NORTHERN MARKETS
Episode 69: La Kerning Resistance

9:71 SEA Time [12:51 PM Victoria Time]
A clean-up crew arrived quickly to the cross streets to clean up the tholins spewed everywhere.
The hover vehicle didn’t move at all now; its crew were all out throwing powders on the tholins.

Owl quickly followed the last truck. It was driving slowly since the streets were crowded; so she kept up.
She saw the people watch the trucks pass by, and she couldn’t see any sign of shock on their faces. She couldn’t believe
that the JA was doing its dirty busniness up here. Ever since they attacked Cold Death Pass and destroyed the bridge,
she figured they did that to sever the only link between Victoria and the SEA Lands. She never thought that the
JA would actually go past the border, or even come all the way out here. Corazon Canyon, the border, was 300 miles
southwest of here.

The convoy stopped to let crowds ahead disperse. Owl made sure to keep behind people and to stay hidden. She thought
about Azure. In all, the young magician did well back in Corazon; she fought back when the fighter and asassin attacked them,
she resurrected herself and Owl after the guys killed them, and she took Owl to the refugee camp. In the big fight, cute little Azure
took out the JA’s last remaining team, and killed the assasin. But Owl didn’t think she would hold up in another spat against the JA.
Hell Az probably didn’t even notice the rangers driving the trucks.
Owl stopped by a small cafe-restaurant, and went in, taking Azure with her.
People were sitting at tables talking casually. The menu was written completely in Kashkuni so Owl decided not to
order some food. She sat Azure down at a table.

“You wait here, okay?”
Azure nodded.
Owl walked out of the restaurant. Free from caring for Az for the moment, she pursued the truck convoy. They drove slowly through the crowded streets, followed closely by Owl. The windmage dashed behind people and obstacles and kept her hair and face hidden. She knew the rangers would go ballistic if they discovered her here and things would get bad from there.
But she had to go and see just what the hell they were up to, because whatever it was, it couldn’t be anything good.
Ten more blocks, one lone truck split from the convoy and drove down a narrow road.
People had to dash out of the way behind the market stalls.
Between two huge buildings was a fenced off area where the truck pulled up to. Another ranger
came out the service door of one of the buildings, unlocked the gate and pulled it open.
Owl watched from a distance. A garage door made from rope and thick straw was heaved open and the truck entered under the watcheful eyes of several other men. Then the straw door closed and everyone disappered.
Owl gazed up at the building- it was a giant old wooden factory house. The paint was peeling off the walls, and many of the windows were cracked. At one end, there was a scaffold built up and there were guys scraping old crap off the walls.
Noob slaves, most likely, Owl thought. She looked up at the windows nearer to her- one was wide open. Owl used ther mushroom staff and fired up some energy.
Owl coverted the magic into wind and used it to propel herself high up into the air.
She clung to the window sill and slowly pulled her self into the dark.
Owl landed softly on the floor and stared around. The only light came in through the window.
At that moment the clouds receded and the solar rays were in full blast. Owl exhaled in relief that she got out of the sun just in time. There was a UV warning in effect anyway.

The inside of the building looked like greusome hell. Cages were everywhere; each containing the prisoners the JA and their associated goons brought in.
There was an empty space which the truck was sitting. The back doors of the truck were opened, and the men grabbed their giant calipers and grabbed the magicians inside by the throats and yanked them out. These young magicians were crying and screaming in agony as the guys pulled them out furiously. One kid got stomped on for the hell of it.
They were all pale and seriously deprived of mana fuel.
Eeire bright flood lamps brighter than the sun were beamed around the truck as the men pulled and tossed weak magicians out carelessly.
They were thrown into cages. A cage that was 10x10x10 feet rattled as magician kids were thrown in. One tried to resist and he was tasered. The magician screamed as he was thrown in, and others were thrown onto him.
Other guys in unkempt suits showed up and walked around all of the cages. Soon, they talked to the guys and their JA friends. The man in the blood-red suit pointed at several cages then he watched as one of his hirelings opened a briefcase for the rangers and their civillian company men to see.
“200 million. As per your request, gentlemen. It’s been laundered and is clean.”
The rangers and the guys in their front company bowed, and took the suitcase.

