Sinner's Run

Much of Noah's plan hinged on him getting matched with Experiment 32 on a consistent basis. So when he woke up the next day and checked the roster for the day's Game, his heart sank a little. It was teams of three, and neither of his partners were the blood-bending woman. Instead, today he was to hit the Run with Larka and Fidget. Not a bad team by any means, but memories of the last time he'd been on a team of three pressed down on him. That disaster was the whole reason Nala wanted to rip him a new one.

WIth those thoughts in his head, he scanned the rest of the roster. Nala was matched up with Pontiff and Abbess, while Experiment 32 was with her usual partners Quirrel and Iago. A team to watch out for under any circumstances. Noah tapped the tablet with his finger.

Hopefully if 32 has to take me out she'll at least do me the courtesy of making it quick.

He got dressed, and tapped the button to open the door to his quarters. He was immediately bowled over by a vibrating someone as they lunged through the door. Noah wound up flat on his back, the slender form of Fidget sitting square on his hips. "Hi!" she chirped. "I knew you'd get up eventually! All I had to do was wait!"

Noah fought to suck air into his throat. "To do what, break all my ribs?" he wheezed.

"No, silly. To say hi!" As fast as she'd taken him to the floor, Fidget hopped up, tugging him upright. "Nothing like a bright and cheerful hello to get the day started off the same way!"

"I...what?"

It was then he noticed Larka lurking in the hallway, the fraskarian's expression tired but bemused. "She does this every time you get matched up with her. You may as well get used to it, finyan."

Fidget beamed at the both of them. "Larka, you're such a grump. There's literally no downside to waking up early!"

"I can think of a few, small one," Larka rumbled.

"I don't wanna hear 'em!" Fidget spun around and flounced out of the room. "Come on! We should eat breakfast and strategerize. That's a word now!"

Noah watched her go. "Does she have, like, an IV drip of coffee by her bedside or something?"

Larka chuckled. "I cannot pretend to know. She does have a point, though. We should eat to gain strength for today's fight."

They caught up to Fidget, who was bouncing on her heels at the end of the hall. As soon as they did, she was off like a shot again, skipping across the Atrium down the hallway to the Cantina. As they followed, Experiment 32 and her partners emerged from their own hallway. 32 put on a turn of speed as she saw them, moving to walk abreast with them. "Oy, Thirty, where you going?" Quirrel called after her.

"Mind your own business," 32 shot back over her shoulder. She tapped Noah on the shoulder. "Let's talk."

"I'll catch up," Noah said to Larka. The fraskarian nodded and left as 32 pulled Noah aside into the opening of one of the hallways. "Guess we're going to have to wait to start putting out the messages," he sad.

"Maybe not." 32 shot a quick glance towards Quirrel and Iago, who were shuffling towards the Cantina. "There's no reason we can't put down the messages like we planned even if we're not partners. We'll just have to be more surreptitious about it. Try to sneak away from the other two and scuff it into the dirt with your boot heel or something. I'll use my hemo powers on my end."

Noah nodded. "Sounds good."

32 patted him on the shoulder, then turned and walked away, going to meet back up with her partners. As she left, Noah's eyes flicked down the strong muscles of her slender back to the slight swell of her rear in the tight bodysuit. He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for being a perv. That would possibly be later, if Larka's offer still stood.

Now that he knew how the systems worked, Noah went a bit more zealous with his choice of breakfast. The food machine - he didn't know what else to call it - cooked up a perfect three-egg omelette with breakfast potatoes and coffee. As he took the tray over to the table where Fidget and Larka sat, the smell alone made his mouth water. He thought back to his conversation with 32 the day before, their back and forth musings about whether or not this was reality or an elaborate simulation. If it was a simulation, was it like The Matrix where the food he ate wasn't real, but his mind made it smell and taste good? And if that was the case, what had happened to his actual body? Was he wasting away in some placenta-looking pod? He didn't think so. If he was, he'd feel ravenously hungry as his mind tried to shake him out of whatever catatonic state his body was in. At least, that was his theory. If not, well, in a few weeks he'd go to sleep and not wake up as his body ran out of muscles and tissue to cannibalize to keep him alive. The thought was abjectly terrifying, but he forced himself to pick up a spork and eat.

