Roman was right as usual. Dust shop was only about a fifteen minute walk away. I could feel eyes fixed on us as we walked blatantly out in the open, heard every whisper and hushed curse. I could feel peoples fear. And in a way I liked it. The power a mere presence could have over people. "Here we are" Roman gestured at the building in front of us. I gestured for him to go ahead and he went sauntering in, closely followed by me and the new thugs. He approached the counter and tapped the ash from his cigar. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" I heard an electronic whirring and one of the thugs held his hand up to point something at the shop owner, a gun I assumed. The terror in the mans voice was clear. "Please, just take my lien and leave" Roman shushed him calmly, putting on an air of kindness "Calm down, we don't want your money" he turned to the new thugs "Grab the dust"
They set to work, grabbing crystals and filling tubes. I was still wondering how much dust our new employers needed, and what the hell they could be using it for. What could they possibly be planning. My thought track was abruptly cut off by a loud cry and something smashing. Roman gestured his head and one of our guys went to go look. "Something bad happen?" I questioned sarcastically. Roman sighed "This was meant to be easy" There was the sound of shattering glass as one of our guys apparently shot through a window. But what caught my senses was the person attacking him. Their aura was.......strong, very strong but not fully there. Almost like it was unfulfilled. I didn't have time to ponder it though, we all stepped outside and as I did I slammed my stick down to get a better look at our adversary. And I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows. I heard a metallic sound, like something activating, then the figure twirled their weapon and slammed it into the ground.
"Is that.......a little girl?"
"Ok....get her"
Roman sent the guys forward and the proceeded to get their collective asses handed to them. This chick darted all over the damn street, propelled around like a bullet.....actually that was the literal truth. The seemingly massive SCYTHE! that she was wielding, appeared to have a gun function as most weapons do, and she was uses it to blaze all over the place and lay our guys out in a matter of seconds. When it was all done she stood up to me and Roman.
He dropped his cigar and stamped it out "Well you guys were worth every cent, truly you were" I snickered at this as he continued. "Well red I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stay and chat, this is where we part ways" He lifted up his cane and their was a loud whistling, like a firework, followed by the sound of a small explosion. While the kid was distracted avoiding Roman's shot, me and him booked it towards the escape zone. Darting up a ladder as fast as possible to reach the roof of the building. When we got to the edge, Roman pulled out his scroll to contact Cinder about the need for a sooner pickup, then we heard another gunshot behind us, then a high pitched, child's voice call out to us. "Hey!"
I sighed "Well you can't say she's not persistent" Roman just groaned furiously "stall her, I'll make a call" I twirled my cane, "with pleasure" I walked towards my diminutive opponent. She was about as tall as Neo, maybe a little taller, but that's not surprising considering how small Neo is. I stood in front of her a few feet away and shrugged my shoulders. "Well?" I heard the blast from her weapon as she propelled herself towards me. I ducked the slash, rolling a few feet away and kipping up, back to my feet. I knew I was gonna enjoy this, this girl was no slouch I could already tell, but compared to sparing with Neo, it was gonna be good to school someone a little. She swung again and again, I only just avoided both strikes before jabbing her in the gut, causing her to stumble. I held up two fingers and gestured 'come get me'. She growled in frustration and launched upwards before swinging down. I sidestepped and kicked her in the head as she came down, sending her reeling back once again. "Don't take the loss to hard kid, you're good" My compliment seemed to only serve to piss her off.
She darted back and forth in a zig zag pattern towards me, faster then an eye could track I'll admit. But I didn't need eyes to see the swipe coming from my left. I jumped the swinging blade and struck her in the head with my cane. At this point I heard a loud engine powering up and a large gust of wind. I turned to see Roman and Cinders auras suspended in the air, inside the aircraft that I couldn't see. I turned back to the girl and gave her a two fingered salute before running and leaping into the open ship. As I did, Roman tossed a crystal of fire dust down at the girl "End of the line red" He fired a shot at the crystal, causing it to explode. But at the last second something diverted the explosion away. A new aura, and a strong one at that. "Huntress" I muttered through gritted teeth. Roman's woops of joy ended abruptly as he noticed what I was talking about. The new participant in our spiralling carnival of a getaway flexed their wrist and bolts of energy hurtled towards us, smashing repeatedly into the ship before me or Roman could even react. I almost toppled out the open entrance but Roman grabbed my cane just in time to drag me back in and towards the cockpit where Cinder sat. "We got a huntress" He informed her, and she immediately rose from her seat with Roman taking her place at the controls. "Think she can handle it?" I asked. "She better be able to or we're screwed" Roman spat through gritted teeth, jerking the controls in an attempt to pull away as quickly as possible.
