Chapter 1: The Competitor

I pay the cabbie and step out into the crush of people outside the drop ship staging area. I've seen Legends make the walk from the street to the gate before; some soak up the attention and lag behind their teammates to sign autographs, others stare straight ahead and the crowd of fans parts before them.

I've had the misfortune of arriving alone, just behind one of the champion teams. I know their names well: Caustic, Mirage, and Wraith. Wraith and Caustic ignore the crowds, and the crowds give them a wide berth, but Mirage stops to take pictures with fans, blocking the sidewalk with people thronging around him.

As a new competitor, no-one recognizes me. I've never competed before, and I'm not connected to any of the Big 8, so there's no reason to pay attention to me. I'll probably join the legion of forgotten competitors, here for one game and then gone.

I push my way to the chain-link fence, then inch along it to the gate, struggling to keep hold of my bag in the press. I step through the gate along with Mirage, then he disappears into blue particles of light.

Cameras flash, no doubt immortalizing my stunned expression, then a hand clasps my shoulder.

"First-timer, huh?" Mirage says, leaning down to talk to me. He's not a tall man, but neither am I. "Let me give you some friendly advice, pal," he stage-whispers, clearly more for the crowd outside the fence than for me. "Don't. Die."

I shrug his hand off and keep walking.

The launchyard has a number of ships, most belonging to the Apex Games. There's half a dozen respawn ships, a smaller ship that picks up Champions after the game is done, a couple privately-owned leisure craft, but the yard is dominated by the Drop Ship. Built to ferry sixty competitors to King's Canyon, it dwarfs most of the other ships in comparison. Its engines glow softly, but the bay doors are closed, and the only indication that I've got the right ship is when Mirage disappears behind it.

The other side of the drop ship has an open door, guarded by a tall man in a suit and full-face mask. I used to do janitor work at bars, and this guy looks like all the beefiest bouncers fused into one muscled disaster.

He lets Mirage in without a question, even returning the jaunty high-five, but he glares down at me, pulling up a list on a holoscreen.

"Name?" The voice is female. Fuck me.

"Uh. Daojian Liang," I say, and she doesn't move. Does she want my Legend name? "Timefreeze?" I stammer out.

"Congratulations," she says, and I blink at her. "You won the draw." My confusion must get across to her somehow, because I hear a sigh from behind the mask. "We put the newbies into squads by lottery, unless they've signed up together. Due to the nature of numbers, one of you lot is going in with a Champion squad. That's going to be you."

I'm running out of facial expressions, but I manage to squeak "Oh. Okay."

Ms. Intimidating steps aside, and lets me climb the steps into the Drop Ship. As my eyes are adjusting to the dimness, I hear her wolf-whistle behind me.

There are rows of chairs along the walls and down the center of the hold, the kind you strap into, for the journey to the canyon, but few of them are occupied. Mirage is crashed out on a row of them, snoring, while Wraith stacks undeployed Caustic traps on him and Caustic reads a magazine, ignoring both of them. I see the other big name squad -Lifeline, Gibraltar, and Pathfinder- sitting on the floor by the bay door. Gibraltar and Pathfinder are engaged in an intense game of holocards, while Lifeline has her D.O.C. on her lap, casing off, tinkering with its wiring. The other no-names, like me, are clustered around the ship, glaring at each other and trying to come up with strategies.

I count six Champions, and as far as I knew all eight of the Big 8 were competing today (not necessarily a given). There's two left, which means-

"Heads up, FNG." I jump, turning around with my fists up but dislodging my duffle bag from its place on my shoulder. I fumble it to the ground and stand back up again.

Bangalore. She's scary in like seventeen different ways, and I had no idea she was this tall. Sure, I'm short, but she clears six feet and stares down at me like I'm a hobbit. Behind her, leaning against the wall with their arms folded, is Bloodhound. There's a raven perched on their wrist, and I find my vision torn between Bangalore and the bird, neither of which were things I expected to see up close.

"You're Timefreeze, huh?" Bangalore asks, and I nod. She looks me over and turns around. "Whatever. I've won games with a squad of two before." She tries to walk away dramatically, but it's ruined by the fact that she has to go hang out with Bloodhound, and Bloodhound is only like six feet away.

I go over to them, dropping my duffle bag at their feet.

"What do you want?" Bangalore asks.

