"All right," she grinned overconfidently.
    "You're forgetting I'm telekinetic," I grinned back. Not that I need to cheat at pool, but she's good and I was losing when a guy wandered over to see if we wanted anything to drink. Lucky ordered a Guinness.
    "Before lunch?" I said without thinking about where we were. The guy looked me up and down.
    "Bud Light, maybe?" he remarked.
    "She'll have a black and tan," Lucky jumped in before I could be tempted to abuse my powers. Fortunately, the Boards appeared not much later, full of good cheer and crude jokes. Lucky headed for the bar to get a refill, having dumped most of her Guinness in one of the table pockets. I settled back to watch, still unable to take these guys seriously.
    One of these days I'll learn better, but it sure wasn't this morning.
    Lucky had her arms around the shoulders of two of the punks, chatting them up, letting them boast about their exploits, hit on her a little. She was wearing her gloves, of course. Then she summoned the staff and pulled back, hard. They didn't even have a chance to yell. I offered a quiet round of applause.
    "Oh shit, it's them!" one of the brighter guys realized; I took him down gently, flooding his body with fatigue poisons until he could no longer stand. Phoenix barreled through and took out a fourth; the fifth leaped onto his board and went through the front window, sending glass shards flying everywhere.
    Lucky and I headed out to join in; she scooped up one of their high-tech guns while I took off, viewing the scene from above. There were supposed to be about a dozen in the gang, and it looked as if they were all here. Phoenix was having a grand time; he had gotten hold of one of the rocket boards and was wreaking considerable havoc. Then Lucky fired.
    An energy bolt leaped out, looped around, and zeroed in on—me. I was abruptly very, very tired, and considerably shocked, as I grounded myself.
    "What did you do that for?"
    "I didn't—" she started to protest.
    "Hey!" one of the Boards yelled. "It's her! We can finish the contract!"
    Contract? I thought. Then he shot me. My shield won't work on something with no mass to speak of. Lucky grabbed me and dragged me back inside, covered me with her body. She isn't light. And she couldn't block all of the shots that were coming in, either. At least it didn't hurt, I just felt too weak to move, although Lucky says that I actually started to discorporate after a few more had hit, that she could partially see through me. Scary. She turned the pool table on its side, so they could only come in from one direction, and that improved the situation.
    Phoenix had taken a considerable toll by then, and there were only three Boards left. Lucky pulled out a more mundane firearm and shot a straggler; the remaining two headed out in opposite directions. Phoenix chased after one of them, but he got away. It had all happened so quickly, the barkeep had called in police as soon as the fight broke out, but there were no approaching sirens yet. I managed to get myself semi-vertical and got ahold of one of their weapons. Scratch one theory: it isn't Fimbulwinter's. Lucky wanted to throw them all into the bay, since in her mind they had obviously been designed specifically to kill me (interesting, that; I haven't seen much of a protective side to her before this, although shortly I saw even more of it). Whether or not she's right, they certainly appear to be up to the task. I kept one to examine, and the rest went under the ice.

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