Jaxon's Second First Run

## Summary

Jaxon is back on his feet! Jaxon is on his second first run! Jaxon is terrified. You have to help him face his fears and join you as a Dustcap.

## Cast

* Sketchy Galore
* Jaxon
* Actaeon

## Mission Requirements

Collect all of the required items to unlock this mission!

1. Completed Season 1, Mission 9
2. 30KM Distance Badge

## Rewards

### Potential Rewards

* Metal Scraps
* Floppy Disk NFT - Common, Uncommon, or Rare
* 3D Printer

## Transcript

### SCENE 1: Man of Steel, Hills of Glass

EXT. Gates of Coyote Skull Basically the same as the opening of Episode 8. Outdoors, sunny, a few people, desolate wind.

JAXON: Morning, Dustcap! Thanks for this. Means a lot. You ready? You look ready. Sketchy? We’re ready.

SKETCHY: Damn right you are. Okay kids, so the plan was for you to take a lap of the hills whilst I work the imagers, see if we can find some caves to evacuate those folks under Kettlemine to. Sound good?

JAXON: Absolutely.

SKETCHY: Cool! We’re not doing that anymore. Late last night we started getting a LOUD signal from the Hills. Full on ultra-sonic shrieking. It’s starting to drive the vultures crazy and before we’re all dealing with five foot wingspan flying murder luggage, the Mayor figures we should go find out what’s shrieking and turn it off.

JAXON: (Trying to sound casual. Failing.) Sketch, where are we going? Have the vultures moved?

SKETCHY (Trying to sound casual. Failing.) Same cave, buddy. (Beat) You okay? You can sit this one out.

JAXON: (Beat) I’m good. (He is not good.) SKETCHY: You’re the Best is what you are. We’re going to take this nice and slow. Get moving, folks. I’ll check in once you’re in the hills.

### SCENE 2: In the Hills, The Past

FX: Rising tone in the background. FX: Monocle deploys from their headsets

SKETCHY: See that? The imaging tech is getting a little…frisky so it's hard to lock this down but there’s a device in there throwing out a lot of ultrasound. I’m going to call it the Shrieker. Because it is. Designed to royally annoy birds so it’s…(takes a breath). This doesn’t look like a happy accident, folks. Ear protection activated please, and I’ll be on your bone mics for a while. Head up to the tunnel and I’ll take a sounding there, that’ll give us a lock.

JAXON: This is a nice spot, Sketch. If you were looking for spots to put the refugees there’s a couple of good caves round here. (Takes breath) And the Mr N cache too.

SKETCHY: Right?! I was thinking the same thing. Good job, Jaxon. Now…(keyboard noises)for(keyboard noises)…science(keyboard noises)…GOT IT! You’re looking at two left turns coming up and then downhill. The Shrieker’s in a cave just off that passageway. Nicely placed too. Basically acting like a proscenium.

JAXON: …Dustcap says they don’t know what a proscenium is.

SKETCHY: Dustcap says no such thing because they’re cultured and edumacated. But just in case, a proscenium is an old world piece of architecture designed to act as a structural amplifier for an orchestra. It focuses the sound basically.

JAXON: (SUPER intense and earnest) Into some kind of sound laser.

SKETCHY: (We can hear the nose pinch.) Sure. Let’s go with that.

FX: Audio quality shifts as we’re up and into the tunnels.

SKETCHY: Okay, tunnels ahoy! How’s it going, Jaxon?

JAXON: Still fine, Sketch. Want me to take point on this? I’ve got a little vulture experience.

SKETCHY: Please, buddy

JAXON: No worries, let’s go save some

FX: An explosion. Sudden. Small. Brutal. Sound of falling rocks. Only this is the Glass Hills. Falling rocks would be easier. Imagine every wine glass on the planet being thrown against a wall. That’s what we’re hearing. Low and slow and sharp and terrifying.

SKETCHY: (Almost lost under the sound of rocks falling.) GO!

### SCENE 3: The Song of My People

INT. CAVES. Sound of recent glass falls subsiding FX: Rocks (of glass) fall. No one dies. (Yet.)

