The Legendary Junkmaster

Jason groaned as sunlight streamed across his face, stirring his mind from its deep slumber. His eyelids flickered as the searing pain in his head made a triumphant return. 'Ugh, what the fuck!' His mind was groggy as he tried to recall what had happened to him.

"Gramps!" Jason uttered in a panic as he forced himself to sit up.

His eyes went wide as he was startled by what he saw and heard. Harry was lying beside him, snoring peacefully! Jason struggled to crawl over to the old man. Using his merger strength in his weakened state, he rolled the snoring figure over onto his back so that he could get a good look at him.

The wound that had been on Harry's chest the night before was now smeared with a foamy, yellow gel-like substance. The surrounding tissue that had been purple in colour now had a healthy pink tinge to it instead. 'What the hell happened?'

Jason's eyes scanned their surroundings. This only served to raise the alarm in his mind! The metal door that protected was laying wide open!

Jason wheezed as he crawled his way towards it. A wet sounding squelch sounded out as he dragged his body across the floor. His weary mind was so preoccupied with subduing the pain that he felt that it had failed to register the contents of the room.

There were deep claw marks indented into the door, and blood puddles were slowly drying up in scattered locations. Jason's mind sluggishly tried to make sense of what he saw as his gaze followed the bloody trail on the ground.

In the corner of the room behind him, the Banka's body lay in a sprawling mess! Jason felt his heartbeat rising rapidly as he stared at the monstrous creature. He sat frozen in place for a few moments before he realised the animal was not moving at all. It was not even making the natural movements of filling its lungs with air!

'Did Raymond do this? Is he still alive?' This was the only explanation that Jason could think of at that moment. Both he and his grandfather had been in no fit state to protect themselves. As far as he knew, Raymond was the only other person that could have come to their aid.

Jason felt another wave of pain assault his mind. 'Damn it! What's with this stupid headache!' He tenderly raised his hands to his temples and began to gently massage them. It was only now that he felt a dull pain resting just behind his eyeballs. 'Great! Just another thing to worry about!'

Most of the tension that he had been feeling had left his body when he confirmed that their greatest threat, the Banka, was as dead as a doornail. The pain he was experiencing began to subside, reducing itself to nothing more than a constant dull throb.

This gave Jason the chance to clearly think again. 'If Raymond was responsible for killing the Banka, then he should have stuck around.' This stray thought left Jason feeling confused. His eyes began to scan the room for any more signs of what had happened while he had been unconscious.

Jason noticed that both his and his grandfather's packs looked like someone had rummaged through them. 'Don't tell me someone actually saved us before robbing us!' Jason felt a bit angry about this. After all, their haul was something that they had literally risked their lives to obtain!

Two candidates jumped to the forefront of his mind. These were the blue-skinned woman that had apologised to him in the crowd before the gates and the burly man that he had a brief altercation with. 'No matter who it was, I guess we can consider anything they took as payments for our lives.'

Jason decided that the best thing that he could do for now was to secure their haul. After performing that task, it would be best if he could confirm what had happened to Raymond. There should not be any danger in leaving his Gramps to snore away to himself since the immediate threat had been disposed of.

As he moved around the room, picking up the few scattered pieces of junk from their packs, he finally got a good look at the Banka's face. Whoever had saved them had driven a metal spike through its eyeball and directly into its brain. Jason inherently took in a sharp inhale of breath at that sight.

'That's pretty brutal.' Even though such a savage act had potentially saved his life, he also felt a bit sorry for how the proud creature exited this world. Such thoughts only lasted a brief moment before another thought crossed his mind. 'A Banka's pelt should be worth quite a few credits.'

Jason's eyes scanned the corpse's luxurious snow coloured fur. It was quite a popular material amongst the wealthier inhabitants of Highrise. 'I'd only butcher it if I tried it myself. It's best to leave it to Gramps when he wakes up.'

Jason tutted at the unfairness of it. If Harry skinned the beast, then by rights, the credits earned from its sale would solely belong to him. 'I guess I could gather a few more pieces of junk while I wait.' Jason edged closer to the door silently. He wanted to make sure he did not disturb Harry in the slightest. The old man had just gone through a lot and should end resting for quite a while yet.

Jason hurriedly grabbed his pack and stealthily crept out of the room to explore the factory some more. Just outside of the door, there were signs of a short yet bloody fight having taken place. Jason shook his head at the sight. He already knew what the outcome of it had been.

'Just because the Banka is dead, that doesn't mean I can be careless.' Jason thought as he considered the possibility of weaker creatures living in the area. With the king that sat at the top of the food chain being dead and all, there was a good chance that they would try to encroach on the Banka's territory. As such, Jason had to be extra careful in his exploration.

He could ill afford to set off another disaster like the one they had barely just survived. 'I should check out where we last saw Raymond first.' Jason set out his first task in his mind before carefully retracing his steps from the day before. His eyes glanced over the path ahead as he tried to spot any details of what had become of Raymond.

It did not take him long to discover another pool of blood, and one of Raymond's severed arms caught between two metal pipes in a nearby machine. 'I guess it's safe to say he did not make it.' Jason said a silent prayer for the man in his mind before turning his attention to looking for Raymond's pack.

'If nothing else, we can always pass his share along to his wife. It's not much, but she'll surely need it with their newborn and all.' This thought sparked off a cascade of errant thoughts in his mind about how cruel and unjust this world was. This brought his thoughts in a roundabout way to realising what day it was!

"Shit!" He muttered under his breath. "How could I not remember it earlier!"

Jason held his breath as he quickly checked out his own body. 'There's no physical mutations.' Jason thought as his body got the all-clear. He recalled what many other people had told him about their own experiences when they developed their powers. There was one thing that they all had in common.

They instinctively knew exactly what it was and how to use it! Jason felt like crying out in indignation! He felt nothing of the sort at all! All he had received was a banging headache that did not seem to want to go away!

'Wait a minute! My eyes!' Jason quickly scanned his surroundings for a reflective surface as he remembered the pain he felt resting behind his eyeballs! He finally settled for a dirty piece of metal. It was not much, but it would do the job!

He eagerly approached the machine that it was attached to. As he took a deep breath, he finally stepped forward to appraise his reflection. His eyes quickly wandered to their own reflection. 'Are you fucking kidding me!' Jason wanted to roar in outrage! He finally saw what his own mutation entailed.

His once brown eyes had changed to a bright blue colour! 'That's so weak! Anything would have been better than this!' Jason thought as he cursed his own luck. This kind of mutation was known as a Cosmetic Mutation. It was literally the most useless one that an individual could develop. Even his grandfather's tail was more useful!

Jason stood there, staring at his reflection. An angry scowl was reflected right back at him, which just served to piss him off even more. 'Even my own body is against me!' Jason struggled to come to terms with the situation. His hopes and dreams seemed to slide far out of reach for him.

'I guess I'll be stuck as a scavenger for the rest of my life.' Jason finally thought as his mind began to settle. He felt like an empty shell now. There was nothing really worth living for in his mind anymore. All he could do was go through the motions every day until he died.

Jason moved through the factory as if he were in a daze. Eventually, he settled on a bulky piece of equipment before he sat down and got to work. His movements were dull and void of any care. Somewhere, deep in his mind, a part of himself had become broken.