Kye was debating whether to send one of his men to find a cup of coffee for him and whether there were any shops nearby that were still open when he heard the screams. From the right side of the building, several of his men came running through the rain, their arms flailing as they pushed through mud and water to reach his patio.


    "What in the abyss—" Benji whispered beside him.


    From the alley, a shiny ball rocketed through the air, slamming hard into the back of a man''s head and sending him twirling to the ground. Kye raised his eyebrow. Surely, they weren''t just running from that? Even the weakest of his men shouldn''t have to worry about some ball.


    Aroo!


    A massive dog burst out of the alley, romping through mud and trampling over his men, who were too slow to get out of the way. Kye''s jaw dropped. It was almost as tall as the warehouse. How the hell had something that large just appeared out in the rainstorm? Maybe it was a part of a person''s curse.


    "Fido, no!" Roy yelled from Kye''s right. "How''d you get outside?"


    He ran out into the rain, waving his arms at the dog as he trudged through the mud. The dog looked at him momentarily before its head swiveled around the area. Eventually, it locked back onto the metal ball. The dog lowered itself on its front paws and raised its hindquarters, its long tail wagging.


    "No!" Roy yelled, pushing closer to the dog.


    Thump.


    The dog ignored him as the ball rose into the air again. Without an impetus, it shot off past Roy and toward the patio, slamming hard into one of the posts before falling to the ground. Kye looked down at the ball and then back to the dog. An unsettling pull hit his stomach.


    The dog jumped, knocking past Roy and sending him tumbling to the ground. Kye took a deep breath and opened his gate. Lengths of white power pulled across his body, constricting his limbs tighter as his heart tied itself to the tips of his fingers and toes. He held out his hands, pointing them toward the charging dog.


    "Rope Trick!"


    Crack.


    Lines of long white rope shot out of his sleeves, snapping around the dog''s limbs and tying themselves tight. Kye ran to the right and out into the rain, pulling the ropes with them and wrapping them around the post. The dog slammed into the post, still after its ball and unaware it had been caught. Kye pulled the ropes tight and strained as the dog fell.


    He wasn''t nearly strong enough to hold the dog. Water poured into his mask and over his eyes like a waterfall as he pulled hard against the dog. Instead of moving any further, though, he only sunk into the mud up to his ankles. Another reason why he hadn''t wanted to bother with the intruders was that the muddy roads were nearly impossible to walk in.


    "Help me, Benji!" Kye yelled. "Men, get in and hold that dog!"


    Benji looked him in the eyes for a long moment. Kye knew how he looked, already covered in mud and sunk to his ankles. Benji frowned and sighed, cracking his knuckles, and walked toward the dog at the end of the patio as it struggled against its binds.


    "Fine," he said. "But I don''t get paid near enough for this."


    Several other Cleaners approached the down dog with Benji, and the dog pulled hard on Kye''s ropes as it stood to fight them off. The beast seemed to have lost all pretense of play. Now, they had a fight on their hands. The dog bent forward and growled, its tail stock-still.


    As Benji stepped out into the rain, it lunged. Its teeth lashed out at him as its head shot forward. Kye pulled hard on his ropes, pulling the dog to the side to keep it from landing the attack. He slid in the mud as he strained his muscles. His arms and legs burned as he pulled hard against the rope.


    "Grah!" he screamed, pulling harm against the rope and closing his eyes tight.


    "Hold it tight, boys! I''m going to put a collar on this beast!" Benji yelled. "Lock Down!"


    Crack. Thud. Grrl.


    Then, the pull on Kye''s arms settled down to nothing, and he nearly fell over from the loss in tension in his ropes. He opened his eyes and looked over the scene. Benji stood over the dog, flexing his arms as he looked down on the creature. The dog lay in the mud, head down, with one of its legs bound in a black metal bar with its neck. Benji''s own curse had allowed him to immobilize the beast.


    Kye plodded through the mud toward Benji, slapping him on the shoulder with one mud covered hand.


    "We got him," Kye said, squinting through the water toward the warehouse. "But where in the abyss did it even come from?"


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Roy acted like he owned it," Benji said. "They must have kept it inside. Maybe the intruders released it?"


    "Could be," Kye said, looking at the downed Roy in the mud not far away. "You''d have to kick a dog pretty hard regularly to have it attack you instead of the intruders."


    "They''re slavers." Benji shrugged. "Not really the best of humanity."


    "Hah." Kye chuckled, turning to his men.


    "Find out where the dog came out and head inside through the other entrances. I think our stalemate is over. If we can pick up on their path, we''ll track them down, but the priority is investigation!"


    "Sir!" his men saluted before starting off into the rain.


    "Let''s get out of this rain, Benji." Kye pointed to the front entrance that his men were already entering.


    "I could do with that." Benji nodded.


    As they approached the alley and its torrent of rain, which Kye would use to wash off his orange jumpsuit, one of his men came running back toward him. Ahead, smoke poured out of the warehouse''s open door, and Kye had to suppress a curse. The building was on fire.


