Millie was a smart kid. At least that's what everyone told her. Smart enough to know that the safest place she could be right now is where she is now held tight by the infamous super soldier Hercules, even if she always thought that the name was stupid. I mean why not dumpling stealer or demon of the early bedtime? that would fit much more.

But nothing puts the fear of god into a small child than a homeless hobo beating their dad unconscious with an axe. After the strange man's sneak attack she promptly fell backward screaming very loudly, to which she saw the hobo freeze and turn remarkably pale.

He promptly strung together a series of curse words before fleeing faster than Millie could react through a backdoor in the room. It was all happening too fast for the young girl to properly understand what was going on but it didn't take long for the realisation to set in.

They had just been attacked by a stranger and sooner or later the shabby security of this god awful bar wasn't going to protect her or her father from the gang members from earlier. Now with her father unconscious there was nothing she could do. Fear set in, attempting to paralyze and weaken her but she was having none of it.

Through bated breath and shaky legs she stood up attempting to find a weapon or something to defend her father. It was her fault that she dragged him to get dumplings and he couldn't even fight back because of her either. Now they were both sitting ducks and it was all her fault, she only wished that she hadn't been so dumb.

Tears filled her eyes with how unfair it was, but her mind spurred her to keep moving. To find something anything to keep them both alive.

It didn't take long for the gang men to reach them. stepping over the remains of the wooden double doors. Malicious red eyes filled the vision of the poor child which could only look on in abject horror as the Leader stepped over the debris of ruined furniture. Unable to get a good look at her assailant before Millie saw with clear vision this woman wore a veritable armada of quartz weaponry that she was sure wasn't there before.

Standing in the entrance the masked lady cast a heavy shadow down on the small girl and her wounded father which was accentuated by the blood red jacket she donned complete with black jeans emblazoned with a large knifes edge. It took all the willpower that the 7 cycle old child didn't even know she possessed not to break down in tears over her stature.

"You come any closer and use this gun on you!" Millie screamed or more accurately squealed. The turret had long since been disabled by her father during his previous attempts to find the owner of the store, just in case it harmed her. Unfortunately she had no Idea how to enable it again and so figured that the easiest way was to just pretend that she did.

Her threat didn't seem to deter the masked leader In any way who slowly took another step forward. But before anything could be said a much larger man tapped the lady on the shoulder.

"Uhh boss, I've dealt with those kinda turrets before they can be a pain in the ass, want me to ask jimmy to hack it?" She heard a goon with a plain mask mutter to the leader who simply waved him off. Millie could almost feel the smirk forming under the red eyed gaze.

"there's no need for that" she spoke whilst lazily hip firing the sniper rifle. It cut clean through the turret almost taking Millie's arm along with it. "Those thing's weren't built for this kind of firepower" she finished now fully grinning under the mask.

Millie wanted to collapse in despair but could not bring herself to leave her fathers side even with shaky hands and trembling knees.

Oh her breathing was getting faster, she hadn't noticed that. Soon it began to hurt, then hurt quite a bit more. Her chest felt as though somebody had lit a fire under her heart and her skin tingled. 'I... need to help dad' Millie thought with increasing difficulty as her head began to spin.

Before long she had difficulty seeing and hearing, the last thing she remembered were the sounds of sirens before eventually embracing the darkness that came over her.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Palm had made a mistake.

After jumping around from the countertop he had realised that his so called assailant was a face he very much recognised. To top it off he was even holding a small child in the form of a young girl who had stared in horror as accidentally brained her father with the blunt end of an axe. He then promptly took off in search of a first aid kit which he could use to help her injured father, whilst Theda floated alongside him cackling with glee.

'Why didn't you finish the job?' she questioned him as he ran away 'Also are you five? you run like a little baby'

'ARE YOU CRAZY!?' He exclaimed closing in on his storeroom. Maybe if he found a first aid kit fast enough he would be able to beg for forgiveness. It didn't help that his shoulder wound was still leaking blood like a faucet. 'He had a child Theda and I can't be assaulting one of the most loved hero's of my time!'

The Spector smiled amusedly at his frantic searching before asking 'What would you have done if he were actually there to kill you then?, child or not you had to defend yourself.' The barkeep simply gritted his teeth and kept searching.

There it was, tucked behind the many mint condition guidebooks he had bought that still hadn't been opened. Investment was a game of wits and a mint condition guide for Dragon Bushido 8 was going to pay big dividends in the future. Or at least that's what Palm believes.

Opening up the bag revealed two general purpose healing stimulators for most injuries, a purifying agent for drunken blackouts and a radio for anything else, which at that point just dial the Apache healthcare system. It was unfortunate that that also happened to be the police so that was out of the question.

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After treating himself the barkeeper lay still in thought for a few moments. why had Hercules and his daughter entered his bar? for what purpose? Also the quartz gun that had cut through his shoulder was nowhere to be seen on their person. Were they being chased by somebody else?

'Your most likely correct' Theda interrupted.

"GAH-" Palm jumped seeing the horrible empty eyes floating right next to his own. Right the whole I can read your thoughts thing, rather scary.

'I resent that.' Theda replied 'We don't choose how we're born.' While that had sparked the barkeepers interest he had more pressing matters to attend to.

As much as he didn't like it he would most likely have to rely on police. Fortunately he had a contact who would deal with this for him without him having to go through too much hassle. After tuning the right frequency he took out an earpiece in the side of the device and slotted it into his ear.

Radio's were special, after all it was the only way to communicate to any planet in the sector, they used to have mobile devices back when his parents were young but it was difficult to spread satellites all over the galaxy. These unique radio waves though? much easier.

