Either there were a lot of people in this stupidly shiny city who liked to wear suits and sunglasses, or I was being poorly followed. In one hour, I had seen about twenty of these guys, and all of them would look right at me. I also noticed that the general populace would either be glaring at me or running to the other side to avoid me.
Deciding to figure out if these creeps were following me, I focused, diving into my inner self and received a wave of boredom, hatred, annoyance, and a little bit of disgust from the guys that were walking the same direction as me. I bit back a laugh, Definitely following me, the Empress of Annoying the Cops.
Rolling my eyes, I ducked into a small road and quickly found the restaurant that Tanner had told me to look for. I calmly walked down the stairs, and sat down right in front of the bartender. Before he could talk, I slid Giant Ushi Oni across the counter, "I'd like some milk."
He did a double take, and then gave me a glass, "Do you want anything else?"
I nodded, "A friend of mine asked me to check in on his friend Blister. Do you know where I can find him?"
Both eyes looked over my shoulder as he quietly responded, "Do you know those guys?"
"They in suits?"
A single nod told me everything I needed to know, "They've been following me for over an hour."
He motioned to the door, "I'm sure you'll meet Blister soon."
Downing my drink in one go, I nodded back to him, "Thank you."
Sliding the glass back over to him, I walked out of the bar only to keep walking down the small street. Their footsteps were fairly loud behind me, but my ears also were picking up something else; the engine of a runner.
So, from what that bartender is saying, this Blister must be on his way to me. Hope he has a way to get me off the radar, because I don't have ANY of my normal tech.
A runner crashed down next to me with no warning.
My stalkers started rushing forward, but only got a couple steps towards me before an arm wrapped around me, yanking me over the seat.
The person who grabbed me drove rapidly through the streets while pointing a laser at the mark on my face, "Does this neutralize my tracker?"
He grunted, "Yes, now keep still."
Trying to stay still on a runner is a true test of anyone's skill, but I'll give it my best shot.
After a long and bumpy ride, my ribs were grateful that we arrived at his hideout. I popped my back as he took off his helmet, "Tanner said that you could help me out with a not-so-legal task I want to get done."
Blister lazily waved for me to follow him, and we arrived in a room with a couple computers set up, "What exactly do you need help with?"
Flopping down on a nearby chair, I focused on keeping my voice low, "All I'm going to tell you is that Security stole my runner from me and I need it back as soon as possible."
He nodded while booting up a computer, "Then it's a good thing for you that Tanner left all of his money with me when he was arrested. Normally I charge an arm and a leg for things like that."
I shrugged, "Thanks, I guess."
While he started working, I got up to stretch out all of my sore muscles (of which there were many). Mostly, I was just trying to keep moving to stop myself from dozing off.
I can't afford to fall asleep right now.
"Hey, Blister, do you have a spare computer? I need to check on something."
My question didn't even cause him to look up, "Yeah, there's one in the cupboard behind you. Should still have some battery power."
On top of the cupboard in question was a picture that caught my attention. Instead of doing my initial idea of looking up Goodwin, instead typing out: Blister duelist.
A few articles were worthless, but I finally found one that was an article from a few years ago:
Paired Dueling Team in Hospital After Accident in Duel
In a climatic duel, the rising champions Blister and Arrow were involved in a crash when their opponent's runner lost control. A piece of the opposing runner hit the pair's runner, sending them off the track into a nearby power plant. Neither is available for questions at this moment.
Update: Blister received minor injuries, while Arrow is undergoing treatment for 2nd degree burns.
He clearly isn't dueling anymore. For someone who used to be on the top to be openly breaking the law, he's been through some rough patches. In fact he seems to be bitter about something. It almost reminded me of...NO, I promised myself that I wouldn't think of that anymore.
With a few clicks, all record of my search was gone (unless he specifically looked for that), and I did a quick looksie at Director Goodwin's past. There was absolutely nothing besides his acts as Director. Shutting down the internet in frustration, I went back over to the picture that caught my attention.
As I picked it up, my hand brushed something on the back. Flipping it over, my eyes landed on a badly burned card.
This must be from their deck. It probably was in the fire that got his teammate.
A slam woke me up from my dreamless sleep. I looked up at him, "That's everything I need?"
The bang likely came from the large bag in front of me. His hand rested on top of it as he spoke, "Why do you need to get this runner back?"
Stretching as I got out of the chair I had fallen asleep in, I looked him directly in the eyes, "Because I left my friends defenseless back in Satellite. I need that runner to get back to them before they start worrying."
Blister bristled, "Why would you ever do that for some 'friends'?"
Gently pulling the bag out from under his hand, I stared even more intensely at him, "My friends are my family. We stick together through thick and thin. I came to remind someone of that, and now I am going home."
His eyes landed on the picture, "I used to feel that way, but I've learned better than to think like that."
Finally breaking eye contact, I swung the bag over my shoulder, "The fact that he rescued that card from the fire meant that he still cared about you, no matter what you thought."
My feet carried me out of the building before he reacted, hoping that my voice hadn't gone high again, and instead had stayed deep and masculine.
Even if Tanner trusts him, it's not safe to be a woman among criminals.
Entering a Sector Security building made me very nervous, but this was the only way for me to get my runner back, so I forced myself into my 'don't notice me, I'm not important' walk. It worked on the coppers at home, so it should definitely work on the ones here.
To get up to Justice was a challenge. I had to follow the exact route that Blister set out for me, so that I wouldn't be caught on any cameras or alarm systems. And then I had to manually avoid the patrolling robots, It's almost like they don't want me taking it back from them. Imagine that.
Finally I found the right door, quickly typing in the code. Slipping inside, I pulled out the chip detector that Blister had left for me. I silently followed the signal to one of the crates on the left side. Smiling, I put away the machine just before bright lights destroyed my eyes.
It took a couple seconds to clear my vision, but I didn't need my eyes to recognize that laugh. I glared, "What do you want Trudge?"
He was almost yelling, "You do realize that breaking into Security's impound center is grounds for years in the Facility."
And? No one is going to keep me from my runner.
I shot forward and jumped over the edge of the crate, landing on the other side. I shoved the bag Blister gave me inside of my seat, glad that nothing had been moved. I sat on the runner and powered it up just in time to hear him telling me that Justice was offline. I scoffed, "Nothing is ever offline for me."
Revving the engine, I broke through the wall of the crate, just barely missing Trudge's head as I shot past him. All of the cronies that he brought with him scattered like litter in a storm, making it way too simple to get back out of the room and down the hallway.
Justice had only made it past a couple of other vaults before Trudge caught up to me.
He was still yelling, "Why would you risk your life to get such a piece of junk?"
Sighing, I braced myself for the duel that was sure to follow him.
A/N: Thanks to PipeDream and Let's-Go-To-Vermont for reviewing on the first version of this chapter!