High up on a deck above the floodlamps, Owl saw the whole thing, and she was burning with rage! She wanted to go down there and kill all of them, but she forced to restrain herself. Tears slowly streamed out of her eyes. Those magicians were very young- and probably from the children’s reserves outside Ellinia. How could the mages let this happen?! she screamed in her mind.
“Oh crap! Some one’s up here!” a voice hissed.
Owl snapped back to reality-
+Clang!+
A steely knife struck the metal pole next to her.

“Oy! We’re being watched! Kill them!”
The rangers bolted into action as they ran for the stairs to the upper floor, bows up and ready to fire!

Owl chased after the unseen perp. She bolted down the catwalk; her boots clanking on the metal surface. The windmage ran like hell as she chased the unseen foe and was running from the rangers behind her.
The guy; also dressed in a giant hermit-sleeved cloak, bolted out through the service door in the back; the windmage in hot pursuit.
As they ran through the crowded alleys and streets, Owl looked at the market stalls; Cages of magicians and noobs- alive and dead were stacked up. Each cage was crammed beyond capacity with bodies.
She forced back tears as she chased this guy. The ranger that was after them took a wrong turn and lost them.

Owl Spirit rounded the next corner; and was struck with steely knives! The blow hurt like hell, and as the knives dug into the side of her face on impact; the hackium energy inside her surged and the knives bounced off like they hit a sheild.
“Ow!” Owl grunted, clutching the side of her face. She looked up- It was that guy again.
He roared, throwing another knife at her, but this time Owl ducked; missing it, and charged the guy with her Pyogo mushroom staff up and slammed it into the guy’s chest; ramming him into the wall.

“Ow, ow! Okay! I submit! I submit! Don’t kill me! I thought you were one of them!”
“Shut up!” Owl shouted back, as she used her hack power and created her phantom arm. The eeire apparition that now extended from the stump on her right elbow was pure hack energy and looked like some demon claw. Owl kicked the guy in the stomach as she pulled her staff off him and used her magic and made a gun out of pure air.
The guy was scared crapless. This hacker- this evil, super pissed off hacker had him…No way the Justice Arrow would ever involve someone like her.

“I thought you were one of the JA!” he said. “And I was startled! I was spying on them!”
“Shut up!” Owl fumed. She pressed the trigger on her gun (made ENTIRELY out of compressed air), and -BLAM!- fired a bullet that missed the man’s neck and hit the wall, gashing a small crater in it.
“Who are you, and who are you working for?” Owl demanded.
“I’m Cheech; level 32 rogue. Yeah I failed the second job advancement test; it’s not my fault-“
“Who are you working for?! And what the hell is going on?!”

Cheech looked at the hacker woman. Under the hood he saw a goddess’ face, but with flaring aqua-marine eyes and purplehair with black lines in it. A black scar ran accross her right cheek.
“Well?” Owl asked, poking him with her gun.
“I got a crappy job working for some kokain dealer-“
“That’s not what I mean! Who sent you to spy on that-that slavery?!”
“Oh, that’s a resistance group of pissed off people from Kerning City. There’s about a few thousand of us here. A few months ago, the JA attacked Kerning City and blew up the Panquilia settlement- killing two thousand, and making thousands more of us leave. We were trying to get here when the JA attacked and killed us at the canyon. Everyone hates the JA now, and they want to put a stop to their business here. And why am I still at gunpoint? And who are you?”
Owl let her wind-made weapon and her phantom arm both disappear.
“For now, my nic-name is Pan. I am level 128 huntress and wind mage. I am a traitor of the JA, and if my true name got out here, they would go insane.”
“You were in the Justice Arrow?” Cheech asked in disbelief. Owl nodded.
“I was taken from Panquilia by them when I was five years old. I was raised by the people of Henesys and became a good hunter. I worked for the JA for several years just doing stuff in Henesys, then
I was sent on a mission with some rangers. Our orders were to attack a magician settlement. I didn’t kill them, and for that I was almost executed. They then had me working in town keeping tabs on the magician and noob slaves. I didn’t like it one bit, and when I was sent on my own as a spy to Ellinia, I deserted them. That was about 10 years ago. I turned myself in to the mages there and confessed everything and I gave them everything I knew about Henesys and the JA. I was in jail for three months before I was sent to work for the academy in Ellinia. There I took up schooling and became a magician and worked with the winds.
I hate the Justice Arrow with a passion, and I swear, if you make any remark against me, I rip your nuts off, got that?!”

