(The Outskirts) - (Mech Pov)

  ...You know, I was aware that the mission I was given would be hard, but to be spawn camped by a green-headed lizard? That was not on my to-do list.

  *Bang!* Said lizard just struck an old piece of machine, breaking it and getting buried below some scraps, just for it to get up and start chasing soon after.

  "Oh come on!! It's not my fault if your mate gave you a green hat, is it? If you're mad about it why don't you go after them?!" I shout while diving to the right, while the lizard, annoyed by my words (I think I have hit a bullseye with my remark), charges at me once more, hitting a wall with such strength that makes me wonder how he's still alive.

  If I get out of this in one piece, I should start making a bestiary about the creatures of this pnet; I truly hope they aren't all hostile like this one...

  ...By the first star, the bastard is still chasing me!! What are his bones made of? Steel? How can he keep going after headbutting so many things?

  As much as I want to keep pying this chase game, I can't, I'm not good at physical action, but I'm good at using and making machines, for Star's sake.

  "Hey, what do you think we take a small break? I'm tired of running, and I'm pretty sure you're also tired of hitting yourself headfirst in hard structures right?" I plead with the lizard who, unlike me, has only some small scratches around its body without showing any sign of fatigue.

  Hearing me, the lizard finally stops for a while, looking at me warily, 'Maybe I should put in their page that they can understand speech? Never mind, he's charging at me once again.' I dive to the left, hoping that he will miss me once again.

  *Wham!* Good news, I didn't get bit by him (I'm not certain if his bite is strong enough to pierce the steel wool vest, and I'm not keen on testing it anytime soon), whoever, I did get hit by his tail, and I must ask, has anyone ever been by a hammer? The sensation of getting struck by a giant lizard tail is simir, but significantly worse because, well, they're bigger than me.

  "Ugh! I'm sure if my bones were a little more solid, they'd be broken by now, but I'm certain that I will feel this tomorrow if I have a tomorrow, that is." I clutch my side, happy at having a hat protecting my head and a vest protecting my vitals; I hope that the drone on my back is still functional after this whole ordeal.

  The good side is that I ended up flying quite a distance because of his tail attack; I really should find a pce where this stupid lizard can't follow me. I swear, if I end up alive after all this, I'm finding enough materials to make an antilizard weapon.

  Thankfully, it seems luck is with me on this because I can see a tunnel I can get inside; I only hope that whatever is on the other side is better than here.

  I start running once again while clutching my side to get as fast into the tunnel as I can.

  Of course, my old friend once appeared, covering the tunnel with his fat body while looking at me with a smug grin. Don't ask how a lizard can grin, but I know he is.

  With nothing else to lose and too tired to keep running, I do what I never did before: fight someone head-on.

  Picking a stone, I found on the ground; I take a stance I've seen some soldiers use before throwing a firebomb at their enemies. The green lizard, seeing me stop running gets ready to charge at me once more.

  "I know that I was made In a VAT, but I'm sure the DNA that was used on me came from something or someone, so I pray to whoever my genes come from, please guide this stone right in this lizard's ugly face." Finishing my first (and hopefully st prayer) I hurl the stone with all the strength I still have left in my body at the green lizard.

  *Whack!* The stone hits the lizard right at the time he started charging at me making it lose its original trajectory and miss me by an inch.

  Using the brief moment of respite, I enter the tunnel and, strangely enough, being pulled by a vacuum toward the other side of the tunnel.

  As I get near the end of the tunnel I can see a light, not a natural kind like a sun, whatever is on the other side must be an indoor pce.

  With a bit more patience I finally reach the end of the tunnel, just to see that it is a dead end, what may have once connected the side I am and the other has been destructed by something, maybe an explosion or a bigger lizard.

  I'm also unable to go down because I don't have a rope, nor is there any object I can use to climb down, but even if I could I won't go in a hole that my fshlight can't reach with it's light.

  The best thing until now is that it seems the lizard has lost me, for now at least.

  I find a small corner to sit, one where the tunnel I came from is still visible, and start checking my gear; the good news is that most of the damage I suffered from the tail I got hit earlier was mitigated by the steel-wool vest, the bad news is that the wasp drone I had with me didn't have the same luck and is now mostly useless until I can fix it, if I can even find some kind of material that is good enough to repce its shell. The other bad news is that while my pack is still intact, some of its contents suffered minor damage, some energy cells for my fshlight have minor cracks around their gss casing, and the visor of my gas mask has been totally detonated, without it I will need to count each minute with air on my own, which is really annoying for a ck of better word.

