“And that’s a good thing?”
“So good,” she says reverently. “I’m terrified and in love and we’re in constant danger and all I want is more.” She lays a hand to my chest. “More fighting and more running and more food and more you.” She bites her lip. “Way, way more you.”
The light from the street reflects from her glasses, turning her eyes into twin mirrors. Her lips are barely parted as she pants like she’s already halfway to climax. God, I want her right now. Want to know more about what her body can do.
Strawberry hair feathers my face as I lean in for a quick kiss. Her tongue slips into my mouth and she lets out a little whimper. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” I whisper as we part.
“Oh, Sam. I–”
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
The voice, high and mocking, echoes down the alley.
From where? No one came in from the street. Above us? I turn full circle, power ready, searching as I curse myself for getting distracted. There’ll be time for all that later.
I keep scanning as worry worms into my chest. I can’t see anything. We’re the only ones in the alley.
Astra’s fingers are tight on my wrist. Her glasses turn opaque, then red, then multi-hued before she stops. “There,” she whispers urgently, pointing at a spot near the entrance.
“I don’t see anything.”
“He’s invisible, somehow. But I can see the heat of his body.”
“Oh, you can, can you? Well, isn’t that inconvenient?” The newcomer steps forward, his body melting into existence as he comes. He’s tugging off a ring from one of his fingers. “Have to get a refund for this bloody thing, don’t I?” He tsks. “Just don’t make magic rings like they used to.”
I step forward, getting between him and Astra. “Can I help you?”
The man looks me over and shows way too many teeth. He’s smaller than me, wearing some kind of Matrix wannabe black leather ensemble. He’s got two swords belted to his hips, curved scimitars that look plenty scary. His eyes are completely black and his hair is an unkempt black mop that hangs loosely at his shoulders.
I unconsciously turn my body so the healing potion is behind me. There’s a slight tug as Astra takes it from my belt, and I hear a soft bloop as she puts it inside her body.
Goddamn, she’s handy to have around.
When the Hot Topic reject finishes sizing us up, he sneers. “God, you’re hardly worth the effort.”
“Let’s pretend that I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, gripping my power tighter. “That way you can get to the point a little faster.” I’m not trying to antagonize, but everything about this guy screams trouble.
The thug yawns. “This area is my territory. You wanna do business here, snort Tide Pods, have a go at that lovely piece behind you, whatever. You just have to pay.”
Ah, a shakedown. “Not gonna happen.”
His eyes turn flinty. “Buddy, that’s the wrong answer.”
Astra steps around me, body almost vibrating with tension. “We don’t have any chips. We just got here.”
“Bullshit, girly. No one gets in Acheryx without chips. ‘Specially not newbs like you guys.”
“It’s true,” I say. “A friend snuck us in.”
“Oh? Maybe that friend has chips, then. Let’s all wait together, yeah?”
I have no idea what level this dude is, but I don’t’ think it’s very high. He doesn’t radiate the pure danger of someone like Havel, and his gear is shoddy.
I’m not trying to start fights, but I won’t be bullied, either. “Here’s a different idea. You leave right now and we don’t beat your ass.”
“I love it when little bitches like you say things like that.” He pulls his blades. “Makes it so much easier to justify what comes next.”
“Last chance,” I say. “Already killed a Corroc today. I don’t think you’ll give me much trouble.”
“A Corroc?” His eyes narrow. “The hell you did.”
I nudge the head where it rests in shadows. It plops over, spilling into the light with a little squelch and a spurt of fluid that smells like an outhouse.
The thug’s eyes dart to the head, then back to me. “You stole that.”
I sigh, raise my fists. “Only one way to find out.”
The fight is over almost as soon as it begins. The Neo wannabe lunges forward, hacking at us. I’ve never held a blade in my life but I can still tell that this dude has no clue what he’s doing. I step aside, dodging his attack easily before I seize him with my power.
