Chapter 13: Do Not Try

“Girl, this could have been really easy for you. Cough up the credits and walk free. Simple. But you chose the hard way,” Braid said, leaning in close to the barrier.

Yan could feel her skin crawl. This woman was examining her like merchandise.

Slowly circling Yan, the thug continued, “Looks like you’ll fetch a pretty penny. I know of -”

As she leaned in close again, Yan lunged, stopping just shy of the barrier. Braid flinched, pulling backwards with a grimace.

There was laughter behind her. Reed walked up with a swagger. “She’s got fire! I say we send her to the pits! People always want to see a bloody scrap.”

Braid grimaced. “Once she’s down there, she’s bound to be damaged goods. Nobody wants to pay for a slave whose bones have been broken and reset countless times. Or if that pretty face gets torn apart.”

“Protocol. We follow. Protocol. Sir Faust. Would not hear. Of anything. Else.” A third voice joined in the conversation. Muscles. His voice was choppy, every few words spoken separately from the others.

“Fine…,” Braid groaned, dragging out her reply. Yan could not help but be reminded of a petulant child. “Why do we have to play by Faust’s rules anyway if we are breaking all the others?”

“Rules. Are backed. By violence. Sir Faust. Has all. The violence. At his command. So. His word. Is iron.” Muscles grunted. Yan wondered if this man had ever laughed before in his entire life.

While they were talking, she had been examining the device that Reed activated.

It was a curious, makeshift thing. The disc had unfolded to twice its size and now sported four antennas. Each was about knee height. Each projected an arc of electricity through the air that fed into the cage around her.

Most importantly, a pair of energy cells was embedded into the middle of the unfolded disc. As Yan watched, the pulsing energy visible through the cells’ transparent casings dulled a little. This thing was eating up the energy at an astounding rate.

“Yeah, yeah, wise guy. Let’s do something useful, like getting our prize back home,” Braid said, turning her attention back to Yan.

“I’ve already radioed in, boss. Transport will be here in a moment,” Reed answered.

But Yan had already shut them both out of her mind. Reaching once again into her mana well, she willed it into form. Two strands of glistening blue flowed out and she opened her eyes.

[Telekinesis]

The energy cells popped out soundlessly. For a moment, the barrier stayed and Yan felt a surge of worry.

Then, it retracted from the bottom up, flowing back through the arcs of electricity and into the disc.

“How? What the…” Braid’s hand flew towards the shiv that she had tucked back into her belt.

But Yan was faster. With her magically-enhanced reflexes, she dashed forward, snatching the shiv first.

For a split second, she thought about plunging it into Braid’s stomach. She was so close. All it would take was a small push.

She banished the thought.

These gangsters were not working alone and she could not afford to paint an even larger target on her back. Much as it pained her to leave these hooligans standing, she had to.

Instead, Yan used her momentum to shove the woman. Braid went flying, plunging into a mound of trash with a shriek of disgust.

There was a flash of steel.

Yan ducked and Muscles’ club went sailing over her head. She was right to clock him as the greatest threat. Reed was still fumbling to retrieve a weapon.

It did not matter. With Braid screaming and clawing out of the garbage, the path ahead was clear.

Clear, except for the three figures that stood, for a moment obscured as the lights flickered off.

Then, they flickered back on and a familiar grizzled fellow dashed past her, wooden board in hand.

There was a crack and a scream of pain behind her. It sounded like Reed.

“Yan! There you are! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” A familiar head of purple hair cried.

Behind him cowered a girl in a light blue jumpsuit, her stylish coat looking out of place amidst the rubble and refuse. Isabella.

“How did you - we have to get out of here!” Yan shouted.

She spun around. Luke had laid out Reed with a single blow and was now trying to stare down Muscles.

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“Luke! You can’t fight him!”

“Well, I’m going to try.” Luke rushed forward, plank swinging.

There was a sharp crack. The top half of his wooden board went flying.

Yan blinked. Muscles’ metal beam had not even moved.

Then, she realised. The board had actually made contact. It had just cracked clean in half over Muscles’ head.

This was all going sideways and fast.

“Do not try,” Muscles growled. With a single swipe of his hand, he sent Luke hurtling through the air.

Without thinking, Yan reached into her mana pool and sent out mana in her ally’s direction.

[Telekinesis]

She strained from the effort and Luke’s impromptu flight slowed to a stop. He dropped to his feet, surprise written across his face.

There was a gasp behind her. Yan spun around to see that Braid had dug herself out of the trash.

Her gun was pointed right at Yan.

“Stop! Or I’ll shoot!”

Before anybody could react, there was a sharp clang and Braid tumbled to the floor. Blood seeped from the back of her head.

Isabella stood behind where Braid had been, a steel wrench clutched tight in both hands. She was trembling, a look of horror plastered across her face.

Her wrench slipped from her numb fingers, clattering to the floor.

A hush fell over the battlefield.

“Run!” Yan broke the silence, sprinting out from the dead end. Neon grabbed Isabella by the shoulder and she broke out of her trance. Both started running.

Yan looked back to make sure Luke was following.

Fortunately, he was.

“Fight me. Cowards!” Muscles bellowed. The veins in his neck stood out like cords.

With a roar, the hulking gangster spun around and around, his weapon held outwards. Then, he let it go.

