Sinner's Run

Noah jolted awake, finding himself in an unfamiliar room bereft of all furniture save for a bed and a desk. Then he remembered what had happened - the drop, the battle, the victory. Everything that had happened afterwards. But he couldn't remember falling asleep. Or changing out of his armor into nondescript underthings that looked like they came off the cheap shelves at a store.

He sat up slowly, wincing as his body protested. All the panicked running from the previous day had pushed his muscles beyond what they were used to. His calves and thighs ached as he swung his legs out of bed and set his bare feet on the cold floor. Another sign that this was, in fact, somehow real.

A knock sounded at his door. "Hey Killer," Nala's raspy voice called from outside. "You awake yet?"

Noah debated not answering, but his polite upbringing won out. "Just got up," he said slowly, yawning after.

"You decent?"

"Um..."

The door to the room opened. The feline alien padded in, wearing a form-fitting crop top and pants that hugged her legs tight. Her green eyes flicked up and down his body. "You don't have anything I haven't seen before," she said nonchalantly.

Noah still leaned forward a little, trying to draw attention away from his state of low dress. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Roster for the Run just went up in the atrium," she said. "It's threes today - you're dropping with me and Larka."

Noah blinked. "Which means?"

Nala's tail flicked. "The three of us are on a team today, that's what it means."

"Oh. Right."

The feline alien snapped her fingers a few times. "You sure you're all there?"

Noah grimaced and rubbed the back of his head. "Still can't believe this is all real," he said.

"I can pinch you if you want," Nala said, tapping the tips of two of her sharp claws together. "Will that make it clearer for you?"

"Um, I'll pass."

She smirked. "Smart answer. Game starts in an hour. Be there - I ain't about to drop without a full team." She left as briskly as she'd breezed in, tail lazing back and forth behind her as she went.

The door slid shut behind her. Noah let himself fall back onto the bed, his body feeling like it was made of lead. He was still trying to wrap his head around just where he was. Where he'd come from, the Barracks was just an animated menu, where the camera panned in and out of the various sections depending on what the player selected with their mouse cursor. Now it was a physical location he could feel and touch, the metal walls cold and unforgiving. He reached out and pressed his fingers to the cool surface, just to put it at the forefront of his mind.

As he did, the bedside table in the corner of his vision caught his eye. There was a device lying on it that looked similar to an iPad, a square tablet of sorts with a black screen. Curious, Noah took hold of it. The screen lit up at his touch, displaying a message.

Before you take to the Run today, take a moment to run through the requisition forms on this datapad so that we may better furnish your quarters. This is your home now - might as well make it feel like one!

Noah's eyes narrowed. The message text seemed a little too chipper, reminding him of the strange voice that had hijacked his earpiece the day before and guided him to victory, despite pulling the rug out from under him and being like "by the way, you're not going home anytime soon." At the bottom of the message was a single letter - Y. "Boy would I like to know," Noah muttered.

He tapped the screen and the message vanished, replaced with a checklist that listed furniture items - dresser, bureau, more bedside tables if he so chose. There were articles of clothing, from casual wear to professional clothes, along with nick nacks and assorted decor. "Are they going to charge me for any of this?" Noah wondered aloud.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Noah selected another bedside table, a dresser with some casual shirts and shorts, and a computer from the list. Once that was done, he tapped the big Send button on the bottom, and the list disappeared. A moment later, a new message pinged on the tablet.

Those will be in your quarters at the end of the day, and this tablet is yours to keep. For now, report to the Atrium to link up with your team members for your first Game. I look forward to seeing what you do this time around. Y.

It seemed best to just go with the flow. If he did, maybe everything would turn out okay. Or things would just get worse. That was also an option.

Noah got up off the bed and walked into the hallway. He heard a low murmur of conversation coming from the direction he remembered the big round Atrium was, and followed the sound.

Rapid footsteps came from behind him, and Noah whirled around at the sound. Was somebody trying to get the jump on him already?

"Gooooooood morning!" Something pint-sized and dense crashed into him and bowled him over. Noah wound up flat on his back, staring up at an exuberant Fidget. "It's Game time!" she chirped, leaning over him. Her wiry arms flexed a few time as she did several pseudo-pushups, the motion making the goggles around her neck bounce around. "Oh, it's

always

so exciting. New day, new Game, new chance to make it all happen!"

