BANG! BANG! I bolted up immediately and fell off my bed with a loud, THUD! Tessara opened the door and looked at me. Lying on the floor, all I could see at the moment were the bottom of her legs. I had fallen asleep in my typical clothes — a combat-oriented black tank top with purple accents. It had a small thin armored chest and shoulder plates. My pants were of a similar style, custom-fitted with metal padded shins and knee coverings. On my left forearm was my wristech and on my right I had a multi-use wrist launcher, which typically was equipped with a grappling hook. On my feet was a pair of combat boots. Somehow, I ended up falling asleep first of all in the middle of the day. which was rare enough on its own, and doing that with clothes (let alone all of my gear) was something you'd only see in a dream. I had a rough training morning, so I guess I would be a little tired.
"Wow. You actually slept with all that on? That's a first, well anyway let's go. It's job time!!!" she said.
"Fine, but don't talk to me, I'm still tired", I groaned, standing up.
"Oh come on. You'll be fine, let's go!!"She grabbed my arm and attempted to drag me down the hall.
"Jeez, you're heavy!"
"No you're just weak," I said, half-awake
"I am not!!" she let go of my arm and put her arm out,.
"If I'm weak, then you're slow," she mocked, poking me.She unhooked my mask from my waist.
"Let's goooo,", she said, sprinting down the hall.
"You know you can't outrun me," I said, rolling my eyes as she continued to sprint away.
"You sure about that?", she said tauntingly
"Okay, you want to play that game? Let's go," I said, jumping up after her.
We ran down the hall, dodging tables and people who were desperately trying to get out of the way. She slid a table in the middle of the hall as she ran and I jumped over it with ease. I was close to her now — only a few feet away.
Suddenly, she took a turn into a room. I nearly ran right past it, but I was able to jump and push off the side wall with my feet. I sent myself flying into the room where I finally caught her as she was jumping out the window.
I looked to my left as I ran through the room and saw another member staring at me. It was Tai. He was pretty chill, so I didn't think he'd be too upset about this. I flew out the window after her and managed to grab her waist and pull her with my momentum. We crashed on the sidewalk right in front of my bike on a pile of trash bags. The people on the street backed up in shock.
"Owww…Fine, you caught me", she groaned. Then stumbled to her feet. I stood up right after, "Now give me my shit back. I already told you, you couldn't outrun me"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Come on, let's go!"
We both hopped on my bike and headed for the west side of the city. We zoomed under large bridges and underpasses. The city lights started to flicker on as the sun was setting. The roads were stacked with cars trying to get home and the sidewalks stuffed with busy people. It took us about fifteen minutes to get there. By then, the street and sidewalk traffic had started to disappear in that part of the city.
I parked my bike down an alley and climbed up to a nearby roof top. It took about twenty minutes to fully get in position. I sat behind an air conditioner on the roof behind the shop and looked over at Tessara across the street. She was prone, just barely peeking over the edge with a pair of binoculars, watching the entrance.
The unique part about this factory is that the top is like a shop, but the factory itself is underground. This location is best known for investors seeking new eloq technology and trying to understand the mining process. A starting place, if you will. I looked at the back doors and watched the owner walk out and lock the door. He then walked towards his car.
The roof I was on wrapped around to the street so I followed his car around the building and watched as it took off down the road. This is one of the few factories that closes at night, making it an easier target. He soon disappeared around a corner. Thirty minutes passed by, nothing.
After a little more time, a car started to come into view down the street, no lights or anything. It was completely blacked out. I had a feeling this is who we were waiting for. They parked a couple of buildings down from the shop and got out of their car.
They were dressed in what looked like all black, their faces from my angle were covered by their hats. Something seemed off, though. Their figures looked kinda familiar, but I wasn't about to just jump down and attack before I knew what they were up to. For one, I don't know if these are the guys we're looking for. Beyond that, they could very easily jump back in the car and escape, so I planned to wait until they got in the building. With me in the back and Tessara in the front, they'd be trapped. Hmm, I never really thought that far into her plan. I guess it actually was a pretty good plan after all, even though it sounded rather simple and incomplete. They walked closer to the shop and started moving towards the backside. I followed along the top of the roof. They all gathered around the door and they placed a small device on the door, where the locking mechanism was. They took a couple steps back and there was a bright flash on the door, and a small pop. They slid it open and walked in.
