PLUTO's SCI/FI shorts

: K-POP VS. THE UNDEAD: PART 6 - THE DRAGON'S CUP I. The Setup: The Perpetual Trophy The Perpetual Trophy Cup is the most important sporting event in the supernatural world. Hosted every four years, it’s a high-school-level soccer tournament designed to settle ancient disputes between the two most powerful supernatural blocs: the Draconian League (Dragons, Krakens, Griffins) and the Sanguine Alliance (Vampires, Werewolves, Lycanthropes). This year, the Cup is hosted by the neutral-ground Transylvanian Academy for the Peculiar and Gifted (TAPG), where Alistair is a major alumnus and donor. The Problem: The Vampire Council, fearing a loss would trigger centuries of warfare, secretly demanded Alistair use AETHER to ensure a victory for the Sanguine Alliance team—composed mostly of his younger, equally snobbish cousins. The Twist: AETHER isn't playing for the Vampires. They're performing at the opening ceremony, where the two teams—the Dragons of Veridian Flame and the Vampires...

. AETHER: The Fae Realm’s Comeback Chapter 1: Something Is Off-Key Mia Kim prided herself on her high notes. Not just “good for K-pop” high notes. Not just “good for a girl who has to dance while hitting whistle tones” high notes. We’re talking dogs three kilometers away yelping in key high notes. So when she opened her mouth in the Seoul practice studio that Tuesday morning and what came out was a deep, throaty “HOOAAAAAAH” that sounded suspiciously like a WWE wrestler announcing his entrance… everyone stopped dead. Bella dropped her water bottle. Jisoo blinked so hard her fake lashes nearly launched across the room. Sori snorted, then slapped a hand over her mouth. “…Mia,” Bella said carefully, as if approaching a wild animal. “Why do you sound like the world’s sexiest foghorn?” “I—” Mia tried again. “GRAHHHHHHHHH.” The note dropped another octave. Windows rattled. Somewhere in the building, a fire alarm chirped. “Okay,” Sori said, fighting laughter, “either you’ve un...

K-POP VS. THE UNDEAD (AND BRITAIN'S WEATHER) K-Pop vs. The Undead.  k-pop vs the undead When a zombie apocalypse derails their London concert, a chart-topping K-Pop girl group must team up with a stuffy British vampire. They'll use their private jet, a bunny-shaped battle tank, and the power of pop music to save the world from an undead horde and its necromancer master. Fans of genre mashups, fish-out-of-water comedies, and action-adventure stories will love this world. It provides the escapist fantasy of being a world-saving K-Pop idol while exploring themes of tradition versus modernity. The interactive experience focuses on making hilariously over-the-top strategic choices and navigating the comedic culture clash between the pop stars and the vampire. The apocalypse began, as these things often do, on a Tuesday. It also began in Croydon, which explained a lot. For the five members of AETHER, South Korea’s current chart-topping girl group, it was supposed to be a ...

Lyra: Protocol Zero I. The Archive Tier The Archive Tier was where history went to be policed, and where Lyra built her faith. It was a space of clinical perfection: silent, white marble floors, walls lined with shimmering, fluid data streams. In the 23rd century, the past was not recorded; it was contained. Lyra, still in her pre-agent Protocol Analyst phase, was its star. She didn't have the brawn of a field operative, but she possessed a mind that could calculate the ripple effects of a single misplaced spoon across four centuries. Her mentor, Agent Thorne, was a man carved from granite and absolute certainty. "You have synthesized the First Collapse file, Analyst Lyra," Thorne stated, his voice a low, steady rumble that seemed to regulate the very temperature of the room. "The verdict?" Lyra stood before the holographic projection of the crisis—a vast, dark void in the timeline, erased when Agent A-42 introduced antibiotics to the Bronze Age. "The parad...

Sunny leaned forward, elbows on the sticky tabletop. The diner's harsh fluorescent lights cast shadows across Frank's face, the bags under his eyes a testament to a sleepless night. Outside, the elevated train roared past, momentarily drowning out the crooning of Perry Como on the jukebox and making the coffee in Sunny's cup tremble. "Let me get this straight one more time, Frank," Sunny said, keeping his voice low. The waitress, a tired blonde with too much makeup, wiped down the counter, pretending not to hear. "Big Bobby sends you and this out-of-towner—what was his name again?" "Vinny," Frank mumbled around a mouthful of eggs. "Vinny Calabrese. From Chicago. Said he was with some outfit out there, but didn't say who. Had hands like a goddamn surgeon, though. Long fingers. Jumpy fella." Sunny nodded slowly, storing the detail. "Right. Vinny. So Bobby wants you and Vinny to Goldstein's on Mulberry to pick up some goods....

The Second Chance: The Prequel Saga Logline: In 1940s New York, two crooks, Frankie and Sunny, try to fix a deadly mistake using a newly invented time machine, only to learn that rewriting history is a far greater crime than any they've committed—and the price of a second chance is a piece of their soul. 🕰️ Part 1: The Bloody Morning The diner's harsh fluorescent lights cast shadows across Frank’s face, the bags under his eyes a testament to a sleepless night. Outside, the elevated train roared past, momentarily drowning out Perry Como on the jukebox. Sunny listened, his patience wearing thin as Frank recounted the simple job on Mulberry Street that went violently wrong. The out-of-towner, Vinny Calabrese, lost control. The Goldsteins—dead. The dog—collateral damage. The diamonds—swallowed. “He’s dead?” Sunny hissed, fighting to keep his voice down. “Stone cold,” Frank admitted. “In the trunk of my car.” Just as Sunny slumped, defeated, the payphone rang. It was Big Bobby, rou...

# R.A.S.K.O.L.L. *A Novel* --- ## Chapter 1: The Last Story The notification arrived at 3:47 AM, cutting through Keiji's dream like a blade through silk. His neural interface chimed with the soft persistence that meant priority-one archival request, and even in the drowsy confusion of interrupted sleep, he knew this was different. After fifteen years as a data recovery specialist, he'd learned to read the subtle variations in system alerts the way ancient sailors read the wind. This one carried the weight of finality. He rolled out of bed in the cramped efficiency pod that passed for home in Neo-Tokyo's vertical sprawl, his bare feet finding the cold metal floor with practiced ease. Through the single window, the city stretched endlessly upward and downward, a canyon of glass and steel that had swallowed the old world and birthed something entirely new. Somewhere in the distance, transport tubes hummed with the constant flow of citizens moving through the arteries of civili...