Duncan sat at the screen as he saw his warden absorbing rift energy in the first and failed live experiment hoping that Aaron would come out with little to no damage done in fear that Texas would come and treat him as the culprit for Aaron's likely deformity. 'Oh man, how do I stop this from going to hell? Why did I not bother to check who entered the capsule, now my life is basically forfeit.'
At that time though, Texas decided to pay a visit to him as Aaron seemed to like hanging out here when she even seemed annoyed. "Okay, where is the Warden? I have a few words to say to him. He has been avoiding me all day and I'm sick of it." Texas announced while striding into the room to notice Duncan visibly tense up as he heard her voice. Becoming slightly aggravated at this she storms up to him trying to be as menacing as possible. "You received a question from a warden, ANSWER ME!"
This did have the desired effect as Duncan was sure he was close to losing control of his bodily functions. "Y-y-yes Texas, Aaron is in the new r-rift manipulation capsule a-as he is gaining control of the powers of the rift." Duncan didn't tell the whole truth but he hoped that Texas wouldn't catch the fact that he was lying. Not noticing the slight stutter he gained from his fear of her 'If Aaron was scared of her, I will be wishing for death.' He came even closer to soiling himself at that thought and he dearly wished that something would happen to stop Texas from destroying his sanity.
Texas at hearing his absolutely terrified expression growled which did cause Duncan to soil his pants. "That little (insert favourite insult here)! The time that he does something unorthodox and Dangerous to our continued employment and he goes and upgrades himself into a force that I won't be able to contend with! Someone is going to need to pay for this." Texas growled out the last sentence as she stormed off. Duncan sighed in relief as he started to get up to change his pants when Texas yelled from the corridor. "If you leave him unattended I will maim you for endangering your warden!" causing Duncan to sit down and suffer in silence as he waited for Aaron to come out.
"I did not expect for my weapon to be so simple." Mia stated incredulously as she looked at the two swords made by Duncan in the last experiment.
"Some of the most effective weapons are the ones that people have been using for centuries, not all of us can use unorthodox weapons so effectively." They both though to Aaron's dual chakram as they couldn't find anything like them. Even Texas admitted that they were individual for what even the government knows. "It does solve your problem though. Your only problem was that you had too little range with your dagger and now you will have more than twice the range and an extra blade to aid you." Tessa handed Mia the swords to test out in which she took the opportunity to try her hand at fighting some zombies. She dispatched them fairly easily but looked unhappy with her performance.
"These are a bit too big for me. Could you make shorter swords for me?" Mia requested as she handed the two blades back to Tessa. "I hope that I will be able to catch up to everyone else." Mia stated, hanging her head as she remembered all of the times where she let the group down in their hunting.
Tessa was honestly getting sick and tired of Mia's self-reflection due to her lack of self-worth and leading to a depressing mood for the time that they are together. "Do you want to become strong to help the team or to impress one of the guys?" This inquiry was intent on bringing Mia out of her mood but it didn't work as Tessa expected.
"Well, both. I would like to be able to share in the victories that the team accomplishes but I would like for Sky to respect me." Mia admitted as Tessa's curiosity was piqued at the mention of Sky.
"Yeah, I remember seeing you stare at him when we first entered the cell block." Tessa commented while looking at Mia with a mischievous look in her eye. "So how hard have you fallen for him?" This made Mia's cheeks redden a couple dozen shades as she thought of the implications.
"No… it's not that, I just want be respected by… my brother." The last two words was barely whispered by Mia as she stared at her feet hoping that Tessa didn't hear the confession that she started regretting as it came out of her mouth.
This quietened Tessa as she designed the modifications for Mia's weapon. "He's your brother? Why haven't you guys said anything about it?" Tessa's enquiry caused Mia to become far more uncomfortable than she already was as she was starting to shy towards the door.
"He doesn't know, I was born after his parents were divorced and Sky had to go with his father." Mia was close to the door now as Tessa finally realised that she was highly uncomfortable with the conversation.
