| Brita A. | Report n.02 – Day 00422 This is a report from my latest mission as Bounty Hunter (or BH for short). Well this time this will be a small report, but a curious one I believe. Basically the client was from a village that has it’s economy focused on mining thanks to the large amount of natural caves around the area, but unfortunately the structures for keeping the miners safe were becoming more and more unstable, and so a small group got stuck during their job thanks to the entrance being blocked by a bunch of falling boulders. All the folk in town were trying plans to take out the boulders but nothing was working or it would be too dangerous like explosives, it could kill the miners if not properly dealt with so they sent people to the communication center as fast as possible asking for someone capable of reopening the entrance without killing the them. No hunter in the center knew what could be done and nobody wanted to take the job, but thankfully I was there at the moment, finally done explaining to my previous client why that “Time Machine” shouldn’t be done by any means (the walking back from the Tower of Hope and All took a long time so I had just come back to talk about the results). For what they explained to me, the job had to be done before the next night finished, otherwise they wouldn’t have enough oxygen to survive. I didn’t had that much of a plan to be honest, but everyone wanted something to be done and to be completely fair I didn’t promise anything, if they died there would be no payment, that’s understandable. One thing to point out was how close this town was to the center, it only took us 4 hours to get in there so I didn’t had time to plan for something. More importantly I didn’t know about it yet, next time I go into missions to the east I’ll see how everyone there is doing. With that I took a good look at the boulders, 7 in total in a mountain-like form, if I wanted to take them out I’d need to deal with the ones on top first to guarantee my safety. They were really heavy but I was capable to lift the ones atop one by one. For the ones in the ground I had to roll them away, it was seriously hard to do because the ground after the entrance was an incline, meaning that if I rolled them too much they’d roll into other structures of the mine shaft but that thankfully didn’t happen. The real issue was the last 2 that were occupying the actual entrance… they were too big, too heavy to have a chance of lifting or rolling… so if I couldn’t lift… I had to break them with all my might. There is something I have but normally don’t use, truth be told it’s because I have to take out my main outfit, for you see, my arms can open and have propellers capable of making the impact of my punches more powerful, but that alone couldn’t solve this rock issue, what I can actually do is put them in an “overheat” state where they truly bring all my power into the fists only during the impact of the punch, meaning that my clothes would burn once using it, most of my body gets in pure heat so I had to be carefully with how much power I truly used to not burn stuff around me. Realizing that I had no choice I prepared myself, once preparations were done I tried to speak with the trapped miners, I could listen to them just fine but one was already unconscious from the hours of stress and lack of oxygen. ‘Told them to stay close to the walls because I would destroy the boulder, it’s shredded pieces could fly into them in case they weren’t hidden properly. They accepted the plan and everything was in place. Finally I screamed a count down from five to “ZERO AND GO!”, most of the town’s folk looked at me with confusion and stress, believing that this effort would go in vain like their other attempts before, but when I stroke the boulder, cracks started appearing, putting all my force into overheating my arms and left fist, I wrecked the biggest boulder with another punch… And it split in half, to finally see the inside of the cave once more. People rejoiced when the miners came back alive, the one still unconscious was dragged to the town’s medical house to be treated and this bounty was taken care of. While I’ve used this ability before, I was trembling after that second punch, my arms could barely move, the propellers got once again inside my arms for future use and I looked like another human once again, it truly is a force that should only be used in emergency cases like this, if it can stop me, an android that ran non stop for 7 months without mental or physical rest, this power stopping my arms from the impact for a few minutes means I could wreck any living being in front of me if necessary. While people were starting to come to congratulate me, a kid sprinted to see me first and screamed in my face “ROCKET PUNCH! ROCKET PUNCH YOU ARE! ROCKET ROCKET PUUUNCH!” I had no clue what he was babbling about, but a few of the adults took notice and asked me for my name… as it turns out I forgot to tell my name to them in the communication center thanks to the emergency this was, I told them it was “Brita”. They asked who gave it to me and where, I told “A girl living in the mountains up north right before finding the ocean up there.” That didn’t seem like the answer they wanted, so they told me of the legend of an old “hero” that lived ages ago. His name was probably Marz, a man geared in a metal suit and “sunglasses” (a pair of glasses with black glass to protect the eyes from the sun). He was a “hero”, someone that protects the civilization from bad people and keeps the morals and ethics of the world right through battles. Apparently one thing he could do was punch really hard OR send his arms out of his body to punch people from afar with extreme force. It was said that thanks to him a lot of people in his era were inspired and tried to become “heroes” themselves, some used weapons, shields or just their common fists, some used science, magic or even occult summonings but nothing was more inspirational then the floating punch that he’d scream as “ROCKET PUNCH!”