"You look like you're pondering some very not fun things!" Fidget said, her loud voice cutting through his thoughts like a knife through butter. "Or that you've seen a ghost!"

Noah started, realizing that he had gone still with a bite of food halfway to his mouth. "Erm."

"If you're not gonna eat that bite, I'd like to try it!" Fidget leaned in close to the mixture of egg, tomato and cheese on Noah's fork. "I've never seen anything like that!"

He did a double-take. "You've never had an omelette?"

"The heck's an omelette?"

"This." Noah waggled the spork under her nose. "It's eggs cooked in a pan with vegetables and cheese and such. How have you never had an omelette?"

"I grew up on a colony!" Fidget said, her big eyes blinking at him. "We didn't have anything that laid eggs. Can I try it?"

Noah took her own spork from her and sawed off a chunk of the omelette with the side before spearing it and offering it to her. "Be my guest."

"Yay!" Fidget chomped down on the whole thing with gusto, yanking the spork out of her mouth with a sucking noise. She chewed with gusto, her eyes rolling from side to side. "Weird texture," she mumbled through a mouthful of food. "But very tasty! You've got to show me how you get it made!"

Noah cut off another small piece for himself before pushing the plate in front of her. "Sure. You can have the rest if you want."

Fidget made a noise of abject glee and dug in, munching loudly. Noah watched her go, trying to remember what the lore around the plucky engineer was. She was one of the few wholly human characters on the roster, ones that didn't have augmentations, mutations, or whatever it was that allowed 32 to turn her blood into projectiles. Her abilities in the game made her more of a support character, though Noah had seen a few terrifyingly good solo Fidgets that had run rings around him. Her passive increased the damage of explosives, making frag grenades a mandatory pickup.

But her main signature ability was her active ability Unorthodox Engineering, which allowed her to combine things in her inventory to make, well, better things. She could combine two small healing hypos to make a much more effective med kit, or create special grenades you couldn't get through other means by combining two grenades of the same type or two of different types. Through that, you could get bigger, better frag grenades - which was the intended synergy with her passive - or create flashbangs that lasted longer. If you were feeling particularly dickish, Fidget could make frag grenades that also flashbanged anyone in the blast radius. She was a very versatile character, but was considered a mid-tier pick. While her ability to make better healing consumables was fantastic, to get the most mileage out of her you had to be both incredibly good at throwing grenades and matched with opponents who were bad at avoiding said grenades. WIth how gun heavy Sinner's Run's battles got, grenades rarely settled engagements better than accurate shooting.

There was also a subset of people that found her bubbly personality irritating. But watching Fidget tear into the remains of his omelette, despite the fact she seemed to tackle him on sight, Noah couldn't help but smile a little. In a game full of dour, ultra-serious character archetypes, Fidget was a breath of fresh air.

Fidget lowered the plate from her mouth, staring forward with deadly seriousness. "Holy smokes that's good," she said in a monotone voice. A moment later, she hiccuped, her entire body bouncing out of the chair. Her facade broke, and she collapsed into a paroxysm of giggles.

"You seem far more energetic than usual today," Larka remarked from across the table. "And that's saying something."

"I just have a good feeling about today is all." Fidget reached over and yanked Noah into her side, squeezing him in a tight side hug. "I've got two of my favorite other Primes as teammates today. Nothing can go wrong!"

"Your optimism knows no bounds," Larka said.

"Wait, I'm one of your favorites?" Noah asked. "How? We haven't been on a team yet."

"Maybe not!" Fidget declared, raising a skinny fist. "But by default everyone's my favorite! Unless they turn out to be mean. Or grumps. Or mean grumps. Then they're not any more. Like that Experiment chick! She's just sour grapes all the time."

"Speaking of which, what did she wish to discuss with you earlier?" Larka asked. "I figured that as soon as you won yesterday she just would've been done with you until you got matched up again, if ever."

"She's not that much of an ass!" Noah protested. "No, she and I...uh..."

Breakfast is decidedly

not

the time to hit Larka and Fidget with the whole "this entire reality around us may or may not be a simulation" thing,

he thought.

If there ever even is a time for that.

"She just wanted to tell me she appreciated me being a distraction for Nala at the end of the Game yesterday."

