Smugglin' Ain't No Easy Task

Cross Hylan

Noxu paused as he heard the man. "Gods damn it. I have got to stop smokin'," he said under his breath. Already, even after that short sprint away from the pursuing Batarian, Noxu was already out of breath. With his hands placed right on the handle of his pistols beneath his coat, he barely turned his head to the right to acknowledge the man that approached him randomly. "Not a local?" he scoffed. "Kid, I'm more a local than you know." Taking his left hand off his holstered pistol, he turned slowly until he faced the man before him.

Immediately, he eyed the redhead up and down to see if he'd be considered a threat. Then, it dawned on him. He was on Omega -- everyone was a threat on Omega. "Can't say I pissed 'em off, nah," came the lies. "A little misunderstandin', maybe. Wrong directions," the lie continued. "I'm Zetai. Nice to meet you." Not once while he was inspecting the man in front of him did he take his hand off the blaster. Always better to be cautious than to be dead.

Walking a bit to the side, he started to circle around Cross as if to make his way to the other side of him and make for a quick escape down the only exit. "The hell are you doin' here, anyway? Did you get the wrong directions from those Batarian, too? They're sly, I'll give 'em that." While he attempted to distract him with a simple conversation, his focus remained on meandering around to the exit.

Shit, was all Elenviel could think at the moment as her heart raced just as fast her feet did. Shit, shit, shit! Running away from Batarians was not her idea of spending her day. Their money was very valuable to them. At first it seemed like a good idea. That is until she got caught, then she regretted it. It would have been for a good cause, not that the Batarians would understand, or even care to for that matter. Her work had been slow for the past couple of weeks. Very little opportunities popped up to make extra money, and as the weeks passed her money magically disappeared. Granted, a good portion of it went to tools and pieces for machinery and devices, and some healing supplies - but she spent it wisely, too. Her need for money was actually for a good cause - one, important supplies, and...food. It was a good reason, right? Elenviel thought so anyway.

Unfortunately, it did not go according to plan.

Elenviel glanced quickly over her shoulder. The Batarians had been particularly stubborn in a hard chase but they were now no where to be seen. That didn't comfort her at all. What if they had found a short cut? Elenviel preferred to see them still chasing her, despite their faces hardly being a pleasantry to look upon. Fortunately for her she dodged some bullets. Literally. Looking in front of her Elenviel saw a corner to her left nearby. It led to an ally. She briefly regarded the possible dangers of hiding in a dark ally. Alone. By herself. But she was running from Batarians! Elenviel didn't really think much about it. She ran for the ally. Perhaps she could hide here for a while before--

Elenviel did not see the two men already standing in the ally. She bumped into one; she didn't really pay much attention to him other than that he wore a long dark coat. Elenviel collided into him harshly and she fell on her side onto the ground, dropping the small pouch of coins she had been clutching in her hand, wincing as the two other pouches in her coat made a noise of their presence. The man stumbled but he did not fall, unlike Elenviel. Damn her for being small. "Ouch," she murmured, "Next time maybe I should just pickpocket..."

Cross Hylan Elenviel

There was too much already going on for Noxu to really care about what the man before him thought. The pirate 'instinctively' blocked off Nox's route to swerve around him and get away. Why? Noxu had absolutely no idea. It wasn't as though he had any intentions of fighting. At that moment, Cross had actually seemed to be the one cornering him to start a fight. Guess I'll just have to shoot his knees out to get away. All good. Don't matter to me any, he thought.

"Pyke. Yeah. Nice to meet you," Noxu replied. An unusual name, but for a wide galaxy full of aliens and races with much more unusual names than his own, it wasn't a surprise for someone to be named that. There was no way he would even consider it being a faked name; granted, he couldn't possibly care less if it was or wasn't.

"So, anyhow, I'll just be -- " his attention to the situation was cut short when he heard a heavy scuffling coming toward their area. His mind immediately jumped to the fact that the Batarians were most likely still on his tail. His hand tightened its grip onto the pistol grip as he prepared for any impending attacks. Just as he was about to pull the heavy pistol free of his holster, he saw a woman running straight at him. Not having any time to react, he was slammed into and almost knocked off balance. His hand lessened its grip on the pistol as he tried to brace himself to stop from falling over.

"Next time maybe I should just pickpocket..."

Noxu smirked. Before he knew it, however, Pyke was already right at the woman's feet and offering a hand. Someone reeks of desperation, he thought amused. Leaning down, he scooped his left arm under the woman's right and attempted to help hoist her up to her feet with relative ease. Damn, she's light.

"You don't have the look of someone runnin' for a jog, sweetheart. And you don't look like a gods damned tourist," he said to the woman and Pyke respectively. Noxu grunted at the comments of being called a liar. "Liar, sure. And you're a saint. On Omega. Gods damn." He said, not too terribly amused. The day was already getting worse. "I'm pretty damn sure we're goin' to have company. So how 'bout you get out of the lady's way, so we can get someplace safe before we all get shot to hell?" he said pointedly at Pyke who was still conveniently in the way of Noxu and Elenviel.

"Or, better yet. Stay. Sacrifice yourself so we can get an escape. I'm down for that," he mused as he heard the footsteps approaching.