"Okay, that's great..." Noah wheezed. "But can you get your knees off my diaphragm so I can breathe?"

"Oop, sorry!" Fidget scooted back, allowing Noah to pick himself up. He kept a hand on his stomach as he did, wincing as he cricked his neck. "DId you not get a chance to visit the Tailor?" she asked, looking at his plain black armor.

"What tailor?

"

The

Tailor. With a capital T! He's a robot in the A block, knows everything about all things clothes. Half the fun of the Run is being able to make a statement, and half the way you make a statement is by wearing something with zazz!"

Noah cocked his head. "Zazz?"

"Like this!" Fidget got up and turned in place, letting Noah look at her from head to toe. He had never used Fidget in game all that much, and it took him a minute to realize that he was looking at one of her alternate costumes from the game. Her normal costume was very grease monkey, leather overalls over a long sleeved shirt with boots. This alternate skin, however, put her in a sleeveless top that zipped up the front, hugging her torso tight and putting emphasis on her perky breasts that swelled in the almost-too-small top. Her overalls were replaced with pants that held her mechanical tools, accented by a patchwork skirt that billowed and swayed as she turned in place. "I

love

this outfit," she squeaked, patting her many pockets. "So many places to put stuff."

"I didn't even know you guys had a clothing robot," Noah said.

I don't remember that being in the game at all.

"Ah, you'll pick it all up as you. Come on!" Fidget took his hand and tugged him up. "I'm with Montana again today, and Archangel. Once you get past all his mechanical nonsense he's actually kind of a hunk." She dropped her voice into a conspiratorial whisper. "Just don't tell him I said that."

Noah let himself be dragged into the Atrium. He was struck at the sight there of every single character in the game gathered together. The avatars he'd spent so much of his time in control of sitting at a computer desk were all here, all of them very, very real. His brain still refused to process it all.

"There's Nala and Larka for you," Fidget said, setting her arm on his shoulder and pointing. Her posture made it so that her chest swelled against his back. "And there's Monty! I'll see you down there! Well, maybe. Unless you get eliminated during the opening scramble. Or I do! Or maybe we'll both get eliminated and we can meet back here, and then we can go see the Tailor!" She skipped away with a merry little wave.

The brief interaction had left Noah feeling like he'd been given whiplash. Fidget lived up to her level of chatterbox in the game for certain. He stared after the perky mechanic as she joined her teammates, glomping onto Montana and rubbing her hair.

That

wasn't in the game, though Noah was positive he'd seen it represented in fanart somewhere.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the three new characters clustered together apart from everyone else. Quirrel was looking right back at him, a smug leer on his face. Experiment 32 was looking at the floor, her buzzed head bowed. The third member of their team was taller than the other two, a wiry looking man who might have been handsome if it hadn't been for the deathly pallor cast over his bronze skin. His dark hair was greasy, hanging in curly ringlets around his face. He too was looking at Noah, an unreadable expression on his face.

Iago,

Noah remembered. During his brief time playing around with the character, he'd been struck by how strong his abilities were. His ultimate just made him invincible for five seconds. It didn't sound like much, but five seconds of total invulnerability to damage could easily swing a gunfight into the favor of even a semi-competent player.

Wait, what are

my

abilities?

Noah thought.

Do I even have any? Do all of these people follow the same logic in this bizzare world as they do in the game?

Head now starting to hurt again from pondering the logic of the new world he found himself in, Noah sidled up next to Nala and Larka. Unlike Fidget, both of them were wearing their default outfits. Nala wore a simple, practical set of burgundy armor so dark it was almost black. The sigil of the kaldarian military was burned into the breastplate. The armor ended at her knees, which were canted forward due to her anatomy. Her striped feet were bare against the floor, claws flexing against the immaculate tile.

Larka, by contrast, looked like a walking tank. The armor she wore was big and bulky, befitting her status as a character with a larger than average health pool. It was matte black, made out of whatever this universe's equivalent of carbon fiber was. Her two shield projectors were attached to her back. The fraskarian had daubed red paint on her muzzle, the scarlet a striking splash of color against her snowy fur.

