyrants and one of Hunter's Teams will suffer delays". =P

STAGE 2

"Good ideas" : Having the Mechs in front of us only meant two things :
1-Scenario would be awesome
2-I'd get my ass kicked all the way to Elysium
Both predictions happened for my pleasure. I admit I got miffed by Magnus switching sides, but that was my stubborn "you only leave the SA dead or feet first" opinion.

"Rematch in Alaska" : Everyone else was doing the 1st-person speech. =P
Anyway, Lento got to wrestle a Siege Joe, so it was fun.

"The Clash in Osaka" : Writer's block, apathy and waiting for the other guy to write turned this promising DI meeting into a fiasco. Gotta thank Raijin for wrapping everything up.

STAGE 3

"Winds of Fate" : Quint's series of failures continues. Guess who he'll blame ?
Anyway, this was the beginning of my collaboration with Regulus, which was quite successful if you ask me.

"Bloodbath in Russia" : Delays and stuff had the General allowing me to write his character. The Scenario was written the way a SA assault should always be : quick, straight to the goal, and full of blood and gore.

"Despair of the Lost" : take Osaka. Replace Clown&Tengu by the E8. Similar results.

STAGE 4

"The old Citadel" : Quite a big part. Luckily, I got to write the stuff I intended for my boys. Reg+Hunter work appeared in the scenes with T.Hawk and Enker.

"The Meeting" : I arrived in this Scenario at the last minute, just in time to give details about Henry. He had quite a nice part, I think.

"Hell Metal Zoo" : Brainstorming ended in a "I'll do something creepier than you" contest, which was quite nice. Sensor Rats and Acid Varans were my creations, BTW.
Oh, and just because everyone loves it : "The Fatal Five mounted a bionic shark and rode it to safety." I still have stuff planned for that shark.

STAGE 5

"Rematch by the Rogues" : Murmansk, take 2. Crawling battleship, Spade's antics, Fatal Five winning ... quite the perfect Scenario.

"Slaughterhouse" : When looking at the selection, I was around "Holy sh*t no !" and "Will they kick me not too hard if I surrender ?". Add in the mission of getting Chargeman and I was "Do I have a will or something ?"
Luckily, it ended not so bad for the Impacters. Maks and Sparks are good writing fellows ; it was the latter who came up with the Mesmer twist.

"Live and Let Die" : Twas quite messy to write. I got to drag Hyper Storm back into the SA only because Magnus wasn't still in the War Room at that time.
Still, I edited that scene 3-4 times between "leaving his corpse" and "taking it back to Elysium". But in the end, the Captain won the argument.

"Changing Minds" : My line in the summary is a good sum-up of my feelings. =P Nice Scenario, though.

STAGE 6

"Slaves of the Puppet" : Crazy Impacters, Furmanisms, Cyros and Naop ... another perfect Scenario.

"Are you bad enough ?" : return of the Major-Captain Law. Still, it was a nice write.

"Behind the Scenes" : Fatal five get to do another relevant thing. Have to thank Hard for not yelling at me possibly miswriting his fellows.
And I have to agree with the summary about Eden.

STAGE 7

"The Puppet's Masters" : Sadly, I didn't do much. Cyros and Raijin are wonderful people to work with, though.
I too was amazed by Clown and Tengu's durability.

"Last Flight of the Marauder" : Battleship fighting, final duel with Stardust, death and destruction everywhere... What all true warriors strive for. The fact I switched sides at the last moment counts as a victory, right ?

Cyros

Flashman

When the idea of the War first came into light, well, I was both amazed and disappointed, the latter ONLY because it coincided with the start of the school year. But I doubt after an epic like WANTED we'd want to wait another eight months to start things.

Like all my ideas, having Cyros choose a faction involved taking a bunch of random ideas in my head, listening to some music on my computer, and mixing it all up and such. At one point, I had originally envisioned Cyros leaving the Warriors to work for Cossack. His defection wouldn't go unnoticed by Wily, though, resulting in a very messy breakout. Some divine intervention by the Comrades, plus my years old OC Neonman, would have gotten him out of their along with... well, his original body (hinting at the awesomely mysterious past no one cares about). At this point I would have had Cossack put Cyros back in that body and perform upgrades.

