“Noah, you remember Bubbles, right?” I asked.
“I remember everything. Of course I do.” Noah said in a snarky tone.
“Right. Anyways, Bubbles is here on Zip too, apparently. And he’s found us. He’s asking for us to meet up.”
“I mean, it’s got to be a trap, right? Even though Bubbles is a nice guy, he’s still a mercenary.” Noah replied.
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. It’s the only reason I could think of why he wants to meet in person, anyways. Wait, hold on. I got another message from Bubbles.”
Wow. I didn’t expect you to agree that fast. Are you available tomorrow? It’d be nice if we could talk as soon as possible, but it’s pretty late out. Zip gets dangerous at night.
I quickly typed a response.
Yeah, we can do it tomorrow. I don’t have any jobs lined up yet, so I’m free.
Bubbles’s message came quickly.
Perfect. Also, bring Noah. Look, I get the gist of what happened. I promise you that I’m not after Noah. But what I want to talk about concerns him. I can’t say it over text because it’d leave a record, and some people are able to track these things.
Alright, then. Send the location and time tomorrow, we’ll be ready. But don’t try anything funny.
Won’t even dream of it. I’ll see you tomorrow, Saka.
“Okay, it might not be a trap.” I said. “But I haven’t been able to get a proper read on Bubbles, ever. Let’s stay careful.”
“What did he say?” Noah asked.
“Well, he said he had some important information that concerned you, Noah. So I don’t know if that’s actually true, or bait to make us actually show up. He wanted you specifically to come as well.”
“It’s probably worth going, I guess. But let’s be ready to get out fast if things go bad.” Noah said.
“I guess we’re trading in that moped, then.”
----------------------------------------
The next morning, Noah and I traded in our moped for a motorcycle, and waited for Bubbles to contact us.
Okay, I’m ready. I’m sending the coordinates now. See you there.
We immediately hopped onto our new motorcycle and rode there. I wanted to make this quick. If Bubbles found us, then others might’ve as well. I didn’t need more people chasing after Noah.
The location where Bubbles wanted to meet was on the outskirts of Zip. It wasn’t exactly the slums, but it wasn’t a good neighborhood either. We parked in front of an abandoned warehouse. Definitely a secretive place, but also easy to set up an ambush. I didn’t think Bubbles would recruit other people to attack us, though. If there was anyone surprise attacking us, it would be Tsu and Kara, the mercenaries that Bubbles worked with. He hadn’t mentioned them at all.
“Stay ready, Noah.” I said. “Bubbles chose a pretty suspicious spot.”
“I think you’re the one who should stay ready.” Noah replied. “People aren’t going to be shooting me, they’re going to be shooting you.”
Noah and I walked through the raggedy front doors of the abandoned warehouse, weapons drawn. Inside, most of the lights were out and dim, but we soon saw Bubbles sitting on a tipped over rack, waiting for us.
“You’re here.” Bubbles said, in his usual quiet and meek voice. “Thank you for coming.”
“You’re not pulling anything on us, are you?” I asked, keeping my gun drawn.
Bubbles raised his weird, lengthy arms. “The only weapon I have is my hand cannon. You can take it from me, if you want.”
“You know, you talk a lot more than before.” I said.
I strode over and took Bubbles’s hand cannon from its holster while Noah kept his rifle trained on him. I walked back to Noah to create some space.
“By the way, where are Tsu and Kara?” Noah asked. “They aren’t here?”
Bubbles hunched a little and cast his gaze downwards. “They died. On Maralu. The Haivu got them.”
“Damn. I’m sorry. They were good people.” I said.
“And they were good friends. But that’s not what I came to talk about.” Bubbles said. He straightened his back.
“I’m sure you’re aware of the bounty on Noah’s head. A collector has put that bounty on him. This collector wants another human to add to her collection. She’s paying a lot to get him. I know who the collector is, and I want to help you two out. We need to deal with her to get rid of the bounty.”
“And you yourself aren't interested in the bounty?” I asked. “Like you said, it’s a lot of money.”
Bubbles shook his head. “I’d rather die than work for her. My focus is on her, and not the bounty.”
“And who is this collector?” Noah asked.
“Her name is Yaro Rein. She’s the CEO of the company that makes tablets. The ones you and I use to check the news and communicate. She’s very very rich, and very very powerful. She has a grip on GU politics. Yaro collects rare creatures, sapient or not, and shows them off to her clients and coworkers at extravagant parties. She’s had humans before. I don’t know if she still has them now. But she’s after Noah, and is hiring mercenaries alongside the bounty.” Bubbles explained.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Shit!” I cursed.
