Galactic High

Jack barely gave it any thought as he let loose with a three-round burst with his plasma rifle, ripping through one of the closest Klown’s centre mass, as Nika put another one down before they even knew what happened.

Jack snapped his sights to another Klown who was only beginning to think about taking cover. Another safe burst to the centre of mass brought him low too.

There were only a few Klowns left by now, and they were panicking and dashing for cover. One was cut down by a hail of rapid-fire Plasma rounds that could only have been Sephy, while another was disembowelled by a spear, the tip being telekinetically lifted off the ground while the Klown wasn’t looking. The last of the Zorn, on realising there were others, began to charge towards where they thought the newcomers were hiding, before stumbling and fumbling over the plants that had somehow come to life, grabbing at their ankles and rooting them into place before being cut down by Jack and Nika, who thanked Alora as they did for her obvious handiwork.

The Klowns didn’t know how to react, trying to dip and duck behind whatever cover they could find. Jack noticed movement behind what looked like a hastily crafted wooden fortification, which he sent several rounds towards, blasting the cover and the two Klowns hiding behind it. Others were hiding close together behind a set of fallen logs that were suddenly lifted up by Chiyo, helpless to do anything as they were cut down by Sephy's rapid fire. The last three Klowns hunkered down as best they could, but stood no chance against another of Alora’s fireballs.

And just like that, the fight was over. Jack exhaled the breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

“Nice job!” Nika patted him on the back after exhaling herself. “That couldn’t have gone smoother. I was wondering if you were going to freeze or not, but I’m glad you didn’t. Saves me making the whole speech on ‘Why we need to kill the bad guys.’ How do you feel?”

"It's weird," Jack admitted. "Everything about human pop culture demands I feel like shit, or remorseful or somehow terrible."

"But?" Nika prompted.

"Honestly? In a way it felt good," Jack admitted. "Obviously there was danger, and maybe it's just the adrenaline talking, but I didn't hesitate to put the Klowns down after seeing the kind of depraved shit they did on TV. As for the Zorn, you and Chiyo told me enough. This place is better without them."

"Agreed." Nika smiled, giving Jack another pat of assurance. "Naturally produced adrenaline is rare among species, but Sephy and I both can as well. It's alright to feel a little weird after your first kill, but it gets easier over time. Come on, let's find the others.”

"Sure," Jack replied simply as he followed after her, deciding not to correct Nika on her last point. He had been forced to kill before, after all...

"That was awesome!" Sephy cried out as they approached. "We totally kicked their asses!"

Chiyo just stared at Jack with a worried expression before Nika gave her a reassuring headpat. "He's good Chiyo, don't worry. He probably took down more than me!"

"Yeah, it's fine," Jack added on seeing Alora's look of concern. "After seeing the Killer Klowns attack, I wasn't going to hold back. But what were they doing here? Weren't the Klowns meant to be heading North East?"

"They were…" Alora replied thoughtfully. "We should investigate while we scan the bounties and loot anything of value. Best we don't let the Zorn get their hands on modern weapons at least."

"These dumbasses probably got lost from the main group since there aren't any Klown Korporals," Sephy reasoned. "But you totally have me sold on looting their shit! We can pawn it off at the next town."

“You sure it’s not gonna be too heavy for you, Sephy?” Nika teased the Skritta.

“Nah.” Sephy grinned. “I’ll bear the burden if it means we get a nice meal in the next town. Or maybe we can save for a hottub for the house! Yes! Alora! Hot tub! Or a swimming pool! Can we?”

“Let’s see what we find here first.” Alora giggled, heading towards the bodies but was stopped by Jack holding out a warning hand. “What’s wrong, Jack?”

“Could any of the bodies be playing possum?” Jack carefully asked.

“What’s a possum?” Sephy replied in confusion.

“I mean could any of the bodies just be pretending to be dead to try and catch us off guard?” Jack clarified, looking to Chiyo to check. Expanding her mind, her eyes went wide, and she quickly lifted several spears off the ground to skewer one of the Klowns leaning against a tree stump.

Good call, Jack! He was probably going to bleed out anyway, but it’s better to be sure! The Ilithii messaged him. How did you know?

“Just a feeling.” Jack sighed as Chiyo gave the ‘all clear’ to the others to start picking through the bodies.