Tessa giggled at that statement. "I can't wait to see his face when he finds out he has a sister. It. Will. Be. Priceless." This calmed Mia down a little and she wasn't so focused on getting out of the room but it led to her stressing about another possibility.
"Don't tell him! I don't want him to know that I'm his sister yet. I don't want him to think he has a weak sister." Mia hoped Tessa would understand and wouldn't push the matter and would allow Sky to realise that he had a sister that he could respect instead of be ashamed of.
"Whoa, I was going to do no such thing. Don't worry, all you need to worry about is him finding out on his own." Seeing the look of worry on Mia's face caused Tessa to giggle again as she finished off the plans for Mia's swords. "Well Mia, I'm done designing the sword. Do you want to go to the lab so I can modify it for you?"
"No, I think we've done enough today and don't complain, Aaron said it was too early for you to work full time and I don't want to be on the receiving end of the blame if you go into another coma." Tessa looked annoyed at Mia's statement because she was getting really bored just hanging out in her cell with absolutely nothing to do and she couldn't get much pay to get something to keep her entertained because she wasn't allowed to do much work.
"Fine. But you are coming with me so I won't die of boredom while I'm there." With this the two girls left the room and started back towards the cell block. "How much do you think Icy has fallen for Aaron?" Tessa's inquiry broke the uncomfortable silence that was surrounding the two.
"I don't know, we definitely know that she trusts him more than anyone else but I wouldn't say that she has fallen for him."
"Are you serious? She fights her mother figure in defence of him when Snowflake starts yelling about his actions, actually agreed to be experimented on because he asked her to and would take a stab in the heart if it would save him." Mia looked surprised at the truth of the outburst and took a moment to think on what was going on between the two.
"Even if she did have a crush on him, you heard what he said. He's 15 and hasn't experienced affection until he befriended us let alone love. He probably could not return her feelings if he wanted to." Their cells came into their view then as they walked into the cell block where Icy was sitting, bored out of her brains but hearing the last of their conversation and perking up at new people to talk to.
"Who wouldn't be able to return whose feelings?" This caught the attention of the two girls for a second before Tessa opened her mouth to relay what was said.
"We were just talking about our life before we came to the prison." Mia interjected right before Tessa could give their conversation away while stepping on her foot to keep her quiet, earning her a glare from said victim.
Icy didn't notice this though as she was too bored to look deep into anything and wanted to talk to the girls to relieve the boredom. "So how was your life before you were sent here?"
Sighing at avoiding that problem Mia almost thought out loud. 'How many close calls am I going to have today?' "I had a fairly average life, my parents were about as poor as most of the families are nowadays and I found I was good at hiding. After a time, I became an assassin to help pay for the family and that is how I ended up here. I was on an assignment and I was caught so I could've been executed but they sent me here."
The silence in the room was thick at the end of her brief explanation of her life and the sombre mood it created didn't sit well with Tessa. "Okay, I you two are going to talk about depressing things then I might as well go to sleep." Tessa stomped over to her cell, opening it up so she could go in and laid in bed to rest.
"You meet a boy on while you were out there?"
"No, I never had time to find a boy, I hardly went to school with all of the work I needed to do." Icy was starting to get bored with the conversation as well and really hated being bored at the moment.
"Well, I'm going to try to sleep as well since it can't be worse than sitting here bored all day." Mia decided to follow Icy's example and laid down to rest but right before the three fell asleep an alarm blared. "Everyone into the arena. NOW!" Texas' voice cut over Aaron's at the last word and scared the girls awake.
A few minutes earlier
The capsule holding Aaron opened up finally and Duncan's fear rose exponentially at the fact that so much rift energy flowed into Aaron and was afraid of the monster that would come out of the chamber which held him. To his surprise though, Aaron walked out with no visible changes but the rift ingots were not in the slots anymore. "Warden. You're okay!" Duncan's exclamation was full of surprise and fear as it didn't hit him yet that the rift energy did nothing to harm the warden.