I knew of Yaro Rein. Most people did. She owned several companies, and had a monopoly on the tablet industry. Pretty much everyone used the tablets her company made. She was a very bad enemy to have.
“How do you know all of this?” Noah asked. “Wouldn’t someone this high profile be hard to figure out?”
Bubbles sighed. “I knew her personally. As soon as I saw the videos, and the bounty, I knew it was her.”
“So you’re telling me that this is just a hunch? It could be some other rich dirtbag!” I said.
Bubbles shook his head. “It’s not a hunch. I know how she operates.”
“I’m going to need some proof before I go to war with one of the most influential people in the GU, Bubbles.” I demanded.
“Fine. It’s because I was a part of her collection for some time, okay?” Bubbles said, throwing up his hands.
“What do you mean?” Noah said. “You’re a human, too?”
Bubbles shook his head. “Humans aren’t the only illegal sapients running around. There’s a couple others, but they’re a lot more low profile. Most people don’t even know they exist. I’m one of them. I got caught by Yaro three decades ago, and was a part of her collection. She paraded me around at parties, showing me off to her guests, even ran a few demonstrations. I managed to escape after five years of being trapped in her prison. I tricked her into thinking I was dead, and made a new life as a mercenary.”
“There’s others? And you’re one of them?” I said, shocked. “That explains why you’re always wearing that suit. It’s for the same reason as Noah.”
Bubbles nodded.
“Wait, did you see humans in her collection?” Noah asked.
“I did. Twenty five years ago, though. I have no idea if they’re still alive, though. I don’t know how long humans live, especially in captivity. And I don’t know how old they were originally. But they were there. And if you aren’t careful, you’ll be there too.” Bubbles warned.
“Shit. What are we going to do, then?” I said.
“Like I said earlier, we need to end the bounty. And the quickest way to do that is to kill her. And I want to kill her.” Bubbles stated.
“You’re talking about killing a big deal CEO, right?” Noah said. “It won’t be easy.”
Bubbles sighed. “Yeah, I know. But it’s the only way. The bounty will stay up until she’s dead or Noah is captured. I’ve been running for years. I want to kill Yaro and free everyone that’s still in her collection. And I need allies to do that.”
Noah turned towards me. “What do you think, Saka? Should we do this?”
“I’m not sure. It’s a pretty big deal. But I don’t want to spend ages running, too. And hey, it might be an opportunity to find Earth. Yaro probably knows where Earth is, that’s where she’s been getting all of her humans.” I mused.
“There is a very high chance Yaro knows where the human home world is.” Bubbles answered. “She’s mainly the one who’s hiring all of those poachers. There’s a few copycats who want humans of their own, but most of it is Yaro. She even rents out her humans sometimes.”
“Okay, I guess we’re doing this, then.” I said. “Here.”
I handed Bubbles’s gun back to him. He put it back into his holster.
“So, what’s the plan?” Noah asked. “We’re dealing with one of the most powerful people in the GU.”
Bubbles shrugged. “I’m surprised I got this far. Let’s think of one together.”
Noah and I turned to face Bubbles simultaneously. Noah walked over to Bubbles.
“You had me thinking you were some kind of mastermind secret agent! You don’t even have a plan?” Noah complained.
Bubbles patted Noah’s shoulder. “Hey, calm down. I spent most of my time running away. Now we’re doing the opposite. It’ll take some time.”
“Fine.” Noah huffed. “It’s our best shot anyways. What are we doing now?”
“Well, I think we should leave this moon. We need to get close to the GU capital planet. Besides, if I managed to find you two, others could’ve too.” Bubbles said.
“Right.” I clapped my hands together. “Let’s go.”
In that moment, a bullet screamed past both Noah and I, and blew right through Bubbles’s head. His head made a disgusting squelching sound, and a reddish pink liquid flew out the back of his head. Bubbles immediately collapsed to the floor.
“Bubbles!” Noah screamed.
I tackled Noah and threw both of us behind a nearby rack, putting cover between us and where the bullet came from. Judging by the direction, it came from the front door of the abandoned warehouse.
“Oh, did I interrupt something?” A familiar voice boomed from where the bullet was fired. I peeked around the rack.
My father was standing there, brandishing a rifle with a smoking barrel. He grinned at me. He had two of his crew members standing behind him, also sporting toothy grins. There should’ve been more. They were probably surrounding this warehouse right now.
“Hey, daughter. I told you I’d be visiting soon. I guess you didn’t expect me to show up so soon, did you? If you were smart, you would’ve left as soon as I called you.”
