Chapter 20

"Fuck!"
Tristina walked silently alongside her human companion, her head bowed as she allowed the neck of her tunic to slide back into place.
"those marks, Trish...you said your father did that to you?" Tristina stopped when she realized that Jack had stopped walking. Turning, silver eyes met wet baby blue.
"your father..." Jack whispered, and Tristina could see the tears welling up in his eyes. Smiling sadly, Tristina placed her hand on his knitted shoulder.
"a man should never hit a woman. I've heard stories of men who beat their wives...fathers who abuse their...their daughters..." Jack's voice broke slightly as he shook his head.
"I've always vowed to beat a man who does that to a woman," Jack added, finally resuming walking as Tristina heard her walkie give an irritated crackle.

"If I ever meet your father, Trish..." Jack murmured, lowering his voice as he primed his shotgun.
The signature double click resounded through the empty metal halls as he stared at the barrel.
"It'll be his life if I'm armed."
Tristina gave a grateful smile as the securis door rattled open. The sheets of haphazardly welded metal and expertly build dock beams unfolded into another room.
Glancing at a set of cells like bars that made Tristina tremble, the wolf smiled as a familiar jingle reached her ears.
"There's a Gathers Garden nearby." Tristina announced, smiling as Jack grinned broadly
"How close?" Jack asked.
"Who sent you?" a raspy voice demanded as a sizzling tin can bounce between them. "Split!" Jack yelled, leaping away while Tristina simply kicked it.
"I know your ty-" the resulting explosion cut the splicer off mid-rant and simultaneously filled the air with a dusty gray smog.

"Tristina!" Jack called, vaulting back over the pier.
"Here!" Tristina called, and Jack rushed to her only to catch a box of bullets Tristina had tossed towards him.
"You okay?" Jack asked, his face relaxing as Tristina curled her fist and extended her thumb.
"The Gatherer's Garden is just over there," said Tristina, pointing into a large open platform.
"You sure you're okay, Trish?" said Jack, raising an eyebrow at the machine.
"that's a Gene bank. Not a..." Tristina rolled her eyes and pulled Jack around the metal pillar in the center of the platform.
"Oh." gasped Jack, as the familiar machine came into view. slinging his rifle onto his back finally (it clanked quietly against the tommy gun as he did so) Jack looked at Tristina, the wolf winked at him as she tapped her left ear knowingly.
"Never doubt canine hearing, Jack" she chuckled.

"Watch it!" Jack cried as a volley of bullets sprayed in their direction.
The wolf and human took cover behind the pillar as the bullets bounced indignantly off the metal beam. "I can't hack that turret AND check the Gatherer's Garden at the same time. They're a football field apart!" Jack cried over the noise. "I could blast it..." Tristina began, but Jack shook his head. "We need that turret. Fontaines Fisheries is just past it, and we need the cover."
Tristina frowned at Jack's feet, in thought.
"The structure of the machines down here is the same as topside, right?" Tristina asked, looking up at Jack. "It mainly relies on this liquid electric current that you have to redirect, but the rest is similar. Why?"
Tristina bit the inside of her cheek in thought.
"I have experience in disabling machines topside. I could disable the turret, then re-enable it when you caught up." Jack frowned.
"and how would you stop a splicer from shooting you out of the sky?" Tristina grinned mischievously.
"can YOU shoot what you can't see?"
"How..."
"Jack, is it too much to ask you to trust me?" Jack frowned and shifted his gaze to the Gatherer's Garden.
"Fine. On my word, start flying." Tristina nodded and crouched similarly to a runner starting a race.

"NOW!"
a bright flash engulfed Tristina's body as she streaked through the air. She focused on the turret, which was whirring and preparing another volley of bullets. Meanwhile, below, various shouts from splicers echoed around her, but their shots bounced off the surrounding tank like glass that encompassed the ceiling.

Slowing down by a fraction of a second, Tristina's fingers nimbly wrapped around a large red cable at the base of the turret as her ears caught the click of another round of bullets being loaded into the gun.
One swift flick of the wrist, a spark, and the red light atop the turret went black. Tristina held her breath as the belt attached to the motor slowed to a stop, and the muzzle and main chamber of the turret lowered in silent defeat.
"Way to go, Trish!" Jack whooped through Tristina's earpiece. Tristina exhaled in relief, then yipped as a shot from below her tore at her arm.
Crying out, Tristina ducked behind the pillar of junk that was the turret's platform as gunshots continued to ricochet off the opposing side.
"Trish!" Jack cried, and Tristina could hear his rifle firing in reply.
"Finish up at the Gatherer's Garden!" Tristina cried back into her walkie.
"I'll handle the flesh wound!"

Banking on Jack to handle himself, Tristina gritted her teeth as her forefinger and thumb claw plunged into the wound to extract the bullet.

As the familiar bolts of pain lanced up her shoulder and neck, Tristina's eyes watered as her breathing grew heavy.

With a yelp, Tristina ripped the bullet from her fur and panted in agony as the tiny metal fragment clattered to the metal below.

Sobbing, Tristina tore a sizable chunk from her skirt, shortening it to her calves, then hurriedly wrapped the scrap cloth around her wounded arm.
"Who's there?" a raspy voice called.
"shit" Tristina breathed, her left arm still throbbing from the pain of her sloppy bullet removal.

Rolling onto her left side, Tristina arched her neck to listen to the splicer draw closer to the pile.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Tristina cupped her right hand and willed a small ball to begin to form.

As it grew, Tristina tried to quiet her breathing as gunshots were heard, then crunching as someone climbed the pile.

"whoa, hold your fire, Trish! It's me!"
Tristina let the ki ball drop as Jack's dirty blonde hair popped over the pile.

Willing her heart to come back down from her throat, Tristina pushed herself to a sitting position as her now exposed calves brushed the metal floor.
"Got the turret fixed. How's your arm?" Jack asked, sliding down the junk pile as Tristina clambered to her feet.
"throbbing, but usable," said Tristina, brushing off her legs and remaining gown.
"Don't get too used to being a bullet sponge for me, okay Trish?" Jack asked as the two stood.
"It's going to take more than a mad seaman to take me down, Jack." Tristina smiled and winked to her friend as the two walked towards a bolted steel door in front of them.

passing a bloodied splicer slumped against a steel beam, Jack withdrew his wrench (which Tristina had privately wondered why he kept all this time) and hammered it against a blocked slot embedded in the steel door.

the slot opened, and a grimy welders mask appeared.

"Atlas radioed on ahead. s-saying you two were looking f-for a invite to the f-fisheries" a muffled, rough old man snarled from under the mask.

Tristina briefly wondered about the man's age when he continued "Nuts, I say. But if'n you heads up to the warfmasters office and gets Ol' Peach a research camera, MAYBE I could manage an invite."

Tristina opened her mouth to ask where the warfmasters office was when a sultry, female hum floated down from above them.

"My friends, you two are fucked." Peach said simply before slamming the slot door shut.