Sifting through the bodies was a little grim in Jack's mind, but it was made easier when it was apparent that the Klowns had barely anything apart from the laser weapons they were carrying, much to the disappointment of Sephy. The collapsed polkadot canvas on the ground had likely been a tent of some kind, a theory that was backed by the fact that there were several dirty bedrolls underneath. A quick game of the alien equivalent of rock-paper-scissors broke out to determine who would have to rummage through them, with Alora being the unlucky loser until Jack raised the idea of Chiyo telekinetically shaking the bedrolls for any valuables.

Most of it was junk with a few credit-chips that Sephy quickly scooped up, until Jack spotted a few papers on the ground.

"Guys look at this for a sec," he distractedly called out as he looked through them. It was crudely drawn in crayon and probably coded, but… "I think this looks like a map with directions!"

"I agree," Alora stated as she had a hard time trying to make anything of it. "It's not to scale and I only recognise a few landmarks, but it does look like planned troop movements. We've definitely got to get these to one of the groups hunting them down as soon as we can!"

"We could get a good price for it too!" Sephy added. "Good find Jack!"

We should not hold out on the information to try and get a better deal. Chiyo warned. There will be a reward, but holding out and jeopardising the manhunt will get bounties on all of us!

There was no argument there. Jack could see even Sephy nodding in agreement, though the Skritta quickly asked:

"It's gonna be a good reward, right?"

"I'm sure it will be!" Alora smiled, playfully giving her a shove. "Though we need to make it to town first and hope nobody else beats us to it!"

"You're right!" Sephy agreed in shock. "We've picked this camp clean! Let's go already!"

The next few hours were less tense for Jack after their relatively easy victory, though he was keen on getting to the relative safety of the town of Gladespring, where they would be in comm range for Alora to register their kills and sell the information.

They ate their lunch at some old ruins that surprisingly didn't see much traffic. Though Jack would have expected a primitive group of Zorn to use the place as a home, Alora pointed out a wayshrine to Sora, Goddess of Stars which likely repelled the evil and low-witted Zorn away. The group had made sure to pack light, so the food for lunch was just some plain, dense bready substance which didn't taste of anything in particular, though the others had packed some sauces which at least made it palatable. They didn't spend too long there, as they were still in the middle of dangerous territory but even still, Jack helped Alora clear the small shrine of mud with a bit of cloth and some water to clean it up, and left a small offering of a few sweets out of gratitude and respect, which was another odd tradition Jack decided not to question too much.

Several more hours went by without incident, time moving to mid-afternoon as the group made it to a district entrance that was lightly guarded by a few militia from Gladespring, who were apparently just there to hold the choke point in light of the recent problems with monsters. It was still about an hour and a half until they would reach the town proper. On learning that this was the edge of the town's comcover, Alora immediately set about alerting people she knew at the Temple of Hope about the map they had recovered as the group took a rest, idly chatting with the militia, who were glad for something to alleviate their boredom, though they unfortunately didn’t know much about the area they were heading to past the town.

After resting up and thanking them, the group set off on the final stretch to the town, where they could relax for a few hours before heading off to the abandoned subway to the north.

Jack was amazed as the forest finally thinned out and they could see their immediate destination. Gladespring reminded Jack of a mediaeval castle town, being situated on and around a respectable hill with defence obviously in mind. As they got closer, he could see guards patrolling the top of the district walls, overlooking the farms outside and the bustle within. The militia had told him the 'spring' within Gladespring came from a grove right at the top of the hill with a lake of clear water that streamed down the side as the source of a river, which had long been diverted into a dug moat surrounding the town.

“About time!” Sephy sighed on finally making it to civilization again. “I really need to pee!”

“Couldn’t you have just done it in the bushes earlier?” Nika gave a snort of laughter.

“Not after the last time I tried doing it outside, stupid gust of wind came out of nowhere! It was horrible!”

“Sure it wasn’t Chiyo that did that?” Nika countered, giving a wink at the unamused Ilithii.