. This was his war scream, or as the town’s folk said “his finishing move for peace to prevail”. Unfortunately like anyone else he died at some point, but people learned how to do a ROCKET PUNCH and decided to keep on the legacy, until so much time passed that people forgot how to do it, but in this town in particular they found a way to guarantee his feats were never forgotten: by making sure the last recording of his power was saved even after all wars, people could see what he did. They told me I was the closest they found up until now, I was the new “hero” of legend they were hoping for, someone that could help this world be better then what it currently is. And I… didn’t know what to say to that… I was thankful for them liking the results of course but I didn’t want to solve anything because I thought it was right, I did it because it was a mission only I could do, if they didn’t ran to the communication center at the time I was there, no one would’ve been saved... maybe. They showed me the closest thing to the recording they had, but unfortunately it was destroyed 67 years ago so they had to redraw the only thing with what they remembered. His metal suit barely showed his limbs, it was like he was truly a metal human, maybe an android or a robot? I asked them how strong he was and they explained that he could throw a house with his bare hands like no one. That seemed odd, like how can anyone pick a house? The strength to do that wasn’t my issue, more so that it would be hard to pick one in the first place. They told me that he was the biggest human, big enough to fit a house in one hand. I was perplexed with this affirmation to say the least. How can someone be big enough for that? “How big was he?” I asked. “Between 18 to 30 meters according to the written records of his feats.” That is amazing! I’ve never seen a human like that! How much does he need to sleep? How much food does he need to be satisfied? Does he need those to live his life properly? Did he have a family? If yes, then were they like him or was he created like myself? There is so much to this that I don’t know because the more time passes the more people will forget, the town’s people couldn’t answer those answers unfortunately but I promise to one day find out! Maybe Derval has an idea of who this is. The next mission I have I’ll stay with her like I promise and talk about this with her. No matter what, the people thanked me for it, for saving members of their community without a second thought. They didn’t had money prepared since this was an emergency mission, so I told them to give me a place to stay for the night and that would be enough, it’s not that much and they thankfully had a place for travelers, merchants and negotiators pass by regularly, after all this is a town based in an economy of mining, people commonly pass here to trade materials, including the communication center where I work as a BH. Most of their technology uses materials from around here. The night was calm, I heard people partying and I could see the lights of their pubs, I was invited to join in and drink some booze with the boys as a reward for the mission but I refused, I’m not a drinker myself in all honesty. I’d rather appreciate the view below the stars, originally I imagined this town to be smaller but it’s actually quite big, most of the houses use rock instead of brick or metal for their structures, and wood is only used when necessary, probably to not waste any materials since I don’t remember seeing any forests when coming to town. Right before deciding to sleep I heard a knock on my room’s door, the voice was from one of the miners I saved, he told me to experiment a dress he brought with him. It was a lovely greenish outfit with flower patterns that was just around my size, and seeing me in it made him grin and laugh with joy, telling me this was his gift. I didn’t knew what to say to that, I was so happy, after all I only have my main outfit. He told me it was originally a gift for someone important to him, that person died a few years ago with a rare illness for her age. I asked if he knew if she died how she wanted, he told me “Yes she did… writing in her book a summary of that week’s events, the materials we sold, the new employees that we accepted, waiting for a package she asked days ago, the postman himself was the one that told everyone to send her to the hospital but… it was too late.” An awkward silence sit down in my bed, waiting for one of us to talk. “Isn’t it bad for me to take this?” I asked. “Keep it, I want to move on and… thinking I was going to die today helping my employees made me think a lot about my progress… I don’t want to keep regrets in my mind I think.” The way he talked was odd, I was in front of him but it was like he could see a blue sky instead of the room’s ceiling or the starry black sky of the outside. His reality was different from mine, experiences that one day I’ll probably have to face. “Do you have someone special?” he asked. “Probably not. I’m not sure what would make someone special for me…” I replied. “Trust me. One day you’ll discover that, someone that will change you forever, even in the happiest or the darkest hours, there’s someone that will affect you to the core of your soul. And if you don’t, then you probably don’t need one to move forward… I sure did…” He sighed. We spoke a little more but it was just filler to not make this the end of the conversation, it would feel weird for both of us, speaking of someone that passed away like they were there before just for their benefit, I know he didn’t mean it but I slightly thought that for a second. The fact he gave me this dress as well… it’s a nice one but it wasn’t made for me. Technically no pair of clothes is made for a specific one person, but considering it was “special”, giving to me feels like I was given a weight in the back of my mind. That should probably fade away some day but it will take a while I guess. Last thing about this report, I’ve already got back to the communication center and was given another mission: Kill Aran Neville, an illegal fire arms dealer that was finally identified and located in one region, it’ll be a long journey so I’ll go talk with Derval first. |
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