Newland City..
Not his favorite place. But it was less crowded than Borealis – mostly, at least, it could be a bit hectic on and off.
This night it was quiet, and rather dark. Comfortably dark, in fact, as he glided through the shadows as usual. As much as a ‘Trox could glide, anyway.
His contact was late so he had nothing to do but walk about aimlessly, blending in with the locals, easy as he was wearing a black, hooded cloak and with a gun semi-concealed by his backpack. In his hand was a large bottle but despite the label it held only coffee. An old rule, never ingest anything that’ll cloud the mind while on a mission.
He whistled softly, an old tune: “I was walking through OA one day, in the merry, merry month of May..”
He saw a young woman walking along briskly, followed by a robot adorned with the OT logo, she was going towards a residential area. Not a nice area, either.
To pass the time he ran her visual through his recorded images and found a match. A little surprised he opened her file and in his mind he read the details of where (Galway County), when (a year prior) and how (she’d been practicing robot control when she came across him) he’d seen her before.
Her robot was a better model, but still not anywhere near a Slayer. He smiled inwardly, engineering was not such an easy thing to learn.
He decided to amble in the same direction she’d taken. It’d be fun to see what the robot would do when it spotted him, if that piece of OT junk could do that.
He kept some distance away, then he heard the familiar sounds of a scuffle and her voice, shrill with fear, presumably giving an order the robot, followed by the unmistakable sound of a robot tipping over.
He quickened his pace and just before he turned the last corner he stopped and peeked around the wall to see two men, one, looking like an opi, pinned her arms from behind, the other, clearly a soli, facing her while he ripped her gun from her hand. He considered his options. She was a nice girl and a little exercise would do him good.
He stepped out and put his hand on the opi’s shoulder, squeezing just hard enough that the opi-bones would creak and pass the message along to not do anything foolish. His gun appeared in his hand as if by magic, the muzzle nesting against the soli’s chin.
The scene had gone very quiet when he appeared. Amazingly, he heard the opi’s shoulder break under his hand and as he glanced at him again he saw that it was actually a nanobreed, now almost unconscious from pain. He clicked off the safety, it sounded very loud in the silence.
Holding the nano in the air, still by the mangled shoulder, he quietly asked the soli,
“Do you think you can dodge your way out of this one, creep?”
The man swallowed then very quietly said, “No sir. We meant no ‘arm, sir, jus’ ‘avin’ a bit o’ fun, sir, please le’ us go, sir?”
“Yeah, like you’d have let the young lady go, right?”
“Honest, sir, we wasna ganna ‘arm the lady none, just playin’.” The man whimpered under the ‘Trox’ unyielding glare.
“I’ll let you leave now, but I’ve already sent your images to the local guard commander. If you’re seen here again you’ll be in trouble. Do I make myself clear?” he said.
“Yessah, yessah, real clear, yessah. We’ll leave right away..”
“Good. I come here a lot. Don’t be here when I am. Now, get out of my sight – you stink.”
The man took off running, his stained pants making squishing noises.
He threw the nano after the receding figure. It landed with a satisfying crunch. He hated muggers almost as much as he hated stim runners.
He slung his gun over his shoulder, out of sight.
“Are you alright, Miss?” he asked.
She appeared a bit shaken but not injured. She nodded, looking at him with an uneasy expression.
“Miss, if you cannot walk I’ll carry you, but we need to get out of here. I mean no harm.”
She nodded, then looked at the robot.
“Shackle, blue, X-ray, on two.” She paused and appeared to collect herself, then said, “I can walk, thank you, no need to concern yourself about me.”
“Ok, Miss, whatever you say. Please let me see you safely to your destination, I’m afraid the vermin are out tonight.”
She looked at him doubtfully and he slipped the hood from his face, letting her recognize him.
“You!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, we meet again.” He smiled down at her.
She hesitated, then said, “My name is Kahava – or at least, that’s what my friends call me.”
“Thank you, Miss. I’m Jokzer. Shall we go?”
