Chapter 8 - Aggravated Assault and Other Crimes

He rolled out of the way and back onto his feet in time to avoid Glasses' massive figure from landing on him feet-first and similarly abandoned any thought of retrieving his light pistol.

Glasses flickered away from the ground, and it was silent for a while as they carefully observed each other. They had reappeared in a corner of the unit in a fighting position. Uari could make reasonable assumptions.

First, of course, was the fact that this wasn't invisibility but teleporting. There was a before and after, but no middle. If Glasses disappeared, they would need to reappear somewhere immediately.

Secondly, if Glasses wasn't moving, they would appear near Uari in that same unmoving state as well. In order to already be moving when they phased near Uari, Glasses would need to start moving from somewhere else, and that movement was something Uari could detect, even if he didn't know where it might be going. As such, it was important to keep Glasses in view all the time.

Uari had all he needed and went straight for Glasses. Predictably, they disappeared and appeared conveniently behind Uari as predicted, limited in motion. Uari was already turning, sweeping his arms behind him with his fingers locked together, and managed to hit a heavy mass that propelled into the rickety table on the floor. Glasses landed on a can of Lightspeed, which burst due to their mass and exploded everywhere, covering the floor in slippery, dubious energy drink liquid. Whoops.

Uari didn't hesitate for even a second, launching himself again at Glasses, who had been distracted momentarily from the wet explosion underneath them. It was only a second of distraction, but it was a second Uari needed, and he managed to land a heavy blow on Glasses, ring taser digging into their face and releasing 200 decibels of high-frequency sonic energy via bone conduction of the jaw.

There was no sound, but it would jar the brain so hard that Glasses would be seeing sound waves for a while and potentially suffer from sonic-based migraines for the rest of their life. If Glasses couldn't think, they also couldn't teleport. A logical conclusion, proven by the cry of pain and immediate clutching of the head.

Acute, sharp pains were easier to withstand. Worse, Uari found, was blunt, throbbing pain. You couldn't localise it half the time, and it was often either internal or otherwise unreachable. Headaches or migraines and muscle cramps, while not deadly, were often very distracting and in many matches could be the one thing that decided who would win and who would lose.

200 decibels should have been enough to incapacitate the average person, and would at the very least bother Glasses. Uari grabbed their head and slammed it down on the floor, knocking them out in one clean hit.

He needed enough advantage to be able to question someone, but Glasses wasn't it; their ability to teleport would make pinning them down difficult, so his strategy here would honestly be to retreat and find someone else to question.

He wasn't too inclined to kill yet, especially since he didn't have enough information, but it made sense to disable them; he used the ring twice more to ensure Glasses would have a permanent migraine for the rest of his life, then attempted to gather his shit and leave.

This attempt was interrupted by raps on the door, which then disrespected the intent of knocking by simply opening the door without waiting for a comment.

A floor full of Lightspeed and an unconscious teammate wasn't what Uari would call a good sign - at least, not for the obvious henchman in the doorway. He launched forward immediately, instinctively, arm shooting out to drag the lone man into the room before slamming the door once again. If anyone had been watching, it would have been obvious that their...colleague? Collaborator?

Whatever. It would have been obvious that their peer had been dragged in, so Uari didn't have much time until they got their reinforcements. He deemed the protesting man harmless (to him) and proceeded to knock him around for a few minutes to try and get some answers. After establishing that he didn't even have two brain cells to rub together, he insulted the man.

"If your IQ was any lower we'd have to water you twice a day," he quipped in annoyance, to indignant sobbing from the bruised man whose back he was digging into with his knee. He would name his new, reluctant friend Plantface.

He was surprised they hadn't shouted for help or something, but perhaps his most recent bullying victim was already expecting something to happen.

Or perhaps, someone. That would be useful because he could question them right then and there. There wouldn't be a need to go much anywhere.

He continued to commit casual verbal and physical abuse to the sound of light crying as he pondered the merits of staying, but in the end, that choice was made for him because someone was yelling from outside his makeshift interrogation room.

"You've been surrounded! Get the hell out of there with your arms up in the air!"

Uari didn't comply - why would he? There was no danger of being assaulted from inside the hut - if they wanted to, they would have blown him up already. They probably couldn't because Glasses and Plantface were still in there. There was also no reason for him to go outside, where he would be surrounded by the ten-or-so people he could sense.

There was an extended silence, but Uari said nothing. He resumed kicking Plantface to make a point, just hard enough for him to give up several loud cries instead of the whimpering it had previously subsided into.

You know, just to make the people outside feel a little uncomfortable.

He continued kicking idly, refreshing his efforts every time he felt Plantface was getting too comfortable. Both sides of the conflict knew he wasn't going to come out, but that they couldn't quite just blow up the hut—whether due to his presence, which the "higher-ups" seemed to find useful, or due to the two bodies on the ground.

They also knew he had to be provoking them by making Plantface cry. The question was really what they were going to do next, and Uari didn't really have much to lose here. No matter the reason, the simple fact that the "higher-ups" wanted him was an advantage he had over them.

They were at some kind of stalemate - Uari wondered what the people outside would do next.