From what I can remember, Starnik was rather keen on keeping the Warriors together, so, after some thought, I realized my earlier idea had it's problems (such that Cyros actually had a reploid form as well), so I shelved the plan and stuck with Team Wily.

Overall, the War was a big experiment with my writing skills. My two War Journals marked the very few (if only) first-person perspective stories I'v written. All the while I wanted to hint at just what occured in Cyros' past, before he became Flashman, but I wanted to keep it at a minimum because it wouldn't give him an advantage in the War. References to him may or may not mean anything in further works.

Cyros, this Cyros that is, is meant to be an ideal version of myself, taking the best traits I have, expanding on them, and suppressing others, but still giving him his flaws to avoid making him too linear. Now ask yourself this: would you like an ideal version of yourself to be in the middle of a genocidal war? To this, I say no, I would not. But I put Cyros through it anyway as a major obstacle to his psyche.

The small mental bender I had him go on was a spur of the moment idea. After Stage 4, Wily had enough time to take everything to his space station, including stuff only he knew about *coughCYROS'BODYcough*, but Stage 5 Scenario A didn't give him ample time to do it again. Like the tagline of the war "What are you willing to sacrifice," I decided that Cyros needed to be hit. Hard. The journal lockdown until after Stage 6 delayed that for a bit, but Despair and Hope was the result.

Only regret with the War is not expanding on the Mesmerman/Cyros idea hinted at in War of Soul. Hardman, that was really an excellent idea. I had brainstormed several AU scenarios in which there was a "Mesmer Cyros," which admitedly turned into a somewhat carbon copy of Mesmer Eigen, only, admittedly, more dangerous, due to a frightenly powerful control over the flow of time. It would have never been canon, of course, but I never voiced the idea until now.

As a summary, the War built up my serious story telling skills, plus gave me a chance to write about characters other than myself. Fall of Dusk was, possibly, the best example of this, as I had to hammer each sentence out on my own. Regulus helped in the background, but that was basically it.

Favorite Scenario Moments

Stage 1, Scenario D: Working with the Maniacs in the first Stage was a shocker. Fun too, despite the lack of Warrior/Mech interaction for the most part. Tried to keep Cyros' antics to a minimum.
~When Chimeraman shows up and Cyros thinks it's Ridley
~Cyros holding Starnik back when he tried to go after Ben (why didn't Starnik blame Cyke?)
~Writing the destruction of San Diego. BOOM!

Stage 2, Scenario C: A scenario with Mesmerman, in the flesh! Or whatever. Again, much of Cyros' antics were minimal, thought he got a one on one fight with Freezeman before Mesmer showed up.
~Cyros' brief encounter with Mesmerman.

Stage 3, Scenario I: The first scenario were the Warriors actually get hurt a lot. Dealing with Mesmer Geminiman was a fun chore in itself.
~Melting Mesmer Gem's eyes with buster fire. Classic.
~Cyros loses an arm. At least it wasn't the one he ma- made crafts with.

Stage 4, Scenario B: This stage was a little strange at points, not to mention delayed. We got out a story at the end though.
~Painted an appropriate picture of Bass; he's a war machine, pure and simple.
~Classi-Cal overcoming Bass. That's one for the ages.

Stage 5, Scenario G: I was involved with this stage at first, but then stuff happened and I didn't get to help much for the ending. Oh well.
~Nothing really. Had ideas for interaction between Flashman and Expressman, but they got thrown out the window.

Stage 5, Scenario F: Woo, this was a fun one! If Cyros was still with the Warriors, they probably would have had thing easier. But that wouldn't make the story as fun, would it?
~The Warriors using fireworks to counteract Wraithman's darkness.
~Wraith beheading Naoshi, only to see he still lives. Didn't expect that, did yah?
~Wraith vs. Quick. Quick blocked the scythe, with his own hand. bad-ass.

