I did not create and do not own these characters or settings. The Apex Legends and Loba Andrade are the property of EA and Respawn Entertainment, this is a work of fan fiction. Enjoy!
*****
Loba Andrade was new to the Apex Games, but she wasn't new to The Game. The heist, the hunt. She surveyed her ten competitors assembled before her in this shithole bathroom. The soldier, the scientist, the engineer... none seemed a particularly difficult mark. She glanced at the bartender, the one with the holograms: almost no challenge at all with him.
Someone coughed uncomfortably, peanut shells crunching under shifting feet. Silence was a tool in the belt of the patient. But it was time to break it. "Thank you all for coming! You should be honored; I usually work alone."
The soldier snickers at this, covering it up - poorly - with a false cough. "Bangalore... need a drink, General?" The soldier responded straight-faced, no fun. "I'll pass. Need to keep my wits about me. This time of night, got some real shady elements in here." She has no idea. "And trash doesn't take itself out." Ouch. The big one with the shield, leaning against the back wall, rolled his eyes. Loba noticed, noticing things one of her best attributes. She leaned forward slightly and cocked her hips, displaying some of her other best attributes.
"I won't keep you then. Let's get to it. I'm looking to add a rare and valuable treasure to my collection. And in return? You can make use of my various talents for... well, for whatever you desire." A few eyebrows raised. Loba considered giving examples, making use of her expensive dirt. The bartender Elliot Witt's mother's untreated illness, perhaps, or the medic Ajay Che's war criminal parents. The doctor's alleged crimes would be fun to reveal. She'd spent weeks, and thousands of credits, finding leverage on every one of these fools.
"Maybe you'd like..." The daredevil heir - Octavio "Octane" Silva - interrupted, barely able to keep from hopping and clearly on a dozen different stimulants, "Everybody knows what you mean Loba, just get on with it! Who's first?" Ajay punched him in the shoulder, hard.
Loba smiled; it couldn't really be that easy could it? Well, these "legends" have been isolated in a remote world for months with no good company and a near-constant adrenaline rush... Change of plans then.
"But first, I need your help," she purred. "However, there are two issues in terms of retrieving the treasure. One - it's broken into pieces, scattered throughout Kings Canyon. And two... it's not in 'our' Kings Canyon. Apparently, there's a different... I don't know, I guess you'd call it another... dimension. Luckily, one of us happens to have spent a short time there and is familiar with its... locals, so to speak."
The robot practically burst through the front of the small crowd. "Me! It was me! And everyone was a shadow, and the dead walked around moaning all night. All my friends said I made it up!"
"Apparently you did not. Which is why you're our guide, Pathfinder. And Wraith will be our way in." Loba turned to the pale petite skirmisher in the back. Seduction was obviously not an option for the robot, but perhaps Renee the Wraith...
"Hold up, I never agreed to..." Wraith protested. Loba pushed on.
"Each of you is important. I ask you to work with me - together. We'll go in at night, in shifts. Find each piece and bring it back here, where Crypto and Wattson can help assemble it." The nerds should be easy to bat an eyelash or two at.
Crypto pushed back weakly. "Assemble it? How do I know this 'treasure' isn't some sort of trap?" Loba went for flattery. "Whatever it is, I'm sure you're prepared enough to protect yourself. That's why we need you. I've learned it's some sort of tech - so who better than our premier hacker and most brilliant engineer to take it on?" She put the right emphasis on all the right words, matched with a come-hither smile and some cleavage.
Wattson's attention stayed rigidly attached to Crypto. "A chance to work together? Usually we're opposed, but now we have the same... charge! Get it?" She was hopeless.
Loba resumed, shifting attention to the soldier. "And obviously, we'd fail miserably without the guidance and leadership of our general, Bangalore."
"Sergeant 1st Class will be fine, Loba. Not a general yet." It was stiff, but hardly a rebuke.