@epox: @adam_grimm: @rive_drakis:
The initial chaos of the Spire didn't sit well for Duke, to say the least. Facing down a gargantuan arachnoid behemoth was not anywhere near his bucket list. His natural instincts were screaming at him to run and hide. He would have in the blink of an eye if not for the hairs standing on the back of his neck.
“Hey hey woah! Rive, you fraggin’ bozo!!”
Without any warning or cushioning for the inevitable impact, the captain of the Roulette Dawn shuddered as the Sith warrior slammed the group into the broad side of the chasm. While this meant safety, at first, Duke immediately recognized something sticking to his fur.
“Great, good job everybody. Ten paces in and we're already gonna have our organs melted into smoothies,” he sighed, gnawing at something on his chest armor.
“Well I, for one, ain't going out without a fight!”
He tugged on the pin from a plasma grenade just as the abomination crept close enough for its face to be burned to cinders.
“Come on! When death is on the table, always bet on Musta-”
He didn't get to finish his catchphrase before the beast was ensnared by something much bigger down below the bones and oozing darkness. There were sounds of struggle, and then silence.
Duke calmly spat out the pin, letting it dangle back harmlessly against his fur. He scrambled out of the sizzling remnants of webbing and climbed onto the nearest ledge, meaning he was the first one on the other side of the damn bridge.
He was picking out what still stuck to his fur, the sensation of which drove him bonkers. He snorted and coughed before scratching his neck.
“Uh, yeah? All in favor of leaving this behind us, say I,” he lifted his paw and continued forward without looking back.
He felt his heart in his throat but played it off as cool as he could, inhaling through his nose and exhaling slowly. Duke lagged behind Rive, who seemed to know exactly where to go. The deeper they went into the complex, the worse his skin tingled.
When the group arrived at their next destination, Duke sneered at the droids.
His nose wrinkled unpleasantly as he pulled on Rive's robes and gestured for the group to huddle so he could talk with them more discreetly.
“Hey, big guy, no offense but… somehow this stinks worse than the pit full of corpses,” he didn't seem unsettled, more agitated about the smell.
He swatted at the fog, grumbling as he unconsciously stepped forward. Rive might have shoved him a bit with his boot, at which Duke turned around quickly and snarled… but popped his collar.
“Fine, whatever. As your fearless leader and dashing ace pilot I'll see how dangerous this is personally,”
He dipped a toe beyond the unseen barrier the droids maintained.
“If I die, don't touch my stuff. That goes double for you, Epox - I will know, and I will find a way to haunt you,”
After his snide little comment, he slipped into the mist and was gone.
---
One thing above all others settled a rowdy soul in the deserts of Space Texas, and that was a cold glass of apple cider in a frozen mug. The edges basically became an apple and cinnamon flavored slush, and mixing it together just yielded more of the same. Duke settled on his first mug after a long day patrolling the roads between his ranch and the wilderness beyond.
Coming to town was a special occasion, just for this moment.
He could feel the icy grip of the chilled mug on his paw. He smelled the cider before he tasted it. Just one sip…
But a laser bolt ripped through the air. It replaced the sweet smell of cider with pure burning. The mug shattered in front of his face and the contents spilled all over his lap.
“Duke Mustang!”
The perpetrator of the smoking gun twirled his energy pistol, setting it back into its holster. The Space Raccoon grumbled and turned his head slightly just to shoot daggers at the man responsible for ruining one of the only pleasures in his life.
“Max Rampage,” he retorted with less than half the energy of his latest target.
Max was a Space Badger, larger than most and a whole lot meaner. He was flanked by two other outlaws, all of them in matching bandanas and hats.
“Heard you've been hiding like a yellow-bellied snake! No offense, Carl,” he tipped his hat to his Space Rattlesnake associate.
“Ain't none taken, boss,” Carl shook his tail benevolently.
“Haven't been hiding, I've been waiting though,” Duke pulled out his plasma pistol and pointed it at both of them. The rest of the saloon had taken cover at Max's initial outburst, but collectively shuddered at the prospect of a gunfight in their midst.
“You're dumber than you look if you think you can outshoot both of us,” Max snarled.
“Not both of you. Just you,” Duke glanced over at the clocktower in the town square and holstered his gun. Max did the same.
They headed outside without a word between the two. Carl took up a position near the saloon entrance, his tail coiled around his belt and settling on top of his laser pistol.
Time passed painfully slowly. Max, his anger boiling over, notably twitched with anticipation. Duke just breathed slowly.
He had his target. He had his weapon. He had his time to draw and fire. That's all he needed.
When the clock struck the hour, that's all he had. That's all Max lacked, too. The Space Badger collapsed with a fresh hole where half of his face used to be, burned away by the cruel energies of a contained star-like power core. Carl scattered like a tumbleweed, as did the rest of the cast.