Stage 6, Scenario G: The Stage Introduction threw me for a loop (Warriors, working for the SA!?), but I was able to pull off this scenario with Hunter and Naop without a hitch.
~Having Searchman blow up Naoshi at point blank range, only for the latter to ask why he's hurting.
~Crash firing at Grenademan; was able to make him more like his MM8 self.
~Brief mental encounter with Mesmer and Cyros. Hints at further encounters.

Stage 7, Scenario E: Got to work with Hunter again, and Raijin too. Writing the insane Docman's lines was fun!
~Crazy Docman moments. He's INSANE!
~The SA Joe finding his own rifle in his face. Definitely a "WTF?" moment.
~Mesmerman's head in the iron dust cloud. He controls Magnetman, so why not?

Lennon

Geminiman

To be honest, I wanted Geminiman to join the RPD, because let's face it I'm too much of a chivalrous good guy. However from the start Rich had it planned that both Mags and Gemini were going to become Mesmerman's puppets (hence their characterizations in Wanted) and thus my decision of what side to join was already made for me. So some ideas were given by Rich, namely all the new powers Geminiman would get which in hindsight aren't as god-almighty as the AA or Magnetman as all Gem got was a bigger laser, better clone control and swords. He also suggested that Geminiman went into his old Red personality and appearance until Raijin pointed out that Gemini Red was Gizmo's thing and not mine.

Rich then suggested another colour scheme change, this time making Geminiman pure white. I never really thought much on the idea until later on though.

Now around this point you should be thinking, "But Lennon, all these ideas for Geminiman are Rich's what did you do in the whole grand scheme of things" or at least you should be. Well when it came to Geminiman's personality I was the one who thought it up. I decided I wanted to make Geminiman act very unbalanced, basically hurl fits of insane laughter every now and then for no good reason and be just plain old sadistic. Also with knowledge on Mesmerman's methods of twisting a person's perspective of things I wanted him to focus on the character relationships that were the strongest in him, so he soon got an unhealthy obsession with Shadowman and Sparkchan. The original plan was to get Geminiman slowly go out of control on the battlefield and then have Shadowman and Sparkchan try confront him about it out of concern, but Mesmerman would warp Geminiman's thoughts into thinking Shadowman had a thing for Sparkchan and that he must be dealt with. However Classi's decision to have Spark leave and join Wily threw a spanner in the works and I had to rethink it over. I had more or less got something similar with the whole Bride of Wily plot line that was setup in the end, where as with Shadowman that whole rivalry had been set up long ago and did not need much working on.

I then looked back at Rich's white colour scheme for Geminiman and thought of Geminiman's title, since now he had always been the Knight in Shining Armour, but with this new white look I had realised I could call him the White Knight and use it as a bit of a twisted version of his old title.

Also Geminiman was a solo SA commander and as such he had to keep himself up to par with the likes of the AA and the 7M, unfortunately, Geminiman didn't have much in the weapons department by comparison to the AA so I went and focused on his strategic ability, making a series of cunning plans and tricks to use in each scenario to compensate for his overall lack of destructive ability on his own. As such he turned out to be very formidable, I even got a comment during the making of Stage 3 saying that he was beginning to make the rest of the SA look bad and as such he suffered his first loss then.

Although obviously, Geminiman's reign of terror had to come to an end and ideas were bounced around on how to get him back to reality and good again. The central point of it was that it had to involve both Shadow and Spark because from the beginning I made a point that his true weakness was his obsession. In Spark's case she had the power to revert Gemini by either outright accepting him for who he was or outright rejecting him, and with Shadow it was to either win or lose to Gemini. In the end I had Spark reject Gemini's current persona to return his old self back and actually have Shadow lose to Gemini to make him kind of realise that his victory wouldn't bring him any joy.

I have to give credit to Gauntlet for coming up with the Geminiman Vs White Knight Geminiman fight idea. It made for a nice twist that I didn't really think of.

