//------------------------------// // Drekzone Part 6 // Story: Other Wanderings // by ed2481 //------------------------------// “Hey Glen,” Ethan said with a wide grin as they sat at their usual table. “Guess what.” “What?” the mare asked with a raised eyebrow. “I got a hoverbike!” Ethan said enthusiastically. Glen rolled her eye. “Yeah...only for off world matches and the rounds that allow vehicles,” she remarked. “It’s still a hoverbike! Hoverbikes are cool!” he enthused. “You can’t deny that!” “I can deny it for not being hoof friendly,” she replied. “Other than that, you’re not the only one who has access to a vehicle for off world matches.” “And?” the man inquired with a raised eyebrow. “It’s still a hoverbike! I bet once I get home I can put some plasma cannons on it and get from the Mojave to D.C. in a few hours!” “If you get home,” Glen stated. “When I get home,” Ethan corrected. “And I’ll take you with me too.” “You keep saying that, yet I haven't seen you even try to escape here,” the mare commented. “I’m starting to believe you’re just bluffing.” Ethan chuckled. “Oh Glen, I’m not escaping,” he said enigmatically. The mare shook her head. “You know, I think you have a few more screws loose than you think.” “Eh, I just prefer to think that I live my life without strings attached,” the man replied, smiling at the mare. “Everyone should try it sometime.” Glen stared at the man a bit flatly. “I think if everyone tried what you do, there’d be far less people left in the universe.” “But the quality of people in the universe would increase dramatically,” Ethan replied with a smirk. Glen’s right hoof smacked into her forehead and she rubbed it profusely, muttering something under her breath. “What’s that?” he inquired playfully. “I couldn’t quite hear you over the sound of you giving yourself a concussion.” “Nothing,” she replied grumbly. Ethan just smiled and leaned back in his chair, things were good... for the most part. As his eyes looked out among the crowd of aliens, strange anthropomorphic creatures, and the occasional robot looking thing, he let his mind wander slightly. I wonder what’s taking Sparky so long, he thought to himself, not beginning to worry yet. Whatever it is, I’m sure she’ll find a way to get us out of this hole. And kill Drek, man I can’t wait to get a chance to whale on that dick. He smiled at the thought. Wonder if they’ll send Faust... this is more of her kind of gig anyways... which will be interesting. Never seen her fight before and from everything I’ve heard, it’s an awesome thing to see. The man then let a small frown slip across his face. Man... I just hope that Drek doesn’t realize that I can’t fight dragons or the like without a little help... that robot was a bit beyond me too... The man slumped forwards a bit on the table, leaning on the table with his elbows as he looked at his favorite picture on his Pip-Boy. It showed his family, Cassandra and him standing with each others arms around their waists. Shade and Ash were in it too, the girl antagonizing the boy and teasing him silently. I’m going to come home, Ethan promised them. And I’ll do anything to. He looked over at Glen and gave her a soft smile. The mare gave the man a small quer look, glancing sideways before looking back at him. “What?” she asked. “Eh, just thinking about stuff,” Ethan answered with a small shrug. The mare opened her mouth slightly to ask, but shut it and shook her head, thinking otherwise. She didn’t want to risk another headache. Ethan smirked at her with a raised eyebrow and then chuckled slightly before looking back at the crowd. There were so many races here, so many far flung travelers from distant suns and planets. An uncountable number really... and here he was, a boring old human from the Wasteland. Okay, not boring, he amended with a small mental chuckle, of course it was rather... hollow sounding, even with his own head. Even after all he’d done... it would never be able to make up for the things he hadn’t or didn’t get the chance too. His gaze drifted among the crowd until he spotted someone coming in their direction. The someone was definitely a female, with the curve of her body and the obvious signs of breasts, yet it wasn’t human. She had dark green skin and stood roughly six foot tall, her arms showing firm, strong muscles. Her face had some unique characteristics too, with slightly pointed ears, her black hair braided into a ponytail that swung behind her head, two small tusk jutting out from her lower jaw, red triangles tattooed under her dark blue eyes. She also had a metal collar around her neck, though it didn’t look like a normal bomb collar the man knew, since it was far thinner and had a small circle plate center around her voice box. All in all, she was fairly intimidating, to most people anyways. For his part, Ethan just shot her a smile. “Hiya, want a place to sit?” he called to her in a friendly tone. The ‘woman’ smiled back. “Sure,” she replied, taking a seat across from the man. Ethan smiled a little and offered her his hand to shake. “You’re the first person here beside Glen here to actually come up to me, the name’s Ethan Smith, The Lone Wanderer,” he told her. The woman reached over and accepted the hand. “Well, not many like to converse with a man who killed two people a few moments after he woke up,” she replied with a small chuckle. “Anyways, the name is Veira Jurgmen, Dragonborn,” she informed him. Ethan shook her hand, feeling an equal if not great greater strength than his own behind it, though neither of them bothered to show off. “Well Veira, it’s nice to meet you,” Ethan said with a chuckle. “Besides, you