User:TJlive800/Ep08 Sneak Peek

(Fade into a mountainside view in the night. A timelapse watches the sky brighten, before the sun timidly peeks out of the horizon. The rapidly moving clouds slow down.)

(The camera suddenly becomes a bit shaky, and looks up. A few tiny white objects soar through the sky, and the camera zooms in on them. They look like shooting stars.)

(Cut to a tracking shot moving through a dark blue mass of clouds. A heavy and loud engine noise is heard, and a spaceship hovers into frame.)

(Back to the sky view, as the "shooting stars" continue to move. The camera then pans down, looking at a glass window to a large wooden house. The camera starts to approach the house in a first-person view. It moves through the glass and staggers around a messy, dark and unlit living room, over two couches and over to a bed.)

(Cut to a stationary first-person shot from the bed. The camera then shakily looks to the right, where two bright red eyes glare at the viewer from the darkness. The scene quickly cuts away to two silent, flashy shots of Thomas firing a gun, followed by computer code overloading a screen, before cutting back to the eyes. A smoky, shadowy and distorted black creature warps into the screen and muddles the view, until an X-ray-like hand swats it away. It fades in static... before a red laser pointer starts lingering atop the bedsheets.)

(CRASH! A bullet goes flying through the window...)

(BANG!)

(Cut to black, right before the camera jolts forward as though a person is getting up, looking at the same living room, but with an intact window. Heavy, shaky, anxious breathing is heard.)

(The camera, still in first-person, turns to the right and sees a silhouette of a hand turn on a lamp, illuminating the tattered bed.)

(Cut to a tank-top-clad Max staring out the window anxiously, his breathing dying down. He shudders violently and buries his face in his hands, sliding them down his face, knuckles meeting, and then placing them on the ground.)

(A distanced shot taken from outside overlooks a maroon-colored rental home, placed atop a protruding piece of land off the edge of a mountain. Beautiful, hilly forests surround the area, lit a golden-orange by the early morning sun.)

(Cut to a close-up shot of a pinkish-red, clear drink being poured into an ornate glass containing a white pill at the bottom. An aged hand picks it up, still in the same shot. A gulp and exhale are heard before the hand places the empty glass back on the table.)

(A silhouette is seen from the back, scratching its head while the camera pans around the unlit room. Cut to a silhouette of a lamp, where an arm comes down and turns it on.)

(From outside and far away, Max is seen walking over to a bench on his balcony and sitting down, watching the sky. He rubs his brow and takes a deep breath.)

(RING! RING!)

(Max sighs and gets up. Cut to a close-up of a cell phone screen lighting up an otherwise dark background. Max's silhouette walks over and picks it up, answering it. He speaks with a low, tired grumble.)

[Max]: Hello?

[Plumber]: (Over phone)': Magister Tennyson?

[Max]: *(Yawn)* Yeah, that's me.

[Plumber]: Sir, we apologize for calling you this early, but there's something we believe you need to see.

[Max]: Can I see the morning sky just for once?

[Plumber]: Sir, it's urgent.

(Max exhales through his nose and gulps, looking around exhaustedly.)

[Plumber]: ...Sir?

[Max]: ...Yeah. I'm coming, tell 'em I'm on my way.

[Plumber]: Will do, sir.

(Beep)

[Max]: (Exhaling, muttering): Never a calm morning 'round here.

(A digital clock begins to count up rapidly from 00:00:00.)

(THE FOLLOWING SCENE IS ALL TAKEN IN ONE TAKE. THERE ARE NO CUTS OR ANY EDITING.)

(The camera slowly pans down over to a holographic blue 3D diagram of a cell block. Six holographic armed Plumbers are frozen in the middle of a synchronized walk.)

(The image "plays", and everything becomes colored to look like real life. The camera begins to slowly and steadily move straight forward without slowing or speeding. The Plumbers inch towards a door... BAM! They get shot, and four black-and-red clad gunmen enter. The camera zooms into the door, while two gunshots are heard and sparks fall from the top corners of the door. The door is pulled upwards and the four gunmen enter a crowded hallway with a violent riot going on in the middle.)

(The four men sprint ahead of the camera, loading their shotguns and firing into the air.)

[Shooter 1]: EVERYBODY, MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY!

