Tough bargain

“The dull, windy sound of a cavern gives an eerie vibe to most people. No matter if it's directly or through a recording, the sensation of pressure pressing from the ears, then to the rest of the body is otherworldly for many. Imagine that, then add in the faint sound of panting and hard breaths of someone that appears to be dying. Horrifying, isn’t it? You are even more scared now, since something else is definitely attached to your hip, and it weighs you down, but your humanity requires you to no longer be alone in that dump, tight cavern. You can now be hunted together, and risk your life...with someone.”

Vivar's memory brought up this passage from a horror story he read some time ago, but he had other things he should concentrate on- to escape the current tunnels he, and his partner, were now trapped in. Only after a second dose of MedGe, did Savan’s condition stabilize a bit for them to be carried, but the C.T.D was still unsure of what to do next, besides escape. Hopefully.

He scoured, scanned, and trenched system after system of carved rocks, but all of them either went to a dead end or spaces so tight and small that even Savan couldn’t crawl under. To make matters worse, the clopy was sweating profusely and didn’t regain consciousness since the attack. Vivar feared the worst could have happened - unidentified internal damages.

A few hours later, he finally could sense slight air movements and sounds from a path. “Possible exit”, he thought and raised up his pace, until a second thought stopped him in his tracks. “Possible ambush as well”. His attackers had more than ample time to check the outside for other cave entries, maybe, even, found this one in particular. Or maybe not, but he couldn’t take the chance like last time, not with his wounded patient in his left hand. Vivar left them hidden to scout ahead, and he was right to do, as there was someone at the entrance. Two individuals, but with no jamming involved, so he could easily identify them. It was Marc and his C.T.D Azin.

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After calculating for a few moments, Vivar went out, and showed himself to them, with his right hand pointed towards them, but he was resolute on using it only as a threatening method. At first, at least. 

-“ Patient 6 Marc, C.T.D 6 Azin, confirm your identities”, he screamed from a long enough distance to hit one of them, at least one he calculated that neither could dodge. Which Azin noticed.

-” Vivar?”, asked Marc surprised. “What are you doing here?”, but before he could approach him, his partner’s hand stopped him in his tracks and pointed towards the knight. “He does know by now about the first round untold rule, right?”, whispered the boy to Azin. 

-“ Yes, this information should have gotten to Vivar as well. I believe something else is at fault here”.

-” Vivar, I’ll step closer, just a few centimeters, just so we can talk, alright?”, said the boy, while putting his hands on his metallic head. “See, Azin can’t save me in time now, right? Good. Now, I’ll ask again, did something happen, is Savan alright?”

-” Affirmative. Kinda Off. We’ve been attacked by another team and Savan was hurt with possible internal injuries. I am familiar with Azin's abilities, so I don’t believe it was you who did it, but you are still our rivals. Though, in order to properly help my companion, I would need your C.T.D's more advanced scanners for a proper check-up. I don’t know what your purpose in this game is, Marc, but here is my proposal. I’ll take you hostage while Azin checks up on my partner to discover if there are any problems with them.”

-” Done”, quickly answered the boy. “I’ll come closer to you, and let Azin take the lead, ok?”.

-” Oh…ok”, even his robotic tonality couldn’t exhibit the surprise on him of how quickly the boy accepted his terms. “Thank you…Marc”.

-” No problem, I like Savan and I kind of root for them a bit, you know. So the whole threatening thing wasn’t necessary, and I understand why you did it, but…don’t ever try that with me again”.

 Vivar somehow picked up on the hostility and the way it made him feel could only be interpreted as goosebumps. Azin even shaked her head a bit when passing by Vivar, not as a threat, but as a warning to not aggravate the situation anymore. 

-“ Show us the way”, mentioned Marc to his captor.

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Not before long, Vivar and the rest got to Savan’s resting place and Azin started her part of the deal, while the other two took baby steps to loosen up a bit. 

-“ So you mentioned the attackers were someone different from us, so I guess they had some kind of weird weapon?” Marc tried to poke some information out of his kidnapper who, in turn, responded with a question. 

