June crashed into the factory, chased down by the demolition harness and the harness hunters. Sasha stared after her, then hesitated. He turned. Behind him, Arelia sagged gently to the earth, eyes blank. She hugged her arms to her chest.

“They… they wouldn’t,” she whispered.

Sasha scoffed. “Didn’t you separate from them? Declare a coup? Did you really think they wouldn’t hurt you? You’re the one who took the initiative to become their enemy. You should have been prepared for the fallout before you did.”

“What do you know?” Arelia screamed. She charged at him, swinging wildly.

He sidestepped. Her blow missed by a mile. A faint trace of contempt flashed across his blank face. “I prepared before I left my… group. I’m not a fool.”

“You!” Screaming, she spun around.

This time, he shifted his stance and raised his hands.

Arelia hesitated. She ran past him and hit the wall instead. “Dammit! Why won’t he listen?”

“Has he ever listened to you?” Sasha asked. He stood straight again, vaguely disappointed.

She ignored him. “Maybe… maybe if I can see him in person. If I’m right in front of him, he can’t ignore me.”

Sasha nodded. “Yes, that should work.”

“No one asked you to be sarcastic,” Arelia snapped.

Confused, Sasha dropped to a crouch and shut his mouth. His brows furrowed.

Arelia pushed off the wall and crossed her arms. She’d decided. It didn’t matter what anyone else said. She had to try. Even if it was useless, she’d never forgive herself. “I’m going to talk to father. Don’t try to stop me.”

Sasha tilted his head. The furrow grew deeper. “Why would I?”

She scowled and turned away, hurrying into an adjacent alley.

Soft footsteps sounded behind her.

“You don’t have to follow me.”

“I want to,” he insisted.

This time, Arelia’s brows furrowed. “You… think I can get through to my father?”

Again, a flicker of confusion. He tilted his head, then deliberately un-tilted it. Dead-faced, he nodded. “Yes. That’s what I think.”

She frowned at him. After a moment, she shook her head and turned away. Waving dismissively, she rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Don’t get in my way.”

Sasha’s eyes flashed. Silently, he followed her.

It was still dark. The sun hid below the horizon, a faint glimmer teasing at its existence. Away from the bright headlights of the battle, the alley was nearly pitch. Only the faint red light of the second moon lit their way. A strange sound caught her attention, almost like running water. Arelia stumbled on a rock, cursed, and turned her flightsuit’s headlamp.

The alley lit up, revealing a man with a gun strapped to his back. Both hands were busy as he relieved himself on the wall. Arelia stared. The man stared back.

Sasha ran at the man just as Arelia screeched and jumped backward. She stepped on his foot and started to fall, and he, weighed down by her, one foot trapped, could only hunker and catch his balance.

The man let go and scrambled for his gun.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Sasha scrambled in the bandages. A blade appeared in his fingers, but with Arelia on his arm, he couldn’t throw. Desperate, Arelia threw out her hand and fired her taser. The electric blast bounced uselessly off the opposite wall.

Thump. The man’s eyes rolled up, and he fell to the earth.

Cherri lowered the pink-and-red bat, gasping for breath. Her eyes were wide and wild, but a determined light shone in them. Red lips quirking to the left, she took a moment to recover, then wiped her face and huffed out a breath. “Good kids like you shouldn’t loiter in dark alleys like this.”

Annoyed, Sasha pushed Arelia off him and stepped slightly away, arms crossed and lips pursed. “If she didn’t step on me, I could’ve handled it.”

Arelia recovered from her surprise and smiled at Cherri. “Thanks for helping us.”

“Not bad for a prostitute,” Cherri mumbled to herself, the pink cherries in her eyes glimmering with amusement.

Arelia flinched. After a moment, she recovered herself and nodded respectfully. “Why are you here?”

“We came to help. The Regis Group would’ve stamped us out long ago if it could. There’s no future for a bunch of freewheeling whores under his thumb. Those that could leave, left, but some of us can’t make it outside the Block.” She glanced over her shoulder.

