ARC1/C20 – Death Match Part 1
Higgs, the Star Corps, local branch captain arrived with his team outside the mirror realm portal. Ordinarily the security would be thin if this was a normal competition match but this was far from normal, before he even got with fifty meters he could already make out many familiar faces disappearing into the mirror. It appeared that all the major local houses were here – Korinth Vanguard, Antragros, Vantris, Profoss plus representatives of the Altross and Seracian worlds. It was like a major multi-verse sumit was taking place. It made Higgs blood slowly bubble and boil.
A year ago from now, all this would have been kept very much on the low down a totally underground affair, now due mainly to the Seracian Kingdoms ascendancy, it had become more of the public display of power they had always desired.
Higgs addressed the most prominent Group figure he could see amongst the ranks of security, Sar Tranto – a skeletally thin man wearing a long flowing gown and spiked dark hair in the ecrastun style.
“Sar Tranto, I have a license here for entry to today competiton”, Higgs stated, having to more or less shout over the hubbub of streaming guests, entering the mirror.
Sar Tranto, turned his upturned face, morphing into a wide smile, “Captain Higgs” he said flashing from his position to Higgs’ in the blink of an eye. “What a pleasure to find you here Captain, may I ask which event you will be participating in” he continued wryly, clearly savouring the moment to toy with Higgs.
By now all Higgs’ team was present including Taylor their tracker who raised her hand towards Sar Tranto as if to touch him. This caused his eyes to widen slightly with annoyance at the audacity and his mood to sour perceptively.
Sar Tranto had more secrets than the whole of the Korinth Vanguard church combined and sighed audibly at this impertinence.
“Very well, follow, Higgs, we will humbly escort your group” he said signalling to his subordinate , Mica who caused the few remaining entrants to part forming a channel for them to vacate the area.
She looked up having been preoccupied by the buzzing of an over large insectoid that had distracted her momentarily.
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Meanwhile, in a darkened room, with a single light source, Lopez and Bartholomew were sitting in the cramped confines waiting for their names to be called to go their probable deaths. This was all in the mirror realm of course which meant everything was designed to destroy their moral from the crappy lighting and bad smell, to the cold that spread through their now numb bodies, causing them to shift uncomfortably on their benches.
They could hear the crowd outside cheering and booing in turns and the current tournament taking place outside. The whole place had been setup as a small amphitheatre seating several hundred select members of the ruling elite. If only they were here for a raid instead of being served up as entertainment they could take out some serious revenge on the Seracian Kingdom representatives.
Instead they could only chuckle hollowly at their predicament, as the minutes dragged by.
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Higgs’ team entered the mirror realm, only to stop short and do a one eighty. There was nothing, nothing to denote that a high level competition was taking place, no high echelon representatives, nothing. “Stop” said Higgs to the now smiling Mica.
“Not what you expected? A front row seat? You know exactly how this works” said Mica dryly “Rank determines seating in the games, and I’m afraid your rank has sunk, like a ship to the bottom of the milky ocean.”
Her eyes lingered on him for a while before she seated herself in the half empty mirror realm, clearly they had been duped.
They had been left with Mica as not only was she a well known tracker but she was also a bleacher, if they caused any trouble she would wipe their minds of all and every detail of the day.
Higgs just hoped that the Seers he had alerted would have better results than his team. They turned around and exited the arena, his team clearly now on edge.
Outside they found Sar tranto talking much to amicably with Prosso, a head seer and a small group. Prosso on seeing him came over. Prosso was the opposite too Higgs, slight as a butterfly with ash blond hair, compared to Higgs dark tanned skin and heavy musculature, but he had climbed swiftly in the ranks as any with talent in the seers. In only two short years he had reached his current position outranking Higgs, fifteen years of hard slog.
“Captain”, Prosso said inclining his head in fake deference, “I will take it from here” he said heading off into the mirror realm flanked by his team and Sar tranto.
However Prosso was brought up short before he entered the realm, by an unsuspected figure. It was Taylor, one of Higgs’ team, a tracker as far as he could remember. A very minor one, nowhere near his calibre. She bowed her head in supplication, causing him to pause from berating her.
“Yes, Yes what is it”, said Prosso.
“I have information I believe may be valuable for the Seer, most valuable my Lord”, said Taylor, still with her head bent.
“Very well, very well”, responded Prosso, placing a hand on Taylor’s head to read her.
Immediately Prosso’s countenance changed.
“I will not forget this…Taylor, expect to hear from the Seer’s soon”, stated Prosso, knowing that he would need to silence this one before the day was out and with a whisper in Sar tranto’s ear that small matter was arranged.
Mica merely brushed her fingers across Taylor’s back as she walked past and it was done, leaving Taylor temporarily dazed, looking around wondering where she was and what had just happened. All knowledge of Sam gone forever from her head.
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Inside the mirror realm, Prosso, thanking the heavens for this opportune day, headed straight over to the Seracian’ stand, which appeared to him, in his mind, like a delicious honey pot.
A honey pot not least for what it hoped to deliver but also due to the Seracian’s stand being a sea of yellow robed figures, drab and austere with shaven bald heads, their appearance, was more suited to an ancient religious order rather than the most developed civilisation to date. They rise to power was also clearly denoted by their position, seated in the most favourable seats in the entire amphitheatre.
Prosso hurriedly made his way through the crowd with the help of Sar tranto, promotions and influence did not grow on trees after all and he would need to make the most of this encounter.
Down below could be heard, the current match coming to an end, as the crunch of bone could be heard and a sickening snapping – all matches today were death matches.
