Janus turned to the front entrance; the door had been flung wide open as a woman stepped inside. It was clear that was she was on the shorter side by the way she barely stood above the other sitting patrons of the restaurant as she walked towards his table. She wore an unzipped white jacket with a pair of matte plates that protected her shoulders. Beneath that was what resembled a black one-piece suit which ended only a few inches below her hips. Long and thick black boots travelled up her bare, pearly legs and ended just below her knee. But what really caught Janus’ attention was the patch hidden behind her short and messy black hair that obscured her right eye.

With a swipe of her half-gloved hand, she parted away the hair that blocked her remaining eye and marched on towards the table. It was a swift march; each step made an audible thump onto the tiled floor as she kept her fists clenched. There was a long frown on her face as her eyebrows furrowed with her gaze focused Itzel. Her hand reached down towards her belt before resting on a round metal device that Janus couldn’t fully make out from his position.

Itzel made an irritated look at the woman then turned away, not trying to conceal her annoyance. She kept her eyes fixed on Janus instead of the woman approaching their table. Gurk, however, turned his head as far behind his shoulder as he could, staring at her until she was standing right beside him.

“That was a dirty trick you pulled!” the woman exclaimed with a gruff yet feminine voice. She slammed both of her palms on the table, staring at Itzel as she leaned in towards her. Itzel kept her eyes looking at Janus, feigning to ignore her. “You really thought I’d let you and your little pet get away with what you did?”

“Gurk is not a pet!” Itzel finally decided to face the other woman, her face no longer able to conceal her anger. The one-eyed woman remained unfazed by Itzel’s claim, maintaining the same furious composure as her single violet eye locked with Itzel’s.

“That’s an entire night of exterminating that went to waste! You two owe me big time!”

“We don’t owe you a thing,” Itzel shouted back. “Since when has anything in Labrisson been fair?”

The other woman leaned in further. Janus could see the table start to tilt from how much pressure the woman exerting onto it. “Someone had to freeze all those Lurkers and put them in that building to throw my tracker off. Who else in Labrisson can do that besides that overgrown, metal-faced lizard of yours?” the woman said to Itzel while pointing at Gurk with her thumb.

“Take that back!” Itzel exclaimed. She shot up from her seat, staring down her rival in the woman’s one remaining eye. Itzel stood more than a few inches above her, requiring her to tilt her head down to make eye contact.

The other woman caught a glimpse of Janus staring at her and shifted her attention towards him. She gave him a scowl as she eyed him from the top down. “Is that your new partner or something? You and the croc having a hard time making ends meet so you gotta find someone else to help you out with exterminating?” she asked.

“No, he’s not with us. And he’s certainly not an Exterminator. He ran away from three lurkers.”

“Three lurkers?” the woman chuckled. “How do you plan on living more than ten minutes here in Labrisson, huh?”

“I’m new here,” Janus replied in a soft voice. “I’m actually from Oregon.”

“Hope you’re heading back soon. If Lurkers scare ya and you’re depending on these two morons to keep you alive, you might as well be dead,” she said after making a slitting motion across her throat with her thumb.

“I appreciate your concern,” Janus said. “But I don’t think I’ll be heading home anytime soon.”

“You know Enidri, for someone who hates us, you sure are always in our business,” Itzel said, cutting her eyes towards her rival. The few customers within the restaurant were now all invested in the altercation.

“That’s because you’re always in mine!” Enidri barked, lifting one of her hands to point towards herself. “You two are always exterminating in my part of the city! Essencima have been spawning all around Labrisson yet you two always seem to find your way around the Refinery Sector,” Enidri pointed one finger towards Itzel, gritting her teeth as she did.

“First of all, you don’t own the Refinery Sector, Eni.” Itzel kept her arms crossed, unfazed by her rival’s anger. “If you did, then you definitely wouldn’t be out chopping up Essencima all night in order to try and scrape by like the rest of us. Second, we live right next to it! You really expect us to cross town so you can have the area all to yourself?”

“I expect you two to-“ Enidri stopped mid-sentence. She could feel something cold and coarse touch her arm.

“Hungry?” Gurk interjected as he slid his bowl and its remaining contents towards Enidri. With her backhand, she knocked the bowl off the table and onto the floor, scattering noodles across the white and blue tiles.

“I’m not hungry, you imbecile! I’m here to get what’s mine!” She reached towards her belt, detaching a long, bladeless hilt and pointed one end towards Gurk. Enidri pressed her thumb onto the device and a long yellow beam ejected from it. The sound of electricity crackled through the air as unstable yellow sparks scattered from her weapon and lit up the area. The tip of the electric beam stopped in front of Gurk’s face. Enidri swung her sword from the crocodile and towards Janus. He stared at the yellow blade, bobbing his head back to maximize the distance between it and his face. She then angled it towards Itzel, the very tip pointing towards her eye. “So, how are we going to do this?”