Chtp 2
Cry nots; Fret lots
'Now here's an interesting crossroad. Help the girl, and possibly have a mind blowing adventure, or turn her in and make a mind blowing killing off the reward money'
"Please, you have to hide me. Anex Corp is after me." She pleaded with me.
'What? Anex is after HER? But she's like 14. Why her?' I thought. I looked out the door and saw that the hovercraft was coming back around.
"Uh-oh. Not good. All right come--"
"Hey bub, move it. I'm closing." The bartender shoved the girl and I out the door. She had rolled on the ground and the cloak opened towards the craft. As the searchlight crept along the ground, I acted against my better judgment. I pulled my pistol out and fired once at the light and again into the turbine. Whipping around, I ran forward and grabbed the girl. Tossing her over my shoulder I made a mad dash like a bat out of hell.
"Oh, thank you for saving me! You won't regret it. I promise," she yelled out as I ran.
"Don't worry. I already regret it." After I had ran about 200m, we slipped between two buildings and into the alley. Gun drawn, I peered around the corner. The hovercraft whirled and sputtered loudly, but out of sight.
"Don't you think the agents will be fine?" She showed honest concern for them, which caught me off guard.
"Yeah, sure. They're grown men. Everything will be—"
BLAM
A large explosion and flying debris confirmed my worst thoughts. Stepping out of the alleyway, we could see that the hovercraft had leveled a local building. Probably killing all of the occupants inside.
"Oh holy hell." I sighed out. The bounty head next to me fell to her knees weeping.
"I killed those people in there. All those lost souls. Why does this have to continue happening to me?"
"Um, no. I shot the ship. Remember?" I looked at her, but she never returned the look. She continued sobbing and glanced around. Fear seemed to fill her face instead of sorrow.
"What? Am I your angel of death now?" Anger painted my face because now there's probably a bounty out for me too.
"Well, looks like we're both fu…what?" Horror replaced fear of the girl's pale face. I reached my hand out to help her stand. "I..." Before I could finish, she bolted in the opposite direction.
"Monster!"
'Damn she runs fast...wait, monster?'
As I turned around, the shadow came round before the figure. A creature that seemed to walk right out of a nightmare stood before me. At least 9 feet tall and 3 feet wide, it's arms and legs were as big as trees. The massive three clawed hands clicked each other in anticipation. It's long anteater like head and 3 pairs of eyes starring me down. The tube mouth dripped with juices and blood, and a tongue appeared every now and again.
Raising its monstrous arms and head, it bellowed a death call for me, "GGRRAAHHH"
I managed to pop off a shot into its chest before being knocked senseless. The whole right arm connected with my body, launching me into a nearby wall. Barely able to move and even harder to breathe, my vision blurred and spun as the creature approached.
I could feel the earth pound beneath me as it moved in closer like a freight train. The creature picked me up with both hands and brought its face ever closer to mine. Its hot breath reeked of death and stink when the mouth opened. Moments before my head was placed into its gaping maw, a gunshot rang off. The creature screamed with pain right in my face and dropped me. The bounty was standing there, looking rather pissed.
'Did she have a gun the whole time?' She raised her arm firing again into its face.
'Yep. She did.' The monster stumbled back a bit then ran off into the shadows, screaming the whole way.
"Are you ok? I mean, are you hurt badly?" She came to my side and stared me in the face. I got a good look at her face that night. She was diffidently a beautiful girl. Maybe turning her in wasn't a good idea. I could probably…Nah. Standing wasn't going to be option at this point, so I leaned on the girl.
"Do… (huff) you still… (huff) need my…help?" I could barely talk, big surprise there. "I'll… (pant) take you… (pant) home with...me."
A look of confusion washed the fear and sorrow from her face. She stared me down for a good time before helping me stand up. We slowly limped away from the destruction that I had created. Let the proper authorities sort out the mayhem.
As we crawled away slowly, a heavy thud sounded behind us. The Drac'moth grabbed the girl from beside me and threw her into the first floor windows of a building. Screaming until her body crashed through the glass wall, I watched her helplessly before the creature turned on me. I stood straight up and pulled my combat knife from my side with my left hand. Not really knife-like, it looked more like a sword handle with a guard and a short 14-in blade sticking out. With the dagger in my left hand and the ion-gun in my right, the monster got down on all fours. I could see the holes and burn marks on its body from the guns. As the beast stared me down, I cocked the overdrive bottom on the pistol. 'This had better work. I've only fired it like this once before.'
