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Description
This one is... by far... the most complicated piece of art I've ever produced. I mean, well, for one it actually has a background. Not only that but the background is fully shaded with shadows and dynamic lighting and everything! Took me several weeks, on and off. A big shout out to for giving me helpful advice and critique on the lighting and composition. Go check out his stuff, the guy's phenomenal! Not to mention an actual professional artist. Thanks a bunch for your help, Glitch!

The picture is particularly a shoutout to . When I first posted a little sketch of this character a while back, he caught wind of it on his Tumblr and gave it an impressive signal boost. Why is this relevant? Because it just so happens that he was the actual voice actor of the character represented. I'd never really been acknowledged like that before, so it was a bit of a milestone for me. He has since given attention to every piece of Freedom Planet art that I've posted and he seems like an overall pretty chill guy, and since my Torque picture was so bare-bones compared to the other characters that I've drawn, I decided to go back and do a picture more fitting for him and this is it!

All-in-all, I'm pretty proud of this one. It's very involved, with multiple light-sources and dynamics that I'm just not used to, but I feel like I made it work (again, I had help, see above). The blaster in particular was a difficult effect. I'm not 100% happy with it, but it took so much time dedicated to that one aspect alone that I think I just lost patience. The background is based on the Thermal Base stage, a mid-game level. Everything you see is represented by the stage in one form or another. Except for maybe the two enemies. In retrospect, I probably should have chosen another enemy to use. These enemies in particular have some weird purple/gold finish that I can't quite tell if it's just some weird lighting schtick or their actual colors. And, in fact, I don't believe they even ever actually appear in this level of the game.

Also, no, that's not an X-Box symbol... it was in the game too.

Commander Torque is not actually playable in the game yet, but he will be, it remains to be seen if this stage will be playable for him. Initially I wanted the picture to be done for the game's 1 Year Anniversary, but it wasn't finished in time. Then I figured I could release it in celebration for the Wii-U release of the game and/or the release of the FREE DLC that would add two more playable characters and expand the story, but that got pushed back, and I couldn't sit on it for that long, so here you go!

Thanks for viewing!

If you'd like to see just Commander Torque without the background, you may find a transparent of him in my scraps.

And oh, yeah... I wrote another shot story to accompany this one. For those of your who this kind of thing bothers, please stop reading here, as everything below this point is likely going to be full of *Spoilers*.

*Spoiler Alert*

Commander Torque at this stage of the game is captured. It is never explained how he escaped his capture, but when we next see him in-game, he is once again free. Presumably the DLC will explain these missing aspects of the story, so this entirely little bit of fiction I've written will likely be very Jossed ( *Warning* This is a link to TVTropes, which can ruin your life if you let it) as soon as said DLC is released. Nevertheless, I decided to touch upon what little bit of Torque's backstory that we can garner from what is thus far revealed ingame. I recognize that the vast majority is completely non-canon, which generally goes against my primary rule when writing fanfic of any sort, but I felt this once wouldn't hurt, since canon hadn't been officially established yet. I was initially going to issue a challenge for Mr. Seymour to do a dramatic reading of the accompanying story, but it got away from me and is a little longer than I expected, and the guy's probably pretty busy, so I will leave that entirely up to him without expectation. Thanks again, Duckman! I'm glad you liked my paltry stuff! This one's for you!

