-------------
Lead me not to temptation, for I can find it myself.

--
Mr. Fnord

this scene alone killed me

Light, the new avatar of chaos

Yes! Almost makes up for getting the "let's be friends" message yesterday from the girl I was dating. Not quite, though.

-Simonz
I just knew it would be KITT. Sweet!

...I'm now drooling in anticipation of TIA #4. :)

*pshhh!*

All her life she's fought against imperialism. Now, Nene is the expanding Russian frontier.

>"Yo. Yeah. Yeah, I'm back. Gonna need a ride home from the
>airport. What? No, it won't start. No. Nope. You're... just gonna
>have to see it. Okay. Yeah. Long-term parking, green section, level
>5, row 75. Okay. See you."

Ah, I see GENOM are textbook followers of the 'simple threats alongside murder' style of intimidation... *Looks at the Camaro Cube* Actually, that's pretty damn impressive. Points for the liscence plate.

Aqua City - was someone so twisted as to build a little girl Buma to house the black box this time?

>"Just the woman I wanted to see," he said. "I'm about to buy a
>very fast convertible and take it for its first drive, and it's a
>condition of Tony's will that whenever I do that, I have to have a
>blonde with me."

I'd ask if Ben was just joking, but then I remember we're talking about Tony.

The scenes with the construction of Stark Tower was interesting, with some plot details and such... but what got my attention really was things like GENOM's control of the construction industry in Japan, and all the frightening details that presents, and Nenes note of American robots. I'm guessing Japan has laws (Brought in by GENOM controlled politicians) regarding import taxes and such to make it incredibly difficult for any company to try and gain a foothold in Japan.

What are America and other major nations like in regards to robots vs boomers?

>The two men who had attacked him were being beaten back, handled
>with finely programmed martial skill and preternatural strength, by a
>superhero.

At first it was another example of GENOM trying to show a reporter and business competitor his place, but then... the arrival of Pepsiman left me with my first case of snickering so badly I had everyone else at work giving me odd looks.

>"It's Westralian," Zoner said. "I had it flown in on a
>suborbital from Perth.

Never heard that term before... Dare I ask what happened to the land down under?

The barbecue scene was just brilliant. I'm always fond of scenes that're just the main cast taking it easy, hanging out and so forth. The bantering and dialogue was great fun to read. Neo-Soviet Expansionism...

JARVIS! Oh, that was a welcome addition. Along with Friday, it certainly makes for a fun AI cast.

The Linna-Priss Banter in their visit to the Foundry was almost like I imagined. The first BGC video I watched was Revenge Road, so my mental image of those two interacting has always come from the scene with them in the hospital. Linna going to Ben for help with Irene wasn't something I thought of, although honestly, it's obvious. The followup adventures with Irene redefining her limits was a fun read.

>"-That- is the device itself," he said. "It's called an arc
>reactor."

*Snickers* I can just imagine the look on Sylias face at that. The movie just has so many fun ideas in it...

>"nngh, god damn. bright," a voice croaked from the other side
>of the bed. Stark glanced over to see a fold of covers dragged into
>position to ward off the dim glow, leaving only a smudge of dark hair
>visible between comforter and pillow.

And once again, there are the amusing similarities between HL and TIA that bring a smile to a long time fans face.

Irene learning the truth about Kenshiros death was good, especially as it led back into her growing, well, obsession with her job.

The scenes with the building of the Mark 2 armor were interesting, but I can't think of much to say there. I'm a sucker for the world-building details, so I was happy. Plus, it had a Stig style intro, and that just broke me.

Nenes first cyberimplant was a surprise, I'm not really sure why.

And then we got to the moment I knew was coming. It was nice to see Irene not panic and get hunted down so coldly here, as compared to the source material. Sure, she was trying to escape in her car, no crazy fight scene or some nonsense...

... Then my lunch break finished, and two hours later, I come back to find a Boomer waiting for her :P Maybe it's the way you made Irene a character, or the fact she had fighting chance in the car chase, but I honestly hoped she was going to survive. Made it more of a shock when she still died, but I think it's a credit to how well you wrote her into the story that you were able to give it impact even with knowledge of the source material.

