As a scavenger, there's a lot to get used to. Thankfully, Gino hadn't.
He had cursed himself, more oftentimes than not, as the perils of scavenging have brushed past him like it was nothing.
In Renegade Rebels, Gino was probably the best at it. His ability to seek treasures buried in heaps of trash wasn't an ability; it was practice. Something he had done for over twenty years, and yet he was still practicing the trade of it. He never intended to stop, but even if he wanted, he couldn't.
With how Arcadium had been shaping up, and the different factions now forming and expanding, first discoveries could be worth a fortune to whomever got there first.
It wasn't like Gino had been looking for a way out his entire life. Sometimes, things just happen to pounce upon men who look a little farther. And that was just one of the things he didn't want to get used to.
The Lectro had covered a long distance driving underneath the amber skies of the Arcadium, or rather under Prys’ skies. It was a desert, or a wasteland filled with gaping land holes that could trap any dweller that wasn't watching their steps, and the Tower was located at the center of it all.
That was where the men of Casaline had begun operation. They worked originally as hunters, searching for roaming animals until they turned extinct, and then they moved on to crops when their first option became worthless. That didn't work out either, and so they let the scavengers do the muscle for them.
There were no good men in Casaline, even if Gino were to deny himself the truth that Breok Bee, a former friend and ally of Renegade Rebels, had joined the bastards in exchange for food and shelter. One part of him couldn't let that blame slide. Breok had done what most people wouldn't have: seek for help.
As much as they were power-hungry in their ventures to rule Arcadium, the men of Casaline still had a heart. Even if that heart was iron and beating, and terrible.
Gino parked the Lectro just by the steps of the Tower, its gleaming eyes still bleeding red. He grabbed his chunk box and slung the straps around his shoulders, flipping down his beetle-goggles in defense against the brewing sandstorm. Trinket buzzed out from the front windows, following Gino behind.
As he climbed the steps, he noticed the history gleaming from the eyes.
The Tower was built originally by the Kielbergs, a family of powerful Ravagers. They took over Prys, or rather, captured it by force from Johan Ryberg and his men, winning a convincing war with bloodshed and sacrifice. It sparked a revolution as Arcadium soon split apart with super groups under dubious names taking hold of a piece of territory.
But now it has become a settlement for Casaline, as it had been for over twenty years, rightfully or not.
Gino climbed the spiraling steps of the Tower, broken and dirty, thinking of his dialogue choices with Arnbor. Was he going to strike first? Was he going to mention what he had like a tiny nod? Or was he going to wait?
Perhaps it was just better to leave the big surprise until the end. And so that was what he went with.
“Same as always,” he beckoned to Trinket as they made their way up to the foundation.
“This is the 198th time we've done this, Gino. I got this.” Trinket’s buzzing quietened.
They reached the foundation of the Tower, and standing in their way was a guard and its tall doors.
The gigantic doors to the Tower was guarded by Keylor Dargle, a face that Gino had seen far too frequently. In fact, he could probably place his facial organs in order without any wrong pieces with no time to spare.
Keylor had been safeguarding the Tower for as long as Gino had remembered, wearing his silver plated suit and equipping his trusty spear-hook.
“Gino Reynder,” Keylor said, adjusting the position of his spear-hook that was resting on his shoulders.
“That's my name, yes,” Gino responded. “Oh, and how could I forget, as always, this is Trinket.”
Trinket honked twice with an uplifting whistle. Its sapphire eyes glimmered brightly at the guard.
“You can tell it's happy to see you.” Gino smiled at Keylor.
“I can see that.”
The Tower guard turned towards the small window frame in the window and knocked lightly with his bent fingers.
The large doors creaked and swung inwards, revealing the interior walls of carved dragons and steel pillars, letting the Prys sunlight in, revealing a spiral staircase that lead down into the dark depths of the Tower right in the middle.
“Enter,” Keylor gestured to his guests.
As Gino and Trinket crossed the steps, the doors begun to close quickly.
“You better handle yourself down there,” Keylor spoke telepathically to Gino.
He half-turned, looking the guard in the eyes before the door slammed and sealed shut.
Have I never?
The sunlight escaped and now the dimmed torches were all they had. It was clearly not enough as the rebel could hardly see down the whole way through with the steps.
The torches lighting up the interiors of the Tower were of pale magenta, but they weren’t glamorous nor were they bright. They were hardly shining, but Gino didn’t concentrate on that.
Like the usual: do your business and get out.
He descended the stairs, entering the stirring darkness. With each small step, he realised that the brightness was not enough.
“Light, Trinket,” Gino snapped his fingers.
Trinket’s sapphire gaze lit up some of the steps further down, and it was enough for Gino to place his footing safely.