and I both know that those two were wastes of space, food, and brains. More importantly, they proved a point and in a place like this that’s important.” Veira shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe, though you could’ve proven the same in a match; like you did with ‘The Butcher’. And those two? They wouldn’t last too much longer in their rounds anyways.” “Yep, obviously,” the man replied with a slight shrug of his own. “So there was no real loss,” he said. “Where I come from, they would’ve been raiders, and that means I would’ve killed them eventually anyways.” “Right...I’m a bit surprised you weren’t vaporized when you did it. Since fighting in the quarters are illegal,” Veira stated. “Eh, Drek wants me here for some reason,” Ethan said with a slight shrug. “I think he’s using me to make himself lots of money... so that he can fuck it all night.” “Ah, you’re one of those gladiators, huh?” Veira asked the man. “So I guess you had a small bout with Kharon if you’re one of Drek’s money squeezers.” Ethan nodded. “Yep, the bastard shredded me down to the bone with some pistol-shotgun thing of his. Fun times,” he said. “And yeah... I’m his ‘money bitch’ at the moment. Bastard.” “Huh? Shredder rounds? That’s a new one,” she mused. “Normally he doesn’t cause that much harm to his targets.” “I may have hit him with three plasma grenades at once... think it made him angry, poor prick,” Ethan replied. “That... or I’m just hard to capture... nah that can’t be it.” “Either way, Kharon once again proves his title of Elite Gladiator,” Veria said with a small scoff. “I guess,” the man replied before turning to the quiet Glen who’d been watching the two interact. “What?” she asked Ethan. “You’ve been quiet,” the man said with a shrug. “Figured you’d have something to say.” “Other than the fact that he is the one guy you don’t want to fight, not much,” the mare replied. “Matches against him are literally a death sentence...not like the others aren’t too, but at least you have a chance to come out alive in those.” Ethan shrugged slightly and turned back to the green skinned woman. “So, no offense, but what race are you? In my head I keep referring to you as the ‘green skinned woman’ when I don’t use your name and it’s starting to get annoying.” Veira raised an eyebrow at the man. “I’m an orc,” she informed him. The man’s brows furrowed together for a moment. “Orc... hmm... shouldn’t you be working for some guy with a ring obsession?” Her brow rose in a questioning expression. “I have no idea what you're talking about...” “Sorry, read it in a book,” the man explained, waving away the whole comment. “So what’s your story Veira?” The orc shrugged her shoulders. “It’s pretty long...but let’s just say I’m some prophesied hero that saved the world and such and got dragged in here one day exploring the ruins of an ancient city.” “Huh,” Ethan mused with a small nod. “I can’t claim to have saved the world, but then again, the world would need to be put together enough for me to save it in the first place.” “Oh?” Veira inquired. “Yeah... let me tell you about the Wasteland...” Massive surges of power flowed through the walls and the air was abuzz with the sound of ‘beeps’ and ‘boops’ emanating from a set of holographics buttons being rabidly pressed. Standing behind a tall sand-ish colored stone counter working on a glowing light blue floating keyboard was a bipedal creature barely four foot tall. Its light grey skin gleamed in the soft glow of the light while her white braided bands of hair hung across her slightly oval shappedhead. A pair of long floppy of ears hung down in concentration, trying to minimize the noise level. Large emerald eyes were rapidly scanning the screen before her reading the data from her current scan. Many would probably call her a goblin at first glance, other would say she was some sort of gnome. But she was an asura, and proud of it, since her genius level was far superior to any of the ‘other’ races in the multiverse. A smile grew across her lips, slightly showing her point row of teeth. “Ha, got ya,” she said to no one but herself. “You were smart in using theta radiation to hide your path, but you forgot to compensate the echoing effect the void does whenever someone used a natural bridge.” She pressed in a series of buttons causing the display to show a large branching network of lines. “Now all I have to do is to get rid of the junk and find similar paths and pinpoint your origin... too bad there are several thousands worth of data to sift through.” She cracked her neck left and right. “Well, it’s a good thing I rarely sleep now a days. So I should have it done in two or three days.” “Burning the late night oil tonight, huh Vex?” a male voice spoke out. The asura, named Vex, glanced up to see a tanned caucasian man with a small black scaled dragon wrapped around his shoulders. His brown curly hair barely visible in the dark as he rubbed a hand through it, repressing a sigh with his other hand. The asura glance back down at her work. “Shouldn’t you be in bed bookah?” she asked the man. “Shouldn’t you?” he asked back. However he held up his hands to stop her from answering. “No, let me guess, ‘This type of work need my genius’, right?” “As always,” she replied. “Figures,” the man said with a light chuckle with a small shake of his head. “Anyways, to answer your question Wistala and I were going to visit the Resonate Cave to do a bit of training. And since the sun needs to be out for the cave to do it’s magic, we had to wait till it was dark over here.” “Ah, I see,” Vex said, paying only half attention to the man’s explanation. “Well