“What the… How–”
I rip the swords from his hands and send them clattering down the alley before I release him. “There,” I say. “Still want to fight?”
“You… you fucks,” he spits. “Fine! You’ve got tricks? Well, you’re not the only one!” He reaches out, twisting his fingers in some kind of complex pattern.
The hair on my neck raises as tiny bolts of lightning crackle along his forearms. “Astra, get behind me!” I shout, forming my power into a barrier. I have no idea if it’ll stop bolts of electricity, but don’t have time to think of a better plan.
Astra is faster. Her arms slice down, turning to silver and reforming into a blade quicker than I can track. Her cut is a perfect downward stroke, whispering through the air like a guillotine that cuts through the thug’s wrists like butter.
He screams and falls flat on his ass as his lightning dies and his hands flop to the ground. His fingers curl as blood from his wrists fountains over the grey stones.
“Shit!” He’ll bring someone down on us shrieking like that. I slam a gag of air into his mouth, choking off the noise.
Astra stands over him, both arms blades, now. Her teeth are grit and her face is twisted with fury. She looks ready to finish the job.
I stop her with a hand to the shoulder. “He’s down. Let’s deal with him when the others–”
I don’t see what he does. Some final trick that lights the alley up like a flashbang grenade. My vision washes away in an ocean of white, and I stumble against the wall, losing my concentration on the gag.
The thug’s screams fill my ears, shrill over the roaring from his spell. I reach for Astra, find her on all fours nearby. Frantic, I claw for my power and barely catch enough of it to send feelers out. If he attacks when we’re like this…
But he’s not. He’s running away. He tries to get to his feet but fails and settles for an awkward shuffle crawl while holding the stumps of his wrists over his head. His cries die down as he rolls around the corner and dodges into the street.
My vision clears as the sound of pounding feet against hard stone replaces the thug’s sobbing. For an instant I’m afraid he’s brought friends until I realize that it’s coming from behind us.
The others. I struggle to my feet as scaled hands grip me and pull me up. I still can’t quite see; my eyes are bleary with tears and the world is still blindingly white.
“What happened?” Mika asks, supporting Astra as the AI stands.
“Attacked,” I mumble past numbs lips. “Tried to rob us.”
“You had other ideas,” Syl says dryly, kicking at a limp hand that lays on the ground like a slug.
“He ran. Street.”
Mika and Syl leave Astra and I to hold each other up as they dart to the end of the alley. Wick dances from foot to foot nearby, nearly pissing himself. “What the hell did you guys do?”
“Just defended ourselves,” Astra says. She seems worse off than me; a lot of her color’s lost, and one arm is melted into her body. The healing potions juts from her chest. “Sorry.”
“No way, nothing to apologize for.” I take the potion and it pulls rom her with a wet sucking noise. The space that’s left fills up like I’ve dumped silver water into a hole. “That was amazing.”
“Thanks,” she manages. Her body repairs itself quickly, taking shape and form and then color in the time it takes my eyes to readjust. “I think y
our tolerance for bullies is rubbing off on me.”
From the alley mouth Mika’s voice echoes with a curse. The two of them return to us, faces grim.
“He got away,” Mika says.
“Doesn’t matter,” I say, rubbing away the last of the crap in my eyes. “We’re not sticking around.”
“That’s not the bad news,” she says.
“What?”
“Obsidian,” Syl says. “Low level, but Mika could see his guild tag.”
“Oh shit,” Wick moans. “Oh, fuck balls, you guys are dead.” His body’s rigid, and this time, I don’t think we can keep him from running even with my bluff. “We gotta go. Hide. No, wait… Screw you guys, I have to–”
“Wick, Wick… Chill.” I get to one knee and take him by the shoulders. “Hold on a sec. We’ll figure this out.”
“No, no you won’t,” he says, pushing me away. “Obsidian are everywhere. They own like a third of the game. Players, resources, weapons… They own it all. If you piss them off, that’s it. You’re done in Lifestream.” His voice rises with each word, passing through several stages of panic.
