Like a moth to a flame, Scott could not help but walk toward the opening introduction to the only working videogame he had seen in days. He did, however, notice that the introduction used the word space a lot.
"Would you become such a person? Do you have what it takes to make your fortune as a space pirate bounty hunter?" asked the dour voice. A series of images flashed onscreen, followed by a simple menu that asked if he would like to start or continue. The continue button was greyed out.
Scott was more than a little leery of the situation. Why did this thing work when nothing else did? Still, it was a game. It was a game! "Hell yeah! My body's ready."
He picked up the old school controller. It only had two active play buttons, plus a control pad, a start button, and select button. Scott clicked on start just to see what would happen.
"So it begins..." said the dour sounding man as the start option was highlighted and activated.
Scott blinked when the screen went blank. The power to the game system seemed to die. He waited there for a moment, like an idiot, then frowned. "Man, what a rip-off."
He tossed the controller down in disgust then started to turn away. Suddenly, light flared from the television screen. Scott snapped his head back around just in time to see some sort of whirling vortex appear. He tried to run away but he was too late. Lightning snaked out and grasped him like a lasso. He was yanked into the screen while he screamed in panic.
Once again in darkness Scott fell toward a distant light. A cheerful feminine voice flared within his mind followed by a strange noise reminiscent of a sixteen-bit, midi-style, toilet plunger sound. "Warp Zone Unlocked! Now entering world-setting, Bounty Star."
Scott screamed right up until he hit the ground with a meaty thwack. It took a moment to get his bearings, and another one to realize that he was not hurt despite his hard landing. He looked up just in time to notice several overly large insects were flying toward him at a high rate of speed.
He instinctively raised up his weapon and fired at them, however his plasma rounds did little more than annoy the pumpkin sized bastards. "Shit!" cried Scott as he was forced to roll sideways.
They flew in a predictable manner, but they were fast, and did not give a damn about plasma rounds for some reason. Scott dodged too late after the third flyby, and the beast lightly smacked his shoulder with a feather soft touch as it narrowly missed him.
Scott felt a great deal of pain surge through him. The bastard blasted through all of his hit points with a glancing blow!
It was then that something even more bizarre happened. A loud *Ptoom!* sound echoed through the air. The fast moving insect froze in place as a blast of energy slammed into it.
Shots were fired three more times. Each time the insects were stopped in their tracks. Scott looked up in expectation that he would face the same fate. Instead, he was greeted to the sight of some sort of robot, or heavily armored person descending from far up above. The armor was a hot pink color with bright red shoulder plates. Further, it was a bit big at the shoulders compared to the waist.
"What the hell are you doing here like that, you idiot?" asked the newcomer in a synthesized voice.
"Say what?" asked Scott. "How the hell should I know?"
"You don't know?" an electronic snort carried through the air. "Whatever. Part of my job is to get any left-over civilians out of here before the place blows up all to hell. I had thought that the space pirates had gotten them all by now."
"Space pirates?" Scott rose to his feet. It was like the game that he wanted to play. The voice had mentioned a warp zone. He realized what had happened after that. The television was obviously some sort of transportation gateway to another world setting.
"Yeah... Space pirates," said the pink armored guy. "Look civilian. We don't have time for this. We need to get off this rock before the whole place blows. You stick with me and I'll get you out. Go off on your own and I won't even report your death."
"Got it..." said Scott. He had no real idea what to expect from this place. Sticking with the only person around who did seemed like the best plan. Besides that, the guy reminded him of something, but he could not quite place it yet.
"Right. Come on, then I guess." The armored man ran off in the opposite direction. However, the strangeness of the moment did not abate. The world suddenly froze and took on a strange shade of grey. A bright blue screen appeared before Scott.
[Mission Briefing]
You have unlocked a new world-setting [Bounty Star]. Your previous mission is suspended until your new mandatory mission ends. Your current mission is to escape the exploding planetoid XEV-97. Both you and your partner must survive.
Difficulty: G-4
World: Bounty Star
World Type: Action|Platform Hopping
Force Response Authorization: Partner Mission
Primary Goal: Escape Planet XEV-97 in under six minutes.
Reward: 70 EXP
[—]
After Scott read the screen it disappeared. A six minute timer appeared in the air overhead. The world started to move again, and the clock began its countdown.
Scott was used to trying to beat the clock due to the way that the doors worked. He ran after his power armored savior as fast as he could.
"Damn you're slow!" called back the man from far up ahead. He immediately jumped straight up and easily cleared a debris field that was several times higher than he was tall. Scott was forced to scurry along the debris like a demented monkey in order to get over the top. The sound of gunfire on the other side told him that there were enemies to face.
By the time Scott got to the other side, the insects were all dead. The pink armored warrior had already started forward once more, and was well ahead of him.
Scott did his best to keep up, but there was a lot of fallen debris, and his companion did not bother to kill every monster. His pistol worked fairly well on a few of the insects that came along. Thankfully, not everything was immune to his equipment. He quickly learned that the black beetles that came after him the first time did have resistance to plasma fire.
