Susanne didn't go back to the "hotel." No sooner had she left the area where they had fought, then she began to feel pangs of guilt. "My god," she thought, "I leveled, like, a whole block!" It wasn't all Celly's fault. She knew that. If she had told the truth, then it had nothing to do with Celly. No sense in killing the messenger. Well, perhaps instant gratification. Which was looking pretty good... Susanne just didn't like Celly. Of course, if Celly had lied, that was more reason not to like her, more reason to try to stay away.

Susanne wondered how long she had wandered around. Awhile, at least. Roger and Anaera were certainly looking for her by now. She felt ashamed that she had lost control like that. "Never again," she whispered. "Not ever."

She should probably go back. Her killer sense of direction had failed her once today... that fulfilled the yearly quota. She ought to be able to head right back without much more trouble.

"I had to insert that 'much more' rather than 'any more' trouble, didn't I?" She thought as she heard what sounded like a fight from around the corner. And, of course, she felt that funny buzz thing that told her that an Otaku was nearby. It wasn't Anaera, she was pretty sure of that. And she didn't think it was Celly...

As she rounded the corner, she saw that trenchcoat chick, Nyx, fighting... did that girl have blue streaks in her hair? Well, that was something she hadn't seen since Los Angeles... and... a lightsaber? If this wasn't weird enough, now there was some Princess Leia wannabe (minus the cinnamon rolls) here.

Susanne didn't know who this girl was -- she seemed familiar, but Susanne couldn't place her -- but she remembered that Nyx had tried to help Celly. That was enough to put the trenchcoat girl on her Shit List.

Susanne felt her anger rising, then realized what she was doing. "No," she whispered. She looked up. The girl with the lightsaber -- was she a real Jedi? -- was looking at her. She looked away to fight, but Susanne felt obligated now to help. The other girl had seen her, and knew who she was. Nyx must be concentrating on the other girl, because she hadn't yet noticed Susanne's presence.

Maybe Susanne could direct her blasts... no, there were lots of people around. She felt guilty enough about leveling that city block... she didn't even want to contemplate whether anyone had been killed.

So she watched.

The girls were fairly evenly matched, but Nyx was, of course, trying hard to avoid the lightsaber. Not that Susanne could blame her. If this chick was also insane, heaven help them all.

Nyx's sword flew out of her hands. The other girl's attack was keeping her too busy to search through HammerSpace, and Susanne felt sure that the fight was almost over, one way or another.

Then Nyx pulled out her shotgun.

Susanne and the other girl both froze. A SHOTGUN?? This was new. And here Susanne had thought that Celly was completely off her rocker and homocidal. At least everything she had used had been hand-held, somehow. No flying fatality stuff.

Then, everything happened at once. Nyx pulled the trigger just as the other leapt above her, the shot just missing her. Nyx whirled around to face the other girl, who, to Susanne's dismay, was now standing almost right next to her.

Nyx grinned as she raised the shotgun to fire again. "This was too easy," she thought. "And when Celly finds out that *I* was the one who killed Hotohori no Otaku while she was sick in bed..."

Nyx was standing about nine feet away.

"If you have any ideas, any powers, now would be a good time," the other girl mumbled to Susanne.

Susanne nodded. Powers... it was a little hard to concentrate while staring into the barrel of a sawed off shotgun. She wasn't sure why, or what she expected to find, but Susanne reached quickly back into her HammerSpace. Maybe there was something there... anything... perhaps she instinctively closed her hand over it rather than the tennis raquet, which it was sitting right next to. Susanne hadn't taken the time to really go through her HammerSpace, so she knew she wouldn't know what she was pulling out.

"Nice," the other girl said. "I prefer my lightsaber, of course, but that... impressive."

Susanne was almost shaking with fear. She had seen all kinds of swords, and she had thought that a lightsaber was unusual. But... the Silence Glaive?