“We should move,” Syl says. “We are attracting attention.”
“Wick, stick with me, man.” My mind races. I don’t regret standing up to that piece of shit, but making enemies of the biggest guild in the game?
Yeah. Our first day in Lifestream could have gone better.
“Where do we go?” Astra asks. “And shouldn’t we find a place to turn in our bounty?”
“Yeah.” I raise the Corroc head. “This is starting to stink. But we’ll have to do that later. We need a place to go, get info. Lay low. Figure out our next move.”
Mika kneels next to me and grasps one of Wick’s paws. “Do you know a place like that? We need help, Wick.” Her eyes are huge, begging as she pushes her chest out and leans toward him
Damn. For a girl who’d never had a boyfriend before all this, she sure knows how to crank up the charm.
Wick sighs but calms visibly. “Fucking… Sure. Yeah, whatever. I have a spot I lie low after I hustle someone. Follow close. We’ll take the back ways.”
He moves off down the alley. “Isn’t this a dead end?”
“Not many of those in Acheryx.” Wick raises a paw and pushes against a concrete wall. The area’s dark as hell, lost in the shadows thrown from the buildings that surround us. “Should be right about here.”
Syl squints. “How can you see back here?”
He taps his face. “Cat eyes. Got to pick that perk when I made this toon.”
“Toon?” She looks to Mika and I.
“Nerd shit,” I say.
Mika rolls her eyes. “Wick, hurry up. There’s a jerk in this alley I need to escape from.”
“Feeling’s mutual,” he grumbles. His paw triggers something with a sharp click. “There we go. This way.”
A section of wall folds inward and we duck through into a long tunnel that’s barely lit by a few flickering lightbulbs that hang on thin chains. The walls are metal and a sheen of moisture coats layers of deep copper rust. Splotches of blood and other fluids spatter the floor.
“Uh, Wick?” I reach into his chest and give the blob of Astra the slightest tug. “If you're leading us into some kind of trap…”
“Yeah, this looks like the opening scene from a Saw movie,” Mika says, eyeing the walls nervously.
“Hey, if not for the scissor sister over there, we’d be travelling the streets like normal people,” Wick says. “Not my fault you got all choppy.”
“Right, we should have just let the dude kill us.” I slap my forehead. “How did I not think of that?”
“Preferable to picking a fight with Obsidian,” he retorts. “And you didn’t even kill him! If you had, it at least would have taken a few hours for him to respawn and report to his guild. Now we have to tromp through this shit hole and…” He trails off as he disappears further down the tunnel.
We follow a bit back in some unspoken agreement that if a pit trap opens up or a blade erupts from the wall, he can be the sacrifice.
“You guys get what you went up there for?” I ask, stepping around a pile of what looks like intestines.
“Yeah, but not before he asked some very uncomfortable questions,” Mika laughs.
“What, like… How babies are made or something?”
“Close. Something about how three ‘fine bitches’ like us ended up with a normie like you.”
“Oh, God.” I pause. “Normie?”
“Don’t worry. Syl avenged your honor. She smacked him for disrespecting you,” she says, grinning, “just before she asked what a ‘fine bitch’ was.”
“Hah. Thanks for defending my honor.” I squint ahead. Wick’s barely visible in the shadows between two lights.
“We are clan. That is what I do.” Syl’s silent a moment. “Sam, do you think I am a ‘fine bitch’?”
I cough. Astra buries her face in her hands, chest heaving with laughter as I glare at Mika. I don’t’ know what she told Syl, but her smile is pure mischief. You’re on your own.
“I, ah… Don’t think I’d put it like that,” I say. “But yes. Definitely.”
Syl relaxes, lips curving in a satisfied smile. “Good.” She stretches and her scales throw back the dim light onto the walls in a thousand motes of color. “Physical attraction is not valued by my people, but I enjoy the way you look at me.”