(One burly thug shoves the gunman, and the man whacks him with the gun. The other three push through the crowd and gallop their way through mass fistfighting, aiming their guns around and clearing the crowd. The camera passes two silhouettes beating the hell out of each other and the view clears. Two gunmen face the crowd with their guns pointed while the other two blast out the locks on the top corners of the second door, and pull it up. The two guarding men take their post at the door while the camera follows the two main shooters into a large hangar.)

(There are roughly fifteen small Plumber ships parked in front of a gigantic cargo door, with many workers there. Some are seen pulling guns and panicking from a distance... BANG! BANG! They're all shot. The camera then begins to smoothly pan to the right - one shooter blasts out the controls on a desk at the edge of the frame, while the camera follows the second man. He pulls out a grenade and hurls it at a small door, blowing the entrance open. He flips a few switches on his gun, then rains a flurry of machine-gun ammunition on the people inside the room he broke into. The camera slides to the right, still at the same speed, while the man is briefly seen pulling out a bunch of silver briefcases and tossing them onto the floor of the hangar.)

(The camera slowly whirls around as shakes a little while the cargo door suddenly opens. The man at the desk says something into the radio on his shoulder, and the camera looks to the left... the exit door is opened, and a stampede of inmates crowds the hangar. Many open the briefcases and take weapons out, while the camera slowly zooms forward towards the ships.)

(Inmates board their aircraft, and jet thrusts are heard firing up while the camera begins to speed up... PHEEEWWW!!! The ships all zoom ahead of the frame... before the camera lunges forward and into the trenches of space.)

(The image becomes blue and holographic again, and the stars flying by come to an abrupt pause, accompanied by a beep. The camera zooms out of the simulation and pans over to a hand holding a stopwatch. The thumb clicks the stop button at 00:04:58.)

(Cut to Cooper, who's looking at the stopwatch and scratching his head. His surroundings display a dimly lit room walled with oddly-cornered, large windows.)

(THE FOLLOWING SCENE IS FILMED THROUGH A HANDHELD CAMERA. THIS MEANS THAT THE CAMERA IS ALWAYS A BIT SHAKY, AS THOUGH IT'S FILMED FIRST-PERSON.)

[Plumber Technician]: Oh, how much was that?

[Cooper]: Four minutes, fifty-eight seconds.

[Tech]: Holy shit, that whole thing happened under five minutes?

[Cooper]: So it seems.

(An automatic door is heard opening, and the camera shakily looks to the right. Max walks in.)

[Cooper]: Magister, good morning! I assume you got our call?

[Max]: (Walking down): Who made that call?

(The handheld camera spins over to the technician, who timidly raises his hand.)

[Tech]: I- I did, sir.

[Max]: I hope you were feeling somewhat reluctant when doing so.

[Tech]: I... (Looks at Cooper) Wh-what, what am I supposed to say to that?

[Cooper]: (Shrugs, smirks) Even I don't know what to tell you.

(The technician just stares blankly in confusion.)

[Max]: (Rubs hands together) Well, now that we got that cleared up, what is so urgent? (Squints) Oh, and can someone turn on the lights in here? My eyes are burning right now!

[Cooper]: Oh, sure thing.

(The camera wobbles to the left as Cooper presses a switch. A low hum is heard, and lights on the floor project a deep blue glow that casts a ghostly illumination from beneath them.)

[Max]: Uh... still a bit dark, don't you think?

[Cooper]: Hate to break it to you, sir, but those are all the lights. You remember, right?

[Max]: You're kidding. Eh, I guess I've just never been here this early. Or at all, for, well, how long has it been?

[Cooper]: (Chuckles) A week, sir.

[Max]: What about since the incident?

[Cooper]: Twenty-six days.

[Max]: And counting. Well then! Cut to the chase for me, please...

[Cooper]: (Inhales) Err... (Exhales, looks around and scratches head)

[Max]: The hell's going on with you?

[Cooper]: (Pauses, exhales again, shrugs) Don't know how to sugarcoat this, that's all.

[Max]: Sugarcoat what?

[Cooper]: (Looks serious for a second) Ben's gone missing.

(Max double-takes and then stares at Cooper solemnly, slowly turning his expression to a glare while the camera zooms in on him.)

THEME SONG

(The last seconds of the prison breakout simulation replay, where the ships are taking off. The video stops, and the camera rises up with Max, who stands up and takes a deep breath.)

[Max]: When the hell did this happen?

[Cooper]: About an hour ago.

[Max]: And you just got word of it now?

