Arena 12 - The Spaceport

[etcircenses]

As usual the Tributes are woken up early for the start of the arena, leaving the Tribute Centre before dawn. A few hours ride in a hovercraft delivers them to their destination where their excited prep teams will outfit them in skintight suits that are colour coordinated by District (D1 is White, D2 is Red, D3 is Orange, D4 is Aqua, D5 is Purple, D6 is Pink, D7 is Light Green, D8 is Blue, D9 is Yellow, D10 is Dark Green, D11 is Lavender, and D12 is Black) over which they will be put into what is instantly identifiable as a spacesuit, complete with oxygen tank and helmet before being loaded into the tubes.

They rise up into what appears to be outer space and immediately upon emerging from the tubes Tributes will find themselves floating upwards with a length of rope the only thing holding them to their podiums. The countdown crackles out from speakers built into each Tributes helmet.

20

19

18…

The Cornucopia sits in the middle of a dusty crater with buildings surrounding it, made up of a number of chained down cases and cubes in limited numbers. Cubes which sharp-eyed Tributes will note look like they fit into the slots beside the doors that lead into the spaceport.

8

7

6…

The mirrored visors of the uniformly white spacesuits make it impossible to tell friend from foe. Tributes fighting for goods will have to risk harming their friends but the alternative, floating off into space or suffocating when their oxygen runs out, leaves them little choice.

3

2

1…

The gong rings out and the countdown’s voice announces, “the Arena is now open” before the line goes dead. The Games have begun.

Comments

[metalicarus]

"I've got more than one line, you jerk. I'll reach in and tie it myself if I have to." Jet's glared at Albert even as his husband but when he started up his anxious pacing, Jet turned his attention to Venus instead. He did as he was told but he made another face when she told him to think of Albert.

"Yeah, like what, how stupid his face is or how annoying his pacing can get or how much of a bastard he is?" He muttered it, letting his ire speak for him instead of what he was actually setting his mind to. Think of Albert, of those eyes Jet never got tired of looking at, of how he never felt safer or more loved than when Albert held him to his chest. How Albert was the first person to make him feel anything even close to that since he'd been eight.

The skin on Jet's hand sealed itself up as whatever Venus did ran through him and the squishy stuff on the inside knit together the way it was supposed to. His eyes fell shut and his head rolled back a bit as the sensation swept through him, causing a small groan that was definitely not caused by pain.

His face flushed in response, but he tried to ignore it and opened his eyes to look at her instead. She definitely looked about as good as he'd felt a few seconds ago. He sat up and reached to collect her hands in his, half to get her to stop and half to help her stay upright.

"Hey. You look like you're about to hit the floor."

[celebrityskinned]

"I'm okay, I just need a minute." When she opens her eyes she has an unfocused middle-distance sort of stare; all her attention right now is focused inwards, keeping herself from ripping apart atom by atom. She wonders if she should get up and run away from them, demand space so if she goes supernova they're not in the blast zone (like her brothers, like her parents, like her grandmother), but no, she has this.

She has this. The thrum of energy scrabbling to get out, from under and within over her skin, dulls down as she sorts her immense power back into order. Were she with the X-Statix, they'd haul her off to "dialysis" right now, but that's not an option here. She has force of will and that's it. She takes a deep breath and lets it out and sits back, not falling into their arms but still going slack and relaxed.

"I can't fix the cybernetics." She doesn't know what that means for Jet - maybe she would if she were a doctor, but she only knows how to repair, not how to treat. It's like a construction worker trying to patch up a sinking ship. She grins, lopsided. "The way you two are fighting, I'd think Albert was the one that stabbed you."

[silberfuchs]

"Maybe I wouldn't be such a 'bastard' about it if you would stop trying to die on me every time we left the Earth's surface," he growls out in response to Jet, and scoffs at Venus' assessment of their relationship even as he kneels down again by the two of them.

He's a little bit wary of Venus' power in that he's seen the footage of her in the exposé. He doesn't believe she'll harm them, not intentionally, nor that her control is as lacking as it was shown in the television special, but that sort of raw force should be respected at least. Still, if she does waver and look like she's about to tumble over, he'll catch her.

"It's alright, it's usually the organics that get us into trouble when injured. He has diagnostics and can walk me though reattaching what needs fixed so long as we can find something to seal any leaks." Even duct tape. They've done that before.

