“This don’t concern you, Jasper! Scram!” yelled out one of the guys.
“Yeah!” agreed another. “Else you’ll find yerself neck-deep in a pile of dung not even you can fathom!”
“So, big baller clients, then,” she replied with a chuckle. “They paid you to bring the kid here to… cut his hand? And tryin’ to raise the dead?”
“Back off, Jas,” Kader warned, shaking his head. “Forces far beyond you and I are at play here. We are currently standing in the Tomb of Orochihana!”
“What?!” Jasper seemed genuinely disturbed by the revelation. “Impossible!”
Mallory could have sworn he’d heard that name before, but couldn’t quite remember from where. Orochihana… Could that be… the snake woman from my dream? But she never spoke… What the hell is going on…
“It’s true. Took us ages to find though,” Kader insisted. “Look, we may have had our spats in the past, but I’d rather not have to kill you. Leave while you can…”
“If you’re tryin’ to resurrect the Serpent Queen with that boy’s blood, then that means…” she said before pausing for a moment, looking at Mallory. “This is the child of Hikari Miyazoko…”
The teen raised his eyebrows high. “What does my mother have to do with this?”
“Shut the brat up!” the leader commanded his men, who grabbed the boy and shoved a wad of cloth in his mouth. “Jas, this is your last warning.”
She smirked and gripped her hilt tighter. “Then consider me warned!” On the last word, she lunged forward, unsheathing her sword and stabbing at Kader, who side-stepped the incoming attack.
“Damn bitch!” he cried out as he just barely dodged a second attempt by Jasper. She then unleashed a flurry of swipes and swings, which Kader just barely managed to avoid. Amidst the struggle, the feisty woman dropped down and slid a thin metal device across the floor, which began emitting a piercing, high-pitched whirring.
All the hog-men shrieked at the sound, momentarily disoriented. Jasper threw Mallory over her shoulder and fled the chamber, running through the tunnels and back up towards the forest clearing where DBN-227 was still standing.
“Welcome back!” he greeted them excitedly. “Did you have fun playing caveman?”
“He’s the one who brought me here!” Mallory said after spitting out the cloth. “He’s with them!”
“Not anymore, love,” she assured him as she set him back on the ground. “After you guys went underground, I hacked him. Meet Dublin.”
“Dublin?” the boy asked, confused.
“Well, I had to give him a new name as part of the reprogrammin’,” Jasper explained. “DBN has letters from Dublin and he’s got an Irish accent, so I just went with that. Anyway, we need to get you out of here. What’s your name, kid?”
“Mallory. Mallory Dane.”
“Okay. Dublin,” she turned to the droid, who perked up. “Bring Mallory back to the exact location you grabbed him from. You keep him safe, okay?”
“Sure thing, Master Jasper!” he replied, but stood in place.
“Um, I meant, like… now?” she clarified.
“Of course! I am standing by for a Hyperjump Lane to be initiated!”
“What?! You mean you can’t do that yourself?!” she cried out, summoning a holographic screen from a device on her forearm and tapping away frantically. “Your specs show that you’re equipped with a hyperdrive!”
“I’m sorry, Master! Kader Dunn locked that functionality behind a separate firewall! Only he has access to that!” Dublin explained.
“Bloody hell!” she snapped in frustration, then continued typing away furiously. “Maybe I can break it. Maybe I can… Oh Kader you clever pile of rat dung… Maybe…”
“Is there another way back home?” Mallory asked, constantly looking back towards the entrance to the tunnels.
“My ship has a hyperdrive, but we don’t have time to make it there,” Jasper explained. “I parked it far away so that I could sneak up on those damn pigs…”
“Maybe we can - whoa!” the boy yelped out as a throwing dagger narrowly missed his cheek and stuck into the ground. The Prowlers were now pouring out into the clearing, angry scowls on their faces.
“Balls!” Jasper growled and pulled her sword out once more.
“Now you’ve really pissed us off!” Kader screamed. “You had your chance to run! Kill her, but the boy lives!” The men circled around the three of them and began closing in.
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