image [https://imgur.com/l2TZImW.jpg]
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There was no doubt that the suspicious looking guys in suits were following us. We made every attempt to flee their sight, but they were able to track us through the city with ease. They likely knew the layout like the back of their hands, whereas most of us were pretty green.
It was odd. The further into the city we went, the less people filled the streets. Eventually we weren’t bumping into anyone at all as we hustled along.
“Shrimp, how close are they?” Indena asked.
I opened up my LOCATION menu and the map loaded up. Those guys were appearing as little red circles about a block behind us.
“82 meters away.”
They were ever so slowly gaining on us and I could see why. There was an empty intersection coming up ahead. Empty was the wrong term, because I saw a bunch of people on the map were hiding all over the place around the street.
Clearly this was a trap.
We realized way too late and couldn’t avoid it. Every other way was blocked off by big cars and more of their guys hidden in them. They were funneling us in like wolves.
*PWOOF!*
*CACHINK!*
A puff of smoke blast across the air, covering my vision completely. The next thing I knew, something slammed into my body and some sort of wire mesh tangled me up!
“What the hay?!” I rolled out into the middle of the street, unable to free myself from the thick netting.
“Got her!” I recognized a deep male voice make that announcement.
“You haven’t got anyone yet, idiot! Go grab her!” A woman argued.
A pair of people in goggles came rushing out. One of them was the hulk mafia guy who was scared of snakes. And based on the voice, I assumed the woman must have been that Maria girl on the radio.
Scaredy-hulk was holding a big bazooka, which is what he must have shot me with.
While he was trying to collect the netting that entrapped me, I activated my combat mode, attempting to tear up the wires. My attempts failed no matter how hard I attempted to pull it apart. It had incredible tensile strength.
“Try all you want, but that net’s made of holy steel!” Maria laughed. “There’s no breaking out of there.
“Holy steel?” I uttered, powering down from my combat mode.
“Yup! Indestructible metal! No breaking this stuff,” Scaredy-hulk said, patting the bazooka like a pet.
I pressed my hand against the netting and scanned it, shocked at the discovery of what holy steel really was…
“Ferronium…” The very same indestructible metal my body was made of. “Where the heck did you guys get this stuff?!”
“You think we’d tell you, pipsqueak?” Maria taunted me by posing like a fashion model.
Why wasn’t anyone helping me out? We had like, 5 others who could at least try and get me out of this.
I looked back and saw that Uncle and all the others were surrounded by mafia men. That explained why I was left high and dry over here…
Scaredy-hulk lifted me up and walked me over to the center of the intersection. All the smoke from his net bazooka began clearing, giving me a view of my surroundings. More suited jerks climbed out of the sewers from manhole covers, all of them armed to the teeth with the ever standard tommy guns. We were outnumbered and outgunned by the dozens.
But those small fries paled in comparison to the head honcho who orchestrated this little fiasco. What would the mafia be without their big papa, Bowler Hat Joe? He was waiting for me as a prize. Flanking him was Dart Guy, and he was especially watchful for any funny business.
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“Looks like we finally caught a birdie in our net,” Bowler Joe said to me.
“Pinhead!” I shouted at him, prompting him to chuckle.
"That's Bowler Hat to you!" He shouted.
My shout caught the other's attention, allowing them to spot my captured fate
“Old man!” Indena shouted to Uncle. “They got Yalda!”
“I can see that,” Uncle was currently wrestling a mafia guy with glowing brown eyes and rock-like skin.
Uncle punched out the man, chipping the stone flesh of his nose in the process.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Bowler Hat Joe gestured for Dart Guy to hold a dart gun to my head. “Mess with my boys, and the little birdie gets it, see?”
Maybe it was because I was indestructible, or maybe the fact that I’ve been struck by more deadly weapons, but a gun really didn’t seem all that intimidating, especially one that fired darts.
“Before you get any funny ideas and think we didn’t do our homework,” Dart Guy started, "these darts aren’t just magical, but they’re also made from holy steel.”
Oh crap! That was actually much worse! They say only a diamond can break a diamond, and it was probably the same for holy steel too. That's one hypothesis this scientist's daughter did NOT want to test.
“You’ve got the wrong kid,” Uncle argued, keeping up a strong front. “She has nothing to do with your hunt.”
“Oh, we know,” Bowler Joe chuckled. “She’s the saviour of Urnan, and the hero of Verrenville, right? What a surprise it was to meet her on a train heading for our little nest of a city.” he tapped the dust from his cigar.
These guys… They really did do their homework. Not many people on the surface world knew all that much about me yet, so I had to wonder who was supplying them with info. It was all the more of a sobering reminder that a disguise was necessary.
“You'll regret this!” Marek announced. “Attacking us makes you both an enemy of the church and the Royal Council!”
Bowler Joe was not threatened in the slightest. “Ooh, I'm so scared of a bunch a’ monks and geriatrics. Throw enough money at a problem and it goes away.”
“What do we do, Old Man?” Indena broke out into a nervous sweat, careful not to activate her fire tattoos out of frustration. One wrong move, and it was curtains for us.
“Mel…” Miss Lauri started, “if we need to, I can always…”
“Not yet,” Uncle told her. “What do you want from us?” Uncle asked Bowler Joe. “Why bother with her at all? She’s of no value to you.”
“Just think about it for a second…” Bowler Joe blew a big puff of smoke from his mouth, “if this kid is the Eighth Star Angel, imagine what it would be like to have her at our beck and call? We’d make a killing ‘saving’ the world…for those who’ve got the cash.”
Did these guys expect me to just go along with them? Their dastardly plan would never work out.
“You big dummies!” I shouted. “I’ll never help you!”
“That’s why we're going to force you to, little birdie. I’m sure you don’t want us to rub out one of your friends over there, do you?” he gave a grinching smile.
Most of my friends were human, and I couldn’t let a human come to mortal harm. Their blackmail would be incredibly effective. I'd have no choice but to obey them in order to keep my friends alive. But there was a caveat to this all…
“-WARNING-” a loud male voice projected out of me.
“Huh?!” Went Dart Guy in surprise.
My eyes and heart turned bright red. Rings of mana spawned in front of me, priming my devastating mana cannon to fire on Dart Guy and Bowler Joe.
“-Any abuse of human privileges will result in termination-”
“Huh?” Bowler Joe's brow raised.
Because what they wanted was going to be unpleasant for me, my body was bypassing its most sacred of commandments to take these targets out. It wouldn’t let me fall into their hands and do their evil bidding. No matter how much I fought, the programs in place to protect me were robust beyond my skill to overcome.
“Yalda, no!” Uncle shouted, attempting to bypass my body's security systems to shut down the scripts. He wasn’t able to get through.
“Not this again…” Indena uttered, recalling all too well that she was the first one to trigger this response from me.
The mafia guys raised their guns up once they realized the threat of my charging mana cannon. If I blasted their leader and his lap dog to kingdom come, I'd be spared a hit from that holy steel dart gun, but no doubt all the underlings would open fire on my friends, retaliating for the life of their boss.
The climbing tension meant this was going to get ugly really quickly. Uncle was ready to spawn a bubble shield around the group to keep them safe from gunfire.
Everyone wore a shade of worry, even the mafia men. Some were more fearful, others were confident, but all of us were on the edge of our seats, awaiting who would cast the first stone. God, please don't let it be me…
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