Braxton and Vixen bought a small apartment. They got phones and sent their contact info to his dad's secretary. Blaster ended up moving in with them too. His former life had crumbled. It wasn't ideal but, they made it work.
Braxton drank a ton of blood vials over the course of the next few weeks. He lost track of his stats. His growth was staggering though. He reached six feet tall. His frame and muscle mass expanded too. It was clear that the blood he was taking in was causi massive changes with his physical body. It wasn't clear if that was because he was so young or not. He wasn't being monitored like the others had been. The people who had been there for ten years weren't excessively large. Vixen was larger than the average woman. She was also more fit and muscular than the average woman.
Vixen's sex drive matched Braxton's own. Much of their down time was drinking blood, sleeping and having sex. She hadn't have cycles at all. That had become normal for her. She did have a physical as part of her out processing and settlement package. She seemed healthier than when she had gone. She had experienced a growth spurt of her own too. Her height had increase from five feet seven inches to six feet four inches. After she was stuck eating the local wildlife.
The other members that survived long term on the alien planet also had notable changes. None were to the same extreme. None exhibited any signs of cancer or other Earth born illnesses. Except for the scientists. They were the control group. They stayed inside a climate control facility with the only exceptions of forced evacuation. They subsided on MREs and other long term processed foods. Their return test showed aged bodies and an abnormally high rate of cancers. Their overall physical states were from worse than the rest of the population.
The test was considered a success. Braxton Blackhawk Sr. was all over the news. He was being hailed a revolutionary genius. The company was on the cusp of making billions. Braxton Jr. sat back watching the stupidity and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Millions of players wanted to be the first to enter the bold new world.
The opening day was fast approaching. Still Braxton Jr. hadn't received a call from his father. He didn't concern himself with that. He posted online that he had authentic blood from Blood Furnace in mass quantities. His post went viral in less than five minutes. He had used a complete bogus contact info. He hid his IP and used every bit of tech savvy to avoid detection. Less than twenty minutes later there was a knock on his door. Men in high end business suits each carrying briefcases walked in.
"Can i help you gentlemen with something?" Braxton asked as he made a rough count of the men. He counted ten in total.
"Our employer saw your post. It took us three minutes to crack, nice work really. We are authorized to purchase your product. Each case here has a million dollars in it. Our offer is one hundred thousand dollars per vial. Rounded up to the nearest million." The man in the center said calmly and cooly.
"Dump all the money on the couch and follow me." Braxton said like he was sell them a penny candy.
"You have a hundred vials?" The man questioned.
"Consider it close enough. I haven't really counted recently but you can plainly see the effects." Braxton wasn't wearing a shirt and he looked like a power lifting Mr. Universe contestant.
"This shit is the best male enhancement product on the planet too." He said pointing to his package.
"I can vouch for that statement." Vixen chimed in.
"Plus it is touted as a cure all and a cancer killer. You're lucky I'm even willing to sell right now. I could ask for a million per vial easy and I'd sell everyone. Call your boss and ask him if I'm wrong." Braxton said as he opened his refrigerator door. He only had seventy two left inside.
The man in the glasses called his boss talked for a few seconds and the arrangement was verified. "Have him call me direct next time around. If I can get back in world, I've got more gear and shit I can sell." Braxton stayed cool as a glacier through the whole event.
The man in charge left a business card and said "If you're for real call me back at this number."
The men all left and closed the door behind themselves. Braxton tossed a bundle of hundreds at Blaster and said "Go take a walk or a drive. Get laid or something, you know have a good time. If you want I can hook you up with my baby mama." Braxton said as he dodged a right cross from Vixen.
Braxton bagged up the rest of the money and put it into his storage. Then he had Vixen drive him by he place he lived on the street. He gave each of his street family two stacks of hundreds. He hugged all his friends and gave them his phone number. Then they couple went to deposit the rest of the money.
They blew a bit of it for kicks. Neither of them really cared for much. They had both survived on so little they were more used to going without. They spent a lot of money in a gun store though. Braxton wasn't old enough to buy guns, but Vixen had a field day. She spent 50k without batting an eyelash.
She got matching .50 cal desert eagles and bought all the ammo they had for them. It ended up being 2000 rounds. She bought a dozen AR-25 case-less rifles. They were chambered in the 7.62mm round. The weapon could be fired in single fire, three round burst and fully automatic. They could be belt fed or magazine fed. The case-less rounds were much lighter. She bought seventy thousand rounds of ammo for them. It took a week for her order to come in and drained the reserves in the stores.