The Holy Order of Elysium

During Stage 2, I noticed I was fighting the WRF in addition to Sparkchan so I had this brilliant idea of this army of Multimen fighting an army of Geminimen, the only problem is Geminiman has a maximum clone output of 6 where as Multiman had an infinite number. So how could I get my way around it? The answer was simple, have the SA Joes be equipped with some sort of holotech that makes them look like Geminiman and program combat data into them to make them fight like him. Thus the Holy Order of Elysium was created.

The Holy Order name was in theme with Geminiman's whole White Knight title in that he'd have an order of lesser knights and also a White Knight could be likened to a Paladin so I figured I should make it a Holy Order, Also I was listening to a lot of Guilty Gear themes at the time and I liked Ky Kiske's one which was titled 'Holy Orders (Be Just or Be Dead)' and so it kinda stuck to me.

After Stage 2, I decided to keep them as my trademark forces, since there was no point to not use them again.

Artilleryman

For Stages 1, 4 and 5 I had most control over Artilleryman's character. From his original creation he had been my favourite member of the Evil Eight (before then it was Clawman who had been in every incarnation of my poorly made custom robot masters) And after it was decided that he was going to be one of the members of the Evil Eight that survived the War and come out looking looking somewhat brand new I found that I had control over him in stage 1 along with Geminiman.

Due to their history I decided I'd use Artilleryman as a bit of a test dummy for Geminiman's new abilities. But also introduce all these new weapons for Artilleryman to keep him in the whole theme of being an Artillery robot. The most notable change in Artilleryman at that point was the addition of the Long Tom Cannon, which is actually a weapon I shamelessly took from the Mechcommander games, it was the single most powerful weapon in the game and also the standard artillery turret you could get deployed so I figured I should give him that and make him a force to be reckoned with.

Stage 1 didn't end well for Artilleryman unfortunately, I was going to have him escape Toronto, but in then I kinda got him too banged up to get him out of there alive and so he suicided himself with the unleashing of the Long Tom Cannon and then come Stage 4 he was back in action, and surprise surprise, Geminiman was also in the scenario.

So I gave Artilleryman his much deserved new look and first victory against Geminiman since as Gauntlet pointed out, he can't ALWAYS lose to Geminiman. Oddly enough, they encounter each other twice in the war and each encounter came out with a different victor so they ended the conflict in a bit of a tie game.

After that Artilleryman was basically covered by Gauntlet, and he brought in his mercenary image full circle having the guy work for EVERY faction in the War and come out with a big paycheck and smile at the end. So Artilleryman ended up being one of the biggest backstabbing bastards in the whole ordeal and I love him for it.

Gauntlet

Shadowman

At the con (and even before then) we were discussing why the ‘Maniacs would ever join the RPD. Because, story-wise, we wouldn’t. I suggested we try to cheat our way out, but that wasn’t very good any way around. Then it was suggested that it just be a mistake Shadowman make. To make Shadow be a bit more human (especially since people write him like he’s Batman).

I agreed. And, moreover, I make Shadow make LOTS of mistakes. Just throughout the first half of the War. These mistakes cumulate in Stage 4 where we get busted for every single bit of sketchy dealings we’ve done in recent memory. After that Shadowman doesn’t play too much of a role until he gets back on his feet.

Cameos

One thing I wanted to do was to use War to enhance some existing characters. Especially the Evil Eight. We had a lot of ideas bouncing around at the con and all those really played out in the first few stages. And now I’d say they’re much stronger villains than what they started out with.

Another idea was to have just about every single villain the ‘Maniacs currently have involved in War in some way. Even Nightmare Top had a plan for War, but involving him just didn’t pan out. Maybe that plan will be shown in an epilogue. But everyone else did get, at least, bit parts. Even Xelloss.

The Sinister Six PC was planned to be used right from the start. However, those guys have new rules governing their presentations, and really … I didn’t want people to get sick of them and neither did Rich. So they just kept being pushed back until the very last stages.

Crorq

One thing we learned at the con was how massively hilarious Crorq could be and how untapped he was. War was a real opportunity to give that guy a personality. Because, when I first introduced him, he was a coolly logical machine. But now I’d say he’s an essential member of the supporting cast.

