He had not expected it to be so busy, not this late in the day. Last time He'd been on Adrondonus, the city had been virtually empty at this hour. He found Himself making His way back to His ship and He felt uneasy. He didn't like crowds. It was a lot harder to keep an eye out for thieves and bandits, or worse, than it was when the streets were empty. His next assignment had a very strict arrival deadline involved with it. He still felt confident Attulanta would be more than capable of making the deadline, but these always felt more demanding than a simple "payment upon delivery" assignment.
He kept His hood covering His forehead with the rest of His cloak shielding the detail of His body. Thankfully, plenty of other individuals were content to move in anonymity, shielding the details of their form with similar methods. He saw plenty of people going so far as to wear a thick veil over their face or something that covered everything but their eyes. He allowed Himself to indulge in feeling a little relief as He reached the sign that let Him know that He was only a few minutes further from getting to His ship and then getting off this planet. He looked over the busy sky lanes and watched as the Adrondonus' second sun descended beyond the horizon of the busy metropolis of Kandis.
She also happened to be on the same road. She hadn't thought She'd get into trouble this quickly after getting to Kandis, and yet, here She was, plowing through the crowds of people, pushing them aside when it was called for, trying to create as much distance between Her and the men chasing Her. It did not help that they had escalated to shouting, raising their angry voices as they tried to stop Her. All three of the very unhappy, angry men who wanted to get their hands on Her, hurt Her, and possibly even a few other things that were much too unpleasant for Her to think about.
Well, what was She expected to do when a customer decided to grope Her, especially when he didn't even have permission? Was She supposed to ignore it? Allow him to violate Her like She was some kind of animal? Just because some of the patrons forgot that it wasn't a petting zoo, it was actually a restaurant, one of varying degrees of reputability, yes, but not a petting zoo, nonetheless. And so, She had lurched away from him, said something mean to him, and then caused his right sleeve to be engulfed in flames after he'd got out of his seat and started moving toward Her.
It hadn't been incredibly reassuring, or helpful, when that evening's crowd seemed more inclined to watch than to interfere on Her behalf. And that was when the screaming started. People running and panicking, the accusations, and now... well, this was the fun part of it, right? She felt like it wouldn't be enough to get out of Kandis now. She needed to get completely off this planet. She still only had the clothes on Her back because the guy in charge had swindled Her into an arrangement where She got to live in the basement, but always ended up making less in tips and wages than it cost to sleep down there.
So, here She was, headed the only direction She felt might be promising, hoping that through sheer, dumb luck She might just find a way. She was panting now though, a sharp pain flaring up in Her right side from all the running and not breathing correctly, but She tried to keep up the pace as well as She could. She could hear the men behind her, closer, still yelling for Her to stop. Worst case, She could always find an open ship and try to stowaway as She had done to get here. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a simple escape in the cards this time.
These men were moving a lot faster than She'd expected, and now the crowd was thinning, so She decided to just settle for accosting someone at random to beg for help. She ran up to Him quickly, trying very hard not to create the impression He was being ambushed, but realizing that Her approach had been more than a little hasty, and probably surprising, despite Her efforts to the contrary. "I need your help," She said, Her voice pleading and desperate. She'd wrapped Her fingers around his wrist and tried to turn Him to face Her. "Please! They're probably going to kill me if they catch me!"
As He spun around to face her, his hood fell away, revealing green eyes and a chiseled face. She'd still managed to startle Him but He seemed to recover quickly. After a moment, seeing the look of urgency in Her eyes, He felt his stomach fall as He realized He wouldn't be able to ignore Her pleas. It was still a good five hundred meters to the port, and more than a minute after that to get to his ship. It took Him a moment, but once realization kicked in, He took Her hand and ran.
"Very well then. This way." He urged Her forward, his fingers wrapping around Her wrist this time, nearly dragging Her along behind Him as He moved a little faster than He'd been before. He spared a glance back the way She'd come to see at least three figures who were not wearing any cloaks, or showing any signs of recent bathing, who managed to be more than a head taller than everyone around them. Had they seen Her run into Him? He pulled Her out of the street into a small space protruding off the street, between the walls, their bodies forced together as they filled the cramped alcove.
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It was small enough not to be noticed, if they hadn't seen them duck into it. He risked a glance around the edge, peering out from the hiding place to try and see if they were still moving forward searching, or if they seemed to know exactly where to go to find them. He grimaced as He realized that the advantage of their height would be too much even if they hadn't seen them come in here.
