--XLVII--

"Y'all," a strangled voice said. "A little help."

MONDAY

8:59 AM

Northwest of Windcreek

I turned around. There he was; Connor. Blue-and-brown hair and neon-blue whiskers and pale as a stick of chalk. The stranglehold the Talon man had on him from behind was not unlike the one Sam did to people, quite a lot- whether she was working or even just around Vicinity Four and getting into fights over drugs... or who effed who, or something.

Still can't say that word sometimes.

I was in an SRA with her once, and literally just allowed her to knock me out with one blow. Afterward she bought me cold strawberry pudding from Baker Joe's and brought it to me at the nurse's clinic. Sam was always great to watch; to me she was the perfect blend of speed and power, the same thing that James said that I was to him.

Not that James's opinions made sense. Not that James's opinions mattered.

I sighed. "Stay here, okay?" I said, as I patted Jupiter Two's big fluffy white head and gave the rest of my mini-healing-healer-happy-apples back to Happy. He took them in both his little paws and then climbed up a tree.

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I adjusted the cotton bandage on my left hand.

"I am giving you a chance to stop," I said to the Talon man, "and I am also hoping that you are capable of understanding this."

In response, he squawked at me, and then almost growled- except the growl sounded more like a loud, grating caw that sounded strangely like Sam to me.

"Bless yer heart, Christopher Midnight-"

"Uh huh."

"Do something now, please!"

His "please" was really funny when his accent was on it. And then it was also, like, "ple-e-ease" like he was singing, because of the stranglehold in addition to the accent.

Or was it more like a standing rear naked choke, I wondered, a little bit? Or maybe some kind of standing triangle choke, like, from behind? Carter White, from the twenty-fourth floor, tried to teach me jiu jitsu once. I was really bad at it, in my opinion. I was helping Elsie out with a case and she was running late, so he and I went to one of the basement floors. B14. Because, of course, practically everybody in the Webwork knew it was my favorite. Until they fixed the training room in B21, anyway.

Carter was really nice, he didn't break any of my bones or anything. He knew my history and knew how much I hated any sort of thing of that nature at all, I supposed. But he taught me the straight armbar and the Americana armlock for non-lethal submissions. I once did use the armlock; it was on an identified murderer, to get him to drop his weapon. I'm actually not sure I'm did it exactly the right way, I mean, I did do it in connection from a whip to a hurricanrana- so maybe it was just another self-taught maneuver. Either way, I was still super thankful and let Carter give me a hug any time he saw me.

The jiu jitsu lesson itself- I'm not really sure if I had liked it all that much. Maybe because I was small, and maybe also because I was really bothered by it, probably maybe because I was choked a lot before...

And I mean, come on. Locked limbs with a large male who was twice my size, maybe more than twice even. At that time, at least, Caleb was the only exception.

Of course, I almost said "NO" with capital metaphorical letters, a small and maybe shy smile, and then a single flip with two twists in the opposite direction- except deep down I knew Carter had a good heart; he genuinely was trying to help me, and, like most people who went out of their way to make time for me, was not only kind- knew how to do the right thing.