Galactic High

Their evening had been solemn after the news broke. Chiyo had worked the rest of the night doubling and tripling their magical security, while Alora called the Church of Astara in a panic, who had no idea why Devil’s Daughter had an interest in Jack, least of all why she put her Hunter’s Mark on him. Jack had seen what the warlock was capable of during her fight with the Killer Klown, and though he kept his emotions hidden from the others he was genuinely terrified that the powerful spellcaster was now apparently coming after him, especially after seeing her brutally execute Little Miss Massacre. According to the others, it was apparently highly unusual for her to even bother placing the mark before striking out at a target, and she was supposedly a highly potent vigilante with a fiery reputation for eliminating particularly evil bounties and dark organisations.

So why the hell was she after him? Did she lump him in the same category?

Sleep did not come easily to Jack that night. Dante was allowed to freely roam the house and yet chose to stay with him, for which he was thankful for. But even with the gentle breathing of the ‘dog’ for company, it did little to ease his paranoia. He had gone to see the Oracle for answers and instead came back with more questions and more mysteries.

And enemies.

Svaartal, The Drow, whoever was behind Dubakuu, and whatever else was lurking in the shadows. Devil’s Daughter aside, he would probably have to deal with all of them one way or another, or die in the attempt.

Eventually, his exhausted body caught up to his active mind, and his eyes finally closed.

When they opened again, Jack had no idea how much time had passed, but something was wrong. It was still dark outside, with barely enough light to see. Dante had clearly wandered off somewhere and Jack could feel a cold wind tickle his face. He had kept his door ajar so the ‘dog’ could leave if they wanted to, which was now wide open. He could hear a noise downstairs, sort of like a low humming accompanied by thundering footsteps. Jack was up instantly with his gun and tried to activate an emergency ping to the others on his commlink, but the thing didn’t respond.

Shit. He could either hide and risk harm to the others, or he could risk facing the danger alone.

Gripping his knife tightly, Jack snuck down the corridor towards where Alora’s room was, but to his horror his path was blocked by a wall of gnarled brick and dark metal. Cursing, he looked back and only saw the steps leading down, beckoning him.

‘Screw that.’ Jack thought, avoiding the obvious trap as he climbed out of one of the exposed windows, dropping down with a quiet thump, before he looked up and realised he was somehow now in the living room, amidst a scene of horror. Dead bodies scattered the floor. Alora with her throat slit, eyes wide in horror as she stared up at him. Nika’s mangled body with her chest caved in, slumped against a wall. Sephy’s burned corpse smouldering at Jack’s feet. Pale white blood and chunks of blue flesh, the only remains of Chiyo scattered everywhere, and a mutilated body of Dante. And they weren’t the only ones. Luvia, Vanya, Svaarti, Nya, Rayle, Zayle, Vaal, Kritch. Everywhere Jack turned, he was faced with the death of one of his friends.

“This is what awaits them,” a female voice sneered from behind him. Jack snapped round, finding nothing, only seeing the scarred body of Krill.

“You are a survivor….” the voice continued “....but are they?” Jack aimed at wherever he thought the voice was coming from.

“It will be your fault,” the voice sneered again.

“This isn’t real!” Jack yelled, as the voice cackled with mocking laughter. “You’re not real!” he yelled louder, as the evil laughter rose to meet him. Jack looked around, following the voice with his gun as it travelled just out of sight, not seeing anything until he turned one last time to see a hooded figure standing and watching him. With dark red skin and black robes, Jack instantly recognised Devil’s Daughter staring right at him, staff raised.

Consumed by panic, Jack levelled his gun with a terrified yell, barely holding back on pulling the trigger as he suddenly realised that she wasn’t there. In fact, in noticing his surroundings, he could see the light of day peeking through the windows of his room. The cold breeze had been replaced by something else, and something instinctual within him realised that Dante had quickly hopped up on Jack’s bed to check on the human. Jack still had his gun raised, levelled at the opposite wall and barely registering why as he kept hyperventilating, the fright being slow to go away.

Jack barely noticed as Chiyo dashed into his room without knocking and glided over to him, ignoring his mumbled excuse of ‘just a nightmare’ to put her arms around him in a hug. She must have sensed his aura and got worried. The two of them just stayed like that for a while, not saying anything, as the rational part of Jack’s mind calmed him down. He was safe. He was among friends who cared for him. Whatever just happened was over now.

