+ Reid +
The figure before him was a bipedal humanoid wearing overlapping pieces of leather clothing on its chest and upper legs. It had pale purple skin interspersed with tan fur, and no nose. A wide mouth grinned above a pointed chin, and it stroked a bar piercing set into one of its furry, triangular ears. The same sandy fur was present on its long digitigrade legs. The walk gave made Reid think of a noseless, bipedal cheetah. It was still smiling and playing with its earring when it spoke in a soft, falsely soothing, and excitedly fast tone.
“Hey there buddy. First time seeing a vacuum rated ship? This here’s the Wheathop, and she’ll be back in the air soon enough. Little skid like this, she barely notices. What’s your name, buddy? You live around here?”
“Ah… Hi” Reid started. He took a step back as he spoke, and noticed the alien casually match his movement. It was his first time meeting an alien, and the thing was giving him the creeps. “I... saw you hit the trees and wanted to see if you were alright. And if you might be able to… give me directions to the nearest town.” He trusted his gut and decided that getting on this thing’s ship might not be a good idea.
The cheetah thing nodded. “Lost. That’s alright – plenty of stumps lose their way now and again. Do you live near here? Big community?” Reid had no idea what a stump was, but it sounded derogatory. The thing's interest in where he lived also felt... wrong.
“I don’t - Reid started, then caught himself. If you don’t know where a town is, that’s fine, I’ll just head out.” Reid didn’t have time to turn before the thing interjected.
“I’ll give you a lift there. My name’s Thad, by the way. Me and the Wheathop deliver supplies through areas like this often. Things to make people's lives easier. Don’t worry, you aren’t the first wanderer I’ve helped either. We’re about…” Thad paused while looking at a device sewn into the leather on his arm, “150 miles from a... Marysaville. Once I’m back in the air, I can get you there in about 10 minutes. Looks like its a G-grade town, too, so you won’t have any issues getting in. They might even be able to awaken you - give ya access to your stats. You'd like that, right?”
Reid blinked for a moment at the temptation of the offer. 10 minutes to civilization, or potentially days of walking, naked and starving, through the wilderness - if this 'Thad' was telling the truth.
“No thanks. I’m happy to walk. Unless… can you call the police on that?”
Thad tilted his head and gave Reid a puzzled look. “Is that a company, or a guild? Maybe a family you know…?”
“No, police.” Reid answered. “Like, uh, like law enforcement officers? I think one of them could come out here and help me.”
Thad’s grin vanished as his hand came away from where it had been stroking his earring. It moved down and opened pockets on the leather vest Thad wore. “Now, I think it’s time you tell me who you are.” Thad’s eyes narrowed. “I was nice enough to introduce myself, but here you are naked and alone in the middle of nowhere - and you’re being damn impolite.”
Reid decided it was a great time to remove himself from this situation. His feet dug into the blanket of leaves, moss, and twigs as he sprinted back the way he’d come - despite his screaming muscles. Going into a semi-familiar part of the forest was better than getting completely disoriented, and he could probably find his way back to this crash site if he needed to. He didn't expect to need to. The shift in Thad's demeanor from friendly-passing to dangerous had happened far too quickly. The alien was bad news, and Reid didn't need to know what else would happen if he got on that ship.
#
Reid made it almost two minutes at a full sprint before his legs collapsed. He slumped against a tree and rubbed them with his hands.
His legs were on fire, his lungs ached with effort, and his entire body complained at being forced to move, again, without the fuel to keep him going. He also had another, minor inconvenience - everything that had been slapping against his thighs was sore as hell. Naked running - not recommended.
When his breathing steadied, he raised his head – and saw Thad a few feet in front of him.
“You’re fast for a goddamn stump bumpkin, buddy.” There was a stilted impressed tone, but no mirth behind Thad’s smile as he delivered the words. “Keep doing that and I break one of your legs.” Thad looked Reid in the eyes and some joy spread into his face. “Fight me, and I break one of your arms. It’s better to get that part done now. Are you a fighter, buddy?”
Reid shifted, and braced his leg against the tree behind him. His muscles strained and burned.
When Thad grabbed a small, angled rectangle out of a leather pocket, Reid exploded forwards with a first cocked. He swung hard as the distance closed between them, and his fist slammed hard into something that felt like punching a brick wall.
Thad’s eyes widened when Reid’s fist connected with the center of his chest and he was pushed a few inches back.
“That… hurt.” Thad looked down at his chest and frowned where an imprint was clearly visible in the leather-like substance.
Reid’s knuckles dripped blood and his fingers ached. He shook his hand and balled it back up in a fist. He'd endured worse pain, and if he’d hurt the alien through his armor, he could probably incapacitate it by hitting Thad in the head. He had gone toe to toe with the Salamanders, and they had claws. This asshole wasn't nearly as intimidating.
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He sprinted forward, and the alien leveled the rectangle at Reid. It popped and flashed, and a beanbag that was far too heavy for its size slammed into Reid's chest. The impact felt like running into one of Mark's wooden beams at full speed, and threatened to throw Reid off track - but he pushed off the ground with his hands and kept moving forward. The alien's eyes were wide in shock, and it flicked a protrusion on the gun with its thumb. The next shot was an actual bullet that slammed itself into Reid's leg. The metal deformed slightly and bit partway into his skin, but it didn't stop Reid.
