Paul was on his last legs, Marcus could see it in his eyes, he knew the feeling all too well. As he aged and his powers matured he had reached a point where his body simply couldn't handle them anymore. Not that Paul was in danger of that right now, but the strain that had been put on him definitely would've had a similar impact. The ripple of ambient light and the sound of footsteps echoing from outside the bridge alerted to him why Paul hadn't given up and collapsed right then and there.
Well that made things considerably easier
One wonders why you bothered to go after Paul
I wasn't sure alright, last time I did this it was only me
You retained your abilities and your knowledge, me as well
Well, we reverted back to a point where I already had met you, not the case for them
In any case, let's be thankful that we may finally be a step forward this time
The tired old man in me thinks otherwise
Pah! you have much to learn about age young one
Marcus chose not to reply, debates with Arcturus could go on forever. The senile spirit seemed to be in a perpetual state of boredom.
I heard that
Shut up
While he was preoccupied with the debate in his mind, he caught an angry look from Maya, evidently Paul had coughed up some blood and collapsed. From the looks of things she wanted him to carry him. With a shrug Marcus hefted Paul's unconscious frame up onto his metal shoulder, it seemed the man had gained some weight.
"You know, you could've caught him" he said in an almost tired tone. "Deckplate's kind of unforgiving, the fall might've done more lasting damage than his faint. Welcome to the Archon version of getting old. You didn't think I kept coughing up blood all the time because I took a scythe to the face did you?"
That scythe had recently taken off his arm, something that he'd have to ponder over adverse effects about. He began walking towards the medbay, periodically checking over his shoulder to confirm that yes, Maya was still there following him.
"You two won't probably feel the adverse effects of living a long life for a while yet, the first time around things took a.... while. I'm over a thousand now, if you count by that timeline's earth years. Forgive me if I don't tell you when my birthday is, there's more than a few things I'd like to forget."
He'd never shared information so flippantly, something that puzzled him. He did make a decision to get to know the others after the disaster that was the second time around. Turns out using people as tools demoralized them. Even if it did save you from that feeling you got when you watched your best friends suffer horrendous deaths. The memories of having to cut down the reanimated corpse of his adopted son intruded upon his psyche, almost causing him to stiffen and drop Paul. He held on, barely, and kept his pace.
Before long they reached the medbay and he causally dropped Paul onto one of the beds, all the man really needed was some Oxycodone and some rest. He stretched his good arm a little then looked over to Maya.
"He'll be out for a while, could be anything from ten hours to ten days, in any case you can play doctor if you like, or you can go out and help grab the new Archons sitting out there before they're hunted down and murdered. Your choice. Ping me if you need anything, or if he wakes up and starts trying to kill you"
With that said he spun quickly on his heels and headed back to the bridge. There he typed in a dimension at random, and fired up the rift drive. He set it to auto center over the correct planet and he jogged to the drop bay. Once there he wasted no time clambering once again into a drop pod, and firing himself down to the surface.
Data filled the display screen as he hurled down. Apparently this one managed to escape the logs, little to no information filled the charts.
Odd
Indeed, information is money, as they say, I wonder what caused ships to pass it by
Alerts suddenly blared on the screen, previously unseen bits of debris were uncovered before his very eyes. It appeared that he had accidentally wandered into a trap of another kind.
Shit
A word that was repeated rapidly as he descended past faster and faster waves of more numerous bits of space rock, one that was increased in volume exponentially as he felt the sickening pop of one smacking against the pod, then another, and another....
Things came to a head when a huge BANG could be heard and suddenly Marcus's stomach felt as if it had elevated its position in his body as his pod hurtled out of control into the atmosphere, He could vaguely see shreds of metal and rock become bright streaks in the sky along with him as he spun aimlessly. He descended faster and faster, something that concerned him as he could hear the air screaming away from his metal shell. Realization hit like a truck, those shreds were his air brakes.
Helpless as he was, he could only hope that he wouldn't break anything when he crashed, and given that the surrounding area was a desert, the threat of sinking bellow the sands was all too real. If he ejected now, it would be likely that he would just break apart on hitting the ground. The only option was to ride it down and hope to wake up later. The ground quickly rose up to meet him, and the last sounds he heard before blacking out was that of tortured metal screaming as it tore apart.
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Though this mortal frame had only existed for so long, The Doppelganger was well accustomed to living within the shadows. He watched his prey with interest, as he himself had no idea where the parent's weapons were located. He'd been unused to the new body, and so made a rather infuriating mistake, the boy had heard him. The unbroken nature of the new form he had, ironically made it unnatural, he'd have to modify it later. For now as he leaned over his shoulder to view the information on the PDA. Careful, oh so careful to make sure he didn't breath.
Rashin industries eh? Been looking for dirt on them, now I have an excuse
Quickly and quietly he moved back, fast enough to bug out of the room, but slow enough not to draw any untoward attention. As soon as he was out of sight he deactivated his suit's active camouflage. He keyed on a neural link to the team leader that was waiting for him in an unmarked hauler.
Rashin industries R&D, time to move in and clean up the place, we'll be preparing a welcome mat for a special guest as well, so be so kind as to not leave a mess
He trusted the team, they were good little dolls, doctored up by his own hand and conditioned to be extremely loyal, with enough processing power left to not necessarily be robots. They could complete mission parameters, and had enough juice to deal with objectives in a creative way, but not enough to question said orders.
As for his part, The Doppelganger decided to continue subtly tailing the descendant, if an opportunity arose to claim him he would take it, but he was useless without his weapons. He'd need to wait for a very, very specific moment in time before he could claim him. As far as intel on his.... counterpart, he knew that he was far and away moving to grab an additional pawn, and he was confident enough in his own abilities to deal with the other two, should they come for him.
No, they would not be much of a match for him, now all was left was the most strenuous part of the hunt, the wait.
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