Bleed, Patch, And Keep Moving - An Apex Legends Story

Chapter 12 - Pregame Jitters

Weeks had passed since Ajay's first televised match and it had been just as long since she had seen Elliot. She had poured her life into her career so worrying about where he had gone wasn't at the top of her priority list. She remained paired up with Anita and Renee, purely for ratings; not that she had any choice in the matter. The team was on a hot win streak and they were up to three matches a week. It had been a very busy couple of months for the Legends.

Since Ajay's match count was up, so was her pill count. Just to get her through, she was up to four to five pills a day. They must have been working because she was now recognized as the well-trained combat medic of Apex. She was padding her resume with kills, heals, revives, respawns, and loot sharing from her care packages. Saturdays were always the big match days for all of the Legends. The Saturday matches always seemed longer with a bigger payouts.

Ajay stood in front of a big screen in the loading room at HQ. It was about an hour before her big Saturday match. She waved her hand in front of the screen as she cycled through multiple outfit choices. Outfits weren't just handed to the Legends, they had to be bought outright or earned. Ajay really wasn't much for dress up because she was forced into it as a child. However, she did have a fan base now and she wanted to keep things interesting. She had participated in so many matches lately that she had some extra money to spare on a few outfits.

She sighed purely out of boredom and wondered if she was making the right decision about getting dressed up for this match. She hovered her hand over a small icon that looked like a shopping cart and tapped it. She brought up the store and was almost instantly overwhelmed when she saw all of the options available to her. "Just get it over with." A small pep was all she needed.

Ajay began cycling through the clothing in the shop until she came across an outfit called London Calling. Her heart skipped a beat as memories of her days with Fly Liars filled her head. "Kay-Kay." She whispered to herself. She knew that this is what she would wearing in her match tonight. The outfit was wild and so unlike her.

The outfit had a black shirt with a white skeleton ribcage on the front. A black headband with her signature logo (Kodai Industries) in white on it. White fingerless gloves. Red and black plaid pants. White shoes. Lilac hair. Gold bracelets. Everything about it was obnoxious as fuck. She purchased the outfit and tapped the 'wear' button. The screen brought up a feature so she could look at herself in the outfit. A smile formed on her lips once she saw herself in the outfit. After she was done looking herself over, she closed out the program.

The loading room was empty aside from her. It didn't help that she was usually early, a trait that was drilled into her head since childhood. She sat down on one of the sofas and pulled out D.O.C. She began tinkering with the drone. She wanted to make sure that the drone was running at optimal speed for the match. "This is gonna be a good fight."

After she was done she slid D.O.C. into her oversized left pocket. There wasn't enough tinkering to occupy her time. "I need to quit getting here so early." She reached for her backpack and got her drumsticks out. She began tapping them on the small table in front of her. The beat echoed throughout the small room until she was interrupted by Anita and Renee's arrival. She quickly stowed away her drumsticks and stood up.

"Time to see if all those drills paid off." Anita looked right at Ajay, "New Legend incoming tonight. MRVN is out for repairs." Anita didn't sit down but instead she just stood there. Anita wasn't the type to sit down and relax. The only time that Ajay had really seen Anita sit down and relax was at the bar after her first official victory. Ajay did recall another time but it was years before the Apex battle royale and Anita only sat down because she had to.

There was still 30 minutes until they had to be on transport ship. The time was dragging, which gave Ajay a lot of time to think. She wondered who the new Legend would be. She also wondered why Apex just didn't announce the new Legend. She wasn't a fan of the way that Apex conducted some of their business but who was she to complain. Apex took care of her and in exchange all she had to do was compete in their matches and bring in good ratings. It wasn't such a bad gig when she thought about the alternative.

Ajay knew that she wanted to get something into her system before the match started so she excused herself from the other two ladies. She grabbed her backpack and headed into the bathroom. When she got into the bathroom she locked the door behind her and dug through her backpack for her pill bottle. After she found the bottle, she opened it and withdrew two pills before closing the bottle and placing back into her backpack.

She took the pills with some water from the sink looking at herself in the mirror afterwards. Just like any other day of her life she found it hard to look at herself in the mirror. This day was no exception. She looked away for a moment and tried not to dwell on the past. She had gone through so much to be here and she didn't want some stupid thought before her match to ruin her game play or her ratings.

She stared down at her fingers and began to drum out a soft beat to ease her mind and to give a chance for the pills to kick in. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to think back to her time with Kay-Kay and the band. Getting ready for a match was almost like getting ready to go on stage; at least the anticipation felt the same. In some weird way she found solace in the rhythmic beat of drumming. It seemed to get her nerves in check.

She shook her head and left the bathroom without a second thought. She dropped her backpack next to the sofa before rejoining Anita and Renee. Bloodhound and Makoa had arrived, which was no surprised as the time ticked closer to take off. "Anyone got da news about da new Legend?" Ajay was curious if she was the only one that wasn't receiving information.

Everyone was oddly quiet after she asked. She wasn't sure if it was because they didn't have any information or they weren't sharing what information they had. Surprisingly the silence was broken by Renee, "HQ wants it to be a surprise, just like everything else they do to justify their ratings." There was a bit of shock on some of the Legends faces because Renee didn't usually insert herself into conversations.

"We're just gonna have ta find out when we get in da arena, huh?" Ajay broke the awkward silence which seemed to help break the ice for small talk to proceed until it was time to board the transport ship for the match. She half expected to see the new Legend on the transport ship but it wasn't much of surprise for her when she didn't.

"What da fuck is goin on? Where da fuck is dis new Legend? Are they already in da arena?" It was a little strange not to have the new Legend dropping with their team. Ajay remembered that when she first made her appearance she was on the ship and dropped with her assigned team. She sighed and took her seat as everyone else did. The hum of the ship was always a welcoming sound to Ajay. It was the one constant thing in her life, which she needed some days.

As the transport ship approached the arena the Legends began placing their communication headset devices, or comms devices, on. The comms devices allowed Legends, on the same team, to communicate with one another even if they were separated. They were the equivalent to a walkie talkie but conveniently hands free. The comms devices also transmitted a location signal for video recording purposes; it was a televised event after all.

On Ajay's team Anita was generally the jump master. Ajay didn't mind and Renee never argued about it. Makoa always seemed to be the jump master on the other team. The jump master was responsible for deciding the team's landing location and getting the team to that specific location. That's not to say that a Legend couldn't drop solo but it was a team based match, so it was a smart idea to stick with the team.

It wasn't too long before the Kings Canyon arena came into view through the small windows of the transport ship. The Legends began to stand up and move around; some of them even stretched. The countdown timer in the ship indicated that there was 30 seconds until the ramp would open and that they would allow to drop into the arena. This was confirmed by an announcer's voice that could be heard throughout the ship.

30 seconds until authorized drop