Larka snorted. "'Distraction' is one word for it. I've never seen Nala pursue a single quarry so ferociously before."

"Yeah!" Fidget said, leaning forward in her seat. "She's really got it out for you!"

Noah sighed and closed his eyes. "Yeah, that makes me so relaxed, believe me." A thought occurred to him and he opened his eyes. "Has that ever happened before? A feud going so far that the people involved just

have

to fight each other every time they come into contact on the Run?"

Larka's brow furrowed. "There was, back when the original Primes like myself were learning the Run. There were two mercenaries named Octavian and Gladstone who absolutely could

not

be paired together. Their quarrel existed long before they came to the Run. No matter what, they tried to kill each other every Game they could."

The names sounded familiar. Noah wracked his brain for a moment until he remembered. When Sinner's Run had been in development, a number of Primes had been conceptualized and even made it into early builds of the game. Octavian had been cut from the original roster because the developers had felt his design clashed too much with the rest of the game world they were building. His concept had been reworked into a better version of a sniper character in Montana. Similarly, Gladstone had been a support character who could make turrets, but had been cut due to programming issues with the turrets breaking the game on a software level.

So Larka remembers even the beta characters,

Noah noted. Another piece of the puzzle to what was going on. But where did it fit? A follow up question occurred to him. "What happened to the two of them?"

Larka shrugged. "They simply vanished one day. Nobody was particularly fond of them, so nobody really went looking for answers. Nobody else has disappeared since then, so perhaps the showrunners simply decided to release them back into the galaxy."

And Mechantix hasn't cut anyone from the game roster since the betas,

Noah thought.

The original launch roster has stuck and only been expanded. Because why cut characters and have all the hard design work go to waste if they don't outright break the game?

He nodded. "Just so long as nobody else up and vanishes."

Larka nodded in agreement, then looked at the clock above the door. "It is time, my friends. Off to fight again."

They left their trays on the table and walked back to the Atrium, where the other Primes had all gathered together. Once again, as he waited, Noah caught a glimpse of Nala across the room. The kaldar was glaring at him, as if she were attempting to bore a hole through him with the force of her gaze alone.

"One more question," Noah muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Larka.

The fraskarian's shield equipment bipped in readiness as she finished checking her kit. "Ask."

"Has any Prime ever tried to take personal matters into their own hands here in the Barracks rather than leaving it on the Run?"

Larka paused, her gaze growing distant. "Not to my knowledge."

"What would happen if they did?"

Larka looked up at the large banner with the Sinner's Run logo that loomed over them all. "I am...not sure."

Then the world darkened, Noah's stomach did a flip, and he slammed into the seat on the dropship. He wondered if he would ever get used to the whiplash sensation and the suddenness of the transition. Given enough time, he supposed, anything was possible.

Larka slid a tablet in front of him from the left. "You pick this time, finyan." To his right, Fidget was humming something barely audible over the drone of the dropship engines, kicking her legs back and forth. She gave him a nod of encouragement.

Noah took the tablet and looked over the map. He needed a place to scratch the message, which would require a bit of time. It would have to be some place off on the edges of the map without anyone else there to attack them, but also some place where there would be enough foot traffic in regular games that the message would be seen. After thinking about it for a time, he selected the Talon, a long strip of rocky cliff that jutted out into the sea around the Run. It wasn't the most popular drop spot on the map, but far from the least trafficked.

As soon as his finger hit the screen, the bottom dropped out of their chairs. Noah tucked his legs and did a neat rotation in midair before righting himself. He kept his arms and legs tucked firmly against his side as the wind whipped past his face. At least this part wasn't as abjectly terrifying as it had been previously.

He, Fidget, and Larka angled themselves towards the small cluster of buildings on the Talon. Noah looked around to see if they were going to have any company. Landing at Talon was a bit of a risk because if more than one team approached you from the larger part of the map, you were stuck with your back to the water. Without the luck of the loot in that scenario, you were screwed.

The three of them landed, and broke apart, each headed to a different building. Noah shouldered open the door of the one he picked. The first thing he saw on his left was a Level 3 set of body armor, and he strapped that on immediately. Further scouring turned up a Cricket burst-fire submachine gun, along with a couple small healing items. On the last loot spawn location in the building, he found several grenades and pocketed them as well.