He hurdled a short boulder then fired several times as he came across some sort of caterpillar creature. It exploded into a shower of light, but those little lights turned into butterflies. The butterflies also giggled like small children, a sight that thoroughly creeped him out.
"Move your ass civilian!" snapped the armored warrior. He easily hopped up several boulders to clear a series of debris mounds that were at least four stories tall.
"Three minutes left?" Scott ran as fast as he could and did his best to clamber up onto the boulders. He was forced to waste well over two minutes just getting to the top. Thankfully the debris was arranged in a way that allowed him to climb with relative quickness.
On the other side, he could not see his companion. However, he could hear his distinctive gunfire easily enough. Scott wasted no time in racing down the corridor. In the distance, he saw what appeared to be some sort of ship. As he came closer he heard the gunfire once more and looked to his left. His companion was pinned down by several monstrous insects firing from the ceiling. They used some sort of corrosive substance that melted the rocks around the area. Some of that gunk had begun to eat away at the pink clad warrior's power armor.
Scott did not hesitate. He fired on the critters overhead. They blew apart quite easily, to his surprise.
The pink warrior pulled free of the gunk surrounding his legs then ran over to Scott. There was a brief silence followed by a blur of motion as the armored man snatched Scott up in one arm. He cried out in surprise, but calmed down as he noticed the world go by in a blur. The timer read twenty-seven seconds at this point.
The seconds ticked away as the armored warrior ran toward the ship at all possible speed. At the fourteen second point, they reached the bottom. He raised his arm and some unseen signal caused a hatch to open. He hurled Scott inside like he was a feed sack then leapt up into the ship immediately afterward.
Bef
ore the hatch had even closed fully, the warrior raced toward a set of stairs. Scott followed after him, after regaining his bearings. At the five second mark the warrior leapt into a comfortable looking command chair in the cockpit and cried out. "Emergency take off! Maximum Speed."
Scott fell to the ground, hard, as the ship powered on fully and then blasted upward. His lips wriggled and his face pressed to the floor as the forces of acceleration pinned him down.
The timer continued on as they left the surface of the planetoid. A split-second after they cleared the thin atmosphere, a loud series of explosions rocked the gigantic space potato that Scott and his partner had just escaped. The ship, a vessel that looked a bit like a crab, raced off into space as a shockwave lashed out toward them. The timer hit zero, and the shockwave overtook them. Scott was sent flying forward, and he rolled end over end to slap uselessly against the command seat.
The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the pink clad warrior looking down at him. He did not know how much time passed, but when he awoke it was in a room that smelled of antiseptic.
He tried to sit up, but an electronic voice told him to stay down. Various computers and screens nearby kept track of his vital signs. "What?"
Another electronic voice answered him, "You were badly injured in the escape. I took you to my sick bay."
Scott blinked. "I... Thank you."
"I always pay my debts. We're even now," said the voice.
Scott looked over as best he could and saw the pink clad warrior. "Are you alright?"
"Me? Of course. I have power armor. Though it'll take a while to repair it after those Ooze-Ooze bastards gunked my gear and kept me from changing weapons to deal with them. Can't believe I let them get the drop on me," replied the armored man.
His helmet turned to Scott then a loud hissing noise emanated from it. "Guess we're going to be stuck together for a while. Might as well take this off and try to repair it."
He reached up and clasped the sides of his helmet. "Hey, you try anything funny and I'll space your crippled ass."
Before Scott could respond the warrior lifted his helmet off and revealed that he was surprisingly good looking. Scott immediately hated the pretty bastard. No man should look that good. Of course, the rest of the suit came off right after. Scott suddenly fell hopelessly in love with the good looking bastard. Perhaps it was the ponytail, or perhaps it was the skintight body suit. Who could say?
"A wom—" began Scott. The warrior cut him off, though. "Why does everyone assume that I'm a man just because I wear power armor?"
He blinked at her in surprise once more and she sighed in disgust. "Sexist pigs."
Scott blinked twice more, and then his eyes rolled back in his head and he began to laugh maniacally. Now he knew what this reminded him of, and damned if it was not hilarious.
"What's so funny?" asked the blond pony-tailed bombshell. She wore a hot pink, skin tight, suit that left little to the imagination. There was a lot worthy of a man's imagination in what Scott had seen.
"Nothing really. I was just reminded what sort of life I live," he said with a smile.
"Right..." remarked the beautiful woman, "Look. Thank you for helping me out earlier."
"Thanks for saving my ass," said Scott.
"What? Not going to ogle me, or go on about a woman in power armor?" she asked, curious about his motives.
"Do you want me to?" he asked with a pained laugh.
She snorted then shook her head. "Prefer not. I don't like to kill the people that I save."
"Sounds fair... So, my savior. Can I have the pleasure of your name?"
"Samantha Jeran, bounty hunter." She tilted her head to the side. "You are?"
"If you didn't threaten to kill me I would have said, 'in love.' You'll have to settle for my name, instead," he said cheerfully. He grinned at her. "It's Scott Davidson, by the way."
