The System crossed paths with Marcus Grey in both an extremely convenient… and inconvenient… situation.
He was driving down the interstate, crossing the great wastelands of western texas, intent on reaching a home he’d just inherited on the coast. He’d quit his job; abandoned his life… and was heading off for a new start.
Marcus himself wasn’t anything particularly special; late thirties, reasonably fit but no athlete, dark hair starting to spot with grey. He was twice divorced, no kids; and considered himself lucky that this had happened after the divorce; if his father had passed two years ago, his ex would’ve ended up with half the property value.
He had everything he needed for his life in the back of the truck; a bed, a few pieces of furniture, his books, his collection; and had just left the hotel an hour before, cruising down the highway… when the notice appeared over his vision, and he slammed on the brakes; slowing down on the side of the road, not a single other person in sight.
He stared at the blue box for a few minutes, reading it over, carefully… and then looked out at the desert. This… was a particularly harsh, unforgiving place. There wasn’t much life in any given direction he could see, aside from the cacti.
He wondered… had everyone seen that? Was he imagining things? There was no-one else to ask… but the next gas station was only twenty miles ahead. He thought for a moment, about the contents of his truck. Did he have anything that he could use to defend himself?
A machete. A baseball bat. His great-grandfather’s revolver… well, revolvers, but one had actually been fired during the civil war, and the other was most likely a reproduction. Did he have bullets?
Technically, some of the states he was driving through, it was illegal to carry a loaded firearm in the cabin. Which was why the revolvers were unloaded, locked in a box, and secure. Despite this… and despite them being antiques… it might be best to pull them out. Have them ready.
He looked both ways on the highway, checking for oncoming cars; nothing. Sand. Cacti. A few old, abandoned buildings from back when this was still part of Mexico…and nodded, popping the door, settling his shoes on the concrete… good, solid work-boots. Steel toe, about the best that could be worn if things went bad.
The jeans were as good as anything, and the Metallica T-shirt wouldn’t be the best option if some bug suddenly turned giant; but he didn’t carry armor. Who did?
He sidled around to the back of the truck, and gave a grunt as he shouldered the mattress over; exposing the lockbox buried beneath some couch cushions, pinned in place by the ropes holding it all down. After a few seconds, he had the box unlocked, and slid both revolvers out, and the sole box of bullets he had…
Only to blink, as he settled the revolvers down, and another pair of boxes appeared.
He looked at the two revolvers for a moment… and then at the box. This… still seemed a bit silly. He looked at the interstate again, before turning to the revolver that had belonged to his great-grandfather.
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“How do I put a boon on an object, or upgrade it?” He lifted the weapon… and blinked, as a brief flash of golden light appeared.
At first, it was a touch of irritation that it had triggered without him wanting it to… but then he started reading what it showed.
“....If… If it can be set to Bane of humans, why would I bother with an organization that is only humans?” He was confused, and grateful. If this thing worked as advertised, that meant he didn’t even need to load it. Only… how much ambient mana was there? Would it hurt him to drain it? Wait. Why had it been used to kill ten horses?
With no answers forthcoming, he raised the revolver, and looked around… spotting a cactus about fifty yards from the road, he centered his aim… and pulled the trigger.
A loud, familiar pop of the weapon firing… and a hole appeared… not where he was aiming, but at least in the cactus. He checked the revolver again; no bullets. That… was useful. And the first proof that the blue boxes had some sort of connection with reality.
Removing the other revolver seemed useless; it was, after all, not going to have unlimited ammo like the first. But might as well; perhaps he’d run out of this.. ‘Mana’, and need it.
Setting the revolver through his belt, he took the other, and re-secured the straps, making sure the whole load was good and settled… before getting back into the driver’s seat, and tucking the extra revolver into the glove compartment. Time to get moving. If his revolver could have infinite ammo, and the world was turning into some sort of game, best to get to the station before the ants started turning into goblins.
***
When he reached ‘Sam’s Pit-stop’ less than 20 minutes later, things still seemed fairly normal… he pressed his card into the pump, started it running… and glanced in at the clerk behind the counter; who was avidly staring at a TV inside.
He whistled to himself, watching the pump running… and once the truck was filled, considered for a moment pulling away from the pump, to be polite… but couldn’t see a single other vehicle; only a beat-up old yellow ford taurus that likely belonged to the man behind the counter.
