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Author's Chapter Notes:
back to back...
In a matter of seconds, the deck of the Brazen became a battleground.

The second all hell broke loose, Justin and Shades both moved at the same time. Instinctively sensing that this was their last chance at survival. Both of them whipping out their concealed weapons, thankful that their captors had been delayed in searching them by one distraction after another.

Shades hauled out both of his stun-sticks, jumping in and nailing each of the pirates who had grabbed Justin’s power pistols back-to-back. At the same time, Justin swung his laser staff, beating down the one who grabbed Max’s power pistol. He then turned, seeing the one who grabbed the power rifle pointing it at Shades’ back, and took her from behind.

Shades whirled around at the sharp movement, seeing Justin’s handiwork. After a moment of piecing it together, he told him, “Thanks, man.”

“Now we’re even,” Justin shrugged, turning back to the fight at hand.

Now that the initial rush was over, Shades again found himself feeling awkward to be battling a bunch of women. This just wasn’t how things were done in his world, and even the few men he spotted in the crowd did little to dispel this awkwardness. It was seeing some of those women wielding energy blades that drove the point home; trying to do things as they were done back on Earth would be a deadly mistake. To these gals, chivalry was clearly a foreign concept.

Both he and Justin now noticed that most of the Cyexians with energy weapons were converging on the two of them, though a couple of them seemed to have marked Kato as an easier target; the rest were ganging up on Chase and George. All of them steered clear of Max and Striker as they dueled their way up and down the deck.

Having disarmed and incapacitated the only ones with working laser guns, it was all too obvious what the others were after.

Earlier, in the immediate aftermath of the EMP attack, a number of the crew had thrown down their sidearms in disgust, and this now worked against them in their mad dash for a weapon that actually worked.

Thus, the two of them moved to intercept anyone who tried to go after the guns.

Each of them wondering quietly how long they could keep this up, Justin especially wishing for an opening to snag even one of his power pistols.