Shots fired [Incandesa]

[Marjorie]

Raf was half way threw a bottle, and wondering his way threw the 'back allies' of The Cancer toward Liss's Tit... his affectionately named ship when a woman in heels and a finly tailored suit - actually she was kind of hot even with the robotic eye - ran past him to the clack of heels on steel. Then there was gunfire pinging off the bulkhead around him.

"Fuck," Raf hit the deck before he even realized that it was actually gunfire. By the time he landed face down on cold steel he had a gun in each hand, and was looking around for the source of the previous gunfire. He didn't have to look hard, they were moving his way, fast. Four of them, chasing down one pretty lady looked like she shouldn't be in this part of town. He rolled across the narrow bulkhead shooting at her assailant's knees until he hit the far bulkhead, where he pulled himself up quickly in a crouch. The guy in front was dead (must have hit his femoral artery), the guy behind him wounded (and crumpled to the ground clutching a shattered leg), and the other two were shooting, at him now, as they jumped over the former. That was his cue to get lost.

Raf sprung to his feet, shooting blindly over his shoulder with his right hand as he ran after the pretty lady with a missing eye.

[Incandesa]

In her blind panic, Natasha dashed into a side street as her father’s assassins chased her. With only her medical equipment, a basic arm prosthetic, and a somewhat defective cybernetic eye that she may or may not have obtained illegally, she was no match for her assailants. Her heart pounded furiously as she slipped into a dark corner. Saving people was her line of work, not needing to be saved. Silently, she prayed to whatever god would listen to get her out of this mess without violating her Hippocratic Oath.

When she heard footsteps coming towards her hiding space, she reached into her bag, pulled out a scalpel, and held it in front of her. She was shaking, the posture of a frightened creature- backed far into a corner and baring feeble fangs. The nervous Doctor Vereta did her best to calm her voice into the elegant and confident tone she normally carried. “Take one more step and I assure you, you will be dead within the hour. I know exactly where to cut to kill a man.” She came off as steely and cold, though she doubted she would ever had the heart to take a life, even for her own protection.

[Marjorie]

"Easy high heels," Raf said with humor in his voice, "if you manage to get close to me with that, I'll deserve to die. Besides, in case you didn't notice, I'm the reason there's only two after you now instead of four."

Another shot fired.

Raf hit the deck, turning as he did so, and pulled the trigger four times by the time he landed on his shoulder. Two more dead.

"I'm pretty sure one of them back there is not quite dead, high heels," Raf said, turning his head to look at her, "you gonna make me hurt you?" he glanced around her cover at the little scalpel, "or you gonna let me finish saving you proper?"

[Incandesa]

A bullet whizzed over her head and hit the wall behind her. Out of instinct, Natasha flinched and held the scalpel closer to her chest, defensively. It took a lot of effort to continue to keep her voice in a calm manner. The mask was the only thing keeping her from breaking down at this point.

“Just so that we are perfectly clear that while your concern is appreciated, I did not ask for your help, and I do not owe you anything for this,” she said. After the past few weeks, she was not about to let some stranger start demanding ‘favors’ because of one time he saved her life. Quickly, she slipped off her shoes and held them in her other hand as she backed deeper into the alley. ”If a trigger-happy fellow such as you decides to get involved in my business, then the fault is entirely on youself.”

[Marjorie]

He laughed. Wasn't that just fucking ironic. "Don't worry, high heels, I'm more than happy with a simple thank you." As he slipped off her shoes though, he moved quickly closer to her, and grabbed her by the arm.

"Move of die," Raf said, as he pulled her along deeper down the alley, faster than she'd been moving already, "it's the first thing they teach you about combat." He was pulling her toward his ship, and pushed her in front of him, wither she liked it or not, and once there she could decide if she wanted to stay behind with the shooters or jump off this heap of space junk with him.

As they passed threw a intersection the sound of more rushed footsteps converged on them from two different directions. He reloaded one of his guns then the other. "What'd a girl like you do to get so popular with the fellas?" he asked shooting past her on her right as more shots rang out and ricochet off the hull around them.

