Augmented

Augmented. Universe 11-N Story. Dark Moon Tie In.

A dual time-period story. Half of it following a group of government sanctioned teenagers with high-tech cybernetics to become superheroes in Australia during the mid-1990's. The other half of the story follows our main character as an adult, after he left the hero life behind to become an arguably-amoral mercenary alongside other cybernetic soldiers for hire in the present day. As the story goes through both time periods, show how these idealist young heroes slowly fall from their philosophies and standards as lines shift in their own moral ambiguities.

## Characters

* Asp / Zeta-Rang / Ross Lockehart : (Main Char) (Precision Marksman Mercenary) (Electric Boomerang Gimmick)
* Sigma-Screech / Angelica Lockehart : (Main Sister) ("Fallen" Sister Hero) (Sonic Screech Gymnast)
* Dr. Rach : (Childhood Main Villain Leader) (Big Thief, Theatrical) (Adulthood Trusted Adviser In Elder Years)
* Cobra / Jasmine Silva : (Venom Blade Mercenary / Main Adulthood Lover) (Childhood Mercenary Flirty Rival)
* Ibex : (Merciless Minion) ("Killer" Of Sister)
* Chief Chris Sanderson : (Supervising Agent Of Child Heroes, Friendly) (Adulthood Mercenary Contract Negotiator)
* Viper / \_\_\_ : [Dark Moon Main Hero] (Hand To Hand Combat Mercenary)
* The Scavenger / Python / \_\_\_ : (Weapons And Munitions Expert Mercenary) (Reckless And Brash Mercenary) (Childhood Little Fanboy / Groupie)
* Mamba / \_\_\_ : (Speed And Infiltration Mercenary)
* Rattler / \_\_\_ : (Stealth And Deception Mercenary)
* Boa / Gavin Bettany : (Artillery Mercenary)
* Anaconda / Brock "Burnie" Burns: (Tank Mercenary)
* Coral / Shireen Wilson : (Hacking And Tech-Savvy Mercenary) (Former Childhood Secretary, Not Hero)
* \_\_\_ / \_\_\_ : (Childhood Hero, Retired Safely Soon After death)
* Knight-Lambda / Austin Everett : (Childhood Hero, Stayed With The Life)
* \_\_\_ / \_\_\_ : (Childhood Hero, Turned To Hard Drugs, Rough Life)

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## Detailed Plot

### Mercenary Time Period

* Prologue: Our main mercenary group, The Nest, mostly in civilian clothes, all together in a small cramped office with a Colombian Drug/War-Lord, negotiating a potential escort contract. Briefly and vaguely introduce and describe our leads along with their personality traits. The Colombian Drug/War-Lord is doubtful of their qualifications or why they think they deserve their high price tag. Our leads quickly summarize their special proficients. Finally, our casual cold lead, Ross Lockehart (Asp), simply says that he 'Has pretty good aim'. As the Colombian starts chuckling and cracking jokes about him to his assistant, Ross simply takes the business card from their negotiator, Sanderson, and without directly looking, Ross flicks the card through the air, making a sideways parabola arc across the room, flying through the small fan on his desk between the blades, and it flies inches from the Colombians nose, slicing the tip off the cigar in his mouth, before lodging itself in the wall. After a pause, the Colombian starts cheering and agrees to pay their full contract.
* (Initial Contract, Awesome Action Set-Piece, End with success, question of why not using skills for good, Asp gets bitter, "I've tried the whole hero gig back in the day... It doesn't work out.") (Lead into first Hero Time Period Scene)
* (Meeting with their trusted adviser and close friend [And former main villain] Dr. Rach, now in his elder years and is potentially approaching senility. Ross is clearly the closest to him.)
* (Visiting Angelica Lockehart In Secret; After her death in past)
* (Mission gone bad, Python is abandoned)
* (Retaliation, not paid for mission, against those who presumably killed Python. They have experimental military tech too, making it evenly matched, our mercenaries are nearly beaten, before Dr. Rach comes in, fully suited up one last time, fighting on their behalf, sacrificing himself in the process to save them and help win the day. As he lays dying in Ross's arms, he tells him not to be sad, because at least he is dying on his own terms, before his mind can go any further, and he's dying doing something truly good with his final act.)
* (Viper decides to leave the mercenary life behind once and for all.)

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### Hero Time Period

* (Initial Hero Job, Introduce our Young Heroes. Stopping a Dr. Rach Robbery)
* (Second Jungle Job, another confrontation with Cobra, flirty fighting)
* (Angelica Lockehart's Maiming on Job, end with Ross's desperate cries for help)
* (Ross beating Dr. Rach severely during interrogation, while sister is in critical condition, Dr. Rach secretly giving information for revenge)
* (Ross extra-judicially killing Ibex)
* (Ross Meeting with Bosses, reprimanding, his quitting program)
* (Angelica Lockehart's Funeral, Cobra approaches, offers Ross opportunity as fellow mercenary)

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## Trivia

* The story was one of the very first stories written by the author, Nathan Thornsbury, with the original concept and first partial draft being written while he was in the 7th grade of Middle School.
* The original title to the story was Mecha-Pocalypse, and it only contained the childhood and teenage years, none of the adult mercenary plot.
* It wasn't until almost 7 years after the initial concept work was done for the story and characters that they were revamped, and their characters were hybridized with the Cybernetic Mercenary Group called The Nest, from the Dark Moon sub-universe of stories.
* The revamp of the story was vaguely inspired by the *Umbrella Academy* series and comics.

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