Edge of Revival

Mad Maggie

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Continued from "Death Game 2020"

A familiar sensation, waking up on a medical bed after feeling yourself die. At least for me, and most likely the others in the Apex Games. It was a form of immortality, and I'd been able to replicate the device on my own, making a deal with the Death Game operating staff to sync with their off site medical facilities. "Hrugh..." I cough, swinging my legs off the side of the cot and gingerly touching my midsection. I'd been bisected in half, but the near instant transport into a medbay crash stretcher had ensured my survival yet again. And then I remembered who had done it to me, and my eyes snap open fully. I storm out of the medical facility, and as soon as I leave the threshold I'm immediately transported back to the spot outside New Abraxas that I had been taken from.

"WITT!!!!!" I growl, remembering him in his strangely familiar red outfit flying around like a buffoon. They were here. Wraith and Mirage. Two other Legends. The closest thing I had to fr- acquaintances. With their arrival in the Crossroads, I could no longer count on anonymity to save me. I would have to find some sort of mobile safety. perhaps a ship. It could be the start of my new lab, and with the information I had about the newly empty legendary city, I was sure I could barter enough of it for the coin to acquire a small interplanetary shuttle.

If Mirage and Wraith were working together, it would do no good to go burning after them immediately. Now that we weren't in a sanctioned bloodsport, outright murder became more complicated.
 

Mad Maggie

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"Hrrnngh! Ghhh....."

The beast struggled in my grip, wriggling fiercely as it attempted to bite my goggles off my face. Interlocking fangs slid together inches from my nose with a sound like a paper shredder. The thing had slithered past my perimeter traps, the local creatures very capable of adapting and countering their prey's defenses. I'd managed to catch it as it leapt, some kind of dog sized snake-lizard. It was nothing but muscle, holding onto it's sinuous neck taking a great deal of effort. After nearly a week of travel back through the jungles of Kraw, I was more than tired. I'd had very little time to rest after my experience in the Death Game, and I unconsciously traced my tongue over the lips that had been burned off not long ago by the girl in white and her loudmouth sidekick.

The thing shrieks as motivation lends strength to my grip. The acid residue on my gloves singes the thing's orange scales (camouflage for it's unique hunting mechanism, which was dropping from the trees at sunset) as my fingers began to crush the very muscle. "You will not defeat me. The mad king did not, Witt did not, and KRAW DID NOT." Blood spatters my visor as I tear it's neck into shreds, the glassy eyed head flopping forward limply as those thick muscles go limp in a death wriggle. Breathing heavily, I wipe the scum from my vision and withdraw a knife from my belt. No sense in wasting sustenance, as I hadn't had a substantial meal in days. I take the small test kit out from my waistbelt and sprinkle a dusting of reactive chemical on a sample of the meat, watching the flesh. It hisses and bubbles for a moment, before turning light blue and foaming. "Non-toxic."

Some time later I am chewing on a strip of meat and following a faint path through a quiet grove of thick leafed plants. The cover allowed me to slowly move through the vegetation without disturbing anything, and if I was where the faded map I'd taken off one of the bodies of a dead explorer in the tomb before indicated, I would soon be arriving at the fifth largest settlement on Kraw, a place called Overlook.
 

Mad Maggie

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Overlook was....primitive. A giant tree had, eons ago, grown large enough to fill the gap in a small valley. Some enterprising individual realized that the upper levels of the tree were close enough to either side of the cliffs bordering the valley for light construction, and Overlook had been hastily constructed. Wooden shacks and boards connected hollowed branches to each other, a system of rope and pulley manually operated elevators allowing residents to descend to the jungle below. Meanwhile, the mountaintop approaches were mostly inhospitable and required careful traversal to avoid skittering off the slope.

I had approached the small lifter platform with caution, a team of five or six mercenaries guarding the apparatus. Slowly I walked down the dirty path, raising my hands in a nonthreatening gesture. "Greetings. Is this Overlook?" I ask with practiced nonchalance. Almost immediately there are five laser sights on my chest, the guards holding battered slug weapons with a variety of attachments festooned on them. The largest one, a bald man chewing some sort of brown root in his teeth, leveled a shotgun with a barrel nearly two inches across at me. "You from Abraxas?" He growled, spitting out the root. "I suggest you turn around and go back to your students, Professor."

Even with a week of wear on my outfit he could peg me as an academic. Lying served no purpose here, and I nodded. "Originally, yes. Seeing as it's the largest and most modern settlement." I heard low grunts of disapproval before I continued. "But getting a group of their researchers killed in pursuit of something less than savory tends to sour relations." I lower my hands and adopt a more relaxed posture. If these idiots were any kind of skilled in reading body language, they'd notice that all their guns trained on me had hardly caused me any concern.

"Oi, wait a minute. I recognize this guy!" One of the smaller mercenaries piped up from the back. A vein pulsed in my temple as I consider reaching for my Nox Grenade and trying another settlement, but she continued. "He was in that Death Game we got on the bar TV set a week back or so! Acid or Noxious or something."

I frown and take a step forward, which causes them to tense and raise their weapons again. "It's Caustic, actually. Doctor Caustic. And I'm not here to cause you or your associates trouble. I merely wish to negotiate transport off planet." The bald one smirks and raises his own hand, the others stowing their weapons. "Well now Doctor, you came to the right place then. This here town of Overlook is managed and protected by the Blackfang Mercenary Company, specializing in exotic and rare acquisitions and..." He pauses for a moment, before winking. "...problem solving. You look like a guy who solves plenty of problems, and if we can get you where you need to go, that means you owe us."

"We like people owing us."

Fair enough. A ship and transport would be worth some simple work further down the line. "Wonderful. I accept."
 

Mad Maggie

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"Are you sure this vessel is space worthy?" I shouted over the roaring of a loud rocket engine. The G forces were making my various chemical apparatuses feel even heavier as they pressed into my body. The entire shuttle shook as the pilot gave me a thumbs up without looking back.

The Blackfang mercs apparently had a much more suitable base of operations in an asteroid field near Kraw. Apparently, the approach of an atmosphere capable ship directly to the planet would cause far too much attention, especially for people who were wanted on multiple worlds. As if rocket launches wouldn't also draw attention. Still, I saw the wisdom in displacing your forces; I only wished I didn't have to experience it up close. The dropship that ferried Legends to the day's arena wasn't as rough a ride as this. As the rocket engine kicked into final burn and we broke atmosphere, I felt the sudden lurch as the void of space gripped our little craft.

It was cramped as well, the only shuttle available at the time being a cargo vessel delivering more supplies to their asteroid base. For the knowledge I had sold them (recovered from the lost city), I would have liked a more comfortable form of transit, but the leader had assured me I would be able to purchase exactly what I needed from their shipyard. The thrusters kick in and we stabilize. As the journey continues, I lean over and touch one of the structural panels, then withdraw my finger. Incredibly hot. And...was that...?

"IS THIS THING CONSTRUCTED OUT OF WOOD?!!"
 
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