Cold Northern Waters

Chapter 1: Evil Woman

Chapter theme: Evil Woman by Electric Light Orchestra

The room didn't fall silent when she entered. Had she bothered to notice, she would probably have found it a little disappointing, and simply made do with the curious and often somewhat hungry stares that followed her to the bar.

As it was, she was a little distracted right now, and upon reaching the bar she seized the collar of the toughest looking person she could find and wrenched him round to look her in the face.

"I'm lookin' for a fella," she snarled. "Name of Shane. You know of anyone called that?"

The man gave her a sneering smile filled with yellow teeth and stinking breath.

"How about I buy you a drink first, sweet thing?" he asked.

"Let me rephrase that."

She threw him to the ground, wrenched her blaster from straps on her back and fired into the air. An immense tongue of flame flared out and scorched the ceiling, leaving a large and ugly black stain and a stench of burnt plaster, before it collapsed in on itself and an orangish-red slug landed on her shoulder and snarled at the now terrified patrons.

"Tell me where I can find the Shane lad," she growled, slotting a fresh canister into her blaster, "or I'll burn all your bloody brains out."

O-o-O

However, contrary to the above entrance, heads were definitely immediately turned by the arrival of a quintet of wheel-driven mechas as they rumbled into town, and not just because it had been a while since any of them had come to visit (and for one, it was his first time there).

They skidded to a halt upon reaching the familiar building.

"Oh great," Eli said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. "This place again?"

"Yep," Pronto said obliviously, "this was the location of the distress call! I shall accept my thanks in the form of monetary donations or a box of chocolates. No heart shapes please."

"But isn't this the place we first met the Unbeatable Master?" Kord pointed out. "Looks like they ain't having a whole lot of luck when it comes to customers."

"Do I want to know?" Junjie asked quietly.

"No," Trixie replied. "Odds are you really don't."

Eli dismounted and rested his now-removed helmet on the handlebars of his mecha.

"In any case," he said, holding up a canister for Burpy to jump into, "if there really is a brawl in there, somebody's going to have to deal with it."

Burpy squeaked in approval and was slotted into the blaster, and Eli approached the entrance with his finger on the trigger.

He quickly had to step out of the way as a former patron was thrown out of the building, scrambled to her feet and ran away whimpering in terror.

Eli spent several seconds watching after her. Judging by the fact that only one mechabeast - this one shaped like a unicorn, oddly enough - was parked outside, there were either very few people left in there or just one. And with how frightened that other woman had been, they were most likely rather tough.

"If..." he said slowly, "...if I'm not out in five minutes..."

The rest of the group gave him a semi-cheerful thumb's up, Junjie more hesitantly than the rest.