“Why are you even here?”
Cheers and whistles followed the shouted question before someone else yelled out.
“Get back to your side of the river!”
Another Player started a chant. “Leave! Leave! Leave!”
The rest of the crowd quickly picked it up.
“Leave! Leave! Leave! Leave!”
Stardust tensed. The mood was shifting, becoming ugly and angry. More people had poured out into the street and the crowd was starting to press forward toward the P-Bots. No way this ended without altercations. And then it happened. Someone threw a rock. It hit one of the bots, striking it with a loudclang.
Hostile activity detected. Appropriate measures will be taken.
The purple glow in the visor of the P-Bot that had been struck changed to a bright white search light, sweeping back and forth over the restless crowd in the street, almost certainly looking for the person who had thrown the rock. Whether it found the person or not, three of the P-Bots started moving toward the crowd. Some people immediately took off running, or retreated back into the clubs. Others stood their ground against the advancing police bots, still angrily chanting for them to leave. Those who remained would undoubtedly be taken into the custody of the private Pruitt police force and that rarely ended well for anyone. Stardust had to stop this.
He pushed away from the party bus and looked at Zielinski. “You can sit here like a lump if you want but I’m going to help my people.”
Without waiting for a response, Stardust stepped forward from his place in the shadows, running over to put himself between the line of P-Bots and the crowd of Players. He didn’t take his eyes off the P-Bots when he yelled back over his shoulder. “Anyone who doesn’t want to see what the inside of a Pruitt holding cell looks like needs to get the hell out of here,now!”
Thankfully the Players heeded his warning and took off. But the retreat wasn’t orderly. Along with the decision to escape came panic. People pushed and yelled, running to evade the police bots. Unfortunately, by now, the bots were on them. A fleeing Player tripped and fell down in the street. One of the P-Bots changed direction to go after the easy prey.
Stardust sprinted over to him. He leaped and flipped in mid-air, landing in front of the downed man and facing the bot. The bot raised its arm and a light began to glow from a spot on its arm above its wrist. Stardust had seen these things in action enough times to know what was coming next. An immobilization light to daze a person enough that they could be taken into custody without resistance. In order to keep it from hitting him or the Player, Stardust threw up his shield, deflecting the light and giving the man time to get back on his feet.
“Thank you!” the man said from behind him.
“You’re welcome.” He opened the protective sphere in a single spot behind him to allow the man to break free. “Now get out of here.”
The guy nodded then took off running again. Once he was gone, Stardust dropped his shield completely and backflipped out of the stun light’s range so he wouldn’t be affected by it. He went after another bot, darting in and out with quick blows to keep it focused on him long enough for the people in its sights to get away, then rushing forward to repeat the tactic with the next bot. Stardust noted from the corner of his eye that Zielinski had joined him in taking on the P-Bots. His power flashed occasionally, lighting up the night in emerald green. But he mostly seemed to be playing defense and not set on destroying the machines.
Within minutes, they’d accomplished their goal. All of the Players had managed to escape—and the P-Bots hadn’t apprehended a single person. The Barbed Wire’s employees, including the mugging victim, were back inside the club. Whatever programming ticked inside the bots’ computer heads gave them the order to retreat. Moving in near unison, the bots returned to their vehicle. Except for one.
While the others loaded back into the SUVs, one of the P-Bots stood in front of the vehicle and faced Stardust. That purple light slid back and forth along its visor as it had when it’d been scanning for the mugging victim.
Sai still gripped in his fists, Stardust faced the robot head on. That thing could scan him all it liked, as long as he wore his mask, it wasn’t finding out his identity. After a few moments, the purple light stopped scanning and the thing pivoted on a robotic heel to join the others in the SUV. They drove off, the purple lights on the top of the trucks now dark and still. Feeling victorious, Stardust smirked and shoved his sai back in their holsters.
He was about to stride off and resume the patrol when someone grabbed his arm. Still on edge from the fight, he spun around and threw his guard up, but it was only Zielinski. Stardust relaxed his stance, lowering his fists to his sides. “Don’t grab me like that, Zielinski. I almost punched you in the face.”
“What was that?” Zielinski asked with his jaw so tight his lips barely moved.
Stardust cocked his head to the side in question. “What do you mean what was that?”
“I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to engage with the Pruitt bots.”
“Ididn’t agree to that. And even if I did, that was cancelled when those fucking things started trying to arrest Players.”
A muscle flexed in Zielinski’s jaw. “Damnit, Stardust! You can’t just rush into situations like that without a plan.”
“Fuck a plan!” Stardust shouted back in the face of Zielinski’s dogged insistence on strategizing. “Once those things get their hands on you and suck you into the Pruitt detention system, you’re lucky if you ever get back out.” He threw a hand out to encompass the clubs on the street. “Those people don’t deserve to have their lives royally screwed because of one altercation. You’d understand that if you weren’t the fucking Riley.”
“Stop calling me that,” Zielinski snapped.
The nickname was clearly a sore spot for Zielinski. Stardust decided to poke at it. He pushed up his mask so the other man could see his taunting smirk. “Or what? What are you going to do about it...Riley?”
Zielinski didn’t verbally respond to the taunt but the emerald green of his power flashed once behind his glasses. Stardust’s smirk widened into a triumphant grin when he saw it.
“You want to go weapons hot, soldier boy?” He spread his stance and put his hands on his hips. “Because we can do it. I’ll have you on your knees begging for mercy by the time I’m done with you.”