He meets Jet's eyes, then looks at Venus again. "Are you sure you're alright?"

[metalicarus]

He wanted to argue and say how it wasn't his fault...but quickly remembered that wasn't the case. No one was holding him at gunpoint when he made the decision to fly into the atmosphere twice. In fact, Albert had yelled after him, the best he could do to stop Jet when he'd offered no warning before taking off. Yeah. Who was the bastard?

"Whatever."

He looked away from them and focused on the schematics that flooded his vision, making his eyes unfocused again. Numbers, charts, every read-out he had scrolled through his vision including the little red warnings that remained. There were fewer of them now, at least. A moment later, he blinked and gave Venus a small smile. "Practically good as new, thank you."

He didn't want her to worry about him when there was nothing any of them could do for the rest of it until they had the right tools in hand -tools they might not even find. He'd be okay for a while, at least, it would just make some things a little more difficult, but that was better than countdown of a few hours.

"You should rest while we've got the time."

[celebrityskinned]

"I'm alright. It's just been a little while since I took the superpowers out for a spin." She gives Jet especially a long glance, unsure if he and Albert are playing tougher than they are the same way she is. After a moment, she gets to her feet, slowly and carefully but without any weakness in her knees. Time for this clunky bullshit spacesuit to come off.

"This isn't really a safe place to set up shop. Who knows when that airlock'll open again." She hasn't started off any Arenas with allies so soon; usually the first few days are spent hunting for her people and scouting out the land. She's already possessed of the urge to squirrel them away in some corner where no one can get to them without going through her, but she's well aware that they likely feel the same way.

"So far I haven't run into anyone else."

[silberfuchs]

"She's right. Let's get you up." With a last look at Delilah to make sure she's not going to keel over, Albert stands again and moves to help his husband to his feet instead, looping one of the blond's long arms around his shoulders and hoisting the other cyborg as if he weighed close to nothing.

"What have you seen so far? Anywhere we can make secure?" Considering she can teleport and they hadn't even gotten as far as the airlock before Jet tried to bite the big one. "We need to find somewhere defensible, then look for sources of water and food, maybe other allies if we can swing it. I made agreements before the Arena with both Sam Wilson and Felicity Worthington, among others."

They can fill in the rest of their lists of protectees when they get somewhere safe.

[metalicarus]

"Preferably somewhere with a door or high up." Jet didn't protest Albert helping him to his feet or supporting him, although it was tempting; until they were out of potential immediate danger, the last thing he wanted to do was slow them up. Although with the fact Albert could so easily lift him even with Jet easily being an extra hundred pounds heavier just proved they were hardly people to be messed with now that they had their own cybernetics back. With all three of them together and Venus back to her health, they'd make a pretty damn formidable team.

He caught Albert's eye to tell him they should get moving and started off deeper into the station, regardless of their intended destination, they needed to get moving.

It took a small amount of conscious thought to re-activate the brainwave communication link between himself and his partner, but once it was there, it was like spreading a mental security blanket. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed practically having Albert in his head all the time until it was gone for so long. Now he just had to test and make sure it worked.

'Once we're somewhere safe, we need to get her to rest, she'll resist, but she still looks pretty bad off.'

[celebrityskinned]

"Only one other airlock, and not who the people who got there ahead of me and ditched it were. I shot someone for trying to strangle me but I don't know who it was or if I killed them." She released a breath in a long, slow whistle. "I haven't been around nearly as much as you think I have been, much as I appreciate how much you think I'm capable of."

She's made about five teleportation jumps this hour, and that's about her limit. Three of them were outside investigating the Cornucopia. Fortunately, it'll only take a few hours for her to recuperate.

"Sam Wilson's good people. Good kisser, too." She adds that more for the audience at home than for either Jet or Albert - after all, she knows that her best asset is still her ability to work the crowd at home. A crowd that likes a little romance stirred into their brew of slaughter and despair. "Kankri Vantas, obviously, and any of the Frenchies if you see them. My list of allies ain't all that long."

She starts walking, taking the lead even if it isn't the wisest decision.

[silberfuchs]

'I agree. You should rest too, for that matter. You may be healed but you should take it easy until we can find a way to patch your systems. Even duct tape would help.'