He stepped up to the door; the automated door sliding open unusually quickly… and glanced at the clerk, a nice-looking teenager with long brown hair and a nametag reading ‘Nathan’, walking up beside him. “Hey. This might sound crazy, but have you seen any..”
“Blue boxes? Yeah, and they’re all over the news! Everybody’s seen em! And animals… starting to get weird. I’m thinking about heading into town… some places, its starting to get… here, look.” He turned the monitor…
A news report was playing; he couldn’t hear the woman, but he could see the video, of… a praying mantis, the size of a dog, snatching up a child before the sound of gunshots went off.
“I dunno why… but most of em are getting bigger slow. But some do it really fast.”
Marcus stared at the screen, frowning. “...A praying mantis is a predator. It kills, and eats people. If this is like a game… does it get bigger, faster, by killing things?”
The man behind the counter glanced at Marcus… and shrugged. “I guess it might. That’d be really good for like… exterminators and so forth. Wonder if I get anything for swatting flies and killing ants? Hah.”
He could suddenly hear… a noise. Something strange, clattering behind the store. Something… big. The man looked back at the wall, then at the TV… and reached under the counter, grabbing a baseball bat. “Fuck! What the hell do we have here?”
Marcus frowned. “Not a damn clue. Maybe some eagle’s been gobbling up rats or something and got to be really big?”
The man rose to his feet, nodding. “Just a second. I’ve got cameras.” He hit a button beside the TV. After a few seconds… an image of a massive, 4-foot long lizard, holding what was left of some unknown animal in its jaws, was rifling through the dumpster. The creature looked to be bigger than the teen.
“Fuck it, maybe we need to deal with it. Not sure if I want to do it with a bat, but… I’ll… Upgrade weapon? Huh.”
Marcus blinked. “Wait! Don’t! Do you… have a gun with you?” He gestured at his hip, and the revolver. “I upgraded my revolver, and it got unlimited ammo. Damn useful. Doesn’t need bullets anymore.”
“...No…. I wanted to keep a shotgun under here, but the boss-man only lets me keep the bat. Says if the other guy has a gun, just let him take what he wants. Do you have an extra?”
Marcus glanced back at his truck, then at the man. “....Yeah. Look…” He glanced at the nametag. “Nathan. That lizard might be dangerous. We might have to do this together. But that’s my gun. You can do it, we can make sure the place is safe… and after, either you buy the gun off me for a few hundred bucks, or you give it back. Deal?”
Nathan looked at the bat, then at the truck outside. “....Fuck that. If you’ve got a gun, I’ll give you three hundred for it. I’ll pull it out of the ATM after. Deal?”
“Deal. My name’s Marcus, I’ve got the extra in the glove compartment, already loaded. And I’ll watch your back… Lets hope the damn thing isn’t bulletproof.”
***
The two moved quietly as they stepped out to the truck… and as they reached it, Marcus glanced back at the gas station. “Alright. Just take it out of the glove compartment and think you want to upgrade it, and it should work, just like it did on this one.”
He could hear an engine running; someone was approaching, off in the distance, from the same direction Marcus had come. He glanced at what looked to be a semi; still a ways off; and turned back to Nathan… who was closely examining the revolver he’d taken out.
“Whats it say?” Marcus was interested in whether this was also counted as a ‘Relic’, or if would just become some other, lesser sort.
“It says… its the Left Hand of Death. Epic. Sturdy, infinite ammo, and it makes regular bullets hit harder. Crazy. Also says its bound, and only me and the Grey family can use it.”
Marcus chuckled. “Well then. Only thing mine has it doesn’t is something called ‘Bane’. I’d think I should make it ‘Lizard’ bane, but its not an option, and I don’t think snake is close enough.”
Nathan held the revolver up, and took a deep breath. “We do this together?”
“Hell yes. We just go around there, and…”
The semi was pulling off, dragging up a cloud of dust; and the two men heard a sudden shriek…. As the lizard came running around the building, skipping from leg to leg like it didn’t want either to touch the ground, its thick brown scales seeming tougher than they did moments before… and leapt into the air, slamming into the side of the truck.
The driver abruptly swerved; Marcus could make out a black cowboy hat, a look of panic… and the truck turned, its load flipping over on its side as it slammed into both Marcus’s own truck and the fuel pumps…
They barely had time to realize what was going on before the world was filled with the sound of breaking glass, the air filled with fire…. And the world went black.
