Eric has noticed something, staring out the window at the passing terrain. When Kade talks, Eric understands the words perfectly but the man's lips don't match the sounds he's making. It reminds him of watching a foreign movie with English dubbed over it.
'I'm guessing it's The System interfering.'
He and Kade have been driving for a few minutes now, and all Eric has seen is black gravel with jagged rocks sprinkled in, and the occasional dip in the ground where water gathers. There are no hills or mountains. The terrain is flat for as far as his eyes can see. It's kind of scary to Eric. 'Definitely not on Earth anymore.'
Eric's musing is interrupted by Kade clearing his throat.
"So, lad, where are you from?" The bounty hunter side-eyes Eric, an ever-present smirk on his lips.
"How come you keep calling me Lad? You're definitely not that much older than me, man." He deflects the question, quickly trying to figure out what to tell Kade.
"Haha, sorry bout that. It's just a habit I suppose." Kade reaches his hand up to a dashboard compartment and pulls a thin piece of metal out. He puts it up to his mouth and inhales, Eric realizes it's a vape of some sort. The man holds it toward him, "You chill?"
"Uh, no I don't smoke."
"Suit yourself." Kade exhales, a cloud of blue smoke filling the cabin. "So?"
"So what?"
"Where are you from???"
'Damn,' Eric sighs, scratching the back of his head. "I'm from a small settlement, very far from here."
"Hmmm, what's the name of it? I've been pretty far out." Kade takes another hit from his vape.
"Uhhh well we called it Dustbowl, but it wasn't an actual town. Just my family and two others." Eric clears his throat, "What's the name of the town we're going to now?"
Kade looks at Eric from the corner of his eye, his smirk growing into a smile, "We're going to Shard, a drill town."
"Drill town?"
"Yeah, a drill town? Apparently, they're having a huge Pulsite rush too, lots of prospectors." Kade coughs, letting the cloud of smoke out of his mouth. "After I drop you off I'm heading back to Kourse City, to collect Metalhead's bounty."
"Does bounty hunting pay well?" Eric waves the smoke away from his face, his nose scrunched up. His mom used to smoke, he always hated the smell.
"Yeah, it pays real well. Especially if you're a licensed hunter."
"Do you have your license? And what's the difference?"
"Nah, I'm not licensed. It's technically illegal to hunt without a license, but a lot of the bounty hunters you meet don't have it. The test is pretty hard, I've taken it four times so far and I failed each time…" Kade rubs his black eye, sighing.
Eric is worried about asking too many questions, not wanting to reveal his lack of common sense. They ride in silence for most of the journey, the trip taking about forty-five minutes.
"We're here," Kade speaks up, pointing to the right of the road. Eric follows his finger and spots a giant metal sign, with the words "Drill Colony 177: Shard" engraved into it.
They drive into town, and Eric immediately notices that the buildings are all made of metal. They look like round portable homes, none of them having a foundation. All of them are held up by several metal legs, the buildings not touching the ground. Houses, shops, storage buildings, Eric wouldn't be able to tell the difference if they didn't have signs outside of them. Kade pulls the Rhino up to a building with a sign that reads "Clark's General Store" and turns it off.
"I need to grab a few things, you should come in with me." Kade opens the door and hops out of the vehicle, Eric soon follows.
They walk into the store, a high-pitched noise altering anyone inside they had entered.
"Hi! My name's Clark, welcome to my shop. Anything you gentlemen are looking for in particular?" An older man, with a huge bald spot on his forehead and a big toothy smile, asks them.
"Yeah, you sell cells, right? I need a cartridge of High-Focus." Kade smiles at the man, hand reaching into his pocket and pulling out a metal card-shaped object, his chip.
"I do, but let me go check the back and see if I have High-Focus. I ran out of it here recently." With that, the man walks through a doorway into the back of the building.
"Grab anything you need Eric, seeing as you don't have a chip I'll cover it for you."
"Really? Thanks, man. I'll make sure to get one soon and pay you back." Eric grins at Kade and starts browsing the shelves.
There are a lot of items Eric has never seen before, and after a bit of looking grabs a small one-strap bag and a knife. He walks up next to Kade at the counter and they wait for Clark to come back. Eventually, the man comes back through the doorway, carrying a cartridge of metal rectangles that emit a red light.
"Got you the first ones off the new batch, haha" Clark sets them on the counter, and Eric goes to place his items next to them.
Kade stops Eric from placing the knife down, pointing at one sitting in a case behind the counter.
"I'll take one of those Cell Knives too, Clark." Kade winks at Eric with a smirk.
"Of course." The man unlocks the case, grabs the knife, and sets it with the rest of the stuff. "Is this all you need? The total is three thousand-forty seven clicks."
Kade hands Clark his chip, and he taps it on a small square box that, after a second, a green checkmark appears.
"Alright, you gentlemen are good to go. Have a good day!" Clark waves at them as they walk out, and Eric looks at his knee knife.
It was gray, completely made of metal, and the back of the handle opened up.
"That's for cells. If you put one in there you can turn on its photon edge." Kade points at the knife, looking up and chuckling at Eric's face.
"Was this thing really expensive?"
"Nah, don't worry about it. And I have one last parting gift for you my friend." Kade opens the door to the Rhino and reaches inside, grabbing something, before turning around and holding his hand out towards Eric.
In his palm is a gray pistol, the same one Metalhead held at Eric not long ago. He held its handle out towards him, barrel facing away.
"For real?" Eric grabs the gun, feeling its weight. It was incredibly light.
"Yeah, that knife won't help you much if somebody has a gun. Now it's time for me to go. You seem like a good lad, stay out of trouble okay?" Kade smiles at Eric, holding his hand out.
Eric grabs his hand and shakes it, Kade giving him a weird look. The bounty hunter opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by a yell.
"OYE is that who I think it is?! Kade Horn, you bastard I told you if I saw you again I'd put you in the ground!"
Eric turns and sees a man walking towards them, a hand reaching behind his back. Kade shoves him, reaching for his gun at his hip. They both pull their guns at the same time, letting off blasts of blue energy at each other. Eric hits the ground, grips his gun, and raises it at their attacker. His training kicks in sub-consciously as looks down the sight, squeezing the trigger. The gun blasts a photon beam straight through the man's forehead, his body dropping limp to the ground. Eric sits there on the ground panting and looks over at Kade. The bounty hunter is leaning against the Rhino, clutching the side of his stomach.
"Bastard got me right in the gut." He looks up at Eric, giving him a pained smirk. "You're a good shot, lad."
"Thanks, my dad taught me. You're hit, do you know where the doctor in this town is?" Eric's mind is completely calm, even as his body shakes from the adrenaline rush.
"Nah, don't need one, I'll be fine." Kade opens the back driver door of the Rhino and grabs a box, opening it up.
He pulls out a thin piece of material and pulls his shirt up exposing the burn wound to the air. Eric feels ill as he watches him press the material to his wound.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Kade winces a bit and both of them turn to look as they hear footsteps crunching gravel.
"Oh? What happened here, boys?" A man, wearing black body armor and a helmet with a skull mask, walks up to the man dead on the ground. Several other men are wearing matching outfits behind him.
"Iron Enforcers. Great." Kade sighs as the skull masked man steps up to them.