SKETCHY: FX: Respirator noises. You’re okay, Dustcap, I’ve got you. Your respirator’s down because there’s glass dust in the air. Don’t want to breathe that in, trust me. Right, here’s what we’re doing. Jaxon’s fine but he’s on the other side of the fall. Keep going down to the Shrieker. Let’s get it turned off and then let’s get you and Jaxon back together.

JAXON: (Coughing) Dustcap? Sketchy?

SKETCHY: We’ve got you, Jaxon. You see the route I’m pinging you? Follow it, should kick you out right by the Shrieker.

JAXON: Vultures, Sketch.

FX: Vulture noises through the radio.

SKETCHY: (Deliberately conversational) Tell me everything you know about them, Jax.

JAXON: (Breathing heavy, trying to hide it.) Okay. Okay…Okay, these suckers are big, like five foot wingspan, four feet at the shoulder, steal your lunch money big.

SKETCHY: …did a vulture bully you at school?

JAXON: (Laughs, grateful for it) They don’t like to fly, carrion feeders so they bounce around between corpses and they nest in trees so who knows what they’re doing here.

SKETCHY: Shopping for trees?

JAXON: (Laughs)

FX: STATIC

SKETCHY: Ah crap. Dustcap you’re almost at the Shrieker, earplugs in. Shutting it off should be pretty simple but eyes open for booby traps, please. Pretty sure that’s what tagged you going in.

FX: Earplugs slide in from the headset. FX: Ultrasonic shriek peaks and cuts out, flattened.

AKTAION: Hi, Dustcap.

SKETCHY: (FX: Electronic key noise of speakers activating so SKETCHY can yell at AKTAION.) STAY WHERE YOU ARE! JAXON, hold position!

AKTAION: If I was the threat here, Galore, I wouldn’t be standing in plain sight.

SKETCHY: Dustcap, do not move. What do you want, Aktaion?

AKTAION: I wanted to stop…this. This noise.

SKETCHY: Why?

AKTAION: …It might hurt my dogs.

SKETCHY: They’re not your dogs…What happened to your mask? It looks taped together.

AKTAION: You did. The last time we met.

SKETCHY: Why are you really here?

AKTAION: (Brittle. Angry. Heartbroken) Where else can I go? What else can I do? They abandoned me, Galore. I want to help. I need to help. Someone. Anyone. You know what that feels like.

SKETCHY: Dustcap, help them out. At arm’s length. So much as look at my friend funny I’ll taze you through the headset.

AKTAION: (Who knows this is a lie) Understood. Dustcap, lift that cover…Yep and pull the fuse under my finger. No. NO. Under my finger. That one. Acceptable.

FX: Shrieker stops FX: Earplugs retract.

SKETCHY: Well done! Now why are you really here?

AKTAION: Because this is a weapon of terror, not war and that isn’t right.

SKETCHY: That’s a lie.

AKTAION: Galore, you know what I’m capable of. You know what my priorities are. I don’t set traps. I face you.

SKETCHY: Cool. So why are you here?

FX: Next two lines are interrupted by each other.

AKTAION: (Murderous. Grief stricken) They threw me OUT. Told me I couldn’t come back until I found my face. I did. It’s broken. So I can’t go home.

JAXON: YOU!

FX: Running. JAXON tackles AKTAION and drops them through the hole.

### SCENE 4: VENGEANCE HAS TWO FACES

INT. Cave from Episode 5. No soundscape. Just cave noises

JAXON: (Groans, pulls himself upright.) You did this. Weaponized these innocent animals. Decided to use them in your stupid little war.

AKTAION: (Coughs, we hear blood hit the floor). Not…my style…Anymore.

JAXON: (Conversational. Dangerously so.) You think I believe you. Why would I believe YOU?

AKTAION: Because you’re a good person. Because you help peop-AAAAAA! (FX: JAXON kicks them in the ribs.)

AKTAION: (Laughs) GOOD shot! That…Oh…that’s a rib.

JAXON: Trust me, I’m a Doctor.

AKTAION: (Gasping. Panicking. Unable to stop speaking. Trying very hard to commit suicide by Jaxon.) What happened to First Do No Harm?

FX: JAXON picks AKTAION up and puts them against a wall. Hard. JAXON: You did.

FX: AKTAION SCREAMS IN PAIN)

SKETCHY: Dustcap, get down there. Make noise. (FX: Electronic key noise of speakers activating.

FX: Dustcap lands.

