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RP: The Wayward Business Negotiations (Ep. 2.2)

The thugs weren't planning on wasting their ammo, when the two fell behind the container they slowed their firing, waiting for them to come out. With their numbers it was easy to always have someone ready to shoot and when they stuck their heads out they always responded, thankfully they were not the best shots so Adiel and Ash managed to keep their faces intact for the moment. Their own shots off target due to how little time they had to aim before they had to return behind the crate. The goons spreading out behind the buildings and cans to make sure they were in cover afterwards.
 
After she fired, Ash risked a chance on the goons staying in cover for the time being. She leapt out from behind her cover and sprinted towards Adiel's wallet, sliding on the asphalt to halt her advance just as she passed the item in question. She fired two more purple beams in the goons' direction to keep their heads down, before she swiped up the wallet and booked it back towards the cover of the cargo container. If she was lucky, Ash would hopefully have acted suddenly enough to avoid being shot in the back.

Upon reaching her original position, Ash would toss the wallet towards Adiel.

"Now we're even. Take us to your ship! Saravni!"
 
Unbeknownst to Ash, Adiel had no intentions- and no way- to take her with him. He wouldn't tell her now, when he still needed help. Later, he would have to break the news.

He glady took his wallet.

"Fire a few more shots. Get them to duck. Then, follow me." He instructed. He then sauntered away, switching mags. Chase's crew would hopefully keep shooting at the cargo container. Meanwhile, they could head deeper into the labrynth, and find a door out of here.
 
Ash nodded and leaned out from behind the container. She fired a few more beams from her laiz pistol to keep their assailant's heads down and then ran after Adiel.

"Who are these people?" she asked urgently, catching up to the Elysian and running beside him.

She kept glancing over her shoulder to see if the gunmen had pursued them yet.
 
Adiel, on the other hand, seemed quite calm as he casually, yet briskly, strolled along.

"These fine gentlemen," explained the angel in a cool, collected tone of voice. "Have recently suffered the loss of their employer. They seem to be under the misguided impression that I had something to do with it."

Now where was a door? The duo approached the rear of the building with the loading dock. Ah, there it was! Locked? Adiel tested the knob. Locked. They always were.

"Ash, be a dear and cover me for a moment?" Asked Adiel politely as he pulled out a set of lockpicks and got to work.
 
The goons were no too keen on letting Adiel escape a second time and quickly began to give chase, firing at them as they ran. However things only became more complicated as they ran. As Adiela nd Ash turned a corner, Origin Security was there, with their weapons weapons ready to detain everyone present.

"Drop your weapons and turn yourselves in!" Barked the head of the security team. But before Adiel and Ash could reply the goons were rounding the corner.

Surprised by the sudden group appearing the security team lifted their weapons and tried to give out the same commands, but the thugs started to shoot, both at Adiel and the security. Of course this prompted the security team to move to cover and begin firing back as well. Ash and Adiel were stuck in between two trigger happy groups, walls on both sides, however there was a narrow passage on one side.
 
In the split second before the shooting, Adiel felt his heart stop. The world slowed once more, and he vaguely remembered belly-flopping onto the concrete. This was, of course, after he'd roughly shoved Ash to the ground. Why? He'd never know. Most likely because she hadn't quite outlived her usefulness yet, but perhaps maybe because somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, he'd felt a small spark of compassion. He knew getting caught in a wall of bullets wasn't a good way to go for a simple pick pocket.

Bullets struck all around, some even creating holes in his suit jacket. They would hit the ground and send small, stinging shards of concrete flying up into his face, drawing blood and causing him to clench his eyes shut. The world was strangely quiet.

"ASH!" He felt himself shout over the hellish cacophony. "ASH! CRAWL AWAY! CRAWL! AWAY!"

With Elysian Navy training, Adiel was able to keep as flat as a pancake as he scrambled for the passage he'd seen in the short amount of time they'd had.
 
Ash nodded in reply to Adiel and then as they rounded the corner, suddenly DawnSec was there! The security officers paused for just a moment before the goons rounded the corner.

Gunfire. Projectiles flew through the air in an attempt to bury themselves into their intended targets.

Ash had hesitated from her shock just a moment too long, but Adiel had the advantage of military training and reacted faster, shoving Ash roughly to the ground. The hard pavement meeting with bones and soft tissue was the jolt that was needed to snap Ash back into the moment.

"Nightmares," Ash muttered to herself. "Nightmares on this whole station," she cursed as she franticly crawled on her belly towards the small side passage as bullets zipped past her head.
 
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Bullets were everywhere and it did not look like any side had any real intention of letting up. As the two caught in the middle crawled, bullets whizzed by above them, occasionally one would pass much lower near them. It was one of these bullets that struck Adiel's wing as they they tried to cross. It was a pain terrible pain, but if they stopped it was only likely to get worse.

They made it to the passage but it was only wide enough for one person at a time, obviously not intended to actually be traversed. The passage way was long and dark, but there was light on the other side, it lead to somewhere, but they wouldn't be able to tell just where until they got through it.
 
The adrenaline helped to mitigate the pain, at least for the moment. Adiel knew that he was in for a world of pain regardless. Scrambling madly, he made it to the passage and squeezed his way inside. Once he stood up and caught his breath, that's when it hit him: a red-hot branding iron being pressed into his flesh, refusing to leave it. In that moment, Adiel cried out and clutched at his appendage. He cursed several times and stumbled a little.

He finally managed to regain his composure, mostly. He clenched his teeth and breathed heavily through his nose. He could feel blood beginning to trickle through his feathers. It didn't matter right now. At least he hadn't been shot in the leg, like last time.

Adiel didn't bother to look back to see if Ash had followed. Instead, he pressed onward as fast as the tight space would allow, towards the light, and away from this madness.
 