Weird. What was that device? It certainly didn't seem cheap if it could blow through a lock with such ease. In order to blow through a lock like that it would require a lot of power, which is not something you usually see outside of a military arsenal, let alone so small and quiet. Which means they're buying unreleased tech from the black market or this operation is larger than it seems. As someone who spends a lot of time in the underground tech areas of this city, I know that kind of tech when I see it. I can't make any conclusions with the current information, but it was definitely enough to intrigue me.
I shuffled back down the side of the roof to inform Tessara they went in. Except she wasn't there. I scanned the roof — nothing. I looked down at the street — nothing. I then looked over at the car — I saw a door open and she seemed to be searching it.
"Ugh", I rolled my eyes and slid down a ladder off the roof. I'm assuming this was a part of her plan the whole time. Rob the robbers. Real smart, as usual. I made my way down the side of the building and peeked around the corner.
"Tessara", I whispered.
Nothing.
"Tessara", I whispered again, no reply or motion that she heard me
"TESSARA", she jumped up and hit her head on the roof of the car with a THUD! I heard an "Ow", then she peeked out the side of the door while rubbing her head and put her hand up in the air and mouthed the word 'what?'. I motioned her to come here and then pointed at the door, and then made a walking signal with my hand showing I'd go around the back and enter from there. She looked at me like I was insane.
"What?" I whispered loudly.
"What?", she whispered back,. I think that's what she said, at least.
"You go in the front now and I'll go in the back", I whispered loudly again.
"What?", she said again.
Oh my god, I'm going to kill her.
I pointed to her, then made a walking motion with my fingers, and then pointed to the front door. She made a face that said ohh and started walking towards the shop entrance. Of course, she understood finger motions and not words.
I started creeping towards the back door. I got up to the back entrance and activated my mask. Slowly, I peered into the back room. I stopped and tried listening for any sort of noise.
I heard them arguing over something, "Give that to me, you!"
"HEY!! That one is mine!" said the second guy. He had a weird tone. It was kinda nasally, but also so weird I can't even explain it.
"You — you idiot!" said the first guy. He had a gruff, but also slightly weird toned voice. It was more high-pitched than the second guy.
"Uh, you guys? look what I found," said a third guy. His voice was pretty deeper than the others, and smooth, too.
"Ooo, now that's what I'm talking about! See, that's what we're here for — not some stupid piece of wood!", yelled the first guy.
There was a loud bang, and a crash as something hit the floor. Then something shattered.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US??" exclaimed the first man. "Those aren't exactly safe!"
"My bad", said the third guy. Then there was a cracking noise and then the entry bell rang.
"Sooo, do any of you know where I can get some decent ice cream around here?", said a familiar voice. It was Tessara, perfect. Now, I can start to make my move while they're distracted. They were extremely startled and didn't know what to do, but they seemed to recover from their shock pretty quickly.
"Who the hell are you?", said the second guy.
"Get out of here now, o-or else!", said the first guy.
"Or else what?"
"Look at that equipment! She's clearly a luminary," said the third guy
"Just back off!" said the first guy, his voice shaking slightly.
I took advantage of her distraction, slowly walking in through the back door as I activated my sword. The blade flicked out, quietly buzzing as the plasma-tipped edge activated. It lit up the dark back room.
I saw them through the doorway into the main room. They were in line side by side, all three of them. The middle one was about my height and slim. The guy on the left was about twice my height and size, a pretty big guy, but that wasn't an issue. The man on his right was about as tall as the middle guy but twice as wide. An interesting group for sure, and the closer I got the more I started to recognize them.
I continued to quietly walk towards the door into the main room. Tessara ignored me as I kept walking until I was right behind the middle guy.
Now I know why they looked so familiar. They were the same group we took down about three months ago for breaking into a restaurant. What was their name again?
The middle guy turned around and fell to the floor the second he saw me.
"Not you again!" his voice turned from scared to confident. He collected himself as he stood up — or he acted like he did, at least.
"Back off, or you'll get it too, this time will be different!" said the middle guy,
"What he said," said the guy on the right,
The third guy pulled out a knife.
"You won't beat us this time," he said
"We fought you once, we know your tricks," said the middle one.
"Oh, do you?" I said, pointing my sword towards them.