SKETCHY: Jaxon, it's okay. We found the shrieker that’s setting the vultures off. It’s shut down.

JAXON: See? Your plans mean NOTHING. You mean NOTHING. Not even your DOGS want to be with you.

AKTAION: This(COUGHS)wasn’t me. I came to…(gasps) warn you this was

JAXON: LIES! NOTHING BUT LIES AND MASKS AND LAUGHING AS PEOPLE SUFFER!

AKTAION: Not really. Just…y

SKETCHY: NO. No you don’t get to do that. You don’t get to use my friend as a cheap way to get out from under your redemption narrative.

JAXON: I’m okay with it.

SKETCHY: And tomorrow? The day after? A week from now when you wake up to the sound of their rib breaking against your boot? A year from now when you close your eyes and see the light die in theirs? You going to be okay with it then?

AKTAION: (Pained.) You really do talk too much.

SKETCHY: It’s so I can’t hear myself think. You should try it..

FX: Off speaker

SKETCHY: Dustcap, get close. Be ready. FX: On speaker Jaxon, Aktaion hurt you. I know that. I know you lost confidence. They lost everything.

JAXON: (So furious he’s close to tears) GOOD.

SKETCHY: Sweetheart I know you’re terrified. I know you think it’s unfair. It IS unfair. But I also know you. And this isn’t you.

JAXON: It should be.

SKETCHY: (So kind and soft) No, Doc. It shouldn’t.

JAXON: …God DAMN it…

SKETCHY: Good lad.

JAXON is flat out sobbing at this point. When we listen very closely, we can hear AKTAION is too.

AKTAION: (Voice raw) Dustcap. Catch.

SKETCHY: What is th

FX: MASSIVE boom

### SCENE 5: INT. Cave. Daytime. Vulture noises

(FX: Everyone coughing)

JAXON: YOU OKAY?! DUSTCAP! YOU OKAY? SKETCHY: Oh …Oh my EYES…Oh WOW that Hurt…Dustcap! You good? Virgil Brigman, back on the air,

JAXON: Must have been a flashbang. (Voice hardens) Coward didn’t want to face us. Oh hey, you snatched their mask. Nicely done! That’ll piss him off.

SKETCHY: Jaxon. They just handed it over…

JAXON: (FURIOUS) WHERE ARE THEY?! SHOW YOURSELF!

SKETCHY: Jax.

JAXON: THEY WATCHED ME DYING, SKETCHY! THEY \*LAUGHED\*! (DEAD. SILENCE.)

SKETCHY: Then they clearly have a long way to go, and it’s a good thing they’re on their way. . (Beat) Isn’t it, Jax?

JAXON: (Eats his fury. Chews every bite. Deepest sigh) We did good, right?.

SKETCHY: Damn right we did. Now…you know your Mom’s going to bench you again, yeah?

JAXON: (Gutted. Accepting.) I’ll do it myself. I’m not ready to be out here.

SKETCHY: (The gentlest we’ve ever heard them speak) You saying that proves you’re going to be ready. Very soon. I’m proud of you, buddy. You get to pick the movie tonight.

JAXON: Something with vengeance in it.

SKETCHY: Jax? Pick something better.

JAXON: …giant robots punching one another.

SKETCHY: THERE YOU GO!

SKETCHY: Hey Dustcap, what’s that? You see it? The crack in the wall? Something shiny in there. I know I KNOW but…it’s SHINY. See if you can get it open a little… …that’s good too. And hey, no rats, nothing evil, nothing on fire! And we’ve won… Oh. Oh WOW. Dustcap that’s a 3D PRINTER. This thing hasn’t even been used! Some nozzles, baseplate, Bucky Juice tank and…it’s missing a control pad but…oh hey! Bring this to the tower. I’ll bet we could hook up that game console you got! Then all we need is a floppie and we can get excited and make things! Or upgrade them! Come by the tower once you’re patched up, I’ll get Morris and we’ll get this thing hooked up! See that little port? That’s the floppy drive. Put one in there and it’ll make whatever’s on the disk. Those floppies are like old world gold in some towns. Rare as hell and twice as dangerous sometimes. Keep your eye out for some, the things we could make… Oh and bring this home? Never know when something like this’ll come in handy. Plus it’s not THAT heavy…