When he saw the Mobile Knight open fire on the Fake INP (FINP) position, John assumed the battle would have been over nearly instantly. Just like if the tank he drove back when he was in the military was dropped on top of a company of light infantry in an open field with no anti-tank weaponry. Sadly, the battle was just about to heat up.

  The armour the FINP troops were wearing lit up, and a blue dome-shaped shield surrounded the soldiers, protecting them from the initial bst from the Mobile Knight. That didn't stop them from scattering, the several-ton behemoth barrelling towards their position, putting the fear of god into them.

  John took his eyes away from the fight and led his crew towards a nearby structure, a two-story prefab building that looked to have been pced on the docks a while ago, as it had stacks of crates and barrels stacked up around it. They took cover behind a stack of those crates, giving them a few moments of breathing room. He handed Chris to Tanya, then pulled out his sidearm, the once seemingly powerful pistol now felt woefully inadequate in the battle taking pce before him.

  Greg was racing the Mobile Knight around the docks, power sliding the giant war machine when he was changing directions, ying fire down on the FINP forces. In return, the FIMPs had rge carbines spewing psma fire towards him, the Knights' shields absorbing the bsts with barely a flicker. However, with the sheer amount of psma being flung around, the unprotected crew would have no chance to make it to the Phoenix Hawk unscathed.

  "What is the pn, John?" Tanya asked, peeking around the crates with him. She had id Chris down next to the structure, with Serena and Morgan watching over her.

  "Well... I should have tested the range of my magic out before now, but I guess there is no time like the present." He said and targeted the nearest group of FIMPs. "Darkness, Darkness, Darkness."

  That group stopped firing, unable to see anything in the bck clouds now attached to their heads. He then aimed at another group of two and did the same thing. However, after the fifth cast, he was starting to become tired and get a headache, a sure sign that he was low on mana. Still, shutting down a third of the INP firepower should give Greg some breathing room.

  "Did you get a hold of Katrina?" He asked Tanya, pulling out his pistol again and taking aim at another FIMP whose back was turned toward him. They were over fifty yards away, which was an extreme range for most normal pistols. He held his breath, and the world slowed down like it had when he saved Niki a week and a lifetime ago.

  *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

  Three shots rang out across the hangar, the high-velocity magnetic rounds moving at some ungodly speed, almost like the Phoenix Hawks MAG. The first two impacted the shield, the third punched through it and blew a hole in the person's back. He released the breath he had been holding, and time seemed to return to normal. The person dropped to the deck, killed nearly instantly from the impact.

  I have no idea why time seems to slow down whenever I am in a gunfight, but those successive impacts appear capable of overwhelming a point on the shield, allowing the st one to break through. I’m wondering if the time slowdown is because of one of the impnts Estra mentioned I have in my head. I really should have looked at that list... yet another thing to add to my list of things to do...

  He paused at that thought, wondering how stupid he had to be to add to his list that he had to review another list. He just wanted to go and have a nap.

  "Sorry, I was just reading her reply," Tanya said, not realizing John had lost himself in his thoughts for a moment. "She says, 'Don't do anything stupid' and 'I will be right down'. I wonder if she thinks picking a fight with a bunch of cops will be stupid?" She deadpanned.

  "They had failed to identify themselves as w enforcement and were attempting to illegally abduct my crewmembers, so I resisted them. With extreme prejudice!" He said, then swung back around to fire another three-round burst at another target. This one didn't die, but he winged their arm, causing them to drop their weapon. Dropped with the lower half of their arm still attached. "That is my story anyway. We will see if she believes me or not."

  Greg was now making better use of his weapons, focusing the fire of the sers on single soldiers instead of spreading them around. The overwhelming heat generated by those ser weapons would break through their portable shields and cause the targets to light up like a candle, killing them before they even had a chance to scream.

  John scanned the docks, looking for either of the gang leaders, but apparently, they had made their escape early on in the fight. He cursed his luck, knowing that leaving enemies like that alive would just let them come after him again. Probably when he least expected it.

  The fight came to a close almost as fast as it began when the Phoenix Hawk itself opened fire with its anti-missile weaponry, hundreds of bolts of psma peppering the deck near the feet of the FINP soldiers. A familiar voice boomed from a loudspeaker he did not know his ship possessed. "Lay down your weapons and surrender, otherwise my next salvo won't miss!"

  The remaining eight FINP tossed their weapons aside and got down on their knees, surrendering to the twenty-one-year-old Neko, who was nothing more than a starving street urchin a week ago.

  "That was incredible," Morgan said.

  "You got that right. Are you sure that is your IDS up there? She always seemed so timid before." Serena asked him.

  "Someone ought to write a light novel about her life. She is like a real-life protagonist in a story." Tanya said beside him, just as amazed as he was at how far Niki had come in such a short time.

  "I'd read it." He replied, waving towards the Phoenix Hawk and his little cat girl, who was destined to become a legend if things continued like this.

  It didn't take them long to round up the FIMP weapons and strip them of their armour. He didn't want them activating their shielding again and then attempting to escape before Katrina arrived. He had Greg start hauling their equipment up into the Phoenix Hawk, taking them as spoils of war. If they ended up being actual INP, well, he and Katrina would have to have a talk, and it wouldn't be somewhere she would be able to detain him.

  He didn't bother questioning the prisoners. If it wasn't for the fact that Katrina was supposed to be on her way, he might have executed them like he had so many of the gang members earlier. He needed to get off this station ASAP.

