open - hell week location: - stone canyons. The first thing Juno noticed was the cold. A marrow-deep chill that slithered through his bones like ink bleeding into water. The second was the silence—too thick, too deliberate. No wind, no rustling leaves, not even the distant call of some godforsaken predator. Just quiet, pressing against his skull.
"Perfect," he muttered, breath curling like smoke.
Alone. Of course he was. That was the whole point of this twisted exercise—drop them in like chess pieces and see who made it out intact. Pandora called it Hell Week. Juno called it "Trust Falls With Extra Steps and a Side of Death." He flexed his fingers, feeling the electric hum of ink beneath his skin. Two constructs at a time—any more, and he’d burn out. No weapons, no supplies, and a biome designed to kill him in creative ways. Fantastic.
His eyes swept the terrain—a jagged stretch of frost-rimed rock, a canyon entrance yawning ahead. Dangerous, but better than freezing in the open. He exhaled and raised his hand. Ink flared to life, forming a thin, glowing chain in his grip. Just a test. A reminder he wasn’t defenseless. Then—movement.
Juno tensed. Ally? Enemy? Or one of Pandora’s delightful murder-droids? “Well,” he called out, voice cutting through the stillness, “if you’re here to kill me, at least have the decency to introduce yourself first.” And then, he waited.
