Bastion 2 - Chapter 32

Hana stopped at the last corner before the docks and pulled me through a dark, fish-rank alley for a ry glimmer. We were running out of time, but due to my rampant “if terrors” I was grateful for the protection. She adjusted our age, facial features, and hair color before we strode out toward the docks.

Activity was in full swing. Fishermen yelled commands to one another as they prepared to cast off, and deck hands scrambled about to load all the necessary tools for a day’s work. We looked horribly out of place in our nice jackets. There was no reason for two people like us to be at the docks, but we wouldn’t be long.

Mae’s directions navigated us right to the spot, but I stopped in gut twisting horror as I noticed two men leaned over the edge, inspecting something. The men sat up and exchanged frustrated glances. The red-trimmed black doboks were a dead giveaway; they were Wong’s goons.

The first man waved the second off, saying something I couldn’t hear over the din of fishermen preparing to depart. The second man got up and ran toward an alley, then returned with a long, spear-like stick.

“Pretend I’m robbing you, then call out for their help,” I said as I turned to Hana, who looked about thirty years older than she was.

She scowled. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“Plan B.”

“Which is?” she asked, flustered.

“Punch them?” I offered.

She groaned and rolled her eyes, then smirked. “That should be plan A.”

We moved into position at the edge of the alley as the men poked and prodded at the garbage pile, trying to uncover Tuko. I wasn’t certain how to start a fake mugging, but Hana was, apparently.

“Stop, let me go!” she screamed with a burst of ry persuasion and pulled away.

I jumped at the terror in her voice, but held tight to her arms. She wriggled, trying weakly to escape my grasp and called out again. I pulled at her coat, then pretended to stuff something away in mine. I shoved Hana gently, which she greatly overacted and flew backwards to the ground with a shrill scream.

By this point, most of the fishermen were looking our way—as were the men poking at Tuko—but no one made a move to chase. My eyes bulged as if I hadn’t realized I was going to get caught in the act. I turned tail and ran, hoping Hana’s acting could inspire the goons to try to recover her missing whatever-I-had-stolen.

“Won’t someone help me?” Hana cried with an infusion of ry and I felt the nearly insurmountable urge to turn and run back to her side. She was really laying it on thick.

I focused my mind solely on escaping as I heard a cacophony of voices rise behind me and booted feet hitting the ground. A single glance over my shoulder revealed the stampede of fishermen who’d taken up the call to help Hana—including one of the Wong goons.

When I reached the end of the alley, Mae cast a ry double out in front of me just as we’d done with Tae-do, and I pinned myself to the wall. I wiped away Hana’s glimmer and yanked off my coat just as the first fisherman rounded the corner. They brandished harpoons and nets, screaming, “Thief!” as they chased the fake image of my former self.

I calmed my breathing, feigning surprise as I stepped back from the curb like I had been preparing to cross the road. The trail of men tapered off and I jogged back down the alley. The ry double would evaporate in seconds, so there wasn’t much time before they realized someone had pulled a fast one.

Hana yelped in struggle, followed by the sound of a heavy hit to human flesh. Damn goon was hitting a young woman. Did he have no decency?

I pushed my muscles, cycling zo for the coming fight. I skidded around the end of the alley to the docks and saw Hana squirming in the thick man’s chokehold.

I dashed forward as she landed two powerful elbows to the man’s gut, followed by a fist to the groin on the second strike. His hand relaxed at her throat as he howled and Hana twisted, landing six punches to his face and chest before I could get to her.

I grabbed the man at the neck and kicked the hollow of his knee as I kept my forward momentum. He dropped to the street with a back-cracking thud. He exhaled gently as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and I checked for a pulse. When his heartrate seemed steady, I moved on toward the dock.

“Hurry,” Hana urged with a grunt as she pulled the unconscious goon toward a stack of boxes near the building’s edge.

I shallowed my breathing and created several bursts of ma, then leaned over the ledge and released it towards the garbage heap.