Alora eventually joined too, with the others looking in as the Eladrie gently pried the gun from Jack’s fingers and set it on a nearby table before everyone came into his room, trying to make Jack feel better. He was numb to it at first, however, barely registering what was happening around him as his mind tried to process it all.

“Jack, are you ok?” Alora finally asked him worriedly.

“Yes,” Jack lied. “It was just a nightmare. Sorry I woke you all.”

“A nightmare?” Sephy asked, confused.

“A bad dream.” Jack clarified. “Something that happens involuntarily to sleeping humans when they’ve gone through a lot of shit.”

“Jack…” Alora began again. “Chiyo says that something targeted you with something magical that partially penetrated through our security. What happened?”

“What?” Jack asked in confusion. “Something attacked me?”

“We don’t know.” Alora sighed in relief. “Whatever it was, it doesn't have any lasting effects that we can see. What did you see?”

“It was dark, I woke up here and thought there was an intruder so I got up to confront them. I saw all of you dead on the floor with a bunch of friends. I heard whispers coming from all around me, then Devil’s Daughter appeared and I woke up when I tried to shoot her!”

It could have been Devil’s Daughter, then. Chiyo told the others. There aren’t many spellcasters that could get through what I threw up.

“Oh gods…” Alora gasped. “But why?”

“If I had to guess,” Jack rationalised. “Dubakuu wasn’t what we expected because of the cyberware. Maybe Devil’s Daughter is similar?”

“Surely not!” Sephy argued. “She’s a hero! And much more powerful than Dubakuu was! And she only goes for bad guys!”

“Publically, you mean,” Nika argued. “If she can cast spells at Jack remotely, who knows who else she’s taken out without anyone even knowing.”

The worst thing is that we have no way of realistically retaliating that I can think of. Chiyo pointed out. I’m as shocked as all of you are, but Devil’s Daughter has made her intentions clear.

******

Since everyone had woken up early and were reasonably refreshed from the weekend, breakfast was a special affair, with Nika taking time to cook them a hearty meal which reminded Jack of a Surf ‘n’ Turf from Earth. There were crispy vegetables of many strange textures and colours that went down very well with the juicy chunks of fish and meat, which Nika had assured them was a perfectly healthy meal for them to start with, though Chiyo didn’t look too amused at the lack of sweet stuff. Between that and the rigorous exercise he had undertaken on waking up, Jack had begun to feel better.

Of course, it was then that Sephy decided it would be the perfect time to discuss who else wanted to kill him today.

“Wow! There’s some good news at least!” the Skritta exclaimed. “Nearly all the hunters that put their mark on you before have taken them off! Most of the bounties have been removed too, it’s just House Mal’Kar and the other new accounts from yesterday that remain.”

“So pretty much just the Drow then, if we’re right in thinking the hacker is likely working for them,” Jack replied after downing another energy drink to properly wake him up. “I’m guessing the rest of the hunters and the clients must have heard about what happened to the Red Legion Aspirants after they ambushed us?”

“Well, that’d mostly be just anyone at the school,” Nika argued. “It’ll mainly be Devil’s Daughter scaring the rest off, though it looks like The Redeemer is actually now dead, maybe I hit him…..oh no. Looks like Svaartal claimed his bounty,” Nika paused for a moment as she looked at her device. “Huh…Zhal-Han might be dead too, judging by a few of the latest comments, but that hasn’t been confirmed. Even if he doesn’t remove his Mark, he’s not a real threat.”

“So Devil’s Daughter is the only threat we’ll face bounty-wise?” Alora asked.

“I never said that!” Sephy sighed. “We’ve got a few that actually put their Marks on Jack AFTER Devil's Daughter did.”

Not to mention our other enemies that’ll take the opportunity if we give it to them. Chiyo cautioned. We’re likely to encounter Svaartal again at school.

“What about the ones that have matched Devil’s Daughter?” Nika asked, interested. “They’ve gotta be brave or crazy to risk crossing her this early!”

“Looks like we’ve only got two of them for now,” Sephy murmured. “You might have heard of this guy, Chiyo, we’ve got ‘Dr Reyaz Grine’, he’s a creepy-looking dude.”

Let me see that! Chiyo asked Sephy as the tablet was handed over. Yes I recognise this guy, it’s the Vivisectionist from the news a year back! He’s got a bigger bounty on him than Jack!

“For real?” Sephy asked, as Alora seemingly recognised the photo.

“I didn’t know this guy was still alive!” the Eladrie replied, looking at the profile. “He’s an enemy of Devil’s Daughter, and is obviously doing this to get her attention since they are known to have fought twice before with neither one being able to kill the other.”

