[LockonStratos]

I want to preface this by saying this is very rough and I'm not even sure what I'm doing. Any praise given will be met with skepticism, no matter the sincerity. Anyway, on with this weirdness.



*** Whirr, psssh, whirr, psssh, whirr, psssh. The noise of working machinery echoed through the “wreck” room, as I called it, while I finished my “work-out.” It was just an old junk room on-board the Orion when I’d first joined, filled with leftover parts and scrap metal from some of Angie’s projects. Good place to pump iron I guess, surrounded by the stuff. I put down the bar-bell she’d made for me, welding a couple of Jack Matter drones’ heads to the ends of a bolt. It’s a little creepy, but it still helped. Just like everything else she’d made for me, I thought to myself, looking at my arms.

*** The black metal still looked wrong whenever I looked at it, even though it had been almost a year since I’d seen anything else in their place. Hard plate where muscle used to be, where my pride used to be. I still swear I can feel them, every now and again, “phantom limb syndrome” Angie called it. Said it was common for organics, to think you feel things you used to have. She didn’t really get it herself. Makes sense, really, seeing how she swapped parts around like real girls changed their hair and make-up.

*** I still remember how I lost them. How I was a damn fool, picking a fight when I should have just kept my head down, let the bastards have the place. They wouldn’t bother me, I was just an entertainer. The Iron Bull of Io, the strongest man in the Taurus system, the King of the Ring. I just had to not care.

*** I remember the cheering crowd as I defended my title for the 5th time. How those cheers became screams as the stadium ceiling shred and burned and the drones tore through the crowd. I still hear those screams, so much later, pushing me to the same action. I threw myself into the stands, scattering and smashing them like a truck crashing into a building, but no matter how many I destroyed, there were more in their place. I don’t remember when I went down, but I must of, because I can remember their commander in front of me, in my ring, having his drones force me to kneel. They put my arms out to the side, as he drew his sword, saying something about examples… after that is just pain and a wish, to make it end.