Devil. That had to be Devil Dinosaur.
I was in the cages with Gresh, Demi, Winggirl, and German jerk. It was the middle of the night now. I'd slept for a good long while after filling my belly with whatever that meat-filled bread was and a lot of water that was kinda gross. I had woken up early, lying on the cold hard dirt. My right arm was feeling much better, oddly. The wonders of rest. I was still hurting, but my headache was gone.
I sat up against the cage bars and looked around. Demi the rock person was standing in the center of the room. I kept still other than my head. I'd been doing this consistently. Since we had entered the city, I'd compiled every bit of information I could get, creating a mental picture of the world around us.
My escape plan was simple. Anyone with even the slightest bit of knowledge on tactics knows the best plans are simple. It's kind of like in a fight. You can build a crazy contraption that magically breaks someone's nose, or punch someone in the face as hard as possible. You get style points for one, but the other is not only easy but also has a good record for working.
The plan was first, survive the next day and figure out my weapons. In this case, the weapons I had available were simple. My brain, my allies, and time. I'd taken a good look at the locks on these cages. They were primitive things, made of crude iron. Any lockpicker worth a damn could open them. I was worth a damn. I could open them as long as I had the right tools.
Then there were the guards. Two guards, rotating shifts. I'd have to take them out of the proceedings. Once they were out of the way, I'd release the prisoners. With enough people, we could charge our way out. But that wasn't the real goal. The real goal was to get to BRIDGE. Just one quinjet and a small squad with catom armor and weapons would help me take these guys apart, not to mention any Avenger's helping.
But that was the plan. Unlock cage, take out guards, escape, get help. Simple, and subject to change. It had to be flexible, to be able to shift as new information and obstacles appeared.
As I was thinking this, three people entered the room. Both guards turned to face her.
A human woman, maybe a little younger than me, came up with two Anklyo-Lords. She looked caucasian, with a tan. She surprised me by speaking the language of the Saur-Lords to the guards, who moved to let her pass. She surprised me more when she walked up to my cage. She eyed everyone in the cage for a moment before facing me.
She was tall and muscular, with long pale brown hair and tanned skin. She had some scars around her wrists, and her eyes were brown. She met my eyes.
"Lord Stend wants you," she said in English. She sounded British.
"I'm currently dating someone," I said back, smirking at her. "And no offense to Stend, but he's got stiff competition. Plus, she'll kill him."
I wondered what Jen was doing now. She should have been on a mission by now…
"Lord Stend has offered to heal your wounds," the woman said in a monotone voice. "If you will answer his questions."
"Awwww, he's inviting me out on a date?" I rose to my feet, ignoring the pain that followed any kind of movement. I was still covered in bruises. "That's adorable. Well, let's go. I'll let the big lug down easy."
The woman frowned at me. I grinned. Huh, I might be spending too much time with Tony and Nat if I was being this sarcastic.
"Well, I'm down," I took a hold of the cage bars and grinned at her. "So. Take me to your leader."
I sat as calmly as I could while the cuts on my body were cleaned by the woman. She'd brought me to a small room higher up the building we were in. I don't think she or the two Saur-Lords with us noticed me carefully tracking my way through the building, noting the area around us through the windows, marking directions.
The room she'd brought me too was clean, well lit by torches, and had a large table in the center and some drawers made of wood. I'd been guided to sit on the table, after which the woman got to work. She cleaned out the two cuts I'd gotten from the raptors. The one on my hip was especially deep, and it stung as she used water to wipe it out before pouring something that smelled a lot like alcohol into the wound, pinprick stings following every motion. Once clean, she packed in some goopy green substance into the wound before wrapping it in a bandage. Then she removed the makeshift wraps around my broken arm. It looked red and slightly swollen, but not bad. She rewrapped it with expert precision, then put my arm into a leather sling.
I was starting to look pretty primitive when you took the leather sling in along with the rest of my clothes. My jeans and shirt were replaced by a leather vest and loincloth.
Yeah. A loincloth. I knew the Savage Land would get me into one sooner or later… Thank god I'd worked out for months so I looked more like Tarzan and less like… I don't know, some fat caveman.
As soon as the woman was done, she stepped back from me. "You are healing well… Lord Stend. He is ready."
"Good," Stend stepped into the room. He'd been waiting for his moment. The Stego-Lord walked up to me. My sword was still bouncing at his hip. He came to a stop in front of me and smirked. "Leave. Now."
"Yes, my lord," the woman bowed and turned to leave.
"Hey," I said. She stopped to look at me. "What's your name?"
She stared at me. I think she was thinking about answering.
Right up until Stend turned and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her in a smooth motion. He grinned up at her as he squeezed on her throat.
"Oy!" I stepped forward, shocked. One of the guards snapped forward to bring his spear close to my chest, stopping me in my tracks.
"Her name," Stend said smugly. "Is slave. Isn't it?"