“Just leave him,” I shouted as she dragged the man away. We wouldn’t be here long.

I felt Tuko as my munje soaked into his systems. After another two breaths, he was moving with ease. I jammed his clawed feet into the wood of the docks and climbed just enough to reach, then grabbed him.

“Watch out!” Hana screamed and I fell back on instinct as a foot swiped where my head had once been.

I turned Tuko and loaded the second electric shot into his neck. The goon kicked again, and I stumbled onto my ass as I fired the needle. It went wide and missed the goon by a few centimeters. I cursed, scooting backwards on my elbows with the heavy Tuko body weighing me down.

The goon leered as he said, “Hand it—AH!” The man’s back arched and he dropped to his knees. Hana landed a heavy kick to his head and the man tumbled into the bay with a surprised yelp. She reached for me and I took her arm.

“They’re stealin’ our boats!” cried a fisherman and the mob rushed from the alley.

They were irrationally angry, and I didn’t think I could talk them down. Using ry to enhance my persuasion wouldn’t work either, since they’d be on their guard from Hana’s deception. We were too far down the pier to make it before the mob cut us off. The water was frigid and stealing a boat could get us expelled from Bastion. There weren’t many options left to us.

“What’s plan C?” Hana asked, her voice trembling.

“He’s still got a few shots left,” I mumbled, and Mae popped a map up into my vision with two blinking lights for where Hana and I stood. “There’s a connecting pier five meters behind us. I’ll drop a smoke bomb when they’re close, and flash it to blind them. Then we’ll run for it.”

The mob charged onto the dock, but only directly in front of us, leaving the connecting pier open for escape. Tuko was heavy in my hands. I had to give Hana and I a chance to get out, and the only option I saw with what little time I had to think was leaving Tuko behind to pull their attention.

I dug my fingers into the spare compartment and ripped Mae’s device free. I ferried it into my inner pocket and gave one last look at Tuko before setting him on the dock. I cycled ry as the angry fishermen approached, brandishing weapons, and screaming for retribution of my thieving.

I used the last of the ma in Tuko to leap straight up. I launched the smoke bomb a meter out from the advancing mob, then twirled a bright glimmer in my palm. When the bomb burst in a cloud of gray, I launched the ry and turned for the next pier with shaking hands and a pounding heart.

Hana bolted, using zo enhanced strides to cross the gaps in the planks and I wobbled as I did the same. The bridge was unstable, but we made it to the other side as the fisherman crowd coughed and groaned.

I tried to make Tuko follow, but I knew there wasn’t enough ma left in his system to clear all the jumps. Instead, I turned him back to the crowd and loaded the last electric needle. I’d be damned to let him go down without all the fight he had.

The double vision made me sick as I watch from my human body, following Hana, and Tuko’s perspective from the dock. The mob advanced on him in a rage. The first fisherman broke through the smoke and charged forward, swinging his weapon wildly. I launched the needle at his leg and the man dropped to the pier, convulsing. I heard his howl from the alley and winced.

The cloud blew away on an unnatural wind, and three men stood at the center twisting their arms with light-blue en. Half the crowd had turned around, chasing us, but the other half descended on Tuko.

Someone swung a harpoon down at Tuko. I crossed my arms overhead to catch it and Tuko mimicked my motion. I twisted my arms and brought them together, and the fisherman fumbled the weapon. The ma bar in my vision flashed at two percent and I cut the connection.

My pounding heart ached as I thought of what he was going through. My mind’s eye showed me a horrible vision of the mob crushing him, stomping him as the last of my ma spilled out into the sea. They kicked his body into the bay with vicious cries of revenge.

Tears blurred my vision, but I blinked them back. I focused on cycling zo as Hana lead us through side streets. We slowed as we reached the train station, then walked our way into the morning crowd headed to their jobs.

“I’m sorry,” Hana whispered as she linked her arm in mine, then leaned her head on my shoulder.

I swallowed hard as the tears threatened to return. “He had a good run.”