Despite her fearsome appearance, she was all smiles as Noah approached. "Good fortune to you, Noah. It is an honor to be your companion for your first battle as a Prime."

"Hey, he's not royalty Larka," Nala said, giving her companion a sidelong glance. "You don't need to lay out the flattering welcome."

Larka drew herself up a little, her dark eyes bemused. "Flattery implies my words are insincere, which they are not, little Nala. Noah proved himself resourceful in the preliminary Game yesterday, and I am interested to see what he does against the rest of the Primes."

"I, uh, appreciate the vote of confidence," Noah said.

Larka's big meaty paw patted his head. "On the Run, you must trust your allies. Place your trust in me, and I shall protect you." Her voice hitched a little as she spoke, and Noah picked up on it. In the game, Larka was in the Games in a sort of atonement quest for failing in her duties during a rescue mission. Was it the same case here?

"I swear by Astra's fur, those new ones still give me the creeps." Nala glowered at the trio of Iago, Quirrel, and Experiment 32 across the Atrium. "It can't be a coincidence that they all showed up together. First ever team of three preliminary and they take out a third of the other competitors on their way to the win? No way they just banded together to make that happen."

"I thought I was the first preliminary winner in a while?" Noah asked.

"Singles preliminary," Nala said with a wave of her paw. "They won the threebie one last week."

"Huh."

"You overthink things," Larka said. She pulled one of her shield projectors off her back and fiddled with the controls. "The Run itself has not changed. Merely the people dropping onto it."

"I'd still say that qualifies."

Further debate was forestalled by the same smooth voice from the day before filtering through the speakers. "Primes, ready yourselves. The Game begins in thirty seconds."

The mood in the room shifted palpably, as everyone straightened up and began shifting from foot to foot. Noah looked around, fear prickling at his throat. "Wait, just like that? Don't we have to get on the dropship?"

Larka pointed at the walls of the Atrium. "This whole room is a teleportation device. When it activates we will be transported onto the dropship above the Run."

Noah blanched. "That seems needlessly complicated."

Claws clicked on the floor as Nala stretched herself out. "I mean, if they have the tech to make it happen, why not? Impress the audience, remind us who's in charge."

Before Noah could say anything else, the walls glowed. He felt a bubbly sensation in the pit of his stomach, a sense of familiar weightlessness filling his body. A moment later, his stomach did a flip, and he felt as though he were being yanked backwards.

Noah felt himself slam down into a seat, as if he'd sat down a little too fast. A harness held him in place, the roar of engines sounding in his ears. Nala was on his left, Larka on his right. Somehow, the harness managed to contain the fraskarian's bulk. Across from them was the team of Fidget, Montana, and Archangel.

"Hi again!" Fidget chirped, the vibration of the dropship seeming to only exacerbate her natural perkiness. "This is always the exciting part!"

"Nala, where do you wish to descend?" Larka asked over the roar.

"We have the FNG," Nala said, her pupils clearly dilated in the low light of the dropship cabin. "We'll take it slow this time."

"Primes, you are clear to drop," the Voice said. "Good hunting on the Run!"

About half the squads in the dropship dropped immediately, vanishing as the floor dropped out from under them and air rushed into the cabin. Nala's finger hovered over a large button on her harness, her fingers flexing in eagerness. After a few seconds, Fidget hit her own button, falling out of the dropship with an excited "wheeeeeee!"

"She's so freaking weird," Nala muttered. "Hang tight!"

She hit the button, and Noah's yell of terror was lost in the whoosh of air as they fell out of the bottom of the dropship. A part of him had thought

hey, I've done this once already, the second time won't be so bad, right?

That part of him had been dead wrong. It was still absolutely terrifying seeing the ground spin around upside-down before righting itself. The Run rose up beneath them, a different section than he'd dropped into the day before. They were angling towards the Marsh, a thick forested area in the northeast part of the map. "We'll hit the buildings over here and work our way towards wherever the Zone is," Nala said, her voice calm despite the situation. "You better be ready to move, Killer."

"Sure, if my legs work right after we land!" Noah squeaked.

Larka laughed as they swung their legs up, thrusters firing to slow their momentum. "Good fortune, friends!"