“I’m glad,” I say, taking her hand. “Because I… we,” I amend when Mika pokes me, “are going to do a lot more looking when we’re done with all this.”
“Excellent,” Syl says, releasing my hand to fall behind us.
“She has a way with understatement, don’t ya think?” Mika lowers her voice, imitating Syl. “Clan Sam, if you are not very much inconvenienced, I would very much like to have a jolly good rollick with that fine dick. Please send my regards to your sister.”
“Why is Syl British all of a sudden?” Astra giggles.
“Indeed, most verily,” Mika continues, twirling an invisible moustache. “I should very much like to engage in coitus at your earliest convenience.”
“Bollocks!”
I shake my head, amazed that they can keep me smiling in a place like this. “You two are terrible.”
“If you all are done yapping back there, we need to move!” Wick calls back.
I roll my eyes and hustle to meet him. He looks me over, trying to maintain his facade of angry indifference and failing. “See what I mean, man? Like that. How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Them. You think I didn’t hear all that? They’re falling all over each other for you. You gotta give me some pointers.”
“Well, for one,” I say, frowning as we pass a door so caked with blood that it looks stuck shut, “calling them ‘fine bitches’ is a good way to spend the night alone with lube and Kleenex.”
“Yeah, yeah… Not helpful. You roped three hotties, and I gotta say, I’m having trouble with the why,” he says, looking me over.
I sigh. “You’re what? Fifteen?”
“Sixteen,” he says, drawing up like a puppet whose strings have been pulled. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Maybe wait a few more years until you get that concerned with getting busy, eh? I mean, girls like that are a little old for you, anyway.”
“Pff. No one in here knows that.” He runs his paws down his furry chest. “Ladies love cats. And you can’t tell my age by lookin’ at me.”
“No, you can tell that the second you open your mouth.” I give him a level look. “Wait, you chose this skin to pick up chicks?”
He grins. “Pussy gets pussy, am I right?”
I run a hand down my face. “There’s so much wrong with that. I can’t even.”
“Whatever. I’ll figure it out.” His confidence is weirdly adorable, which is bizarre considering the conversation we’ve just had.
Time for a subject change. I gesture at another door as we pa
ss. This one’s like a dungeon door from a fantasy movie, a massive wrought iron deal with a tiny window grate. “What’s this place used for, anyway? Aside from murdering, apparently.”
“Mostly murdering.” Whip slices his paw across his neck. “Other shady shit, too. Drug deals, sex trafficking, contraband. All the good shit that keeps the dirty masses happy.”
“This is all player run, I thought. How is there contraband? Illegal drugs? If people can do whatever they want…”
“Oh, there are cops. They’re mostly players, along with bots that they own. Also The Crimson Dawn, though they hardly come out of their skyship these days. But yeah, it didn’t take long after the city was founded for a lot regular, real life shit to work its way into the system. We’ve got everything from police to legalized prostitution. Even have office workers.” He shakes his head. “Can you imagine? Craziest videogame every created, and people wanna pay bills? Get jobs?”
“Makes a certain kind of sense,” Astra says as she catches up. “When I was trapped on the Citadel… When that was my entire life… Well, I craved the everyday things I remembered from Elise’s memories. Organizing a study. Finances. Grocery shopping.”
Mika nods. “Yeah, you gotta unplug sometimes. Not everyone wants to live a fantasy twenty-four-seven.”
“Some people do,” Wick says. “Whole guilds of people who talk like it’s ancient times. Lots of thees and thous. Or you got the people who cosplay anime characters, spending half their time yelling at the top of the lungs and dueling. They never break character. Never leave the game.” His nose wrinkles. “I haven’t been IRL in months. Nothing to go back to.” His voice is quiet.
“Sorry,” I say, because there’s nothing else I can. I lay a hand on his head, ruffling his fur.
“Eh, ehhh, none of that,” he says, ducking away. “I’m not a real cat, so don’t pet me.” He winks at Mika. “Unless you have tits like hers.”
Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure Page 27
