*Zuuup* *Zuuup*
Two energy-projectiles hit the wall right behind Robin’s head.
‘Whuu, that was close’ He thought after coming to a halt behind another big container. Right now Robin was trying to somehow close the distance to Hopewing and land some hits on his wounded arms. That should probably be enough to take him out of the fight. Before that however, he had to get a better feel for Hopewing’s actions. How? Well, that was why he was jumping around between cargo boxes, containers and even ships.
With his energy senses he observed the man and his gun, trying to understand when and how he had to move to not get hit. If Robin had to be honest, this was a great training to keep his concentration and skills in check. Only the part about ‘not getting hit’ was what made this activity less than enjoyable - he saw the holes in some of the boxes that were hit and he definitely didn’t want such holes in his head…or anywhere else at that.
Hopewing was raging, which was good as it led him to irrational decisions and erratic movements. However, he wasn’t an idiot and didn’t start randomly shooting around until his weapon’s charge was used up.
Sitting behind the huge container, Robin observed as the blue lines from the weapon closed in from the front left side and he stealthy moved back to the other side, ready to jump out of his cover and behind another box.
“You damn pup, why don’t you come out and fight like a man? Trickery and mocking is all you can do, isn’t it?” Hopewing tried to lure Robin out. But as he was so deep in concentration to keep juggling with all the things he had to watch out for, Robin didn’t even listen to what the man shouted. He suddenly saw Hopewing tense up in preparation for a jump around the corner. This could be the chance he had waited for…
Coming out from behind the container he sprinted around to catch Hopewing by surprise. Unfortunately, after his jump, the man immediately turned and aimed his gun directly at Robin.
He could see the energy with his eyes and senses flaring up once and tried to throw himself behind the next cover, but he was a tad too slow and suddenly it was like his left shoulder caught fire, sending waves of hot burning pain through his body.
“Fuck!” Robin cursed, “Damn! That fucking hurts…” Looking at his shoulder, he saw that the energy bolt had at least only scratched him. It hurt like hell and the black, burned skin looked really unhealthy, but it shouldn’t be too bad.
“Hopewing, damn… put the gun away. That thing really does some damage. Argh.. fuck…”
“You think I don’t suffer pain? Pain from my wounded arms, pain from the loss of my future, pain from the loss of my good name,... everything hurts… all because OF YOU!!”
‘Well, at least I’ve really pissed him off…’ Robin thought while trying to ignore his smoking shoulder. He also used the short breather to look for any other people coming into the hangar and tried to sense the Apex man that left before but didn’t find anyone.
‘Why was no one coming to look at what's going on, when there is such a ruckus in here?’ He thought and switched his focus back to Hopewing.
The box he was hiding behind right now was roughly 3m in height and he saw a smaller box standing to its side. The blue lines representing the gun suddenly vanished and Robin was a bit spooked, fearing his mutation was beginning to fail. But only moments later it was powered up again, glowing even brighter than before. Did that asshole really just reload his gun? Why did he come here with an extra charge?
Still, he could see that Hopewing was unsure to which side he should proceed to get Robin out of his cover. Using this hesitation, Robin climbed over the small box on top of the big container. He kept his body pressed to the cold metal and observed Hopewing’s movement. If he was found in this spot, he would be done - no way he could dodge anything from this position.
The man decided on the right side and began to loudly taunt Robin again as the echo would mask his approach.
“You little punk, after destroying my career, did you really think you could just continue with the race? Playing the hero who caught…“
Crawling to the edge of the container, Robin could see Hopewing sneak forward step by step directly under him. After he was sure he was out of his field of view, Robin stood up and without any hesitation jumped down in front of the man, using both his arms as clubs to smash down on the two bloody limbs that held the weapon.
“Argh..” Hopewing couldn’t suppress a painful scream as the weapon flew away and his wounds immediately began to bleed again.
Robin used this short moment of distraction to throw a punch to the man’s temple - in the heat of the moment he couldn’t remember all of Patience’s teachings but still had a good feeling. As his fist connected, he groaned.
Beating people up really did hurt!
Hopewing took a step back, but wasn’t knocked out and quickly stopped his stumbling. He raised both his fists, taking a basic defense pose. He gave quite the intimidating sight: blood flowing down his arms and another bloody wound at his head, in combination with his disheveled hair and the slightly crazy look on his face. However, that didn’t change the fact that his hands were shaking and he wasn’t in any condition to continue the fight.
Robin was a bit uncertain how to proceed. He didn’t think so far and only worked towards disarming his enemy. What now?
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Before that thought even finished forming, he knew what Patience would do, if she learned about his hesitation. Images from his training with her flashed in his mind and before he could react, he was already beating up Hopewing with everything he got.
The guy tried to shoot him, right?
“Hey, stop! Are you alright?” A shout awoke him from his frenzy and just as he stopped the beating and Trish came running around the box, Hopewing finally couldn’t hang on any longer and passed out, falling to the ground like a log.
After a moment of silence Trish looked at Robin, one eyebrow raised.
“It’s not what it looks like, I can explain!”