    "Sir!" his soldier saluted, his hand reaching his mask. "The inside is on fire."


    "Tell me something I don''t already see," Kye grumbled. "Go get the fire teams!"


    <hr>


    Erin''s vines provided some protection for their escape until they finally got to an alley on the far side of the street. Then it was back out into the rain, the same it had been all evening. Alex sighed. Every step he took sunk up to his ankles into the mud, and he knew it would only get worse on the run back to the ship.


    They''d have to steal a slipship.


    "Does anyone else smell smoke?" Sayed asked as he exited the vines, looking back the way they had come.


    "I started a fire on the way out." Erin shrugged, stepping out next with the slaves and Artur. "I thought it might be a good distraction and clean up any evidence."


    Alex turned to her, raising an eyebrow. Considering her personality and power set, he would have never imagined her to be an arsonist. Granted, she did work for a revolutionary group. Burning down a few buildings was probably a normal procedure for a group of terrorists.


    Not that he didn''t approve.


    "Shield Dome." Artur held up his shield as he walked out into the group, and the patter of rain abated. "Make yourselves at home."


    Alex looked up at the glowing blue dome. Sure, it would hold off the rain, but it would also attract attention. The faster everyone split up, the better. He turned to the others, pushing back his black hair and clearing the water streaming down his face.


    "Alright," he said. "We''re going to split up here."


    He pointed down the left-hand street, roughly in the direction of the docks. While he didn''t have perfect bearings, with his magnetic senses opened, he could sort of sense which direction north was. With that, he could also pick out the direction the docks should be in.


    "The docks are that way. You should all split up once you''re there. Pick any ship that looks like it''s going off the island. Supply ships are the best if you can find some loaded crates to hide around. Don''t get caught."


    "Thank you." The old man stepped forward, reaching out a hand, and Alex shook it.


    "Don''t thank me," Alex said. "There''s still a good chance a lot of you won''t make it. Good luck, but don''t count on luck carrying you through."


    "You all gave us a chance. That''s what matters." The old man shook his head. "I might be able to see my grandson again. That chance is worth all the suffering in the world."


    Alex could understand that. It was the same mentality he had back when he was captured in the lab. Every chance for freedom or escape was a chance to see his family again. That was, of course, before he discovered he wasn''t on Earth anymore. However, he carried the same hope inside him, even now. Every step forward was a chance to go home again.


    "Good luck, my brothers!" Sayed came behind Alex, slapping him on the shoulder as Alex released the old man''s hand.


    Alex nearly fell face-first into the mud.


    "May we meet again," the old man said, waving as he walked into the alley''s shadows with the freed people.


    Soon, they were completely out of sight, and Alex turned to Sayed and Erin.


    "Let''s go take a slipship. I''m not walking back."


    The blue light above flickered and faded as they set out into the rain a second time. Alex made sure they kept to alleys for a long time, not stopping until they were out of West District. As they trudged through the mud, he kept an eye out for one of the shuttles. Surely, there would be one parked out in the streets, floating above the surface and ready for when the storm was over.


    It wasn''t until after they had been walking in the rain for about thirty minutes, his clothes completely soaked against his skin, that he noticed one floating near an open window. He slapped his head upside the head. He had been stupid. If a person ran a shuttle, they wouldn''t park it on the ground when it wasn''t in use. Why do that when it could be stolen?


    Instead, they would park it near where they lived. The crystals that powered a slipship could easily take an inactive night anchored in the air during a storm. He raised a hand to call Erin and Sayed to stop, pointing up into the sky.


    "I got it," he said, opening his gate.


    Electricity flowed through him, and the world came alight in his senses as lightning thrummed through his body. Alex quickly threw a coin on the ground before pushing against it and throwing himself toward the anchored slipship. He landed on the deck of the shuttle with a soft thump, crouching and listening to the nearby shuttered window.


    There was no light inside, and Alex assumed the owner was asleep. He quickly set to work, sneaking over to the control panel and flipping a few switches before untying the rope that held the ship to the building. He released the ship''s current power level, and the ship slowly began to descend, leaving its berth behind as it came down to the street below.


    "Come on, let''s go." He waved Erin and Sayed on board.


    Three people jumped on board, and Alex quickly let loose on the slipship''s throttle, opening it up to rocket into the sky. The rescue mission was complete. They had gotten Erin back and even saved some people from a bad life. All in all, Alex would call that a success.


    Then he noticed the problem. In the relative darkness of the storm, he did a quick headcount as he pointed the ship toward the repair docks. One, two, three shadowy figures knelt on the deck to avoid the rain. Then, of course, there was himself—four people in total.


    He squinted. Artur had managed to follow them onto the slipship. For whatever reason, the knight had decided to stow along rather than run for safety. If it weren''t for the rain, Alex would have stopped the ship, but instead, he knew they''d have to talk the moment they landed.