Franz started to get the hang of his teleporting ability throughout the week. It definitely had limitations. He could not just use it whenever he wanted and constantly teleport. Felice was right that the heat he felt was a release of energy from his arm as he performed the ability. Once it got to the point that the temperature in his arm was like a regular person’s, he could no longer teleport. They found that it limited him to around three or four at a time. They tested the recovery rate, too, and it seemed like he could recover around one teleport every two hours. The downside was that it would not go over his four-teleport limit if he waited any longer.

  Since Franz reached the limits of his training, he decided that he would check on Tal. He was on the outside of the ship with a repair drone. The drone was very similar to the one that Layze had, except that tiny robotic arms came from its body with various tools. Tal was also wearing glasses to see through the drone to better direct it. While there was some work that Tal had to personally do, other work was easier to direct a drone to work on.

  “How’s it going?” Franz asked as he walked up to Tal.

  “I’m about to finish up,” Tal said as he kept his attention on the drone. “We should be receiving the cloak today. Once I get that installed, we will be good to go.”

  “How long should that take?” Franz asked.

  “Probably a day at most,” Tal replied. “Installing a cloak isn’t too bad. Especially compared to all the repairs I needed to do.”

  “Good to hear,” Franz nodded. “I appreciate your work.”

  “It works out for me,” Tal shrugged. “I do all this work now, and then I get to relax later.”

  “Right,” Franz chuckled. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

  Franz walked back to enter the ship. As he walked up the ramp, he heard the doors of the dock open. He thought it was strange because everyone was on the ship besides Tal. It must have been their contact for the cloak. Franz turned back around to greet the contact. He figured that it could not hurt. Especially since he was the captain of the ship.

  Franz was shocked to see it was not just one person entering for the delivery. There were easily ten people. Which was way more than was needed for a delivery. Even if the guy wanted a little protection, it seemed excessive. Franz took a closer inspection, and he noticed that everyone was completely armed. It was not standard protection either; everyone had an assortment of high-powered guns.

  “You guys here to deliver something?” Franz asked as he walked down the ship’s ramp.

  “Something like that,” a bulbous man with dark green skin grinned through missing teeth. The man’s arms and face were covered with tiny spikes. He wore a greasy shirt that barely fit over his belly. Like his associates, he was holding a rifle in his hand. “You see, I was very shocked to get someone looking for this particular cloak. It’s pretty expensive. So, most people who do have quite a big bounty. I decided to look into you guys. You have a decent bounty, but nothing crazy. Which then had me thinking, you must have something really good on your ship.”

  Franz moved his hand to his holster. He felt lucky that he decided to put it on before he checked on Tal. As his hand reached for his pistol, two of the men entered a ready stance and pointed their rifles at Franz.

  “Don’t do anything rash,” the man said. “Just hand over the goods, and we’ll be on our way.”

  “I’m sorry to say that I can’t do that,” Franz replied cautiously. “Why don’t we just do our exchange, and you can leave with a good sum of money?”

  “I think there is something way more valuable than the creds on that ship,” the man replied. “And I want it. You either give it to me or I’ll take it.”

  “Like I said, I can’t do that,” Franz reiterated.

  Before the discussion could continue further, Franz ripped his pistol out of its holster. The two men quickly followed up with a volley of shots towards Franz. Orange blasts of energy shot one after another and filled the area with smoke as they landed. As the smoke cleared, Franz was nowhere to be seen. His body had completely disappeared from sight.

  “Ha! He got completely fried!” The bulbous man laughed before turning to Tal. “Now, if you go get your goods, then you can leave with your life.”

  “I don’t really feel like it,” Tal shrugged as his drone moved towards his side.

  “So, your whole crew is just filled with idiots,” the bulbous man said. “That’s unfortunate for you.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Then one of the men went down to the ground with a loud thump. The bulbous man quickly turned around to see what happened. Franz was standing behind the group with his pistol drawn. The man quickly realized that Franz shot one of the group in the head.

  Before the group could fully react, Franz drew his beam sword. As they tried to aim at Franz, he had already split one of them in two with a quick slash of his sword. Then, in quick succession, he shot one of the other men in the chest. As the man fell to the ground, Franz prepared to continue his assault. He knew that he needed to take advantage of their shock and continue the offensive.

  “What the hell is this guy, boss?” One of the men asked frantically as he tried to aim at Franz.

  “There is no way,” the bulbous man muttered under his breath before he yelled out an answer to his men. “Don’t worry about that! Just kill him!”