Torque dashed down the hallway. He hadn’t run into any real pursuit yet, but they’d probably realized he was gone by now. Not that he was being particularly quiet about it. A slew of discarded mechanical parts and leftover globs of biomaterial trailed in his wake, remnants of Brevon’s machines. Resistance had been relatively light, and he was in no mood for games, not after what he’d just seen. Most of the defenses, it seemed, were concentrated on whatever- or whoever- was causing the ruckus.
The first time the klaxons blared had ended with Lilac strapped to one of Brevon’s torture chambers. He hadn’t seen neither Carol nor Milla with her. At the time he’d feared the worst, but now that the base was again on high alert, well... maybe they weren’t to be counted out just yet. If it was them, he wished them luck, but they were on their own for now. His destination was further inward towards his friend who was suffering at the hands of a tyrant.
Suffering because of him. For what he had dragged her into.
“Not again…” he mumbled to himself, “I won’t let it happen again. Please be alive, Lilac. I’m coming!”
He tried to keep his thoughts focused on the task at hand, but it was proving difficult. His mind was filled with faces. Faces of past friends and the names that went with them. Friends who had died fighting this monster. He couldn’t lose any more.
And of course, his train of thought drifted to the circumstances that had brought them all here. The Coalition had finally managed to halt Brevon’s advance, giving the worlds’ fleets more time to regroup in hopes that they could press the attack. The Chasers had been planning a nigh suicidal invasion of his home planet deep behind enemy lines to cripple his own production and bring him to his knees once and for all.
    But when their intelligence team caught wind that Brevon himself would be surveying a nearby star system, Torque knew he had to act. A single dreadnought, they’d been told. Brevon’s own flagship, separated from the rest of his fleet and vulnerable. Brevon was confident that the presence of an inhabited planet would protect him. The high and mighty Chasers wouldn’t dare attack him against their Prime Directive. He mocked them even as he took advantage of their creed.
    It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They all knew it. The Captain presented his plan to the crew, and with overwhelming support, had made the call. It was supposed to be a decisive strike. A lethal blow at the head of the war machine that would save countless lives from a drawn-out conflict and a planetary invasion. They would face whatever consequences were thrown at them.
    But it had all fallen apart. They’d hoped to use the surprise from their attack to get in close and overwhelm him before his defenses could fully come to bear. But Brevon, it seemed, was not one to be taken by surprise, even when he felt safe. It was all they could do just to cripple his ship, and send it crashing to the planet below. A single rogue Chaser Battleship was not enough to destroy the dreadnought once and for all.
    But the dreadnought had been more than enough for the battleship.
    Torque squeezed his eyes closed and shoved the memories away. Memories of his Captain’s final transmission devolving to static as a brilliant ball of fire erupted against the serene backdrop of the innumerable stars. He’d witnessed it all from his personal cruiser even as he swore that he would finish it, no matter the cost.
    But now, that cost might just be proving too great.
    A wall beside him suddenly lit up as an eerie green glow popped into existence and moved to focus on him, snapping him out of his thoughts and back to the situation at hand.
    “Commander Torque, for your own safety, please return to your cell. Lord Brevon does not take kindly to escapees.”
    “Stow it, Syntax,” Torque snarled at the construct, “I’ll deal with you another time. Where is Brevon keeping Lilac!?”
    The AI was unimpressed. “Our master does not record his specimens by name. Please provide adequate descriptive adjectives and I may be able to provide more assistance.”
    Torque growled as he raised his blaster, “I don’t have time for this!” He put three shots into the panel, killing the light and silencing the voice, at least for a moment. As soon as he moved into the next room another panel came to life with an electronic buzz.
    “Error. Search results inconclusive. Please narrow your parameters and try again.”
    “Malapert machine,” Torque mumbled under his breath, choosing to ignore the unblinking eye and concentrate more on what he was doing. Just in time. A chirp behind him caught his attention, giving him enough warning to dodge a swipe that would’ve left a nasty mark. He left a nasty mark of his own on the way out, letting his blaster do most of the decorating as he excused himself from the room. As the doors closed behind him, he was beginning to feel it was all a futile effort.
    “Halls, halls and more halls…” he moaned at the branching paths before him. “There’s got to be an easier way to do this.”
    His thoughts were interrupted by another voice, coming from somewhere above him. It sounded familiar, though he couldn’t quite make out what was being said, at least not until a panel above him popped open.
    “Milla, are you sure this is the right way?”
    “I’m sure!”
    Carol dropped down lithely from the vents she’d been crawling through, nonchalantly brushing herself off of the thin coat of ash she now bore. She seemed a little charred, but otherwise no worse for wear, “Well you’d better be. I don’t want to end up in the incinerator again.”
    Milla dropped down beside the wildcat, a little less graceful, and in a similar state. She shook herself, ash flying everywhere as she did so, but whatever it was she’d been about to say was cut off by Torque’s cry of surprise.
    “Carol! Milla!”
    Carol reacted quickly, dropping into a defensive stance between Milla and Torque, intent on protecting her friend from the threat, at least until she realized who it was. “Torque! You’re alright!” Just as quickly she stood up straight and was at his side, “Where’s Lilac!? Did she find you!? When you were captured she came here to find you and I haven’t seen her since but since you’re free she must ha-”
    The Commander cut her off with a gesture, “There’s no time! Brevon has her! We have to find her quickly, but I’m just as lost in this maze as you are.” He turned towards the young hound, a flash of guilt crossing his mind as he lamented dragging someone so young into this conflict, but he again brushed it aside. There wasn’t any time for that, either. “Milla, can you track her?”
    “Well, duh,” Carol answered for the pup, “What do you think we’ve been doing. I mean,” she gestured towards the different paths before them, “this place is a maze! Milla, what’ve you got?”
    Milla had been dutifully sniffing around as the two spoke, and she perked as Carol called her name, eyes darting towards one of the halls before them. She immediately took off down the hall, the other two right behind her, not even hesitating to question her decision.
“C’mon! Lilac’s scent is this way!”

