A pair of rats scuttled out from beneath a produce stall, its vendor stabbing a pipe at the ground behind them. Screws and a ball of cabbage bounced in front of her, landing into a puddle.
Sevika glanced down at her pants, flecked with mud, then at the merchant. He guiltily eyed the pipe in his hand and recoiled against a crate. Without a word, Sevika stepped past him and continued down the street, her gaze fixed straight ahead, unwavering.
Her steel-toed boots left deep imprints in the market ground. Her mere presence clearing a path before her. Metal clinked with each firm step. Her broad shoulders squared beneath a red poncho, the folds rippling with the rhythm of her movements. Copper accents glinted along her uniform, catching light as she passed, but it was her sheer physicality that dominated the street. Muscles shifted beneath her skin like steel cables, her powerful arms swinging at her sides.
She walks into the bar and grabs a seat at a wall side table. She sits back, eyeing the noise around her. The club was dank, buzzing with activity. A party at the end of a pool table shouted followed with the clinking of toasts. Finally, two men dressed in tailored clothing came up to the table.
"Silco's number two," the first said, extending his gloved hand. The second pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Let's get this started, shall we?" He looked at his partner, who nodded, giving an okay with his eyebrows as he took the empty seat. "The girl." Sevika waited. "She has to go." He said.
"Permanently." The second clarified. He pulled a case from his breast pocket. "We have the drugs to put her down." He said.
As the first salesman lit his pipe, Sevika remembered Jinx's episode—a heist gone wrong that left a dozen bystanders injured—Sevika clenched her jaw, the tension in the room palpable. She glanced at their eager faces, the glint of vengeance in their eyes, and felt the weight of their frustration pressing down on her like a leaden blanket. "Put her down?" she echoed, her voice low. "You don't understand the stakes here."
"We understand perfectly. She is just as much trouble for you as she is for business." He shifted forwards. "Take care of it." He slid the case across the table. Sevika threw her arm over the table and stood up pushing the chair behind her.
The flashing façade of the Last Drop cast a yellow glow on the rain-soaked ground. She adjusted the mechanics in her arm the and leaned against the sign, hunching as she pulled out a lighter. With her head blocking the rain, she lit the cigar in her teeth. Sevika took a deep inhale, her prosthetic arm locking into position…
"Put her down huh?" Sevika asked herself. She shook her head and laughed. Stashing the lighter away. She puffed, exhaling through her nose.
"And then Silco loses his shit." She said.
