Chapter Thirty-Seven: Vagabonds

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It took her almost an hour to get herself wiggled over to the pile of her things in the copilot's chair of the shuttle. With her hands finally free, it took less than half that time to get herself cut free from Four's imposed bondage. She was just pulling on her vest when she could hear noises outside of the shuttle. Too much noise for it to be Four's return. Calypso coiled up within her and in her mind Seven could see her damaged alter ego's presence flaring out like the hood of a cobra preparing to strike.

"Looks like we hit the jackpot, boys!" came the boisterous cheering of group of men. "The others aren't going to be able to top this."

Seven positioned herself just inside the door of the shuttle, near to where she'd been tied up, and put her hands behind her back as the voice sounded off near the side of the shuttle. Calypso hissed, spitting venom through Seven's mind. A small group of men armed with guns came around to the back of the shuttle and peered inside the open doorway. There was laughs and licentious looks when they spied her, seemingly small and defenseless on the bench.

"Well now, we really did get lucky, didn't we?" one of the men, perhaps the leader, came up to her and took hold of her chin. "Who in the hell would be stupid enough to leave you out here all alone?"

Seven tried to look up at him and exude the weakness men like this were accustomed to seeing in their women, but didn't say anything as Calypso moved her hands to the dagger hilts just at the back edges of her hips. Two other men joined their leader in the shuttle, leaving only three more outside. Seven pulled her legs in close to her chest as the three inside with her closed in. Seven slowly slipped the lid off the mental basket. Calypso hissed softly and struck.

Her legs launched out, throwing the leader into the side of the shuttle, his head clunking against the metal as the viper whipped out her blades. She caught the nearest man in the shuttle in the side of the throat with one and threw the other into the eye of the first one outside to reach for his gun. Steady on her feet she snapped one out and cracked the last man in the shuttle in the temple and he crumpled down beside the man trying to keep from choking on his own blood. The last two men turned to flee, but Calypso pulled out her own gun with her now free hand and treated both cowards to a bullet in the back of the head.

Seven surfaced amidst the rage and carnage, barely forcing her insidious counterpart back into the depths of their mind. She retrieved her dagger from the man's eye, his body jerking as it was released from the nervous center, and the blade sliding out with a squelching noise. The smell of something foul radiated from him as she heard his body trying to evacuate its contents at the sudden pulse of movement. Bile rose up in her throat and she stood to survey the mayhem she'd unleashed.

She reflected for a moment over the horror of it, the idea that these men had families traipsed through her frontal lobe, but something cold pushed all of that out. Quickly she searched the men, looking for anything that would tell her where she was. For once she was in luck.

"Looks like I won't have to hunt you down this time," she hummed as she looked over the handheld comm device with messages leading her to the other group of men these poor wretches had mentioned. "Ready or not, here we come."

~O~o~O~

The men surrounded them. Four tested the strength of his bonds again and Akita-san eyed the group, ready to whip out his blade at the first hint of an attack.

"Ah, I hate to interrupt you two lovebirds but you fellas look lost," said the grungy man with a gun on his shoulder. "This is a bad place to get lost in."

"My name is Akita Masahida. I'm here fulfilling my duties as a royal officer to the Court of Ishida." He explained to the men, hoping to reason with them. "This man is a wanted criminal and I'm returning him to face justice. I request safe passage through your territory in the name of the Principality of Zairon."

The man looked only vaguely amused. "Well as self-appointed governor of this territory, I'm gonna have to respectfully deny your request for safe passage and ask that you hand over your valuables, for inspection."

"You will be compensated for your help."

"Oh, yeah?" Interested, but suspicious the man nodded. "How much you got?"

Akita-san gripped his sword loosely. "Nothing with me, but once I've delivered the prisoner –"

"Ahh, you will come back right?"

He nodded. "You have my word."

"You know what, I'd rather have those fancy boots you're wearing," The leader grinned back and seemed ready to demand something more, but a radio at his hip started buzzing.

"Boss, boss!" came the jumbled hysteria of another man over the hand held comm. "We've got a problem! There was this woman-"

The leader cursed and pulled the radio off his belt, holding it up so he could hear it more clearly. "What are you talking about? A problem, what woman?"

"She killed them," the man on the other side explain. "We found a shuttle and, ah man, she killed the others. Kicked me in the head, but I woke up and, oh god, they're all dead."

The guy broke down into tears and kept rambling over the radio while the leader tried to make sense of what he was saying. "What are you talking about? What woman?"

Four grinned, dark eyes shining maliciously as he bared his teeth. "Her."

Seven came around the edge of a hill near where the bandits themselves had surfaced. Blood coated one arm and had been splashed across the same side of her face from arterial spray. She'd pinned back her bangs somehow but the rest of her dark red hair flowed back in the wake of her fury. Wild and angry, Four could understand why they thought this woman could have so easily eclipsed him. She stalked toward him, ignoring the men surround Akita-san and himself.

The leader was having none of that however. He held up his hand and tried to intercept her, but before any of them could blink she raised the guns in her hands and took out the leader and the right hand man next to him. The others looked ready to open fire, but she ignored them and kept her blazing grey eyes on Four. Unsure of what she'd do when she reached him, he cut his bonds with the blade Akita-san had given him, but kept his hands behind his back. His old teacher made a move as if to try and intercept her, but she trained a gun on him next. He made no further movement so she didn't pull the trigger, but it was as though the tension in the glade had been thickened immeasurably as she stepped up to Four. In the boots she wore, she could nearly look him in the eye, but when she didn't immediately show him the business end of a weapon he knew it was Seven before him, not Calypso.

"You left me in the shuttle," she snarled.

He gave a small shrug. "I knew you would escape."

"You left me in the shuttle!" She accused him again, closing more of the distance between them.

"We have something more important to deal with at the moment," he spoke calmly, as one did to a crazy person. "Are you with me, Seven?"

She glared at him as if truly deciding what to do in that moment before raising the gun on her other side and shooting another one of the vagabonds. Four grinned as she flew in to action and did the same as Akita-san tossed him a blade. Some savage joy came with the feeling of his blade cutting through the miscreants, but it was over all too soon.

"Please, I have a wife, children!" The man at his feet begged.

"They can do better," and he punctuated the remark with a thrust of his sword.

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