Description
This one is... by far... the most complicated piece of art I've ever produced. I mean, well, for one it actually has a background. Not only that but the background is fully shaded with shadows and dynamic lighting and everything! Took me several weeks, on and off. A big shout out to for giving me helpful advice and critique on the lighting and composition. Go check out his stuff, the guy's phenomenal! Not to mention an actual professional artist. Thanks a bunch for your help, Glitch!

The picture is particularly a shoutout to . When I first posted a little sketch of this character a while back, he caught wind of it on his Tumblr and gave it an impressive signal boost. Why is this relevant? Because it just so happens that he was the actual voice actor of the character represented. I'd never really been acknowledged like that before, so it was a bit of a milestone for me. He has since given attention to every piece of Freedom Planet art that I've posted and he seems like an overall pretty chill guy, and since my Torque picture was so bare-bones compared to the other characters that I've drawn, I decided to go back and do a picture more fitting for him and this is it!

All-in-all, I'm pretty proud of this one. It's very involved, with multiple light-sources and dynamics that I'm just not used to, but I feel like I made it work (again, I had help, see above). The blaster in particular was a difficult effect. I'm not 100% happy with it, but it took so much time dedicated to that one aspect alone that I think I just lost patience. The background is based on the Thermal Base stage, a mid-game level. Everything you see is represented by the stage in one form or another. Except for maybe the two enemies. In retrospect, I probably should have chosen another enemy to use. These enemies in particular have some weird purple/gold finish that I can't quite tell if it's just some weird lighting schtick or their actual colors. And, in fact, I don't believe they even ever actually appear in this level of the game.

Also, no, that's not an X-Box symbol... it was in the game too.

Commander Torque is not actually playable in the game yet, but he will be, it remains to be seen if this stage will be playable for him. Initially I wanted the picture to be done for the game's 1 Year Anniversary, but it wasn't finished in time. Then I figured I could release it in celebration for the Wii-U release of the game and/or the release of the FREE DLC that would add two more playable characters and expand the story, but that got pushed back, and I couldn't sit on it for that long, so here you go!

Thanks for viewing!

If you'd like to see just Commander Torque without the background, you may find a transparent of him in my scraps.

And oh, yeah... I wrote another shot story to accompany this one. For those of your who this kind of thing bothers, please stop reading here, as everything below this point is likely going to be full of *Spoilers*.

*Spoiler Alert*

Commander Torque at this stage of the game is captured. It is never explained how he escaped his capture, but when we next see him in-game, he is once again free. Presumably the DLC will explain these missing aspects of the story, so this entirely little bit of fiction I've written will likely be very Jossed ( *Warning* This is a link to TVTropes, which can ruin your life if you let it) as soon as said DLC is released. Nevertheless, I decided to touch upon what little bit of Torque's backstory that we can garner from what is thus far revealed ingame. I recognize that the vast majority is completely non-canon, which generally goes against my primary rule when writing fanfic of any sort, but I felt this once wouldn't hurt, since canon hadn't been officially established yet. I was initially going to issue a challenge for Mr. Seymour to do a dramatic reading of the accompanying story, but it got away from me and is a little longer than I expected, and the guy's probably pretty busy, so I will leave that entirely up to him without expectation. Thanks again, Duckman! I'm glad you liked my paltry stuff! This one's for you!

