[03] Arctic Sector FIGHT

[Kaden]

Miraculously, the chilling winds of the Arctic Sector did little to dampen the courier’s mood. He expected each increasingly labored step through the knee-high snow to bring him one step closer to the depression he thought he should be feeling. He had expected the harsh climate of the numb him both physically and emotionally, but it… didn’t.

Sure, both he and Ashe were cold – though, as Kaden pointed out to his own amusement, the girl seemed colder than he was – but it didn’t seem to sober either of them from what Kaden could only describe as euphoria. It had been a long, long time since he had felt so… good. If indeed he had ever experienced such a feeling before. He was somewhat doubtful.

Combat came quickly and with little warning. Well… there probably was warning, but between chatting with Ashe and the near-deafening winds, a little mechanical voice would have been easy to miss. Kaden caught on just before he was teleported off to face his opponent. Suddenly on his own, the courier lamented Ashe’s absence. She had a personality that he could only describe as cute – even her temperamental outbursts were amusing – which was a nice relief. Though, even if it was in passing, Kaden couldn’t help but comment that she should let her hair return to its natural color.

With a shake of his head, the courier cleared his mind of any thoughts not relevant to the fight he was about to be in. The stasis field that enclosed both him and his scheduled opponent was smaller than the courier had been used to in the city, its edges visible at either side. Or perhaps, the courier found himself thinking, it was exactly the same size, but he couldn’t see due to the buildings. It made sense.

On the other side of the field, standing directly across from Kaden, was a man who looked about the same age as he was – though that was often a meaningless point of comparison, since Kaden was regularly reminded that he looked several years younger than he actually was. Before he realized what he was doing, Kaden had begun taking steps forward and waving. It seemed polite to introduce himself to the man who would likely being trying to beat him to death.

As the courier approached, he couldn’t help but let out a low whistle. When that guy showed to up to a psychotic death tournament, he did it in style. The well dressed man seemed a little jittery, but Kaden attributed that to a combination of being cold and being teleported into the middle of a frozen wasteland to fight.

“Boy do I feel underdressed,” the courier said as he came to a stop a few yards from his opponent.

“Yeah,” Trafford made a point of looking him up and down. “You should.”

“Well, anyway,” Kaden brushed past the comment without giving it too much thought. “I’m Kaden. I’ll be your opponent today. I guess.”

“Aren’t you polite.” There was a moment of hesitation. “I’m Alexander.”

“Great. Can I call you Alex?” Without waiting for an answer, the courier continued. “You should probably just go ahead and do your thing. I won’t really be fighting.”

“Whatever makes my life easier,” Alexander said with a shrug.


Reaching into his jacket, Trafford produced a rather large pistol and leveled it at Kaden. Of all the things he could have possibly produced, Kaden was least expecting a gun. Just as the report of the gun echoed through the Arctic, Kaden raised a hand and brought to life a shimmer barrier of cerulean energy. Rejected by Kaden’s defense, the flattened slugs fell into the snow and out of sight.

As the smoke wafted from Trafford’s gun, he tilted his head to one side and let his eyes wander over his opponent’s curtain of ki as it dissipated. For a second he seemed more interested in the light show than the person who had created. That was fine with Kaden, as it gave him time to try and mentally steel himself. Sadly, that didn’t work.

“You surprised me there,” the courier called out. “Back to the basics, though. I like it. Been a while since someone just pointed a gun at me.”

“So much for not fighting. I was just going to blow out a leg.”

“Oh, well, next time I won’t worry about avoiding it, then. And just because I’m not going to fight doesn’t mean I’m going to let you shoot me.” Kaden thought for a minute. “Though I suppose I can see how that might have been a bit misleading.”

With another shrug, Trafford drew a second bead with his Desert Eagle. Kaden dove out of the way as Alexander pulled the trigger. As Kaden dove, he twisted in mid-air to keep his opponent in sight. Doing so provided him with an interesting bit of information. As the bullets streaked through the air, crashing into the stasis field far behind, they left a faint trail of ki in their wake.

Immediately, the courier’s eyes snapped to the gun in Trafford’s hand. There was absolutely nothing his Sight could discern about the weapon. Nothing special, at least. There wasn’t the faintest hint of energy running through it. Whatever Alex was doing, it was a pretty cool trick.

“So you’re just going to avoid being hit?” Trafford asked as he let his arm fall to his side. “That’s really annoying.”

“Sorry ‘bout that, but I have a point to prove.” Kaden brushed the snow off of his jacket as he climed to his feet.

He had already worked it out on his way to the Arctic Sector. Kaden’s hypothesis was that Damon was just a coward who insisted on forcing people into a game. What makes a hypothesis good, however, is that it withstands testing. If Damon forced Kaden into fighting, the courier was right. The idea that they were all just guests in an event would be complete bullshit. If Damon did nothing, then Kaden wouldn’t have to fight. It was win-win no matter how the courier looked at it.

In the back of his mind, Kaden was almost thankful – for a brief moment – for having been thrown into the bullshit that had been Friend or Foe. He wasn’t thankful for the life-threatening situations, or the mental trauma, or the nightmares he still had about running through a mall of zombies, but he got to experience the self delusion of a psychopath like Kai Demolic. Once you’d seen one greedy, power-hungry, control freak, you’d seen them all.

“Once you figure people out, all you have to do is push the right buttons, and they’ll believe that their actions are of their own motivation,” the courier explained to his opponent. “Taunt an overconfident jackass, disobey a control freak, or just prove wrong someone who thinks they’re always right. Why, you could motivate them to do just about anything.”

For someone who spent most of their time analyzing the people around them, the natural inclination was to use that information to manipulate them. It was simple profit motive: a person will try to get as much as they can with as little work as possible. No better way to shirk work than by manipulating someone else into doing it. It was a sadly common practice, in the courier experience.

What Kaden thought sent him apart for others, though, was that he preferred to do his own work. He had never really been one to push things onto others. While Damon may certainly be in a better position – Kaden was, after all, a player in his game – that didn’t mean the courier couldn’t try to make things as big a hassle for him as possible.

The only real problem with the courier’s little game was that he had to stay alive in order to play it. That meant winning fights without actually fighting. He had a handful of ways to disable his opponents, but it definitely sounded like an uphill battle.

“How very profound,” Alexander replied.

“Thanks,” the courier smiled. He chose to ignore the sarcasm in Alex’s voice. “You might want to get a move on, though. I don’t know if these fights have, like, a time limit or anything.”

The courier didn’t realize it, but he was standing on the verge of a slippery slope. It was easy to rationalize playing the games of people who were, by most objective standards, jackasses. Moving from that to coercing innocent people into playing his games, however, was a subtle and easily ignored process. As much as Kaden valued the sanctity of life, it was as easy to ruin one as it was to take one.

The future that Kaden been shown by Kai Demolic was the epitome of what lay in store for the courier if he were not careful. It has been one in which he manipulated himself into a position of supremacy. It had cost him his sight, his friends, and his morals, but he had continued on down the path thinking it was what was best. Not just for him, but for the whole of the world. If he ever stopped to think about it, Kaden would realize how absolutely ridiculous it seemed. At the rate he was going, though, such honest reflection seemed unlikely.

“So,” Kaden continued, a drug-induced smile plastered across his face. “After you.”