"Why wouldn't I be? Though I didn't know that a little rift energy could make you feel so powerful." Aaron commented as residual rift energy flowed off him and dissipated.
"Uuh, the chamber collected far more energy than I intended and I'm not so sure what changes you have experienced through the exposure to that much rift energy. It might be dangerous." Aaron looked thoughtful at the statement.
"Well, glad I went in there myself then, don't want the prisoners to become crippled before the do what they were brought here to do." Duncan didn't comment because he was on thin ground as it was without angering any of his wardens further.
"DUNCAN HE BETTER BE… YOU! YOU GAVE THE PRISONERS THE CHANCE TO ESCAPE AND RISKED OUR JOBS WHILE LETTING THAT BITCH GET OFF FREE!" Texas screamed into the room both figuratively and literally, scaring Duncan into fainting and making Aaron worried.
"I did that because I knew there was no way they would find the way out before you caught them and I don't think you making Snowflake insane would help with her strategy and it definitely wouldn't help with morale for the rest of the prisoners." Aaron said in a bored tone his face not changing from the blank mask that he wore to his meetings with the government. And as you can see, my plan worked and their dedication increased with that encounter.
"Then you chicken out and power up so I can't beat you. You are a coward and I could do a far better job running this prison and its prisoners." Texas was once again growling at the thought of the situation. This did nothing to discourage Aaron however
"You know your anger increases your strength and combat ability, I don't know how that happened though and I wish you would tell me but for the record, that experiment failed. I did not get infused with the energy specified by Duncan and I don't know the side effects of the failure." Aaron's retort had the desired effect and filled Texas with confidence.
"If that's true then you will not be able to stop me from punishing the prisoners as I see fit. Starting with snowflake." Texas grinned inwardly as she turned to storm out of the room to deal with the girl that caused her so much trouble throughout her career in the prison and finally being able to get revenge will be sweet.
"How about a bet?" Aaron stopped Texas in her path with those four words as Texas though she could milk the situation even more. "We fight and whoever wins decides the punishment for the prisoners for the duration of our career." Texas couldn't believe the idiocy of her fellow warden though she turned her mind back to snowflake to keep her anger and her strength from fading.
"Deal. The prisoners will be far more obedient with me in charge." Aaron then walked over to relay the message with the rest of the prisoners.
In the arena after everyone had convened
"You have all been brought here to oversee the settling of a dispute on how this prison is run. Texas and I will be fighting each other to decide how you will be punished for acts against the prison and the government." Aaron's voice cut through the slight murmurs of the prisoners and their nervousness rose to a high point instantly when they saw his combat armour and it rose higher as they realised the consequences of this battle.
"AND WHEN I'M DONE PUMMELING HIM YOU WILL ALL GET WHAT's COMING TO YOU!" The amount of torturous intent Texas was emitting and focusing on Snowflake at that moment caused the girl to literally fall back on to her backside in fear. This caused Icy to stand in front of her sister, better able to keep her fear down so she could stand there trembling under Texas' assault.
"You haven't won yet Tex, Don't plan the victory celebration before the battle." Aaron walked over to the armoury to get his weapons when he felt energy coursing through him as electricity jumped from the surrounding area into his hands forming his chakram. Staring at the weapons for a few seconds, he didn't realise that the rest of the room's inhabitants had their mouths open in surprise at what happened. "Well that is interesting, Get your weapons Tex." At the prompt, Texas snapped out of her daze, the regret over her decision to fight him was being overridden by the anger that Snowflake causes her. After she picked up two large broadswords, the two stepped into the ring where it raised up and walls of a clear material was placed around them.
