Alex was enjoying his day with the crew (He didn't even know when he started considering them that). At first he a little apprehensive on their idea to join him in the city, but fortunately it's all been good.

For the first time since the accident he felt that they could actually become friends in the future and not just reluctant roommates.

His normal interaction with the three of the had been more constrained.

With Paul he spends most of this time explaining more of how the ship works, answering questions, and feeling like he was constantly being evaluated.

Alicia uses him mostly as a living encyclopedia when she stumbles upon a hard concept to understand in her quest to learn all she can about the physics behind wormholes.

Angela had simply avoided talking to him, but fortunately she had become more lively after the first time they came to watch the city from the woods.

For the first time they all were all actually conversing, and it was fun. They were talking about a lot of things, speculating about the culture based on what they had seen so far. Making silly plans that probably would never even be started since they knew basically nothing about the culture or economy here, but it was fun none the less.

It's strange, before the wormhole accident he had spent most of the time in his ship alone and had never felt lonely. It probably had something to do with the fact that he could call whoever he needed anytime he wanted. But these past few days, without anyone who he could open up with, had been somewhat depressing.

They visited the bakery and an arena where they saw a couple guys fight and had a small discussion on ethics, but after that their conversation became lively again.

After leaving the Arena they kept walking around the city aimlessly. The people kept staring but, they ignored it for the most part.

They were walking in an alley and stopped to talk, when a girl approached them. After takin a better look Alex realized it was the same girl that had approached him in the weapons shop.

He had seen this girl many times already. When watching the city once he is pretty sure he saw her leave the city. She was also the one who was behind him the first day he entered the city.

He hadn't thought anything of it, even when she offered to be his guide in the city. Angela has thought she was trying to flirt with him, but she was very business-like when she proposed, which made him think she was being truthful. The reason he had rejected her proposal was because, it would eventually lead to her asking questions about him or where he is from, and he didn't even know enough to lie convincingly, especially if she knew even a little about what they call the wildlands, it was safer to go slow instead of blowing their cover.

But seeing her again make him suspicious, was she following them? if so, why? was it to try and propose being their guide again?

She was short, well, maybe he had to start changing his way of evaluating height. Because she looked to be a little taller than Angela.

«I mean you no harm» the girl said «It's just that you are in a bad part of town and its getting late, better to go back to the main street, safer that way»

Alex now looked around and realized that the alley they were standing in was narrow and long. The streets were quiet, no one was walking. He had been so caught up in being included in the group that he hadn't paid any attention to his surroundings.

He relayed her words to the rest of the crew but didn't take his eyes off her, he noticed the sword strapped to her back. What type of world is this that its normal for people to walk around with weapons on the street?

His heart almost came out of his chest, after he saw some men come behind her. He tried to calm down saying to himself that it's just his overactive imagination and they were probably simply trying to pass through.

But no such luck. They quickly moved to block the exit of the alley and took out their weapons, there were five men, 4 with swords and one with what looked like a hammer.

He looked at the girl, trying to ascertain if she had anything to do with the men, but he was surprised by what he saw on her face. She was very focused, but no on them, since the girls and Paul were to his left, and she was looking to his right, past them.

He turned around and saw that there were other five men blocking the other end of the alley, he looked back at the girl and she had taken out her swords and was turning around to face the men.

She put herself between the crew and these new men, but there were two groups of these men, so, Alex decided to simply trust her actions and move to the other end, to act like a shield.

Looking behind him, Alex saw that Paul had moved to be besides the girl, keeping Alicia and Angela in the middle, somewhat protected on both sides.

Trying to come up with ideas on what to do, Alex decided to simply follow the ship captain's manual. It's good for most situations, and he hoped that it worked now.

First step in a conflict, try to deescalate the situation

«Hi there fellows» Alex said trying to sound non-threatening «We were just passing through, just want to go on our way» he said still hoping to get out of this without an incident.

«This is good» said one of the men «We lucky boys, we got three beauties» things just went from bad to worse if they came here for the girls said «you can go, leave the girls». The day had started good with hope about their lives on this world, but now, it seem that the world is even more dangerous that they had thought.

Alex looked up and notice that the roofs of the houses were a little high, somehow that had come in an alley surrounded with wall of two story houses. He could jump that high, but he couldn't do it with two girls in his arms, and that would spell trouble for Paul and the other girl. The men were getting closer so he wouldn't be able to do it twice.

Ok, so fighting it is. The problem is that all of them had swords, and he didn't have anything, he pushed the girls to the wall to make space. And since the unknown girl looked like she was going to fight on their side, he decide to focus on this side.

Alex approached the men, distancing himself from the girls while alerting Paul about their intentions. One of the men stepped forward, he had a long sword, Alex's heart was beating faster, he had never before fought anyone holding any type of weapon, and these men look like willing to kill.

Dealing with the first was quick, luckily his increased reaction speed allowed him to dodge the first strike, but he was positioned in a way that didn't allow him to strike back. The man clearly knew what he was doing because he had used the flow of the strike to position himself in a defensive position.

It didn't matter that the man behind the sword is a baseline because even a child can harm you with sharp knife if there was enough force behind the strike.

This pattern repeated two more times and Alex was slowly being pushed back against the girls. He needed to stop that, so when the man lunged at him with the blade ready to pierce his heart, Alex decided to break pattern and step forward, twisting his body sideways. It worked he was now inside the man's defense ready to punch his face in. Just before his fist connected he stopped, remembering exploding watermelon lesson he was taught would happen if he punched a baseline full force.

The other four men were running to the aid of their brethren as soon as he had dodged the strike. So, out of time Alex decided to use the man beofe him to disrupt the other. Alex lifted him and threw him agaist the men comming. He went flying arms flailing, but it didn't work, three of the men managed to dodged and only one was hit. The hit had enough force to send them both twisting to the ground but it still left three who were more cautious in their approach.

Alex looked behind him for a split second to see that the girl was somehow facing off against three, and Paul was standing besides her.

Looking back at the three Alex realized how much harder it would be, the previous fight probably lasted no more than a minute, but it was enough for him to realize how much harder it is to fight someone with a sword. Alex wished he had learned how to fight with swords or any type of melee weapon, but no, he had believed that he would have never needed the skill.

The three men started their attack with both men on either side striking toward the middle, his only option was to jump back. That started a series of strikes that he could only dodge by stepping back, the three were very coordinated never allowing him anytime to stop or access the situation. They were covering each other really well, not leaving him any avenue to strike back.

When he realized he was getting near the girls position he decided to go for broke and jumped to one of them, but felt an intense pain in his left arm. A sword strike cut open a deep gash in his arm, the pain was so intense he couldn't feel anything else. But it worked and he was within striking distance to the man in front of him. Gritting his teeth to push past the pain he pushed the man and like the previous one the man went flying away.

This put him besides the second man, he was still feeling the pain in his arm, which really pissed him off. Not wasting any time he slapped the man's chest sending him flying. His actions were really fast not allowing the men to react which allowed him to stand before the third man, the one who had wounded him face to face. Before the man could react Alex kicked him in the chest and he was sent flying toward the wall, hitting it head first with a loud thump and then the man crumpled to the ground motionless.

Alex froze. Did he just kill a man? He stood there looking at the man waiting for him to getup not wanting to believe that he might have just killed a man when his world went black.