One rule was that, no matter how obnoxious Crorq was, the good guys could not retaliate. Not without serious reprisals. Crorq is really the ultimate bad boss in War. He’s abusive, demanding, condescending, unappreciative, gross, and (worst of all) one you can’t talk back to. Because … he’ll shut you down. It’s not even a debate with him. He was developed well.

Artilleryman

Well, I may as well cover Arty, since I did write alot of him.

Arty was always my favorite of the E8, mainly because he struck me as a guy who could be very origional. In Unnamed I had him be the only one to escape Robot Jail and survive as a head and when it came down to who we wanted to keep from the E8, Arty was one of them. He'd be the mercenary.

As such I tossed him onto Cossack's faction as a way to make that crew oddly undersirable to Shadow. Just sort of a twist. Although, by process of elemination, he couldn't get very far anywhere else.

Honestly he might have stayed loyal to Cossack's faction too. If only he was paid. And treated with respect. His betrayal really was the cumulation of what others had written and was not planned. After it was ordained it was decided to make him, somehow, be a wild card. Someone who could bring in victory for whichever faction he was aligned with at the moment.

Out of all the characters in the War that I've written, I'd say Arty ended up as the biggest winner. Even if he wasn't paid, he did get redesigned by Cossack. Stole some tech from the SA. Paid a HEFTY sum by Chimera and a goodly sized sum by Hardy and Wily. And, since he was there fighting witht he RPD at Gulch, he came home as a conquering champion.

Unused ideas, Some insight

Since this was Rich's event I kept my ideas nebulous and mostly character driven. The vast majority of these ideas did indeed see the light of day.

Nightmare Top didn't appear, however. Maybe I'll use the idea I had for him in War in an ep, like I said earlier. The Special Forces actually were used pretty well and completely in-line to what I was thinking.

The idea to kill Magnet off with plastic nanobots came very quickly after he was introduced. Not only could Mags not control them, but he couldn't really hurt them either since they were microscopic. Moreover, they would be able to take over his mind and use their own very simple programming to do one thing: kill Mesmerman. So Mesmerman's mind-control would not work on them because they do not think.

But Mesmerman killing Mags with his scyth? That came as I was writing that battle and realised Mesmerman's own holographic form could quite easily dispatch Magnetman. But only after Mags got a good degree of damage done. I wanted all the Mechs on the same side at the very end, even if one was being controlled into it.

Mesmerman was a MUCH trickier devil to kill. He's sentient evil energy. If evil exists he's still alive. So I felt he had to be isolated in order to be killed.

After having to assume command over War, I really wanted to make Rich's origional ideas work. As a way to keep his spirit involved if not he himself personally. And this meant a return to the Orange Hell universe. I then realised this that, if Mesmerman were to follow them there, he would be in the place he most feared - a place without humans.

Another idea involved Mags propelling his satillite far from the Earth in order for him to die.

Another idea involved trapping him within a time warp (Light *did* invent Time Man). This would also isolate him.

It was important, to me, that Mesmerman die here. Because he needed his cummupins. Plus, the idea of making him even MORE powerful nessesitated a follow-up story where we dealt with that, and following up War with that sort of story would be too ... impossible.

In the end Rich made it so the General made a virus to repurpose his evil energy. In my outline the virus' effectiveness would have stopped at just killing all his bodies everywhere while freeing his pawns from his control.

The people we were going to face at Desert Gulch changed ever day until it was actually written. At first we would have run into Nightmare Top (who was set to die in Stage 2, but the E8 replaced him ... felt it would be more effective).

We also might have run into a helf-rebuilt Multiman. I tried drawing him out, but couldn't come up with an idea. I gave this one to the Elysium Battle guys because they were searching for more baddies for their crew to fight. My version would have had added weapons, however. Also he wouldn't be have been slow minded. He would have gotten slower the more of him there were out there. But the way he was handled was fine.

At this point I had planned for Chimera to be a part of the final battle. Rich had suggested he be made into Cutman's personal guard once (during the Heatman rigormoral) and I was going to carry over the idea into here. I did, in a way, but he never actually faced the MM3 team.

