Run, Runner!! Ooops, too late . . .

Bambi

With us or stay behind and talk with the nice Sandmen? Shall have to ask . . . for politeness' sake if nothing else. Can't decide for them, being that they ARE in their right minds from what I've seen...

Belboz

I give the centaur female (the CLOTHED centaur, an oddity indeed!) an odd look and shake my head slightly in consternation.

Why in the bloody Hades would I stick around THIS place? Guards who pull weapons of some type on you for being in the wrong place? That's understandable, given the nature of this place: Nursery. However, though I am now physically fifteen (should know since this IS the body I'd given Lord Fred before that business with the Transform Door) I find that I do not view time as I had back then as I had while a teenager. Fifteen or sixteen years is NOT enough time for MY tastes and I . . .

. . .

I don't wish to stick around here.

"I'd rather take my chances with these 'Sandmen' if you do not mind," my reluctant companion says from the side, a bit tartly. "Frankly, I'm sick to death with all this magic and magery and I am SICK of you. That and there is no way in HELL am I going to willingly magically teleport OUT of here, no matter what you say. We part ways here and now."

"Are you insane?" I blink, looking at Fred in more than a bit of consternation.

Chiana

Funny how things like this can happen right out of the blue, isn't it? Not saying that this rather poor decision on the brown haired tralk is a laughing matter. I'm saying that is "funny" as in "strange".

We cannot change her mind and short of Inquirer bodily tackling her and haul her along kicking and screaming. That is something we loath to do, even in THIS kind of situation. Yeah, it looks like suicide to stick behind here, but then again there are a few things that ONE can do to.

After removing the utility belts from both Sandmen (and discarding their communication gear so I GUESS it cannot be used to accidentally track down the new owner of said equipment) Inquirer practically SHOVES it (guns and all) into the obstinate girl's hands. Our hand is being FORCED here because it sounds like someone ELSE has come looking for our now sleeping Sandmen.

Well, let us not make it any easier for our Sandmen to start chasing this newest Runner from their justice, shall we?

A little small spell and the unconscious men fall UP to the ceiling, collapsing into a heap up there. Heh! Hope they wake up sore, frellers! Yeah, while this "Logan" guy is supposed to be the more reasonable of the two by Inquirer's words, I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him. Trust me, I can tell from my time as a Star Runner (a smuggler type) that he'd turn us into the authority types around here.

That is what enforcer types do, enforce the law . . . Hey, only at a very later date does this Logan 5 turn on the system and that was when it turned on HIM (and not immediately at that). That is a pretty damning thing in his case . . .

Well, anyway it'll slow both him and Francis down, giving the girl here (stupid girl) more of a head start. Least I could do (and difficult enough to do this much with so many people in front of me and BLOCKING me . . . had to climb up on something to get a good enough view, heh).

. . .

Yeah, I know that IF (a likely "if" by the way) this one girl is a Fred analog, then that means that she probably has a distrust of magic and magery . I know this because Fertal told me that he'd been that way himself before having his eyes opened by becoming an elf, but does it have to mean he's so frellin' paranoid about us? We've just MET and . . .

. . .

Uh, right, I'm one to talk about trusting people I've just met, eh? Frell, I've seen it enough from MY own experience just how I am. Life

Then again, I've seen for myself through my own analogs. How I could have been . . . How things could have fallen out in my past! Hey, by meeting Chi alone I swear that she's the most feral girl I . . .

. . .

But she IS me . . .in a way. Somehow, I feel that unlike how it happened with ME on Moya when I got escape from the being transported back to Nebari Prime to be "mindcleansed" into a obedient zombie citizen I . . . somehow figure that . . .

That Chi would have gotten herself into so much trouble that she'd get killed before getting away.

With me, in the process of trying to win free of Moya (who'd been roped INTO transporting me to Nebari Prime . . . long story) I'd almost killed the ONLY person who would soon prove to do things for ME without asking for anything in return. Some kind of ethics and fair play (as it were) didn't allow me to kill him from behind without warning. Sentimentality.

Chi . . . didn't strike me as letting such things get in her way to get what she wanted, back then (she's grown up a bit . . .frell, did I just say that?). Well, I'm saying that somehow I have a vision: she'd have killed Crichton (her Crichton ), probably calling him a fool afterwards for having trusted her. Then, she'd go scurrying down to the Pod bay to steal a Transport Pod . . . and gotten gunned down by "her" D'Argo (who'd taken a sniper position in wait).

Honestly, somehow I have a feeling (and dragons do NOT ignore such things) that Chi had a date with death if we'd not dropped into the middle of things. Not that I've shared with her this feeling: too ghoulish....

But I'm saying here is that even IF this Fred may not be quiet like Fertal here, they're close enough (like I'm close to Chi) to be able to make guesses, see? That stuff about ME is kind of leading up to why I believe that Fred is acting the way (the reasons she's acting) she is.

Fred

I mean it, I'm not going anywhere with these . . . magic user types. Bloody had a belly full of it, thank YOU.

"You're making a big mistake Fred," the woman with the glowing gem sighs, thrusting the gear (weapons and all) into my arms. "But we don't have time to argue."

A quick gesture and I find that I'm suddenly wearing a yellow . . . gausy dress that has a shockingly brief skirt to it! The gear is nowhere to be seen . . . but I'm still holding it. Illusion!

"You'll blend in now long enough to get away," Inquirer (strange name for a rather strange woman) hisses. "Get your ass out of here. Get it to Cathederal since it's the only halfway safe place for types like you have to run with. Do NOT tell them your age EVER there because 16 year olds get booted out by the Cubs there. And above all frelling ELSE, do not seek Sanctuary because it does not exist. It's a Runner's pipe dream and nothing more. Remember that."

Well, at least I won't have to take a teleportation spell out of here. Bugger that! I hear tales of where this one fool mage once miscasted that and got his body mixed up with a house fly. Soon, guy grew a head of a giant fly and . . . it was UGLY, that whole business. . .

But . . .maybe I should actually go with the . . .

NO, I just met these freaks and I'm NOT going!

Anyway, this Inquirer pauses a few seconds, glaring in the direction of the voice calling for Logan and Francis and then back at me. She sighs, seeing that I'm still quiet set on going my own way.

Inquirer

Damnit, why is it that I just have to have that little moral that states that I will NOT force someone to do what I feel is best for them, even though I know that they're wrong? Then again, this girl IS a grownup and IN her right mind (unlike some others I've interceded for in the past).

She wants to play Runner, then I cannot force her to come along . . . because while I'm quick and all that . . .doesn't mean I can just go and FORCE people to do what I feel is right. Bullying people isn't what I do....

Would like to see that other Sandman's face when he sees the job that Chiana did now, putting Francis and Logan up on the ceiling there and . . .

Shit.

Wait, just had a thought and . . .

Quick glance at tricorder suddenly confirms what I fear. Pincher movement. No way out.

Oh FUCKIT! I don't have time to explain THIS latest twist to the twerp here!!

Bop!!

Yep, didn't even see it coming . . . though the jaw of this one will be VERY sore for a long time (and she'll be sore at ME for a VERY, VERY long time for denying her decision).

See, the problem here though is that there is no place to run. No place to hide except . . .

1. Flash of light. Feeling of displacement and voila, back on Terra Prime we ARE.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree