In the beginning

There were two boys.  Each born with a strength of mind, and a weakness of voice.  Raised in distant households.  Little did they suspect their paths would cross.  Little did they expect to find a war.

Enigma

Is a genius ahead of his time.  From the first moment he held a binkie, his mind was focused on the screw.  In an age where information is everything and there is lighting in every wall, he was awed by the legacy of steel, and enchanted by machines.

In his early years, Enigma would create.  He built models and studied designs.  He looked at toys and felt a deeper need for understanding.  To fill their grooves with purpose and bring the ghost to life.

He quickly outstripped any teacher for his age.  Rapidly experimenting and challenging assumptions that would unseat his idols.  He refused certain lessons on principle, and refused any debate that did not start with compromise.

He quickly sealed out his peers.  He began to challenge his guardians.  In a matter of years, his dependence grew anguished and his temper hardened.

Well beneath the radar of politicians, his achievements found the shadow of giants.  Rumor spread with new ideas, and eventually his name began to appear on the lips of the highest courts.

Talents began to seek him out.  While the boy and his parents cared little for their praise or curiosity, the former took to new technologies eagerly.  He could neither hide nor deny his appetite.

Years of schooling soared past in a matter of weeks.  The boy juggled engineering problems like a magician, and integrated solutions on the spot.  He invented new tools in little over a month, having mastered those he was given, and grown tired of waiting for more.

Circuity and metallurgy crossed his path early on, and he advanced to coding and cybernetics a few months later.  To him, his own body was a machine.  It either failed or it didn’t, and he tested many of his resources against it.

His growth was as foreboding as it was impressive, and he was soon apprenticed to the aegis.  The youngest apprentice in the history of the supercarrier.  There the boy stepped up.  He found the dregs of material research and hounded them relentlessly.  He single-handedly advanced critical materials and overclocked the production of the manufactures onboard.

He breathed for the electrically singed air, he lived for the greasework.  He was given his own lab for the handling of his specialized craft.  It was soon said that he never left the room without producing a valuable tool.

It was then discovered that spies had arrived on the aegis.  The boy was mugged as a preteen.  The story bred terror in the minds of the crew, but with it came a rather jarring revelation.  The boy was not simply passionate.  He was mighty.

The culprit was found framed by a mass of mutated industrial robots.  Half of them were removed from neighboring labs, and the heart of the district pulsed with angry malware.  Portions of technology were only operated and powered through webs of glowing blue wire.  An arcane mixture of crystalized mana and smart cables.

Since then, the boy only became more dangerous.  His unwelcome disruption opened his eyes to the militant perspective.  He dove into arms and armors, and developed a special PDA for his forearm that tripled as a com, multitool and armament.

Ago

Is a warrior at heart.  Like Enigma, he grew up having great difficulty speaking with his peers, but instead of closing himself off, he ran and discovered new places to meet and lead others.  He was not above manipulating others to get what he wanted, using double standards, confusion and heavy compromises to bring others onboard.

He loved to move, to see the effort and approach of others around him.  He struggled to understand the problems that they spoke of and encountered, but never let the game rest.  No, instead he wove the theme around them, allowing their decisions and ability to dictate the nature of the game.

Ago is a free spirit and relies on the needs of others to govern his strength.  He too struggled when it came to schooling.  Unable to sit still.  Desperate to learn by doing.  He ran afoul of depression and fugue often, and his spirit faded in a matter of months.

Worried by his plummeting mood and restlessness, his parents sought out support and study groups.  A doctor identified him with having special needs as well as an affinity with mana.  The former suggested an interview, largely held between Ago’s parents and the professor with the boy present.

Ago soon distracted himself with a puzzle box, as well as a lock.  Among other toys, he managed to interact with a spirit within, unlocking impressions of previous holders and opening an otherwise unpickable lock.

Seeing this, the scout passed them again to a science fair, where candidates were chosen to apprentice aboard the aegis.  Through this, Ago wandered rather aimlessly, absorbing specific wisdom and interacting with different stations.

Despite a rather abridged tour of the place, Ago managed to catch the eye of an abnormally high number of tutors.  By the end he was offered an apprenticeship.  Again, one of the younger groups to board the Aegis.

Few who apprentice to the Aegis can actually afford to live there.  Not because of expense; The Aegis is a capital city to itself.  The Aegis is a militant research vessel, with a massive number of factions working to oversee and cater to the other cities in the region.  

Ago spent the first few months of his tenure training his body and reviewing protocols.  Gradually the candidates were whittled down and fitted into roles.  Ago’s inclination for mobility kept him out of a number of these, acting instead as a courier.

Ago’s training turned to martial arts and weapons specialization.  Ago was originally averse to joining the military, and said as much to his seniors.  At the same time, his aptitude and versatility left his masters stunned.

He begrudgingly agreed to run a trial with the knights.  He excelled in all but bureaucracy, and was quickly boosted up to the active roster.  When a group of expedition forces were deployed to suppress a fire, Ago shouldered his way into the mission.  He claimed that he wouldn’t stand by as his home burned and abhorred that any families should suffer.

Ago forged ahead through fire and barricade.  Many would remember the child who waded through flame, embers and backdraft alike.  The explosions that vented through the side of the building and exhausted the blaze in his wake.

He was later promoted to ace, one of the faces of the Aegis’ expeditionary forces.

One story in particular remarks the ‘cloud of gold flecks’ pouring from his shoulders and ‘sword of fire’ extending from his palm.  The very same blade banished flame, poison and menace alike.