“Maybe we can use that then?” Jack reasoned. “Get them to fight each other and we take down the survivor, or maybe cut a deal with this guy if he’s not so bothered about me.”

That got an interesting look from the others, before Alora shot it down.

“List of main offences include body-snatching, torture by way of vivisection and mass murder, including that of children,” she deadpanned with raised eyebrows at Jack.

“I stand corrected, fuck that.” The human gave a grimace as he was handed the tablet, then he looked at the intimidating visage. Shorter than he was and covered in dirty leathers and rags, the Vivisectionist had a sharp, angular, heavily scarred face twisted into an evil scowl, with pale white skin like a corpse amplifying his hateful yellow eyes and unkept, bright-red hair. “Well I don’t think he’ll be able to sneak up on me,” Jack quipped.

You would be surprised. Chiyo countered. Anyone able to hold his own against Devil’s Daughter is no joke, and this guy is highly intelligent.

“I know.” Jack sighed after that was translated for him. “Who’s the other one?”

Sephy showed Jack the picture, and he immediately burst out laughing. “IS THAT KERMIT THE FROG WITH TWO SAMURAI SWORDS SMOKING A BLUNT?!?”

“I have no idea what a ‘frog’ is.” Nika snorted as she checked it on her end. “But this guy is making a name for himself as a bounty hunter and seems like he has something to prove. Ke’Ritte Grenwa’Cha, AKA ‘Killer Kush’. Only has a few large bounties on him for several instances of raiding low-level drug merchants and manufacturers then using up their entire stock in the space of a few days in wild parties he likes to throw. Seems relatively clean, aside from the ‘constantly being high on drugs’ thing.”

“Neither of them are students, at least.” Alora shrugged. “Doesn’t mean they can’t place a bribe here and there to get to you or know where you are, so be careful.”

“Sure,” Jack agreed, as on reflex he thumbed his Dominator and axe, both of which he was allowed to keep holstered in compliance with school policy. He decided to leave his plasma rifle at the house, which Nika still wanted to have a more thorough look at after it got damaged, but took a few of their newly liberated grenades to hide in a few pockets and his bag, just in case. He also had an unassuming metal bracelet the group had looted from Xharl that quickly extended into a decent shield at will. Jack had slept with it on to ‘attune’ him to its enchantment, and now had a better defence against ranged and magical attacks, though he had been a little insecure about the look of it, and asked if it would mess with the school uniform policy. Apparently it would be fine if he wore it under his shirt and hooked the business end through the buttons on his sleeve to avoid ripping it if it needed to be activated.

He had originally argued that Nika might want the shield, but conceded that the shield was indeed now his when Nika called dibs on Kralk’s Gatling Laser and Alora on his Magical Ring that had resisted her flame spells. Chiyo and Sephy had yet to take their first pick of the good shit, but made the compelling argument that Jack was the only one strong enough to use the shield without an exoskeleton anyway.

“Now you be good!” Alora patted Dante on the head as the group was ready to leave. The ‘dog’ gave a sad whine, but seemed to understand as it sat down on the grass looking at them all. “I’ll have none of that!” Alora continued in faux sternness. “You have a lot of food and drink left out for you and a whole district for you to play in! We’ll be back in a few hours, you’re on guard duty until then!”

“Woof!” Dante barked back as if understanding, before the others, minus Chiyo gave him a quick scratch behind the ears, then shutting the gates behind them. Jack sighed as they started walking. After the adventure they had gone through over the weekend, it was hard for him to wrap his head around the fact that he still had to go to school. It was even worse that today was the intergalactic equivalent of a Monday.

Today was going to be a long day…

*****

“How come we never see much of those guys?” Jack asked as the group waited in the queue to get into the building, pointing to several of the megafauna species that trundled over to the pyramids on the far side. They had traversed the city several times by now, and very rarely saw many of the giant species despite the sheer diversity of them at the school.

“They tend to keep to their own size group,” Alora admitted. “Towards the south of the city is where you’ll find their enclaves, as well as aboard several habitation ships in the flotilla surrounding the station, but there are the rare few that walk among the smaller peoples. Same case for the blind species or the undead. Though they can do as they wish, that wish is more often than not to be with their own kind, forming their own territories where they can be in their comfort zone.

“I guess that’s only natural,” Jack acknowledged, thinking of the similarity of that rationale back on Earth. “At least none of those guys are coming after me…”

“Yet!” Sephy reminded him, before suddenly sobering up and remembering how serious the situation actually was.