The girl was choking, clutching desperately at Stend. She nodded quickly, tears in her eyes.
"Then, slave. Follow my last order. Leave," Stend spun around and tossed her out the door. She let out a pained gasp as she hit the floor. She didn't say a word though. She just rose up as fast as possible and rushed away.
Stend turned towards me with a chuckle. "Now. You. I have questions."
"What, you want me to teach you my advanced wedgie technique?" I snarled. "Because I'm pretty sure Biff Tannen and Draco Malfoy would be proud of that little stunt."
Pathetic. That's what it was. This roided up dino was throwing his weight around at people who couldn't fight back. At that woman. At me. He was a bully. And the worst part of that was that I didn't have a way to fight back.
I kept myself as calm as I could while staring at him, keeping a neutral expression on my face. Don't show your feelings. Sarcasm and calm were my allies in this fight of wills.
"Ohhhh?" Stend smiled viciously. "No love for a fellow human?"
"I never fall in love on the first date," I shrugged. "What do you want, Stend?"
"Answers, my dear Outsider. Answers," he walked out. The guard poked at me, forcing me to follow. Stend strode through the halls with the calm demeanor of king in his castle. "Our civilization is young. Only twenty years old. I remember the old days. When we were but savages, running through the jungles like the others. But then, our Lord came. He taught us about forging steel, building the great structures around us. He taught us many things."
Stend's hands clenched into fists. "And yet… he never spoke of where such things came from. The source of his knowledge. And as we captured slaves, two groups stood out to me. The New Britannians and the Neu-Deutschlanders. Descendents of outsiders like you. Men who were at war landed on our shores and made a home here while continuing their war. They told stories to their descendents. And I listened to those stories. Stories of cities and civilizations far beyond ours. Of wars between vast armies, with medicine, culture, and people far advanced from our own. Twenty years of progress. And we were still primitive buffoons."
We entered an office. I was beginning to get a sense for who Stend was, so I wasn't surprised to see that his office was ceiling to floor with books. Among them was a map, resting on a nearby wall. A map of the Earth, next to one of Antarctica. Except that the map of Earth was very rough, printed onto thick parchment, while the one of Antarctica was full of green and blue. Didn't need to be a genius to know the map was depicting the Savage Land. It was far cleaner and more detailed than the other one was.
"I have some theories," Stend strode around his desk to sit at a roughly hewn chair that was built with a long divide in the center so his stegosaur fins and tail would pop out the back. "Our Lord has been good to us. Or so I believed. But recently, I have begun to question just howgoodhe truly is."
Stend pulled out a journal. "He taught us the secrets of medicine… but then I enslaved a Britannian who taught me about antibiotics. He taught us about iron. A Deutschlander had a book describing steel. He taught us the rudimentary tactics of war, strategies we used to dominate the jungle. Then I discovered this," he tossed the journal to me. I awkwardly caught it out of the air with one hand and looked at the cover.
"Art of War… pretty old too," I mused to myself. "Looks handwritten. The cover's some sort of leather."
"I'd surmise it was copied from the original," Stend rested his elbows on his desk. "Our Lord is either not the wise and intelligent man he claims to be… or he is holding back. Refusing to give us more knowledge in an attempt to keep us under control," Stend scowled. "I fought my way out of the arena to stop being a slave. I swore ever after to be a master. To have no one hold me back."
He took out something and placed it on the table. I eyed it for a good long moment. A gun. My gun. Melted, but recognizable. I'd carried it with me mostly because you never know when a big chunk of metal will be useful in the jungle.
"Now, I find this. I find you," Stend glared at the gun spitefully. "This weapon. Your armor. Your sword. They're not just advanced. They are beyond anything I could have imagined. We aren't just behind in technology. We're behind in so much more, aren't we? I fought my entire life to find freedom. But I've discovered my ignorance has shackled me all along."
"...I'd sympathize more with you, if you weren't enslaving me," I said as bitingly as I could. "I don't know man, it's just tough to relate to a guy who does that kind of thing. Oh, and you promised to send me, a dude with a broken fucking arm, into an arena to fight to the death. Really feeling for Spartacus about now."
Stend smirked. "How about if I propose a trade?" A trade? I didn't say anything. Just waited. He seemed to take that as a reason to continue. "I want information. I have often made sure slaves who have value to me are kept from the arena. Men and women of all species who can aid me. Such as our weapons," he nodded towards the guards.
Both of them stepped forward, holding out their weapons. After working with Tony and Fitz, as well as memories from my time as Jury Rigg, I recognized damascus steel on sight. Their swords had the swirling pattern of dark and light that I remembered. Nowadays, it was outclassed by many modern methods of forging. But around here, it might as well have been a lightsaber. Well, not quite as insane, but still stronger than the iron I'd seen everywhere by a wide margin.
"...A Saur-Lord slave, a young woman about to enter the pits, told me she had been trained in forging," Stend said softly. "I took a chance. And she made me blades the like of which I have never seen. She works for me now."
