Chapter 34 – Back To Talos
Ajay arrived in the hanger about 10 minutes before her scheduled take off. It had been awhile since she had packed up so much stuff. In fact the last time that she had packed so much stuff was when she was leaving to come live in the city to participate in the Apex games. She lugged her suitcase into the ship and set her backpack down in next to her. She sat down and looked around. The ship was a larger ship, not like the one she took to get to Talos, probably because it would be transporting more people this time around. She still had no idea where they were going, maybe back to Talos, she really hoped not. She didn't see Octavio anywhere. Ajay pulled out her phone as the ship took off. She had a message from Octavio:
Che. HQ needed me for a job. Meet you at World's Edge in a day or so.
She sighed in relief as she text him back and put her phone into her backpack. They had been together so much lately she didn't realize how lonely she was until he wasn't with her. Some little part of her was worried that he was going leave her again. She leaned back in her seat. Anita sat down next to her, "You ready to hit Talos again?" Her body grew a bit tense when she thought about going back to Talos. "I really hope they got their prowler situation under control." Her shoulder ached at the thought of prowlers. Ajay looked at Anita, wondering where she got all of her information from, "How did ya know where we were goin?" Anita motioned to Bloodhound. Ajay shrugged. "Makes sense. Bloodhound does a lot recon work." Ajay looked to Bloodhound, who was apparently staring a hole into her soul. She gave Bloodhound a weird look and looked back at Anita, "I guess they would know."
The only thought that made Ajay happy about going back to Talos was the chance to see Natalie again. Worry started to sink in though and her body started to ache with grief from the prowler attack. She really didn't want to go through another ordeal like that again. "But if there are benefactors there then everything has ta be secure." Her mind was put to ease just a bit. She looked back over to Bloodhound, who was still staring at her. She looked down at her hands in her lap. "What's the deal with Bloodhound?" Anita shrugged, "Maybe going back to Talos is drudging up old memories." Ajay looked at Anita, "Back?" Anita nodded, "Yeah. Talos is where Bloodhound is from." Ajay didn't know a whole lot about Bloodhound but what Anita said had made sense.
Ajay nodded and brushed it off. It wasn't too long before they landed and everyone exited the ship. Ajay took her time, she really wasn't in much of a hurry. She threw her backpack on and grabbed her suitcase. As she started to walk towards the exit ramp of the ship she was immediately stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She froze as she heard Bloodhound's voice, "Ajay." She turned around to face them. "I need to talk to you." Ajay nodded, "Okay?" Bloodhound handed her a small piece of paper that we neatly folded. "It's not safe here." Bloodhound walked off the ship. She opened the paper to see a whole bunch of numbers written on it. The first set of numbers looked like a time and the other numbers looked like coordinates, maybe.
Ajay shoved the paper into her pocket and exited the shipped with her belongings. As she walked off the ship she was met by Natalie. As Ajay got closer to Natalie, the little electrical engineer closed the gap between them and hugged her. Ajay hugged Natalie back. Elliot and MRVN had been waiting with Natalie, "Ajay!" Elliot took her suitcase, he didn't seem to have any belongings with him. "Maybe he got here sooner to be with Natalie." MRVN had a smiley face on his screen and he began clapping. After their embrace they began walking. Ajay pulled the paper from her pocket and showed it to Natalie, "Hey do ya know where this is? I think these are coordinates." Natalie took the paper and scanned it over, "Oui. Do you need to go there at 8pm?" Ajay nodded as she took the paper back. "It's a trek but we could take the train, it would be quicker." Ajay thought about it for a moment. If it wasn't safe to talk about it in the transport ship she doubted taking the train would be much safer, "I think I need ta go by foot." Natalie smiled, "Then it's settled! We will all go on an adventure!"
Before Ajay could decline the 'we' part Natalie interjected, "Let me show you where you will staying. It is a lot nicer than before!" Ajay didn't even realize that they had landed in a different area than before. They were in a city that had quite a few different sized buildings in it. There were a set of train tracks that lined the backside of city. The outskirts of the city appeared to be open land which eventually ended. "Are we staying in the city?" Natalie smiled, "Oui. They outfitted the buildings to be inhabited for now. Later the city and its buildings will be used for the arena."