From about 20ft away, the creature was on me in a split-second. Just from instinct, I fell on my back and the creature was passing over my body. Instantly I jabbed the knife into it's chest and slammed the gun into the lower jaw.
"BOOM BITCH!!" I pulled the trigger and the gun lit up. Its sides opened like flower petals, pulsing a blue light and whirled loudly before firing and vaporizing the things' head and most of the shoulders as well. The blast was loud enough to cause my ears to pop and to blow away the dirt entirely from underneath my head. The body of the dead Drac'moth fell on me and knocked the wind out of me. After a few wiggles, I pulled myself out and dragged my ass into the building the girl was in. Luckily she wasn't hurt to bad, out cold and cut up, but not hurt. I got her to wake up and headed to the house.
Somehow, I managed to punch in the correct numbers to get to my room. The door slid open and the lights were already on. I could hear the radio blaring about what just happened down town. Before the door even shut behind the bounty and me, Kevin was in view fully clothed and ready.
"Where the hell have you been wild man? Some lunatic ran off with an expensive bounty, destroyed a government hovercraft with 2 agents, do you hear me? 2 AGENTS! And blew an entire civilian complex to pieces. Oh, and get this, he even managed to kill a Drac'moth! Isn't that wild?!"
He looked up and saw how bloody I was with the bounty girl hanging off me. Kevin's blank stare was answered by the terminal kicking on with pictures of the bounty and myself.
His head went from the terminal, to me and the bounty, and back to the terminal.
"AHHH HA HA HA HA. You mean that you ran off with her and did all that good stuff. This is awesome! Ah hell! Now we get to have some real fun"
Kevin's enthusiasm was less then appreciated by me.
"Cut the shit, wise ass. We need help." I limped over to the couch and flopped down.
"I know. You just go to bed. I've got everything under control."
I turned to the bounty and told her to stay quite and sit on the couch. Hobbling to my room, I peeled my clothes off and passed out.
Kevin was running back and forth in the apartment talking aloud to himself. He looked down at his watch; it was close to 4:15 in the morning.
"I have to pack. We have to leave. I gotta call Abbie. I have to sell the room. I…"
Kevin looked to his right and noticed the bounty staring at him with big eyes.
"Can I help you?"
"My head hurts. And… Um…I'm sorta hungry." Her stomach growled loud enough for him to hear. He smiled, looked about, and laughed.
"Well of course. Here," he hurried to the kitchen and opened the fridge, "how about some…cheesecake?"
"That sounds great, but um, what's cheesecake?"
Kevin pulled it out and brought it to her.
"A dessert from Earth, duh. Its Shane's favorite, so don't eat all of it." He turned to finish his things.
"Oh, ok." She put a piece in her mouth. Instantly she had found her new love. "Oh, so, uh, where's Earth?"
Kevin stopped and his body went cold, even for him. At first he thought she had hit her head to hard.
'How could she not know about Earth?' He turned his head and found her staring right back.
"Um…it's a nearby moon."
"Oh, ok," she looked at her plate, "This is really good." She said with the fork in her hand, before she dropped it because of the blood on her hand.
Kevin went into the kitchen and retrieved a new fork and some napkins and handed it them to her.
"Thank you." She took another bite, "Yes, very good." She smiled at him and a trickle of blood ran down her face. He could see that the blood was red, but something was different about it.
'She's not human, is she? What is she then?'
Walking towards the videophone, Kevin dialed up Abbie. Sleepily she answered and Kevin told her to grab her gun and head over here. Telling her it was probably a better idea to leave Luna with a neighbor for now, she said she would. He hung the phone up and continued to watch the bounty. She was walking around the room in curiosity, studying the walls and furniture and eating cheesecake the entire time.
Kevin got another bright idea and lightly grabbed the bounty by her arm.
"Let's sit and talk about yourself."
Hours later, I awoke. The room was still dark, so at first I thought the suns hadn't risen yet. But I checked my watch and it read 10:30 in the morning. I looked around and noticed my clothes were hung in the closet. I hurt only faintly, but it all seemed just a dream.
'Was it real? Did that really happen last night?' Sitting up, I grabbed some pants and walked out the room shirtless. The radio was on playing some kind of music. The melody seemed as lost as I was. Kevin and Abbie were sitting on the couch next to each other. Abbie turned her head and cried out to me, "You're up early sunshine." My eyes landed on her like laser sights. "You're being bold this morning." I walked into the kitchen and saw the fridge was open with and Luna appeared to be scrounging in it.