  Tanya carried Chris inside the ship to the Auto-Doc, leaving John, Serena, Morgan and the Armoured Greg to greet Katrina when she arrived with fifty soldiers. She directed her team to take possession of the prisoners, then approached him with Evelin in tow.

  "I see you made a mess, John. I thought I told Tanya to tell you not to do anything stupid." She said, a smirk forming on her lips.

  "By the time we received the message, the stupid already happened." He replied, matching her smile. He then gave her a full accounting of the day's events. She frowned at him, but did not interrupt him until he had finished.

  "I see. Well, as far as I am aware, there were no INP forces dispatched to take anyone into custody today. We are a little busy with the evacuation to worry about something like that. However, when time permits, I will look into these cims Timur has made. I wish you had managed to capture him, as this would have made the investigation go that much quicker."

  "So do I, but by the time we got into cover, both of the bosses had disappeared." He said. There were cameras all around the station, but he was guessing they had a way to bypass them if they hadn't been caught already. "Anyways, I will be back in twenty-four hours. Ash is still in Karrax, and I am going to pull her out of there."

  "Absolutely not! That pce is crawling with-" She started, but he stepped forward, interrupting her.

  "I'm not asking for your permission; I am informing you of my intentions. Dock my pay if you need to or fire me, but when this conversation is done, I am marching onto my ship and going to try and rescue her!"

  She looked up at him and stared into his eyes. She saw his resolve, his unwavering conviction pin for all to see. "Fine. Go rescue the princess and bring her home safely."

  "Princess? Hah, don't let her hear you call her that; that would infte her ego even more. See you tomorrow sometime, Kat. Try not to blow all the bugs up before I get back." John replied, then turned around, heading to his ship with Serena and Morgan in tow.

  Once he was out of earshot, Evelin leaned in to Katrina and whispered. "Do you suppose he knows that, including Ash, he now has three princesses as part of his crew, along with the three high nobles that I think he is already aware of?"

  Katrina pondered that question for a moment and shook her head. "No. And that is the best part, honestly. I really want to be a fly on the wall when he finds out who those crew members of his really are. Let's go, we need to get to space ourselves." She was sometimes jealous of those Royals and Nobles who were not the next in line for leadership and allowed to do almost anything they wanted. She still didn't know why so many of them were drawn all the way out here to Parrax, but she didn't mind; they were productive members of society for the most part.

  Katrina stopped for a moment as if remembering something, then spoke. "Oh, make sure we get statements from those gang members, then eject them from an airlock. We don't have the resources to transport them right now to a penal colony, so there is no need for them to waste more oxygen."

  "Yes, Ma'am," Evelin said, saluting her.

  The pair of them continued walking, neither bothered by the fact that Katrina just condemned those criminals to death without a trial.

  John wasn't the only one with a vicious streak on the 'Good' side of the w.

  Phoenix Hawk - Hyperspace

  Nine Hours Before Arriving In The Karrax System

  Things had progressed rapidly once John boarded the Phoenix Hawk. He thanked Niki for her intervention with the ship's weapons, ending the confrontation. Now that he was hiring crew on, he made her his official second in command, which she responded to by jumping into his arms and kissing him deeply.

  He then fired up the ship and got them off the station in record time, and set a course to the edge of the system. Morgan and Serena came into the cockpit then, the former introducing herself to Niki while the tter started to familiarize herself with the ship's systems. Niki showed them both to their cabins after a few minutes, leaving him alone in the cockpit.

  Once they were far enough away from the star's gravitational influence, he activated the Hyperdrive, setting the exit point two light minutes earlier than the standard. Doing that should give him enough time to get the ship into lightspeed in case there were any Javarians near where the standard hyperjump point was.

  After that, he moved down to the Med Bay to check on Chris, but she was no longer in there. He scratched his head for a moment, then moved into the galley. Tanya and Greg were seated at a table, having a quiet conversation. He decided to join them for a few minutes before he continued his rounds. He promised himself he wouldn't lose his temper with him again. He wouldn't apologize either, but after Greg saved them earlier, he was willing to work with him, for now.

  "Good work with the Mobile Knight." He said, sitting down beside Tanya. "You seemed comfortable in it. Have you used them before?"

  "Yeah. When I first started as a mercenary, I used one of those, guarding different pnetary facilities. I haven't been in one for many years, though, ever since I traded it in for a fighter instead." Greg replied. "I probably should have used one of the other ones for that fight, but it was the shortest one you had, which are easier to handle when you are my size."

  "Hey, it worked, and we are alive. Speaking of alive, where did you guys stash Chris? I wanted to go check in on her."

  "Ten credits says she is back in the engine room. You should head back and check on her. I think she has something she wants to tell you." Tanya said.

  "Not taking that bet, I would just be losing money to you again." He replied. He refrained from telling Greg that's how you-

  "See, Greg, that's how you should be gambling. By not doing it!" Tanya said, doing what John had refrained from doing.

  "Yeah, yeah. I am a moron. I am going to head home once we rescue Ash, okay? I am sure I'll be jailed for a couple of years for my indiscretions, no need to flog a dead mole rat!" He replied, sounding like Tanya had been ying into him quite a bit already.

  Well deserved!

  "Just go, John. I'll see you in bed ter." Tanya said, giving him an easy out from this conversation.

  "Alright. Love you." He said, giving her a quick kiss before leaving the Galley.

  He made his way to the aft end of the ship, wondering what Chris wanted to tell him.

  He sighed and smiled a bit. He thought he knew what was about to happen.

  Suffice to say, life had a way of surprising him at every turn these days.