And all this led into the first battle of the new Iron Man armor. I liked the rushed launch making for tiny little issues that nearly got him killed. Nene as off-site support just seemed weird, yet more suitable at the same time. I'm curious to see where she goes in this story.

The 'icing problem' solution was a nice movie nod, and a good way of having Iron Man take down the Boomer even with the problems he was having. That said, I really want the Sabers to get upgraded soon, just so they don't get left behind.

All in all, a really fun story, and now I need to find my socks...

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "Here at the Advanced R&D Center it's not a normal fiscal year until we have to save the universe."

Also, I wouldn't trust a perfectly spherical tomato. It's probably up to something.

Polychrome

I dunno, somehow this doesnt quite feel Zonerish enough; then again I've gotten pretty used to mr Inscruitably chaotic as portrayed in UF-FI, so its probobly just a personal visualization error.

> The parking space, which had presumably once contained Stark's
> grey 2019 Camaro, now contained a neatly cube-shaped mass of crushed
> grey metal about four feet on a side, surrounded by a small halo of
> safety glass pebbles. Clearly visible on the front face was a slightly
> scuffed New York license plate.

HUH???

> Stark nodded. "Yup."
> Zoner regarded the cube for a few more seconds.
> "I have to admit," he said, "it has a certain style."
> Stark nodded. "Yup. Putting it back in the same parking space,
> you mean."
> "Yeah."

Well, I cant argue with that logic. It also shows a great deal more resources that one should be wary of over simply having it stolen. Especially if whoever in the ranks aranged for it to be crushed in place.

> Stark got up. "It really does." Picking up his suitcase, he
> turned to get into the Land Rover, then paused and turned back to Zoner.
> "Of course, you realize, this means war."

More of a line I'd expect to see Dough Sangoir, Bob Shroeck's protagonist use, but it still works.

> Oh, and if you could start looking around for another Camaro. Yeah. A
> '69 Z/28, if you can find one. Hardtop. Not yellow. You know what I
> like. Uh-huh. Great. No, that should do it for now. Bye."

Ooo.... a REALLY REALLY oldie but goodie, I see. Then again, given Tony's penchant for cars, I'm surprised that there isnt one in the collection already. On the third hand... I'm investigating this way to deeply. Especially for 3am local.

> "Fatigue editor," Zoner replied, tapping his chipjack.
> Stark shivered slightly, remembering a deeply unpleasant
> encounter with a Russian anti-fatigue chip in Severomorsk a few years
> back. "Those things are dangerous," he said.
> Knowing exactly what his problem was, Zoner shrugged as he got
> to his feet. "I wrote this one myself," he said. "It's perfectly
> safe."

Well, you have already well established that this Zoner is just as much a tech lover as the UF-E version. I just dont see why he felt a great need to use it; its not like he's been keeping the same schedule that TIA Ben has.

> "Just the woman I wanted to see," he said. "I'm about to buy a
> very fast convertible and take it for its first drive, and it's a
> condition of Tony's will that whenever I do that, I have to have a
> blonde with me."

My first reaction to this was TIA you had to be pulling Nene's (and by extension our) leg with this, but then again, when you remember the circumstances under which Tony re wrote it (basicly recovering from one MASSIVE bender) it just could well be the truth!

> "It's a damned nuisance, really," Stark said. "I don't -know-
> many blondes. I haven't been able to buy a new convertible since Dana
> stopped speaking to me in 2030."

Hmm. Ok, either your really selling the joke or it really IS the truth. As I said above, on second thought not really that surprising... though at this point my perceptions of Tony Stark are rather heavily measured against Downey's portray of him from this year.

> Where the Camaro's "tunnel note" had been a doppler-layered
> chorus of reflected high-tuned turbine shriek, the new car made
> practically no sound at all. It produced only a low, faintly eerie
> whistle and an almost subliminal hum, similar to the sound given off by
> high-tension power lines, both sounds all but swallowed up by the roar
> of the vehicle's slipstream.

Kind of lost here. Are you trying to imply that the new Rolls is another all electric, or just that its well muffled? Cant be an Arc Reactor under the hood, that's not available until later on this chapter.