Ewwww…

After a quick questioning by the gate guards about where they came from and what their business was they were allowed in and warned not to cause trouble. Though all of them were itching to sit down in a cafe or restaurant, Sephy was insistent that they unload the Klown weapons and other loot first at the closest pawn shop, right after an emergency bathroom break. The credits they got for that had clearly not been what Sephy had wanted despite Alora's best negotiating skills, but the group had come into some decent bit of cash, and were suitably cheered up when Alora casually suggested they eat a fancy meal at a good restaurant Luvia had told her about.

Sitting outside on very comfortable chairs was absolute bliss, and when the cool, fruity cocktails they had ordered were brought outjust a few minutes later by a well-dressed reptilian alien, they felt even better. Nika had insisted that they didn't drink any alcohol, which was fine with them considering how nice the cocktails were. The food was even better, the shared platters of tender meats that completely fell apart at the bone and flavorful roasted vegetables being more than enough to satisfy their rumbling bellies.

Alora did warn them that the communications to register the bounties and contact the Temple of Hope would take a little while to go through, which gave the group the excuse to keep ordering more food and drinks.

It was just over an hour before the confirmation came that the bounties were registered and that the Temple of Hope had received their message, though they wanted to confirm the validity of the intel before rewarding the group later, which Alora agreed to.

"About time!" Nika rolled her eyes as Alora relayed the news. "This is nice and all, but we weren't planning to stick around too long."

"Agreed," Alora replied.

"One last round?" Sephy questioned.

Yes please! Chiyo agreed with a smile as she quickly downed her sugary green drink.

"We can come here on the way back!" Alora replied. "We've spent too long here anyway!"

But before Chiyo could type up a reply, something suddenly began to chirp around them with a soft, quiet beep. Everyone else stopped to look around with their guard up until Sephy raised a hand to get them to chill out, quickly letting them know that she just received a notification on her master commlink that someone was trying to contact Jack, who quickly took out his ringing device, completely surprised that anyone would try to contact him.

“I bet it’s Vanya.” Nika giggled. “Probably trying to sext you or something!”

“No,” Sephy interrupted with a serious look at Jack. “It’s not a commcode I recognise. Up to you if you want to take it, Jack. I can secure the line and block out sounds.”

Jack nodded, waiting for Sephy to confirm before he accepted the call. He spent a few moments trying to remember how to answer it before Chiyo helpfully showed him, and decided to try and be sneaky. “Hello! You have reached the number of…erm…Steve! He cannot pick up the phone right now, please leave your message after the beep…..BEEEEEP!”

“Jack, I can see your avatar on the comm! This is Crill! Thank the gods you’re alright!” The panicked voice of their avian classmate could be heard over the otherwise relaxed sounds of nature around them.

“Oh. Hey Crill!” Jack replied worriedly, unsure what was going on. “Are you ok? What’s happening?”

“I should be asking you that!” Jack could see Crill nervously rubbing his hands in the video feed where he could also see a few of the other guys in the background, Jack recognising Kritch and Kizzariiith in the background with a few others looking into the call. “I don’t know where the information came from, but our group just received an anonymous data package telling us where you’ve headed. Says you’ve gone north and are probably heading slightly westward…”

“Crill! It’s Sephy!” the Skritta interrupted, trying to keep the worry out of her voice. “Can you transfer what you got over to us?”

“Of course, transferring now!”

What little there was made Jack’s blood run cold. It was a series of pictures, from what must have been random cameras on the street, to random pictures taken by other patrons at the tea garden, to the selfie he had taken with the young koi fish along with a predicted route. It fortunately didn’t say where they were heading, but it was close enough to where they were now

“Shit,” Nika groaned. “No more drinks, we’ve got to move now!”

“Be careful, Jack!” Vaal warned as he popped up next to Crill on the video feed. “There’s talk among Red Legion affiliates trying to form a large group to come after you, and I can only imagine the bounty hunters aren’t too far behind. We’ll run interference if we can, but if the data's right I'd change course or get out of there!”

“Thanks Crill, we’ll do that.” Jack nodded in gratitude. “I owe you guys big time…”

“Well that’s not the only thing!” Kizzariiith spoke up from the side, grinning into the camera. “Both the Crypts and the Bloods are making competing diss tracks on you! You’ve gotta hear the-”

“Guys, we’ve got trouble!” Sephy called out as she was the first to get out of her seat, having spotted an incoming threat.

