Jax and Kori came back to the table to get their new beers and snatch handfuls of fries. Jax tried an eel wing, Kori refused. Steve had eaten most of them. Naomi asked, “How’d the hustle go?”
“That obvious?” Kori asked, her brown eyes twinkling as she slid a small pile of physical currency into the middle of the table. Naomi whistled.
Jax watched Steve eat another of the misleadingly named wings . “How are you still eating those?”
Steve shrugged. “I dunno. They’re not bad as long as you don’t think about what they are. I mean, they’re basically a boneless wing.”
“Made of eel,” Naomi reminded.
“Well, yeah, but we have wings on Kelso. Have you ever seen a chicken?” Steve raised an eyebrow and looked at Kori and Jax.
Rudy chimed in, “There are no chickens on Kelso, nor are they frequently imported.”
“Well, shit.” Jax exhaled. “Thanks for ruining wings, forever.” The younger Delphino brother made a rolling motion with his free hand and bowed his head.
Kori looked over to where they’d been throwing darts. “We should probably pay up and get out of here.”
Naomi tilted her head. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Steve, the smarter Delphino by far, replied, “I don’t think your marks were as dumb as you thought.” A small clutch of men and women, still near the dartboard, were exchanging glances with each other and cold stares toward Jax and the others.
Jax made a face. “Sore losers.” Several of the men started toward their booth. He looked at Rudy, “Can you get us paid out?” The droid made its nodding motion, then rolled off toward the bar. As the nav droid passed another booth, it swiped a steak knife off the table.
“You cheated us,” one of the men said when he reached their table. He was big, bigger than any of Jax’s friends. He was wearing stained overalls and reeked of fish, and his red hair was slicked back against his scalp. He must have worked in the eel business. Apophis City was only two kilometers from the ocean. Another man joined him as Jax and the others all stood to leave. The second man grabbed Jax by the shoulder.
“Get your goddamned hands off me!” Jax shouted, reaching up and wrenching the man’s thumb, driving him to his knees.
As more people from the other side of the bar joined in, the first man reached for Jax only to have his hand stopped by Steve. “We’re leaving now.” He said as sternly as he could muster. His brother was the muscle of their operation, normally.
“You cheated me,” the first man growled. “I want my money back!” he shouted, spit flying from his mouth.
“No,” Jax said through gritted teeth as he released the other man and wiped spit from his face. The first guy had at least ten inches on Jax. “We didn’t.”
Before anyone could say or do anything further, Naomi sailed through the air to land on the back of the large local. She was a blur of blue jumpsuit and jet-black hair, raining blows down on her surprised target. Steve used the confusion to leap onto the man Jax had brought to his knees. Jax and Kori turned to punch a big woman who was attempting to flank them. She had two broken beer bottles in her hands. She fell with a thud, out cold.
In seconds, fists, furniture, and glassware were flying around the bar. Apparently, the locals liked a good fight, regardless of the cause. The lanky server was shouting for everyone to calm down, but he was largely ignored.
Jax fell and rolled in time to avoid a kick from what looked and smelled like another eel rancher. Jax got to his feet in time to see Steve throw a very angry woman off his back and into the big man that Jax had been squaring off against earlier.
From somewhere near the bar, people started screaming and shouting. The angry mob began shifting away from something. The fighting near Jax and the others paused as the wave of confusion passed through. Then without warning the last of the angry locals parted and a blurry red tornado came into view. Rudy, a knife clutched in each little metal hand, was rolling towards them. His head remained stationary relative to his rapidly spinning barrel-shaped torso. Blood flew in wide arcs any time anyone made the mistake of getting too close. “Well? What’re you waiting for?” the droid said as he shifted his course towards the front door of the Empty Keg . As he reached the door, Rudy stopped twirling and moved to let his human crew mates rush out the door. He had intended to start spinning again, but several large men grabbed him and carried him back toward the bar.
“Rudy!” Jax shouted but was pushed out the door by Kori and Steve.
The group burst out of the Empty Keg onto the street. Jax and Naomi were the first out, Steve and Kori right on their heels. Kori waved. “Come on!” She started jogging in the general direction of the spaceport.
Right on their heels, the first of the bar patrons started to exit the building, weapons drawn. Jax didn’t hesitate. He drew his blaster, shooting the first two people to exit in the leg. Steve pulled his own blaster and fired into the shoulder of a woman who emerged with a snub-nosed blaster rifle in one hand. She screamed and fell to the ground, dropping her weapon.
The man whom Jax and Kori had hustled came out, a blaster pistol in each hand. “You don’t come into the Keg and hustle us and expect to get away with it!” He leveled both guns at Jax. Before he could fire, he screamed and fell backward, revealing Rudy and his steak knives.
As Rudy rolled passed the man, he said, “I hope you know a good reconstructive surgeon.” The man moaned, blood seeping from the backs of his knees.
Jax and Steve exchanged a look, then turned and ran down the street, the former tapping his earpiece. “Skip, we’re gonna need to leave, in a hurry. Baxter, we’re on our way.” Naomi, Kori in tow, sprinted past him.