> "You want to talk stuffy,
> this isn't the first Rolls I've had. I used to have a '23 Silver Shade.
> Full-dress limo, the kind you have someone else drive for you. It was
> Tony's pretend-I'm-a-grown-up- executive car. I rode back and forth to
> court in that damn thing for the better part of eight months. Like a
> rolling mausoleum."
> "And then what? You sold it?"
> He shook his head, the smile becoming a little sharper. "Sent
> it to Cousin Morgan after the probate hearings were over. Kind of a
> consolation prize."
> Nene giggled. "Ohh. -Cold.-"

Indeed. Just the sort of thing that warms the cockles of my heart... And I can easily see why Ben would want to be shut of it, since riding it all those months during the probate hearings would have (ahem) driven home the ill ease he felt stepping into Tony's life, even if it was at Tony's bequest.

> that the same was being
> built with pride by Cianbro Corporation of Maine. The sign was also
> adorned with the distinctive logo of U.S. Robotics - and now that Nene
> looked more closely, the construction workers she could see moving
> purposefully around the site weren't construction workers at all.
> "They're all robots," she observed. "American robots."

Cinabro rises again! Must be nice to have a friend in the 'King', so to speak. And just like Ben to stick as many fingers as he can afford in Genom's eye. Crushing a Camero... is there no end to their evil?

> That'd be like letting Russians build the new U.S. embassy in
> Moscow. Which happened."

Indeed. Were they ever able to 'clean' the building? I'm embarassed to admit that while I had a chuckle at the State Departments' gulilebility in the matter, It quickly droped off my rader.

> "Oh. By the way, Henry... "
> "Yes?"
> "Why are the NS-5s wearing hardhats?"
> Rausch grinned. "I started that on a bridge job in Delaware a
> few years ago. It was originally a gag for a buddy of mine who's an
> OSHA inspector, but it got written up in the company magazine and
> somebody at Headquarters liked it. Publicity thing. Makes the robots
> seem more human."

Not that, as he points out in the next line, that they need it as badly as the older models did. Still, its proof that a truely great gag has a life far beyond its original design spec.

> The two men who had attacked him were being beaten back, handled
> with finely programmed martial skill and preternatural strength, by a
> superhero.
> Obeying a deeply ingrained security protocol intended for use in
> protecting designated points-of-sale and repeat customers, Pepsiman had
> rushed to his rescue.

OMG.... Just too Hilarious!!!!

> Pepsiman bowed, then regarded him for a couple of moments with
> its blank silver face. Then, with a dramatic gesture and a trademarked
> sound effect, it presented him with an ice-cold can of Pepsi from
> somewhere within its workings.
> "Yeah," Stark said, pressing the can to his forehead for a few
> moments before cracking it open. "Definitely what I need."

Yup. nothing helps one recover from a stomping quite like a nice frosty beverage!

> "Pepsiman just saved my ass, that's what happened," said Stark
> with a slightly painful smile. "You should give him a raise."

Or give Yamada a lead on some of Pepsiman's harder to find parts. Perhaps you should have TIA Ben have Friday look into that for him?

> "I certainly hope so," said Zoner, deadpan. "Kobe beef isn't
> cheap."

HEH. You know, just the other night I was watching Cat Cora do battle with Art Smith, and she did just that... ground up the american version of Kobe beef to make very very expensive but tasty Cheesburgers (It was Battle Cheddar, you see)

> "I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Sylia replied with
> perfect placidity. "If a small group of mercenaries were contracted by
> the American defense establishment to retrieve a piece of stolen black
> technology, I would surely be the last person to know."

I just gotta wonder, did they have to ride the bus to the base in their hardsuits, just like in the 'source'?

> "I got a rehearsal tonight," she said. "Thought maybe I'd show
> the boys in my band how the other half lives." With a smirk, she added,
> "Maybe it'll motivate them to try harder for the big time."

I was about to make a couple of snarky comments about getting to watch Priss's backside in her concert getup, but they'd see it all the time, and to be honest would have to tune it out and concentrate on their craft, wouldnt they? And it also proves something I've yet to get through my MIL's head... She only buys the super expensive 90ish percent lean stuff; while I buy 80/20 and get better results because, as Alton Brown notes... theres FLAVOR in that there fat.