Clash of ideals

During the transition into their new rolls, as Enigma began his delve into enchanting, he began to notice patterns in the supplies sent by the Aegis.  He began to see the work of politicians.  Leverage, favor currying, denials and special considerations.

Enigma looked at his technologies and saw that there was a way to better fill the needs of their partners and - as a result - expand their capacity for further compromises.

This came in line with his dabble into focus crystals.  Stones that could interact with natural law, manipulate the elements and influence spirits.  He found a way to restrain and concentrate the flow of energy within a person, granting them clarity of mind as well as concealing distractions.

Enigma upgraded the Aegis standard identity bands with this effect in mind.  He discovered as he was designing it that he could manipulate what fell under the umbrella of distractions.

To render certain problems or parties invisible, and reinforce certain ways of thinking.  Enigma used this affect to hijack control of the Aegis crew, and streamline their tasks.  He learned to work within the safe limits of the mind, and managed communication between branches.  In time he learned that he could send commands through and solve problems much sooner than normal.  He saw the relief flowing through the aegis and knew that his vision of a skillful future was close at hand.

What he didn’t realize from the beginning was that there were those who were immune.  Unable to benefit from his device, either through resistance to mana, a given element or due to personal boundaries.

While these were few among the aegis, there were enough.  Ago among them.  His tech had a fey-touched history.  Maps would change their purpose.  His clearance level would dance on security checkpoints and send him on the strangest paths.  His own mana wore down the standard wristbands.  While Enigma’s upgrade helped to extend its lifespan, the modification didn’t take.  Within a day, his mana would burn through any foreign elemental stone.  Eventually they had one made with his own mana.

Ago saw the impact of the device as a dark cloud for several weeks.  His peers grew quiet.  The orders had less personality to him.  For a while he just assumed that the weather was taking its toll.

He started to notice gaps in protocol however.  Areas where human interaction was the result of error became deafeningly silent.  Bustling corridors became almost empty.  The more he looked the more he remembered the advice of his seniors.  Those measures were taken to keep people safe.

And then he noticed whole swaths of protocol being scrapped.  The few he knew to ask about were swept under the rug.  The more he asked, the more he noticed the mental blocks.  Internal safeguards went silent, and a worried Ago began to contact his superiors personally.

While they respected his observations, there were additional blocks there as well.  Simple words that they couldn’t hear no matter how they were said.

Ago started to rebel.  To make demands that challenged the mental blocks, and refuse or interrupt orders that touched on circular logic.  To his dismay, he could get away with doing an obscene amount of obstruction before someone important stepped in.  Even then, it was as if nothing had ever happened.

His spirit began to wane, and he began to spend more and more time searching his memory.  He began to notice people who were unaffected or bothered by the mental blocks.  At the same time, the insight only agitated him further.  His mana began to spike more and more erratically.

And then he felt it.  Something pointedly dragged through the air, and he felt a pressure from the wrists of those around him.  A very specific point where his own mana gem was located.  His mana sense quickly tried to match any of the mana signatures with the ones he knew.  Magic wasn’t his strong suit, but necessity had raised the stakes.

Ago reached beneath the communication array of his wristband and attacked the channel with his mana. A violent backlash resulted from the effort, and a dizzied courier looked around to find several people worrying their devices.

And then he heard the name of the technician responsible for them.  The name opened several doors.  People were as aware of Enigma the Tailor, as Ago the Kid.  He gathered a lot of stories by name dropping the engineer, and eventually decided to bring and end to the game.

Ago gathered the Aces and worked with those who were immune.  They began to arrange roadblocks and encirclement schemes to halt the possessed aegis and set up contingencies.  A few of his mentors came in when the waves started forming, and began to question their own senses.  

His most trusted advisor began to study the lines within his ethics and memories and Ago - seeing him struggle for so little - summoned his sword.  He slashed the commander's wrist, ripping away more than half of the mana stone, and disrupting Diego’s own.

The commander was miffed, but took the opportunity to replace his bangle with the old.  From then on they had his leadership and reason to turn to.  Diplomacy returned to the Aegis, and caught the cycle in the chest.

Enigma had noticed pushback several days ago, and stepped out from his lab when the system could no longer correct itself, or be reigned in remotely.  He hardened the Aegis and her crew against intervention and almost immediately saw cracks form where Ago and his faction were intervening.

Enigma saw the aura of gold.  Felt the teeth of his mana undermining his control.  He was on the warpath.  The commander saw him arrive.  Ago heard the name, saw the new face and squared himself against the engineer. 

 The two apprentices clashed.  One with a gold flecked aura and weapons of gold; the other with an electrified flail and powerful magnetic waves.  The two clashed, consuming more mana and focus than either had previously, and exploding past their limits.

Stories are told about their clash, where solar flares decorated the underbelly of the aegis, and iron laced thunderclouds roared ceaselessly.  It wasn’t a battle that either could win, however… as their fight went on, the network crashed.  The shards of crystalized mana depleted across the aegis.  The two Rivals could feel the intentions of the Aegis shifting around them.  Like animals before a greater storm, their battle stalled.

Enigma would continue to work aboard the Aegis, vetting personnel and manipulating its infrastructure.  His ability to map out and analyze the inner workings of the Aegis is without peer.  Since proven time and time again; he will guard it with an iron fist.

Ago has since become the King among Aces.  The number one hero in the region.  While he’s refused to take a commanding position, his voice has become the rallying cry for battles to come.