Survival is Crucial

Alien Blues

"Holy s**t! These guys are young!?" A young man wearing black shades with shaved sides yelled, flip phone in hand showing two low-quality pictures of both Tyche and Nixon.

An African American man stood beside him, looking down at the phone, hair braided into a ponytail, "Well, people normally get into crime when they're young."

"How would we know if they did a crime or not, maybe somebody just really didn't like these two?"

"Who in their right might would put a 20 million dollar bounty on two random bozos."

The man with sunglasses pursed his lips, "I recognize this one," He pointed to the picture of Nixon, "He does martial arts."

"Maybe the guy who put the bounty down was some rich fuckwad who had their kid killed by him, or like... beat in a match? Rich people will do anything for that s**t so I don't know..."

"f**k it!"

"What?"

"I'm going for the twink!" The man with sunglasses declared, hands in the air.

"Is it because he looks easy?"

"f**k yeah! I'm not risking my life for this s**t and I'm going for the easiest one I can find."

"Guess this Nixon guy is my prey." The African American man tapped the screen, "How did they get the pictures like that?"

Some time passed from this interaction, the man wearing sunglasses wandering for hours in locations that Tyche was known to go to, finally coming upon the bridge Tyche was at by pure luck, seeing him from afar. "Who's that guy sleeping under the bridge with him?" The man wearing sunglasses asked himself, squinting as to get a better look at what was in front of him, deciding to just abandon his surveillance altogether by approaching Tyche. "Hey-o, twink!" Tyche spun around. "Why this guy sl-" He noticed the weapons on the ground. "My name is Jack Myer, you?"

"I'm not telling you."

Jack pressed his lips together, understanding what happened here, "This fucker has been out for a while, huh? You sure you didn't cripple him?"

"I don't know, I'm keeping my distance."

"Ohhh~?" Jack let out a whistle.

"You're here for the same reason he is right?"

"Well yeah, but I'll do this, I want to make a bet with you since you're clearly out of your element."

"Bet?"

"Yes, if you win the fight against me, I swear to help you during these trying times. If you lose, you die, of course, you don't have to lay down and die, you can keep fighting until your last breath but that's the bet - will you take it since allies are very useful in a situation like this."

"I'll take the bet."

"Good, you're smart."

Tyche clicked his tongue, "Shall w-"

Jack immediately started the fight with a punch while Tyche was in mid-sentence, hitting him in the face. Tyche's head flew back, his body bending with it. Jack gritted his teeth as a front kick is slammed into his stomach. "Looks like I was the one who chose wrong," Jack mumbled to himself, chuckling as he began creating distance between himself and Tyche. 'He took a hit on purpose too...' Jack thought to himself.

Tyche moved closer, taking a karate stance, inching closer and closer with a half-open fist at his hip. 'You motherfucker!' Jack thought to himself with a grin, realizing that Tyche had predicted what his martial art style was. Jack took the same stance, hopping rhythmically his front arm pointed to the ground.

"Ok, asshole." An exchange that had lasted a second - Jack jumped forward, throwing out a punch, Tyche parried it with his front hand, Jack quickly transitioned by using his back knuckle to hit Tyche, curling his arm before slamming it into his face before jumping back once again. "I was too slow that time..."

Tyche was stunned, normally the voices had been fast with their reaction times but this time, they could barely keep up, two times in a row. First, it was that Ike guy, and now it's with Jack. These two people are completely subverting Tyche's expectations, especially in regards to his capabilities within combat.

Before Tyche could process what had happened, he had been fighting into the scaffolding of the bridge, using his back to take most of the damage as he slammed against it, blood poured from a broken nose as, once again, Jack pulled back. "That's better..." Jack mumbled to himself as he shook his hand. "I'm beginning to have fun!"

Tyche took a deep breath, 'I'm a moron,' He thought to himself, shaking his head before attempting to recollect himself. Jack lunged again, Tyche countered with a Brazilian kick, Jack's punch missing as he jumped away once again. A bruise had begun to form on Jack's face, 'I just realized something... this guy has insane leg power, that front kick from earlier shouldn't have hurt as much as it did and this kick had already begun causing a bruise on my face.' Jack felt his face with two fingers, lightly hovering over the skin.

Jack lunged forward once again, instead feinting a punch and going for a kick himself. Tyche took the hit, falling to the ground as Jack was left wondering if that was all until Tyche's leg quickly swept across Jack's chin, causing him to fall to the ground. 'He uses Capoeira!?' Jack couldn't hold back his laughter as he laid himself flat on the ground. "You win!"

"What!?" Tyche yelled, surprised by his sudden admission of defeat.

"I can barely stand straight, plus, I don't wanna concuss myself."

"Alright..." Tyche sat down, clearly exhausted.

"Must've been quite the day?"

"Fuck... yeah."

"Do you even know why all of this is happening?"

"Not at all."

"Well s**t, looks like I was right after all," Jack sighed, "You have a bounty on your head, and some other dude does as well."

"What!?"

"Yeah, 20 billion for each of your heads."

"Who's the other guy?"

"His name is Nixon or something."

Carla came back, two others following behind her, "Who are those two?"

"Jack," Tyche pointed to him, "He's an ally, and the other guy is a Bounty Hunter."

"So you figured it out?"

"Jack told me."

Carla sighed, giving suspicious glances over at Jack, "Well, we're heading to Nevada for now, if we're out in the desert people will have a harder time finding us, you okay with that?"

Tyche nodded.