With a clear trail before them, the duo descended the stairs slowly.
***
A steel door soon came to block Gino’s path at the bottom of the stairs.
It was the final obstacle before he could meet with Arnbor, and his feet were quaking with trepidation.
But only just. He had tried to move the fear out and block it, but it seemed impossible. So the next best thing was to limit it. He couldn't let it dictate how he was going to react in the room with Arnbor, otherwise it would spell trouble -- a lot of it.
Gino threw his arms on the door and knocked with his fists. He could feel a shift in the locks opening, and the small window at eye-level strapped open.
“My name is-”
“Shut up, Reynder,” the man behind the door spoke in a husky voice. “Wait.”
The man shut the window as the door cranked and swung open towards Gino. He watched carefully, stepping back and holding his chunk box close to his chest. The ceiling lamp was hit Gino in the face, and so he signaled to Trinket to shut off its lights.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Smoke brew in the gaps. Merfyn Spiker, the figure that spoke, revealed himself behind the shadows in a white cloak and a scarred mask that covered only the left side of his face, preferably to remove any unwanted eyes to lay upon it.
Nobody knew what happened that caused him to cover it, though suspected tales had drifted in the past of what happened. It was a concoction of rumors, most justifying the Casaline's torture rituals and others wearing the notion that Merfyn had once betrayed the group. But as they were rumors, nobody really knew what was true and what to believe.
“Mr. Groves will see you now,” Merfyn said. His hands gestured inward as the door opened, allowing Gino and Trinket to both enter together. “Better not to keep a busy man waiting, Mr. Reynder.”
A little too close.
Merfyn’s ability to hear any dialogue within 5 kilometers through force focus allowed him access to discrete information that was audibly spoken. But Gino was glad, though he wasn’t checking himself every half-minute to see if he had mentioned in passing something wrong. He understood about the abilities of the Ravagers more so than he should have, especially the Casaline’s.
As a scavenger working regularly for the bandits, it was just something useful to pick up on.
There was only one way in after the encounter with Merfyn, and that was through the hallway leading to a sharp left turn. In that room, sat in one chair on one end of the table was Arnbor Graves, in desired black hooding and long black pants, leaving an empty seat open for the oncoming Ravager. His striking pose made no doubts that he was indeed the leader of Casaline.
The table he had was a little too small for the big man with a big reputation, but the only items placed on the table weren’t his and so he couldn’t be bothered with miniscule problems.
Placed behind him was a sharp longsword. It was a priceless acquisition, as Gino came to understand which was not as it was described. It was left behind by the Kielbergs after they lost the war, and etched into its handle on the hilt was the iconic symbol of a rising phoenix trapped in a fiery ring - which was the emblem of the Kielbergs.
By displaying it to his visitors, no matter how powerful or weak, showed Arnbor’s intent: to invoke threat and fear. Even if he wasn’t about to slice the scavenger in front of him with it, there was no way it wouldn’t put them off.
The Rebel and his microbot companion soon entered the Casaline boss’s view. Following behind them was his assistant.
“Mr. Reynder,” Arnbor spoke and raised his eyes. “What brings you here?”
“Well, your fashion sense, mostly,” Gino replied and hopped down on the empty chair as he sees Merfyn move to the front of the exit on the door to his right. “And things to barter, of course.” He had tried to dispel the notion of jittery forming in his body language prior, but his attempts at using a mental block didn’t work. The next trick up his sleeves was to act friendly.
Though acting wasn’t Gino's forte.
“Show me what you got.” The Arnbor smiled wryly.
Gino removed the chunk box slung to his shoulders and placed it on the table. “Oh, you’ll love this,” he said and unlocked the box.
As the scavenger searched, Arnbor waited. He was quiet, but impatient. A storm was only beginning to conjure in the leader's mind.
“Alright, are you ready?” Gino looked at Arnbor.
As expected, revealing my card too early won't help me out.
Arnbor shrugged his shoulders at the question.
“Are you wasting my time or yours?” The boss asked.
Gino smirked.
He pulled out four thunder chips in fine working condition and placed it on the center of the table.
“8,000 credits,” he said in short breath. The Casaline needed more chips to power up the Rovers, their top line of vehicles, and Gino was playing off of that fact.
“Fine. What else?”
Arnbor swept the chips to his side of the table.
From the chunk box Gino produced a dozen volt batteries, used to power up lights, serving as a form of energy capable of lasting over a week.
“50,000 credits," the scavenger declared.
The Casaline needed the volt batteries for their shock weapons, and so Gino was working through their laundry list of wanted items just right.
Arnbor released a short-lived sigh. “Sure.”