He groaned a little as He realized, and dragged them both back onto the street, running all out this time to try to expand the distance between Her pursuers and their footsteps. She cried out in pain as She tried to keep up, functioning only on adrenaline and fear to keep Her legs and lungs moving. She saw something fall out of his cloak and bounce on the walkway. Immediately, it ignited and then sprayed a thick cloud of smoke in every direction. He didn't even look back, still running, hoping that the wall of artificial fog would be enough to throw them off the chase.
She cried out again, stumbling as the pain in Her abdomen now flared on both sides. He turned back to Her to use both hands to help Her up, letting Her lean on Him as She struggled to catch Her breath and keep moving. He huffed a hard breath from his nose and asked, "Are they angry or just drunk?"
She looked up at Him in surprise. "What? No, they're... well, yes, yes, I guess they're both!" She shook Her head. "Why?"
"If they're just angry, it's a little harder than if they are drunk and angry," He said. "The further from the ground you are, the harder your head hits the ground when you fall on it, especially if you're already incapacitated with alcohol."
Her eyes widened as She saw Him take a step back towards the fog while She stayed where He'd left her. Her hand reached toward Him like She should stop Him, but She hesitated, not sure what She should do now. He struggled to get his cloak off and throw it to the ground, letting the thin sticks slide out of his sleeves and into his hands, their leather lanyards looping around his wrists. He seemed to brace like He would be hit by an air car, which might not have been all that inaccurate. The three men eventually waded out of the fog into the clear air to find just Him standing there between them and their prey.
One of the men reached out to try to shove Him out of their path, but their hand never reached Him. Another, slightly more deft hand, lashed out to deflect the reaching arm away before His heel kicked out, breaking the unbalanced attacker's knee backward. Naturally, the man cried out in pain and collapsed onto the walkway, the new, foreign experience of receiving pain, rather than doling it out, writing its first chapter in His story. Before the man could try to find his bearings, the stick, in the hand of this man's first predator, stabbed into his neck. The jolt triggered an overwhelming nausea, not just pain, and all the drinks She'd served the man went all over the walkway, along with anything else that had still been roiling in his writhing belly.
The other two took a step back. Even in their inebriated state, they paused to try to wrap their heads around what they saw. Their simple minds now working to reconcile the evidence before them, which seemed to contradicted their original assumptions that none of them would ever not be the one making someone cry, beg, or suffer, in every situation they were ever party to. What was happening was impossible, but what they saw somehow didn't track with that impossibility.
As they snapped out of their brief stupor, the remaining predators looked back to Him, completely forgetting who they had been chasing just a few heartbeats before. Now these men just wanted to avenge their companion. Fortunately for Him, it was obvious their gait had been affected, which made them all the less threatening. He glared back at them as they rushed in His direction.
He turned to move out of the way, letting the second predator trip right over the outstretched leg and fly sprawling across the walkway. The other man was a little slower, swinging now to attack Him. His head moved out of the way, His back arching away from the man, just as their first collided with nothing but air. They stepped closer, trying to swing again as He ducked underneath it and kicked out towards them. His foot went hard into their abdomen, and they doubled over, falling forward on the ground.
The tripped attacker had managed to find their legs, moving to get back on their feet and try again. He made sure to bludgeon the second attacker with His sick sticks, filling their vision with stars and lights before their stomach also erupted all over the walkway. Then He spun to face the third man, who was now just blindly rushing at Him to try to bowl Him over. He moved out of the way just in time to let the man trip right over the first man, falling right on top of him.
He shook His head a little, almost doubting that what he saw was actually as ridiculous and pathetic as it looked through His eyes. He wondered and marveled at the possibility that a single person, let alone three different people, might possess so much brawn, but so little brain, and still manage to intimidate someone enough to send them both running. No one could really be this useless, could they?
He unclipped another device from His belt and tossed it in their direction. It opened into a small net, like the size used to trap a rodent, but as the tendrils stretched away from the center, like strands of spiderweb, it stretched out to reach each of the men on the ground, the barbed ends shooting out to embed themselves deeply in a different place on each attacker's flesh. They cried out again, flattening to the ground, their teeth chattering as their bodies surged with pulses of energy. The pulses came about every five to ten seconds, frequent enough to keep them from getting to their feet. He shook His head again, almost putting His face in His hands with disbelief, before he turned and took Her hand again, leading Her at a pace of perfect leisure in their original direction.