The shaft of steel went streaking towards Yan. She dived out of the way, the magical enhancement tingling in her legs.

The beam crashed into the ground, smashing a hole into the steel panels beneath their feet.

There was a howl of rage behind them.

The quartet tore down the streets, Isabella leading the way. She seemed to know where to go, weaving through the streets unerringly.

The abandoned storefronts slowly gave way to occupied shops, then to offices and finally, to the chaos of the port. Somewhere along the way, Yan made sure to lose Braid’s shiv. Without any way to conceal it, carrying it around was just asking for trouble.

Yan’s lungs were bursting and her legs thrummed with pain. Just as she thought her limbs were about to give way, Isabella skidded to a stop.

Panting and gasping, the rest followed suit.

The crowd around them, as with all the passers-by before, viewed them with mild curiosity but none interfered. None looked particularly concerned.

This was Narius Port after all.

“I think this is far enough. They don’t seem to have followed us. Hopefully, they’re just a lowly street gang,” Luke panted.

“Hey, uh, Yan? Can you not do that again?” Neon stumbled over to her. “I really don’t like my prospects of surviving a punch from that guy.”

Yan shook her head and said, “You weren’t supposed to come looking for me.”

Panting, Neon replied, “Well, you never said that. You just disappeared. Luke said that you had plans but, you know… you are in the body of our old boss… and I actually respected her. It would have been good to get some closure.”

Seeing the look on Yan’s face, he hurried to add, “Oh, I don’t mean it that way! You’re great and all! But -”

Luke interjected, “Doctor, I hate to say it, but Neon’s right. Your body isn’t really your own. When we look at you, we still see Dr. Regina. If you want to go, fine. At least give us a heads-up.”

Yan hesitated. It was surprising how quickly she had gotten used to this body. So much so that it felt strange to be reminded that it was not truly hers.

But they were right.

“I… I did think about saying goodbye…,” She began, trying to piece together a response.

“Oh, is the scary knife lady socially awkward?” Neon laughed breathlessly. It was more playful than offensive but Yan punched him in the stomach all the same.

Neon doubled over in pain, unable to speak, whatever breath he had managed to catch driven out of his lungs.

Luke sighed and opened his mouth but Isabella piped up first. “Ac - Actually, it’s my fault. They’d decided to leave you be but I… I really needed to talk to you.”

“Right, there’s that too. She badly wanted to speak to you,” Luke grunted.

“To me? What about?” Yan asked.

“We - We should go somewhere more private.” Isabella looked around at the bustling street. “And we should make sure Neon’s okay…”

“I’m - I’m o - okay,” Neon managed to choke out.

Yan shrugged. “He’s alright. A punch never killed nobody.”

Luke looked incredulously at her but chose not to reply.

“I - I think we should go to the Sailor’s Rest. It’s quiet, it’s clean, and it’s mostly safe. Oh! And they make the best steaks!” Isabella said.

“I could go for a steak right now,” Luke mumbled.

“Then, let’s go!” She began heading down the street. The rest followed.

Luke kept close to Yan, letting Neon limp forward first.

“Your leg’s all healed up?” Yan asked. She had been worried that he might not be able to keep up during the escape.

“Managed to pop by a robo-surgeon at the docks before we left to look for you. Costs a bundle of credits but a bullet fragment in the leg is no issue for them,” Luke replied. He did a little jump. “See? Back to normal.”

“Wow. Things are really different here.”

“Ha. I would think so. We sure have a lot of different ways to put holes in people.”

Yan smiled but it quickly withered. No matter where she was, people always had a thousand ways to put holes in people.

Luke continued, “Thanks for the save back there, Doctor.”

“Hurh? Oh. I was just doing what I should.” She reckoned that he was talking about the [Telekinesis] that she had cast back during the fight.

“Right. And in the lab too. Back there, I really thought I would be with Alice again.”

“Alice?”

“My wife. She passed a while back.”

Yan spied a little bit of reddening in his eyes. “Luke… I…,” she paused. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. It’s still hard. Would have been good to go out giving Aramia the finger but I guess I live to die another day.”

He stood up a little straighter.

Yan was not sure how to respond to that, so she kept quiet.

They were walking past another stretch of shops now. Unlike the ones they had seen earlier while fleeing, these were more targeted towards those looking to brave the stars. There were not a lot of shops but their variety was notable. There was a shop selling guns of all types, another selling personal shield belts. There was even a shop just dedicated to ration packs of all flavours.

A sign nearby marked this place out as “Starfarer Street”.

Yan made a mental note to stop by here later. That is, if she could find it again.

As they walked, she noticed the surroundings change further. The shops had given way to a number of restaurants catering to a wide range of tastes. Up ahead, Yan saw a wooden signboard dangling from an overhang. It bore the image of a pillow, bordered by blue LED lights.

Beneath it, in the same blue lights, were the words “The Sailor’s Rest”.

Isabella walked right past.

“Isabella? Isn’t this the place?” Yan spoke up.

“Oh? Oh! Yes! S - Sorry… I was distracted.” Yan saw a shadow flit across her face. The image of Isabella standing horrified over Braid flashed through her mind.

Yan frowned. Was this the first time the girl had clocked somebody over the head?