The death watch games C3

It was the day before the competition and the loading bay of the Wildfire tower was full of work to be done. There were people loading the gamma projects crate onto the back on the wildfire jeep, some were checking the team’s equipment and some were running last minute checks on the gamma projects stats. Riley and jade were already in the jeep. Axl was standing off to one side, thinking about what he had to do. As he stood there, thinking, Kat came up behind him, put her arms around him and then rested her head against the back of his. She whispered to him.
“Are you sure this is the only way?”
“Yes. I don’t like it, but I have to play by his rules this time”
Axl turned around to face her. Kat spoke again.
“Promise me you’ll bring our little girl home again”
“Of course I will” he replied. He kissed Kat on the cheek. Then Riley called out to him.
“Come on, love bird. We’re ready to go”
“Keep your shirt on, I’m coming” Axl called back.
“Yeah. So is Christmas” Jade returned.
Kat released her grip on Axl. And kissed him back.
“Go give ‘em hell tiger”
“I will”
Axl turned around, walked over to the jeep and jumped into the drivers’ seat. He hit a button on the dashboard and the bay doors opened, leading out into the busy street behind it. Axl turned the key in the ignition, threw the jeep into gear and pulled out into the street.

A few hours later, the jeep was tearing down the highway, the daylight beginning to fade into dusk. The three of them hadn’t spoken much since they set off, mostly because Riley had insisted on turning radio up almost as high as possible and opening all the windows. But as night fell, Axl persuaded Riley to turn it down.
“So what kinds of stuff are we expecting?” he asked.
“Well, maverick’s always been a fan of fights to the death, so there’ll be a lot of those, and probably a few gauntlet runs as well” Axl replied
“Relax, we can’t die, this will be a piece of cake” Jade said.
“I can’t die” Axl corrected him “you may be almost invincible but, as you’re still living, you’re still easy prey to death”
“Yeah, only If he comes to get me personally”
“With Maverick’s pact, that can be easily arranged”
“Seriously?”
“Completely. Maverick has a pact with the avatar of death itself”
“That doesn’t sound too bad”
“Dude, that thing will steal your soul and torture it for all of eternity. And that’s after using magic to burn your face off, break your neck, rip you in two and crush you beyond recognition, while refusing to claim you, keeping you alive for the whole process, but that’s only if you’re exceedingly lucky”
By this point all three of them had gone quiet, mostly because Riley had dozed off while listening to his mp3.
“That sounds painful”
“I wouldn’t know. I was dead when Maverick tried it on me. The avatar refused to go near me. So it just went off and slaughtered some random test subject that had been thrown in with me”
“So what’s in the crate?” Jade asked, as if trying to steer the topic onto something else.
“That’s our forth team mate, the gamma project, the MK1 assault unit, code named Rio. It’s a cross between the plans for the E-100 series robots, GUN mech technology and our own weapons tech”
“Where the hell did you get GUN mech technology from. That stuff’s top secret”
“Then they should have done a little better cleaning up after the black arm alien incident”
“So you stole it from the wrecked units?”
“I scavenged it. They weren’t using it and you people don’t exactly have a shortage of mechs, do you”
“I suppose not” Jade admitted “so what it do?”
“Rio is basically a mobile weapons platform. It’s equipped with all kinds of weapons, rocket’s, guns and missiles, but it’s also able to use grenades and explosives as well as a basic driving program”
“That’s a lot of weapons”
“Yeah, I know. We’ve been waiting for the perfect chance to test it, and nows that chance. Now, it you’re done with the questions please shut up and get some sleep. We all need to be in perfect shape for tomorrow”