Torque dashed down the hallway. He hadn’t run into any real pursuit yet, but they’d probably realized he was gone by now. Not that he was being particularly quiet about it. A slew of discarded mechanical parts and leftover globs of biomaterial trailed in his wake, remnants of Brevon’s machines. Resistance had been relatively light, and he was in no mood for games, not after what he’d just seen. Most of the defenses, it seemed, were concentrated on whatever- or whoever- was causing the ruckus.
The first time the klaxons blared had ended with Lilac strapped to one of Brevon’s torture chambers. He hadn’t seen neither Carol nor Milla with her. At the time he’d feared the worst, but now that the base was again on high alert, well... maybe they weren’t to be counted out just yet. If it was them, he wished them luck, but they were on their own for now. His destination was further inward towards his friend who was suffering at the hands of a tyrant.
Suffering because of him. For what he had dragged her into.
“Not again…” he mumbled to himself, “I won’t let it happen again. Please be alive, Lilac. I’m coming!”
He tried to keep his thoughts focused on the task at hand, but it was proving difficult. His mind was filled with faces. Faces of past friends and the names that went with them. Friends who had died fighting this monster. He couldn’t lose any more.
And of course, his train of thought drifted to the circumstances that had brought them all here. The Coalition had finally managed to halt Brevon’s advance, giving the worlds’ fleets more time to regroup in hopes that they could press the attack. The Chasers had been planning a nigh suicidal invasion of his home planet deep behind enemy lines to cripple his own production and bring him to his knees once and for all.
    But when their intelligence team caught wind that Brevon himself would be surveying a nearby star system, Torque knew he had to act. A single dreadnought, they’d been told. Brevon’s own flagship, separated from the rest of his fleet and vulnerable. Brevon was confident that the presence of an inhabited planet would protect him. The high and mighty Chasers wouldn’t dare attack him against their Prime Directive. He mocked them even as he took advantage of their creed.
    It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They all knew it. The Captain presented his plan to the crew, and with overwhelming support, had made the call. It was supposed to be a decisive strike. A lethal blow at the head of the war machine that would save countless lives from a drawn-out conflict and a planetary invasion. They would face whatever consequences were thrown at them.
    But it had all fallen apart. They’d hoped to use the surprise from their attack to get in close and overwhelm him before his defenses could fully come to bear. But Brevon, it seemed, was not one to be taken by surprise, even when he felt safe. It was all they could do just to cripple his ship, and send it crashing to the planet below. A single rogue Chaser Battleship was not enough to destroy the dreadnought once and for all.
    But the dreadnought had been more than enough for the battleship.
    Torque squeezed his eyes closed and shoved the memories away. Memories of his Captain’s final transmission devolving to static as a brilliant ball of fire erupted against the serene backdrop of the innumerable stars. He’d witnessed it all from his personal cruiser even as he swore that he would finish it, no matter the cost.
    But now, that cost might just be proving too great.
    A wall beside him suddenly lit up as an eerie green glow popped into existence and moved to focus on him, snapping him out of his thoughts and back to the situation at hand.
    “Commander Torque, for your own safety, please return to your cell. Lord Brevon does not take kindly to escapees.”
    “Stow it, Syntax,” Torque snarled at the construct, “I’ll deal with you another time. Where is Brevon keeping Lilac!?”
    The AI was unimpressed. “Our master does not record his specimens by name. Please provide adequate descriptive adjectives and I may be able to provide more assistance.”
    Torque growled as he raised his blaster, “I don’t have time for this!” He put three shots into the panel, killing the light and silencing the voice, at least for a moment. As soon as he moved into the next room another panel came to life with an electronic buzz.
    “Error. Search results inconclusive. Please narrow your parameters and try again.”
    “Malapert machine,” Torque mumbled under his breath, choosing to ignore the unblinking eye and concentrate more on what he was doing. Just in time. A chirp behind him caught his attention, giving him enough warning to dodge a swipe that would’ve left a nasty mark. He left a nasty mark of his own on the way out, letting his blaster do most of the decorating as he excused himself from the room. As the doors closed behind him, he was beginning to feel it was all a futile effort.
    “Halls, halls and more halls…” he moaned at the branching paths before him. “There’s got to be an easier way to do this.”
    His thoughts were interrupted by another voice, coming from somewhere above him. It sounded familiar, though he couldn’t quite make out what was being said, at least not until a panel above him popped open.
    “Milla, are you sure this is the right way?”
    “I’m sure!”
    Carol dropped down lithely from the vents she’d been crawling through, nonchalantly brushing herself off of the thin coat of ash she now bore. She seemed a little charred, but otherwise no worse for wear, “Well you’d better be. I don’t want to end up in the incinerator again.”
    Milla dropped down beside the wildcat, a little less graceful, and in a similar state. She shook herself, ash flying everywhere as she did so, but whatever it was she’d been about to say was cut off by Torque’s cry of surprise.
    “Carol! Milla!”
    Carol reacted quickly, dropping into a defensive stance between Milla and Torque, intent on protecting her friend from the threat, at least until she realized who it was. “Torque! You’re alright!” Just as quickly she stood up straight and was at his side, “Where’s Lilac!? Did she find you!? When you were captured she came here to find you and I haven’t seen her since but since you’re free she must ha-”
    The Commander cut her off with a gesture, “There’s no time! Brevon has her! We have to find her quickly, but I’m just as lost in this maze as you are.” He turned towards the young hound, a flash of guilt crossing his mind as he lamented dragging someone so young into this conflict, but he again brushed it aside. There wasn’t any time for that, either. “Milla, can you track her?”
    “Well, duh,” Carol answered for the pup, “What do you think we’ve been doing. I mean,” she gestured towards the different paths before them, “this place is a maze! Milla, what’ve you got?”
    Milla had been dutifully sniffing around as the two spoke, and she perked as Carol called her name, eyes darting towards one of the halls before them. She immediately took off down the hall, the other two right behind her, not even hesitating to question her decision.
“C’mon! Lilac’s scent is this way!”