Copyright J.B. Norman
“Right,” Kathryn instructs her sister as Dunstella finally steals herself to inject Kathryn with the medkit’s needle. “Like, I said, press the big blue button to prime it.”
“Okay…” Dunstella mutters, not particularly enthused.
“Now,” Kathryn continues. “Jam it right into my arm.”
She points to her stunned and limp left arm.
“And get it in there good. It needs to go right into the—”
“I don’t wanna know!” Dunstella cries.
“Come on, just jab me already,” Kathryn urges.
“This is a pretty big needle. Won’t it hurt?”
“I got shot with a stun bolt,” Kathryn notes. “I can’t feel the entire left side of my body.”
“Oh yeah,” Dunstella notes.
Clamping her eyes shot, she jabs her sister’s arm.
“Am I doing it right?” she asks, half-opening her eyes.
“Just press the plunger now,” Kathryn says.
“Okay,” Dunstella says. She presses the plunger.
Once the injection is complete, Kathryn reaches across her body to remove the needle.
“Gross, gross, gross,” Dunstella says.
“Okay,” Kathryn says, exhaling a long, slow breath and flexing her left hand. “That’s better.”
She rises to her feet, leaning heavily against the wall of the Crystal Labyrinth until the feeling returns to her legs.
“Let’s go help Amarantha,” Kathryn says, unholstering her stun pistol.
“I, uh,” Dunstella says, glancing over to the Alvaraean princess. “I think she’s doing pretty good by herself.”
Still surrounded by a tempest of sorcery, Amarantha is inexorably advancing on Lieutenant Crem.
The Syntaxian Kraken is continuing to empty the batteries of her stun rifle at Amarantha, whose sorceries are still shielding her from the barrage of bolts.
Growling in frustration, Lieutenant Crem discards her stun rifle and reaches for her shock baton, electricity crackling around the length of the baton.
She takes a swing at Amarantha. The Alvaraean princess’ hand shoots out, catches the baton. Her arm flexes, her hand clenches around the baton and starts to bend the metal back towards itself, folding the baton almost into a complete circle.
“Cool,” Dunstella says.
“Amarantha,” Kathryn calls, looking down the barrel of her stun pistol. “Turn her this way.”
Unable to push back against Amarantha’s sorcerously-augmented strength, Lieutenant feels herself being turned. She tries to dig her heels into the snow beneath her, but is unable to find purchase.
“Perfect,” Kathryn says, as she lines up her shot.
Lieutenant Crem’s back is facing her. More important, so is Lieutenant Crem’s jetpack.
Kathryn pulls the trigger and sends a bolt right at the activation switch of the jetpack. The boosters flare to lift and Lieutenant yelps as she feels herself rocketing upwards.
Her helmet collides with the ceiling of the Crystal Labyrinth, offering enough protect to ward off any major injury, but not enough to knock her senseless. The thrusters on her jetpack putter out and she tumbles back to the floor of the Crystal Labyrinth, where she lies sprawled out and groaning on the ice.
“Can I do it?” Dunstella asks eagerly, snatching the cuffs off Kathryn’s belt.
She runs towards the prone figure of Lieutenant Crem and slaps the cuffs on her wrists.
“Citizen’s Arrest!” she declares. “Citizen’s Arrest!”
“Quack?” Praetor Pendleton P. Palumbo asks as he appears around the corner with a contingent from the Ledu Security Forces.
“Yeah,” Kathryn answers. “We’re fine.”
Now, that’s probably not how a Citizen’s Arrest works, but it’s Space, it doesn’t have to be completely realistic…
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