[Incandesa]

Natasha did not appreciate being manhandled by Mr. Trigger Happy, but if it kept her alive, she wasn’t going to complain about it just yet. So she continued to let him push her to where she needed to be. ”I may have upset an important person,” she replied, slightly out of breath. ”Though, if you have to know, it was completely justified.” It was vague, but true. She would do it again in a heartbeat. The problem after that, of course, was staying alive. Her father’s purse was deep and the strings were long. Natasha would need more than what she currently had to avoid his assassins.

”Do you normally make it a habit of rescuing damsels chased by gunmen? This hardly seems to be your first foray. They were near the ship docks now, but she was unsure which ship to board.

[Marjorie]

"Heh," Raf grinned, as he turned, shooting over his shoulder as he kept urging high heels forward, and then around another bend. "Pissing off powerful people," note he didn't say important, because to him, most of them weren't, "is kind of a specialty of mine. Maybe we're meant to be." He winked at her as they came up on an air lock.

"That's Liss' Tit there," he jerked his chin at the door to his ship, "if you want a ride off this heap of junk," he slid into the bulkhead and started keying in a code, "then you're welcome to join me - otherwise, you're welcome to take your chances with them." He fired a couple more shots, and ducked into the ship as the door opened and they took return fire.

[Incandesa]

Given the circumstances, Natasha was not exactly in the position to be picky. Quickly, she ducked into the decrepit ship, but not before a stray bullet grazed her thigh. She hissed in pain. It wasn’t her worst injury by far, but it certainly stung. Carefully, she used the wall to limp her way deeper into the ship before finding a chair to sit in. She frowned when she saw the blood stain on the skirt.The fabric was a dark purple, so the stain didn’t stand out too much, but she knew from experience that blood did not particularly wash out easily.

Still, now was not the time to focus on that. The doctor pulled the skirt up to her thigh to examine the wound. Thankfully, it’s wasn’t deep enough to need stitches. Carefully, she opened her medical bag and pulled out gauze, a bandage, antibiotics, etc. It was difficult to properly treat it since she was only using her real hand. She wasn’t adept enough at using the new (crude) metal hand for her properly use it. It just wasn’t sensitive enough. Half the time she couldn’t even feel it. Natasha suspected it was a cheaper old model along with her eye, leagues behind current basic models. Still, it wasn’t like she would be able to afford something decent and less disgusting looking any time soon.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she studied her white knight. He was gruff and crude, but fairly good looking (objectively speaking of course). It was too bad what the fire had done to her own features. Once upon a time, she could have easily caught the attention of a man like him. Several, in fact. But now...no, it was time to focus on what was at hand. ”Would you please fetch me some clean water and a rag?,” she asked. ”I would rather this did not become infected.”

[Marjorie]

"Welcome back, Raf," the ship's computer said as he shut the airlock behind his pretty passenger. "Liss, light a fire under your ass, and start start up the engines." The ship sprung to life, running its self threw the startup protocol as Raf disengaged the docking clamp.

"You're not bleeding too badly, are you high heels?" He asked, not stopping to look at her, as he moved further down the main gangway of the ship to the cockpit. Off to the right were two ladders that headed down to two bunk rooms. Both were large enough to room too, though one had been turned into Raf's Captain's cabin, the other was set up to bunk 2, though if she looked, likely hadn't bunked anyone for a while. On the left was another pair of ladders that lead down, one lead to the little kitchenette and lounge, and the other to the engine room. That made up the whole of the ship. On either side of the gangplank along the walls and ceiling were access panels and storage lockers.

As Raf slipped into the pilot's seat, he flipped some switches, and then put his hands on the flight controls, pulling them quickly away from The Cancer. "Liss, dial up jump coordinates for the Libra, and jump as soon as the drive is ready." He locked in the auto pilot then. It didn't seem like they were being followed off the station so far.

"Hey, high heels," Raf said, getting up out of his seat, and heading back down the gangway toward where he'd left Natasha. "You doing ok, back there?"