"Hey Luna, watch…" I opened the door more, but Luna wasn't standing there. The bounty girl looked at me. I jumped back frightened, because I didn't expect to see her. Plus the only thing she was wearing, was one of my larger shirts with some socks, and had a spoon in her mouth.
Taking the spoon out of her mouth, she pointed it at me, "Hey, you're out of cheesecake, cookies, pudding, Jell-O, and milk. The 'frolong' taste nasty, so I threw it out and mustard is just plain gross."
"I-I-I. WHAT!? You ate ALL of my cheesecake?! KEVIN! WHY THE HELL BOUNTY DIGGING IN THE FRIDGE?"
I could hear Kevin and Abbie laughing to themselves. Both gave me a look of excitement and glee. One seemingly continuous smile stretched across the two like a white canyon. Abbie leaped out of her seat and bounded across the living room to me.
"She's a girl in peril and I know you know all about that. Plus, she needed a place to crash." I just stared at the dimwit in front of me. 'Is she being serious?' I thought. 'She can't be serious.' Turning, I saw the bounty girl had bottle of pickles in her hands. She cracked open the lid and then she dumped it into her mouth.
"MMMMM…MMMM… (gulp) Yeah. These taste good also." Her face was dripping with juice and other foods had been smeared across the cheerful face. At this, my jaw just about hit the ground. Giving Abbie a quick glance, she knew what I thought.
"Oh honey, no. Come on. Let's give you a shower. Now first off…" Abbie walked off with the girl and left the room alone to Kevin and myself.
Sitting down on the couch, Kevin stood up with a heavy sigh and opened a bottled drink. I rolled my eyes at his behavior; "We can't just keep her like a pet. We might have to protect her ya know?"
Kevin cocked one eyebrow from behind his bottle he drank.
"She is worth a hefty amount." I added. Putting his bottle down on the table he rested his hands on his hip and sighed.
"And so are you my friend. The cameras in the area caught you shooting the hovercraft out of the sky. Even you're clean getaway. And if I'm not mistaken, don't they auto-track those who commit crimes, in fact, they should be right here …now" We both sat in the emptiness; the only sounds were coming from the bathroom down the hall. We started laughing a bit and smiled at each other.
Shutting the bathroom door behind them, Abbie took control.
"First, take your clothes off." The girl gave her a strange look," Don't give me that look, just do it." Turning her back to the girl, she turned the water on and waited for the tub to fill.
"Ms. Abbie, must I take a bath again? I thought you only had to one once a day or two. Have you taken your bath today yet?" Abbie looked the strange girl up and down. 'Who does she think she is? Telling me, of all people, I need a bath, ha! What does she know?' Abbie then smelled herself "Ok. You win. I do need one." Looking about, she saw that there was a tub and a shower stall.
'Alrighty, little missy, hop in the tub. I got the stall." Walking over to the stall, Abbie removed her clothing. She set her clothes in a pile near the stall to be put back on. The bounty girl got out of her clothes and in the tub, terrified by the thought of being alone.
"Ms. Abbie?"
"Yes?" Abbie answered, shutting the stall door and turning the water on, she let the water pour down her body
"I use the shampoo first, right?" Abbie smiled a little.
"Yes, Sweetie, shampoo, then the conditioner." Abbie got the shampoo, put it in her hand and lathered her hair. She let the water run down her body, washing away soap and worries alike. Just as she was washing the conditioner out of her hair, Abbie heard the girl in the tub yell and a loud splashing noise
"What now, oh wise master, they will bust in and take control." I said aloud while Kevin walked towards his room muttering to himself. I had won this time.
"Hey, where's Luna at? Is she asleep on your bed?"
"Nah", Kevin said, "She's at one of the neighbors where Abbie used to live. She'll be safer there."
Kevin was just about to enter his room when a scream gave from down the hall. Both of us bolted down the hall, busting into the bathroom. Busting down the door opened the room up. The sight inside was both hilarious and arousing at the same time.
If I had to describe my emotions at that time it would probably be the same for Kevin: It would be confused, then slightly aroused.
The bounty girl was standing in the middle of the room naked, save for some bubbles covering her wet body. She was kinda dancing about holding her face.
"DAMN!" "Mother of God!" Both of us exclaimed at the same time.
Both of us were surprised by the nakedness of the girl. Plus, she had that kind of body that makes you instantly think dirty thoughts.
"AHHHH…MY EYES!" she was holding her face moving around.
