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RoninOak t1_j8knm2z wrote

You've heard about this one. They say he's immortal. That he can shape shift, influence others' minds, and even shoot lighting out of his fingertips.

They say that other bounty hunters have gone after him before. None have even made it back alive, much less with the bounty.

They say all this and end it with "we want him alive."

You know it's a bad job. Normally you wouldn't take it. But you're strapped for cash. The last 3 jobs didn't pay out and you're getting desperate. Desperate enough to take a sketchy job.

You pull together the last of your funds for the trip. You don't have enough but eventually a sleazy barge captain offers you passage in exchange for a cut of the bounty. It's either this or nothing, so you accept.

You don't have enough money left over for ammo, which is ok since you have to take the bounty alive. You don't have enough money left over for armor, which is less ok, considering the lightning thing.

You have just enough money left over for one vial of Star-Whale tranquilizer. Ever since Star-Whales were hunted to extinction, the stuff has been super cheap; even a small amount of Star-Whale tranq is enough to kill pretty much anything smaller than the beasts, which includes but is not limited to small planets.

You hope that what they said about him being immortal was true.

Four days of crappy cooking, less-than-stellar living conditions, and listening to the barge captain tell you about all the crimes he has committed (you almost consider capturing the captain, instead. Alas, no bounty) you finally arrive.

Your target has chosen a back-water planet to live on. Apparently, the local civilization is hundreds of years away from space travel. A guide book you picked up says the civilization is in the "Bronze Age." You find out that that means the civilization uses bronze tools.

No wonder your target chose this planet. As an immortal being living in a civilization that doesn't even know space exists, he must be treated as a god or something. That would be the life, you think. You bet gods don't have to pick up sketchy jobs out of desperation. You think they probably give out sketchy jobs for fun.

The barge captain lets you borrow the landing craft. It barely makes it through the atmosphere. You land in a forest and hide the craft with branches. After the atmosphere, you're worried that the weight of the foliage might break the craft forever.

Your target lives on a mountain. The tallest mountain in the area, in fact. It takes you half a day to walk from the craft to the base of the mountain, another day-and-a-half to climb it. You arrive at the false peak, where they said he would be, in a state of near exhaustion. You have nowhere to rest: the false peak is above tree-line and it is windy! This job sucks, you think. At this point, you believe, death would be a good option.

You find him sitting on a rock at the apex of the false peak. He faces away from you, staring intently towards the peak.

He is not what you expected. He is old, almost ancient. Long, white hair and tangled beard. Skinny, frighteningly so. Skin clinging desperately to bone. His eyes are white: he is blind.

"Zeus?" You ask in confusion...

To be continued when I figure out how to end it

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Aicanseeyou t1_j8ldsh1 wrote

Is the twist going to be people don't believe in him anymore so he lost all of his power?

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