Riiing..Riiing..Riing..

"Hey Falcon" He spoke grimly "got a favour I need to ask. "

'Falcon as in the bird?' Theda inquired curiously

'Yes and shut up I need to focus' Palm remarked scathingly.

The voice on the other side of the earpiece bellowed as the sound of a raspy old man bellowed through, "IS THAT COCONUT?" Falcon exclaimed wheezing with laughter "What now another MUST INVEST opportunity?, did they have a sale on VINTAGE COLLECTABLES again?"

"I resent that" Palm whined "You know I was completely drunk when they had that sale I couldn't stop myself" Falcon was a police captain which had somehow found his bar among the many others and taken a liking to it due to it's quiet nature. He would often have his friends host parties there and play arcade games, though after finding out the barkeepers name he immediately gave him the worst nickname he could think of.

"From crashing your car into the local bookstore soon after?" Falcon questioned "I highly doubt that." to which Theda began to snicker behind her hand.

The barkeeper ran his palm through his hair in a blend of annoyance and exasperation, the day had really not been going well for him. "I already apologised for that, and I think I need help" He said "I got some thugs after me and they've already wrecked my shop, think you could help a brother out?"

"Oh but I love your bar, It's so high end and always has the best quality drinks" the policeman replied sarcastically.

After a few moments of silence he eventually sighed audibly. "Don't you worry your little head, I'll have my boys down in minutes."

"Thanks Falcon I appreciate it" Palm responded feeling relief for what might have been the first time that day.

"Don't mention it, we really do like your bar coconut can't have it in pieces, just gotta cut back on the obsession with retro games." Falcon replied chucking slightly "And stay safe you hear?"

"I got it" Palm said before fully dialling down the knob and setting down the earpiece. The injection from earlier had made it's way through his system while he was talking and his shoulder was looking as good as new, if not a little pink and sensitive. He quickly pocketed the second and rushed to get back to the father he had just knocked out.

The scene he found was not great to say the least.

As he made it back to the main room both father and daughter lay out cold on the ground whilst a veritable army of goons in masks lay lining the outside of his bar with two or three seemingly discussing something he was too far away to hear at the entrance.

Damn that was pretty bad, one thing he did notice however was the arsenal of quartz weaponry one of the gang members had strapped to her person. 'That must be who cut me before I could activate security' he thought, for all the good that did him. It didn't take long for him to be spotted as the walking weapon armoury suddenly had her arsenal pointed in his direction.

"Who are you?" The masked woman's voice rang out with cold authority.

"Eep-" Palm yelped shoving his hands up in the air dropping his axe immediately "Just the owner of the bar, I didn't see anything and I can go if you need me to." He was back to nervous sweating, honestly how much water can a human body even hold?

'Did you just say Eep?' questioned Theda looking at him incredulously 'I mean seriously where'd all that fight go?'

Whilst shaking her head she then hovered over to the red jacket wearing lady before closely inspecting the rifle trained on his head. After some slow scrutinizing she muttered 'Wait a minute I've seen these weapons before.'

'Interesting' Palm thought but also unimportant in the current moment

"Sorry kid can't have witnesses" she hollered, but before she could squeeze the trigger one of the masked men beside her whispered something in her ear. She nodded slowly before saying "Kid give us the combination to your safe and it's location and we'll let you go."

The situation somehow had gotten worse. Palm knew for a fact that they were not going to let him go and just wanted to rob him while they happened to be here.

Since most money stores in Checkmate ran through the banking agency held by the company Mercy it was a no go. Nobody wanted their money held by the people keeping them captive so safes and other methods of storing blinding bills were brought back into light. Nothing beats cold hard cash after all.

Now Palm would rather die than hand over his meagre savings but they didn't need to know that he just needed to buy time. "Of course anything you need" he scrambled with fear in his eyes "it should be in the storeroom near the back, I'll show you how to unlock it."

'Come on, don't just let them walk over you, don't be a coward' Theda goaded 'Your better than this aren't you?'

In all honesty Palm wished in that moment that he could be much braver than he actually was, he had been in constant fear of gangs since he step foot here and desperately wanted to change. But as things stood the smart move was to simply to show them the lock and hope Falcon got to him in time. Now wasn't the time for heroics.

Theda silently observed him as one of the goons walked up to him whilst grunting "Lead the way and make it quick." to which Palm simply nodded in agreement and turned to leave when the axe that he dropped earlier sprung towards slamming down on his nose sending masked man sending him keeling over on the floor, clutching his face in agony.

'PICK HIM UP NOW' Theda commanded to a bewildered Palm who hastily took the man by both of his arms and held him up who immediately attempted to throw him off, In response to this the animated axe held itself up to the gang members neck acting creating a hostage that now lay very still in the arms of a very confused and worried barkeeper.

"Oh for crying out loud" The masked woman muttered attempting to reposition her aim to quickly take down the now shaking owner of the bar.

But the situation had fallen out of her grasp to quickly, sirens had started sounding outside as police began closing in.

The woman looked around seemingly weighing her options before eventually giving a response, "We're leaving" she hissed venomously "but so help me god if you don't put down that man I will not hesitate to put a hole through both of you"

Unwilling to engage further he complied letting the gang member go. Upon being released both members turn and ran as fast as they could out of the establishment along with the rest of the group waiting outside leaving the hurricane empty in a matter of seconds.

'That was stupid' Theda remarked 'Shouldn't have let him go, she could of killed you as she left'

"Too much hassle" Palm replied shaking his head "Couldn't risk waiting around too long with law enforcement outside, and she would have shot me if I didn't"

'Wuss' Theda responded idly.