“Oh, durn,” Sebrisha whispered right next to my ear. I jumped a little in response, but she didn’t seem to have noticed and just continued talking. “That’s Washer and Cleaner.”

“You know them,” I whispered back as I refused to take my eyes off of them.

“Not personally, but what I do know is that they’re mercenaries with a moderate record.”

I swallowed, already knowing I’m going to regret asking this. “What’s the record?”

“73 missions total. 68 missions succeeded and 5 failings.” She laughed. “But don’t worry, there just mercenaries, and due to them just appearing just now, I guess they were just surprised by the blast and just wanted to know who caused it.” She then reached for my sword and gently lowered it. “So chill out. No one should know who you are, so I doubt anyone would put a bounty on your head.”

I thought for a second, then nodded in agreement as I turned around toward the sleigh and called out. “Get the sleigh ready, we’ll deal with this in the meantime.”

And with that, we made our way to the band of cyberware, and once we made it, a red flag popped up that made me grip my sword. They weren’t surprised to see me. Matter of fact, they locked eyes with me as if they were searching for me.

Sebrisha walked in front of me and waved at them as she began to talk. “Washer and Cleaner, I am so sorry if that blast almost hit you. I didn’t think anyone else was behind that wall.”

Cleaner sighed, then placed his club in front of him as he began wiping the blood off it with his sleeve. “Don’t worry about it.” He then looked up at her with a look I didn’t at all like. “We did, kid.”

I stuck my sword into the trash floor, and Cleaner chuckled in response. Sebrisha gave me a look that told me to calm down, and then she returned her attention to them. “What do you mean, you did? So you guys knew about this place the entire time, or something?”

“No,” Washer said as she gripped her wrist, which let off a green glow with a symbol that I know all too well. “We were near the area 5 hours ago, and we were quickly met by some creature that hired us to come here.”

I looked down at the glowing green symbol on Cleaner’s shoulder as I said my next words. “Hired or forced?”

Cleaner looked at me and began giving me some kind of look, as if he was trying to read my mind. “I’m guessing you already know about the creature?” He lifted his club to his right shoulder. “ So I guess you already know why we’re here.”

I grunted as I scratched my head, “So I’m guessing he paid you to try and kill me.”

“Naw, just maim and extreme harm, then he’ll lift this… Hopefully.”

I sighed through my nose. “So you guys are only after me, right?”

“Nope,” Washer interrupted in a somewhat irritated tone as she pointed her staff at Sebrisha. “Where also here, for you .”

“ME?!” Sebrisha pointed at herself. “What did I do?!”

“You don’t remember me?! You don’t remember what you did?!” Washer yelled, and a burst of blue power shined from the stone on her staff.

“No! I only ever heard of you guys on the internet and in card games.” Sebrisha stammered as she backed up and gripped her bag.

“There’s no way what she did could be that bad,” I butted in.

“Oh, you think.” Washer crossed her arms. “Alright then, let me tell you what she did. 2 weeks ago, while I was walking back home, I saw her strap a bomb to my storage. She turned around, MADE EYE CONTACT WITH ME! Lit the fuse, backed away from the bomb, and BLEW IT UP!” I looked over at Sebrisha who began scratching the back of her head as Washer continued talking. “Then she made eye contact with me again, flipped me off, and then walked away.”

Cleaner burst out laughing. “Just an asshole.”

“Why would you even do that?” I scratched my head, hoping for a good reason.

Sebrisha smacked her at the teeth as she began pounding her, then just settled with. “Um, not even going cap…” She reached inside her bag, pulled out a silver mixture bottle, and threw it at the Washer. As soon as the bottle hit Washer, a strong burst of air launched all of us back.

My entire world flipped over, and then my face quickly connected with a fridge that was randomly lying around. After the rushed relationship with my face and the fridge, I was quickly pulled to my feet by my arm by Sebrisha.

“Hurry up and run!” Sebrisha yelled. I quickly shook my head and followed right behind her.

 

“What happened :/?” Roby said while holding a big monkey wrench in his hands.

“Grandpa sent mercenaries to maim me,” I grumbled as I turned around to check how far they are from us.

Roby connected the wrench to the hood of the Sliegh repeatedly and just began throwing a tantrum.

“Grandpa?” Sebrisha said while reaching in her bag. “I thought you two said you were both alone here. And if you both were, why would your own grandfather send mercenaries after you?”

“To test whether we are ready for the outside world,” I answered, while gritting my teeth.

“Your own grandfather would do that?”

“Yep,” I smacked my teeth. “I honestly should have seen this coming.” I let out an irritated sigh. “But anyway, we have to get ready, because these guys seem like they can actually fight.”

“Only seem?” A voice asked. We all turned toward the sound in shock only to see that nothing was there, or so it seemed. For some reason, I couldn’t see anyone in front of me, but I could smell that someone was there.

I went with my instincts and swung my wooden sword forward, then suddenly the trash in front of me moved back.

“What the heck-” I barely got out before a solid object connected with my jaw with such force that it sent me flying. I felt nothing from the impact, most likely because of the fact that an impact that can lift you off your feet and send you soaring through the air is more likely to snap your neck, at least.

I landed on a worn-down couch, thankfully, and let out a deep sigh as the pain in my jaw began. I then gritted my teeth and slowly began to sit up and help myself to my feet using the wooden sword that I was somehow still holding onto.

“Well, well, well,” Cleaner laughed. I looked and saw Cleaner with his big club begin uncloaking out of thin air, starting from head to toe. “He said you regenerated at an insanely fast rate, but this appalling.”

I wiped the blood off my mouth with my forearm as I got myself ready. “Of course he gave you that detail.” I lifted my sword and squared my stance. “Tell you anything else?”

“Hmmm,” Cleaner scratched his chin. “Other than your ugly, but in your case. Ugly is being generous.” He laughed as he charged at me.

He started his assault by trying to cave in my skull, but I managed to block his counter his strike and hit his wrist. He laughed at my attack, then grabbed the sword, pulled it towards him, and then kicked me in the gut.

I quickly recovered from the hit and immediately tried to slash his face. He swiftly sidestepped out of the way, then swung at my right rib cage. I dodged the best I could, but the club still grazed my stomach.

I quickly grabbed the blade of my sword before Cleaner could recover from the swing and hit him in the face with the handle.

“Sloppy mastered swordsmanship,” Cleaner laughed as he swung at me again. I blocked the strike, then dug my foot into the trash ground and kicked a handful of trash into his face. “Oh come on!”

I dodged out of the way of his next swing, then hit him in the face with a full-force swing of my sword. Cleaner let out a pained laugh as he spun around and disappeared.

“Hey, isn’t that cheating?!” I yelled while keeping my guard up, then out of nowhere, a hard object hit my right arm, snapping it and forcing me to drop my weapon.

“If you get a healing factor,” Cleaner said as I snapped my arm back into place. “I get to use my cloak.”

I growled as I began to try to focus on listening to where he was, another hit to my rib cage brought me to a knee.

Ugh, I hope everyone else is having better luck than me right now.

I then grabbed my sword from the ground and began to concentrate.