The Rat's Nest [Solo]

Chapter 1: Mugged

The light os the setting sun ran liquid honey across the streets. Burnished cold cobblestones tapped innocently beneath my feet as I made my way back to my lodgings. I had had quite a successful day at the market, trading odds and ends, lining up contracts and even had two big sales from some trinkets I picked up in Alerar. The day was going well, at least up until the point I reached the Fifth Street bridge.

“OI LOVA!” rang out the cockney twang of the Eastern Radasanth slur, “where you walking to on this fine day?”

A skinny man stepped out from the shadows of the bridge with his hands tucked behind the laples of his dirty coat. He looked much like he sounded, cheap and dirty, with the airs and freshness of an old boot. The setting sun made it hard to see who else was lurking in the darkness. The golden line of cobblestones was cut off by the dark shadows. I would have been only able to make out silhouettes from the light on the other side of the bridge, and anyone crouching or sitting in the darkness was completely hidden.

“The day’s almost gone good sir,” I replied, playing my part as I squinted through the setting sunlight at him, “and like any good soul I’m heading back to my family before me brothers come looking and give me a tongue lashing.”

“We wouldn’t want that missy, would we?” he asked as he slowly edged forwards.

I could see at least two other people move behind him.

“May I ask as to what is the name of the gentleman that I have the pleasure of speaking?” I ventured.

The man kept the cheesy smile on his face, it didn’t flicker for one moment.

“You may ask, but you’ll not get, my little chit. That’ll be my secret today.”

I reached into my cloak and seemingly at the very same movement the man darted forwards. I pulled out the pistol at my waist and leveled it towards him, but he was just too fast. His hand struck my wrist, before i could lose a shot. The strike sent a wave of tingling numbness down my arm and my hand released the pistol despite my efforts. The strike had been masterful, I'll admit to that. He had hit the underside of my wrist and the tendons just below the skin to cause an uncontrolled spasm in my hand.

“FUCK!” I screamed.

The assailant wrapped his hand around my wrist and stepped around me, bring my arm up behind my back and effectively locking me in place.

“Let me go right now, or I swear to Draconis I will flay the skin from your bones and boil your blood…” my voice was quiet and quivering with rage.

“Lova, you ain't in no position to threaten me,” he replied.

From the shadows of the bridge three more men emerged. Two were larger than him, one especially fat. The third was younger, barely in his teens and trailed behind the others.

“I could scream,” I warned.

“and I could slit ya bleed’n throat and run off before anyone’d know,” my assailant replied.

I felt a pit of dread settle in my bowels, these guys had done this stuff before.

“We've been following ya since you made that big sell at the market. Plus Tiny here has taken a shining to ya something awful,” the fat man said gesturing to the large man next to him. I now.also had to deal with ironic nicknames as well as the threat of robbery and possibly worse.

“I was running errands for my employer, I never hold onto his money!” I bluffed.

The fat one grunted as he picked up pistol and turned it over in his hands. I cursed beneath my breath.

“I don't think so missy, you are a lot more than some errand girl,”

“Woman,” I corrected, “or scum like you can call me lady.”

Chapter 2: Don’t Underestimate

There was no way i was going to let a trio of wankers take my hard earned gold. Risks be damned, repercussions be damned. The cockney one behind me tightened his grip and pushed my arm up a bit. I yelped with pain and was forced to stand on my toes to ease his grip.

“My, my, quite the uppity one ain't ya? Have you finally dropped your acts? Is this the real girl yet?”

“Oh, you see the real me you piece of crap, right when I'm roasting you like a pig!”

I'll be the first to admit that I may have lost my cool, and that I probably could have tried talking my way out of the situation a bit longer. Unfortunately I didn't. I didn't like to be manhandled, let alone with the threat of death… or other things hanging around to.

“Ow!” my assailant yelled, followed by another, louder shout.

“What's the matter with you?” asked the fat one.

My arm was released as a spurt of blue flame arched out from behind my back. The man stumbled backwards, and I away from him. This time he wasn't fast enough. Liquid blue fire was still dripping from the release valve on my wrist when I poured out another wave of fire directly into the chest of the cockney prick. He howled in pain and surprise as the flames engulfed him. A thundering of steps came from behind me as the one called Tiny dropped his shoulder and charged into me.

My breath was knocked out, my body lifted off the ground and tumbling along the cobblestones. I tried to right myself as i felt two arms wrap around me and lift me off the ground. I shouted in pain as Tiny squeezed me in a bear hug, threatening to crush my ribs with his abnormal strength. My arms were trapped, I couldn't get an angle to use my flames without spraying myself in the face. While I was immune to their heat, it'd be like whacking in myself in the face with chili powder. There was something that I could do, something shocking.

I twisted my hand and grabbed Tiny’s forearm. The shock glove crackled and burst electric glory. Tiny shouted, his arm involuntarily spasmed and released me and I wiggled out of his grip with the other. I dropped to a crouched and pointed both hands at him before he could recover. A double jet of flames burst from my wrists and engulfed the top half of his body. He screamed and a bell sounded.