The Alienbutt Saga, Book 1. War of the Coffee Bean. Part 45.

Nifty entered the main cargo hold of the ship. She was feeling light headed but had managed to lose Mr. Fluffy using the trick with the ball of wool. This had given her time to sort out running repairs to her battered body. Popping her arm back had almost caused her to pass out, but at least now she could use both arms again and so had managed to bandage up her ribs. She had first headed for the stasis booths but found Blackarachnia’s empty, smashed open from the inside. Her husband was nowhere to be seen. On the floor by the smashed booth were discarded insulin shots and other stimulants. Knowing that her husband was awake and aware that there was trouble made her feel better, as he would be more able to fend for himself than just about anyone, even after just coming out of a stasis booth.

In the centre of the cargo bay was a number of large crates that hadn’t been there before, but she didn’t have time to ponder this as she heard the clonking of the Fluffy robot heading down the corridor outside. He had caught her by surprise last time, now it was time to repay the favour and show that jumped up little cat who the boss was. Grabbing a tool box from the wall, she ran to find a place to hide while she chose usable weapons.

Blackarachnia walked down the darkened corridor. He had just visited his quarters to gather up his weapons, sunglasses and other tools of his trade. He had shot himself up with as many stimulants as possible and carried a small oxygen tank, yet still felt weak. He knew something had gone seriously wrong and that was confirmed when a figure stepped out of the shadows further down the corridor.
“Blackarachnia, I’ve so looked forward to meeting you.” The man stepped forward into a pool of light from the emergency lighting that was operating while the ship had been sitting hidden. Blackarachnia recognised the young Federation assassin Geurick Tackful.
“Look, boy, I’m not in the mood for signing autographs so run along and play somewhere else.” He had always suspected that one day he would have to face the assassin, but knew at the moment he wasn’t in any condition to face him in a fair fight.
Geurick smiled at the insult. “I’m not going to just kill you, old man, I’m going to batter you all over the ship first and make you beg for your life. The whole thing will be recorded and the universe will witness your death at my hand. I challenge you to hand to hand combat.”
When bounty hunters had disagreements that couldn't be settled any other way, they would issue challenges and the code of honour of the hunters would mean neither would break the code, even if it meant death. Blackarachnia put his hands into his coat pocket, his fingers slipping into the knuckle dusters that he always kept in there.
“Well, boy, you talk a good fight, throwing down the hunter challenge like that, but you're not nearly ready to face me and live, last chance to move.”
A drawn out fight would only end one way, he knew that, so Blackarachnia would have to play it sly. Pulling his hands out of his pocket he placed the oxygen mask over his face and took a deep breath, while with his other hand he unclipped a small vial from his belt. As Geurick moved forward he threw it on the ground between them, releasing a greenish gas. Geurick stopped in his tracks, choking, while Blackarachnia, holding his breath, ran forward to smash him in the face. Geurick dropped as if poleaxed.
Blackarachnia took another breath of the oxygen and looked down at the unconscious assassin. “Alienbutt essence, boy, works every time, and you're no hunter to be able to issue that challenge.”
He considered killing the assassin where he lay, but decided against it. There was a time he would have slit his throat without a thought, but he must be getting old and soft. Walking on, he continued to search for Nifty and answers to what was happening.

Mr. Fluffy strode into the cargo bay. He knew Nifty was hiding in here; he could smell her, but with the arrival of the Federation ship and their assassin he would have to cut short his play time and kill Nifty quickly. Walking down the steps to the floor of the bay he scanned the room looking for his prey. Three steps from the bottom, the step gave way and he fell forward. Instantly his arm shot out and he grabbed a metal pipe to steady himself.
Looking down he saw the step had been cut through with a laser torch. Gripping the pipe work with enough force to crush it, he began to pull himself up, and then he heard a whistle from above. Looking up he saw Nifty thirty feet above him on a gantry and before he realised what was happening she placed a live electric cable to the pipe he gripped. Thousands of volts of electricity shot down the pipe and Mr. Fluffy found himself blown across the bay to crash into the far wall, his metallic hand and lower arm melted in seconds.
Nifty nimbly jumped down and advanced towards the battered and smoking robotic Fluffy.
“Here kitty kitty, I’ve not finished yet,” she said sweetly. The robotic suit started to move and Nifty stopped, then watched as Fluffy sprang nimbly back to his feet.
“You are finished my Nifty, but will suffer for that, ppprrrrr.” Fluffy looked down at the melted stump of his robotic arm. It was a prototype. The next one would be insulated against electricity.
Cat quick he raised his other arm and bullets flew from a small rail gun mounted to the lower arm, but Nifty was faster, diving to the side and taking cover behind the newly delivered crates. Mr. Fluffy screamed in rage as his gunfire accidentally ripped apart his precious cargo. He was angry and too eager to make the kill; he was making mistakes.
He strode around the crates intent on stamping Nifty into the floor. Instead he came face to face with a crouching Nifty armed with a laser cannon that she had unpacked from one of the crates. He had a second to register this before she fired, blowing the head off his robotic suit. Again he was thrown back and the ruined suit hit the floor to slide until it hit a pile of engine spare parts. Nifty stood and hefted the cannon. The weapon was large and she struggled to hold it, but she advanced on the ruined robotic suit of Mr. Fluffy.

To be continued.

Thanks for reading, all images are mine.