The Golden hand

“Hurting them is ok, they are lowlifes after all.” If anyone other than herself was listening to her mutterings, that was news to Indigo’s ears. Someone made the mistake of murdering a few people down one of the rich streets of Birtan. Word traveled fast in the Wild Streets, and she’d learned that the killer was escaping in her direction. That made them a worthy target to take down. They’d have stuff to pillage once they’d turned into a corpse.

The shrieks of callan birds interrupted her thoughts. People in the Wild Streets knew those things were nobody’s friend. But Indigo still used them to make a reasonable alarm system. A few worms mashed up, and a couple drops of blood were guaranteed to attract at least a couple of them. If someone on the run stepped between them and their food, they went berserk every single time.

Indigo ran across the catwalk a few meters aboveground. She spotted her target. They had a glossy black helmet that concealed their identity, and a sweater-textured gray bodysuit that covered their whole body, with equally gray boots. Her target remained unhurt by the birds, but they still needed to run forward to avoid their relentless assault. Indigo returned to her starting position in parallel. She was confident that the higher ground would allow her to react quickly in case her target did anything out of the ordinary.

The person was skilled. They were careful to avoid the litter scattered around the floor of the tiny alleyway to not make noise. Their first and biggest mistake was in not avoiding the innocent-looking cardboard unfolded across the grime. Their leg fell inside a hole that reached up to their ankles. They tripped forward and their body slammed hard against the floor, face first.

Seeing her trap work, Indigo grabbed the bag of bricks that she’d set aside previously, and spun it with her whole body, releasing it in the runaway murderer’s direction. Most people died from the impact, it severely weakened others. Enough for her to finish them off with little effort. It was one thing she considered a constant in her life.

Constants in life, however, were a rarity. Something had easily deflected the bag of bricks that Indigo had prepared. It seemed to be some form of slime. It had a golden metallic hue to itself, and had taken the shape of a hand stretching out from the killer’s back. Closer inspection showed that it had anchored itself to the floor by extending slime “roots” from where the elbow of the golden arm would have been and towards the floor.

Indigo was surprised. Stil, she couldn’t let her emotions get the better of her. In the Wild Streets that meant allowing for the worst things imaginable to happen. Even against something as bizarre as what she was facing, the girl limited herself to biting both of her cheeks hard to focus, and bracing herself to enact one of her backup plans.

She focused on the hand. After it was done with defending the runaway, the hand seemed to melt. Most of it had vanished, revealing a hole of reddened white skin in the back of the sweater-textured one-piece bodysuit that the person was wearing. A small part of the golden liquid slithered downwards. It coiled itself around the ankle that had gotten caught in Indigo’s trap. Afterwards, it seemed to push them upwards, allowing them to stand up immediately, after which they turned to face Indigo.

“Screw you! You little... girl?” The technologically distorted voice rang in anger, then in surprise. Their features remained concealed from Indigo. With seemingly no damage done to their body so far. Their body language showed that they were ready to fight. So Indigo herself wordlessly prepared to retaliate.

The girl’s only hand-to-hand weapon was a screwdriver she had in her pocket. She held it in the middle of her knuckles so that the tip was facing forward. Indigo noted her advantages. The biggest one was that she was on higher ground. In a fight, she would have far more options than her opponent. At least that was what she thought.

It took a single leap propelled by the golden slime to get footing on the catwalk right in front of Indigo. They then switched to a fighting stance with both of their arms up, fists guarding the face, and one leg in front of the other. Whoever they were, they had formal combat training. Indigo knew as much because her dad had taught her that exact same fighting stance before he’d passed. But she could take advantage of the expectations of a normal fight.

Foreigners to the Wild Streets didn’t know that basically every building had a multi-level catwalk to the side. None of them knew these catwalks doubled as several flights of folding stairs at the same time either. Indigo kicked a small lever behind herself. As a result, the floor behind her enemy released itself downwards, with a set of stairs following suit, ready to hit them in the face.

Despite this, the golden hand took hold of the ledge right in front of Indigo, allowing the assailant to pull themselves towards the girl. They spread their right arm outward, readying a punch aimed towards the girl. But In doing so, they left themselves wide open.

Indigo’s fist sped straight with furious intent. The screwdriver that she’d placed in her left hand went straight through her opponent’s throat, stopping them in their tracks. Immediately after, she unleashed a front kick. The ball of her right foot collided with her opponent’s chest, and they fell several meters to the ground, hitting their back hard.

If they were alive, they wouldn’t be for much longer. The impact knocked them out. Indigo headed down the stairs, ready to take whatever possessions they had with themselves. However, the moment she set foot on the floor, an unexpected sound stopped her. It was the sound of clapping.

“My my, it does seem like a little birdy has done our job for us” The girl turned towards the voice. This time around, what she saw made her freeze in fear. A woman whose formerly black, straight hair was growing ever grayer, with fair features, almond, slanted eyes, and a straight posture that commanded respect. In front of Indigo, surrounded by callen birds, was the so-called Queen of Birds. She was the ruler of Birtan. The delegation Indigo and her family lived in.