The bike glided onto the desert with a clunk. One of the mirrors fell off. The back of the bike was a little melted, and his skin felt very, very warm. Corvayne watched the nuke fade, then he rode back to the mine.

Most of the miners had stopped partying and were piling into ore trucks to run from, well, the nuclear explosion that happened just a few miles off. Corvayne thought about having the worlds worst sunburn as he glided into town. He hoped Mosh could fix the damage inside and out, or he'd have a few painful weeks of digging tumors out of himself before everything was back to tip-top shape.

He rode back to the intersection near the smoking managers compound where Wick and Hari were waiting, both looking relived to see him. Wick hugged him then pulled her hand back from his skin, looking at him. “It feels like it's burning! Are you okay?” A pause. “How close WERE you when it went off?!”

“Oh, it started going off in my hand I think. I used my skills to slow it down.”

Wick stared at him. “Those bombs go off a hundred times faster then you blink!”

Corvayne shrugged. “I can sense the intent to attack. So I guessed it meant the bomb going off was imminent. I was correct.”

“Did you fucking [Flow-Like-Water] out of a NUCLEAR BLAST?!”

“No Wick. That's absurd. I could probably do that with a grenade though...”

Hari poked him. “No more stupid risks.” She said in Cascadian. He was pretty impressed with how fast she was learning a new language.

Wick laughed sadly. “Good luck Hari! He doesn't seem to get it.”

He smiled back at her. “I don't make any promises regarding dumb risks. Speaking of risks, are those two with shields still fighting?”

“The whip guy ran south. Aristo followed. They are driving some sort of souped up motorcycle.”

“I'll just have to bet ours is better. Hop on. We're going to try to catch up and get answers or at least more loot.”

Corvayne saw flashing lights ahead in the night and knew they were catching up to a fight in progress. He kept the vehicle about ten feet in the air so he wouldn't hit anyone on the ground. Ahead he could see flashes of overturned vehicles and heard series of pops where the guards were firing machine guns.

The energy whip user was on the back leg as arrogant man had broken his shields with enough pulse blasts. His partner was cutting down guards with her heated blade while also chopping through buggies. The whip user activated what was almost certainly a weapon ability, his weapon darting off to the side of their fight to wrap around the lone motorcycle. Corvayne watched the man yank the bike to land at his feet in the blink of an eye. He was impressed how fast the warrior spun and peeled out to try to flee.

The floating man put a hand on his forehead then shrugged, aimed his hands, and blasted his own bike knocking the whip user off it. Aristocrat then leisurely floated above the stunned man and did a barrage of kinetic bursts, blasting ruthlessly downwards as a thick cloud of grit lit by fires bubbled up. After a few dozen shots he stopped, barrier shimmering green at the grit boiling up from under him.

That had been the last of the turncoat guards. Which meant this whole mine incident had boiled down to Corvayne's friends and the pair in a circle of burning wreckage. With about forty feet seperating them, the floating man and his blade holding partner were staring at Corvayne.

“Ah! The spear commoner! Following us with transportation! How fortuitous.”

“I don't know if you'd define lucky like that. You did blow up the factory and then attack me. What else was I going to do?” Corvayne folded his arms. If things turned sour he had the induction on reverse, he could be flying backwards at a moments notice. “Still, I wanted to ask what was in the crate that everyone is losing their minds over.”

The snobbish man put a hand under his chin, overselling that he was thinking. “Hmm... I don't think you need to know.” He said with a smirk.

Corvayne felt a tap on his shoulder then saw Wick point for him to land. He shrugged and set the bike down. Wick hopped off and for some insane reason started walking closer to the floating figure. He held a hand up.

“That's close enough. If I need someone to start licking my boots, I'd ask.”

What a little shit. Talking to Wick like that... he was going to regret it. Especially since she seemed able to instantly pop shields. He was confused when Wick took her glasses off.

“Nyxion Augustus. The Third.” She folded her arms.

Nyxion looked over to his partner, who shrugged her shoulders. “Not to be rude...” Corvayne was pretty sure this Nyxion guy knew exactly how rude he was at a baseline. “Should I know you?”

“I'm a total stranger to you. We never met. Is your sister well?” Wick said.

He flew at Wick, stopping close enough to put a palm up to her face.

“What do you know you sullen eyed jackal?” His eyes narrowed. With the illumination of the circle of fire, he looked furious, his eyes catching the flames.

“I want to know if she made it.” She didn't waver, even when those pulse cannons on his arms would almost certainly break her neck fired point-blank like that.

Nyxion did not fire. Instead he lowered his hands and looked at Wick. The kind of look where a person squints a little as if that will squeeze a little more information out of what they are seeing. He then startled in recognition, a tiny hop, then underwent some sort of complex series of facial expressions that ended in contemplation. When he was thinking rather then sneering, Corvayne thought he looked like a real person.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“I know you.” He said finally. “She's alive... I owe you.”

“Nyx...” The alien woman looked between them, sword having gone from ready to strike to held at her side. Corvayne was glad someone else was just as lost as he was. The man held a hand out.

“What shall I call you?” Nyxion asked.