  I start checking the goggles Andromeda made for me and am instantly surprised, by the fact that aside the small crack on the left lens, it's still perfectly functional.

  'Might as well check the functions Andromeda added to them.' I start scrolling throught the menus, really easy to do thanks to the hat being connected to my neural chip, aside from a motion radar, a heat visor to help me find any invisible creature (I really hope there aren't any in this stupid pnet), and the schematics Andromeda put in here (some of which are really cool, like the hellfire buster, a fmethrower capable of expelling fmes that never cease burning) the st two menus she didn't tell me about are simple things, but really nice to have around, a camera function along with a gallery filled to the brim with pictures of us doing crazy things and the st is, strangely enough, locked out, I can't even read what is written on it.

  Putting the goggles aside for now (not literally of course, the motion radar is too useful to not have on at all times.) I start sorting all my resources that are still usable, whatever can't be saved will be disassembled by my Omni-tool.

  'Let's see what I still have.' I start removing anything inside my bag, making sure to be careful with both the energy cells and the fuel capsules, the least I want is to get shocked or blown apart because of a small crack on them.

  ...

  The process was painstakingly slown thanks to the small pain around my body, without the adrenaline coursing me, it is incredibly clear that I have pushed all my physical boundaries and the hit I took earlier isn't helping either, I may have gone into other missions, but they were either infiltrating or disposing of some higher ranking enemy, and even then, I was always using my exo-gear (a full body suit capable of turning even the weakests, into a demigod like being), but by the end of it I was aware of how funked I am.

  One of my Panacea lost its needle making application much harder than normal, two of my fuel capsules lost half of their contents, drenching most of my things, one of my energy cells lost its limiter turning it into a unstable bomb, if I get hit hard enough once more I sure am going to have a painful death. And to make things even better my nutritionals bars have been destroyed by the leaking fuel. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that some books I took with me on this mission have gotten totally damaged thanks to the leaking.

  The only good side in all of this is that Greeny has seemingly lost me and that the sky has no dark clouds.

  I take the Omni-tool from my belt and activate it, because its a civilian-grade it cks any offensive mode the military-grade has, which really sucks, but at least it still has the recycling mode along with the lighter.

  I start walking around the room I'm inside of, searching for all and any scraps, metal, wood, even vines, anything will help me at the moment.

  ...

  By the time I'm done the sun is soaring high in the sky, showcasing its glory to every being in this pnet, now that I am in a retively safe pce I have to say, the air here feels, strange, I didn't visit many pnets in my life but the ones I did never had this strange feeling, as if the air itself is always embracing you...

  ...Anyway, back to the main business, by using the recycling mode of the Omni-tool I'm able of turning even the oldest, rustiest piece of iron into something usable, so using the materials I have now making something as simple as a bow and a handful of arrows shouldn't be hard.

  ...

  Yeah, it was hard, thing is, while the recycling mode of the Omni-tool can reshape any inorganic material into a usable form, it can't do the same with wood nor vines, so the whole process of shaping the piece of wood I found earlier into a bow, and the vines into fiber to make rope was made using nothing more than a sharpened piece of iron, my teeth, and my own hands.

  Which took an awful lot of time, when I was finally done the sun was starting to set, I really don't want to stay in this spot in the middle of the night, I could very well get attacked by some flying creature, or by something that is capable of climbing the giant hole in the middle of the room.

  Now that I think of it, why would someone open a giant hole in the middle of the room? We're they being chased by something? And if they were, what kind of explosive would be strong enough to open such a deep hole in the ground? —I really need to stop getting sidetracked so much.

  "Let's see, I got a bow, fourteen basic iron tip arrows and a small gift to Greeny, an explosive arrow made using the broken energy cell." I know it's not recommended to store sharp objects inside a pack, but at the moment I don't have a quiver, nor can I put them into my vest utility belt.

  I start packing everything, getting ready for one more encounter with Greeny, hoping that this time the bastard won't be wainting for me with his mouth open at the end of the tunnel.

  ...

  Good news, the motion radar isn't picking anything on the end of the tunnel, bad news, I'm pretty sure that those dark clouds are bringing a lot of rain with them.

  Getting out of the tunnel I start walking once again, this time going north, I don't know why but I feel that something good is waiting for me there. The walk this time is more calm, I can see small flying creatures flying in groups hiding inside some white pnts whenever something goes near.

  Along the way I take anything I see that seems useful, from small stones, small pieces of scrap metal, even some fruits I found, 6 blue fruits and 2 bck ones.

  Everything seemed normal until a small dot appeared on my goggle.