"Of course!!!" said the middle one
"Enough talk! You got two options — you come with us now and explain your little plan, or we take you by force,", said Tessara. "Your choice."
"W-we will not back down against a couple of broads!" said the one with the knife, shaking a bit.
"Alright, the hard way then," I said as I pulled my sword back and punched the middle one in the face. He slammed to the ground completely out cold. I quickly ducked under the punch of the big guy on the left, causing him to punch through the counter with the register. Corporate credits flew through the air and fell around us like metal confetti.
I turned off my plasma blade. The goal wasn't to hurt them too badly. I hit him in the side, then slid and hit his back. I sidestepped and hit his other side. In one fluid motion, I swept low and hit him in the back of his leg right behind his knee, sending him to the ground. All before he even had time to attack again.
I looked over at the chubbier guy with the knife. He was on the ground, his face on the floor, Tessara's foot on his back and his arm pinned down. He kept making squeaking noises as he tried to talk into the floor.
"You shouldn't mumble, I can't understand you," remarked Tessara with a small laugh.
The big guy started to get up from the floor, but I kicked him in the side of the head and he went limp. We bound them all with handcuffs, then pulled them out through the front door and out onto the sidewalk. Tessara pulled out her phone to contact the police. Suddenly, my face flew towards the ground. Something hard hit the back of my head.
"Vera!" I heard loud pops and cracks as Tessara fired her pistols. Then another few more whirs, zips and some clinks as if the bullets were hitting some sort of metal, but then bouncing off. My head was throbbing and I started to slowly zone back into the current situation.
I tried to push myself up. It's been a while since someone knocked me down like this. I moved my arms — or tried to. I pulled, but they were stuck behind my back. I looked over my shoulder and barely caught a glimpse of the handcuffs holding them.
Damn, they're good. Not only did they hit me with a surprise attack, but also managed to handcuff me in the process. I looked over at the opponent. I couldn't see their face, since they had a cloak over their body. The figure held dual orange plasma blades.
This must've been their plan. Use the robbers as a distraction and attack us. The question now was — were they specifically targeting us, or were they just going for whoever happened to show up? They could also be after the robbers, or working with them. Who knows? It's best to capture them and find out.
Seeing how the figure attacked me first they either knew I was a sword user, or were watching us. Tessara didn't have her guns out and I doubt the figure would've noticed them from their angle. Hitting me first was a gamble — unless they already knew. They clearly planned for this, so they had to know we were coming or are very experienced. Also seeing as they handcuffed me when they easily could've killed me, makes me think they want me.
That's something I could use.
I twisted my hips and spun to my feet, and stopped. I was between the enemy and Tessara.
"Vera, move! I can't hit them if you're in the way," said Tessara
"No, they want me."
"What? Why?"
"I'm not sure, but that also means they won't kill me. As long as I'm blocking you, they're unlikely to attack," I said, studying the figure.
For the time being, they were just watching us — pacing around as if looking for an opening.
"But what now, we just stand here?"
"I don't know. We can't get the cuffs off me without the access code or key."
"Yeah, well don't expect me to just stand here", Tessara said, trying to push past me.
"Wait, Tessara! Don't just rush in!"
"Then what do we do?"
"Did you contact the police?"
"No, not yet."
"Well, don't you think that's the first thing you should have done?"
"I tried, but you kinda got booted to the floor. So, I figured fighting was the best option."
"Well you're wrong. Now I'm handcuffed, you have one gun and we have no back-up. Nice one."
"Um, sorry that I stopped them from just taking you right away!"
"Oh, yeah? Well, if you called the police this fight would already be over!" I yelled.
"Yeah…well, it is what it is."
"Oh my god, why do I work with you."
Suddenly the figure charged at us with remarkable speed. I hadn't realized it, but during the argument me and Tessara had become separated, creating an opportunity for the figure to attack. I quickly lunged at Tessara, ramming right into her as the figure swung. They then redirected the swing into the ground, sending sparks flying across the cement in front of our feet.
I landed next to Tessara and her phone was on the ground next to her head. The number for the police was already dialed in. We just had to press call.
The figure was walking towards us, and Tessara was slowly rolling to her knees. I saw her quickly swing to her side and shoot at the figure. The figure jumped back, swinging their swords to block the shot.