I also considered bringing back Rich's Slipstream Angles - Flash Ma'am, Quick ma'am, and the Silver Devil. Well, the Devil was being used in the other scenario and the other two did seem too god-moddy after re-reading the convo we all had in the private forums. But I did give the General devil-armor.

The S6 was an idea I was against at first. But I thought about it and ... it made snece. So I penned them in. Britt and Erick had, evidentally, agreed with Rich that it was okay to be used earlier, so I figured that'd apply to now as well. Origionally I had it so they left with Gary and went to the OH universe.

Heatman was a very back-and-forth case. Ben didn't know what to do with him and, in the end, it was left to me. I tried to have everyone's ideas fit into the end, including all of Ben's ideas (even ones I didn't really like ... his last words were "Avenge me"). However it had been too long since I had seen Robocop 2 and I misinterpreted Rich's ideas (which I did honestly try to put in there). Oh, well. I also used him to kill off the nuclear Wily subplot that had run it's course. It was tacked on and, while it did serve as a nice direction in the beginning, it did not serve a purpose in the end.

At the very beginning Heatman was going to take out Skull Castle and die in his own explosion. The WW were going to convinve him to stop with the General (not Mesmer) pulling his plug because he's not stupid enough to leave someone like Heatman with a choice. Flash was gonna Time Stopper them outta there. But then dying in the cold chill of Space was proposed by either Raj or Rich ((Raijin Note: It wasn't me)) and that felt like the best way to go.

As I recall, Ben had an idea where he was going to have Heat turn ont he General and die of withdrawl. But this was in the middle of a lot of back and forth on his part and I didn't really think that idea was so great. He then thought it would be good to have he (as Pyro Da Fox), Erick, and Britt say goodbye to the MMC because it wasn't "fun anymore." This was too depressing, however. Plus, you don't get to die twise AND say goodbye. I did, however, have him reconfigure himself as Pyro for his very last scene. He also wanted to bring the entire X-Force into play, which was shot down. Not only were they much too powerful (their gig), but this was a classic-series only event. In the end I gave him his wish a bit by having Heat reconfigue himself into the image of Magma Dragoon.

His decision to join the SA at the very beginning was Raijin's idea in order to give Ben a good sendoff (as Ben was planning on leaving the community) ((Raijin Note: It was Ben's idea to join the SA. It was joining War that I urged him to do for a big sendoff. I didn't argue with his ideas otherwise because I didn't want to discourage his involvement.)). But the suddenness of it didn't make sence to me, so stage 1 was ser up to give Ben a way to join the SA that made a lot more sence.

Wily surrendering ... a few people were mad about that, but it made sence. A team-up between the SA and the Wily faction was planend fromt he start. Classi actually didn't like everyone just teaming up and felt one faction should actually be beaten. When plans were laid to have Gemini rescue Sparks from Wily and have Heat die by blowing up WIly's satillite (and eating his plutonium), it became clear that loser had to be Wily. He had no more big plan ... no more direction whatsoever. And it made a lot of sence because that's what Wily does at the end of every MM game. He gives up. It seemed spontanious, but that's because I like to begin every chapter with a bit of a surprise.

Insane Shadow was born out of a conversation Raj and I had while I was writing the intro for the 'Maniacs. Namely that it was stupid for the RPD to expect robots to insall chips in themselves. I, however, saw no problem witht hat and figured it would happen all the time. We argues about it further and I just went ahead witht he idea because it did seem liek something the RPD would do, but it struck me that he was also right. So I had the argument play out in the form of Shadowman doing some chip-installing on himself with disastrous results.

Hardman (Hadrian)

Well, with the last scenario of the War completed, and only a few personal epilogues to be hashed out, I figured it would be a neat idea to collect a few personal notes from everyone about what inspired them to write certain things, or how they got ideas for some of the scenarios. I know more than a few of us were inspired by movies, anime, and video games, and I think it'd be a nice bonus feature to just sort of collect those thoughts, as well as a few of the more interesting unused ideas, in one place to make for an interesting look at the War from the side of the people who wrote it.

