Chapter 5:

An Assassin and a Flame

The Artificial Lights of R'veno


Rei immediately ducked down, covering her head, wondering if it was the lights again. A power surge at this time? But what was that gunshot? It sounded like it had shattered the glass on the window… She reached for her own weapon, and tried to edge as silently as possible behind the table. No one had cried out, so perhaps no one had been hit? But…

A click sounded, and Calix was illuminated by the electric lighter in his hand, a cyan flame dancing in the night breeze that flowed through the broken window. Rei looked, and saw a man clutching Atlas tightly, a knife at her throat. He wore a black hood over his red hair, fire in his hazel eyes, a scowl lining his face,. A sniper rifle hanging off his back, still smelling of gunfire..

“What do you want?” Rei tried to raise her gun, but the man edged the blade a little closer against Atlas’s throat.

“Give me the map, and I’ll let the girl go.”

“Eh? Who sent you?” Rei scoffed, trying to give Atlas a reassuring glance. “You’re that assassin, Aries, right? Have your sniping skills gone down so much?”

“The lights went out, okay?” Aries growled. “Just give me the map, and no one gets hurt, and we can all have ourselves an easy night.”

“Just give him the map, Rei,” Calix said, a hint of a sigh in his voice. “We can figure out what to do later.”

“...did you take the bounty as well? Why not work together?” Rei wasn’t about to give up so easily, especially to this sniper in particular. She remembered on countless occasions him taking out targets which should have been hers, and once in a while seeing him in smoke-filled bars, trying to ignore the many girls surrounding him in the hazy lights.

“Maybe another time, missy!” Aries gave an exasperated laugh. “Now do you want to comply or not? This girl has some very valuable information in her head that I’m sure the underworld would hate to lose.”

“The drive for the map…is on the side…of the table,” Atlas managed.

“Tch.” Rei gave Aries a hard glare, the walked over to the table, giving it a hard tap, trying to get the screen to light up again. No response. She tapped several more times, then gave the surface a hard thwack, and the lights flickered on again weakly, the hologram barely visible in the room. She found the option to eject the drive with the file on it, and a few moments later the hologram dissipated and the drive popped out with a hard click.

“Here,” she said, tossing it at Aries. “Let her go.”

Aries caught it and let Atlas go with one smooth motion, then gave a quick salute before jumping out of the window the way he came. Rei and Calix exchanged glances, and then they both quickly bolted for the window, Rei leaping out first and Calix right behind her. They landed hard in the bushes but Rei quickly sprung up, spotting the tailend of Aries’s cloak down the street, as he made his escape on his own bike. She heard Calix let out a small groan behind her, probably due to his leg, so she tossed him the helmet and they mounted the bike.

Rei accelerated, trying to keep an eye on Aries, but he turned the bend. The lack of lights on this street made it hard to navigate, and she swerved to avoid some trash cans and trees and other vehicles parked on the curb. Turning the corner, however, the street lights were illuminated again, although dimly, so it must have just been Atlas’s street…

Was someone specifically targeting this area? Because Aries had meant to take them all out and take the map for himself, but someone had caused something of a power surge, foiling his plan. If it wasn’t Aries, then…

“You sure you don’t want the helmet?” Calix asked.

“No, I’ve got my eye on him.”

“I can shoot him.”

“For twenty thousand credits?”

“...yeah!”

She gave a small laugh. “Okay, maybe once we have a clear view of him. Did he go left or right?”

“Right again.”

“Sweet.” A blinking light on her bike handles told her that she should charge her bike soon. Just a little while longer… She floored the accelerator, and turned left down a small street. He was right ahead of her…

His bike was larger and bulkier than hers, but with the added weight of an extra person on her own, she figured that they were both about the same weight right now. If worse came to worst she could kick Calix off and boost her speed, but she didn’t have the hands or legs free for that right now, and besides, he might pull her with him. Karma always seemed to follow in these types of situations.

Aries turned left and was out of sight again, so Rei grit her teeth and tried to get the last bit of speed she could out of her dying bike. “Feel free to shoot whenever,” she said, making a wide swerve as they turned, nearly hitting the curb.

“You got it,” Calix replied, but before he could pull out his pistols, they saw that Aries had stopped, a row of headlights blocking off the end of the street.

“Everyone off your bikes, hands on your heads, helmets off,” said the man in front lazily, a long gun in his hands. A man with white hair and a fox mask…

“Oh, word, it’s Boston,” Calix muttered, pulling off Rei’s helmet and shaking his hair out. “This is not good.”

Rei checked her bike, but there was no energy left in it, so she dismounted, raising her hands under the pressure of the line of guns pointed on her. “Screw you,” she muttered as the men grabbed her arms, pulling out her weapon.

“This way, dear.” They pushed her and Calix towards Aries, and they all stood awkwardly together in a group, waiting to see what the Sunset Eyes would to do them. Shoot them on the spot? Or…

Boston put a hand inside Aries’s cloak, and pulled out the drive. “Thanks for this,” he said, and Rei thought she heard a grin in his voice. “Take them away!”

Was this night ever going to end?

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