I looked over the phone. It was three feet away from me. All I had to do was hit the dial key. The figure was distracted by Tessara's shooting, for now.
I started to push myself towards the phone slowly, but surely. Tessara continued to shoot. Neither she nor the figure were paying me any attention. Tessara had been moving forward, pushing the figure back. Now I was behind her. Hopefully, her recklessness would keep the figure distracted long enough for me to reach the phone. I pushed closer, it was only a foot away now.
Suddenly, I saw a bright flash from the corner of my eye. I immediately halted and watched as the figure's blade flew right in front of my face. I think it was aimed at the phone, but with Tessara shooting, it was hard for them to get a good throw.
The sword stuck in the cement on the other side of the phone. The heat from the blade melted some of the cement and started to slowly make the phone glow a reddish shade. I inched closer until I was over the phone. I then wiggled my hands and pushed a button on my wristech opening the vents and mouth piece of my mask. I set my chin on the dial key, and it was instantly burned. It felt like it was melting my skin clean off. I quickly rolled to the side and listened as the phone rang. Someone answered.
"Hello, this is the Nazul city police. What's your emergency?"
"Hi, me and my friend here are licensed luminaries of Blazing Phoenix, my ID number is four, two, five, zero, two, one, seven. We're on the west side, in front of the eloq crystal factory. We're currently engaged in combat with an unknown cloaked figure wielding two swords. I'm stuck and my partner is currently holding them off with her guns, but we can't do this much longer," I said quickly.
"Okay, we're sending a team over to your position now! Hold tight," she said. "ETA thirty seconds!"
Suddenly, a bullet hit the phone and I quickly rolled over to see the figure holding Tessara by one of her wrists. Their other hand was holding Tessara's hand over her gun.
I rolled and dodged as another bullet flew by. Well, now it seemed they didn't care if I lived or died, which complicated things. Maybe it was just a warning. I spun back to my feet. As I did, Tessara got shoved to the ground.
They were clearly strong, whoever this was. They just threw her down like she was a ragdoll. They started to walk over towards Tessara.
Whatever was going to happen next wasn't going to be pretty.
I brought my knees to my chest and stood up. The figure was focused on Tessara and looked as though they were preparing to strike. I ran at them and slammed into their side with all my strength, when I hit them it felt like hitting a brick wall. The figure crashed to the ground a few feet away. They immediately spun back up to their feet to face us. Tessara was back on her feet by then, her pistol aimed back at the figure. Tessara pulled me behind her.
"What are you doing?" I said, slightly irritated.
"I'm putting you behind me! since you don't exactly have arms to fight with"
"I don't need my arms, I still have feet to fight with"
"That's just stupid and you know it!"
"Yeah well, whatever puts her down at this point", I said.
"Just stay behind me!"
I heard a police carrier in the distance. The figure charged us. Tessara started shooting, but they deflected the bullets.
They were inches from us when, at the last second, they suddenly sidestepped, grabbed their sword and jumped onto the roof. Disappearing into the darkness.
The carrier's thrusters started blowing dust and rocks across the ground as it landed in the street in front of us. The side door slid open and four officers stepped out.
"Good catch, you guys! We knew we could count on you to get the job done! If we had known it was these three, we would've sent a far less… uhh…a far less forceful group," said the officer in charge. His name plate read Sergeant Bridges.
He looked past us as he said that, back at the shop. I turned to see the inside of the shop completely trashed, with what may have been one shelf that was still standing in the shop and about half of the crystals and other fragile objects were shattered and crushed far beyond any fixable state.
"Yeah sorry about that, and can you get these off of me", I said
"What happened? How did you end up in those?", he said, as he walked over and began to undo them with an override code.
"That figure that just ran off over the roof — they attacked us as we were exiting the building and immediately handcuffed Vera!"
"I'm sorry, what figure?"
"The one that ran off as soon as you guys were pulling up!" Remarked Tessara.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about, we didn't see anyone run off. We just saw you two and the three right there," he said, pointing at the robbers getting pulled into the carrier by the other officers.
"Oh. Well, there was a fourth. They had two swords and a cloak."
"Yeah, and they were extremely well trained. Whoever they were, knew what they were doing," I added.
"Strange — I see. Well, do you have anything else on them?"