I unholstered my hand cannon.
“I would’ve had to deal with you sooner or later. It looks like I’m doing it sooner.” I called back.
“Big talk for someone who’s hiding behind a rack. Why don’t you come out and put some actions behind your words?” My father boasted.
“Saka, what do we do?” Noah whispered to me. “Bubbles is dead, and we’re probably surrounded. How are we getting out?”
“Hell, I don’t know.” I whispered back. “Maybe we wait for my father to get overconfident and nab him? If we use him as a hostage we can get out.”
“I don’t like our chances, but we can try.” Noah said.
“I know you’re trying to think something up right now!” My father said. “It won’t work. This place is surrounded. Just hand over the prize money, daughter, and you’re good to go.”
I heard boots thudding against the floor as my father and his goons started strolling over to where our cover was. They were approaching. Our only chance was coming.
Once the footsteps got close enough, Noah and I jumped out from behind cover, raising our guns to fire.
“Decent plan, but not enough.” My father said.
His clawed hands wrestled my hand cannon down to the ground. I fired three shots directly into the floor, jerking both of our hands. My father’s mercenary goons grabbed Noah’s gun and pointed it to the ground as well.
“Well, you tri-”
Before my father could finish what he was saying, several shots rang out from behind him. Both of the mercenaries grabbing Noah, fell to the ground, blood spurting from their torsos. My father threw himself to the ground and scuttled behind cover.
I swiveled my head to see the source of the bullets. It was Bubbles, with a hole in his helmet, still clutching his smoking hand cannon.
“What the fuck?” I shouted. “I thought you died.”
“Now’s not the time to explain!” Bubbles shouted back. “Get behind cover, your daddy’s friends are going to come in at any second!”
Noah, Bubbles, and I repositioned to the back of the room. My father was hiding somewhere else, but he would reappear soon enough. As Bubbles had predicted, my father’s mercenary crew heard the commotion and began bursting through the front door.
We all started firing at the mercenaries that came through the door. We managed to drop some of them, but more of them managed to force themselves through. And there was no doubt that others were probably finding other entrances to encircle us.
“Shit!” Noah said. “Bubbles, do you know any ways to get out?”
“We can try to get out through one of the side entrances. Let me check how many goons we have in front of us!” Bubbles shouted.
Bubbles leaned his upper torso out of cover and peeked out at our shooters. Immediately, several bullets and beams embedded himself in him or passed through him. His suit was in tatters.
“Okay, we have ten in front of us. Your dad is shooting us, too. Let’s get out through the side.”
Noah and I stared at him in astonishment. “How are you shrugging off all of these bullets?” I asked.
“It’s how my body works.” Bubbles said.
I took a closer look at the holes in his body. The reddish pink liquid that dribbled out of him wasn’t blood. It was somewhat transparent and was pretty viscous. I carefully took a clawed finger and dipped it in his mystery liquid.
It was goopy and disgusting. And it felt slightly acidic. I felt a tingle in my claw tip.
“Hey, stop poking me!” Bubbles complained. “Let’s get out!”
Bubbles used himself as a distraction to draw more fire as I stuck close to Noah and ran for one of the doors that led outside. Several bullets passed through Bubbles once more, but he stayed standing and kept firing. Bubbles dropped a few more mercenaries, then hobbled over to us. Parts of his legs were missing.
We took cover once more, close to the door that led outside.
“Bubbles, you’re a slime?” Noah said.
“What’s a slime?” I said. The unfamiliar word rolled around in my mouth.
“A slime is a fantasy creature in some stories back on Earth. They’re basically made of goop and they kinda creep around the place to move. They sometimes bounce, though.” Noah explained. “In some stories they have a core, and that’s the only vulnerable part of them.”
“Well, that’s a huge coincidence!” Bubbles said. “My people are not called slimes, but that description fits us. I’m a goopy being with a core that’s crammed into a suit. I think I’m starting to leak, though.”
“Okay, that’s interesting, but we’re still going to die. Let’s fucking leave!” I shouted.
“Right.” Bubbles said. “I’ll lead the way.”
We charged through the door leading outside into the bright, welcoming light of the morning. That was the only welcoming thing there, though.
A wide variety of barrels were pointed straight at us. I clutched my hand cannon tightly. A half circle of mercenaries completely surrounded us.
“Well, you just fell right into our trap.” My father said, walking up through the door behind us. “I told you we had this place surrounded. You should’ve gone for me instead.”
“Now,” he continued, “this is your last chance. Hand the human over.”