Jet's voice suddenly in his mind isn't jarring in the slightest, instead it soothes his fraying nerves and lets him breathe a little more easily. If they get separated, they can easily find each other, and still communicate as easily as thought. It makes the stress of the last new minutes - had it only been minutes? - melt into so much background noise.

Delilah's comment about Sam being a good kisser earns a raised eyebrow from Albert and a sidelong glance, but he doesn't comment on it. Not yet anyway. "If we're listing allies, Clementine, Terezi, Initiate, Carlos, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Bucky Barnes... honestly it might be easier to list those I wouldn't mind seeing meet a quick end." Many of the tributes he doesn't consider friends or even have a spoken pact with, but allies are allies and aside from Black Tom and Sigma, there are no others he can think of that deserve immediate attack without provocation.

"As for our immediate concern, I agree with Jet. Somewhere high up would likely be best."

[metalicarus]

'Duct tape's a hot commodity, I doubt we'll find any, but I'll play along for now if it makes you feel better.' That was about as close to 'coming quietly' with the idea of resting Jet could get.

The comment about Sam earned a smirk and an amused look, but he kept quiet about it. If she said so, he certainly wouldn't know. "Anyone I'd list's already been mentioned, so I think that's it." Anyone else, while he wasn't out for their blood or anything, Jet wasn't adverse to killing either. If it came down to him or one of his allies and those others, he'd kill without a second thought.

"We'll find somewhere, but we should find it soon. No point wandering half the arena to find somewhere safe. Although, if we need to, I can get us out of here fast." His flight systems weren't too jacked, at least, the actual flying part wasn't. If something less than pleasant showed up, he could take both of them with him easily.

A little bit of self-reference here but they're from the same world.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus echoes the list in everyone's head out loud. "Black Tom Cassidy, Molotov Cocktease and Sigma Klim on our hit list, I'm guessing?"

She doesn't know about some of the new recruits, but there are old guard who are uncooperative with the general will, to say the least. Venus wants to appoint herself as some sort of judge and exonerate only the children here, the ones who had to do a whole other goddamned Arena just to spite the Tributes watching on, but she doesn't know how her newfound family will look on her mowing her way through other adult Tributes. She doesn't ask yet. She'll wait until it becomes necessary, if they last that long.

"Molotov and Black Tom will be together, wherever they are. If I remember right, his powers have something to do with plants, so he might be shit out of luck here, but he might be able to shoot fire...I don't remember. Sorry, he's like one of those C-list celebrities in my world that you only hear about when the big dogs aren't doing anything cool. Tried to destroy my school once." She breathes deep. "Sigma Klim I got nothing on. And of course there's whatever Gamemaker traps they've rigged up."

There's a confidence coming from her that's practically humming over her body like a second skin. The Arena isn't home but it's her workplace. She knows the rules here, in front of the cameras and the audience. She turns a corner and makes sure no one's down either hallway. She chooses left because there's no reason not to.

"We can find a place to stay for a few hours until my powers get under control, then I can start scouting better places. I just shouldn't do anything fancy for a little bit."

[silberfuchs]

"Molotov I'm not sure. She plays the game and she plays it well and we should defend ourselves of course, but out of those three I wouldn't go out of my way to do her harm." Though if they find Tom, Delilah is right; Molotov will likely be present and on his side. Still, he's not going to hunt anyone down purposely.

"Good information on Tom, thank you. As for Sigma, all I know for certain is he's a cyborg and has an unhealthy preoccupation with Eponine. Nothing untoward as far as I can tell, but definitely some kind of sick surrogate child situation." Which doesn't help Eponine in the slightest. She needs to learn to stand on her own feet and not rely on others to bail her out of her own stupid decisions, yet there's Sigma with his Capitol loyalties trying to corrupt her further.

"For his being a cyborg, this could mean he has weaponry, enhanced sight, strength, any number of things. Best to let Jet or I handle him if we come across him, we've fought other cyborgs before. Quite a lot." He looks at Jet to confirm, still walking near him in case the damage he's sustained suddenly catches up with his mechanical systems and their search for somewhere to hole up is cut short.

"There's a door ahead, maybe we'll find somewhere to bunker down in there. Then we should probably let each other know our strengths." Meaning powers. He has no earthly idea how far Delilah's extend and likewise she doesn't know what they can do.