Roughing It

by Nexxus 3 Kline

The street was alive with the sound of vendors hawking their wares, revelers and traffic of every sort imaginable. Nexx, Shadur and Phoenix dodged their way through the hustle and bustle towards the south gate of the city, keeping a eye out for pick- pockets along the way.

Once at the gate, Nexx shouted loudly to get the guards attention. The guard, appearing slightly annoyed, waved an entrant through before turning around. Nexx immediately bombarded him with a quick series of questions. "Have you seen my friends? Two of them," she said, holding up two fingers. "A male, human, about this tall." more waving of her arms. "Another male, human, about this tall. Or maybe a female was one of them?" The guard blinked and gave her a blank look. Peeved, Nexx went through the whole line of questioning again, this time in level 3 and at the top of her lungs. "Stupid idiot guards." she muttered under her breath as the guard shook his head to indicate he hadn't seen them and turned back to his duties. "No luck." she informed Shad and Phoenix. "Guess we should head back to the hotel for some quick food and then begin our searching." The disappointed group turned, headed back in the direction of the hotel.

They had gotten no more than half a block away when their collective silence was broken by a loud commotion and someone running up behind them. "Nexxus?!" Hearing a distinct earth dialect, she swung around, shocked to find a rather scruffy, out of breath, and slightly more than nervous looking Selvane. He glanced over his shoulder quickly. "Could you get me out of here?"

"What?!" Nexx exclaimed and looked in the direction Selvane had come from. "Dammit! Not again!!" she whined to herself, frowning at Selvane. "Put your hands over your head and don't move." she ordered.

This was obviously not the answer he was expecting as he went slack jawed, "What?"

"Stand still!" she ordered, a little more than annoyed. "Unless you'd like to be shot. I can't do anything for you until you've been taken into custody so you'll just have to play the good little prisoner until they haul you to the keaetoonk."

Selvane, looking a bit disappointed still, sighed in resignation. "Aris is back at the gate." he informed them before turning around to face a rather large and disgruntled looking unit of guards behind him.

After answering a few standard questions for a guards report on the whole incident, and making a quick call to an old friend, Nexx turned to Shad and Phoenix, "Lets go claim Aris before she lands herself in the keaetoonk too."

"First Shad, now Selvane..." Phoenix was interrupted by Shad's elbow prodding him roughly in the ribs. "Ow."

Nexx snickered, "Come on." and began walking towards the gate again. By the time they had made their way towards the gate, Aris had gotten herself into Chi-Lin, *the legal way*. She was haggling with a silk vendor. Nexx watched the last half of the purchase, "You were cheated." she told Aris, turning back to the table. After much yelling and threatening, Aris walked away about $10 richer. Nexx snickered, her hand over her mouth, as the two walked towards Shad and Phoenix, who had gotten distracted by a Muide vendor. "What?" Aris asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said, "except that you probably just got the best deal on silk in the whole city. I didn't see the amount on the last bill you were handing over, and thought it was another twenty..." Aris laughed with her when she heard this.

"What happened to Selvane?" she asked as Shad and Phoe joined them.

"Shut up in kaetoonk for assaulting a city guard," she said. "I'm waiting for notice of the custody transfer." Aris nodded and remained silent the rest of the way to the hotel, as did everyone else.

After showing Aris a room and ordering up some food for her, Nexx excused herself to the balcony. She was expecting a messenger with news about Selvane. Said "messenger" turned out to be a boy, about 13 years old, with long, stringy, blue hair and dark glasses. He teleported in standing on the ledge of the balcony. "You Nexxus?" he asked, looking her over suspiciously.

"You got my data clip?" she ignored his question. "Give it here." she ordered, pulling a card out of her pocket and tossing it at him. "And get lost, I don't need any attention directed my way."

He grabbed for the card, tossing a small clip in her direction as he did so. "How much is on here?"

"Around 10.00,000 CLc's, more than standard fee, now get lost." she motioned for him to go away.

"Tas netrekk!" he exclaimed, leaning backward on the ledge till he began to fall and then blinking out completely.

"Damn messengers." Nexx muttered before taking the clip inside and loading it into her laptop. "8pm, Booking." was the only thing the data clip contained. Nexx looked at the time. "Five minutes. I'd better hurry." she said to herself before grabbing her backpack and shouting to the hotel suite, "I'm going out. Be back in a little while."

She didn't wait for a reply, instead she teleported out and onto the street a couple of doors down from the kaetoonk. This particular stretch of street was virtually deserted, to be expected considering the amount of armed security types. Taking a deep breath, Nexx walked herself in through the front door, past the front desk, and down the long, dark corridor which led to Booking. She had made it just in time, Selvane was already being shuffled in for release. She stepped back into a dark corner as he was swiftly moved up to the desk, handed an ID, immunized, and returned his possessions. "He is now in your custody." the desk clerk addressed her. She stepped out of the dark.