"No it was hard to see anything with the cloak, but it looks like they were after me for some reason. They easily could've killed me from the way they attacked, but they didn't"
"I see, well thank you guys once again for your help, but I need to get back to headquarters and have a chat with these gentlemen," he said as the cuffs popped off my wrists. "We can investigate this figure of yours at a later time."
"But wai-"
"Ok, sounds good," I said, cutting off Tessara.
"See you guys later. Bye, now!" he said, climbing into the carrier. The sliding door shut and the thrusters pushed it off back into the sky.
"Why did you interrupt me?" said Tessara
"Because something wasn't right. Not only did they not show up with a secondary team to clean up the shop, but he was far too dismissive of our information and he knew the override code to the cuffs"
"What are you trying to say?"
"I don't know, but something isn't right and I'm going to figure it out," I said, walking back towards the shop
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"I'm looking for something," I said, walking in through the front door.
"Like what? Some useful information in a smashed crystal? Oh — or maybe a broken shelf," she said, sarcastically.
Suddenly, she got serious. "Or maybe their car!". I ignored her and started walking towards the back of the building towards the door. Just as I thought, they left the device they used to open the door. It was a little damaged, but it was better than nothing. I took it off the door and put it in my pocket, then started to walk towards the front.
"That's all you wanted?" she said, with a disappointed face.
"Yeah, it's something I haven't seen before." I handed it to her.
"Hmm, looks weird. It just looks like an oval, with a weird hole near the front," she said, looking at it.
"Yeah, but they used that to put a hole in the back door. It blew right through the lock."
"Really?" she said, with a confused face.
"Yeah."
"Never heard of a small device like that," she said
"Exactly. It's clearly a specially designed device, meaning it would have custom parts that could be traced to a specific place — or maybe even a person," I said as I put it back in my pocket.
"Whatever you say, you're the techy one"
"Yeah… let's just go home. Then, I can take it apart and see what I find," I said.
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired after all that," she said.
We hopped on my bike, drove back to the guild hall, and went straight to our rooms. It was pretty late, so I planned on looking at it tomorrow. I took off my gear, boots, shirt and pants, then hopped into bed and closed my eyes. A few minutes passed and my exhaustion completely disappeared.
My mind was overflowing with questions. Who was that figure? Who made that device? What is the police's role in all of this?
I looked over at the device on the table, then at the ceiling, and closed my eyes again. With a huff, I rolled out of bed and onto my feet.
I went over to my table and sat down. Strange —the chair felt cold. Oh, right. I remembered I was still in my underwear.
I threw on a pair of shorts and sat down again. I picked up the device and observed it. It was a silvery metallic color with a thin, oval shape. Both sides were flat. One side had a small button, while the other had a hole — except it was burnt and partially melted.
I didn't see any screws or openings of any sort — except for the burnt hole — so I started to feel around all the edges and sides for any discrepancies or notches. Eventually, I found a tiny ridge with my nail. I tried to fit it in the slot, but it was too thin.
I leaned over and grabbed my tool bag from under the table. I pulled out a thin flat screwdriver and fit it in the slot. After some prying, it soon split in two. Several parts fell out including a small orange shard, and a strange small flat metallic plate.
An eloq crystal? How? I've never seen them used for anything other than large generators. No one has created anything smaller that hasn't exploded or failed. The orange shard was clearly a fine-cut, fire-infused eloq crystal. which means this was professionally designed. In other words it clearly wasn't made in someone's basement or a some janky metal shop. The metallic plate was custom. It seems as if it was used to channel the crystal's energy to a fine point.
I could feel the energy flowing through it in small amounts. It must have amplified and transferred its power through the metal. That's a huge breakthrough. If this metal can channel eloq energy in a different way than directly extracting it, that would be a game changer.
The plate didn't have any markings or symbols. It was just a blank plate, but since it's custom someone should be able to trace it. I'd assume it was somewhere high end or perhaps a private underground corporation. With those idiots in custody, there's no way I'll be able to talk to them and get the information I need. This got me somewhere, at least. It gave me a place to start looking — or at least a range of places instead of blindly searching.
I started thinking of where to start, and possibly who would be able to help. I had some connections in the oasis and a few other black market areas. I think I'm going to start at the Oasis. There's a guy who I know that's even better with tech than me, I bet he could figure it out.
I continued to think of who might have designed it. I kept going down the list of companies in my mind. I faded into my thoughts. Before I knew it, I woke up with my face on the table and the sun shining in through my window.