They headed towards a rather tall building, where Ajay assumed the Legends were staying. They entered the building which was simple on the inside. There was a desk with an attendant if they needed help with anything. Since the building was on the smaller side there was only one elevator. Ajay did notice some stairs set off to the side. Natalie took the group to the third floor. "There are only two rooms per floor. I am on the same floor as you Ajay!" Natalie always had excitement in her voice when she spoke. Natalie took Ajay to her room where everyone seemed to follow. The room was quite simple, just like the rest of the building. There was a queen sized bed in the room with a dresser. There was also a small closet, with no door, to hang clothing. There was a small kitchen right near the entry way. Across from the kitchen, on the other side of the entry way, was an L shaped sofa and small coffee table. The only separate room was the bathroom and shower. Elliot set Ajay's suitcase down where Ajay pointed.
Ajay sat down on the bed and Natalie sat next to her, "Ajay?" Natalie looked down in her lap as if she was nervous. Ajay looked at Natalie as Elliot took a seat on the sofa with MRVN. "For the event on Saturday? Will you help me with my makeup? I really never had anyone help me do that. Renee said that she heard you have been to a few of these events before and that you knew what you were doing." Ajay put her hand on Natalie's back, "Sure. I got ya." Natalie smiled to Ajay, "I lost my mom when I was very young. It has always been me and papaw." Ajay nodded. "So when it came ta the girly stuff in life Natalie really didn't know what ta do."
"Oh, Ajay, we should get ready to go soon if you want to walk." Ajay nodded and they both stood up. "I need to change. It was a long a flight..." She trailed off glancing over at Elliot who looked at her. Natalie looked at Elliot and MRVN, "Bye bye!" She pushed them out of the room and closed the door. Ajay pulled her suitcase up to the bed and opened it. She pulled out a long black dress and hung it up. Natalie went and inspected the dress while Ajay got changed, she was still wearing clothing from Saturday felt a little icky. "Natalie I am goin ta take a quick shower." Natalie nodded holding the dress out at a better angle.
Ajay took a quick shower and put of the essentials. She wore a black tank top and black leggings. She put on her boots and black hoodie. She left her hair down, it felt nice to have clean hair. Natalie sat on the bed and watched her. "How are your injuries?" Ajay grabbed her backpack and motioned to the door, handing Natalie the piece of paper with the coordinates on it. "They are much better. Thank ya." They exited the room and met Elliot and MRVN in the lobby. Ajay really didn't have the heart to tell them they couldn't go. She needed Natalie to go with her because she trusted her to get them there. She imagined that Natalie wanted Elliot to go because he could get them back and maybe if they needed protection. MRVN was there because, well, who could deny that cute robot.
As they walked out of the building Natalie stopped and pointed off in the distance to the left of them towards the huge ice embedded land, "That's Epicenter. Where we spent the night. Right now we're in Skyhook." She then pointed ahead towards an opening, more like a tunnel, in the tall mountains in the distance. "If we go that way we can head towards Capitol City or Train Yard." Natalie then pointed to an area kind of off in front of them to the right, "I suggest we go through Drill Site. After that it is just hills and open land until we get to where your coordinates are." Ajay nodded and followed Natalie through the edge of city, "What color is your dress Natalie?" Ajay tried to make small talk as they walked. Elliot was being very quiet and MRVN would speak up at inappropriate times. Natalie beamed with excitement, "White with some black accents." Ajay smiled at her as they finally made it into Drill Site. The sun was starting to set towards the west of them, kind of in the direction they were walking.