Just one more, but a little one first.
Gino pulled out a cracked shard of an Espa Orb and placed it on the table, inviting wanted attention from Arnbor as well as Merfyn. The shard, glowing in crystallized green, had disturbed the Casaline leader.
“Where did you get that?”
The glimmering piece was still in Gino’s hands, but he hadn’t named a price, and he wasn’t ready to let that answer go.
“I’m a scavenger. What do you think?”
“Location?” Arnbor asked. He was interested in more, not necessarily how.
“What’s the point in divulging that information to you?”
Gino smiled while Arnbor pursed his lips.
It's not everyday that an Espa Orb, let alone a shard of it, would fall into the hands of a lowly scavenger in Arcadium. Yet, the guy in front of the Casaline leader had it.
But he wanted to know where, and more specifically, how he got his hands on it. Scavenging was just an easy and lucky excuse.
“What do you want for that?” The leader’s eyes didn’t budge from the shard.
Gino paused, thinking of his options.
A few extralex cores for Trinket would make it enough for the microbot to last a few months, even a whole year, and scraps of all nature would enable Rudiger’s working projects to take-off immediately.
“A dozen extralex cores and three dozen mechanical scraps,” Gino finally named his price.
The Casaline leader laughed unabashedly.
To think that this scavenger was about to have his way for a single piece of an Espa Orb? Does he not know that to reconstruct it would take at least seven other shards, and the Casaline’s vault did not even hold a single piece? Probably not, now that he had time to realize.
“Six cores and a dozen scraps,” Arnbor replied. “It’s just a piece of an orb, Mr. Reynder. You overestimate your-”
Now.
With another hand into the chunk box, Gino pulled it out: a full eternal Espa Orb. Its radiant green light instantly enshrouded the room as it pulsated in Gino’s grasp.
“Impossible,” Arnbor said. The leader was as stunned as his assistant, who had his jaw cracked open. “How did you get it?”
It was the raining hell that Gino had been waiting for.
“You don’t need to know. All you do need to know is that I demand a full price for a full-fledged Espa Orb: three dozen extralex cores and five dozen mechanical scraps.”
Arnbor laughed silently.
The Casaline didn’t even own that many extralex cores, and not even three dozen scraps, yet he was being swung around in the scavenger’s hands for this deal. This awfully one-sided deal.
He was in trouble, but only for this short while. He was more concerned with not being in control.
The scavenger was pulling all of the strings. The orb was the leverage - the ultimate leverage - in the barter, and there was no way he could walk away without losing everything in exchange.
“A dozen extralex cores, two dozen mechanical scraps and 100,000 credits,” Arnbor replied.
If there was something that he knew was building up in the Casaline vault, it would be credits. It was the worthy - and only - offer that would make up for anything else that was lacking.
“Sure,” Gino said.
If I was a fool, sure.
Arnbor reached out to touch the Espa Orb, but Gino reeled his arm in like a fish-hook. It wasn’t going to be so easy, now that he had the upper-hand.
No. He wasn’t going to throw away a golden opportunity just like that.
“200,000 credits," he improved the given price.
This scavenger was biting off more than he could chew, but the Casaline boss had no choice. It wasn’t everyday that an Espa Orb came knocking, even if it demanded the entire vault.
“Deal,” Arnbor said and beckoned to Merfyn behind him. “Get the cores, scraps and the credits for our rich man here.”
His assistant nodded and disappeared behind the black curtains to Gino’s left, shuffling his feet.
“Let’s shake on it, shall we?” The scavenger requested.
Arnbor stood up and shook Gino’s free hand from across the other side of the table.
It is done.
Gino could feel a release that was tightening in his chest as everything was over.
***
Merfyn returned with a large scruffy bag, containing everything that was in exchange for the Orb, batteries and chips.
Gino checked the scraps, the cores and the credits, and ensured that it was all in order and that everything had been accounted for.
Still sat at opposite ends of the table, Gino stood up and handed over the Espa Orb and the single piece to its new owner.
“What makes you so sure that you aren’t going to regret this?” Arnbor asked, spinning the orb in his hand. The vibrancy and its pulse were foreign to the Casaline leader, and he took it all in.
“I won’t.”
Gino carried the bag and whistled to Trinket as they exited out from the door on the right, leading them to a staircase that would bring them back up to the foundation of the Tower.
As the door closed shut, Arnbor signaled to his assistant.
“Prepare the Rovers,” he spoke silently. “Call Ferdynand Axelsen. Task him to follow Gino Reynder.”
Merfyn nodded and disappeared behind the curtains once more.
As he eyed the Espa Orb, a wicked smile crept its way onto Arnbor's face.