  The leader’s order made the men almost instantly shape up. The surprise of Franz’s attack had worn off, and they now all their rifles trained on Franz. Now that they had Franz surrounded, they felt little fear. They all unloaded shots at Franz. The orange blasts lit up the spot like a tiny sun. Then, suddenly, men went down one after another. Confusion broke out as the men could not see or understand what was happening. They just knew that they were getting shot at and rapidly falling to the ground. As the bright light of rifle fire cleared, two of the men remained standing amongst the bodies of their comrades.

  Franz reappeared at the ramp of the ship. The men frantically looked back and forth until they saw him. As their eyes landed on Franz, he gave them a playful wave. The rest of Franz’s crew quickly ran down the ramp and behind him. When they approached, he realized that Lutz had also followed them.

  “Exactly as I thought!” The bulbous man let out a rumbling laugh. “I thought it was impossible, but that was the only explanation. Why else would you be trying so hard to hide from the Imperium?!”

  Franz’s eyes widened in shock and fear as he realized the gravity of the situation. He quickly turned to look towards his crew. “Someone get Lutz back inside! They are after him!”

  Kelsa quickly knelt and picked up Lutz. As she did, Lutz resisted and started to flop around. Franz got the impression that Lutz wanted to help with the fight. Kelsa tried her best to hold on to Lutz and petted his head to calm him. As she struggled to keep hold of Lutz, she ran back into the ship.

  “You don’t have to worry about us taking him,” the bulbous man smiled as he typed on a screen attached to his arm. “Only a fool would carry a dragon around. You couldn’t even sell it to the Imperium without facing their wrath, but information on a dragon is a different story. I’m about to get a huge payday.”

  Franz’s eyebrow furrowed in anger, and he unloaded shots from his pistol. As the shots came towards the group, the bulbous man pressed on his screen. Blue light took the form of a translucent wall, and the shots scattered into sparks of light. The man then motioned towards the door with his hand.

  “Come on, boys, let’s get out of here. We got our payday,” the man grinned before he turned towards Franz. “The Imperium will even come to Cerberus for a dragon. If I were you, I’d get going.”

  Franz started to run towards the group before Elio grabbed his arm and pulled him backward. “He’s right, we need to get out of here. We can’t chase him.”

  The man gleefully waved before he walked out the dock doors. Franz felt even angrier at the man’s gleefulness. This was exactly why he hated Cerberus. Everyone was after a payday, and it did not matter how they got it.

  “Elio is right,” Tal said as he walked towards the group. “Repairs are basically done. We need to get out of here.”

  Franz shoved his pistol back into his holster and started to stomp up the ramp. The crew moved out of his way as he walked. His anger could almost be felt in the air, and they did not want to get in his way. After Franz made it onto the ship, the crew quickly followed behind him.

  “Kelsa, prepare the ship for takeoff!” Franz yelled angrily as he walked through the hallway towards the deck. His voice echoed throughout the ship.

  As Franz took his seat at the captain’s chair. Kelsa frantically ran to her seat. Lutz followed quickly behind her and sat next to Franz. Kelsa started to press buttons on the controls in front of her. She did not even question where they were going. She could tell by Franz’s tone that it was not the time to question things.

  “Felice, transfer the creds to the docking company,” Franz ordered coldly.

  “Already on it,” Felice nodded as she navigated her tablet.

  Everyone gathered on the deck of the ship and took their seats. Lutz jumped onto Franz’s lap as he prepared for the takeoff. The door to the dock opened to allow the ship out while the crew watched Kelsa in anticipation. As she prepared for takeoff, the ship did not make a sound. All of Tal’s repairs had been successful and removed the clunky sounds of the ship.

  If it were not for the windshield showing the crew they were moving, they would not even know they had taken off. Within the ship, they did not feel the usual abrupt force of acceleration. Instead, their takeoff was completely smooth. Lutz even looked up at Franz and cocked his head in confusion. Despite Franz’s anger at the situation, he could not help but crack a smile at Lutz’s response.

  “Now what?” Felice asked as the ship flew away from the city.

  “I guess we need to find a place to hide out,” Franz replied. “You got any ideas?”

  “There is a place I know that the Imperium really won’t touch. It’s different from the Cerberus situation,” Elio spoke up. “There is a moon off Nubleas that we refer to as The Great Trial.”

  “Not that,” Kelsa groaned. “Anything but that.”

  “Does anyone have any better ideas?” Franz asked the group. When the group responded with silence, Franz let out a sigh. “Looks like no one has a better idea. Kelsa, set the course.”