-“ Our escape made a lot of noise, and that is probably what made you come and explore the cave. Why?”.

-” Well, we thought everyone followed the unwritten rule for round 1, so a cave-in was a bit of a mystery, maybe it had something to do with a challenge device, so we wanted to find them first”. He appeared honest enough, and Vivar knew that his current way of dealing with rivals wasn’t the best long-term solution, so he moved down his right hand. 

-“ Sorry”, he added. “ We are each other's competition, but I do believe you when you say that you want to, at least, help out Savan”.

-” No problem, they do have a way of making themselves liked by people, and I don’t fight dirty against people I like.”

-” Pardon me, but you didn’t appear that confident before”, mentioned Vivar.

-” Learned that from my job, it’s useful not to give out everything from the start. So... I, uhm, was thinking, what do you say if we do another…deal? I know Savan can be trusted, and..uhhh... you listen to them.” Marc wavered a bit and turned his blushing face towards Azin, who gave him four thumbs up and encouraged him to continue. “You’re doing great”, said supportively the four-handed robot. 

-“ So, I was thinking, we should form a group of our own. Azin is a veteran, but you seem to have more knowledge of the contest than anyone expected from a C.T.D. And Savan has quite an eye for tech.”

Vivar pondered a bit, and while he agreed with his reasoning, all of his senses told him that the boy was still hiding something.

-“ All of the information I have agrees with forming a group with just Azin, but not with you. There is something about you that raises all kinds of danger alarms around you. The fact that you already had military tech implanted from the start, your knowledge of system admin commands, and now, the utter confidence that you could escape untouched from my railgun-”

-” Wait, that’s a railgun?” At that moment, Marc got paler than Savan and jumped back, while taking a few meters distance between him and Vivar. “ I thought you had a normal weapon, or some minigun at least, stuff I could dodge. Why the hell do you have a…an…arm cannon? Did you always have this?”

-” What?”, was all Vivar could respond in the most monotone and shocked tone possible.

-” Ok, listen”, said Marc while swallowing deep breaths. “ I work as a…corporate security force, of sorts, ok? Family business and that's all I can say for now. My gear, which I got through because of a job, is unremovable until death, so I’m stuck with it, but on the plus side it boosts me up enough to calculate bullets trajectories and gives my body short ‘kicks’ so I can dodge them. But a railgun can shoot big lasers, giant bullets, who knows what, stuff that I can’t dodge up close, right?”. The visibly shaken boy awaited, red as lobster now, for Vivar to say something. It was not in his nature to give out that much information, but he knew that there wasn’t any other way to gain the C.T.D trust. Or, at the least, part of it.

-” I understand. Thank you for telling me and to answer you, no, but it has been upgraded a few years ago, but the logs were not...properly updated let's say. And I think we can form a united front, for now.”

After the two shake hands, Vivar starts telling them about the brush, which surprised both Marc and Azin about the weapon used, speculating that it could be some sort of sonic gun.

-” It was a pulse wave, either a new model or” they try to say, coughing in between words “refurbished one. Either way, it’s directional, so they have to point it towards their target”, finished Savan with a pained, even more, parched voice. 

They woke up and caught up with parts of the conversation. Both Marc and Savan sprinted towards them, happy that their friend recovered from their slumber. 

-“ Savan will survive, but you were right Vivar, some of their internal organs were damaged and need to be replaced. A clopy’s organism is tougher than a human’s one but is not invulnerable, so staying like this is dangerous for them”, reported Azin. “Fortunately, I believe that the first round clinic could save them. Someone just has to start it. The round”.

Vivar and Marc now stared at one another, then the boy moved their gaze towards their companion. 

-“ I stand by whatever decision you make”, Azin responds in a kind voice. After a quick sigh, he gave Savan a little smile, and he pulled out of his bag three devices. Vivar did the same after he received a kick in his foot from the clopy. Marc only grunted a bit at that, but then shared his devices with the patient and his partner. “On three”, he said, while the others nodded in agreement.

-” One, two, three”, after which an alarm started to beep from each C.T.D. The start of the first round was announced.