> "You've ruined me for life," Nene complained from the couch in
> the living room. "Not only am I going to gain ten pounds after this,
> I'll never be able to enjoy a normal hamburger ever again."

I'm with Linna on the first part... no way anyone with either Nene's metabolism is ever going to gain weight unless she's forced to slow down without slowing down her intake. I'd have to agree with the second point. Once you've had the best, the rest just feels like the rest.

> "Yeah, Russian genes," she said. "That means she's a ticking
> time bomb. The second she hits 35? -Boom.- Beware of Neo-Soviet
> expansionism."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

> "In Soviet Russia, cake eats -you,-" Priss went on
> remorselessly.
> "Shut uuuup."

Cant breath... need air!!!!!

> But of course there was no observer to see them, and outside,

Yet another image to add to your impossibly long list of things to draw for us, Phil?

> As such, the familiar
> "hot librarian" model of Friday's avatar (another of Tony's creations,

Definatly this one should be added to your list, even if you never get to the one above. Which also raises a question... Did Tony have Heinlein's Friday in mind, or just a generic girl friday when he wrote her?

> "Can I get your help for a second, lads? I need to crate up Mr.
> Clanky." He gestured to the dull grey mass of the original Iron Man
> armor, which was standing assembled in the corner of the shop like a
> dressmaker's dummy.

Hang on... This was tickling in the back of my brain, but didnt really formulate till this point through on the re read. Now, I'm willing to suppose that my brain has forgotten a large chunk of the chapter 2 (something which I will be fixing later on today...) but I thought that their alliance was stil tenative at best? I suppose that most of the getting comfortable with each other happend off screen during Ben's recovery; then again its not like its soo completely alien, after all it did take a read and a half to figure out what didnt feel quite right. Then again, its not quite as much of a stretch as why the heck they would put the suit back together without Ben in it instead of just packing it away in the suitcase THEN. I mean, I could see having it assembled if it was in the Foundry or the Armory, but in the KS workshop?

> "'Mr. Clanky'," he said at length.
> Stark blinked and eyed him back. "... Yes?"
> Zoner smirked slightly. "That's a Nene name," he declared.
> "Well... okay, and? I mean, this old thing saved my life.
>Twice!"

Seems like more than twice... it was at least twice during the last couple of chapters, and that doesnt include the original escape during 3rd Nam.

> "I traded it for a guitar."
> Stark blinked. Seeing his disbelief, Priss shrugged. "I was
> young and stupid," she said. "In my defense, it was a Mark Knopfler
> Signature Strat."

I dunno, it seems like a fair enough trade to me. And one could argue that in the longer run the Strat would be more usefull, even without it's history.

> If his first important question is what I think it is, she
> thought to herself, I'm going to slap him, I don't care how rich he is.
> But what he asked was, "Can you weld?"

*various giggle/choking sound effects here*
Oh gods... you have gotten SO much milage out of that line, you know that????

> She snorted. "At this point, I don't think I -could,-" she
> admitted. "Even if I hadn't been blacklisted by GENOM, I'd go mad from
> boredom." She put a hand on her hip and gave him a stern look. "You've
> ruined me for honest work in two days, Mr. Stark," she said in a clipped
> tone of mock disapproval. "Quite an accomplishment."

but oh so typical of all the various DC Gryphons. Besides, most OL's only take the job to support themselves until they land their MRS licences anyway.

> a classic
> cardigan-wearing 1950s cartoon secretary in perfect miniature.

I thought Tony went for the Hot Librarian? Ah well, with the right secondary attributes she could be either. And poor Phil so overloaded with images just screaming to be let out. Makes one wish there was a way to download them straight to paper!

> "It looks like a -racing car.-"

Depends on the type of racing, Irene... Unless its a road rally car most racers are actually more streamlined.

> For half a second, the lights dimmed slightly.
>
> Everywhere on Honshu.

HEH. Shades of Real Genius. "But, did we get a charge?"

> "Well, for starters we'll need to borrow a blonde again."

Nani? err... Nene? (snark) Ahem, for someone who a couple of chapters ago didnt seem THAT interested in cars, he's sure starting to channel Tony more and more!

> Priss was the first to speak, deadpanning:
> "Oh look, a Mark V."

