The Teens Are On The Attack

Not doing so great on that "every other month" thing for the fake team posts. A lot of shit is occupying my time these days. Anyway, I hadn't done one using anime characters yet, so that's why I'm doing this time, with a focus on younger characters. Lot of precocious and talented adolescents and kids to choose from.

The Leader: Quatre Raberba Winner (Gundam Wing) - When I was younger, Quatre was probably my least favorite of the five pilots on Gundam Wing. Probably because he was the most quiet and peaceful (except for that stretch in the middle of the series where he lost his mind). He was the one that would offer an enemy that was trying to kill him a chance to surrender, which to my teenage self, made him a big wuss or something.

Now that I'm older, I can appreciate him a little more. The others were mostly lone wolves, but Quatre fought as part of a group. A group of soldiers who cared about him, and who he, in turn, cared about a lot. They were willing to risk their necks to save his, even when he tried to get them not to, and that kind of responsibility can weigh on a person.

Anyway, Quatre has more than fair skills as a soldier and survivor, but he's also a fairly reasonable and empathetic person who is willing to talk things out if he can. Or he can fight if he needs to. The Winner family was a pretty big deal in that universe, so if we place the team there, his name and connections can get him access through the front door of a lot of places. I don't expect a lot of huge personality conflicts with this bunch - none of them are colossal asses or anything - but having a calm, friendly person with a solid tactical mind running things is still a good thing to have.

The Rogue: Radical Edward (Cowboy Bebop) - Ed's name for herself is Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, but her hacker name is Radical Edward. I'm not sure if Ed would actually be interested in working with a group, but I could see her getting lonely after a while wandering the ruins of her Earth with a fairly intelligent corgi and choosing to join in.

Ed's extremely intelligent, but also silly and a little odd. It's difficult to tell how much of what she does is planned, and how much is just the way things work out. There are certainly times Ed manipulated the crew of the Bebop, but other times, I don't think she had any idea what response she'd get. I could see her behavior alternately amusing and infuriating the rest of the team. What she's getting out of associating with them is hard to say, if there's even a reason beyond "for the hell of it".

Still, if you need a security system or database broken into, it would be hard to do much better than Ed, short of putting one of those sentient A.I.s that exist solely in the electronic world onto the team. I'd rather have Ed on there, personally.

The Muscle: Makimachi Misao (Rurouni Kenshin) - In the series, Misao gets played largely as a comedy character, another character (usually Yahiko) saying something that riles her up, and then she behaves comically outraged. But by the time she was introduced in the series, she'd been trained as a shinobi for several years by the remaining members of an elite group of fighters left over from the wars that went on in Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration.

I always figured she deserved a little better than being the butt of so many jokes. Her personality is mercurial, shifting from being full of doubt and concerned one moment, to extremely excited the next, and more than willing to pretend the doubt never existed. She's very confident, to a level dangerous to her at times. She's also extremely loyal to the people she cares about, refusing to abandon them in dire situations. And she has a knack for rallying others when their spirits are low. There are a couple members of the team that shouldn't be an issue, but Quatre has been known to get too hard on himself, to take losses badly.

And she has a set of skills I'm not sure the others really do. Quatre knows firearms and probably explosives. Kino is a crack shot, but the team could use someone fast, capable of being sneaky if she'll focus (especially if Ed takes care of any security cameras), and can handle herself in a fight. She knows a little bit about disguise, although it's another of those things she's too sure of herself on. But the talent is there

The Lady of Mystery: Kino (Kino's Journey) - Kino's a traveler, visiting different countries for just three days, no more or less (usually). She travels on a motorcycle named Hermes, which can speak (it doesn't have a face as we'd recognize it, but it talks and characters other than her can understand it). An extra mode of transport is handy. Like I said, she's an excellent shot, and knows quite a bit about roughing it. She's polite, calm, and straightforward. She doesn't rush to judgment; if she's not sure about someone, she will give them a chance to demonstrate what kind of person they are, even help them if they're in need. If they do try to attack or harm her, then she'll put a bullet between their eyes without blinking, but she's not going to instigate it.

I'm very curious how she and Ed would interact. All the adults we saw Ed around, other than her dad, tended to be perplexed by her, and not shy about showing their confusion. I expect Misao will get frustrated with Ed, while Quatre will probably find humor in it. Kino has probably seen enough strange things in her journeys that Ed won't seem too odd. I don't know that they'll have much of a rapport, but I assume if Kino is confused by Ed, she'll simply ask for clarification. Or maybe not.

Kino would probably drift into and out of the rest of the group's orbit. If they're moving from place to place regularly, she'll probably stick around. Otherwise, if the team's not doing anything, or they're stuck in one place for a long time, she'll say her farewells and continue on her way.

The Kids with a Plane: Claus and Lavie (Last Exile) - Claus (in the background with brown hair) and Lavie (foreground with red hair) were delivery pilots, who got stuck trying to deliver a special kid to safety and wind up in the middle of a big mess. Claus was the pilot, Lavie the navigator, but as they were drawn into combat, she opted to become his mechanic and let someone else be his navigator. So if they have to fight, Lavie may hang back. But the team can still use someone with mechanical knowhow. Kino has some, enough to keep Hermes running at least. And Quatre must have worked on his Gundam some of the time. Between the three of them, they should be in pretty good shape on that front.

Both of them are energetic, Klaus has a tendency to act before he thinks, while with Lavie it's more what she might say. Although she can be pretty fierce if someone she cares about is being bullied or mistreated. Whether she can back up her bark with some bite is another matter, but there's a few people on this crew who could and probably would have her back.

Their enthusiasm for this group is going to depend on what the job is. This crew isn't likely to get up to anything too heinous - some espionage, a little stealing, for a good cause naturally - but if things start getting bloody, Claus and Lavie both may start looking for the exit sign. Claus will fight, and Lavie would do her best to keep him and the others alive, but it's not what either of them lives for. Although if it comes to that point, Quatre would probably encourage them to get out. His whole thing as a Gundam pilot was to try and fight so others wouldn't have to be put in danger.

It's a funny situation, because I wouldn't expect a lot of squabbling on the team. Most of them should get along pretty well, and I don't think there's much risk of a lot of mistrust and accusations. Too many of these characters are easygoing or relaxed for that. But they're also used to walking their own paths, and those paths are going to go in different directions swiftly. It's probably a one-mission crew, maybe two if they happen quickly or bleed together.