I immediately masked any inkling of recognition I might show on my face. After another second of trying my best to stare through her, I turned my head in a bored fashion to examine the rest of the cab. My mind didn’t register anything my eyes perceived, though. My enemy sat a few feet in front of me. And it wasn’t just an enemy, it was a female Dralid.

You know, Dralid - the creepy spider people who dwell in caves, make a sport out of hunting sentient beings, commonly sought out as mercenaries and assassins for hire throughout the galaxy, can reverse engineer anything they get their hands on, and ride giant arachnids into battle?

Ladies of the species were an especially brutal breed. It was a socially accepted practice in their homeworld for females to consume their male counterparts after a successful mating session. It didn’t happen every time, or so I’m told, but the fact that the woman sitting across from me could very well be a cannibal sent a shiver down my spine.

I casually turned my head to the right and tried to take in more detail of the black widow. From my infrequent glances, she appeared unarmed. Any weaponry she had she concealed in the folds of her outfit, not that there were many wrinkles in the form-fitting combat suit.

The cab slid to a halt and the doors shot open. She calmly stood up and followed the departing crowd out onto the platform. I counted to three and followed, keeping her pale head in my sight.

At least, I tried to. In the jumble of bodies, I couldn’t keep a consistent eye on the lithe woman. She stood a good head below the average human, and her dark hues blended well among the shadows of the masses.

I had lost her in the span of several meters. She was damn good.

That was the first thought.

The second thought that ran through my head was. “What the hell is that beeping?”

A roaring inferno responded to my inquiry. A shockwave with the force of a charging Yarik Bull threw me off the lowering platform and onto the granite below. As I slammed against the ground, I felt something inside me crack and the breath flew from my lungs.

I laid there for several moments in agony, my mind too fuzzy to comprehend what just happened. Something exploded. I was close to it. I went flying. That’s all my racing mind could think.

Gradually my thoughts became more sophisticated. I had been thrown from the second story; fortunately, our train had not released us any higher up or I might not have survived. An explosion had come from a person in the crowd ahead of me and engulfed several pedestrians before making its way to me.

Then panic set in. I patted my body down for lacerations. The handy NPCs must have acted as effective cover because I found little to no burn marks on my clothing, and no shrapnel had embedded itself in my flesh. Still, my heart beat in my throat and I felt the blood rush to my head. I'd never seen an explosion like that, much less taken one full force.

Alright, at least I’m not in imminent threat of death. Now I needed to locate the spider woman. My blurred vision began to refocus and I scanned the ground floor. Nobody reacted at all to the supernova that had just claimed the lives of at least a dozen people above. The programmed pedestrians continued about their business as if absolutely nothing had happened.

The descending platform that had just ejected me landed gently on its destination. Corpses in several varieties of burnt crispy, torn to gibbons, and contorted at improper angles still littered the staging. A businessman checked his watch and stepped over the smoldering bodies. His shoes squished as he clambered over their intrusive forms. I get that they were AI, but a little bit of humanity programmed into them wouldn't have hurt. The sight made me want to shut my eyes and never open them again.

No sign of the Dralid.

She wouldn’t have gone far. Since the simulation hadn’t ended in victory she knew I wasn’t dead.

I paused. What if her explosive assault was just a random guess? What if she had gotten frustrated with the cat and mouse too and decided to start popping off explosions to attract me to the mess?

I decided that was a dangerous assumption to make. I would operate under the belief that she knew my face, my capabilities, and that I had been wounded in the blast. I couldn’t stay out in the open like this.

There was an information kiosk about ten meters to the right of ground zero. If I could make it there I could take cover and disguise myself by reading an informative holo-brochure. I took a deep breath and struggled to my feet. My body screamed as I moved. I swallowed my grimace - AI didn’t feel pain.

Nothing critical seemed injured and, aside from the searing pain, I could move without inhibition. I painted on the tried and true placid expression I employed in countless card bouts before and walked over to the kiosk. I had a high card, she had pocket aces. The only way to win was to play a different hand.

I leaned on the kiosk counter and nodded to the bubbly blonde attendant.

“Information on Dartmouth Lane entertainment, please.” I smiled at the young woman.

“Right away, sir!” She smiled and swiped on the digital pad in her booth. Images of a romantic city street lined by half-timbered Tudor houses flittered out of a display UI on the side of the stall. A dreamy voice accompanied the view, discussing the region’s history. Fascinating stuff for a rainy day.

I stole a few glances over to the impact zone. Something curious caught my eye. A wounded AI dragged himself across the floor, bloody stumps for legs leaving a sinister snail trail of viscera behind him. He cried out for a god, for mercy, for his mother.