Snowflake, still on the ground in fear of Tex muttered words that only Icy heard but took comfort in. "Good luck Aaron" after that was said, Ssundee yelled for them to start in which Texas obeyed without delay as she charged Aaron with only a few steps covering the distance in the speed that no-one had seen before. When she reached her target, Texas swung her right sword diagonally to catch his legs which Aaron sidestepped while leaning down to avoid it hitting his chest and swung his chakram at the armpit of Texas' other arm as she was bringing it down to split him in half. Aaron's strike hit dead centre and made a shallow cut in one of the chinks in her armour but couldn't go very far as he never stopped moving to avoid the sword strike that made a large hole in the ground but was pulled up half a second later like it went through butter (this thought made sky salivate and lose focus on the fight while Icy was slightly distracted. It surprised the group though that Texas could wield two giant swords like normal one handed swords and with that speed. It also surprised the group that Aaron was avoiding Texas at all since they believed that even multiple armies would fall at Texas' feet in this state.
Back to the battle though, Texas swung her right sword back around to Catch Aaron when he stopped moving to get another strike and it sailed right across his chestplate as he jumped back to avoid Texas' retaliation. Aaron didn't have enough time to move however as Texas thrust her sword so that it would pierce his chestplate and end the match but when he brought his chakram up to try and block the strike, Texas' sword skidded across a shield that seemed to replace the chakram in the same kind of design that his chakram was. This caught Texas off balance as Aaron swung his chakram at the edge to get a good and hard strike at her side but like the shield, the other chakram transformed into an axe which bit into Texas' side deeply and everyone could see the blood dripping down her side. Texas, not taking any opportunity for granted, thrust her right sword into Aaron's side, creating a similar cut since it couldn't be deadly due to her position so she kicked him in the chest so they both stumbled back and prepared for their next encounter. Throughout this time, Aaron was wondering about how his chakram changed to be different equipment and a theory was in his head by the time that he skid to a stop. He then charged to meet to meet Texas in her charge who was swinging both of her swords in an X formation to catch Aaron off guard but he jumped over and transformed his right hand with the axe into a sword as he landed and stabbed it into Texas' back with ease, causing concern to rise in Tex as she felt the sword sink into her armour which should not have been that easy. Swinging her sword around, the speed and force would have cut Aaron clean in half had he not rolled under it and smashed the newly formed war hammer into her leg, damaging it and causing Tex to fall over. Rolling away and getting back up, Tex was pushed back from an arrow slamming into her chestplate and digging deep, causing the fear that was growing in Tex to finally overcome her rage as she realised just how powerful Aaron had become.
The fight was astounding as the group of onlookers watched the complex combat, hardly keeping track of the changes in Aaron's weapon, completely focused on the battle as any other thought would cause them to miss the powerful display of skills in front of them. Texas was favouring her undamaged leg as she stepped into a defensive position as Aaron rushed her, holding his chakram again in his traditional fashion. When the met, Texas swung her first sword low which Aaron jumped over but she caught him in mid-air with her other sword coming up under him and biting deeply into his back and swinging him over her but not before he changed his chakram into a scythe and swung it at her, catching her in her wounded side as he sailed past her and into the wall. Fatigue was starting to show in Aaron's face as he used a lot of energy to keep the battle going as it was but was slumping in her position as her anger wore off and the lack of energy finally caught up with her. In a desperate last move, Texas summoned up the rest of her energy to rush at Aaron and throw a sword like a javelin before rushing up to stab him in the heart. Aaron though, changed his scythe into two shields that he used to deflect the projectile and then made dual swords to deflect the thrust and then stabbed Texas in the neck, killing her.
"Wow." Ssundee finally broke the silence after the fight ended as Texas finally appeared in the room.
"You guys are very lucky I was foolish in fighting the warden. As agreed all punishments must be approved by him. Now GET TO YOUR PRISON CELLS!" Texas yelled the last part so that the group would arrive at the cells quickly so she could have some time to herself. This was the second time she died and she needed some time to come back from it.
A/N: guys, if My character seems like a gary stu, I didn't actually think about gary stus till now and I just want to clarify that my character is only very influential because it is needed. Soon it will focus on them and how they deal with the situations thrown at them and Aaron will take a back seat.