I slowly got up and made my way to the bathroom to take a shower. Afterwards, I got dressed and made myself some breakfast. I put on my gear and made a small bag to take with me while I searched the Oasis for information. I made my way out of my room and down the halls to the front door.
"Heyyy, wait up!"
I turned to see Tessara running after me.
"You're not trying to leave without me again, are you?", she asked
"Uh… nope, not at all. I was just—" I paused for a moment trying to come up with an excuse. "I was — um — packing my bike so it was ready to go," I finally said with a bored face.
"You are such a bad liar," she said as she smiled.
"Only when you know I'm lying," I argued.
"So what's the plan today?" she said, glaring at me.
"Well, I took that device apart and found two unique features. For one, there's this plate," I handed it to her, "and this eloq crystal." I held it out in my hand.
"Wow, that's some serious machining! I've never seen an eloq crystal cut so precisely!"
She paused.
"Wait — is that even possible?" she said. "Wouldn't it explode or something?"
"No it's not. They usually aren't stable enough to cut," I replied. "Not only that, but this plate was able to transfer its energy. This is ground breaking technology. Which means this can't be a small operation, or if it is then they must have some pretty important contacts," I said.
"Ok, so where to?"
"The Oasis"
"The Oasis? You want to go there? Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I happen to have a contact there that I can use."
"If you say so. Let's go, then!"
We walked out the front door and made our way to my bike.
Typically, when going to places like this, I'd want to take two vehicles in case anything goes wrong, but Tessara doesn't have a vehicle. She claims she likes the exercise, which can be a little hard sometimes when we need to go long distances, because I can't always fit her and my gear.
Luckily, with small things like this (or things like last night), it's not an issue, but with some of the bigger jobs she persuaded me to get a sidecar for her.
We hopped on my bike once again and I drove us to the south side of the city. The most notable thing here is the outdoor market, which most refer to as the Oasis, because that's the only place down there you're ever gonna make a living. The only exception is if, by some miracle, you make it into one of the factories or a corporation.
If you didn't already assume, this is where the criminals and lowlifes like to hang out. That's the only other way you'd make a living down there. It's pretty damn dirty, too.
It's not exactly my place of choice for a morning stroll, but it's where I'm going to find the answers I need. We pulled up to the north entrance of the oasis. I parked my bike and checked the alarm sync.
A green light popped up on the screen of my wristech — all good. This means it'll alert me if someone so much as laid a finger on my bike. I also had a few other remote defense mechanisms, only if necessary of course. Let's just say the last person to try and steal my bike definitely didn't like the amount of voltage it put out.
I don't like to waste time here in the Oasis. Trouble could be around any corner. I knew exactly who to go to — arguably the best tech guy in the city.
We made our way through an arched entrance surrounded by small palm trees and sparking old neon signs. We took a set of stairs down under the main street. The grates above splintered rays of sunlight that glistened on metallic ground beneath us. It seemed crowded today. We could barely make our way through the sea of people.
We struggled through the crowd, moving closer to the center of the market. The ground here was a mix of browns from the dirt and sand, with most shops and stands having a similar color scheme. Dim flickering lights made up for the lack of sunlight due to the grates above us. Our destination was near the center of the Oasis, on the west side. Once we hit the center, the crowd became less of a sea and more like organized clusters of people.
Suddenly a group stepped in front of us. I don't have time for this.
"You in the mask", said the guy in front of the group as he lifted a metal bat head level at me. I just stared at him while the whole square stopped and stared at us. The guy had light skin and sharp features with tall spiky dark hair, a brown bomber jacket type coat with a grey shirt underneath, black jeans, and thick dark brown boots.
"You're the one who got our boy locked up", he slowly stepped towards me. If he takes another step towards me we're gonna have a problem.
"Yeah" said the other two behind him.
"And? Guarantee he deserved it"
"Don't act all high and mighty! You luminaries aren't any different from us. You do whatever the hell you want around here and expect us to just step aside!" he said, taking another step towards me.
He slowly turned to face the crowd before us. "You can't boss us around! We own th-" His sentence was abruptly ended by me turning him around and my hand grabbing his throat while slamming him to the ground. His bat flew out of his hand and clanged against the sandy metal street. He tried struggling, but it was frivolous against my grip. I lifted him up towards my face, my mask inches from his nose.