The whole scene was pretty damn intense. What sick guy coded this? I mused. My mind wandered to what other behaviors the BIOS system could simulate.

It caught my lady friend’s attention too. A metallic, six-pronged device with a glassy indicator atop its chassis flung itself from above onto the hysterical man. It made contact with the floor, the indicator turned red, and a blaze enveloped him.

When the dust cleared, he was nothing but a charred lump of flesh. Oh, and his head had landed about thirty meters away. In front of a security guard, actually, but he was too busy flipping through a magazine to take note.

So she’s still up there, huh? I leaned against the booth and nonchalantly turned my eyes to the ceiling. Just admiring the craftsmanship of the stained glass, of course. I saw a shadow skirting along with one of the LiteRails wires, but as soon as I focused on it, it had vanished into the mass of people on a platform across the one we had just come from. Damn, she was fast.

This gave me a glimmer of hope. She still didn’t know who exactly I was. She had wasted two of her little explosive traps and blown her cover in the process. Sure I had a few scrapes and contusions, but the knowledge was a worthwhile tradeoff. The hands reshuffled and I had a pocket Queen.

The platform she blended with made its way up to the third level. I strolled over to the nearest available train on the ground floor and leaned on a handrail, stuffing myself between a sweaty man in overalls and a light purple Undu with a shifty glance.

The car warped into the void and spat me out on the fourth level - just above where my opponent’s platform had settled for its arriving tram. Perfect.

I looked over the Undu and a sudden stroke of genius came to me. His belt held two spherical platinum devices in its straps, pulsing blue buttons atop just inviting a probing hand. In other words - plasma grenades.

I had never been the best pickpocket, but the pair of ‘nades came loose with a gentle tug and I brushed by him onto the platform outside. The train was just pulling up as I spotted her tattooed dome skulking among the passerby below.

“Well, this would be considered a war crime in most federated systems.” I shrugged.

I don’t think the people of LimeLight would mind very much. They had asked for a show, right?

And it's not like the AI cared. They walked past the baking corpses from the first explosion like they were a mild nuisance, a holoboard for some household product everyone already bought.

I depressed the button of my first grenade and let her drop. It met its mark dead center of the mass of people and bounced off the concrete before erupting at hip-level. Purplish blue fire spewed from the canister and dissolved half a dozen innocent denizens of the station.

Unfortunately, the black widow wasn’t one of them. The moment the steel device hit concrete, she dove from the platform and clasped the side of the train. It rocked her a bit, and the heat lapped at her back, but the fabric of her armor absorbed the scalding flame. The center of the concrete platform melted like a wet loaf of bread under the sudden temperature change, and the bodies left on the platform, cooked or otherwise, fell right through the center.

The Dralid’s red eyes locked on to me immediately, still standing like a dolt admiring my handiwork.

Shit.

In a move that could give a Galactic Gymnast a run for her money, she somersaulted up the side of the tram and onto its roof. She ran and jumped to reach an impossible height, and barely caught the wireline of level four. Just like that, she had brought herself to my level.

That gave me another hint. She didn’t have a ranged weapon - or she wouldn’t have risked exposure to get this close to me. Although she had made the maneuvers look easy, it was still dangerous and thus unnecessary unless her only option was close-quarters combat.

I ripped my Thurma from its holster and fired several laser blasts at her limber form, but her movements were far too erratic to place and they sailed by her with a wide berth.

The Dralid kept a serene look on her face as she swung from line to line, intent on reaching my platform. At this rate, she would certainly catch me.

I went for a little gymnastic maneuver of my own. As my platform began to descend, another platform at level two was making its ascent to three.

I turned once more and saw she was only a few meters away from launching herself onto my stage. I fired another shot, just for good measure, and aimed for the rising platform.

THUD

It wasn’t nearly as graceful, but the form of a buxom woman caught me as I fell. She got up and brushed herself off, unconcerned with the flying pistol-wielding madman. I wheeled about to keep my eyes on my opponent as soon as I regained my footing. She had stopped to leer at me from where I had just stood. Had I been a few seconds slower she might have just made me choke on my own pistol.

Before she could pursue me further I rushed into the open doors of the arriving train. I leaned out through the window and popped off a few more shots at her elusive form, just to keep the pressure on.

Thurma U34 Charge - 50%

What the hell? I had fired maybe a dozen shots and the thing was already low on juice? I cursed my imprecision with the weapon. I couldn’t afford to keep throwing potshots on her with it. Clasping the pistol to my side, I produced the Saker and propped it on the windowsill of the train.

The pale woman vanished. As I scanned the lowering platform with my sights I couldn’t place her among the idle civilians. A loud crash overhead jolted me from my reconnaissance.