“Well it’ll be easy to see them coming our way, at least.” Jack shrugged. “Running away might be a problem though.”

“Some of the smaller ones act as hired muscle sometimes, but aside from that you don’t get many making it as hunters of smaller species,” Nika pointed out. “Kinda hard to investigate and track people when you can’t fit into most buildings and most small people look alike to them, but there are some good ones out there.”

Let’s try not to cross their paths. Chiyo replied as she casually nibbled on some candy.

Eventually the group got to the front of the queue to the security checkpoint, and the others all clocked that for some reason the Prefects were being far stricter than usual in checking students through, with several of the Korrigans even asking some very pointed questions, and levelling their guns at any student that even remotely violated a school uniform policy. They all went as a group to get checked through, not wanting to split up to the annoyance of the Prefects, though the only one that made any noticeable noise was the one looking at Jack, who seemed determined to find something to complain about.

“And what is this supposed to be, Mr Frost?” the rooster-like alien squawked at him after checking his ID, pointing to the weapon tucked away under his blazer.

“That’s my emotional-support axe,” Jack replied sarcastically. “Can’t bear to be separated from it.”

“Having a melee weapon of that nature is permitted by school regulations,” the Prefect was forced to admit. “But that doesn’t mean I like it! We will be watching you, new kid!”

“Enjoy the view, asshole,” Jack muttered back, following the others before the Prefect could chase after him for the insult, assuming they were even brave enough…

“Damn, these assholes are everywhere!” Sephy complained quietly as they passed another wandering patrol of Prefects. “Why?”

“Do you think they found out about the lockup?” Jack whispered back so only Sephy could hear.

“Unlikely, it’s probably the teachers or a Prefect Commander on a power trip” Sephy guessed.

“I think I know the answer to that one,” Nika growled. “Look ahead!”

Jack’s eyes narrowed in rage as he looked across the room. Izadora Mal’Kar was casually standing at the base of the main stairs of the entrance hall flanked by one of her fellow drow, bellowing orders to her fellow Prefects to accost and harass the passing students for any perceived infraction. Both drow were scanning the crowd in between yelling orders, almost as if looking for somebody in particular. Jack felt his body shake as he saw red, remembering what had happened during their last encounter.

“Let’s just take the lift and avoid them,” whispered Alora, leading the rest of the group to the side, though Jack barely paid any attention.

“That’s the bitch that put the bounty on us, and they’re probably involved with the hacker that’s been fucking with us as well,” Jack snarled as almost involuntarily he started walking over to them, which quickly turned into a run.

“Jack!” Sephy gasped as she quickly turned and noticed what he was doing. “ No! Bad idea! No! Nonononononono!”

But it was too late.

“YOU!” one of the Prefects yelled out to Jack as his walk turned into a full-on sprint, and several students stopped to watch what was happening. “Running in the Entrance Hall is-”

Jack didn’t hear the rest of the sentence as he closed the distance, just as the Drow Matriarch turned towards him, eyes wide….

Jack’s kick smashed into Isadora Mal’Kar with the force of a thousand suns, knocking her and everyone she collided with to the ground like bowling pins, the human not stopping as he kept moving forward, trampling over the drow and the Prefects before stopping close to the stairs, turning around and giving the drow a full-on death glare.

“Good morning!” Jack said in false cheerfulness. “Someone’s been a naughty girl and sent a bunch of bounty hunters after me. I mean I’m quite flattered by the attention, but unfortunately, you fucked up.”

His face then grew deadly serious. “You’ve now got my attention. Time to pay the fucking piper.”

Several Prefects rushed out of the surrounding students to raise their rifles at the human with a battle cry.

‘Ah crap’ Jack thought, as he maintained his confident demeanour, levelling his Dominator back at them. ‘Maybe there were some slight flaws with my revenge plan…’’

“I’LL KILL YOU FOR THAT, OUTSIDER!” he heard Izadora screech out, and just a split second later several voices spoke up from the crowd in retort, which got ever louder and more fired up.

“Get them!” Someone shouted.

Before the Prefects aiming at Jack could react to what was happening, several students charged from the crowd to attack them, ripping their rifles out of their hands to batter them over the head like clubs, or pinning them to the floor to ground and pound. Like the breaking of a dam, more students rushed the Prefects like a torrent. Jack could even see some of his friends rushing in to do battle with the Prefects, and he barely saw Alora facepalming from the side before the sea of people separated them all.

Jack realised he had just started a brawl. And he was right in the middle of it!