Suddenly the stall door opened and Abbie looked pissed, "HEY! GET OUT OF HERE YOU PERVS!", she chucked a bottle at my face making contact. Kevin was laughing until she punched him in the nose. Kevin fell to the ground next to me. Slamming the door shut, Abbie's naked body was the last thing we saw. Looking at each other with grins, we got up and walked to the living room. Walking into the front room gave us both a nasty welcome.
Kevin and I were shot with an ion blast that paralyzed us both.
"SHANE QUINN OF EARTH. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF PUBLC AND GOVERNMENTAL PROPERTY, IGNORING FEERAL AGENTS, KILLING TWO FEDERAL AGENTS, AND AIDING THE WANTED CRIMINAL, TSAMI ONE"
A capture droid was standing into the room.
'Tsami One? Did he mean the bounty girl?"
The shiny hull was unscratched and free of abrasions, its metallic gun was outstretched in our direction and the net gun was already pointed at us. This one was one of the newer models I had seen before from previous missions. It turned it's big metal head and faced Kevin.
"ANZAN OF ME'TORA. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR AIDING THE CRIMINALS IN QUESTION AND THE DESURSION AND IGNORING ORDERS WHILE UNDER A FEDERAL CHAIN OF COMMAND."
Both of us ground our teeth as we tried to stand.
'Shit! How did the big ass thing get in here? Oh, this isn't going to end well. Oh no!' I thought,'Abbie and, the bounty, Tsami, are in trouble!'
After helping the hopeless girl, Abbie got back in the shower stall. She let the water flow down her body in an oblivious bliss. Her thoughts where purely on those concerning her future with Kevin and living together.
She decided to rewash her hair due to the unwanted barge in by the boys.
While lost in her thoughts, the girl started to ask questions.
"Ms. Abbie, I have a question to ask of you?'
"Shoot a way little missy."
"Oh, but Ms. Abbie, I do not wish to harm you. But if I must."
Abbie looked up in confusion. She could see the girl stand up out of the tub. Abbie's eyes glazed over at that comment. Her horrified glaze stared in astonishment as Tsami's right thigh opened and a pistol was produced. The girl opened the shower. She stood before Abbie naked. All Abbie could do was cower in the shower as the other pointed the loaded weapon at her.
"No, no, no. Sweetheart don't shoot me. You don't want to do that!" She curled into a ball for useless protection hoping Kevin or Shane would accidentally bust in again. Just before Abbie's life flashed before her eyes, two gunshots rang through the apartment. Through her tears, Abbie could see that the other's focus was else where
"A-am I dead." Abbie asked standing while shaking.
"No Ms. Abbie. The shot came from outside. And why did you ask me not to shot you?" The girl's confused eyes settled on Abbie. She saw that the girl truly didn't understand what she meant. She wiped the tears from her eyes, turned off the shower and stood up.
"It was a metaphor, now please help me see what's going on." The girls quickly and quietly put their clothes on and crept towards the door. Abbie opened the door, left it ajar, and peered into the hall. All that she could gather from the limited viewpoint was that Shane was on his knees. She looked to see if her Syn-Bow was in Shane's room.
"You, stay here. I'm going to get my rifle-thing and help the guys."
"Ms. Abbie, please don't leave me alone. They're here for me. I know it. Please, you'll get hurt too."
"Not if I can help it."
Abbie opened the door slamming it in a fury. She managed to push Tsami into the shower stall at the same time. Bolting down the hall, it all seemed in slow motion. The calls of Kevin and Shane not to do it, the hissing of paralyzing bolts as they passed her body and the roll into Shane's room a.k.a. 'The Armory'. Sliding on her knees, she now had her Syn-Bow in hand. It looked like a medieval crossbow only with batteries. Pieced together from other weapons, She and Shane had made it long ago. The thunderous pounding of metal on wood made what seemed the whole building shake. The droid busted the whole door jam and ceiling to pieces and commanded the room. Abbie stood grinning at the metallic monster. She cocked back the handle and fired into its visor. The machine lurched backwards into the hallway and the plasma bolt charred a hole into the ceiling. The metallic beast fell with a loud crash.
The bulky metal work stood erect with no problem and faced Abbie head on.
"Well, that didn't hurt it."
The robot raised its armed gun and fired upon Abbie.
"ABIGAIL CASTENZZI OF EARTH. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR THE ASSISTED ESCAPE OF THE FOLLOWING CRIMINALS:
SHANE HARVEY OF EARTH
ANZAN OF ME'TORA
T-SAMI PROTOTYPE ONE
YOU WILL-"
A multitude of bullet shots and ricochets sounded off from behind the droid.