“YOU! FOUL DEMON! MY TECHNIQUES OF ANIMATRITSU KHAL-SAL WILL SMITE YOU BACK TO THE FOUL GEHENNA YOU CAME FROM! HIIIIIIIIYAAAA! HOOOOOYAAAAAA!”

“Aww crap,” Jack muttered, not acknowledging the voice which sounded a little too far off to be an immediate problem. “Sorry guys, gotta run!”

“Understood.” Jack heard Vaal’s voice in the background. “Do what you need to do to stay safe! Bye for now!”

“Bye,” Jack quickly replied before hanging up.

“YOU!” Jack heard as he spun his head around to face a ridiculous sight. Dressed from head to toe in what he could barely described as a set of martial arts robes, with several different coloured belts and symbols, was a morbidly obese slug-like creature with an odd number of short spindly legs. More specifically Jack recognised him as Zhal Han the Magic Man, one of the bounty hunters that publicly announced their intention to kill him. It was clear he had been running to them, eventually slowing to a slow jog before stopping completely about 20 metres away from him, doubling over in exhaustion.

"Hngg….stop!" the 'magic man' panted. "I've…. finally found you, villain…..my ... ULTIMATE TECHNIQUES…….will… DESTROY YOU!.....just let me….catch my breath first!"

Jack knew he should probably spur the others into action and just outrun this guy who clearly couldn't keep up with them. But several things stopped him. The threat clearly wasn't that bad, and they hadn't finished their drinks….

But the main reason was that there was a huge crowd gathering around them watching intently, with several getting their devices out. No way Jack was gonna run away on camera...

"We got you guys on camera! You're going on NetTube!" One young-looking amphibian creature called out, as his friends visibly danced and made dramatic motions in the camera to hype it up for the crowd.

Jack sighed, sliding his bag off his back and walking up a little closer to the guy, out of range of any takedown attempts. He didn't see any visible weapons on the guy, but that didn't mean he didn't have any. He had seen illusion effects before, after all...

"Look mate," Jack started, really not sure how to even approach this mess. "Congrats, you found us and all that, but we're not in the mood right now…."

"OUTSIDER! YOU…...hggg….EXPECT A TRUE MASTER TO…..hggg…. RETREAT FROM HIS QUARRY?"

"We'll…" Jack started to reply. "The nice guards at the gate asked us not to cause any trouble and..."

"A TRUE MASTER HAS ZERO….hggg…. CONCERNS FOR MERE MORTALS! IF THEY DARE INTERRUPT ME THEY WILL EXPERIENCE MY ULTIMATE TECHNIQUES!" the 'master' replied.

"Didn't you get your ass kicked multiple times on video?" Nika called out as she tried to control her laughter enough to talk. "Including by my master? Sensei Rathalile?"

"BE QUIET, LITTLE GIRL!" The Magic Man replied. "THIS IS OF NO CONCERN TO A NOVICE CHILD LIKE YOU!"

Uh oh.

"That's it!” Nika growled in rage as she walked up to Jack, the other girls having more than enough sense not to try and stop her. "Jack, I admire your patience with this moron, but peace was never an option."

"Alright." Jack sighed as he shook his muscles and got into a combat stance, though Nika stopped him with a tail pat to the shoulder.

"You're not even getting the privilege of fighting Jack!" Nika raged. "You're done making a mockery of martial arts! I'll make sure of it!"

"Uh...Nika…" Jack asked, momentarily put off by the glare she gave him from interrupting. He knew why, but he had no intention of patronising her. "Hey don't look at me like that, I was going to say it's my responsibility - I'm the one he's after!"

Nika calmed down enough to give him a grin, having realised where Jack was coming from. "It's my responsibility to see this guy humiliated," she reasoned. "Besides, you've already fended off an attempt today."

"Not sure that counts." Jack snorted, remembering the koi fish father and son they met earlier that day. "All right, this guy means much more to you than me anyway." He stepped back to give Nika the space.

"YOU WISH TO FIGHT ME, LITTLE GIRL?" The magic Man laughed, turning to one of the groups in the crowd carrying cameras who were also wearing robes similar to the magic man. “TAKE NOTES, MY STUDENTS!"