***
Landom Walzor stood in the office of his superior again, only a few weeks had passed and he had to make a report on this young technocrafter once more. He came as prepared as last time and was right about to explain how and what Robin was doing.
“Sir, there are new developments concerning Robin Tulward that demands our attention.” He began and was surprised to see his boss tense up.
“That boy with the energy sensing, who is flying around and sets fire to each and everything he touches?” The man behind the big desk asked with a sigh, “What has he done this time?”
“Well, that’s…kind of…harsh. I do like the boy and really think he just attracts bad luck and misfortune.” Landom hesitantly defended the technocrafter he was investigating. He didn’t even know why, it was just his guts that were telling him the boy was quite okay.
“So he didn’t make a new mess?” His boss tore him out of his thoughts.
“Uhm…well, if you put it like that…” Landom could feel his face getting red. Damn, was that embarrassing.
“Just spit it out already. I, too, have some updates. We are no longer the only ones interested in the boy. There are more and more people questioning me about him behind closed doors.” The man dropped quite the bomb, but mentioned for Landom to continue.
“I really would like to know more. Who is asking around? Why? Is it something I should consider in my investigation? What…” The officer began to follow his spiraling thoughts but was interrupted.
“Walzor! Get your shit together and give me the damn report!” His boss exclaimed.
“Ah, right. You’ve seen the news today?” Landom quickly sorted his thoughts and asked.
“Yeah, Hopewing, that fucker, was cheating all the time. Lost against the rebellious Alaris child in a duel after having some accident with his illegal bio-techs. Tulward also takes part in that race, right?”
“Yes and not only that, but Niu Alaris is the one who personally trained him before they traveled to Ruca II. It seems like they befriended each other when they met at the preliminaries.”
“Interesting company for a technocrafter from Nexus Haven. That explains at least one of the parties that are pestering me with questions.”
“Oh? The Alaris family is asking for him? Well, if he’s hanging out with their daughter that only makes sense. They are quite the protective bunch and still have big plans for her.” Landom mused, “Did they let anything bleed through on what kind of stance they will take towards this friendship?”
“Nah, nothing. But I’m pretty sure they will wait for the Apex Highspeed Cup to finish before deciding on anything.”
“Now that Robin helped their daughter to score a win against the ‘unbeatable Hopewing’ and even supported in positioning her as the hero who uncovered the dark secret, he should land in their good books.” Landom mused, scratching his chin out of habit.
“You still didn’t explain what the boy has to do with all this, how did he help the Alaris girl?” his boss asked and returned to the topic.
“I just got the complete report from Apex and our insiders on-site. He somehow found out about Hopewing’s implants and set him up for that duel with Niu Alaris. When the race took place, it’s assumed that he had someone help him with a hostile takeover of the remote control station, effectively grilling Hopewing alive mid-flight.” Walzor began to explain.
"Ouch, that’s nasty. But he probably deserved it…still did they find the perpetrator?”
“No, not that they had any reason to search thoroughly. Tulward and Alaris seem to support the tale that Apex did not know of anything. However Jim Dasbro was there that time, he’s the boss of Tulward’s workplace. Shall I bring him here?”
“No, leave him be. It’s of no consequence and he didn’t really break any law…well, more or less.” The man behind the desk waved it off, clearly annoyed by Hopewing’s betrayal.
“Last but not least, just an hour ago Hopewing and Tulward met in a hangar. Hopewing wanted to mess with his ship and after he was discovered, he tried to kill the boy but lost the fight somehow. He’s contained for now and preparations are made to transport him back to Rucasur in the next few days.”
“Okay, did Tulward press charges after the attempted murder?”
“No, nothing like that. He is probably busy preparing for the final race that takes place in… not even 12 hours.” Landom explained after taking a look at the clock.
“There are too many open questions surrounding the boy. Why is he on Ruca II? Why did he take down Hopewing? How did he even find out about Hopewing’s bio-techs in the first place - that’s not something he could feel with his energy senses, right?” Landom’s boss summarized.
“Yeah, I checked that. No way the Class E variant could sense anything like that. Also you missed the most important question, Sir.” Landom concluded, “What is he looking for and where did he get his information from? We still didn’t make any progress in that regard.”
“Hm, I know you like the boy, but I get a bad feeling here. We let him run loose for too long and we’re missing too many answers. It’s time to ask him some questions. You want answers, I want answers and the ones from above want answers, too.”
“I’ll bring him here as soon as he finishes his race!” Landom promised and hesitated for a moment.
“Sir, if I may ask - who else is looking for answers?”
“There are some bigwigs in the Rucasur museum for history and art. It seems like he did a job for them that stirred some interest.” The man vaguely explained.
“Oh, you mean Ms. Hutton? I already questioned her about that job. What else is she looking for?”
“No, not her. The results of the assignment reached UAS headquarters and some important people there have superiors that have superiors that have superiors that are now interested and want to take a shit on top of my desk. So get the damn boy here and nail him to the fucking wall until these people take him or lose interest, are we clear?”
Landom could hardly follow the sharp increase of pace and only nodded.
“Yes Sir, it will be done!”