Stend rose to his feet. "I reward intelligence. I reward information and loyalty. And I can keep you from the arena. Keep you from dying. Just tell me about the world beyond," Stend looked calm. But I noted the way he swallowed. "Tell me how it is grown. Is Rome standing? The Soviet Union? How far has science come? Tell me. And for the rest of your life, I will make sure you never go hungry. You can have women and men to sate your lusts upon, alcohol, sport. I cannot promise you everything. But you will have much in return for information."
"...And if I just leave? Just turn my caramel brown ass around and head back home?"
Stend smirked. "Not possible. No one can escape the Savage Land. Not even me. You are stuck in our world. But if you work with me? Then you'll never be uncomfortable."
Yeah. Show's how much you know.
Fact was, BRIDGE had managed to crack the entry/exit to the Savage Land. We hadn't figured out how to do the whole communication thing yet, but we could at least do that.
But what Stend was offering was of strategic value, if not in the way he was thinking. His offer was time. Time to wait things out, survive, plan and escape. Maybe even time for the Omnitrix to repair itself if my increasing ability to understand Gresh was any proof. I could play along for a bit, pretend to work with the guy.
Gresh… the people that I'd been captured with.
"How about my little Breakfast Club down in the cage?" I asked cautiously. "You gonna help them out too?"
Stend quirked his head. "The other slaves? They're worthless to me."
"That's not true," I crossed one arm over the other. "You want what I know? I'd like my new best friends to be safe."
Stend scowled. "That is not reasonable. I need fighters. The arena requires them. And these new slaves are useless as anything other than dying for the crowd."
"Well yippee for them. I'm useful enough for all of them," I leaned forward to look Stend in the eyes. "You want to know about smartphones, titanium and the invention of the dab as the world's greatest dance move? That's my deal. My fellow prisoners don't go into your death games, and I will introduce you to anime. You seem like an Isekai kind of guy."
Stend couldn't have looked more pissed if he'd tried. "I willnotput away everything I've worked for just to- No. You will work with me, alone. Or you will die."
Shit. That wasn't going to work.
"No deal."
"You are being unreasonable," Stend snarled.
"Good," I glared at him. "I'm an Avenger. A hero. Unreasonable is what we're about. We're a greedy bunch. You offer us our lives, and we take the lives of everyone around us. Ask for surrender, we steal a victory."
Stend snapped to his feet and raised a fist to punch me. I got ready to roll with the blow. It never came. Instead, he glared at me. "I'm giving you a chance to be logical. To realize that sacrificing yourself for men and women you've never met before is foolish. This is not some soft and cushy world. This is the Savage Land. We kill, survive and grow. Martyrdom is useless. Simply another log on an already blazing flame."
He wasn't entirely wrong. Doing this, sacrificing a good chance at survival for a few people, some of whom didn't even like me, was dumb. Nat would have beaten me red and blue for it. Tony would have made a sarcastic comment while giving me a grin like he was half-proud, half-pissed. Steve would have stood right beside me. And if we're being honest? I think they would have done the same thing I did.
"I told you. I'm an Avenger. We don't adapt to cruelty," I smiled. "We break it. My deal is, don't put anyone into the arena that doesn't want to go in, and I will tell you everything about the world you want to know. Otherwise, I'll go into the arena and take my chances."
Stend glared at me. Then he waved at the guards, who came up and grabbed me by each shoulder. "I should have realized how crazy you were when I first saw you. Fighting a suicidal battle against an army of velociraptors."
"Yeah well," I said quickly while I was dragged away. "You can't blame the raptors. They didn't know fighting me is always a suicidal battle."
Hopefully, that sounded tough. Because I knew as I was dragged away that I'd done a very dumb thing.
We were all quiet later as we were led out of our cages. It was the middle of the day now, long after Stend and I had spoken, we were guided into a room full of weapons and armor. After a random Saur-Lord growled, everyone walked up and stared choosing something. I would have suggested going to for the escape then, but they locked the gates and raised some crude crossbows across the room, the guards watching all of us. With little choice, I got ready.
Weapons. There were all kinds, all of them were made of the same iron. Guess we didn't get to play around with the damascus steel Stend had shown off. I took a longsword for myself, placing it off to the side. Gresh took a pair of daggers, Demi a big ax. The German guy took a short spear. The Winggirl took nothing. She sat in the corner and watched us all.
The others, the people with wings, other reptiles, and humans, crowded to each other, trying their best to show affection despite the guards glaring. One of the guards stepped forward to stop some of the winged people from going over to Winggirl, only for T-Rex guard to stop them. They came around her, touching her around the ripped out section her wing had once been, crying for her and singing softly.
I watched them for a while as I grabbed a piece of armor made of some sort of lacquered material. Then I looked around the room. I had a longsword. But I needed more weapons. The weapon that kept people alive for centuries.
Cooperation