Mark, not Mach? oh wait, its red, not white. And thats probobly as much milage as I can GET out of that joke. Though for some reason I thought it was Linna who was the motorhead, not Priss, though I could well be confusing her with someone else's (probobly Bob Schroek) take on her.

> Stark grinned. "Good eye," he said, and then, in an
> appreciative sort of voice, "You continue to surprise me, Miss Asagiri.
> Well done!"
> Priss rolled her eyes. "So you bought an old Tesla roadster.
> Big deal. Call a -press conference,- why don't you."

Ah, a TESLA roadster. Which would imply that its an Electric...

> "That," Stark replied with an inventor's pride, "is the power
> source I promised your sister. Here it is, a working prototype - and
> ahead of schedule, I might add.

AKA the ARC Reactor... the one piece of plotonium the movie did much better on.

> "It means," Priss retranslated, "that once
> he's perfected the arc gizmo and Sylia's retooled our hardsuits to take
> advantage of it, we'll be able to kick five times as much boomer ass."
> "Pretty much forever," Nene threw in.

Nothing lasts FOREVER Nene... but yeah, hardsuits powered by an ARC Reactor will back you long as you care to fight.

> What have you
> wanted most of all since you were old enough to know it existed?"
> Nene blinked and reddened across the bridge of her nose.
> "Ummmm," she said dubiously.

Ice cream? No, wait, thats definatly from Bob Shroeck's version of Nene.

> "No, no," Stark replied, rubbing his face. "Gravity took care
> of that."

Of course it did. It wouldnt want you taking it for granted, Ben!

> "Sure you're okay to ride?" Stark asked.
> Priss shrugged. "You'd know better than me," she said with a
> slight smirk.

Ranger OS Pagefault
(a)bort (r)etry (S)hatter

> The full
> Bob Morton."
> Irene looked faintly confused. "Bob who?"

Hmm. Yet another clue that TIA Ben might be something more than he appears, beyond just 'sprining into existance' back in... oh whatever year it was he got transposed from RL via UF to TIA, but thats something only us meta readers know, or suspect.

> But sometimes in this game you
> have to be patient."
> "Game!" she cried, turning suddenly angry eyes up to his. "The
> man I love is dead and you call it a game?"

It is a game, as in each sides have moves and countermoves available to them, and rules by which each side must obey (Genom's is THOU SHALT NOT GET CAUGHT) In addition, if your going to survive it, you need to start thinking like 'The Worlds Most Dangerous Game', though not neccecarily as over the top as UF Geoff, though we can blame that on Big Fire.

> The completed suit was going to look -hot-... though, as he
> looked over the render on the screen once more, he couldn't shake the
> feeling that it was -missing- something.

Like, oh, a red and gold paint job?

> "Joking. Joking!" Stark said, putting up his hands. "Jeez.
> Give a girl a neuroprocessor and she assumes that you think you own
> her... "

Ah. And here the gun on the table gets fired. (The one about what Nene'd wanted since she'd heard about them, silly)

> Ben had been initially uneasy about the idea of Nene...
> -communing- with Tony's electronic ghost the way he was in the habit of
> doing - running the ROM construct direct on her own neuroprocessor,
> brain to digital neurostructure copy. He always found the experience
> deeply unsettling, and hugely melancholy, to boot.

Ah but thats more because of how close TIA Ben was to Tony, IMO, with probobly more than a bit of survivors guilt as iceing on the cake, as he realizes in another couple of sentances.

> That's fucking cheating, she thought indignantly as the plasma
> beam slashed the right front corner clean off the Evo and all control
> slipped from under her hands. Then there was a momentary impression of
> a highway overpass abutment looming out of the darkness at very high
> speed, and then... nothing.
> Nothing at all.

Ohh..... *Bleep* You know, on my initial read through, I not only agreed with Irene about the cheating part, especially so close to home. Then I thought about the next line, and said to my self... "No, he wouldnt have. She's all right she's gotta be... G wouldnt do that to us." Then I re read the last line quoted here and said "Would he?"

> One of the ones he came up with, aside
> from hanging around the Stingray Building looking for new ways to chat
> up Sylia, was hanging around the Stingray Building with Mackie, fooling
> around with new ways of using Knight Sabers weapons technology and
> fishing for hints about chatting up Sylia.