"I want to win," I say, folding my arms. "I know you don't think I'm going to be useful, but my ultimate ability is to stop time for like two seconds, and I can do this-" I fast-forward myself, doing a lap around them in a blur and returning to my original spot. "-once every fifteen seconds. That's- that's good, right?"

Bloodhound shrugs. "We have done this without help before," they say, their voice rendered almost incomprehensible by the thick mask and thicker accent. "We do not need you to win."

"But I need you," I say. "I need to win this or I'm going to die."

"It's not too late to pay your bond," Bloodhound says.

I shake my head. It's not that simple. "Without the prize money, I'm not going to live very long anyway." You can "pay bond" before the game, so that if you die they'll respawn you after it's all over, but that's useless to me. "I want this more than anyone else here, and I am going to fight to get it. Even if it means tagging along with you cold, heartless-"

Bangalore holds one hand up in a fist, and I sputter into silence. "What do you mean, 'you're not going to live very long anyway'? Debt?"

I shake my head. "I suppose you could say I'm living on borrowed time."

Bloodhound chuckles, their mask shaking slightly. "You are going to fit in just fine," they say. "You are very dramatic." They stand up straight and unfold their arms, clapping gloved hands together. "Now, who is ready for some pre-game yoga?"

Bangalore groans, sitting down in one of the chairs. "I've told you before, Hound, I'm not doing yoga before the game."

"I thought the new guy might want to loosen up," Bloodhound says, shrugging.

I consider it. I arrived with plenty of time to launch, in case I got lost in the unfamiliar city. There's about half an hour left until the scheduled departure, and if I have to sit here doing nothing for that long, I'm going to go crazy, or maybe puke. Then again, I might puke anyway.

"Alright, let's do some yoga," I say, and Bloodhound pumps one fist briefly. We step out into the aisle, the only clear floor space we have, and Bloodhound leads me through a series of stretches. They are way more flexible than I am, but your average steel beam is more flexible than I am.

People keep arriving, and the hold becomes more and more crowded until Bloodhound and I have to sit down to make way for people. I stuff my duffel bag under the seat, but there's nothing to secure it with, so I just hold it there with my feet.

Fifteen minutes after launch, a voice booms over the speakers. "Preparing for departure, please remain in your seats until we reach the drop zone." The last people out of their seats sit down with their squads and strap in, and the ship starts shaking and groaning as we take off.

Too soon, the overhead lights turn on, and people start getting out of their seats again. "Ruck up, newbie, we're dropping hot!" Bangalore shouts over the noise of the ship.

I pull my gear out of my duffel bag, fumbling with the straps as I get my time-control vest and my jump pack on. My vest was developed by the same doctor who did my medical treatment, but that's what my powers are- an alternate use of the medical technology that extended my life.

The other squads are jostling for position in relation to the bay doors, but they step aside for Bangalore when she hollers "Make a hole!"

Bloodhound and I take up position on either side of Bangalore at the very front of the queue, and Bloodhound gives me a nod before turning to stare straight ahead. I return the nod, and then anxiously watch Bangalore, waiting for her signal.

The bay door opens with a hiss of hydraulics and a roar of wind, and Bangalore takes a runner's starting stance. I mirror her, and the moment the loud ka-chunk signals the doors are all the way open, she launches herself out of the drop ship.

We are so high up. I would be screaming if the rush of air resistance hadn't already torn the breath out of my lungs. All I can do is tuck my arms in and try to match Bangalore's flight path.

The drop ship entered over the west side of the canyon, and we're headed straight down, towards the airbase, along with several other squads. Bangalore seems to be directing us towards one of the runways, the one with the respawn beacon on it.

We hit the ground at speed and I stumble, faceplanting into a supply bin. Bangalore and Bloodhound go for the other two. I yank mine open, getting a medkit and two thermite grenades for my trouble, but gunfire whizzes right over my head and I yell.

Diving behind the open supply bin, I raise one of my grenades. Bangalore, behind a nearby bin, signals for me to wait. All she's got is grenades too, and I have no idea where Bloodhound is. She peaks around the bin, and between the legs of the respawn beacon I see two squads engaged in a firefight around the base of the buildings.

Then Bangalore steps out from behind her supply bin and looses a smoke grenade from her shoulder launcher. Seconds later, the battling squads are engulfed in smoke. "Now!" she yells, and we throw our grenades before ducking back behind the bins.