"Oh I'm not gonna fight you," Nika growled. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Fight!" someone yelled out in the crowd, and just like that, it was on. The magic man immediately started spinning his arms around in a circle like some kind of warm up exercise, growling in a noise that sounded like he was imitating a helicopter. The crowd roared with laughter at the ridiculous display as Nika calmly stood still, observing the pattern and waiting for the magic man to get closer….

When he advanced to barely a few metres away, Nika made her move, wrapping her tail around one of his right legs as she leapt left, using her tail to pull her back in for a devastating double kick to the side of the magic man's head, to loud gasps from the crowd, and noises of unbridled excitement from those recording and streaming for the masses, excluding the magic man's students who just stood there in horror.

Nika had no intention of letting up though, as with a quick movement she grabbed the man's head with her hands and yanked down, using the bulky man's momentum to bowl into the small group of his students, knocking most of them to the ground to more bouts of laughter from the crowd. Still not letting go, Nika relished in the attention the crowd gave her as the magic man tried in vain to grab her and beg for mercy, made all the more humiliating for the guy by her showboating, making expressions and funny faces to the crowd before Nika got bored and changed her position, easily grabbing one of Zhal Han’s flailing arms and twisting it behind his back in a painful Kimura-esque lock, while wrapping her tail around his neck.

Seeing that their ‘master’ was getting rekt, one of the students foolishly tried to rush in and help him. He had barely taken three steps before the alert Jack had closed the distance, completely clotheslining him, before keeping a stern watch over the others, who wisely stayed put.

Knowing now that she was clear, Nika started to increase the pressure to loud cries of pain from the false Sensei. “Now,” She said coldly and calmly. “Tell us. Are those videos you post real or are your students putting on an act?”

“It’s all re-AAAAARGHHHH! No I tell them what to do!” Zhal Han yelled as Nika cranked up the pressure.

“And what about your Animatritsu Khal-Sal?” Nika asked. “Is it real?”

“N-NO!” The ‘magic man’ yelled out. “I copied some other styles I saw on TV!”

“And finally!” Nika yelled out for dramatic effect, looking at the camera. “Have you been defrauding all your financial backers and your students by doing this?”

It took a good few seconds of Nika putting pressure on the arm to get the answer she wanted.

“YES! YES! I GOT FIRED FROM MY MARKETING JOB AND REALLY NEEDED THE MONEY!” he yelled out, and Nika finally released the grip in disgust, before walking right to the nearest camera.

“You heard it here everybody.” Nika grinned as she brought up a visual display to show to the camera. “Zhal Han the magic man is a fake. If you’re interested in martial arts, we have a good network here to get you started! Check out these sites and our members can direct you to a sensei appropriate for your species…”

“Watch out!” Jack yelled as he saw Zhal Han get up and make a mad dash to Nika while her back was turned. Jack dashed to intercept him, but Nika was faster, dodging to the right and letting loose with a powerful left kick that cracked against Zhal Han’s ribs, bringing him to the ground in a writhing heap of pain. Jack had heard about the devastating debilitation of a liver shot on humans, but to see it happen in front of him to an alien being was quite something. Zhal Han the Magic Man was just done. The devastating hit left him unable to think of or do anything else other than focus on the pain, and the sheer number of cameras documenting his epic failure.

“Nice job.” Jack grinned as Nika slipped back next to him as they made their way back to their table. “But we probably need to leave as quickly as we can.”

“Yeah.” Nika sobered up, realising the implications of her little stunt. “We’ll need to buy some more snacks and refill our hydroflasks at the general store, but we’ll make it a flying visit.”

The two of them received a round of applause at their table from the rest of the grinning party, and it took Jack and Nika a few moments to realise why.

“So you mean to tell me…” Nika started in an unamused tone. “That instead of staying alert in case something bad happened, you ordered yourselves another round of drinks?”

“Yup!” Sephy grinned without any hint of remorse. “You looked like you had it well in hand!”

I agree with Sephy, we didn’t want to distract from your display! Chiyo smiled. And since we had the time we figured we could get one last round in!

“You could have at least ordered us some!” Jack replied with a snort of laughter, before Alora revealed two brightly coloured paper cups with straws she had been hiding behind her back.

“Way ahead of you!” She smiled warmly. “Now let’s get out of here!”