Axton was led out of the large hover transport, the first night of his post-beta play-session sending a chill over him. The night sky would have been beautiful to look at, filled with alien stars and the trails of spaceships. However, that night sky was obscured by the lights of civilization and, more pressingly, the smoke and smog produced by a massive scrap processing facility. The Admiral led Axton and Thomas out and about and eventually showed the Players to a large mechanic shop.

“And here,” said the Admiral who had yet to give his name, “is where I expect you to make something for me. Take a look around and see if any ideas spring to mind. You may use any parts here and rely on all who work here for your efforts. If I am pleased with what you make, I may find it within my magnanimous heart to lean on the System Security Forces and render that bounty of yours impossible to claim while you are here.”

The Asian Danny DeVito with an Honest Abe beard and overly gaudy clothing walked away, escorted out by ‘protection’ that Axton and Thomas were both sure that he didn’t need. Axton shook his head and asked Thomas to forgive him for somehow dragging him into this mess.

“No worries.” Thomas replied. “By the way, you wanted me to record you, but you sped off before I could see much. Wasn’t that a bit of a waste?”

Axton shook his head.

“We were in a party. Check to see if you can access my own visuals due to that.”

Thomas scratched his avatar’s hairless head.

“I’m not sure that is how it works, my dude.”

“Try it.” Axton replied curtly before wandering over to the wide array of random bits and bobs that filled the massive room that he was in. He surveyed the wide array of War Suit parts, random bits of scrap, and electrical components and began to let his mind race. He was nearly a few minutes into his mental design session when an empty soft drink can smacked him upside the head. Axton snapped out of his trance and looked over at his meters. He had taken damage, but not anything significant, but his train of thought had been interrupted and now he had to start all over again.

He turned to see a group of several grime-covered men and women snickering a fair bit away. These were quite obviously the people who normally assembled and repaired the War Suits owned by the unnamed Admiral and his subordinates, and they likely did not care for Axton’s intrusion into their workspace. Axton knew how to deal with people like these, or at least he thought that he did.

“So afraid of being replaced by an Outworlder that you resort to the actions of a pre-pubescent kid. How about we make things a bit more… mature? Or are you going to continue to act like spoiled babies who had their candy threatened? Care to compete in a battle more suited for engineers like ourselves, or are we going to start throwing a tantrum and crying on the ground? Do I need to get you all your pacifiers and a few warm bottles of milk, or are you going to step up and be adults?”

This riled the NPCs up quite considerably, and they approached Axton with looks that could kill.

“Look here, Outworlder. We’ve been Admiral DiVeto’s personal Suit-Makers for quite a long time. You honestly think you can replace us?”

Axton smiled and replied with a nonchalant, “I’ve never intended to.” which caught the NPCs off guard.

“What do you mean by that?” barked a woman with most of her right arm replaced by a skeletal-looking cyborg replacement.

“I was dragged here by him. I had no intention to take your places, nor did I approach him. He wants me to build something unique, and I’m fairly certain he’ll be rather pissed if you interfere. I’m also supposed to teach you how to make custom War Suits, but whether you want to learn how I made that,” Axton said as he pointed to Franken II, which had been transported to the warehouse-sized engineering bay ahead of him, “or not is entirely up to you. I know if I were in your shoes, I would want to learn how to make something so bizarre and make it actually work.”

Axton then turned from the engineers and continued to look over the scrap for a while as he let his words sink in. After a few minutes, he turned back to the engineers and asked a simple question.

“With what you know of assembling and repairing War Suits, do you believe you could have made that on your own, with no help from any other people, and to that level of complexity?”

There was silence, which Axton took advantage of.

“I didn’t think so. Now, do you want to be able to make something like that, or at least something equally as creative, if not more so?”

Eventually, the engineers started grumbling and, rather than admit their failings, the majority of them left. All turned away and went back to whatever work they had been doing before Axton had arrived. All save for the woman with the mechanical arm. She stayed behind and cocked her head as she studied Axton up close.

“You really made that freakish abomination of a War Suit on your own, with no help or assistance?”

Axton shrugged. “Aside from the occasional appraisal of the odd part here and there; Yes. Yes, I did.”

The woman looked Axton over a bit more and then looked back at Franken II.

“That thing is something that simply should not be, and yet, is.” She looked down at the heavily reinforced concrete under everyone’s feet for a bit before looking back at Axton. “I have had some… ideas. I want to make them real. You are the first Suit-Maker who's ever been crazy enough to pull something like that.” She said as she gestured back towards Franken II with her thumb. “I want to make equally crazy things.”

Axton extended his hand and took hers.

“Axton Ryker. Outworlder.”

“Sally Grey. Native.”

The two shook hands before Axton gestured widely to the random assortment of machine parts behind him. He then walked over and pulled over a whiteboard that had been left lying around for people to doodle on and picked up a dry-erase marker. He then wrote on the top in deep black the words, ‘How to Build a Mechanical Freak of nature 101’ and faced Sally.

“The first lesson, if you’re willing to accept it, is about imagination. Simply put, there are no limits except the ones you make for yourself and the limits of the parts around you. If you can dream it and you have the parts around you, anything is possible, given time and effort.”

The lesson was beginning, and Axton had at least one student. Given time, he would eventually have more.