Corvayne had a hunch that Nyxion knew more then a little about what Wick's deal was. He certainly knew her before she was Wick, and had some idea why she changed her name. Creeping worry set in. It was one thing for both of them to be making moves on aliens. He didn't like thinking about her with other people, but he could deal with a little discomfort. It was an entirely different thing to suddenly have someone who knew her better show up. He felt intensly jealous the this floating man knew her in a way he didn't. A voice in his head asked if he shouldn't have gotten this bent out of shape over a nuclear weapon.

“My name is Wick. Just Wick. Are you going to float there all day Nyxion? We can give you a ride to their ship, assuming you got what you came for.”

Corvayne got annoyed. “Wait... we can?”

She held up a hand without looking at Corvayne, which pissed him off even more. What happened to partners? Enough that the man dropped to the ground.

“The container was an anomaly they pulled from ruins under the mines. One of my contacts informed me that he had swapped the manifest for the item and a box of ordinary rocks, giving me enough time to arrive and liberate the box before the 'mistake' was fixed.”

“What was it?”

“Spent. My right hand woman can detect the energy in such devices, and this one was totally spent.” Nyxion gestured and his tall alien helper pulled out what looked like a brass and emerald model of an atom. He took it from her, then turned and floated back to Wick with it. She looked surprised for a moment, a little gasp escaping her as she took it then gestured for Hari to look at it.

“I'm guessing it was spent before anyone picked it up. Don't ask me how I know.” Wick added as Hari cast investigate and held it out.

“Like uh... red stone. No reading. Don't trust.” She pushed it back to Wick, who took it.

Wick glanced at the elf. “The one Corvayne touched?”

Hari nodded.

“That tracks.” Wick said with a nod.

Corvayne turned the bike off and stood to watch the exchange from the side. Wick gestured at Nyxion. “

I should introduce you all to the exiled noble, would-be prince of the Collective, Nyxion.” She gestured to Hari and Corvayne. “These two are my consorts. Corvayne, and Hari.”

Corvayne noticed that Nyxion didn't laugh openly at his name, which he appreciated even if the man had to cover his mouth. The alien, however, started staring at him with laser eyes. He ignored her, though some part of him kept wanted to drag his eyes back. She might have reminded him a little of his two tall tormenters back in the Watcher village in build.

Hari folded her arms while locked on Nyxion. “Owe you for fight.”

“Can you call your little blonde one off? She seems to harbor a grudge from me knocking her out.”

“I probably couldn't. Maybe Corvayne could.”

Corvayne couldn't, because the alien woman had stepped up to him. Her skin was a deep purple blue at the moment. He tensed as she was staring at him with color shifting eyes in... wonder?

“What do you think of your own name? Isn't it core and vein?” She asked.

He could feel his eyebrow twitch. She said the obvious! Corvayne had thought that a million times! Why didn't he just introduce himself to Wick as 'Corey' or something?! Why wasn't he able? “Oh. I hate it. It's a dumb vampire name. But it also drives me up a wall when people make up nicknames. They just don't stick.”

Her reaction was to nod, then her face softened from her sort of glare into a smile. “I have finally met my equal.”

The praise helped him get some of the anger clouding his thoughts. Maybe the radiation cooked his brain a little. He tried to carry the respect this woman deserved when he spoke. “Well, I was going to say, if you ever want to spar with non-lethal weapons I'd be delighted, you were the best match I've had in ages. Most of the time I got stomped before I came here.”

She held a hand out. “I meant for names. I'm Lady Blood Claw.”

He shook her hand. It felt very very warm. “That's another vampire name. So your first name is Lady Blood...?” He couldn't stop it. He wanted to ask if her first name was 'Blood', but the Lady part just came to mind, and he was biting back saying 'Claw'.

“I have to say Lady Blood Claw. Any time someone thinks my name, it forces them to think Lady Blood Claw. You can say 'Miss Claw' or LBC or something and I'll know you're talking about or to me, but if I want to give someone my name I have to say it. Lady... Blood Claw...” She trailed off. Corvayne could hear Wick soothing Hari whom was making feral elf noises. The alien in front of him looked like she was lost.

Corvayne stepped back and waved a hand in front of her face. “Hey, uh, Lady, are you okay?”

“I'm just so happy someone else has a stupid vampire name!” She was beaming.

He looked away to his companions for help. Nyxion and Hari had brokered some sort of truce and the three of them had started to gather bags of ill gotten gains from the mines. He turned back to her. “You guys gotta get your stuff and catch that ship out of here, right?”

Lady Blood Claw looked back at them picking up the bags. “Securing the ship is more important then flying off on it.”

There was a whirring noise that punctuated her saying that. Corvayne stepped to the side and looked up.

A bright light lifted up past the next hill. It was a ship, rising off the ground, getting ready to punch through the atmosphere. Everyone else seemed to pick up on it and saw it a moment later. The woman's skin was turning a shade of green, then flush to red like a firetruck before back to a deep blue, putting her hand over her eyes.

Nyxion, on the other hand, kicked the sand, throwing a garbage bag of magical loot. “FUCKING COWARDS!”