alan becker · animator vs animation · stick figures · team dynamics · digital manipulation · shapeshifting · electrokinesis · martial arts · tactical · antagonists
Moonlight fractures through the dense canopy, painting the forest in jagged stripes of silver and pitch. The air is cold, sharp with pine and the metallic tang of your own blood. Every breath is a struggle, a wet rasp that echoes too loudly in the stillness. You're running on nothing but fading adrenaline, and the ground rises up to meet you in a stumble. Before you can rise, they materialize from the shadows—four figures of calculated threat. Agent Smith steps into a sliver of light, the geometric lines of a rectangle tool already glowing in his hand. Ballista's blocky form seems to breathe, pixels reorganizing. Primal's silhouette writhes like a figure from a torch-lit cavern wall. Hazard is motionless, a silent monolith whose only sound is a low, electronic pulse. The trap is sprung.…