Ash crawled toward the passage, managing to reach it with only some minor scrapes. She hopped up onto her feet ran into the narrow passageway, her laiz pistol at the ready. She followed behind Adiel, watching behind them should any of the thugs or DawnSec pursue.

Ash matched Adiel's quickened pace, noticing him cursing and favoring one of his wings. It was faint but there seemed to be a dark wet patch in the midst of Adiel's black feathers. Ash stepped closer and examined the wing, noticing blood oozing from a bullet wound.

"You're hit!" she exlaimed.

"The faster we arrive at your ship the better; that wound needs to be remedied," said Ash, glancing over her shoulder down the passageway again. She thought about removing her gloves and touching the wing; her innate empathy would allow her to share Adiel's pain and gain a basic understanding of his wing's structure. But no, she would not. There would be too much confusion; Adiel needed his wits if they were to escape their imminent death.

"I can help you. But first we need to run far from here."
 
The space between the two groups of armed men turned into a no man's land. Neither side could make a push without fear of being shot up by the others so they had to fight back and forward. This gave Adiel and Ash plenty of time to traverse the narrow path, it felt like it went on forever as the bullets rang out behind them, but before they knew it they had reached the end of the path. They had finally reached the light at the end of the path and they were pretty sure they were still alive as well. What they saw in front of them was something strange, and unexpected, it was not exactly the a ghetto or slums, but rather a hide away. Between the large pristine buildings were maintenance halls and places where things just didn't line up perfectly this created a maze of passages and they stood at the convergence of several, it looked like a scene from a painting.
 
'No shit!' Adiel spat internally. The pain in his wing was doing little for his already sour mood. 'Ah! Finally! Get out of this shit-hole, onto my ship, take a warm shower and-!'

"God damn it!" he ground out through his teeth upon reaching the several split paths. He waved a hand at Ash dismissively. he figured scruffy little urchins like her had to know their way about places like this.

"You're a local! figure this out! Quickly now, before I kill something!" he snarled, and leaned heavily against a wall, glaring daggers down the passage. Right now, all he wanted to do was go back and brutally murder everyone in that alley...
 
"The last thing we need is more attention! Put snow on your head!" hissed Ash. "Killing someone else will just bring more security and more of your 'friends'. Follow my lead," she said shoving her pistol into the holster on her thigh. She pulled her duster closer around her frame and then starting walking towards the left-most path. They seemed to be in a shanty town of sorts, but as of yet it appeared deserted, likely due to the gunfire. Her eyes automatically began to search for anything of use that appeared to be unowned; a thrown out power cell, a damaged piece of electronics, but especially fabric or medical supplies. While Adiel might be disagreeable, she was not going to let him bleed out if she could do something about it.

While Ash was not certain as to her location, her sharp eyes glanced back and forth looking for landmarks or street signs that might point them towards a main road. Hopefully a main road which would then lead them to whatever spaceport Adiel supposedly had his ship.
 
The paths they traveled were a labyrinth of back alleys and maintenance corridors far removed from the main roads. Though it was not difficult to find scraps of cloth, their sanitation was questionable at best. However the further they went, the deeper it seemed to go and they could not go back which way they came of course. After crossing from one path to another over and over they finally could see a soft glow of light up ahead, it was yellow, though, not the light from the station's day lights it must've been coming from somewhere else.
 
Adiel was, oddly, quite taken aback by Ash's officious personality. Normally, people who knew him knew better than to speak to him in such a fashion... or else. It was quite a slap to the face. However, he saw the merit in her words, and kept quite. He followed her silently, occasionally grunting as a sudden jolt of his wing caused the pain to spike. Sadly, he knew he was probably going to have to enlist her aid to fix it. There weren't any black market doctors he could visit in such a short time frame.

"That light," he muttered. "There, up ahead! Hopefully Sector 8."
 
Despite finding some scraps of cloth, they were soiled with dirt and were not suitable for use as bandages. Ash left the cloth where it lay and continued onward, traversing the unfamiliar passages with a sense of urgency. She would occasionally glance over her shoulder at Adiel to make sure he was still following her.

There was light up ahead. Adiel muttered something about it hopefully being Sector 8.

"Hopefully you are correct," said Ash, keeping her eyes peeled for anything that would tell her where they were currently located.
 
It was not a long walk till they made it to the soft yellow glow, and then with a turn down the path they were able to see just what was generating the light. They could see a fire burning and it was not unattended, there were two men who looked homeless idling around the fire to keep themselves warm. They wore jackets and it didn't look like either of them was Yamataian, in fact it was hard to tell what they were. Those versed in Nepleslian culture would probably realize they were a mix of some of the sentient alien genetics prevalent in their territory. Whatever they were though they noticed the two and turned to look at them as one with scales on his face spoke up. "Lossst?"
 
"Locals," thought Ash as she approached the two men standing around the fire.

"Uh...Good day to you," said Ash with a fake smile, her left hand placed strategically on her left hip. She gestured towards Adiel behind her.

"My friend and I ran into a bit of trouble, and honestly we both lost our bearings. We are trying to find our way towards Sector 8 and the nearest spaceport. Any chance you might be able to point us in the right direction?"

"They will ask for something in return, of course," thought Ash. "Could just kill them and be done with it afterwards. No one would miss a hobo."

"No! That is not you anymore! Work it out."

Ash smiled politely, hoping that the two men would give them the information they needed and then let them be on their way.
 
Adiel allowed Ash to do the talking. He didn't really feel like it. His thoughts were pretty much aligned with hers, though he wasn't having many second thoughts about erasing the tramps.

"Think we could take them, should they be disagreeable?" he whispered into her ear, leaning forward over her shoulder. "I am not in the mood for peasant-antics at the moment."
 
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