Futuristic Space Antics: The Revival

The woman was pinned at gun point, the scaled man was busy choking one the thugs and the white haired woman was on the floor. "Great..." he thought as one of the remaining mercenaries threw a punch towards his face. He blocked the mans righthand swing with a precise block from his left arm, rendering the thug wide open for a counter attack. A strike that didn't occur to Astins great disappointment. He had been taught this way of fighting during his time in the police, but the academy didn't use techniques where the combatant only had one arm. The thug who'd almost paused for a moment now realized that the man was unable to punch and an ominous grin spread across his rugged face, showing a row of neglected teeth. Astin slid his left arm behind the mans head and head butted the thug in the mouth, knocking out some of said teeth in a spurt of blood. He kept a hold of the thugs neck and launched his knee into the mans chest, folding the man like a pocket knife. Astin fell to the ground together with the man who, on his way down, had grabbed Astins leg and swept it clean of the floor. They both landed with a thud.

Luna’s body was pressed onto the cold floor. Is it already over?, she thought to herself.
She welcomed the lone tear traveling slowly over her scarlet cheeks.
Gasping for air as well as doing her best to endure the pain of the weight placed upon her. Luna wasn’t trying very hard to get loose from the man’s grip.
She was just about to faint when someone’s shoe went into the ribs of the one holding her prisoner. Luna could feel his steady grip loosening up, and then suddenly he was gone.
The world was spinning, the lack of air had made her dizzy. She tried to stand but it was hard to keep the balance. She seemed beautifully unaware of all the commotion in the bar and by the time she managed to stand up. Everything seemed so quiet. Luna was gazing upon a cornered girl with severe nosebleed, and one of the thugs with a gun pointed straight at her.

She wanted to scream but she couldn’t.

Suddenly everything went black, Luna’s budget smokescreen had finally impaired everyone’s vision.

Aoeda feared it was the end, and to her dissapointment a rather unspectacular one in her opinion. She stared into the man's almost twitchy eyes, expecting the worst. Suddenly a sound metallic implosion could be heard to her side, but she barely had time to turn her head before she too were swallowed by the walloping gloomy mass. As she laid coughing she could just barely make out her opponent who just like her struggled in the black exhaust. She saw her moment, with a circular motion of her lower body the plateau of her boot made blunt contact with what she could only presume was the bone of his leg. As the man let out a profound vocal representation of pain, he fell firing to shots blindly into the smog. Aoedas hands scanned the floor after her lost pistol, not too her surprise it was with little avail. Red streams still gushed out her nose, and had now stained her clothing a gory crimson.

The tip of her index finger bumped against a familiar object. She stretched out her remaining fingers and drew it towards her, low and behold it was her beloved Iglehart 22. White Handle Revolver. On shaky legs she stood back up, and directly assured steps towards the thug. He soon realized she was straight ahead but his luck had run out. As soon as he even made signified he was about to lift weapon Aoeda relentlessly stomped his hand onto the trigger and handle. His fingers violently contorted as they wavered under the pressure. His hand was from this point most likely never usable again.

She looked down at the man's aggrieved expression. Never did she enjoy hurting someone, but nor did she enjoy her broken nose particularly much. She pointed the gun down on him, the roles had exchanged. She kicked the carbine away from the fight with her reddened boot. “I said, fights over motherfucker” she muttered between her bloodied teeth.

The man whom Scales had locked in a choke hold went limp and fell to the floor as he removed his grip. He noticed that the fighting had stopped, except for a man struggling on the floor together with the one-armed man. The bigguburu he had kicked in the ribs seemed to be recovering from the blow. Scales bent down and picked up the gun on the floor in front of him, that the now unconscious man had dropped when Scales had blocked his attempted blow. With the weight of a 9mm handgun in his right hand, he approached the downed blue man who was now reaching out for a revolver that had been dropped in the commotion. Scales had the revolver sliding across the floor with his right foot, and used the other to kick the man onto his back and stand on his chest.
“Don’t.”
As the man gained orientation, his eyes were met by the barrel of a gun. He could hear the regained air in his lungs escape from his mouth in a disappointed sigh.

The two men laid with their back on the floor and thug grabbed a hold of Astins arm, pinning it down while trying to get up. Before the man was fully up-right two nimble legs locked on to the mans neck, pulling him face-first into the floor. Astins face became more and more strained as he squeezed the mans throat in between his calf and shin. The thug thrashed around helplessly for a few moments before slowly going limp. Astin sat up and looked at the man, letting go of the man before he choked him to death, and looked around the room. The group of four strangers had been carefully observed by the rest of the crowd who now after the chaos had dimmed, went back to their drinks as if nothing ever happened. He looked his three unknown accomplices as he sat on the floor.
"So how do we do this?" He said while standing up. "Do you talk first? Do I talk first?"

The man she stood upon wept in the wake of his decimated hand. When it was clear he wasn’t going to have another go she stepped of and slid her gun back into its holster. Aoeda, still bleeding from her nose, was agitated. The fight left her with a blemished nose and a sore back from the fall. She looked at the man as he left the question hanging in the still foggy room. She used the sleeve of her black jacket to swipe some of the surging blood away. Upon closer inspection she was able to define the mysterious man further. Her eyes also devoted a few seconds to the floored girl. Clearly frightened, perhaps not very well versed with fighting. She felt a bit bad for a few seconds, but soon turned her attention back to Astin. Aoeda pointed towards the missing arm shaped piece of the puzzle. “Prosthetics are expensive…” She started, trying to loosen up from her buzz of displeasure. Aoeda walked up to him, having to take an extended step over one of the knocked thugs. “I don’t often trust cops, but perhaps you could use some work?”. She discretely said looking at the nugget-like remnants of what once was an arm. She was well aware he was unknowing of her intel on him, but she now found herself using it to somehow prove some form of ligitimacy.

Astin paused for a moment and took a look at the woman in front of her. She clearly had contacts with the underworld and news had gotten out quick.
"I see word travels fast" he said. "I'm not a cop, not anymore, and yes: I'm looking for work"

“Sure does. When you know the right people that is.”, She dared throw a grin into the conversation. An expression mostly aimed towards his remark of former police alliegance. She gestured her hand forth opening herself up for a shake. “Aoeda.” she said preemptively as she awaited response.

Astin stepped forward to shake Aoedas hand. "Astin." He said. "But you already knew that". He reached out his hand. "I'm a southpaw by the way if it's not clear to see".

“Hard to miss” She said as she let go of the man's firm hand. Aoeda looked back upon the girl on the floor, still seemingly shocked the by the event. Aoeda pointed down at the girl and turned her eyes back to Astin. “She with you? You seemed quite intent on keeping her here.”, as she said it she gesturally hinted towards the group of downed thugs who’d come for the white haired girl.

Astin looked at the small female figure on the floor.
"I've never seen her before." he said. This was the truth and he had no good answer to her question, he had no good reason to help the girl.
"Just figured she was of some importance. And you seemed quite keen on getting a piece of the action with that Iglehart you carry hidden in your jacket".

“Can’t say you’re wrong, but like our Scaly friend here I need you.” She said with some jokefullness to her tone. “I got tipped by some former “contacts” of yours.”, she scuffed her jacket to the side quickly flashing a small tattoo near her shoulder signifying her allegiance with Grey. She knew that it was a risky move in an open crowded area like the one they found themselves in, one could never know who was watching from the shadows. "Can't give you specifics at the moment, but we promise pay.".

The sight of the tattoo brought a slight chill down Astins spine. The the last time he saw one of those he was getting pinned down do have his arm chopped off with a meat cleaver. "Well..." he said. "If that pay can get me an arm and a gun, I'm in". He paused. "What about the girl?" He nodded towards the white haired figure.

Aoeda hadn't seen the girl as her or their responsibility until the question was asked. After all they did separate her from her former "guardians". Aoeda moved a bit closer to Astin as to keep her words as incognito as possible. "Look, I'm no bounty hunter, I won't go and turn her into to some probable shitshack where she'll spend the rest of her days. I say she comes with to Grey, he's decent at least", Aoeda was turned strictly serious. The girl looked harmless enough, and she certaintly didn't seem like the kind of person deserving of being tackled and abducted.

Scales grabbed the blue man by the collar with his left arm and knocked him out with a blow to the temple with the butt of the handgun using his right. He then hid the gun in an inner pocket in his coat and looked up at the red-haired woman and the one-armed man.
“Are we done here?” he asked coldly, his yellow eyes rapidly switching from scanning the room and intensely staring at the pair in front of him.