They hit the ground, and both Nala and Larka took off running towards the nearby buildings. Noah took a minute to pat himself down and make sure he hadn't left anything in the fall, a concept that he knew was absolutely ridiculous, but his panic addled mind insisted on giving credence to. Once his heart had stopped trying to escape through his throat, he forced his legs into motion. Nala and Larka were already a ways away, both of them having found weapons and armor. He couldn't afford to stay still.

He hurried after them, ducking into a building that neither of his companions had explored. He found a body shield, which disappeared at his touch and reappeared around his body like before. On the floor nearby was a Hacksaw shotgun, which Noah wasn't a fan of, but was better than nothing. The gun felt weighty in his hands as he picked it up, the extra shells vanishing into his storage deck. He moved into the next room, finding two small healing hypos and armor cells, which also went into the deck.

The door to his left opened, and Noah pointed the shotgun up at it. His finger stilled on the trigger when he saw it was Larka. "Ah, good," the fraskarian said. "You already have a weapon."

"Just one," Noah said, dropping the barrel to the ground quickly. Larka had a Hacksaw of her own, along with a Sunburst rifle.

"There's another weapon in the building across from us," Larka said, inclining her head. "Follow me."

Noah found it surprisingly hard to keep up with the big alien despite her being bigger than him.

This is what I get for skipping gym all those years,

he thought as his legs burned. Inside the next building, Noah found a Hyperion rifle with some more spare ammo, along with a flashbang that he pocketed. "Not the worst start," he remarked.

"I'll say." Both Noah and Larka looked up to the roof of the shack. Nala leaned in through a hole in the roof, looking ecstatic. "Found rank three armor and plenty of ammo. Let's go hunting!" She turned and hopped off the roof.

"Seems she wishes to lead us," Larka said. "Best we follow."

"Right," Noah said.

Larka looked down at him. "Are you nervous?"

Noah looked down at his shaking hands. "No, not at all," he lied.

Larka knelt down in front of him, her face kind as she folded her big paws over his hands. "Remember, I will protect you," she said, leaning her face in close to his. Up close, Noah caught a whiff of the scent off her fur. It was fresh and airy, like the way the springs had smelled when Noah had gone camping with his family as a kid. "For as long as I am your teammate."

"Hey, come on!" Nala called from outside. "I hear shots to the south, we should go see who it is!"

Larka patted Noah, then rose and jogged out of the shack. Noah gripped the Hyperion rifle with both hands. He squeezed tight to keep them from shaking, then followed after Larka.

Outside, both his companions were already loping away, headed towards the hilly, grassy area to the south of the Marsh. Noah hurried after them as fast as he could, calves burning as he pounded up the slope. At the top, the contour of the ground bent into another slope, which Nala and Larka were already at the bottom of. Nala was crouched down, her eye up to the scope of a Vindicator sniper rifle.

"What do you see?" Larka was asking as Noah caught up to them.

"A couple of loot boxes," Nala said. "Looks like we missed the fight." Her tail whipped as she panned to the left with her rifle. "Yeah, there goes Fidget and Archangel, up the hill towards Annex."

Larka immediately took a knee, making herself a smaller target. "You may wish to kneel, Noah," she said. "Montana is unaccounted for."

The mention of the sniper struck a primal fear into Noah, and he threw himself flat on the ground next to Nala. "Don't have to tell me twice," he said.

"Best decision you've made so far," Nala said, taking her eye off the scope for a moment before looking down it again. "I think Annex is their destination. It's on the edge of the first Zone closure."

"How do you know that?" Noah asked.

Nala gave him a flat look. "You can't see the map?"

"No?"

His earpiece crackled. "Whoops," the Voice said in his ear. "My bad. Here you are!"

A loud keening noise sounded in Noah's earpiece, making him wince. A moment later, a topographical map of the Run appeared in the corner of his vision, the same map that was in the top-right corner of the game HUD. Noah rubbed the side of his face. "Gee, thanks..." he muttered. "Now I can."

Nala gave him a curious look before looking back through the sniper scope. She frowned. "Wait, they're coming back. Why are they coming back?"

A moment later, Noah saw a roiling red mist shoot out from behind a hillock like a swarm of crimson bees. The lanky silhouette of Montana ran out of it, slapping at her body. Fidget and Archangel were cutting back down the hill, firing from the hip.