Ay! What's up? Here's a quick chapter 2.
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Lisa laughed and almost squealed in delight, which drew a few onlookers, customers of the caravans of contraband. Robbie was not quite so fooled; but he still asked eagerly, "can you juggle more than three?"
The woman laughed awkwardly, "maybe, it's been a long time." Robbie handed her two and Lisa the other two.
All the balls went into the air and Lisa stared entranced, with more than a few passersby pausing to watch, even a pair of Cleric. The woman had to dive more than once to catch a rogue ball and after five seconds they all fell to the ground. All three bent to pick them up as Robbie asked, "where did you learn to do that?"
"Oh I'm a connoisseur of dumb human tricks," the woman said good-naturedly, turning to find the purple ball and meeting John's boots instead.
She looked up at John, who held the purple ball in his hand, and stood.
"Did you see that Daddy?" Lisa asked excitedly.
"I did," John acknowledged.
"How did you learn that?" Robbie continued, insisting on an answer to his question. The woman turned to Robbie, handing him back the ball in her hand and shrugged.
"Copious amounts of spare time." She turned back to John.
"That's quite the skill," John said politely.
The woman laughed awkwardly, "not a skill, just a dumb trick I picked up. Are they yours?" she asked after a few seconds of silence, indicating Lisa and Robbie.
"Yes. I'm John," John extended his hand. The woman took it; but looked over his shoulder at a few of the people passing them by, causing a commotion.
John glanced over his shoulder. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" shouted a man who looked to be in his thirties. He was yelling at the pair of Cleric who had passed him. Those who had been watching the side show, turned to see the cause of the yelling.
"I asked you if you remember Helen Smith!" the man yelled. John tensed as his hand fell from their shake. This could go badly. The Cleric had stayed on as the cities' peacekeepers; but old memories died hard and there were many people who remembered what the Cleric had done during Prozium's reign.
One of the Cleric sighed and approached the man. "Now calm down sir."
"No!" yelled the man, pulling a gun from inside his jacket and turning it on the Cleric.
A woman from the crowd screamed and everyone started to scatter. John lunged for his children. He shoved Lisa's hand into Robbie and said, "Robbie, run, take your sister back to the house."
No arguments or back talking, Robbie's response was, "yes John." He tightened his grip around Lisa's hand and started to pull her away.
John turned back to the man with the gun and his hand drifted to the one that he always kept on his person. John started to run, but not away from the fight exactly, he ran so he could come at the man with the gun from behind. No shots had been fired yet and if he could restrain the man then they could avoid bloodshed.
The two clerics spotted him and recognized him immediately; after all, he was Cleric Jonathon Preston. The closer of the pair put his hand up and spoke soothingly, "sir, there's no need to hurt anyone. Why don't you put down the gun?"
The maniac with the gun, shot into the air and there was another wave of screaming. The densely populated stands had been abandoned and people were taking cover where ever they could.
"No! Did he put down the gun?" the maniac jerked the gun at the cleric standing farther away and John, out of the man's peripheral started to run straight at him. "No! He killed her!" The man was close to tears; but John was only six yards now and closing.
"He killed her, and now I'm going to kill you both!" John reached the man just as another shot went off. He looped his arms around the man's neck, scissoring his right wrist in the crook of his left elbow and started to pull.
It was a choke meant to cut off blood flow to the brain. After three seconds without blood his brain would shut down and he would go unconscious. In a high risk situation however, three seconds was practically an eternity.
The gun went off six times and John couldn't see where the shots went. The Clerics were arming up, running towards them, John saw them in flashes.
The mayhem was deafening, people running everywhere, screaming. And all the while John pulled, forcing his muscles to keep him latched onto the flailing man.
Just like John knew he would, the man crumpled, dropped his gun and started to paw at John's arms with his fingernails. Half a second more and the man was unconscious and John let go.
With a giant sigh he rocked backwards and put his head in his hands.