The Original Beefcake

Marcus stepped down from the ferry and admitted defeat. He had clearly underestimated the tropical heat after living in a Nordic country for a year. It wasn't that the heat was too much for him, his vitality made that not a problem. The problem was, he had a giant body and in the wet heat he was sweating like crazy. He wore only shorts, sandals and a tank top, but he still felt he should shower and change his clothes every five minutes.

The remote island, with a name Marcus would never be able to pronounce, had seen drastic changes over the last few years. After a portal appeared and it was decided to make it permanent, a large military base had been constructed, with all the facilities that were needed.

Marcus took the shuttle service to the base and was impressed by its size. He could see the large main building that fully covered the portal and the layers of defense around it. Since the Massacre of Rome all 'official' portals had extreme security measures. Too late for me, Marcus thought.

ID, credentials, name tag and then a basic security drill, and Marcus was free to move. He needed half an hour to find his goal, a large multistory building. The guard at the entrance barely looked at his ID, made a call to somebody inside and let him in. The inside was much cooler, less wet and very modern. After a few seconds a young man in shorts appeared and approached Marcus with a serious face. He reminded Marcus of Japanese people but he had a darker complexion.

"Marcus Freimann? I'm Kou Saito, responsible for the security of the expedition and also the team leader. You will be working under me." Well, that was an entrance, Marcus thought. "Nice to meet you Mr. Saito." Marcus gave him a small bow and a smile. "Yes, hmm, how was your trip? I hope everything went well?" The other man said, but didn't leave Marcus any time to answer, instead he started walking towards an unknown direction.

"I will introduce you to the science group first and then to the other team members. You are the last to arrive. We wont have much time to prepare, so you will have to adapt quickly." He walked and talked quickly, and Marcus realized that Mr. Saito was very nervous.

They entered an elevator and moved three levels up. His new boss didn't say a thing, but shot several glances at Marcus. They entered a conference room where the scientists had a meeting and Marcus quickly introduced himself. Their leader was a middle aged woman, Carmen Holder-Smith, who seemed quite pleased to see him.

Marcus looked around the conference room and saw a lot of familiar things. Men and women with intelligent eyes, coffee cups and large electronic boards filled with symbols and badly written words that only meant something to people who were in the know. He had grown up around people and places like this. There was also a bad mood in the air and Marcus wasn't sure if that had anything to do with him, his boss or something else.

After the lightning speed introduction, Marcus was led down in the basement towards, what Marcus expected, were the dorms or training areas. Five steps out of the elevator Mr. Saito suddenly stopped, "I will be honest with you, Mr. Freimann." "Marcus is fine by me," Marcus quickly interjected. "Marcus, you aren't exactly who we wanted. To be frank you are all we could get." The maybe Japanese man had his hands on his hips and looked at Marcus for a reaction."I can understand that," he said, holding Mr. Saito's gaze.

Whatever Mr. Saito had expected, it wasn't this, "Really?" Marcus had spent most of the journey here trying to think of a reason why somebody would hire him specifically. "I'm a low level Fighter with no experience off world. The best reason I can see is that you are desperate and short on money." Marcus' explanation hit the nail. "That is correct, and you can call me Kou." Kou smiled sadly and moved a hand through his hair.

The young men stood awkwardly in the hallway, trying to move on from this situation. "We had budget restraints for certain reasons and you were the only option for a front line tanker we had. I will also admit you aren't at all what I had expected," Kou said awkwardly, but with a straight face. "I get that often." Marcus tried his best to be diplomatic, but started to worry how the rest of the team looked like if that was the leader. He found out a second later.

A young Asian looking woman, in light training clothes, came around the corner. Once she saw the men, she quickly introduced herself, "I'm Achara Nam, level 10 Catsith class and member of the security team." She made a big bow and Marcus did the same. "Marcus Freimann, level 16 Fighter and also part of the team." He gave her a smile and she laughed.

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The Catsith class is considered as weak as the Fighter. Their main ability was to turn invisible for a short time, but they can't interact with anything or be revealed. It must be hard on her, Marcus thought. Kou cleared his throat, "Well, yes. Of course. Marcus just follow me, the rest should be around here, too." For some reason Kou seemed even more awkward now.

They passed by Marcus' new room and gathered the rest of the team in a small common room. The rest turned out to be for one, a middle aged American man with dark long hair, named Mason King. He was an Arcane Archer, level 40. The second was a Priest. When the Priest entered Marcus needed a moment to catch himself, because the woman looked ancient. "Candis Russell, I'm a priest level 20 and I'm old, I know." She gave Marcus a warm smile and he apologized for his rudeness.