Not wanting to linger any longer than necessary in the kaetoonk, Nexx rushed Selvane out and onto the street as quickly as possible, ignoring a barrage of questions. He remained quiet until they'd gotten out the door and onto the next block before demanding, "How?"

Nexx stopped and gave him a look before smiling and replying, "I have a friend in Chi-Lin Justice." grabbing his hand, she continued, "C'mon, let's go get the others." and with that, she began dragging him through the crowded streets towards the hotel.

Not much later, they arrived and Nexx led Selvane into the lift and then out of it when they had reached the top level. She pulled him out of the elevator and opened the doors to the suite. He was busy inspecting the decor so she motioned for him to follow before stepping into the room. She was greeted with shouts of, "Nexx!", "Firefoots Feth'ra! Move, will ya?!", and "Hey, watch it!" Nexx jumped back and looked, on the wall three figures did battle, swerving back and forth, blocking each others blows. Aris, Shadur and Phoenix were all reclined and sprawled on the furniture with controllers in their hand.

"A video game?" Selvane asked.

"Enough Mortal Kombat for now, guys," Nexx yelled over the thumping soundtrack. This was met with minor protesting and pouty noises but the screen went black and clicked off just the same.

"Selvane Vladiva," she gestured toward the couch, "Shadur, Phoenix," Nexx introduced, "Shad, Phoe; Mr. Vegetable," the 3 on the couch found this to be quite funny, recalling the people at the gate throwing vegetables at Selvane when he was captured, and they all laughed. Selvane chuckled too, in spite of himself.

Aris, throwing a pillow at Selvane, pouted "That's for making me wait half an hour in the cold by myself."

"All right you two, we'll talk about it over dinner and drinks. On me," Nexxus interjected.

Shadur, never one to turn down dinner, jumped up saying, "Well, if it's an order..." and walked to the elevator, his ever- present jacket leaping off its peg on the rack of its own accord and floating onto his shoulders.

Nexx took them all to one of her old hangouts, a two- story job that looked a bit like an earth sports arena. Street level was an extremely busy night-club while the upstairs was more relaxed, with booths and tables. The club was especially packed, as was the upstairs. Nexx managed to claim the group a quiet corner booth just the same, and it was here, over glasses and mugs, that they reminisced the last two days events.

"And *THEN* he punched the guard out, right in front of everybody!" said Aris, finishing her part of the days events. Selvane chuckled, as did everyone else.

"*THEN* the locals started to pelt him with produce." Nexx added, before downing the last of her drykkur, but her mind was thinking about Kat, wondering if she should be feeling guilty having so much fun when her closest friend was missing.

"No." Shad corrected. "After he comes up and asked for help, then gives you this blank look when you say to stay still." Phoenix laughed loudly, and the others joined in.

Nexxus shrugged and attracted the attention of the waiter by standing up on her seat and shouting loudly. "Another drykkur over here!"

The waiter, unphased by Nexx's behavior, approached. "Another round for everyone? Your food will be right up!" he said in an unnaturally cheery voice. He soon returned with another pint of drykkur for Nexx, and other drinks.

Selvane addressed the table from behind his third tankard of Delao rum,

"What did you three do while we were gone?"

"We sort of winged it," Shad chuckled, and explained their harrowing flight. There was more laughter as the trio remembered, and the duo imagined.

Without any warning what so ever, there was a slight buzzing noise, and the lights dimmed momentarily. The music that was going full blast on the floor below suddenly ground to a halt. The group looked around, mildly surprised.

"A brown out?" Phoenix mused.

A voice came over the PA, as if to answer his question, announcing that a power surge from the blenders had fried the kitchen. "Yer food orders are gone. No more munchies for tonight, sorry. But hey, free round for everyone, on us!" the voice sounded entirely too happy. A cheer went up from the dance floor at this announcement and any anger that may have been, soon dissipated as the music started up again and people went to claim their free drinks.

"It's ok," Nexx shrugged, "We'll just get some food back at the hotel room." she stood up and the group followed suit as she started for the stairs, "Hey, you guys wanna hit the dance floor for a bit before we leave?" this suggestion seemed to go over well with Aris and Shad.

"It's been a while, but what the hell?" Shad answered. Nexx and Shad hurried down the steps. Aris didn't follow right away but caught up with them at the bottom of the steps.

Needless to say, nobody had any trouble falling asleep that night.