"Natalie, did you help create this arena?" Natalie continued to smile, "Well, yes and no. Not the arena itself but I helped design the ring and most the electrical work for of both of the arenas." Ajay stopped in shock and looked at the small girl "Err, woman." Ajay put a hand on Natalie's shoulder, "You created the ring?" Natalie stopped and turned around, "Oui!" Ajay just stood there, "That's amazing!" Natalie smiled as MRVN hugged them both, "I am so happy friends." Natalie laughed, "Me too MRVN." They started their journey into the empty land near Train Station, which wasn't very exciting. It was just a bunch of open land with some hills and small streams of water. The majority of their walk was spent going through the land near Train Station.
Natalie pointed to the left of them, "Sorting Factory is over there." She then pointed towards the hills right in front of them, "Over there is where your coordinates lead to, Thermal Station. We must be very careful. There is lava over there." They began scaling the small hills that were between them and the entrance of Thermal Station. Ajay could feel the temperature changing as they were nearing their destination. Everything was beginning to get a little warmer. As they got further into Thermal Station Ajay slid her backpack and then her hoodie off, she noticed a raven circling above the area. She shoved her hoodie into her backpack before she threw it back over her shoulders. The temperature change was drastic as they were now down into the depths of Thermal Station. Even with the sun set to the right of them, the lava provided a lot of light; it didn't even appear to be night time because of how bright it was. They entered a building in the center of Thermal Station where the coordinates directed them to go. The building was situated like the one in Epicenter, with two different entry ways across from one another. Bloodhound waited inside the small building.
Bloodhound looked at Ajay and the group that she had brought with her. "Why are they here?" Ajay gave Bloodhound a stern look, "Natalie knew how to get here. Elliot knows how to get back." Bloodhound pointed at MRVN, "And the Robot?" Ajay shrugged, "Why not?" Bloodhound shook their head. "Fine." Natalie held Ajay's hand as she seemed to be a little frightened of Bloodhound. Ajay gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "What was so important that ya couldn't tell me on the ship?" Bloodhound crossed their arms over their chest. "The prowlers. I need to know what happened. I heard that you fought them." Ajay nodded, not really knowing where this conversation was going. "Yeah. We all did." Bloodhound looked at all of them and couldn't imagine this group of people fighting prowlers.
MRVN tapped on his chest and his screen lit up to show the video of the fight with the prowlers. Bloodhound moved closer to the robot and watched the battle. After the video was over Bloodhound did a double take on Ajay, but it really wasn't noticeable as Bloodhound always wore a mask. "Okay. To the point." Bloodhound paused for a moment as MRVN was still messing his screen. They all waited as MRVN smiled and waved and then stopped. Bloodhound continued, "There should not have been anymore prowlers in this area. My people and I slátra... All of the prowlers years ago." Ajay shrugged, "Maybe ya didn't." Bloodhound moved right into Ajay's face, their mask nearly touched Ajay's skin, "We did slátra all of them. We made sure of it." Ajay's eyes widen. "So ya saying there shouldn't be no more?" Bloodhound nodded.
Ajay pressed her back against the nearest wall. She felt a little dizzy and weak as her hands found her face. All color left her face, she was pale. Elliot walked over to her, "What's wrong?" Natalie interjected her, "So what you are saying is someone released those prowlers on us?" Bloodhound nodded to the beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed, French woman. Elliot finally put two and two together and nearly punched a wall but instead he just put his hand on the wall. Ajay was a bit speechless but Natalie wasn't, "Do you know who?" Bloodhound stood there, still with their arms over their chest. "Apex." Ajay slid down the wall and sat on the floor; her legs were too weak to hold herself up, "What. In. The. Actual. Fuck. Is. Going. On." She was in a state of shock as she tried process what she was being told.
Natalie tapped her finger on her chin, "That would make sense." Elliot looked at Natalie "How does that or any of this make sense to you?" Natalie tapped her finger some more, "Well, they are the only ones out here. Their workers that is. Everything out here is owned by them." Elliot thought about it for a moment and nodded in agreement. Ajay finally found her words, "Were they tryin ta kill us?" Bloodhound looked down at the combat medic, "Testing you." Ajay put her head in her hands again as she listened to Bloodhound. "We need to be vigilant and quiet about this. Stay on guard. I feel as though they might have more planned out for this weekend then what they have told us."