  *Beep* As soon as it appeared I stopped, turned around and drew my bow, I'm not running this time, if Greeny wants a bite out of my tail he'll have to fight for it. Sadly, as soon as I turned around the dot on the scanner disappeared, making all my preparation useless.

  As much as I wanted to stay and search for whatever it was that moved just now, the setting sun was my biggest problem, without a general knowledge about what kind of nocturnal life exists here staying outside in the dark doesn't seem like a smart choice. So I just keep going north, in hopes of finding a safe pce I can turn into a temporary headquarter.

  As I keep walking I don't notice a dark figure hiding in the tall grass looking at me, nor do I see the green hat bastard hiding in a dark spot.

  《50 Minutes Later》

  Okay,it's been less than a day and I am surprised by how beautiful and dangerous this world can be, I just saw a strange insect flying around with its offspring before suddenly attacking another one of its species by hardening themselves and stabbing each other with their probocis.

  At least I'm finally near another one of these tunnels, I hope that this one ends up in a better spot than the st one, without the wasp I can't go through that hole back there, and I'm not going down a giant hole without some firepower.

  *Beep* A dot appears right in front of me in the radar.

  "...Sigh—Already back Greeny?" I ask while looking at green lizard once again, this time I can see how one of his eyes are a little more closed than the other, the stone I threw earlier must've hit it. "Unlike before, I'm not running, this time only one of us is going to be alive by the end of the day." I say while drawing an arrow from my pack, the lizard seeing me getting ready for a fight also gets into a stance he always does before charging at me.

  ...The silence is deafening, as if the world itself is watching this small skirmish between a predator and its prey, both me and the lizard simply wait, hoping that the other does the first move before jumping into action.

  Of course, the lizard, is the one to lose the patience and once again charges at me, surprising me once again by using its tail as some kind of spring to get altitude at the same time he throws himself at me.

  Not wanting to become his dinner I dive to the right, rolling once before taking aim and shooting an arrow at the lizard.

  The arrow strikes the lizard back making it squeal in pain, it seems that unlike its sturdy head, its body is soft. Using that as my advantage I take another arrow from my pack and shoot it once more.

  This time, the arrow strikes the lizard head, bouncing off it with a dull thud sending the arrow away.

  The lizard once more charges at me using its tail once again as a spring, leaping a great distance towards me, forcing me to duck to not get my head bit off.

  The lizard flies past me almost bitting me ears off but barely missing, I turn around to once again take aim but am unable thanks to once more being struck in the head by its tail.

  *Whack!* I'm sent flying way longer this time, my vision blurs, and my goggles try to warn me of some kind of damage I suffered but I don't pay attention as I come to a stop, get up and wobbly pick another arrow, a special one made for this bastard and take aim.

  Everything is blurry, I can't keep myself steady, I once again try to take aim with the bow, locing on a green blurry figure coming towards me, its mouth opens wide as if measuring the possibility of swallowing me whole.

  It once again tries the same flying charge technique, this time whoever I'm ready, I don't even try taking aim my blurry vision would only make me lose time, I just shoot the eletric arrow at the lizard with all the strength I can still muster.

  The arrow flies at the lizard at the same time I fall to my knees, it strikes the lizard open jaw making it squeal into pain before releasing a giant burst of energy, some of it strikes near me but thankfully none of it hits me.

  By the time the bomb has finally lost all its charge the lizard, once green, is now charred. What was once a colorful lizard is now nothing more than a statue of ash, burned so throughly that even the bones were turned into ash.

  I try to steady myself but am unable, even with all the strength I can still muster all I'm able of doing is straightening myself once before I fall headfirst on the ground.

  ☆??????☆

  (3RD POV)

  As soon as the young slugcat lost his consciousness another figure emerges, a small red being pops out from the ground pointing at Mech, another figure appears, if Mech was still awake he'd instantly recognize the figure as some type of distant retive.

  The new figure looks around, seeing the scorched figure of what was once a lizard before locking in on the sleeping figure of Mech, its white eyes looks at him with both curiosity and awe at seeing another one of its own kind.

  It looks around searching for something before taking him by his tail and pulling Mech away to somewhere else, a pce to stay until the next day.

  It's white eyes once again lock on Mech seemingly evaluating one more time before focusing totally on finding a shelter.

  ☆??????☆

  (A/N: First (Or Seocond?) Chapter is finally done, I'm still trying to find a way to solidify the story but it's really hard writing, specially when you're not good. Anyway, tell me if I you see any grammatical mistake, Grammarly has finally had a stroke and fucking died on me.)