Mesmerman

I've been asked a LOT (and I do mean a LOT) about how I got the original idea for Mesmerman, and exactly how, since I'm obviously not a deranged psycho, I manage to make someone who, in only a fraction of the time, became about as feared and brutal as the legendary General Cutman.

The original idea for Mesmerman, and his shape, really, was based on Skeith, the Terror of Death, from the .hack series. It was the difficulty I had coming up with a good way to describe his discombobulated form that made Mesmerman into the artistic headache he is today. Skeith's title as Terror of Death also made the transition into Mesmerman's own title as the Terror of Perception, although that later became the name for his virtual form.

Mesmerman's physical body is actually a Doctor Octopus clone, which is especially apparent in the 'Slaughter in the shelter' sequence in Once and Always. Add in that Mesmerman's body could hack into robots and humans that he got a good grip on was an idea I pulled from Transformers, as those giant robots in disguise could manage the same thing with similar cables that came out of their fingertips (although they never hacked into each other like that...).

His sense of humor and overall demeanor is a combination of the Joker, my own somewhat caustic wit, and a healthy appreciation for music much in line with the original reasons for our hero's name being Rockman. Mesmerman's most memorable line, "Please to meet you" is of course and excerpt from a Rolling Stones song called Sympathy for the Devil. As the idea of Mesmerman and the song came together, he actually evolved into a sort of 'Lucifer' on his own, becoming a being who relied on humanity's evil to survive, which made for a rather odd villain in a continuity littered with crazy robots out to destroy humanity.

Many of Mesmerman's lines are cribbed from other sources, such as the oxymoronic poem he quotes off right before 'killing' Freezeman in Stage 2, and the 'power' speech in Stage 3 taken from, of all people, Xykon the Lich from Order of the Stick. But he also has a number of somewhat profound original speeches, such as the one delivered in Once and Always to Constance and then later when he faces down the Maniacs in space in the last Scenario. Over and over he holds firmly to the belief that change, and the conflict that results, helps him survive, and that in some sick way, he has humanity's better interests at heart when compared to psychos like General Cutman and the Scissor Army Napalmman. His contrasting goals are much more plainly stated as he gloats over the General's crippled form in Stage 7, Scenario A, in classic 'invincible villain' form.

One of the things that actually makes me a little sad is that I, personally, don't have a copy of the grand conversation that took place between Mesmerman and the Cossack's Comerades back in the beginning of Stage 4, where they struck what, at the time, seemed like a mutually beneficial deal to keep Cossack and Kalinka alive. Although I'm willing to bet Anime Master either has or can easily get those particular pieces to put up here if he wants to.

In the original plans for the War (there WAS a plan, yes. Trust me.), Mesmerman was supposed to face down General Cutman, as he did in Stage 7, and then sort of vanish from view, disappearing completely to menace another day under cover of the celebration we figured would ensue when the General fell and the SA was defeated. Obviously, that turned out WAY differently, as now (Spoilers) MESMERMAN is the dead one and the General lurks, now focused on making the Mechanical Maniacs lives a living hell.

Will he be back? Well, this time, no. I can't honestly say I have plans to revive him, and I don't think anyone else is stupid enough to willingly unleash him on the world again. I've got my hands a bit more full with my other character.

Hardman

Hardman's role in the war was a simple and somewhat tragic one, almost exclusively because I focused most of my attention on Mesmerman and his various machinations.

Of all the Team characters associated with the war, Hardman in many ways remained the most loyal to his pre-war alliances (with particular regards to Gauntlet, even when the Mech's leader went a little insane), even going so far as calling Needlegal 'Boss' for her stint as the replacement leader when Shadowman was demoted for insanity. Despite his world literally collapsing around him with the destruction of his Bar and the loss of Cassandra to the hardware being known as Constance, He never really changes, remaining his sarcastic accepting self with a general intolerance for the Scissor Army that's only marginally greater than his distaste for the Shutdown Code. Often, he also takes the most punishment, as seen during his fight with Hyper Storm and Ballade, where he wins basically by falling on his last assailant.