have fun, and don’t run into a wall too fast. Hate to scrape you off the walls.” The man chuckled lightly. “Come on Vex, it’s me. It’s not my first time going at supersonic speeds,” he told the asura with a smile. He glanced up at the screen, glancing at the scrolling data. “So...whatcha working on anyways?” “Trying to pinpoint a trail of some kidnapper,” she replied, pausing in her calculation and glancing up. “Simon gave it to me and told me to work on it. So it has top priority on my things to do.” The man frowned slightly as he glance at Vex. “Kidnapper? Why would Simon be interested in something like this?” “Don’t know, but I’m getting this done no matter what,” she replied as she glance back down at the keyboard. “This kidnapper was no amature in dimisonal traveling. He covers his trials very well...but not enough to escape from a genius like me.” Her fingers began to dance across the holographic keyboard and her focus was tuned in on the screen. The man glanced up at the screen one more time before turning around and leaving the asura to her work. “And that’s how I fucked an entire alien spaceship out from under their control,” Ethan finished with a smirk. “Green bastards the lot of them.” “Huh...that’s...a very impressive feat,” Glen commented. “Yeah, though to me they sounded nothing but weaklings to me,” Veira stated with a small chuckle. “I bet I could’ve handle them before getting caught up in this tournament.” “They were pretty weak, I’ll give you that,” Ethan replied. “But the shielded ones were a pain in the ass. Took a full six shots from my Blackhawk to take one down and those bullets are big.” “Why didn’t you throw an EMP at it?” Glen inquired. “I don’t know, I was young and stupid, never bothered to carry them on me,” the man admitted with a slight flush. “Damn...I was still with Sarah back then...kind of,” his eyes trailed up the ceiling, apparently lost in his memories. “It was only a year after I’d got out of the Vault... and right after putting down the Pitt’s slave rebellion...” “You’ve been a busy little bee huh?” Veira observed. “Always,” he said, his eyes slightly unfocused as his fingers danced over the table, tapping it here and there. Veira raised an eyebrow at the man’s behavior, but didn’t have time to question it as a robotic male voice spoke out. “Contestant, Veira Jurgmen, you have a match that will begin in five minutes. Please get ready.” The orc glanced up at the hidden set of speakers and rolled her eyes. “Well, duty calls,” she said as she got up. “It was nice talking to you, hope we aren’t matched against each other. Shame to kill ya.” “Likewise,” Ethan replied, a small fierce smile appearing on his face. “Stay safe Veira, I have the oddest feeling we’ll need you when we spring this coop.” The orc gave the man a queer look before waving goodbye and walked towards the lift. “There you go again with the whole escaping bit,” Glen commented at Ethan, giving the man a small unamused look. “Would you prefer me to be quiet and brooding?” the man asked her with a raised eyebrow. “Or maybe you’d prefer me to be a blood thirsty killer who screams and roars as he drinks the blood of his enemies? Oh, or maybe you’d rather I rape you and wear your vagina as a condom? Would you prefer any of that? Or would you rather have me stay positive?” his blue eyes had narrowed to frozen blue icebergs and he glared into her eyes with a new ferocity that Glen had never seen before. “Because at the moment Glen, I’m honestly not in the mood for you to tell me not to be positive. We’ll get out of here, and that’s final.” The mare returned the look with her dark yellow eye, showing little fear. “Then how about you show some actual proof of doing so instead of just blabbing your mouth out. Cause it’s really getting annoying of you yapping of escaping but sitting on your ass all day.” “Because we’re being watched constantly you dolt,” Ethan growled at a whisper. “Exactly,” Glen stated with clenched teeth. “Yet you keep on persisting it, so stop it.” “Have I been saying anything?” he asked her, suddenly looking a bit startled. “Becuase... I don’t remember saying anything.” Glen blinked blankly for a few seconds before frowning at him. “We were having an argument on your constant referring of escaping after that little threat speech of yours,” she replied flatly. “You’re not listening,” Ethan told her with a small sigh. “I haven’t been saying anything.” “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!” she said in a loud whisper. “Do I need to beat you over the head with it?” he inquired with a raised eyebrow. “It’s about layers Glen. Like an onion, except each layer is different than the last.” The mare gave the man a flustered look. “You know...sometimes I question your sanity...and I think this is one of those moments...” “You and everyone else,” the man said, chuckling softly. “Did you think I got the title of ‘Crazy Son of a Bitch’ for my amazing knitting skills?” “Yeah...now I’m wondering why people still trust you,” she stated with a small shake of her head. “Because I go above and beyond to keep those who I call my friends safe and alive,” Ethan said softly. “Because I save people Glen, even when they think they can’t be saved.” Glen looked at the man with an irritated look. “Yeah, well, prove it. For all I heard are words...and one’s words are never good enough.” She then got up and off the chair, heading off in some random direction. Ethan watched her go as he leaned back in the chair and let out a large sigh. This was going to be difficult... but he was sure Twilight would get him some help, she always had, and always would.