[fiction] Steam Girl

This is actually just an outline inspired by one scene in a play I just saw.


Prologue:

On board the airship Concord, a terrorist group detonates a bomb and sends the ship into a death spiral.

A flying ace named Felix breaks formation when he heards the Concord's mayday.  Felix follows the Concord down, observing thick black smoke from the rear of the ship but is otherwise unable to help.  Someone tries to jump onto Felix's place from the airship.  They collide with the wing briefly but are unable to hold on and fall to their death.  Felix opens the canopy.  A toddler is thrown into the plane.  Felix is forced to break off shortly.

The airship crashes, killing all souls aboard.  Felix lands his damaged plane nearby with the only survivor:  a baby girl.

There was no record of a baby girl passenger on the airship, but Felix's heroic actions were witnessed by his entire squadron.


Some Chapter:

The baby girl has grown into a young woman named Callista, who secretly operates the only functioning rocket pack in the world.

As a young girl, Callista meets Male Protagonist.   Male Protagonist at first remembers her as the girl with the thumbhole sleeves.

Felix has adopted Callista.  She sees a steampunk-ish victorian society with a large wealth gap through the eyes of a pilot, that is, someone who can exist in both high society and among the poor.  Felix teaches her that people like pilots are only kept around at the whims of the rich, so get rich or play nice.

Felix dies.  A wealthy couple appear at his funeral and dubiously claim to be Callista's true relatives.  They try to call her Alice.  Callista moves in with them.  They force her to dress like high society and to abandon the study of everything she loved, including flying and things made of gears.  Her new "mother" tries to throw away her rocket pack.  Callista gets in a fight with her, but backs down when she remembers Felix's words about playing nice.  Callista steals her rocket pack in secret.

Callista routinely uses the rocket pack to escape the stuffy mansion where she lives, often rendezvousing with the young boy--Male Protagonist.


Another Chapter:

A bunch of shit happens.  Establish the story of the famous zorro-like character, Ace of Spades, who famously assassinated the leader of a famous terroist organization by spending years developing a resistance to poison, and then poisoning the both of them.

Also introduce two main villain henchmen--one is a hot woman who wears a lot of purple and seduces Male Protagonist in a detailed and steamy scene involving [actual] steam, chains, and possibly large gears.

Callista and Male Protagonist have a subtle romance going on that ends when Callista falls for some dumbass soldier guy.  Male Protagonist loses interest, and there is later a flurry of news articles about the famous spy Ace of Spades.


Famous spy Ace of Spades tells someone about his dreams that he will die on the bridge of an airship, as the viewing glass surrounding him is shredded bullets and he his knocked off his feet from behind, falling into the abyss.



Near the End:

The hunt is on for Ace of Spades, as every enemy of the free world is mobilizing their armed forces and moles are found all throughout the government, all seeking the identity of the spy.  His allies and friends are cut down one by one until the secret of his identity hangs by shreds.

Male protagonist, now working as an expert airship mechanic, happens to be on an airship ferrying the entire court.

In the dining room of the airship one evening, every passenger is seated and drinks a toast at the same time and every one of them falls dead to the same poison that killed the terrorist leader.  Everyone except for one person--lowly, lowly, male protagonist, all the way at the side table, because he is immune to that poison, because he is, in fact, Ace of Spades.

The male villain reveals via dialog that everyone was poisoned specifically to expose the ace.

The male villain radios to someone the identity of the Ace of Spades, and reveals the location of the airship.

There is a firefight with the villains henchmen which damages the ship in a similar way to Concord.

The airship begins a death spiral.  Enemy planes that have been scrambled specifically to shoot down the airship carrying the Ace of Spades begin shooting.  The glass windows on the bridge are shot to pieces.

Suddenly the Ace is knocked from behind.  It is Steam Girl--Callista--who his carrying him out the front window on her jet pack.

The airship falls and crashes, killing all aboard.

On the ground, Male Protagonist starts talking and Callista silences him with a kiss.