Chapter 23: Chocolate chip cookie

AXIS was the manifestation of the universe, upper 100 stores represented the regular people, starting with the poor at Stage 1 and ending with the super-rich at Stage 100. Whilst negative Stages -1 to -100 displayed the underworld of the universe it wasn’t any less than a legal world. Blackmarket, drugs, assassination contracts, and all sorts of entertainment.

Stage 10 of an AXIS was the beginning of the middle-class stages. Even though the crime rate was fewer than on stages below it still existed. Law enforcement covered the Stage poorly, only to keep the criminals quiet.

Prices were cheap though, so the team was able to buy stuff they needed in no time and didn’t spend a fortune. Considering that Safo Nur and Achraf had no money at all, Kutch and O’rmon were broke, they depended on Dost. He used to work in the closest circle in the Empire, his rank came right after the Emperor himself. He had savings.

Baggy pants of a black color similar to Aladdin’s, white shirt with a black jacket made from some alien reptile, Safo Nur looked the same as if Aladdin was a biker. Still, anything was better than his rags. The whole team suited up neatly before going to the weapon store to get Safo Nur something so he could carry it around.

From the huge assortment in the store, Safo’s choice fell on an electric baton, the full charge from that stick could send to sleep even the largest animals in the galaxy. The best part was that the baton had a function to minimize itself to be as small as a pen. That feature reminded Safo Nur about the Monkey King’s Yeoui stick. He thought it would look cool to have the baton.

After that, the team decided to split up, to check out what the city market could offer and meet back at the hotel. Dost supplied everybody with some pocket money to spend.

“Did I mention that I used to work in an amusement park before O’rmon kidnapped me? Do you mind if I go get myself a ticket to an alien attraction?” Safo Nur tried to cover his homesickness with his curiosity. He missed everything and everyone. He missed humans, their appearance.

He was surrounded by all sorts of nations and races. Green bubbly sheep, blue reptiles, black-winged paper-like thin organisms, white-skinned bald bears, etc. His neck and eyes were itching caused by the constant shifting of his stare from one to another individual. No humans though.

In this distance from Earth, he missed his warm chats with his parents, holding hands with his girlfriend, her hugs and kisses. He missed his yet not born child, the child was already loved by its father. Safo highly anticipated his child, every time he thought about it, his eyes were wet in an instant. So he decided to distract himself, to get as much experience as he could to retell everything when he met humans again.

Kutch also bought him the weirdest communicator that Safo Nur could imagine. The sticker on the back of his head was annihilated by the flame that Safo caused, made to wear a helmet from Achraf’s ship. The new device was all-in-on, it was able to function as a translator of the alien speech and text as well as phone and computer. It could project an augmented reality right into the vision of its user. Kutch bought it to introduce him to a VD game that he was crazy about. By that Safo Nur turned on the navigation to the nearest amusement park.

A translucent arrow popped up in front of him, only Safo Nur could see it. Leading by the arrow, Safo Nur began his tour through the town.

Confident with his anew acquired powers and his lightning stick he stepped humming a melody from the Earth. His overall physical status was higher as well.

{“Oh, look, it's a droid, the one that saved us. Right? They all look a little similar, I hope it is not an insult. Are those people bothering him?”} With a touch of practice, Luna now could see everything that Safo Nur could. Being more observant than Safo she usually saw details that the host missed.

“Yeah, it is him. They sure don't look like regular customers. Should we go check on him? I think we should, considering his help.”

“What are you gonna do, droid? Kill me? We all know you can’t attack unarmed civilians no matter what, so before we destroy you and your booth, give us what we want.” A tall brownish dough-like figure was bullying a poor droid that couldn't use any self-defense against people who had no weapon. Criminals knew that and abused the regulation to rob and loot the shops with droid shopkeepers.

5 brown dirt-slime people surrounded the droid, their bodies were thick liquid in a humanoid form. Liquid played all-around moving from place to place giving an impression of dough being mixed.

“Umm, can I help you, gentlemen? This droid is a friend of mine, and if we can fix the current situation by peaceful means, I would love to do it.” Safo Nur felt his knees shaking, he tried his best to look cool. In fact, he was terrified, even with all his updates he couldn’t see himself opposing 5 hostile criminals. He still was a young, inexperienced crybaby from the cage, when it came to the actions.

“Who the fuc* are you, kid? If you want to die, we’ll find you. Get lost for now.” Said one of the dough people.

"I wish I could, but as I said please let go of that droid. We don't want any problems."

Brown dough man got irritated by hero kid's actions, his size expanded, he started to wobble towards Safo Nur.

"Hey, why don't you let your kid deal with him? It will be a good demonstration." One of the doughs cut in with a suggestion.

"Yes, it is a great idea. He will learn how we do out here in the streets."

The rest of the band clearly supported the idea.

"What a great idea! Come on little one time for you to learn how the AXIS works." The stomach area of the tallest amongst the gang began to swallow and spit out a smaller dough creature.

"Now let's make it interesting, what can you bet? If you win against my son we will leave this droid alone." Said the father, he wasn't the tallest any more.

"I have some pocket money and this stick." Safo had a cold feat going against 5 adult and angry opponents but felt a bit easy when they offered to spice up the situation.

He trained so hard to be able to at least defend himself.

{"You're not going to use your ability, right?"} Luna knew his abilities as nobody did.

"No, of course not. I handle it myself."

"How about you add your 3com too? It looks new, just a stick wouldn't be enough to be equal to droid's goods."

Kutch bought him that all-in-one communicator, it was the newest model as well. Safo decided to go with the terms of the gang, he was determined to win the match.

"Start!"

A small dirt-slime with some brown mole moved to Safo. Its size was no higher than a table, its image didn't emit any danger. Brown moles moved to his hand forming a fist and knuckles.

Safo Nur couldn’t believe that he could lose to a guy who looked like a chocolate chip cookie dough.

Safo Nur took a fighting stance, left leg further, knees slightly bent, elbows shielding the ribs, knuckles looking upward. He hid his head behind his fists, face tilted down but eyes were fixed on his opponent.

Safo spent hours just maintaining that stance, while Kutch pushed and bumped at him.

"If you lose your ground you lose your life." Kutch kept repeating it over and over so Safo Nur thought that at least he was fine at standing and deflecting the blows.

Chocolate chip cookie-looking creature was already at him, he threw his right hand not wanting to give time for Safo to think.

A fist came slamming but was too slow, it wasn't anything close to Kutch's speed.

Left leg, one step to the left, torso followed it, Safo dodged the strike, he was about to counterattack when the hand developed a branch. The hand that missed its target created another fist from itself. It caught Safo out of the guard, a strong strike landed on his face.

"These aren't any chocolate chips, they are rocks. His fist is made of rocks glued by some slimy substance. I'm fucked" Safo didn't expect the fight to be easy but still was shocked by the weight of the blow.

One step back, the body regained its stance covering soft spots and vital areas.

His nose bled a line ending at his lips. Safo stood unfazed, he was a little better than he was back in the cage as a hostage. He could endure small amounts of pain.

The fight only started…