A fist sailed out towards Thad - and missed wide when he jumped back out of the way.
Reid rolled his neck and strafed to the side, hands raised in a boxing stance as he looked for any movement. He had the alien beat in strength, and he was going to force his body to keep going as long as it took to knock the bastard out.
Thad just stood there, stationary, and arched a bushy eyebrow tuft at Reid.
“What the hells are you made of, bumpkin? Your skin's as tough as F grade armor. You fight like a barbarian - and you're an idiot - but you're a tough little Vrin'zit.”
Reid bristled at the insults. “Give up and walk away, or I’ll crush your damn skull.” He growled. “My arms aren’t so easy to break.”
Thad let out a high pitched, breath-in-breath-out laugh. “See, I love this part. They always expect me to break arms during the fight. I’m not going to touch you until after. Always throws them off.”
“After what?” Reid asked instinctively.
Thad pointed a small cylinder towards the sky and twisted his fingers. A violent wave of force blasted out in Reid’s direction and threw him against a tree. The shockwave seemed to have done double damage to his brain, and Reid's consciousness barely held on to keep him awake. His head rolled side to side and the world tilted. Two Thads entered his vision, spinning and wavy. They both put a cylinder back in a vest pocket, and let out a long sigh while shaking out their hands - obviously unsettled by what had just happened. When they were done with that, the Thads made large gestures to the trees as though they were talking to an audience.
“See, if you weren’t a bumpkin, you’d know what a concussion stick looks like. Knocks out anything F or G grade. Good for putting down low-grade riots, and good for bumpkins like you."
Reid groaned, and the alien jumped three feet in the air with a shocked expression.
"Holy fractin fract! All-god's balls! How in mercy's name are you actually still awake?” Thad fished frantically for his pocket, and held the cylinder directly towards Reid. “Go to sleep, bumpkin. For the love of the all-god, go to sleep.”
The shockwave slammed into Reid's head and snapped it back so hard, it cracked the tree behind him. The world went black.
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<]]) Thad ([[>
The street rat mechanic gave Thad a long look.
"What about that didn't you understand? Do not, under any circumstances, open that cage or turn of the electrocollar. The thing in there is a fractin monster, and he's not getting out until I have a buyer for him. Now tell me you heard me."
The kid nodded.
"Good, now get the fract back to work before I put you in the cage with him."
By the time he'd gotten back to the Wheathop, the street rat had finally finished repairing the engine. He'd had the kid help him secure the beatnik in an E grade cage - after breaking his arm. It took more force than it should've had any right to, and Thad had actually ended up using the cargo lift crane to make it happen, but promises were promises, and now his captive would be less likely to fight when he did wake up.
Thad worked his way through the cargo bay - to ensure the kid hadn't touched anything while he was out of the ship - and then sat down to take a moment to himself.
He peeled off his armor, winced, and frowned. A welt had started to form where the beatnik's blow had landed, and Thad was almost certain the beatnik had bruised one of his bones - through armor.
On further inspection when he got it into the ship, the thing was malnourished to shit and had quite a bit of damage to its body in general. There was no way anyone was naturally that strong. Something odd was going on with the thing in his cargo hold, and he was going to do his best to figure out what that was. If he'd found some sort of mutant, the slavers would pay double. Maybe even triple their usual rates. If he decided to keep something that dangerous around.
Now, he just had to strike a delicate balance between nursing the thing back to a semblance of health to increase its price, and not allowing it to get too much of its strength back. If it got more powerful and broke out, Thad wasn't confident he'd be able to put the thing down again. His less lethal and lethal shots from his G grade pistol did little to slow it down, and if it almost made it past an F grade concussion stick, there wasn't much he had on hand that would be able to put it out without killing it.
Thad ran his fingers over his ear piercing. The only other thing he had with more power right now was a grade E strobe. Using that would run the risk of permanent blindness that only a healer could remedy, or it could burn through the thing's skin. If the bumpkin's primary sensory organs included its eyes, it was worth the risk of damaging it. Thad would do pretty much anything to keep it from attacking him again - because he wasn't confident he'd actually be able to take it down.
He brought up the planetary information for where they were, and moved through a few screens. More and more information about the being didn't add up. There were no stump settlements anywhere near this area. Nothing was even close to the heritage site where Thad had crashed. And the baseline unawakened statistics of the species indicated nothing that would explain the power and toughness he'd seen from the thing in his cargo bay.
Maybe he wouldn't sell it to slavers after all. There were contingents with even more peculiar tastes and needs that would revel in a find like this - assuming it was legitimate. Contacting them too early would also put a target on Thad's back. He suppressed the desire to start a bidding war, and turned on his engines.
The Wheathop sputtered a bit on spool-up, but levitated them above the treetops smoothly. That was interesting. Thad's ship had always had a consistent sputtering issue when it was lev-only. Had the kid managed to fix it while he was working on the engine? Nah - he probably just got lucky. And this job could use more luck.
Thad flipped controls and sent power to thrust. The Wheathop jumped and sped up into the planet's cloud cover.
A chime rang out over his comm board, followed by a stern, almost militaristic voice.
"Wheathop, this is a hail from a planetary enforcement patrol unit. You have crossed a heritage zone barrier, and are suspected of vandalizing a protected site. Land, and be boarded."