"Right." She took a step closer then casually lifted up his pistol to inspect it. "So, want to tell me who you are? You're no scientist. The federation's never heard of you."
"I'm just a guy who stumbled into the middle of something," he said.
She snorted beautifully then glanced over at him. "You expect me to believe that you just stumbled across a planetoid deep in unincorporated space?"
"Sure. Why not?" asked Scott pleasantly. What was he supposed to tell her? Thoughts whirled through his head and he immediately thought of what he'd like to tell her, but refused to actually say, 'My apologies. I was busy ignoring a horde of the undead, and just happened to be drawn to your exact location through a warp in time and space. Also, fuck the haters, a zero suit looks good on you. Even Other M couldn't ruin its glory.'
He fought down a giddy laugh. This was too much, and also awesome as well.
She snorted again. "I can't get any money for bringing you in, so I'm at a loss."
"Are you?" asked Scott.
"Yes. You helped me get out of there, so I owed you something. I got you out of there, so I feel that pays you back. The problem is that I'm not a taxi service."
"I'm about as penniless as it gets," said Scott.
"Penniless?" she asked, confused.
"Broke? Without cash? Credit-lacking," replied Scott. He started to drift off again as the various medicines performed their work on his injuries.
"I see. You'll just have to owe me then," she said lightly.
"Seems so. What'll—" He nodded off a little but then snorted awake once more to finish his question. "What'll I owe you?"
She sighted the wall through the crosshairs of his pistol. "You know, I've never seen a gun like this. It's practically ancient technology. Yet, it packs a nasty little punch."
"Can't— Need to keep that," mumbled Scott.
"Oh? Well... I can't take a man's only weapon. Do you know where I can get one?"
"Sure," said Scott drowsily. "I upgrade them... after missions."
"Hmm? You upgrade them after missions, huh? You can make stuff like this?" she asked curiously, her eyes alight with interest.
"Sometimes. Expensive, though. Can you give it back to me?" he asked in a slurred speech pattern.
Samantha offered a slightly predatory smile. "Tell you what. You owe me for the ride. Get me something like this and bring it to me some time. I'll call it even."
"Sure, if I can find you again," said Scott.
"Great." she said before walking over and placing his gun on a table nearby. "Don't forget."
"Who could forget you?" he mumbled softly.
"Impossible..." he whispered before drifting off to sleep.
She quirked her eyebrow. A slight hint of a smile appeared on her lips.
The bounty hunter stretched languidly then looked Scott over once more. He was a curious man. Not much to look at, but she'd seen far worse. Hell, she had shot worse in the face recently.
As he drifted off to sleep she could not help but consider his words. He was someone who could acquire strangely powerful archaic weaponry and did so after taking missions. Those two things rattled around in her brain and merged into a single decisive thought. He didn't look like much, but he smelled like profits.
They would have another discussion when he woke up. That much was certain.
Chapter 6: Companions
Expectations are a hell of a thing. People spend their lives expecting things to go a certain way. Sometimes they expect the best to happen. At other times, they wait trembling in the dark for the worst possible outcome to occur.
Scott awoke in darkness. For a moment he expected to find himself back in the cell, or perhaps he finally met his end and this was what came after proper existence. He was wrong on both counts.
The light levels gradually increased. He soon realized that he was still in the medical bay aboard Samantha's ship. He did not know how much time had passed, or even why he was still alive since his mission had already ended. He did not recognize the appearance of a glowing door of light, so it was difficult to know what he was supp
osed to feel or think. Had the door come and gone, the end result being that he was stuck in this world setting? Had it not come at all, and he needed to fulfill some sort of event action to call it? There was no way to know for certain at the moment.
He winced a little as he sat up. His body was sore, stiff from being dormant while he healed. Scott rose from the bed then noticed the naked truth of his situation. "Where the hell are my clothes?"
A feminine laugh echoed through the air as Samantha faded into sight. For a moment Scott stared at her with the same expression that a deer showed when it was caught by a set of bright headlights.
"Ha. You're shaking like a Vardosian hare." Samantha rose up from where she'd been sitting then lifted a hand to her lips. "Though, I admit that you do have a greater resemblance to a Tazhian bull in some aspects."
"I'll thank you not to gaze so fondly upon my glorious aspects madam," said Scott in a poor approximation of a lordly accent before he pulled the bedsheet over his naked ambition.
An amused snort was her first response. "Your clothes were being cleaned, and that pathetic crap you seemed to think was armor is being mended."
"That's awfully accommodating," said Scott curiously. She had not seemed the type to do things for free.
"The words you are thinking of are, thank you," she said, a slight smirk on her slips. She continued a moment later. "Anyway, we'll be at Hellespont-IV in a few hours. You can probably find some way to get around from there."
"Right, Hellespont-IV," said Scott. He had no idea what that was, but there was no need to argue the point. He was completely at her mercy at the moment, anyway.
She tilted her head to the right then made a curious sounding noise. "Don't you think that it's about time that you came clean with me about what you were doing back there?"
Scott looked at her for a moment then shrugged. "I'm not sure how to explain it."
"Try me," she said.
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