[Cooper]: Those guys fried all the security and communications systems. Entirely. It took a while to get them back up, but until then, what ever went down in there, stayed in there.

[Max]: (Inhales, presses hand to eyes) Okay... (Exhales) I have at least a dozen questions, but I'll ask the key ones - what happened after this?

[Cooper]: Well, reports are incomplete, but the team that investigated told me that they surrounded the men, but then the men committed, and I quote, "synchronized suicide".

[Max]: Jesus fucking Christ. (Clears throat) And then?

[Cooper]: And then they just spent time looking for where to repair the servers, et cetera. Got it done in the end, thankfully.

[Max]: And... (angles head, squints) ...why exactly was Ben transferred to the goddamn Labyrinth, of all places? I specifically asked the heads of the detention facilities to keep him in our holding cells, and they take him to our version of Guantanamo without me knowing. Tell me who authorized this, if you know.

[Cooper]: That I'll have to ask about. (Looks at screen) Oh, look at that, I don't! Background detail report just landed in my inbox... (leans down, scrolls through while mumbling random words from the document) Ah, here it is. Says here it was High Councilman Zatark, you know him?

[Max]: (Slams table) Zatark! Of course it was that grudge-holding, backstabbing son of a bitch!

[Cooper]: Whoa. So, you want me to do anything about it?

[Max]: By all means, do NOT. This is between me and him. You get Gwen and Kevin on this. I don't care how much they protest.

[Cooper]: Oh, I already did that. I'm just waiting for an answer.

[Max]: What's that supposed to mean?

[Cooper]: Well, they've rented this little campout cabin somewhere in the woods, out in northeast Bellwood, much like yours, actually. Little honeymoon spot, from what it looks like. Anyways, I visited the place roughly a half-hour ago, with this simulation, some extra prerequisite details, and uh, two bags each containing their favorite breakfast choices.

[Max]: Croissant for Gwen and a chocolate-glazed doughnut for Kevin?

[Cooper]: Impeccable! But yeah, and Kevin behaved like his usual self, told me off, kicked me out. As for Gwen, I wasn't so sure. But I didn't want to wait for them to finish their decision-making couples' banter, so I did them a favor and left.

[Max]: Why would you do that? Were you really that confident that they would come through-

(The door opens, and a security guard walks in.)

[Plumber Guard]: Agent Daniels, there are two visitors here to see you, claim to be here via your invitation? This true?

[Cooper]: (Grins) It sure is. Let 'em in.

[Plumber Guard]: Sure.

(He leaves, while Max and Cooper sit down. Cooper smirks at Max, who cracks up and lets out a chuckle/exhale. A few seconds later, Gwen and Kevin walk into the room with the guard.)

[Gwen]: Grandpa!

[Max]: Have a seat, you two.

(The scene flashes to a more distant shot as Ben's ship is visible, with small, cropped-off and barely visible shapes peeking out the sides of the frame.)

(Cut to Ben snoring while resting against his seat, his blanket having slightly slid off.)

(BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!)

(His systems beep exactly six times, waking him up a little.)

[Ben]: (Murmuring/groaning through sleepiness) I thought I turned off the volume...

(BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!)

[Ben]: Ugh, shit...

(He slightly opens his eyes... the camera goes first-person as a blurry orange color fades to black...)

(He blinks and opens his eyes...)

(BAM! The entire window is covered by the view of a massive asteroid. The camera view opens up fully.)

(Ben jolts up like a foosball figure and grabs the controls, aggressively steering to the left.)

(BOOM! The underside of the shape barely grazes the asteroid and chips off some dusty rock bits while the ship shakes. Ben steers right to steady it...)

(He looks up and around in shock and horror.)

(Cut to a large, open shot of a massive army of ships flanking Ben and dotting the starry screen.)

[Ben]: I've... caught up?

(The first-person camera abruptly looks straight... towards chaos and explosions in the distance, in front of what appears to be a large planet.)

(Cut to a directly overhead map-view shot that slides forward through ships and explosions... and towards a massive orange-and-purple planet, blotched with black clouds and dotted with city lights to look like Star Wars' Coruscant.)

(Cut back to Ben, who's panicking. He looks around frantically as ships are blasted out of the sky and red lasers pass by...)

(The window to his right faces a giant purple electric laser coming towards him...)

(KABOOM! The ship shakes before the screen cuts to black.)