When the smoke dissipates, there are a couple people crawling on the ground, but fighting is still going on. Then, from around a corner, Bloodhound jumps out with a peacekeeper and lets loose on the people still fighting. It's a close fight, aided by Bangalore jumping in and pitching in with her fists. At least, that's what I assume happened, based on the damage they both took; I was crouched behind the supply bin the whole time.

Eventually, the only gunfire I can hear is in the distance, so I step out. Bangalore is nowhere to be seen. Instead I see Bloodhound, holding their wounds shut with one hand, step up to the respawn beacon and insert a card into a slot on the side. A minute later they step back, and I hear the distant hum of a respawn ship.

"You were very helpful in that fight," Bloodhound says, reloading their peacekeeper.

"Sorry," I say. "Uh. Here." I offer the medkit, which they take, jabbing the syringe through their arm padding as they walk back towards the buildings.

"I meant it. Those grenades were useful as a distraction," they say as we enter a building. I hear the whoosh and thump of Bangalore hitting the ground back on the runway. "More useful than many are in their first fights. Now, let's split up to loot this place."

We separate, and I try to find a gun. A deathbox gives me a G7 Scout and an EVA-8 AUTO, which I take, along with all the syringes and shield cells I can find. "Body shield here, level one," Bangalore says into the comms, and I run to her location to get it.

The announcer declares that the ring location for the next round has been set, and it's about as far as it can be, nestled against the eastern edge of the map.

"Let's get moving," Bangalore says, indicating an unnamed cluster of buildings to our northeast on our maps. We meet up part of the way there, running and sliding in the dust to make good time.

I get a stitch in my side that won't go away, then just as we reach the wall around the buildings, my gut twists and I fall to my knees. I retch onto the grass, holding onto the wall to steady myself. Bangalore and Bloodhound, who vaulted over the wall with ease, walk back through the entrance to stare at me.

With the contents of my stomach soaking into the dirt and a searing pain in my stomach, I get back on my feet, leaning against the wall.

"Hang on," I gasp, pulling a syringe out of my bag. I avert my eyes as I stab the needle into the skin on my forearm. The medicine injects, it hisses to indicate it's done, but the pain doesn't ease. "Damn."

"What's your deal, kid?" Bangalore demands. "You're sick, aren't you? That's what you meant when you said you weren't going to live long." She shakes her head and stalks off. "Great. Just great."

Bloodhound doesn't leave. They watch me for a moment, then they reach into their bag and pull out a bottle of water. They offer it to me, and I gratefully rinse the taste of puke out of my mouth. "Don't worry about her," Bloodhound says, then they lean in. "It's part of the act. You have to put up a good act for the audiences."

I nod, handing their water bottle back. "Do you think the audience will like my sickness sob story?" I ask.

"If we win, yes," they respond, then they gesture to get moving. We loot the cluster of buildings, putting attachments on our guns and stocking up on healing gear. Bangalore meets up with us on the other side, handing Bloodhound an ultimate accelerant and me a shotgun bolt.

We keep walking, and I try to keep up, but I lag behind, trying to stay aware of my surroundings in spite of the pain. Bangalore goes ahead, but Bloodhound sticks close to me.

"Some of the first aid kits have painkillers," they muse. "Maybe we could get you some of those."

I shake my head. "I need to be alert." We walk in silence, heading towards somewhere our map calls "Bunker", until I feel the need to ask a question. "Why are you being nice to me?" I ask.

Bloodhound laughs a little… sheepishly? "You did yoga with me. I like you. Do I need more reason?"

I laugh a little too, then Bangalore's voice crackles through the comms. "I'm taking fire!" A quick check of our maps indicates she's around the entrance to the bunker already. "They're north of me! Hound, are you ready?"

"Ready!" Bloodhound says, breaking into a sprint. I run behind them, and they open a panel on their arm. A moment later, they start to crackle with red energy, and when they glance back for a moment to see where I am, I see their eyes glowing red.

I see the gunfire and duck behind a truck for cover, pulling out my G7 Scout. I found a decent scope, but my aim isn't going to be great, with my hands shaking the way they are. I stare through the scope, but I don't have a good angle, so I climb up this side of the platform outside the bunker, then up on an opened supply crate to get a better angle.