Zoner's got a crush on the Ice Queen!!! How sweet, and does help cover the integration issue I raised a bit back. And the vengance said collaboration has wroght on the Boomer is most excellent and righeous!

> The Lancer had very advanced crew safety equipment, and Stark
> momentarily dared entertain the hope that Irene had survived the crash.
> People survived, even walked away from, the most dreadful-looking car
> wrecks these days... but one look inside the driver's window dispelled
> that hope immediately.

And here my hopes were shattered just as completely as Irene and the Evo. She wasn't Earl, did she really have to die? Couldn't you have found some other way to propel TIA Ben forward? And how the hell have you managed to make me feel so strongly about a seemingly minor charecter so quickly???

> "Just let him go, Leon. You can talk to him later." Shaking
> his head with a resigned little smile, the younger detective added,
> "You'd think you, of all people, would recognize a man with too much
> anger in him to think straight."

Kettle, thou art Black, eh Daley? Certainly not something that comes up regularly though, as Leon does seem to be able to think straight when the situation demands it.

> "This can never happen again. Reopen search 82K2K and proceed
> with acquisition soonest."

Oooo.... Ok, but one has to wonder just how whatever the object of this search would help stop this from happening again. However, at the moment the gun isnt ON the table yet, though he's gonna be buying it PDQ...

> Without a word, he walked
> to the center of the open area just behind the master console, stopped
> inside a small yellow circle painted on the floor, held his hands
> slightly away from his sides, and said simply,
> "Begin sequence."

And what follows is a very very well done text descriptor of what I am visualising as the same scene from Iron man, right?

> Stark nodded. He'd made the decision to leave that system
> inactive on purpose, reasoning that getting something as unaerodynamic
> as Iron Man to fly would be too complex a task to expect Nene to
> accomplish in simulation before they actually started testing the
> physical hardware. It was going to be the first thing on their testing
> agenda.
> So much for that plan.

Indeed, which is a shame as that sequence was one of the funniest bits in the movie. Ah well.

> Stark listened to Nene's voice for a few moments with a sort of
> detached bemusement, then regained full consciousness, got to his feet,
> and climbed out of the crater, brushing bits of asphalt and gravel from
> his slightly scuffed but fully intact armor.

Hey, your doing a lot better than Downey did... I seem to recall it taking him most of the movie to perfect his landings!

> Iron Man chose none of them. He was in no particular mood for
> subtlety at the moment, and it was both simplest and most efficient to
> just smash the door down. That method also had the virtues of being
> quite noisy and physically satisfying.

IRON MAN SMASH!!!!!! Sorry, I'd just gotten done watching the Hulk when I decided to check in on the message boards on my way to bed... six hours ago now.

> "In Danskins. I feel like I'm being
> stalked by feral aerobics instructors."
> "Linna must feel insulted," Nene replied.

Its bad enough when you consider the alleged primary descriptor/Public opinon of the 33c... but it IS typical of the psyche involved that if they're gonna do it, the outfit will be as sexy as possible.

> Under the false flesh his repulsor blast had stripped
> from its superstructure, it had a metallic structure, like a smaller
> version of a 55-series military unit

Complete with Metalatits? Or is there too much blood in my cafinee stream?

> Caught wrong-footed and with their power cells largely depleted
> by slugging their way through their own pack of 33-series bodyguard
> boomers to get this far

Eh? Oh, right. MK II is also the testbed for the ARC-R in addition to everything ELSE.

> Of course, Priss's didn't
> have the firepower to bring down an enemy like that on her own, but she
> had the maneuverability to keep it busy for a bit and still stand a
> decent chance of escaping.

Yup, this is NOT a favorable tactical situation, because IIRC Priss is the heavy weapons suit of the four.

> In midflight,
> bootsole and back-of-calf thrusters howling, it belted the boomer full
> in the face with a charged knuckle bomber, blasting away a layer of
> armor plating and sending the monstrous mechanoid reeling for a moment.

The only problem with this lovely, powerfull image is that this strikes me as more of a full flight move, rather than a powered jump through the wall; a problem that doesnt become apparent until a paragraph or so further down when he has to hack into the op system to engage sustained booster use.