The cast. That’s right.
Duke’s breathing became irregular. His eyes widened in horror as the corpse of his friend, Max Rampage, stared off into the distance. He started pleading with himself, anyone, and threw the plasma pistol onto the ground… no, the floor. The dirt road dividing the small town of Silver Gulch wasn’t real. None of this was… all except for Max and the blood on Duke’s hands.
“Cut!” a voice rang out like a razor through leather.
Duke flinched and he tried hiding, but there was nowhere he could run to. The stage lights popped off and he could at least see the source of his anxiety. The director approached him with a rictus smile plastered onto his face.
“Well done, Duke! That was a job well done!”
Duke looked over and watched as Max’s corpse was dragged off by a pair of droids into the bowels of the studio. He didn’t know what happened to the bodies. No one did.
“M-Max,” Duke mouthed silently. “W-Was that in the script? I-I thought the pistols weren’t loaded!”
The director gave a sinister chuckle and knelt down, giving Duke a good look at the lack of humanity behind his blood-red eyes.
“Oh, silly, you forgot! When we need someone to die, then they’re loaded! No sense in firing them off all willy-nilly,” he cascaded his fingers.
Duke clutched at his head, his brain unable to process the dozens and scores of emotions flooding into his body.
“Ah… AAHHHH!!!” he screamed.
“There, there, we have plenty more scenes to film - no sense losing your mind yet, E-127,” the director wagged his finger.
Duke looked around at the other cast members. They were all animals, unlike the director and the crew. He started to remember, but composed himself.
“R-Right…” he shivered and took to his feet.
“Fantastic! Now, from the top!” The director swirled his hand authoritatively.
Max Rampage emerged from behind him. Duke stared at him, but understood. One of the staff members cut off a tag on his ear. O-136 clattered to the floor.
“Hey, Duke!” he smiled, waving his hand.
“H-Hey Max,”
“I can’t wait to film that duel we have. Mr. Mephisto told me it would blow my mind!”
Duke’s eyes dilated in horror.
“W-We already filmed it,”
“Oh yeah? How was it?”
“Y-...” Duke looked from Max… to the director.
The smile burned itself in his mind like a branding iron.
“Y… You blew your top off,” Duke smiled nervously.
He didn’t register what Max said next. The Space Badger just smiled and laughed, mouthing something about Duke being his best friend and how lucky they were to have a boss like Mr. Mephisto.
Duke opened his eyes. He shook his head, not wanting to go any further. But the fog compelled him.
Max was in front of him, but he no longer had his smile. They weren’t in the studio anymore either, or at least it didn’t look like the studio.
“Thirteen seasons and four movies,” the Space Badger grumbled, swirling a glass around.
It smelled like apple cider.
“Can’t believe it’s all over,” Max continued.
“Can’t believe… what’s over?” Duke had his cognizance about him. He was no longer watching his memories. He could interact with them… maybe even change them.
“The franchise. I doubt anyone will even know what it was after a hundred years,” Max looked up from his glass.
“Does anyone remember us… besides you?”
Duke didn’t want to answer. Max already knew what he wanted to know regardless.
“What are you doing anyway?”
“I’m… an outlaw I guess,”
Max stifled a laugh at that. “Funny. So you’re stealing things to make ends meet?”
“I can’t work like I used to, my contract-”
“To Hell with your contract, Duke! You used to be someone I looked up to. It didn’t matter how many times we were recycled, you were always there! But you looked at the future and canceled your contract before the expiration while the rest of us died peacefully. What, were you scared?”
“Yes! I was always fraggin’ scared! Between all the times I saw you and the others blended up and spat back out… I didn’t even know how many times it happened to me! I canceled it because I didn’t want there to be even the slightest chance of me being dug back up and strung around for another sick show,”
“Understandable,” Max shrugged his shoulders. “But now you’re stuck in your own personal Hell. You don’t have a purpose,”
“I have a purpose! Shut up!”
“You’re empty inside. All your friends are dead,”
“I’m still here for a reason!”
“It’s been a hundred years, Duke. It’s okay to let go,”
“No! I have friends now too! We're gonna sail the stars together until they explode!”
---
He glared up into the abyss with tears in his eyes. Nothing was there except for the exit. He rubbed his snout and found a rock to sit on. He contemplated shouting back through the maze to let the others know he was fine… but then remembered the communicator. He clicked it using his paw and cleared his throat.
“Testing, testing, one two, one two, does anyone copy?”
He swung his legs back and forth while sitting on the rock.
“I’m alive, if any of you bozos were wondering. Come on through, it’s a… it’s a wonderful time in there - I promise.”
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