Thugs (Part I)

Eo walked around the main lobby. There were people milling around, almost all of them wearing cuffs. There were screens on the walls, and Eo decided to look at one of them.

The headlines read, "Hero obtains the Cube of Afristus and becomes Even More Powerful". There was a shaky recording of Kyros and about a dozen other people clustered around the corpse of a large Zyuhrin-type monster. Kyros himself stood on top of the spidery creature, holding an extremely bright object.

Eo suddenly remembered the reason the scientists back at the laboratory were trying to find the Power Arena. They wanted the Inaril Gem. Eo was in a position (albeit unwillingly) to obtain it. He just needed to fight a Phase VI Inaril-type somewhere. This place probably had a monster arena somewhere. Or it was a prize for winning events. The only other way it could probably be obtained was from the underground auction, but Eo wasn't exactly the type of person that could be called rich.

Suddenly the screen zoomed up on Kyros' face, and a reporter asked him a question. That got Eo's attention.

"Other than sealing the Chasm, what is the one other thing you want to do most?"

"I want to find the Dewspin traitor, and thoroughly interrogate him before locking him up in prison. Of course, that's after I beat him in a fight."

"Who is this 'Dewspin traitor' that you keep trying to find?"

"As I've said before, it's the wanted criminal Eo Thapa. I know the last time I spoke of him was more than a month ago, but my desire to bring justice on this murderer only grows."

Suddenly Eo could feel the entire lobby growing silent. Eo took his eyes off the screen and looked around.

Everyone was looking at him.

☆

"I knew this kid looked familia'."

"Yeah, me think me saw him once or twice before."

"Wonder what his bounty is."

Eo put his hands up in self defense.

"Hold up, hold up guys. Aren't you all criminals too? What's the point of selling me out? Then I could be a major security breach!"

A woman wearing dozens of layers of trench coats answered him.

"Boy, we in the middle of an incursion! No police or military maggots can touch us here!"

There were nods of approval. People started talking to each other and pointing to Eo.

Eo brushed his hands in dismissal.

"Okay, but I got here by myself. If you think I can do that, what do you think the military can do?"

People started talking again. Eo slipped away from the crowd in the middle of the debate.

Eo rushed off and turned a corner.where there was a lot more quiet and peace. Eo realized he was in the obituary room. Eo found that very surprising.

The newest entry was for Yarbim. It was actually sort of sad, for a teenage boy to die alone in an underground criminal organization. It was also probably what was going to be Eo's fate.

Eo also looked around for Kaldai's entry, if she had any. There wasn't any, meaning Kaldai survived. Eo breathed a sigh of unsure relief.

Eo then left to hear something that completely stopped him in his tracks.

"... not, then I'll just have to kill Eo."

"Very interesting plan, Guest Reya!"

Reya cracked her knuckles and then walked out of earshot. The person she was talking to turned around and slowly shuffled away in the opposite direction.

Eo just stood there, frozen, until a hand grabbed him from behind.

☆

Eo got yanked and then pulled off to the side. A bunch of thugs glared at him.

"You, spiky boy, how much you worth again?" The speaker craned his neck intimidatingly.

Eo shrugged. "I don't know, probably hundreds of… cents?"

One of the other thugs flipped out a knife and looked around.

"We ain't jokin' around here. Tell us yer bounty or we killin' ya right here."

Eo put his hands up in protest.

"Guys, I really don't know, okay. If I do have a bounty, it's probably worthless anyways."

"This is perfect, boss." One of them said. "The cheaper bounties are weaker. I think we can get this one."

The leader of the gang snickered. "You can knock him out then." He threw a syringe towards the thug that was holding Eo's neck against the wall.

The thug grabbed it and put it close to Eo's face.

"Goodnight."