"Uh"
Luna watched as the scaled thing knocked someone out with the handle of his gun.
"You're not gonna knock me out aswell, right?"
She started awkwardly laughing as she hand gestured towards her own face.
Luna tried to find eye contact with the Sppantian but he was too busy looking at the girl and the one-armed man.
She tried to grab his attention and spoke a little louder.
- Thanks for, uh, saving me.

He turned to the white-haired girl and scanned her from top to toe for only a couple of seconds. Then he blinked and nodded towards her ever so slightly. His focus shifted back to the conversing pair, mainly the red-haired woman. Scales scratched scratched his head. He'd rather get out of there before the thugs came to again.
“You coming?”

Aoeda looked to Scales without fully turning her head, thinking briefly about the question asked. She then overviewed the bodies on the floor, before turning to Astin once more. "Yeah, we should get going...", she spoke up so that the newly formed group could all hear her. Aoeda turned full focus onto the white haired damsel, "Including you.". The barfolk around them had now regained full momentum, and it wouldn't be long before any sort of information would seep out of the tattered walls of the rundown hostelry.

A creeping feeling of being watched made Astin look over his shoulder one extra time as he made his way towards the door. He looked at the three persons standing amidst the scattered bodies, gesturing towards the door with a small nod.
"Can we save the remaining introductions to a less crowded place?" he said before exiting. He stepped out into the cold night air, where the streets was lit up by the numerous neon signs swarming the buildings walls like fireflies. He looked back into the Skewered Matron awaiting his newly found group.

Aoeda broke contact with the young girl and followed suit. As she exited she was hit by the city’s ever familiar scent, metal, vapor, garbage… The list continued, devoid of anything that would remind most people anything homely or even related to it. Even through Aoedas blood clotted nose it still did though. It was as if the sun had gone out, and sixteen hours of darkness laid before them. The city she truly knew was coming to life. Smog poured out the ventilation of the Skewered Matrons rusty sides, assimilating with the other gases of Joyce. “Ugly as ever...”, she thought and handed the city a smirk of appreciation.

“Finally.” Scales left the busy bar with the others and a bit of disappointment. It seemed that the Spice Surprise hadn’t packed the punch that he had expected, making the so called surprise pretty anticlimactic. To an ordinary human the Spice Surprise would have been devastating to the digestive system. Maybe even to an ordinary sppantian. To Scales however, it had been quite mild. His eyes adapted abnormally quickly to the darkness, which of course was because of him not being normal. He wasn’t human.
“So,” he started. “Where does this Papi hang out? How far?”

Luna stepped out aswell. She pinched Aoeda and asked:
"Who is this papi guy?, and what do you want with me?"

First Aoeda took to the Sppantians question, “A few blocks give or take. We’ll take it by foot nonetheless, can’t say much more.” she said still viewing the fuzz of Springway. As the young girl approached Aoeda turned around and faced her and her very understandable questions. “Look, I don’t exactly know who you are. But those muppets in there weren’t no mercs from this part of town, I would know. I can't hold you against your will, but by the shitshow we all just orchestrated you seem to be in need of some protection. Something I can offer if you come along. As for Grey, you’ll meet him soon enough.” Aoeda asserted herself as she pointed towards the girl. She was sceptical, as one should in a city like Joyce. Notice was put on the composite crossbow the girl carried through, and Aoeda profoundly hoped the girl could come to help in one way or another.

Luna nodded lightly and slowly breathed out.
She had been worried that they'd try to trick her, or perhaps take her somewhere dangerous.
But considering they just had saved her life, feeling a bit more comfortable around them was a given.
"Yeah actually I'd love to come along." She laughed and smiled brightly.

Astin watched the exchange of words take place.
"And I'd suggest that we make our way to Papa if we don't want to be the composers for a soon-to-be-orchestrated shitshow as you would put it." Astin said and nodded towards Aoeda.
"Nice to meet you Scaly-boy and Arrow girl." He said while looking at the two strangers. "I'm Astin, former cop and owner of arm." He continued in an attempt to uphold the slightly less grim mood that the young womans laughters had brought the party.