Chapter 2

Maximum Prime

After I dropped Sandra off at her apartment, I decided I needed a good drink. I headed towards Sully's Bar, a local hangout for mercs, bounty hunters, and other folks looking to profit from some type of killing. I parked my bike outside and walked in.

"Oh shit! Reaper in the house!" I heard the bartender shout. A smirked crawled across my lips. I walked up to the bar and took a seat on one of the stools.

"The usual?" the bartender asked. I nodded my head.

"Jack on rocks, coming up!"

I sat and looked around. There were always new faces here. Young hot-headed kids that thought they were ten feet tall and bulletproof and older veterans that knew, as well as I do, how hard it is to do this line of work.

"On the house, Reaper." the bartender said, sitting my drink down in front of me.

"Thanks bud." I replied. As I took a drink, I felt a hand pat me on the shoulder. I turned to see my old partner, best friend and brother.

"Hey bro." he said.

"What's up Doc?" I replied, shaking his hand.

"Not shit." he said, sitting down on a stool. "Just bagged a couple bounties. Made some nice money. What have you been up to?"

"I just took out WWW." I replied, with a devilish smirk. Doc looked at me in disbelief, but then shook his head and laughed.

"You never did like Kane did you?" he asked.

"Fuck no." I replied. Both of us chuckled.

The bartender came back and sat Doc's drink down.

"Anything interesting happen?" he asked.

"Well… I ran into Emma." I said. Doc about choked on his drink, coughing hard.

"You WHAT?" he asked.

"You heard me. Emma was in WWW as a whore for Kane." I replied. Doc stared at me for a moment, eyes wide.

"Well, no surprise she'd be Kane's bitch…" Doc said.

"She wasn't the only one. There was another who went down on him WHILE I was talking to him." I replied. Doc erupted in laughter.

We sat at the bar, chatting and catching up for some time. The door to the bar swung open and a group of men walked in. We turned to look at them.

One guy, who looked about to be in his mid-forties and Caucasian, was clad in heavy armor and had a gold plated bow on his back and a machine pistol on each leg.

Another man, who looked about the same age, wore an armored robe. He had the same type of bow as the first and had a large double bladed staff on his back.

The third man looked to be the youngest. He looked about my age, early-mid thirties. He wore light armor. He had a gold plated assault rifle with a highly elegant design. He had pistols attached to his forearms and a sword on his hip.

The received quite a few stares from the rest of the people inside the bar. They made their way to the bulletin board and posted some things on it. After that, the turned and walked out of the bar.

I glanced over at Doc, who replied with a shrug. I walked over to the board and examined the note.

Maximum Prime

Mercenary Organization

Now recruiting!

For more information, contact the leaders.

Rhino – Warlord, Founder

Tech – Warlord, Co-Founder

Mesa – General

Nova – Officer

Enlist Today!

I glanced over the note and decided to see what this was all about. I walked outside and saw them at a station near the metro entrance.

"Excuse me!" I shouted, making my way over to them. Two of them turned to see me, the other barely made notice.

"I, uh, saw you guys in the bar a second ago. What's this Maximum Prime thing yall got goin' on here?" I asked.

The younger one came up to meet me.

"Oh, are you here to join up?" he asked. I'm Tim, codename Mesa. One of the Generals of MP." he said, stretching out his hand.

"The kid has enthusiasm… not bad…"

"I'm James Marx." I replied, shaking his hand.

"Wait, THE James Marx? As in Reaper?" he asked, not letting go of my hand. I nodded my head.

"Well I'll be damned." the heavily armored man said, making his way to me. "I'm Barlow, codename Rhino. It's an honor to meet the renowned Grim Reaper."

I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you guys too. Could you tell me exactly what you guys are? I have to say I haven't really ever seen you around, nor your weaponry and armor." I replied.

"This is state-of-the-art Orokin gear." Tim said.

"Orokin?" I said. "I thought they went out of business a long time ago. Didn't the Government shut them down?"

"They closed them to the public." Barlow replied. "They forced Orokin to make gear for them instead. Made them inaccessible to the public. After the war, the workers refined their work and began making newer and more enhanced gear and sold them to PMCs. We bought them out and own Orokin now."

I stood there trying to process this whole thing…

"A mercenary group that OWNS the most powerful military supplier in the country?..."

"If you join, there won't be any problem with you being a high rank right off the bat. You ARE the legendary Reaper." Barlow said. "We'd be honored to have you among our ranks."

"What's going on here?" a voice sounded.

Barlow turned to see the robed man standing facing him, his hands behind his back.

"Tech, this is James Marx, The Grim Reaper. I just offered him a spot as an officer." Barlow replied to the man.

The man who must be 'Tech' looked at me. He had an air about him that stunk. Seemed like one of those guys that likes to talk shit and have other people do his work for him. I could tell he was an arrogant sonovabitch.

"Shouldn't this be a Warlord discussion, Rhino?" he asked.

"Oh come on, Tech. This is THE Reaper. It would be stupid of us to not offer him something good." Barlow said.

"Well, he would need to be tested before we let him in anyway…" Tech said, turning around and walking back to his table.

"Are you fucking crazy?" Barlow said, following Tech. "I will not pass up a chance to get such a renowned fighter in my organization. And you seem to forget who runs this, Tech. MP is MINE. I have the final say. Got it?"

Tech slowly nodded. Barlow walked back over to me.

"It is settled then." he said. "You will be an officer, which is the third highest rank. In about one to two days we'll have made you your key to the dojo and badge to wear. We usually test out our new recruits, but with you being who you are, I don't think that will be necessary."

"Oh, you can test me out. I always welcome a challenge." I replied. Barlow's face brightened up.

"Excellent! Welcome to Maximum Prime." he said, stretching out his hand. I smiled and shook his hand.

"Glad to have you on board." Tim said, shaking my hand as well. "We'll keep in contact."

I nodded and walked back inside the bar. Doc was still there, sipping on his drink. He turned to look at me.

"Well?" he asked.

"I joined."

"Really?"

Yeah, manly for grins and giggles. What's the worst that could happen?"

"You end up killing everyone in there."

Doc and I laughed. "We'll have to wait and see." I said. "I'm heading home. Take care brother."

"Later bro!" Doc said.

I hopped on my bike and headed back to my house a few miles outside The Hub. I got inside, took my gear off and laid down for the night.