"The strong rule these streets, That's how the south side works. So since I'm clearly the strongest, I'm the one who owns these streets"I shoved him back to the ground and continued walking towards the shop. His buddies moved out of the way as we continued toward the shop. We stepped in front of the doorway and, right before I entered, I heard a small voice from below and to my right.
"Spare some credits, please? It's for my family," said a man in a soft voice, holding a cup out towards the crowd.
It's a shame that this stuff still occurs in cities today, but there's nothing I can do about it. The bell above the door rang as we entered, and I heard a voice from the back room say, "I'll be there in one second"
The shop was empty besides us, which was a bit surprising, but I guess it was almost the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. The walls were littered with weapons and gadgets of all sorts behind cages. He had a wide collection of gear, and could fix just about anything
I deactivated my mask and hooked it on my waist. A man walked through the doorway draped with plastic covers, carrying a box of parts. "So, what can I help you with tod-" he looked up at me, "Vera! Hey it's been a while since I've seen you! What brings you here to my shop today?"
"It's good to see you, too, Garry," I smiled. "I need your help with something." Garry was an older guy. I don't know his exact age, but he looked like he was about fifty. He had a long, gray beard which was usually singed because of all the welding he does. He had a dirty black and white plaid shirt, which he wore with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of holo-goggles on his forehead just below his spiky gray hair, and some jean overalls with boots.
I handed the plate over to him, and he put on his glasses.
"Hmm, what's this little doohickey?" he said, rubbing his beard. "This is an interesting piece of metal!"
I pulled the rest of the device parts out of my bag and set them on the counter.
"That came out of this device here. The group we apprehended last night used it to blow open the lock of a eloq factory. It uses an eloq crystal."
"Blow out a lock, you say? With an eloq crystal?" he asked, looking up at me. I nodded.
"Pretty remarkable, if I do say so myself. Well I'll say I've never seen anything quite like it — especially this small, eloq crystal energy is never direct like this, it has to be extracted. This is leaps in technology, unlike anything I've ever seen," he said.
"Buttt…" Tessara inquired.
"But," he smiled, "I think I can figure out the material this metal was made from. It's definitely not something I've ever seen."
"That's what I thought. It seems like it was used to channel the energy from the crystal to blow the lock in one precise blow", I said.
"Channel it, you say? Very interesting! Enchanting an item through energy extraction is one thing, but directly channeling the energy is a whole other thing. This might take some time to figure out. It sounds like a very unique material, I should be able to have an answer about what it is for you tomorrow. In other news, how have you been lately?"
"I've been pretty good."
"Getting into any more trouble lately?"
"Eh, no more than usual."
"Oh, is that so?" he said with a small laugh. "I see some things never change."
"Yeah, yeah whatever," I said with a smile, "We better be going, though. We have some other things to investigate."
"Oh, alright then. It's nice to see your face has grown as little as your personality." he said, laughing.
"Oh ,come on, I'm not that bad."
"Well, if the trouble you're getting into is still the same, then you mustn't have grown very much," he said, smiling.
"Whatever you say old man" I said with a smile. "Thank you for your help, and I'll see you tomorrow," I said as I made my way towards the door.
"Alright! See ya later, moonfizz!"
As I left, I saw him take all the parts and disappear into the back room.
"He's a pretty cool guy," said Tessara as we walked back out into the Oasis. "Why'd he call you moonfizz? Isn't that the nasty drink that tastes like flat blueberry soda?"
"Yeah, and I'm not sure why. He just started calling me that a few years ago and, no matter how much I told him not to do it he still does. So I guess I'm stuck with it."
"That's pretty funny! I should call you that!" she said, laughing.
"Don't even think about it," I snapped.
"You guys must be close if he calls you by a nickname."
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. I've been getting my gear from him for years, and he's gotten me out of a few sticky situations when I was younger." I sighed. "I owe him a lot. I guess I'm still trying to think of a way to pay him back for all the discounts and everything."
"Ah, don't sweat it! I'm sure you'll come up with something. You've always had a big heart, even if it doesn't seem like it." She said the last part in a quiet tone.
I shot a quick glare back at her. "What? I didn't say anything," she said quickly.
I looked forward, gave a small smile, then continued to walk towards my bike.