The paralyzing shot was starting to ware off, just barley though. I had just managed to turn as Abbie ran down the hall. Kevin and I both looked in horror as she fearlessly ran at my room and dove inside. In two seconds, the robot had cleared us both and had ripped the walls down, exposing Abbie in the open. We heard a click then a ricochet of energy on metal. The droid fell to the ground with a thud and the ceiling started to smoke. Abbie stood wide eyed like a deer caught in headlights when the bot stood again. The flash of light and machine voice meant that Abbie had been caught to. Kevin was screaming his head off the whole time.
"ABBIE NO! DON'T SHOOT IT! IT'LL KILL YOU! ABBIE!'
I was on my knees thinking where's Tsami? 'Is she all right? Or is she caught also. IF she is…what will…'
Before my thoughts finished, Tsami emerged from the bathroom. Her eyes had completely gone white and her stare was bone chilling. She turned her head towards us, paused for a moment, and turned to the droid. Her left hand started to glow and form a flat bubble. At the same time, her left shoulder opened and a handle protruded out. She raised her right hand and pulled a white light saber from her body.
"ACTIVING BATLLE SYSTEM TSAMI-ONE:
Technologically Superior Android for Mechanized Infantry: Prototype 1
BEGIN THE BATTLE"
Before our very eyes, this confused little girl turned into the ultimate vigilante. A gun seamlessly appeared from her right leg and flowed into her left hand. Suddenly a maelstrom of bullets fired from the gun. Even though ricochets and sparks flew wildly off it, she continued her fearless death march. The great droid turned on a dime to face its new opponent only to have its left arm dropped of its body by a beam sword from her right. The bot took a step back fired the capture net at Tsami. She raised her left arm and a shield being generated from her hand vaporized the net. The helpless droid fired another net in an attempt to capture her. She glided out of the way like water, allowing the net to hurtle down the hall and snag myself in the process. Coming up on its undefended right side, she swung the beam sword hard and heavy. In an instant, the droid was cleaved in half; the only noises in the apartment were the electrical sparks and echo of a slice from hell. The heat and concussion blew Kevin and debris at me. His body collided with the wall next to me and pieces of board and shrapnel stuck all over the place. A fiery hole was left in the place where the android was.
"WHAT IN THE HOLY HELL WAS THAT?" I yelled at the top of my lungs, even though Kevin was only inches from my face. "Sorry. The past few events have me on the edge, ya know?"
Kevin didn't even look at me. His teary eyes were focused on the fiery hole only 35 feet from us, where Abbie and Tsami had been only seconds ago. I decided to try and cheer him up sorta, since both of us couldn't move. "I wouldn't worry about them, They got out. I hope." Kevin ignored me completely. His watery gaze was only on the flaming mass of timber, metal, and possibly, bodies.
"Kevin-"
"Shut up! Just shut up. She's not dead. She can't be dead. I love her to much for her to be dead."
Kevin struggled has hard as his body would allow. He stopped has sirens where sounded off in the distance.
Soon police, fire, and government bodies will be crawling all over the place. Looking for a cover up to hide our deaths. So before anything like that would happen, I wiggled my way out of the net and helped Kevin move some. Lifting Kevin up on my shoulders, he leaned on me and we hobbled away. Reaching the door out to the hallway, I kicked the door down. A loud whirling and smashing from behind us stopped us in our tracks. Looking over my shoulder, the top half of the droid was crawling out of the hellhole down the hall. The fire blasted body was shrapnel marked and half melted.
"Um, Kevin. We need to move faster. Now." Dropping Kevin to the ground, he yelled a bit as I dragged him out the door.
"It's still alive?" Kevin cried to me from under his cloak. I unholstered my pistol stepping over Kevin and entered the battlefield. The machine used its stub of a left limb and straightened itself up. It started to move its right arm, which wasn't going to be good.
"It would appear so." I aimed my gun at its head and unloaded a couple ion shots into the body. Most hit their mark, causing sparks to fly from the inside but nothing stopped the droid. Metal on metal screamed from the arms as it raised the net gun. It was almost like a shot from an old western movie. We both stood only feet from each other, guns drawn, fire consuming the room, and before I could try to blow the arm off, a shadow flew from out the flames. A white hot beam sword tore down through the ceiling and down through the droid. The metallic halves flew from each other. Rising up from her knees like a phoenix out the fire, Tsami stood there not even affected by the fire and had Abbie draped over her shoulders. The sword cut off and Tsami placed it into her left shoulder. She walked through the robot halves and approached me. When she reached me, she set Abbie down on the ground and looked into my eyes. The glazed look left her body and she collapsed on the ground next to Abbie. I stared at the two girls lying there, mainly because my brain couldn't process what just happened.