Bangalore is pinned down behind flimsy cover on the other side of the bunker entrance, trying to open a shield battery without getting grenaded. Faster than I can track, she jumps up and launches a smoke grenade. Great plan, I think, block your enemy's vision so they can't shoot you, except now I can't see either.

Then I see Bloodhound, still glowing red, throw themselves into the smoke with their peacekeeper out. I hear gunshots, then I see someone throw a flare. Bangalore drops her shield cell and sprints for the bunker doors.

The sky opens up.

I stagger for the bunker, as explosions throw me back and forth and obscure my vision. Somehow I make it in, just ahead of a crawling Bloodhound. Bangalore drags us around a corner in the hallway, and I crouch to revive Bloodhound as she fills the entrance with grenades and shotgun shells.

"Thanks, my friend," Bloodhound gasps, getting to their feet and pulling out a Phoenix Kit.

"Thanks can happen later, put some lead downrange!" Bangalore orders, and I pull out my EVA-8. Between the three of us, with the benefits of the indoor cover and the chokepoint of the doors, we manage to take out the squad behind us. Only now we have a different problem: the ring is closing in.

"No choice. We go through the bunker," Bloodhound says.

Bangalore grimaces. "Ugh. I'd rather face the zone," she says, but she draws a shotgun and starts moving.

"What's wrong with going through the bunker?" I ask, taking up the rear.

Bangalore and Bloodhound exchange a look, or at least I think they do. With Bloodhound it's hard to tell. "Caustic," Bangalore says. "He loves holing up in here with his traps. Be careful."

We make it to the stairs no problem, then I hear a hissing, and the hallway fills with gas. I would have thought Bloodhound would be fine, given they're wearing a gas mask, but they're coughing just as hard as Bangalore and I. I time-jump for the first time this game, making it to the top of the stairs and out of the gas cloud. I have a couple arc stars in my bag, and I fling both of them into the gas, hoping I'll deal damage.

One arc star hits, and I pull out my EVA-8 and fire blindly into the area where the yell of pain came from. I hear a man shout "I'm down!" and I feel a surge of triumph. Then one of his teammates empties the clip of an RE-45 into my skull from behind.

Crawling down the stairs -how the hell am I alive after that? Game mechanics don't make much sense sometimes- I see it's Wraith. She steps over me and runs back down into the fight, reloading her pistol as she goes. I hear Bangalore shout that she's been downed, and I start to think this is the end.

The smoke dissipates, and I see Bloodhound shove a crawling Bangalore into one of the side rooms. They're both bleeding heavily, and although Mirage's decoy is doing its dramatic death throes against the wall, Wraith is at full health.

There's not much I can do while downed, but I can open and close doors. Wraith tries to open the door my team is hiding behind, but I close it again. She tries to kick it down, and I take the damage on my shoulder. If I can just stall long enough for Bangalore to get revived, or for either of them to take a medkit-

Wraith, frustrated, headbutts me. Then she kicks my legs out from under me. In the second before she crushes my skull with her knees, I think "Oh my god, this is one of her signature moves! I've seen this on TV! I-"

I come to in a respawn ship, still wearing my gear but without any of my weapons. Or my body shield. Or my hoard of medkits and syringes.

A woman in nurse's scrubs hauls me off the bed and pushes me towards the open bay door at the back of the ship. I jump out and try to focus on landing without breaking my legs.

I'm on the gentle slope above the Bridges, and Bloodhound and Bangalore are in the river itself, pinned down in a building by gunfire on one side and the zone on the other.

A bullet whizzes past me, and another one hits me in the torso. I run for the building where Bangalore and Bloodhound are hiding.

I don't know how I make it. My lungs burn, my legs burn, I get road rash on my hands sliding down the hill. But Bangalore opens a door and I time jump through it, ending up on the floor next to them.

"Here," Bloodhound says, offering me an R-99 and a couple syringes. I thank them and med up, but then my world turns orange.

"Run for the redeploy balloon!" Bangalore shouts. "Don't stop for anything!"

We run, even though I hadn't caught my breath from running before. I grab the rope below the balloon behind Bangalore but ahead of Bloodhound, who lagged behind to put some covering fire on the other squads who were still fighting to get out of the zone.

I'm almost at the top, Bloodhound close behind, when I hear the echoing crack of the best tier of sniper rifle. Bloodhound's body jerks and goes limp, falling as if in slow motion towards the river.

"Don't stop!" Bangalore shouts.