I heard what sounded like thunder overhead and got a bad feeling as Roman looked up. "oh no" The ship rattled as something hard rained down over us. I grabbed hold of the other seat for support. "Things can never just be simple for us can they" I grumbled. Roman was still grunting, attempting to pull us out of whatever we were caught in. I looked back to see what Cinder was doing about our problem and was briefly surprised when her energy output swelled. I quickly realised this was due to dust infusions within her clothing. She fired a huge blast of flaming energy down at our tormenter. The huntress managed to dodge but Cinder seemed to have her trapped as the flaming symbols her flames left on the ground, which I feel the pulse of energy from, detonated. This huntress was obviously top class though, gathering all the remnants into some kind of giant projectile which she sent our way. Cinder retaliated with multiple blasts, trying to destroy the weapon but it kept reforming. Roman jerked the ship at an angle, with the projectile skidding across the top of our getaway. As the beams recoiled to attack us again, Cinder gave off a huge pulse of energy, which instantly disintegrated the tormenting shards. The young girl decided she wanted to try and help so attempted to fire at us. Kind of pathetic after what we just got through.
Cinder just held up her hand and blocked every shot with some kind of energy based shield. At this point Roman finally managed to steer us away and as the side door closed I could finally breath easy. "That didn't seem to go to plan" I remarked casually. I turned to Cinder, attempting to lighten the mood a tiny bit I gestured to my blank eyes. "Did I miss anything good" Cinder looked at me and I honestly took an instinctual step back with fear. Her eyes gleamed with energy but......like no kind I had ever felt before. Not dust or aura. She pushed past me, gently knocking my shoulder with hers as she returned to the cockpit. "Tough crowd" I muttered, trying to calm my shattered nerves after what I had just felt from her aura.
Those eyes. Like some kind of fire. But brighter......no not brighter.....more volatile then fire, or even the sun. I gulp and tried to shake off the feeling of dread as I joined the others up front.
"Wasn't exactly my fault sweetheart" Before Cinder could respond to Roman I chipped in.
"Yeah, we weren't exactly prepared for a ninja girl wielding a big ass techno farming tool"
Cinder pondered in thought for a moment. "Next move?" I broke the silence.
"We can't let this slow us down in any capacity. Continue acquiring more dust."
Roman sighed.
"Sure whatever you say" I could almost feel Cinders smirk (guess I'm used to that after spending so much time with Neo)
"Now now Roman" she lightly held up his chin with her finger. "Don't be like that...remember. You have everything to gain from our alliance"
The rest of the journey was mostly silence with a little talk about future plans. We eventually dropped Cinder off somewhere, she didn't specify why she needed to be there. After she got out and we were back in the air, I sat next to Roman. "Doesn't seem like she's big on sharing"
Roman snorted. "You can say that again" I leaned my head back in the chair. Only now being able to fully focus on the fact that I hated flying. From where I was sitting, Roman just looked like he was floating in mid air, and feeling the floor beneath me but not seeing it. You'd think I'd be used to that but high up is different, knowing there's so much between you and the ground. I broke the silence yet again. "What do we even have to gain from this? If all the dust is for her?"
"Its not for her" Roman said "Pretty sure its for whoever she's working for. Don't know who they are or why they need all this crap. Like you said she's not big on sharing"
"Why do this then? If there's no benefit for us?" I retorted.
Roman answered solemnly. "Because we have everything to lose because of these people"
"They're that bad?"
"Put it this way. If we weren't working for em, we'd probably be ashes by now"
I lay back in the chair, processing the insane idea that these people were enough to scare Roman, who never found a problem he couldn't cheat us out of. "Delightful" I sighed. Just ready to wait for whatever was next.