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== Plot == | == Plot == | ||
In the early-21st century, Earth's environmental concerns have grown drastically more severe. Soon, they will reach the point of no return. Already, simply breathing the air in a major city can be deadly, and the countryside is not much safer. Everyone has their part in it, but the mega-corporations are most at fault; and only they have the ability to act on a scale large enough to halt the devastation. But one group, the [[Butler Institute]], has other, more sinister plans. | ''In the early-21st century, Earth's environmental concerns have grown drastically more severe. Soon, they will reach the point of no return. Already, simply breathing the air in a major city can be deadly, and the countryside is not much safer. Everyone has their part in it, but the mega-corporations are most at fault; and only they have the ability to act on a scale large enough to halt the devastation. But one group, the [[Butler Institute]], has other, more sinister plans.'' | ||
Outside a Butler-owned construction site in the mountains near New York, [[Brodie|a young boy]] tries to destroy a camera on the fringe of the site so that he can play in the woods again. [[Seventh Doctor|The Doctor]] makes a slingshot for him to destroy the camera—a symbolic gesture, but a sign of things to come. | Outside a Butler-owned construction site in the mountains near New York, [[Brodie|a young boy]] tries to destroy a camera on the fringe of the site so that he can play in the woods again. [[Seventh Doctor|The Doctor]] makes a slingshot for him to destroy the camera—a symbolic gesture, but a sign of things to come. | ||
=== Part One: Assembly === | |||
Ace's childhood friend, [[Shreela (Survival)|Shreela]], is dying, her body poisoned by the foul air. She has spent her life as a journalist, specialising in scientific topics. The Doctor comes to her with one last article to publish, and it is a very strange one... but she owes him her life, and she is willing to help him one last time. | Ace's childhood friend, [[Shreela (Survival)|Shreela]], is dying, her body poisoned by the foul air. She has spent her life as a journalist, specialising in scientific topics. The Doctor comes to her with one last article to publish, and it is a very strange one... but she owes him her life, and she is willing to help him one last time. | ||
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While he recovers, the Doctor and Ace meet another new arrival: a girl of similar age to Vincent, named [[Justine Wheaton|Justine]], who breaks into the house. The Doctor arranged this as well, having planted magazine articles that led her here. She is a spiritist of sorts, believing in witchcraft, other planes, and the like. As well, she was traumatised as a child when her best friend was struck by a car and killed; the incident twisted her thinking to a radical form of eco-awareness, in which she blames vehicles and industrialisation for all the world's problems. But this makes her just the kind of person the Doctor needs... In the house, she finds and touches Vincent, and unwittingly unleashes his power, causing two of the cars in the Doctor's garage to explode. Together, they constitute a weapon of considerable power—but the Doctor doesn't anticipate that she will rapidly fall in love with Vincent. | While he recovers, the Doctor and Ace meet another new arrival: a girl of similar age to Vincent, named [[Justine Wheaton|Justine]], who breaks into the house. The Doctor arranged this as well, having planted magazine articles that led her here. She is a spiritist of sorts, believing in witchcraft, other planes, and the like. As well, she was traumatised as a child when her best friend was struck by a car and killed; the incident twisted her thinking to a radical form of eco-awareness, in which she blames vehicles and industrialisation for all the world's problems. But this makes her just the kind of person the Doctor needs... In the house, she finds and touches Vincent, and unwittingly unleashes his power, causing two of the cars in the Doctor's garage to explode. Together, they constitute a weapon of considerable power—but the Doctor doesn't anticipate that she will rapidly fall in love with Vincent. | ||
=== Part Two: Detonation === | |||
The four of them travel to New York. Justine drugs Vincent, and ensures that the Butler Institute's Biostock department will find him and collect him—but, once inside, due to O'Hara's new collection protocol, Vincent's bio-markers trip an alert, and he is sent to O'Hara's home at the construction site. The Doctor takes Ace and Justine to a drugstore which is being robbed—possibly at the Doctor's design. He has arranged for Mancuso and her new partner to respond; and Mancuso is testing a new weapon from R&D, which has been secretly fed to the police by the Institute. She finds that the thieves have a hovercraft for removing their stolen goods; she crashes it, blocking their escape, before she and Breen—her partner—finish off the criminals. She finds that the gun has a life of its own, literally, when it saves her life. While this is happening, Justine takes a capsule that appears to kill her, alarming the Doctor—not because she is dead, but because it's too soon. She had another role to play, and now Ace must do it, by letting herself be arrested. | The four of them travel to New York. Justine drugs Vincent, and ensures that the Butler Institute's Biostock department will find him and collect him—but, once inside, due to O'Hara's new collection protocol, Vincent's bio-markers trip an alert, and he is sent to O'Hara's home at the construction site. The Doctor takes Ace and Justine to a drugstore which is being robbed—possibly at the Doctor's design. He has arranged for Mancuso and her new partner to respond; and Mancuso is testing a new weapon from R&D, which has been secretly fed to the police by the Institute. She finds that the thieves have a hovercraft for removing their stolen goods; she crashes it, blocking their escape, before she and Breen—her partner—finish off the criminals. She finds that the gun has a life of its own, literally, when it saves her life. While this is happening, Justine takes a capsule that appears to kill her, alarming the Doctor—not because she is dead, but because it's too soon. She had another role to play, and now Ace must do it, by letting herself be arrested. | ||
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