Chapter 22

Hunters Moon

Despite how tired they were, Gaige had expected it to take a while to fall asleep, neither one of them had exactly shared a bed with anyone else in a while, if ever. So after a brief rinse off, since neither of them had wanted to spend the night covered in blood and dust, Artemis had whipped up the late, albeit delicious hot cocoa, with marshmallows of course, and they had crawled into the bed together.

Gaige was self-conscious about it, and was grateful that the other girl didn't sleep au-natural. But it wasn't even fifteen seconds before the other girl was asleep, and to her own surprise, the siren song of a soft bed and the hot cocoa, drug Gaige under before even a minute had passed.

They woke late and slowly, neither one wanting to get up, but eventually needs outweighed wants and they rose to face the day. After a quick shower they reconvened in the kitchen where a fully recharged Deathtrap whipped up another delicious breakfast for them and they soon found themselves leaning back with sighs of contentment.

But like all good things, they eventually had to get back to the problems at hand.

"So, ten minutes till the deadline, wish we could've pushed it back an hour." Artemis broke the silence "Would've stayed drifting and let the clock run out."

"You make it sound like you think Holloway will find us there."

"Well, he has found us everywhere else. I mean, I thought at first it was your wedding business that he was tracking, but he's found us everywhere we went. You don't have a bug on you, do you?"

"Wait he didn't find us on Jaka did he?"

"No your right that was Steven."

"Right, thanks for that by the way, nearly lost my lunch when I read about who he really was, not that I'd had lunch."

"Don't mention it, really, I don't want to remember that that guy ever existed. And besides, killing him was a pleasure, even if it means that I might not be able to go back to Jaka."

"He really seemed to think he was god's gift to women, didn't he?"

"No, he thought they were god's gift to him."

"Ha. Still, thanks. But you really think that Holloway's gonna find us?"

"Well, he may have staked out Pandora thinking you might go there to look for help. But I feel like we're missing something. Anyway, better safe than sorry and all that. And I think that this being his last chance, legally at least, he's gonna throw everything he's got at us."

"Eh, point. So what're you thinking?"

"Well we have a counter to his EMP right? And we don't know what else, or whom else he'll be bringing to the table. So we've got to plan on the best way to utilize the three of us against him."

"Right, so what's your plan?"

"My…I was just happy to have thought of that part. I mean I'm not a planner, you saw me trying to rescue you from that bandit hideout, does that seem like the kind of person who plans?"

"OK, point."

The three of them fell into silence as they each thought about it.

Eventually it was Artemis who spoke up first and kind of tentatively "I think, well this may sound wrong or something but, well I think we should focus on upgrading Deathtrap."

"Upgrading? What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just, well what's his main weapons?"

"Oh man, he's got a death laser, a regular laser and wicked digi-struct claws."

"OK so is the death laser the red one?"

"Yeah and it's awesome."

"It is, I will give you that, but doesn't it drain him pretty dramatically?"

"Well yeah, great power requires lotsa power to achieve."

"But doesn't that mean he can't rely on it for a prolonged fight?"

"Yeah but, he shouldn't be in a long fight, and besides he has the other laser for that."

"What element is that?"

"Uh electric you saw that when we were escaping right?"

"I did, but that's gonna be the problem."

"What, that you saw it?"

"What? No, electric."

"I'm not following."

"OK think about this, they will probably be bringing more of those EMP weapons."

"Right and?"

"And they will probably have countermeasures built into their things or at least not be carrying anything that would be affected."

"Which means electric attacks won't be doing much, if anything, damn it. You're right, I hadn't thought of that."

"Which would mean that he would have to rely on his claws and death laser, hence why I think he needs a new weapon."

"See, why didn't you start with that, I'm always looking for ways to make him more of a badass. You hear that babe? Upgrade time."

"Urur"

Artemis sighed before getting up and heading back to the workshop. "Well let's go see what we
can do."