We land in a cluster of buildings north of the Hydro Dam, miraculously unoccupied. I scoop up some level one body armour and a helmet, and some syringes and ammo, but this place has been picked clean already.

"There's three squads left," Bangalore says. "I say we go for the one that was behind us, try to get that Kraber. Hey, are you listening?"

I shake my head. "We left Bloodhound behind…" I can see their respawn timer ticking out on my HUD, and it just doesn't sit with me.

"They paid their bond, all we need to do now is win, and they'll be fine," Bangalore says. She glances out the window, then back to me. "Look, I get this is your first game and all, but you need to pull it together, or it's going to be your last."

I take a deep breath, shake myself, and stand up. "Alright. Let's go."

The next ring is centered on the swamps, with us just outside it, so the squad that killed Bloodhound will have to go through us to get to there. I'm sitting on my ult right now, and so is Bangalore, but this isn't necessarily going to be a great time to use them.

"I don't like missing my ult in the final fight, but we might have to use it here," Bangalore says. "If we don't put pressure on them, they'll just get out of the blast zone, so I need you to grab all the grenades you can and get ready to throw."

I spend a minute going back through the buildings to pick up ignored frag grenades, then Bangalore and I split up, sneaking back to where the kraber squad must be coming through the gap in the mountains.

Bangalore pings them, then her voice whispers in my ear. "There's one hanging back with the kraber, I'm going to sneak up on him. You're going to have to pin the other two down so my ult can take them out. How many 'nades you got?"

I look at my bag, with my emptied-by-respawn inventory full of grenades. "A lot. Hope it's enough."

"Alright. Go." I stand up from where I crouched in a bush, and I'm alerted to the position of the two nearest me by their attempts to fill me with bullets. I dodge as best I can, hurling nades with all my strength, and after a moment Bangalore's flare lands in between the two of them.

They try to escape. One of them gets pinned down by grenades and goes down to Bangalore's Rolling Thunder ultimate. The other takes damage but makes it out. I shoot him, he shoots me, somehow he goes down and I don't. But I'm hurt. I can only hope Bangalore is doing okay as I crouch behind a rock and stick myself with syringes.

Then both of the downed people near me keel over, death boxes appearing in their places. Bangalore must have gotten the third one! Nice!

She shows up next to me a moment later, battered but alive. She tosses a shield battery at my feet. "This last ring's going to be close. Take a shotgun." I take a better body shield and a peacekeeper out of one of the death boxes, then we get moving. The ring is closing soon.

We sneak into the swamps, and Bangalore signals to me that she's going to take the kraber and get up in the high ground in one of the trees. That leaves me on the ground.

"It's a lot of pressure, but try to draw them into the open so I can kraber them," Bangalore says into the comms. I nod and move out.

I creep around the buildings, wishing I had Bloodhound's ability to see through walls.

The only warning is a creak in the wood above me as I crouch under a raised building. I freeze, then someone chucks a frag under the building. It shreds my back and legs as I scramble out into the open, and I dive behind a tree to pull out my peacekeeper.

Someone taps on my shoulder. "Hello friend! How does it feel to lose?" I scream and send a shotgun blast wide over the shoulder of the Apex Games' most famous robot competitor. I run, and he grapples me, pulling me back towards him. Then I hear the kraber crack, and I hit the ground on my feet instead of hitting Pathfinder's fist. I don't even stop to look, I just run away from the downed Pathfinder. I look back once I've gotten away, only to see the giant Gibraltar advancing on me with a peacekeeper of his own.

Lifeline is reviving Pathfinder, but for some reason she's got her shield facing away from me: of course, she's avoiding getting sniped by Bangalore. I pull out my last 'nade and chuck it at her feet, forcing her to stop the res and get out of range. Then Gibraltar closes in on me.

I stumble backwards over a root, trying to shoot him, and my gun flies out of my hands. I fumble reaching for my other one, but I'm not going to get it before he finishes me off.

"Ult!" Bangalore shouts in my comm, and I do- I'd forgotten it, the ult I've been sitting on for most of the game. Gibraltar freezes for a moment, and not far away I sense Lifeline freeze too.

The kraber cracks, again and again. Gibraltar's blood spatters my face and arms and the gunshots ring in my ears, clearly from much closer than usual sniper range.

Gibraltar and Lifeline fall to the ground, death boxes popping into existence, and I hear a fanfare from the sky above.

We… won?