Cheech was quiet, then said, “Right. So they want you dead?”
“Yes. I was in Corazon when the JA attacked the refugees. I wiped out most of their forces, and I am sure Henesys is aware. If they even get a rumor that I am here, they will send all their bow masters up here after me. And they will surely destroy this town until I am dead.”
“Sorry I tried to kill you,” Cheech said.
“I’m God-moded, but thanks for the new scar, you asshole! So now what?”
“I gotta report back to my boss. You should come too. We need all the help we can get. And since you know so much about the JA, the Saskwa people will want to talk to you.”
“Saskwa?”
“Yeah, you know, radioactive people from New Saskatchewan? They’re in town too, also wanting a piece of the JA. Come on, let’s go raise som red flags.”
“Wait. I have to grab one of my friends. She’s waiting for me. I made her wait because I was afraid the JA will kill her.”
“Yeah..sure.

9:90 SEA Time / 1:30 PM (Victoria Time)
KMR Hideout, northern Kashkun

Cheech, Owl, and Azure entered the back of a store and climbed down a secret ladder. An old lightbulb cast a yellowish gloom in the corridor in the bottom.
“The hideout’s down here. The bunkers here were all built by the Sino Army during the Maple War. This city was their major base, and they came back again in the 1970’s during the Forest War.
We have to live underground because the sunlight is too harmful, and the guards don’t like armed groups.”
“You’re armed?” Owl asked.
“Yeah, we found a big stash of goods the Sino Army left here. And there’s lots of hermits, chief bandits, mages, and knights who hate the JA too.”
They came into what appeared to be a hallway of an apartment building.

“So this is the infamous Owl Spirit?” KMR leader Howitzer asked. So much for keeping a nickname.
“Yes, it’s me,” Owl said, pulling back her hood.
“You are not unknown out here, mage. Everyone knows of what you did back at the border. Had you not destroyed the JA’s forces, none of us would have made it here.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t prevent more deaths,”
“Aw hell, no one can blame you. And I’m to assume your friend there is the one who single-handedly took out 200 rangers using basic attacks?”
Owl looked at Azure, who looked at her completely confused. Owl recalled Azure’s big moment- She used her magic claw attacks and cut the rangers to shreds in mid air.
“Yes, this is her. how do you know?”
“People see things, and word gets around. Last time I checked, you were last seen up in the mountains two months ago. Even hackers speak of you with awe in their tone. I’d like to know, how did you become a hacker?”
Owl pointed to Azure. “I was killed by one of the JA’s sins. She resurected me, and gave me her hack powers. I should be dead right now,”
“And your arm?”
Owl still rembered that moment when the sin fired ilbi stars at her and sliced her right arm from the hand to the elbow. She explained that to Howitzer. She also said that in the two months she was missing she was at the Yeti settlement Balun Kampung.
“I see. Well, now that that is out of the way, our friends from New Saskatchewan would like to know more about the JA. They have become very alarmed over their progress in Victoria, and with their presence in Kashkun. This town is only 20 miles south of the New Saskatchewan border, and to them, that is too close for comfort.”
“I understand,” Owl said. “I explain everything I know, but I don’t speak the New Saskatchewan language.”
“Some of our boys are locals. They speak Kashkuni, Saskwa and Singlish. This shouldn’t be too long.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
foood