His reward for his loyalty and perserverance in the face of such overwhelming odds are personal heartbreak and a mountain of debt. As part of the team that took down Mesmerman (and presumably General Cutman) he gets some praise and accolades for his work, but in many ways it does nothing to counter the amount of terrible turns his life took while he fought to keep the world alive. In order to prevent Artilleryman from blowing him away in the second act of Stage 7, he sacrificed the barest amounts of financial security he still had so that he could make his stand beside his team, arriving in time to help turn the tide against the super-powered psycho-genius General Cutman (Turns out the the Hard Knuckle is INCREDIBLY effective against ol' scissor head, nearly rivaling the Super Arm in terms of damage). Later, on the Eden station, he gets robbed of the one thing he swore to protect waaay back at the beginning of the war when Mesmerman once more turns Cassandra into a hate-fueled destruction machine that the Mechs have to put down. The resulting wounds combined with the surgery she undergoes to remove Siegema'am from her head plunges her into a coma, with no sign of coming out of it, leaving Hardman utterly alienated from everything he had and held onto from his life before the Mechs.

In a lot of ways, during the war, Hardman mirrors another oversized and somewhat tragic hero, the Thing of Fantastic Four fame, which is only fair considering I based most of Hardman's accent on the Thing in the first place.

Constance and the Siege Joes

Well, I decided a long time ago I needed to revist the idea of Siegema'am, and I got to do that with the War in two ways.

The first was Constance, a latent personality deep in Cassandra's head, who's introduction was a reference to numerous stories about two people who are actually one person and niether realizes it. The most easy reference to make here is Fight Club, although the two personalities never take swings at each other. Her switching back and forth and the references to the 'vigilante' was also a reference to several 'alter ego' super hero types like Batman and Spiderman.

Although how the reference to 'The Derelict' got into Once and Always and what meaning it had escapes me for the moment.

The second was the Siege Joes, which were updated Siegema'am frames with some terrifying weapons and powers. They were created to counter the RPD's special forces, but I'm afraid they never got portrayed that way in some cases. One of the Siege Joe's most effective appearances was in Stage 3, when a squadron of them literally materializes in the center of the Cossack's Comerades formation, causing them all to scatter so that Mesmerman can get to work on them.

Their value as shock troopers, in several intepretations on the word 'shock' again made itself apparent when the Maniacs faced them in Eden, when the Sieges are aided by Cassandra and the mind-warped Benny, managing to score a solid blow against the team by destroying Snakeman's rifle.

Freezeman

When the War got rolling, Turbo decided early on due to circumstances beyond his control that Freezeman had to go down, and bad. Not only would his death drive home the high-stakes nature of the War, but he was also kind of a vacant slot.

So, in Stage 2, Mesmerman makes somewhat brutal an short work of Freezeman, making his death over the top and ugly to provoke Drastic Measures, and then even going so far as to use his body as a shield. Of course, this being Mesmerman, it's all a scam, as the real Freezeman is captured and psychologically tron apart and rebuilt into Mesmerman's personal bodyguard (little more than a host for a pair of returning enemies from Hardman's Bar, the admittedly poorly named Eden and Hades). Unfortunately, before I could really get the ball rolling on Freezeman's side story, I went and disappeared, and Freeze kind of fell by the wayside until he was dealt with alongside the equally unexplore story branch of Syne Co, Mesmerman's terrestrial base.

Originally, Freeze was going to be contained entirely in side stories until his eventual run in and death at the hands of Constance, who would then take his place, as she eventually did, at Mesmerman's side. Fortunately, that all worked out anyway.

Topman

I actually ghosted for Top on a few occasions early in the War, most notably for his appearance in Once and Always, which focused on his self-stated mission of finding Dr. Light and getting him out of RPD controlled territory, and then later when he shows up simply to slap Shadowman around when his friend is going smart-crazy. In both of those instances, Top pretty heavily hits on the idea that the Mechs are a family, and that the war has torn them all apart is something he seeks to fix. Top himself expressed these concerns on the Mechs board when he originally chose to side with Light.

In a lot of ways, his views are a par