When the owner asked her why seventy thousand? Vixen simply said "I don't want to run out anytime soon."
Braxton was more interested in the weapons he could acquire in the Blood Furnace. He did have her get him five hundred 9mm rounds.
The next few days the couple drilled and trained. They practiced with melee weapons and guns both. Not wanting to be seen, they rented out an abandoned warehouse for a week. Braxton Sr. called the week after. The initial hype was falling because they flooded the single location as he knew they would. They limited entry to twenty thousand at a time. That wasn't few enough.
Fights broke out among the humans. Many old scores were settled. The death rate was over twenty percent. Half of those numbers were from environmental factors. Most people thought the combat suits were a gimmick and didn't buy them. They were expensive. The base model was twenty thousand. That came with five storage slots and the canteen upgrade. It was just an environmental suit, its armor was plain. Many people died fighting creatures too. All in all, it was a bloodbath with no hope of improving anytime soon.
"I told you all this would happen before. Now you're calling me to pull your fat out of the fire. I'll do it, but now I'm adding a condition. There is a species on that world I want declared off limits. I'll reserve the right to add more to the list as I find them." Braxton knew he was in a position of power now. What's more, he knew his father did too.
"Fine, I'll have the gates sent to your house immediately. Your base will have to be specially installed. Where should I have it delivered?" Sr. asked weakly.
Braxton Jr. gave him his home address then hung up. "You going back in with me sweetheart?"
"Of course. I couldn't let you get lonely now could I?" Vixen said.
Braxton contacted his business associates and let them know it was time to get to work. It took a few days for Jax, Blackjack and White Sparrow to arrive. The whole floor of his apartment building was bought and the gate was secure access. Blaster and Vixen were added to the system. After everything was programmed everyone but Braxton and his team were locked out of the command center.
The six members of his crew returned together. They entered the mostly deserted base camp. There were a dozen guards on duty and a few vendors. A few players were around too but they numbered less than the guards.
Jax went and collected Braxton's hidden stash. Then he traded out all the spent energy cells and energy crystals with the others. Blaster offloaded all the laser pistols he collected. That added five to the pot of sellable goods. Jax's went up to recharge all the power cells and crystals. Most people didn't know about that yet either.
"Once people know this trading post is open, it'll sell out in a few hours. Don't sell the crystal and cells. They have to be a one for one swap until we get a stockpile. Okay Jax?" Braxton inquired.
"Yeah, I remember charge them a hundred to start with for each recharge. If they bid hire we take it. Now go find me more goods. I'll probably spend all my time recharging as it is." Jax replied.
"See you around." Braxton said as he lead the rest of the party out of camp.
Braxton pulled out his whistle and tried to summon Icca. He never showed up. "Shit I hope Icca is ok. My hopes probably aren't going to do me any good though. He would've been easy pickings for he noobs."
"That sucks, he was a cute mount." Vixen said sadly.
"I shouldn't have left him here." Braxton said in a low tone. He was happy that was the end of this discussion.
"We will need rations. I'm sure we won't find much to hunt for a day or two. Does everyone have MRE's? There is a booth selling them." Braxton pointed it out.
Everyone bought a box. They were over priced but, it is what they expected. It cost two hundred dollars a box. They were happy to have them. The trip north was barren for the first two days. Thankfully the people didn't have mounts to begin with. They didn't reach Celious' camp.
It was a happy reunion for Blaster and Braxton. Celious had mounts for each of them. Braxton cashed in his IOU to take them. Then he rigged the gate in his home. This gate he made so only his team members could use.
"One of us will bring you some weapons from our world. My people caused too much damage in the initial base camp region. I'll keep them out of this area the best I can. I've already made your people off limits. If any of your people get killed by humans we will make sure they are killed. We don't want any issues with you." Braxton said to Celious.
"That sounds good. You and your clan will be welcomed here always. Next time though you need to trade. Bring me some good stuff." Celious replied.
"I do right by you. I'm going to try and limit my people to melee weapons with sidearms only. The guards and my people won't be limited in that manner. I will allow weapons captured here to be resold though. That should give the locals more of a fighting chance." Braxton stated.
They spent the night in the village. The next morning they all mounted up again.