> Snarling, Iron Man wrenched himself free of the pipes, lunged
> forward with gauntlets open, and...
> ... nothing happened.

At Ben doesnt get instantly clobbered when this happens, unlike Downey. However, up till this moment the weapons system was working fine; while I will conceed that maybe getting backhanded DID break some physical component in the system, what Nene's describing sounds more like a software failure; something which normally does not happen with percussive maintenance unless it happens directly to the drive DURING an access. And why would a system in active use need to be pageswapped to disk and back? Of all the nit's ive picked so far, this one is the one that almost needs attention given to it, I dont understand how it is that the usuall suspects let this one by them.

> "I don't need control," Stark replied. "Just altitude."

Aka... "Oh? How did you solve the Icing Problem?"
"Icing?"

> The Bu-99C "super boomer" was
> intended purely as a ground combatant.

yeah, but I seem to recall that even ground units had at least jump capabilites.. I wouldnt have counted on its NOT having or being able to use them to cushion its rate of decent. Not that it matters THAT much, as clearly the damage TIA Ben does to its central structures means if it tries it pulls itself apart even before it goes splat with extreme predjudice.

> He hit the bay with a towering splash, startling revelers at a
> beachfront rave in Minato-ku, some of whom had noticed the fireball high
> in the sky but assumed it was part of some unscheduled fireworks
> display.

Shades of one of the cut scenes from the movie...

> It took Zoner, Nene, JARVIS, a detailed schematic, and a couple
> of impact wrenches to pry Ben Stark out of the Iron Man armor

"Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."

> "Nene, I love you, but I'm really not in the mood to be lectured by a
> teenager tonight. Why don't you head home, get some rest."

Ah, that loaded L word.... one that will keep BOTH of them up at night once it sinks in as they ponder the implications of its use here. Poor Pepper, she not only loses her Tony, but now Ben too. You really need to find her a nice guy to settle down with G.

> "Good afternoon, Nene Arkadievna Romanova," it said in a
> pleasantly modulated man's voice. "I am the Knight Industries Two
> Thousand. KITT, if you prefer."

And the final payoff.... lessee, who all voted KITT again? I know my vote was for RocketAttack USA, just cause it seemed too outre to be true...

AND, if you think about it, G slipped one by at least some of us. Think about it... I bet the actual notation was Search 82:K2K as in search number 82, ID tag k2k (Knight 2 K)

One final thought... One of the things that strikes me are the number of scenes that feel eyirely similar to ones from the movie... Done deliberatly, or just because the movie did such a great job in places?

Sadly, everything relevant I can think of has already been said.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."

Still, reading through this has given me the best 2 hours I've had this week, so I thank you profusely, oh great author.

--------
We pray for mercy because we would be fools to pray for justice.

-------------
Lead me not to temptation, for I can find it myself.

-----
It would have been an accidental shooting, had he not reloaded... twice.

Looking forward to #4 when it hits the shelves!

Offsides

P.S. It appears that the RSS feed for What's New didn't update, but I don't know if that's a manual or automatic process from the What's New page.

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

>"Iron Man main system...
-program drive!-"
"FINAL FU...!!" Err...

But like always, all the good things must come to an end, and again, I'm left wanting, well, more
Ah well, guess I'll rewatch Bubblegum Crisis and Ironman again to keep me from wanting to much

Rockin'. Now I want a hardsuit, again.

A couple of comments:

Nice job with the musical interludes; they caught me off guard and then I realized it made complete sense to use an Iron Man HUD.

I would also like to say that unlike UF, TIA has a higher on-screen, supporting cast death count. This is not to denigrate either, but to note that someone in the backroom is doing a nice job of making it a grittier universe without making it a more depressing universe. That would be 3 great universes now for Eyrie: UF, NXE, and now TIA.

TIA is also more, um, theatrical? Movie-like? We're not getting a lot of facial expression work (see SOS) or philosophical rants (NXE) but lot of stuff that makes great visual gags. Which is interesting. Was that deliberate or am I seeing something that isn't there?

cheers,
t.

Trigger Argee
trigger_argee@hotmail.com
Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc.
Denton, never leave home without it.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - HST