Crew Mission (Part Two)

"Vi . . . or should I say, Iris?" Rash slowly said. “Do you know what I hate most about being a thief? Fulfilling the stereotypes. Everyone assumes that they can’t trust you. The thing is, they really can’t. You've been hiding too well. The Monarch’s been looking for someone just like you. I’m not dying in this hole. I’m getting out rich.”

Cly’s eyes widened, his hand reaching for his daggers, but there were three Prowlers. Three too many.

"Drop the bag," the middle one ordered her. "Now!"

Vi did as she was told, placing the small bag she held on the wet ground. Both she and Cly raised their hands in defeat. 

"Now would be a good time, Vi," Cly whispered through gritted teeth, moving his lips as little as possible. 

"I used up all of it back in the alleyway," she whispered back. Rash stood behind the three Prowlers, smiling broadly. 

"Nobody is worth trusting," a voice said in Vi´s head. "Nobody."

The figure in the middle stepped forward. He reached into his belt and removed a large hunting dagger. The Prowler approached, backlit by a lantern, the weapon held firmly in his hand. Vi instinctively tensed and squeezed her eyes shut, however, he dropped it to the floor in front of her. It hit the stone with a clang, its golden surface illuminating the water droplets around it. 

“Pick it up,” said the Prowler, in a deep male voice. 

She tensed slightly, looking up at the cloaked man.

“Pick up the dagger, Replicant.”

They had been lured in, made to find the Obsidian, and Rash betrayed them. Vi reached in to make sure she had no Tech left. Sure enough, it was not there. She groaned slightly and kneeled, her left hand twitching in the rain as it approached the strange golden blade. She paused.

"Pick it up!" he bellowed. 

Vi complied, grabbing the weapon at once. She felt a million voices in her head at the same time. Her eyes widened in shock as she started breathing heavily, reminded of the day she had held a similar weapon before. Six years ago. 

But then, she felt a sudden urge to fight. She had held enough weapons in her six years underground as a thief. An Obsidian one was no different to her eyes. Both were just as sharp. She could use it to fight back. Maybe take down a single Prowler, even if that meant she would die moments later herself. 

Her hands shook violently, but she did not dare drop the weapon. Interestingly, that was exactly what the Prowler seemed to have wanted. He waited quietly, his face hidden under the darkness of the hood. 

Nothing happened. 

A chill ran through the air as the Prowler, fixated on Vi, breathed out loudly. Then, he finally spoke in a deep predatory voice, turning around slowly. 

"Kill him. It´s not her."

In an instant, a second Prowler turned around and sliced his own Obsidian dagger through the air, slitting clean through Rash´s throat. His smile turned into a quick look of genuine horror as his head severed from his body and he collapsed, spraying blood on the floor. 

The scarlet liquid mixed with the rainwater. Rash´s eyes stared forward, sightless, his face scratched and bloody. He was dead.

Cly gasped and Vi averted her gaze from the bloodbath, still breathing heavily. In an instant, she rammed the dagger she held right into the Prowler´s foot. A painful shock traveled like a wave up her arm and throughout her body as the dagger collided against the stone, cutting clean through the man´s flesh. 

The Prowler screamed in pain, and the other two figures turned around in uncertainty and confusion. 

“Run!” she shouted.

They darted through the house, leaping over the scattered tech and papers. Cly flung open a window, and without hesitation, they both dove through, crashing into the street below on the other side. Vi rolled to her feet, gasping as the sharp pain of the landing shot up her side.

There were no footsteps to be heard from behind. Vi’s heart raced as she glanced back, and her breath caught in her throat. The Prowlers weren’t chasing them on foot. They hovered above the ground, using Arcane to leap long distances, closing the distance faster than she could imagine.

"Right, I forgot they could do that," Cly said half-jokingly. 

Two of the Prowlers were already on their tail. Vi ducked into a small alleyway as one threw his dagger in her direction. Cly followed. And they both ran until a wall loomed above them. 

Vi barely had time to react as the Prowler lunged. She raised her arms instinctively, blocking the strike with her left hand. The metal cut deep into her skin through her band, which snapped and fell away to the floor. The second Prowler cornered Cly as she held on helplessly, desperately reaching in again just to make sure. Her Tech was not there. 

Her voice breaking, she cried out "Help me . . . please."

Her voice loomed in the air for a moment. The Prowler moved to strike again but froze mid-attack, his eyes wide under the hood. But it wasn’t just fear. It was something else.

His head jerked, almost mechanically, as he turned to face his companion, who held his dagger against Cly´s throat, holding him against the wall. The Prowler left Vi lunged at his own ally, blade flashing as it found its mark in the chest of the second one. The victim’s eyes widened in disbelief before he crumpled to the floor.

“Vi . . . what?” Cly breathed, staring at her in shock, but Vi didn’t respond. Her heart was pounding, and her instincts were screaming at her to run. Her hand trembled as she turned. But as she took a step, something tugged at her.

For a second, she hesitated, unsure if she should leave it. Then she bent down, grabbing the torn band. Quickly, without another glance at the Prowlers or the chaos she had just caused, Vi turned and sprinted behind Cly.

Moments later, the third Prowler came to the scene, his breath ragged, only to find two lifeless bodies on the floor. His companions- both dead. One of them lay with his own blade buried in his chest.

He whispered something, his voice shaking with fury. Then he leaped in the air and continued the pursuit.

Vi and Cly were just ahead. They jumped over a fence, running through one narrow street after the other. They came to a halt just in front of the sector wall, a few steps away from safety. 

The third Prowler stood before them at the end of the alley, his shadow filling the ground. Vi´s instincts told her that running would not be useful either, let alone fighting against one herself.

They were trapped. 

Except, two figures stood on a rooftop in the near distance, blending in with the darkness of the night, watching them with great interest. 

"Are you sure about the girl?" one of them asked. The second one nodded. 

"I have reason to believe she´s one of your kind. Either way, they´re kids. We gotta help."

The first one smiled, throwing his hood over his head, his cloak covering the rest of his upper body. "Find out what happened back there," he said. "I´ll take care of the Prowler."

With that, he leaped off the rooftop swiftly into the night.