[Incandesa]

”Depends on what you would consider ‘ok’ I suppose. There is certainly more blood than I would prefer, but I am hardly dying,” she said. Her voice was strained by calm as she applied the antibiotic. It stung, but at least the doctor knew it was working. A bit of sweat dotted her brow. She applied the gauze and bandage before carefully standing up. ”Do you have somewhere I could possibly change my attire?” she asked. She would rather not have to sit around in bloody fabric.

[Marjorie]

"Just don't die on me high heels," Raf shot back at her, "it would ruin my attempt at heroism. By the time he was coming back down the gangway toward Natasha, they could feel the jump drive starting to cycle. It would be another sixty or seventy seconds before it engaged and they made the jump to The Libra's space.

"Down the hatch, first ladder on your right," he said, "both those bunks are empty so feel free to pick wherever you like. There's a sonic shower down there too, don't carry enough water for real showers." The bathroom wasn't attached to the bedrooms, because it was the only one on the ship. "Running water in the sink though."

[Incandesa]

Natasha chose the lower of the two beds to place her things before making her way to the sonic shower. Stripping off her clothes, and placing a small towel around herself for a bit of privacy, she left the blood stained fabric to soak in the sink nearby. Now was time for the tricky part.

Natasha had never used a sonic shower before, though she had heard of them. Her people preferred a a naturalistic feel to just about everything. She wasn't quite sure if she was supposed to simply step in, or if there were buttons or knobs involved. Frankly, she was a bit too intimidated to try on her own. There were also her prostetics to consider. In theory, she could take off her hand if she had to, but she could hardly take off half her skull on a whim. "Mister Raf," she called over her shoulder, "How exactly does one work this... contraption/"

[Marjorie]

Rad walked up to the bathroom door, but didn’t open it. “Step inside, the light should come on when you open the door. Just hit the green button to turn it on and off. The knob to the right turns the sonic vibrations up or down. It just ah... shakes the grime off of ya. It’s not as refreshing as a real water shower, but it’s plenty enough for proper sanitation.”

[Incandesa]

After some time, the pair arrived at a nearby station, though not without some trepidation on Natasha's part. Without hesitating, she informed Raf that she had a quick errand to run and all but sprinted to a nearby clothing boutique. There she bought a pair of hologlasses- mostly meant for fashionistas trying on different looks without having to commit to a particular look, the downside being that the more drastic the change less convincing it was and the shorter the battery power. Normally, Natasha would detest the rediculous results such glasses generally produced, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

She paid in cash and discreately turned on the glasses out of sight. The glasses covered up her metal arm and metal eye, and she changed her hair and eyes to a pale green like some of the other aliens in the area. Her ears became pointed and her face was rounder than ususal. Overall, she looked different enough to pass for someone else, but still held her stylish, dignified demeaner. The good doctor decided not the change more than that to conserve some battery life. The disguise would only last about three hours, and anyone standing too close or with a trained eye would be able to tell it was false, but that was not what was important.

She made her way back to Raf, nervously checking over her shoulder every once in a while. Wonderful, she was becoming paranoid.

[Marjorie]

He was doing the file transfer with the station's dock master, the 'paperwork' if you will, and paying the docking fee when Natasha returned. He raised both his eyebrows at the woman's new appearance and chuckled. "Who's chasing you high heels? I only ask because, it's likely now, they are chasing me also. I feel I aught to know what I've gotten myself into."

[Incandesa]

Natasha awkwardly tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, though she kept her serious demeanor. She hesitated for more than a few seconds before speaking. "The answer is rather simple, Mister Raf. Vereta Pharmaceutical, or more specifically, my father would very much like to receive news of my death, along with the retrieval of some rather important documents that may or may not be in my possession." She said it all without a speck of emotion, ask if she were a computer answering a mundane math question. Of course, the truth was so much more painful.

[Marjorie]

Raf let out a low whistle. "Your dad," he chuckled, "Please though, there's no reason a all to call me mister anything.

"I'm not polished like you, and I'd bet, even with you on the run, I've never had as much credit as you." He did notice, however, how quickly she shut down as she gave her answer.

"Well," he said, "whatever the details are, it doesn't much matter to me. If you're looking for inconspicuous passage to some other place though, I'd be happy to help arrange it - I don't work for free though, typically. Consider your rescue a free sample." He smirked.