Geared up, Noah headed back down to the first floor, but went out the back door instead of the front he'd entered through. He looked to both sides quickly before finding an open, flat patch of dirt. He holstered the Cricket on his back, then set about dragging his boot heel through the dirt. Without 32 to help him write the message, he opted for a shorter version.

Garthex. This is Noah. I'm alive. Send help!

Noah looked over his handiwork. The message was legible, and hard to miss should any player come around this side of the Talong buildings. He nodded, satisfied, then turned around to rejoin the others only to run slapbang into Fidget. "Gah!"

"Hi!" she said. "Whacha doing?"

"N-nothing!" Noah grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around, trying to frog-march her away from the message site.

Fidget wriggled free of his grip, ducking neatly under his shoulder, then dropping down again as Noah tried to grab her shoulders again. "Oooh! You're leaving a message for someone? Who's Garthex? Is he your best friend? Your boyfriend?" She swooned and clapped her hands together. "So romantic!"

"No, he's just a friend!" Noah said, yanking her back from the message. "Don't mess it up, he needs to be able to see it."

"Gotcha!" Fidget's eyes went back to the ground, her gaze narrowing. "Does this have anything to do with the weird circumstances of how you arrived here that I totes shouldn't know about but do because I eavesdrop all the time?"

Noah blanched. "Just how much do you know?"

"Pretty much most of it! I listened in on you talking to 32 yesterday. Kinda kooky story, but I kinda think you might be onto something. I've always lowkey wondered if all of reality was a simulation. And now you might be the proof!" She beamed. "So exciting!"

"Noah, Fidget, are you okay?" Larka's voice crackled through the comm beads in their ears. "We should be moving. The Zone will be closing soon."

"Be right there!" Noah answered. He lowered his voice. "Look, Fidget, just keep it to yourself and don't blab, okay? 32 and I are trying to figure this whole thing out, and that's going to be difficult the more people know about it. I need the Games to happen as normally as they can so 32 and I can get the messages out. Understand?"

"You got it!" Fidget mimed zipping her mouth shut, locking it, then hurling the imaginary key out into the ocean. She skipped away back towards Larka, humming a merry tune the whole say. Noah groaned and put his head into his hands. He and 32 had agreed to keep this thing between them as much as possible, because if this

was

in fact the Sinner's Run game itself, for all Noah knew cluing in more of the Primes to the fact that their existence might be artificial could cause the whole thing to become destabilized. Or worse, whoever was running the show might pick up that he was in on things, and would try to stop him. It was more of a paranoid hypothetical, but Noah had no idea what was going on and figured caution was best.

He followed Fidget back to where Larka was waiting at the entrance to the small compound. The fraskarian was fully kitted out with two guns, armor, and a big backpack. "Here, Fidget, these are for you." She held out her hand, and several frag grenades appeared in her palm.

"Ohmigosh yeeeeeees gimme gimme." Fidget gleefully plucked the explosives out of Larka's hand. One vanished into her storage deck for later. She knelt down and futzed around ont he ground with the other two grenades for a moment.

"Everything alright, finyan?" Larka murmured to him, touching his shoulder.

Noah nodded. "Getting there. Thanks."

"Done!" Fidget popped back up. The two grenades that had been in her hands were now gone, and in their place was a much larger explosive that looked like a carbon-fiber pineapple that had been hit with a shrink ray. "One big boomer, ready to go!"

"You hang onto it, dear," Larka said. "You know more about how to use such things than I do."

"Okie dokie!" The large grenade vanished in a flash. "So, where to?"

Larka looked to Noah. He shook his head. "I picked the landing spot, only fair if someone else picks where we go next."

"North, then. From there we can follow any gunfire we hear." Larka turned and set off, setting an easy pace as Noah and FIdget jogged behind her.

As they went, Noah kept his ears peeled for any signs of fighting. Half the teams had already been knocked out in the opening scramble. He felt gross as he thought of it like that - there was mortal, deadly violence happening, and people were technically dying. It was sobering to think about. Behind him, he heard a clicking sound as Fidget worked her magic on more consumables. He'd accomplished his mission, at least. Now he just had to keep doing it day in and day out until something happened. Or his earlier fear came true and he just didn't wake up one day. No pressure.