Behind her, a group of men and women in revealing clothing nodded. White knuckles clenched around weapons. Eyes darted with every sound. Something fell over with a BOOM, and half the group jumped. Still, none of them hesitated.

“You can fight?” Arelia asked, startled. A prostitute? But they were only good for…

“If I couldn’t, I’d be halfway across the country with some lousy pimp—or worse, sucking Torre’s you-know-what in that tower right now,” Cherri said. She glanced back at her troupe. “I wanna know where all those years of protection money vanished to, am I right?”

The troupe let out a ragged cheer.

Cherri raised her bat high. “And if they won’t tell us, we’ll drag Torre out of his tower and beat it out of him!”

A louder cheer rose from the troupe at that.

Arelia nodded awkwardly. She stared at her feet and shifted. All at once, she pointed. “Well, the battle’s straight that way.”

“Mmm. So where are you two going?”

Arelia stiffened. Sasha glanced at Cherri and harrumphed. Neither spoke.

“Are you going to stop us?” Arelia asked, at last.

Cherri laughed. “You two keep getting this wrong. My specialty is letting people in, not keeping them out.”

Confused, Arelia blinked, then, abruptly, blushed. She hid her blush by darkening the visor of her harness, but Cherri still laughed.

Sasha simply stared at her, uncomprehending.

Cherri approached. Arelia flinched away, but Sasha glared, daring her to get close. She reached out and patted his silky hair. “Cute.”

Sasha glared and ducked away.

“When you get older…” The cherries in her eyes throbbed, and she licked her lips. “You know where to find me.”

Arelia staggered back, aghast.

Cherri winked, red-hot lips glistening in the low light. “You too, honey. Anytime.”

With Cherri at the lead, the men and women walked away. Arelia watched her go, eyes wide. She shivered. It was too much. Everyone always treated her with respect. Even June and the fighters, they saw her as Laredo’s daughter. They wouldn’t… do anything like that.

“Shameless,” she muttered.

When she turned back around, Sasha was almost out of sight around the corner. Arelia ran to catch up, suit clanking.

After their first encounter, they proceeded carefully. Sasha led the way, only gesturing for her to follow once he was sure there was no one ahead. Most of the alleys were empty, except for one, full of equipment and food supplies. Sasha moved to run around, but Arelia had him pause. A few men idled in the alley, guarding the supplies. Arelia frowned. If only there was a distraction.

Sasha glanced at her, then nodded. He ran to the nearest building and jumped, catching ahold of a window ledge. Rapidly, he pulled himself up, stepped on the ledge, jumped and repeated, all the way to the roof. He sprinted across the roof, feet silent. As he ran, he shed his shoes and carried them in his good hand.

Arelia held her breath, peering around the corner. She’d long turned off her headlamp, and the far side of the alley was bathed in bright lights to illuminate the supplies, so she was little more than a shadow in the darkness. Three men patrolled the supplies, guns drawn, while another two lounged by the wall, smoking and chatting.

Abruptly, a black boot descended from the heavens and smashed into the head of a patrolling guard. He staggered back and looked up in time for another shoe to smash him in the face, then a bare steel foot. The man fell silently backwards, already unconscious.

Before his body hit the ground, Sasha jumped off the man’s head and toward another guard’s defenseless back. The third guard saw him mid-leap and raised his gun, but couldn’t stop Sasha from snapping his leg around. Steel foot met skull with a sharp crack, and the second man dropped. Sasha followed him down, staying close enough that the third man didn’t dare to fire. He darted to the side, into the supplies. Gun raised, the man stared at the place Sasha vanished, only for Sasha to leap up from beside him. He punched the man in the jaw, and the man went down.

The two sitting by the side alerted at last, but too late. They started to stand, grappling for their guns. Sasha’s fingers flickered, and a pair of blades flew. Blood spurted from their throats, one after another, and they dropped back to the floor.

Startled, Arelia jumped upright and ran out of the shadow. “Are they dead?”

Sasha gave her a look.