Quato Vex was an eye and could easily sense Prosso’s approach in his minds eye. It was quite an annoyance that the man should appear now when the most interesting of matches was to play out. It would be a fix as all important matches were but that made it all the more enjoyable from his point of view. However he had also foreseen that Prosso actually had something of importance to say, so he decided not to ignore him, this time.
“Seer Prosso, I can spare you five minutes, no more, no less, when this match is over. Here have this seat next to me.” said Quato tersely, ushering a subordinate out of the seat next to him and waving for Prosso to sit down, quickly.
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Down on the bloodied sands of the arena, Traksis flew low, quite frankly panicked, as the new competitors filed out onto the sands. She had been tasked with the mission of finding the two Iktophos, Bartholomew and Lopez and then heading back to Sam with details of their position. But now it was not so simple because she knew if she left now they would die and that would not be good. Her master Sam, would not be happy and at the moment she had to keep him happy for fear of him dismissing her from his service. She needed him, her race, or what was left of them needed him.
Traksis also felt in her gut that this was now a suicide mission.
And she was not far wrong, she might have avoided the detection of some low level faction members, several times over the past twenty four hours but now she was quite literally surrounded by an audience of some of the highest ranked Psions in this area of the multi-verse. Thankfully although all could see her, none said a word, thinking this was merely part of the show.
Sar tranto, raised his eyebrows slightly, as he was the only one who actually knew she was not supposed to be there. He hesitated for a split second before deciding to change some markers before the last few seconds ticked away and all bets were closed.
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Bartholomew and Lopez stood with three others, facing their rival team across the two hundred or so feet across the arena. As none of them knew each other it would be more like a one on one fight, as each just tried to survive. Which was a shame really as Bartholomew and Lopez were used to working in a well balanced team, they were constructors used to distract combatants, with a little elemental firepower mixed in. In short, they were most probably completely screwed but had come up with a few desperate ideas during their long incarceration.
The fake sun shone down in a permanent noon day position to give the illusion of fairness to both teams. Above in the clear blue sky also hung large looming digital figures counting down to match time…5…4…3…2…1
Traksis flew as close as she could to the combatants of the opposing team trying to gauge their strength. If she could weaken the strongest opponent obviously it would give the other team the most chance of survival. Reading the psionic energy using [Psychic Energy Absorption] was a very rudimentary gauge of power level but it was the best she had at the moment.
At the same time Bartholomew and Lopez, were trying to figure out the same thing, so they could avoid them and target the weakest opponent first. Lopez used his [Telepathic Illusions] ability to disappear while creating a clone image of himself in his original position. This allowed him to get up close and personal, scrutinizing the other team.
He noted of the five only two of them were not paying attention to his team. One seemed distracted by something nearby, as he was looking around him whereas the other just looked bored, a clear tell that he was strong. Well that was easy thought Lopez, who immediately sent his illusionary form in the direction of the furthest opponent from this one.
Bartholomew took the signal and moved in synch with his partner. This was exactly what they had been expecting. The other team was composed of similar unfortunates as themselves but as they had suspected there was a ringer – a strong opponent placed there to ensure the other sides win and their demise.
The other members all took Lopez’s move as a sign to start the fight. Lopez and Bartholomew were best placed to figure out their opponents’ likely strengths and weaknesses due to their role as Iktophos intell gatherers and could make some quick suppositions based on their opponents’ ethnicities – they were all new worlders like them unlikely to having but the most basic of ability sets.
So Lopez would just need to get them to show their hands in order to gain a good strategy and he of course had the perfect way to do this. Especially while all the others were distracted.
Their first opponent, an agile woman, this already gave away the fact that she was a modder. Modders could be unpredicatable in speed and strength but as an illusion this was obviously harmless. The woman over reached as, almost flew at Lopez, then punched a spike of psi-energy through what would have been his chest. Eyes wide, she dropped as she was hit by a close range elemental blast.
Ordinarily, this firey blast would cause blinding at worse but delivered at point blank range, Lopez had managed to eradicate all oxygen from her lungs, causing her to asphyxiate, as he held the elemental energy in place. One down, eight to go.
He just hoped the people on his team could at least….his mouth dropped open as he still held the person in place to make it appear he was choking them rather than cooking them from the inside out. Across the other side of the arena, he saw Bartholomew taking damage from his opponent despite being stealthed.
Bartholomew had carried out a similar tactic to defeat his chosen opponent but they had preternaturally dodged at the last minute then countered spearing a psi-construct through his left shoulder causing him spin to the side and attempt to roll out of the way as the construct dissipated.
Now injured, he moved over to try and team up with Lopez only to feel himself hit again but this time from behind. Lopez saw it too as he was closing the distance. As there was no one being his partner it could only be someone else stealthed, quickly looking around he confirmed his worst fears. It was their strongest opponent that was missing.
The fact that Traksis could no longer see the enemy did not matter as she had already used her ability [Pursuit] innate to her species from birth. With this she could sense their general whereabouts by following their trail.
She would have to be very careful as her quarry appeared to be a modder among other things with a very high acceleration rate.
Neither Bartholomew nor Lopez, could detect their pursuer as this was no simple ability as their skilled senses could perceive nothing whatsoever so they immediately vanished in a vain attempt to wait out their opponent in this game of cat and mouse.
Bartholomew didn’t let it show but what he had been hit with did not seem like a normal construct, it had depleted his psi reserves severely as well as injuring him. He sighed inwardly, knowing his time was quickly running out. And to think his hopes had actually risen when their contacts from “The Group” had come through. He chuckled grimly to himself thinking how the multi-verse merger was more like a hostile takeover. Fumbling behind him he brought some of his favourite items pinched from the Seracian’s – incendiaries.
He dropped them at his feet and clutched the detonator to his chest then put all his effort into sensing the next attack.