Arkay was supposed to be in Kinigi right now.
Normally, whenever Arkay summoned his shadowy cloak, he’d disappear in a puff of smoke and reappear wherever it was he wanted to go. For some reason, that clearly wasn’t happening right now.
At first, Arkay wondered if maybe Kinisis wasn’t letting him back because he hadn’t finished his job. That couldn’t have been the case. The fucker had been dead for an hour now. The only reason Arkay had stuck around was because there was a baby in the room next door, unattended, without a mother. He’d made sure that someone was now looking after the little thing.
But clearly, the job wasn’t the problem. Arkay’s second thought was that Kinisis was playing tricks on him. She was the sort of bitch who would do that sort of thing. Actually, fucking around with Arkay’s ability to return to Kinigi was the exact sort of bitchy thing Kinisis would do if she was in a ‘playful’ mood.
Another attempt ended up with Arkay still in the same spot he was before. Standing there like an idiot.
“Alright, Kinisis. Not funny! I have jobs you want me to do and I can’t do them if you strand me here!”
Arkay expected an answer. Kinisis always answered her favourite little toy. Yet nothing replied. Not even a small giggle.
With a sigh, Arkay decided to see if he could teleport in general. He concentrated on the window on the opposite side of the room, closed his eyes and let the shadowy tendrils surround him. After a moment, Arkay opened his eyes again. To his mild surprise, it had actually worked. So he tried to get back to Kinigi again.
This time, nothing.
“Well fuck…”
Clearly something was wrong. This wasn’t a prank. This wasn’t Kinisis being a bitch. He legitimately couldn’t get back to Kinigi. Which meant that Kinigi was possibly blocked off in some way. Somehow rendered inaccessible.
“Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.”
Arkay continued to curse loudly. No access to Kinigi meant that Arkay couldn’t do cross-galaxy teleports to at the very least get to one of the handful of ‘rear access holes’ to walk back to Kinigi in a different way. Well, he could, but he’d probably be off by a few hundred kilometers and he’d almost certainly pass out.
Something banged behind him. It was someone at the door. A weird snake creature with a minigun strapped to one arm. Probably one of the minions of the creature Arkay had just killed. They’d deserved it, they were the boss of a criminal empire and were too close on finding a way to make himself immortal.
The creature immediately fired at Arkay. Arkay retaliated by teleporting behind the creature and stabbing it through the heart, something that instantly killed most beings.
Except the creature didn’t die. Sure, it was rolling around, hissing and gurgling in pain, but it wasn’t dead.
Maybe Arkay had missed. He tried again, but the creature still wouldn’t die.
He tried again. Same result. The creature wasn’t dying.
More creatures rushed in, all body guards with the same miniguns. Arkay dodged and weaved between them, letting them all take each other out. But none of them were dying. They were hurting each other but they should have all been dead already.
The Veth Prime had had enough. With a wave of his hand, he teleported to the roof of the building opposite, so he could get some peace and quiet. But also so he could see all the creatures trying to work out what happened.
Suddenly, Arkay worked it out. The realization hit him like a brick. Also a brick hit him in the face, as a creature hanging out their washing had spotted the weird monster perched on her roof and thrown a brick at him.
“Fuck! Not this again!”
Arkay rubbed his face, chucked the brick back at the creature who had thrown it at him, then teleported to the nearest spaceport. He needed to get to the nearest access hole to Kinigi, as fast as possible.