"Great, we have a granny, a useless girl, an overly nervous leader, a washed up guy and now a child as a tank," the American announced without a hint of sarcasm. If Marcus had counted correctly, Mason himself was the washed up guy. How could the team have a level 40 Arcane Archer, if they had no money? Still, Marcus had to agree with the rude American, this was a recipe for a disaster.

"MASON, we all will do our best and we have yet to see what Marcus can do." Kou tried to get the initiative back. "Alright. Mr. Tank Man please come to the training room and show us what you can do," Mason said and walked right out the room. Kou looked unable to decide what to do so Marcus defused the situation. "Okay, I will just change. How do I find the training room?"

A few minutes later Marcus marched into the training room, in his old armor. The armor was pretty banged up since the last fight, but his new armor had to be replaced (LCPS insurance ftw!) and this was all he had. The room was much smaller than what he was used to by now, but it had a combat area and some training machines in addition to enough space for five people to train at the same time. Mason carefully observed him while the rest gawked in surprise. "You didn't have to put on your armor," Achara said. "Train as you fight," Marcus replied but kept his eyes on Mason. If Kou isn't surprisingly high level then this man is by far the strongest in the group, he thought.

Mason walked into the combat area and Marcus followed him. It seemed like this would be a sparring match. Kou just watched, looking deeply unhappy. Mason had no armor on, but pulled something out of his pockets, "Catch." Something small flew in Marcus' direction and he instinctively protected his vitals. The small thing suddenly changed course and missed him by centimeters.

Kaboom!

The moment it hit the reinforced wall behind Marcus an explosion rocked the room. "MASON, do you intend to wound our tank directly after he has arrived!" Kou shouted angrily. Marcus didn't leave Mason out of his sight. Arcane Archers can enchant objects with special properties, like explode on impact, and given the size of the explosion of the small thing, Mason was the real deal. That still didn't explain why it had changed its path mid flight. Somebody had interfered with it and the only option that was left was Kou. Marcus still didn't know his class or level.

"Kou," Mason turned to the red-headed team leader. "This time you got really lucky. The kid is a real tanker. He will do nicely." Kou and Marcus looked a bit surprised, but Marcus didn't relax until Mason had stepped out of the combat ring. "How can you tell?" Achara asked, and stopped Kou from chewing Mason out. Yes, how can he tell, Marcus wanted to know too.

Mason took out a cigarette (a real one not an electric one) and tried to light it, but Ms. Russell snatched it and buried it in the large pockets of her jacket. Mason shrugged his shoulders and explained, "First his armor. He showed up in it and it looks like it saw real action. Secondly, he instantly reacted to my attack, not by dodging, but by guarding himself. A tank needs to endure damage not avoid it. Thirdly, he didn't step back or flinch, which tells me he has full confidence he could take whatever I threw at him." Marcus was sure that Mason was a proper veteran, he had gathered all this from a few short interactions.

"But he has no weapon, don't Fighters need weapons to deal damage?" Achara asked into the room. "I thought so, too." The old woman seemed to be of the same mind. "Well, tanker don't need to deal damage generally, that is up to damage dealers like me, but I agree a weapon would make sense for a Fighter," Mason said and turned to Marcus.

All eyes were back on Marcus who shrugged his large shoulders. "Do you have a practice target or something like that?" They did and it turned out to be a strange green, round blob made out of an elastic material. The 1 meter in diameter target had target rings on it and Marcus could see some discoloration and bullets sticking in it. "This is an elastic target, if you have not seen something like that before. It can absorb a lot of energy and still stay intact. It is more efficient than traditional targets. Give it your best shot," Kou explained, while the rest stood around it in a half circle, waiting to see how Marcus would fight.

Marcus stepped up to the green blob while he debated what to do. He didn't know how tough the target was and he didn't want to use too little power and have it do nothing. He also wanted to show off at least a bit. Marcus just reached out and put his hand on the ball and unloaded a full power Impulse Hammer. In a fraction of a second the ball deformed and then SPLASH ripped into a million small pieces, covering everybody with green blob. There was a silence followed by "You sure you are a Fighter?" From Mason.

Marcus was back in his new room and cleaned up his armor. Only now he truly appreciated the Russo team. How efficient and effective they were and how good a leader Russo was. What was this group? Okay it wasn't that bad, Marcus told himself. Mason is actually a real veteran, no doubt. They had a healer, no matter how old, and himself. Achara was a Catsith, rank 161, so the second worst class, if you believe the rankings. They are only used for scouting and have neither offense nor defense abilities. And Kou… Achara had told him, after asking, that he was a Spatial Mage (rank 16), around lvl 18. That was an amazing class for sure. Rin, the left hand of Cherry, was also a Spatial Mage. But after all he had seen from Kou today he wasn't sure if he was capable at all.

Tonight they would go out, to get to know each other. Tomorrow then would be training and tactics. Marcus just hoped things would improve or this trip could turn out to be his first and last.