The door banged open loudly, and the men inside jerked in
alarm. She leapt inside the room, tucking into a roll even as energy
blasts were fired at her. She reached cover and raised her weapon, her
own gun discharging loudly. There were several yelps of pain as
weapons were struck, then clattered loudly to the floor.
The dark haired woman rose, a particularly irritable look on
her boyish face. Her long coat fluttered around her legs, her shirt
bound tightly across her chest by straps of leather. She raised her
gun again smoothly, meeting the frightened eyes of the three men
cooly.
"I have had about enough of this," Amara said simply,
"surrender now, or I will not be responsible for the consequences."
The men exchanged glances, there was a long moment of absolute
silence, then as one they raised their hands in surrender.
"You know," Amara said to the bail officer as she handed them
over to collect her bounty, "a few years ago, I wouldn't have even
given them a chance."
"Oh come on," her business manager Jack scoffed from her seat
at her desk as the men were taken away, "you were never that bad." The
woman pushed her short red hair back as she added, "If so, I wouldn't
be here right now."
"You were a special case," Amara smiled back slightly. Quietly
she asked, "Any rumors about the Princess Jenna case?"
"X'orn's coming," Jack said simply.
"X'orn?!" Amara repeated in surprise. "He's a stone cold
killer. Why would he be taking on a bounty like this?" she scowled.
"I understand that the Queen is.. displeased with her
daughter's running away," Jack sighed, "displeased enough that she's
not insisting on Jenna being brought back to her alive."
"Son of a bitch," Amara murmured.
"X'orn is that," Jack agreed.
"That's not what I meant," Amara scowled. She walked to the
office window, looking out at the bad part of town they were based in
as she considered what to do. "I've got to go warn Allison," she
finally sighed.
"Look," Jack said, "I didn't argue with you when you said you
had to drop out of the hunt for Princess Jenna for personal reasons."
A breath and a nervous hand run through short red hair, "But crossing
X'orn is suicide."
"Maybe so," Amara said in dead seriousness, "but I also owe
Allison, and it's a debt that I'm determined to repay."
"What do you owe her that's so important?" Jack asked softly.
Amara stopped in the doorway long enough to simply say, "She
gave me her Twinkie."
The door swung shut behind the bounty hunter, leaving Jack
sitting there with the oddest look on her face. Finally she managed,
"What?"
Over at the bookstore Allison was going over the accounts,
casually fending off Jenna's persistant attempts to cuddle, and also
watching her two newest employees busy at work. They both had
different styles of selling, but both seemed to work quite well.
Roma calmly talked to the customers, quickly determined what
they were looking for, then zoomed in on it with a great deal of
efficiency. She didn't talk to them muuch, and they seemed to like
that. A certain type of scholarly customer seemed to be drawn to her,
appreciating that sort of impersonal service.
On the other end of the spectrum was Marilyn. Her basic mode
of operation was to nearly adopt the customer, bowling them over with
cheerful chatter about their potential purchase or anything else that
might pop into her head. Oddly, people rather liked that, and Allison
suspected they were getting repeat customers based on Marilyn's
entertainment value alone.
Jenna leaned into her ear to quietly ask Allison, "Do you want
me to wear the pink nightie or the blue one tonight?"
Allison blushed, and noticed Kat grinning at her impishly. 'Am
I ever going to get teased,' she thought, 'I wish I could control my
blushing better.'
"Or maybe the new nightgown," Jenna added, mentioning a nearly
transparent piece of nightwear she had startled Allison with a few
nights ago.
"One of the nighties, please," Allison managed weakly. 'I
can't believe I'm in this situation,' she thought to herself.
The front bell rang and Sharin cautiously made her way inside
the bookstore, looking around her cautiously every step of the way.
After a few moments of watching this Jenna just had to ask,
"What's wrong?"
"Guess I was sor of expecting Milly to jump on me again,"
Sharin admitted. An odd expression appeared on the blonde haired
woman's face as she softly murmured, "I kind of miss it."
"Banzai!" came from above her.
Thump! Sharin sprawled to the floor, stunned.
"Got you," Milly grinned from her perch on her back. The
redheaded catgirl got up, brushing off her maid's uniform before
offering Sharin her hand.
"I knew I spoke too soon," Sharin grumbled good naturedly as
Milly easily pulled her to her feet. 'She's strong,' she filed that
fact away.
"Hey," Allison gave Jenna's friend and occasional sparring
partner a wave before asking, "what can we do for you?"
"More like what I can do for you," Sharin sighed, "it seems
that there's another bounty hunter who's after Jenna."
"Do you know who it is?" Marilyn asked worriedly.
"Not yet," Sharin sighed, "but I've got my souce working on
it."
"I know," the cool and very familiar voice of Amara spoke up
from the front door of the store. She closed the door behind her then
locked it quite deliberately.
"How did you find us again?" Allison blinked in surprise.
Amara smiled slightly, "Your name is on the lease."
Allison blinked, "Oh."
"Are you still after the price on Jenna's head?" Sharin asked,
stepping between Amara and Jenna. She wasn't surprised, somehow, by
Milly mirroring her move to stand beside her.
"No," Amara shook her head firmly, "I dropped out because of
my personal connection to the case."
"Personal connection?" Kat slid up beside Allison to ask her
suggestively.
Allison went red, "It's not like that, you pervert."
"Too bad," Kat sighed. She looked over at Amara admiringly,
"So who is it, then?"
"X'orn," Amara said bleakly.
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