"Hey, uh, Kevin. Damn dude. Can you move yet?" Turning around, I could see Kevin stumbling towards me. "You gonna be ok man?"
"Yeah. That ion shot really messed with my interface to the body. It feels like I'm moving through some water." Waddling over to the girls, Kevin picked up Abbie and I got Tsami. When the siren noise got too loud, we left the room to burn both the evidence and some of our past.
A couple of hours later, all four of us were sitting around a campfire some miles outside the city. I was standing watch only inches from Tsami for her safety and mine. I had my back to the fire, so I peered over my shoulders every now and then. Kevin covered Abbie from the other side. The girls had some stew boiling in a pot that we had bought at a store. It was a mixture of "beef" and different vegetables. It started to smell very good and I was really hungry at that point. I kept peeking behind me to look at the food, but my vision usually drifted towards Tsami's butt or Abbie's cleavage. "Damn my penis. Stupid human thoughts"
Tsami stood up and walked towards me with two bowls of stew and handled me one. We sat down on one of the logs with the fire to our backs. A gun in one hand and the bowl in the other made me think for some reason.
"Here silly, let me help you. Just watch out there and I'll feed you." I just looked at Tsami with some confusion. "Why the hell not?" I thought. So the two of us spoon-fed each other the whole meal. I thought at first she was doing it to be nice, but as this went on, her motive seemed different. She got closer to me, getting more touchy-feely on me and ended up on my lap. At the end of the meal, Kevin and I set up the two black market cloaking tents to help hide and protect us. The original idea was boys in one tent and girls in the other, but Kevin and Abbie soon put that idea down the drain. So Tsami and I crawled into the tent and into the sleeping bag. Snuggling under the covers, the two across the way made it apparent what they were doing.
"OH MY GOD! Must they do that so loudly?" I throw the sleeping bag flip over my head in a useless attempt to block the noise out. Next to me, Tsami was laughing to herself and rubbing her leg on mine. I crossed my hands behind head and looked towards Tsami. She just stared back at me and rested her head on my chest.
"Shane?"
"Hmm?"
"Will you protect me like Kevin tries to protect Abbie?"
"Sure, that's what you asked me when we first met. So, why not." I brought my right hand around and placed it around her shoulders bringing her closer still. She glanced up at me quickly then fell asleep on me. I closed my eyes and thought of all the things that had helped of lately.
"Ok, let's go down the list. First, my bounty had been a girl, appearently a very important one. Which puts her in the "Lets Capture Her List" But Tsami's different somehow. I thought she was a human, but no. I think she might be an android. But androids don't eat or breathe. So is she or isn't she? Anyway. then the capture droid listed all sorts of things at Kevin. What was that he called him again? Anzan of where the hell he said. Well I'll ask him in the morning. But of course, I can't get this thought out of my head. Is Tsami a person or android… Or…or is she both? Ahh...no matter it may be, I have to do what I can. HUH? She's getting really cuddly. All right."
The tall building loomed in the shadows of forsaken skies and unpredictable weather. Highly elevated, the edifice of power had an onlooker peering through the top windows. His platinum hair seemed to fit perfectly on his chiseled features. Sharp eyes with purple backdrops scanned the horizon's clouded sky for unseen answers. The white business suite enhanced his bodily build even more. The man behind him sat at the table with drinks waiting. A servant appeared and broke the eerie calm.
"Mr. Loki, sir. You have a guest in the lobby. He says he's from a nearby star system with some information about the girl."
"That will be all for now. Send him up."
The servant left his masters and went about his business. The other at the table took a sip of wine and looked towards his partner. He too had platinum hair, but his face was different and eyes were green. His black suit was the same style as that of the window watcher.
"You know, Loki, if this guy really does know where she's at, then the search is over."
"Yes, I know. The search will be over, but the battle will still be on. We need to stay close to one another Tomi. And we need Tsami to do so."
Loki pulled a photo from the table that Tomi had been looking at. The picture had Tsami sitting on the ground watching the sky with a young man in front of her. He had his gun drawn at the picture and ready to fire.
"Tomi, ready the men. Find him with the info you'll get. He'll lead us to Tsami. Then kill the informer. Leave no trails."
Loki let the picture drop on the table and walked out of the room. Tomi grabbed the picture, checked his gun, and headed to the lobby to meet the next victim.