I turned around just in time to watch her come sailing through a window on the far side of the train. The killer acrobat produced a thick-bladed knife with a nasty curve, likely meant for disembowelment. She sliced through a man in a bright blue suit and pants combination and the woman in a flowery sundress leaning on his arm, pushing their bleeding bodies aside in her pursuit of me.

I weighed my options:

5% chance of success with Saker

25% chance of success with Thurma

40% chance of success with Tenderizer

The Saker was too unwieldy for this distance - I had proven that with the Falconer. The Thurma was strapped to my waist, should I reach for it she would already be upon me and it would do me little good.

My trusty Tenderizer crackled with energy as I eased it from my belt. No sooner had I done so than my enemy was upon me swinging with fanatic energy. Spittle flung from her hissing mouth as she unloaded a series of well-aimed attacks at me, narrowly missing as I used my cab-mates as (human? robot?) shields.

Although she had an intense desire to tear me apart, her movements were delicate and precise. The Dralid must have spent many years mastering the art of the blade.

And I was going to try to beat her to death with a fucking club.

I raised my instrument a half a second too slow and caught a slice on my tricep. It stung but I held the grip on my stun baton.

So, parrying wasn’t optimal - noted. The next stab I managed to sidestep, but she kept her balance. Her follow-on attack was more cautious, though, and I managed to backpedal out of its arc.

“In another life, we could have been dancing partners you know.”

She snarled and pressed her assault, pushing me to the back of the cab. I guess she didn’t speak Galactic Basic. That was a good one.

After taking several more nicks from her savage blade, I realized defense wasn’t quite doing the trick. With all the force I could muster I slammed the Tenderizer onto her arm as she struck. I caught a knife to the side in the process but I would have anyway. This at least staggered her, and I thought it had stunned her too but she shook it off and resumed her stance. There must be some kind of protective layer in the fabric of her clothing.

I finalized the details of a plan in the window of time my maneuver bought me. It was nigh suicidal, but so was playing knife tag with the black widow. Warm rivulets of blood dripped from what felt like half a dozen wounds. She hadn’t struck anything vital yet, but the damage had already sapped a significant amount of strength from my body. It was just a matter of time until she capitalized on my wounded state and struck a major organ or artery.

Last call for bets. I’m All-In.

40% chance

I stepped forward with a feint and let her sink her knife in deep, gasping as a white-hot sensation filled my lower left abdomen. I hoped that wasn’t the feeling of my kidney bursting.

I let the Tenderizer clatter to the floor.

She had a Jack in the hand and the River played her another. The Dralid clicked her teeth in victory.

“Not yet,” I muttered, wrapping the crook of my left elbow around her forearm.

She tried to pull back, and oh boy did it hurt like a bitch, but the diminutive woman couldn’t tug free - she was in too deep. With my freed right-hand I pulled out the second plasma grenade. Her red eyes widened as the metallic sphere came into view.

I grinned despite myself. The pain disappeared behind the wave of adrenaline coursing through my veins. Nothing felt more satisfying than baiting a cocky opponent into a deadly gambit. She had overplayed her hand.

I tossed the grenade as far back in the car as I could. The hapless civilians in the rear didn’t even look up as a purplish haze of flame and electrons boiled them in their own skin. The steel floor of the front train slopped into a puddle and the wire beneath corroded away.

At that moment I let the Dralid woman go. The train sagged on the wire, its front end falling off in bits and pieces as the tracks bent under the stress. The rear of the car deployed its emergency electromagnetic locks and clung desperately to the remaining track on our side of the line. I reached out for a strap handle to stabilize myself as our center of gravity shifted downward with the falling train. She reached for a metal pole. That proved a fatal mistake.

The sudden expulsion of polarized ions lit the highly conductive train up like a firecracker. I could feel it, to a degree, even though I wore leather shoes on my feet. It was so potent it seemed to crackle about the air itself. The worst it did to me was give me a bad case of goosebumps, though.

The lady in black flashed like a living x-ray in front of me the moment she wrapped around the steel bar. I counted the rows of carnivorous teeth in her dainty jaw as her eyes rolled back into her head and smoke rose from her searing flesh.

The Dralid convulsed her last and jolted back from the bar, tumbling down through the melted hole in the cab. From the granite below I heard a resounding thud. That was one landing she couldn’t stick.

“Pair of pocket Queens.”

And the pot went to me.

Congratulations!

Round 2 Complete

Duel Winner!

Time: 0:43:21

Rank Increase: 1

Strength Rating Increased! 85th percentile

Audience Approval Rating Increased! 87th percentile

Credits Earned:

Round Completed 100,000

Showmanship Bonus 25,000

Total 125,000