12.30 - Deus Ex Mapach: Nine Lives of a Raccoon Cyborg

General Summary

I guess I don't have to be the one to take Hephaestus down. As long as they go down.
Sig lowers his gun. His friends are safe. Anastasia has nothing on these guys, these Heroes of the Reach. He can't believe he was able to be one of them, for a moment. Sig chuckles, turning his singed face upwards to bask in the warmth of his chosen end. My moment in the sun.
Click. His ears perk up, amidst the roar of the conflagration nearly engulfing him, and he hears the strangled cry:
"Commander! Catch!"
Maggie's voice cuts through the cacophony. Fucking Maggie, Sig thinks, and despite the blinding smoke (and tears of pride welling up in his eyes) throws out a hand and just barely manages to grab the arcane capsule the rookie gunner launches his way.
Huh. Sig thinks to himself as he feels the familiar shape, the remaining hair on his head and arms igniting as twisted slag falls around him. Must've accidently handed her this instead of the frag.
And he crushes the capsule in his fist.
[...]
Sig wakes up in darkness, barely conscious with the pain spasming throughout his body. He rolls over in that formless space, gritting his teeth and trying to get a grip on the situation.
Guess that's what I get for messing with an experimental capsule, he thinks wryly to himself right before he passes out again, his blood-slick hand coming free from a face that felt very wrong in a way he could not bring himself to think about... the oblivion that follows feels like a gift.
When he wakes up next, the pain is still there--but less gnawing. Less unsettling. Sig realizes in this moment that he is dying--but that this death has been halted, somehow-- by something.
He opens his eye--well, the one that will still open, anyway. In the darkness, two eyes stare back.
He hears a familiar, gurgling laugh as he feels his broken body lifted from the void.
What happens next, Sig can't quite make sense of. What he knows for certain:
The Child found him here in the darkness, that strange creature that hung around Matthias when he was still among the living, and kept him from shuffling off into the next life.
Pieces of himself are missing. Parts of his face, his entire right arm, both legs, chunks of his torso. But there's something underneath that's still holding it all barely together. Something connected to his golden mechanical arm. And whatever it is, the Child has given him the space to put himself back together. Whether bolstered by its eldritch magic or through sheer determination and grit, Sig manages to patch his skeleton up, fusing metal and flesh in a very unpleasant but functional rig that at the very least will give him a few more days. Likely not the most pleasant days, but perhaps enough to at least finish the work ahead.
The Child has taken an interest in him. In fact, it seems to have taken up residence in his arm. He can't explain how he knows this, and he kind of wishes he weren't certain, but he is.
And, finally, he knows that he is heading back to the fight. Quite rapidly, in fact. The portal is opening before him, too-bright light blinding his one good eye, Clarissa somehow back in his hand, the roar of war pounding in his ears--
To be continued…
Songs of Glory: Sig +2

Report Date

20 Oct 2024