Lana smirked then threw out a climbing rose vine. This time, something different happened. The vine constricted around him. He was unable to move and screamed in pain. She left him like that. She briefly wondered if getting angry unlocked something like the constrictor vine, what would happen if Sil or her children were endangered.
"We need to go up to find him as well as search the building for any more survivors."
They headed upstairs first with Almin staying below to wait for Kattie. They got attacked a few times as they headed upstairs but these people were nothing for Lana and Shalt who walked side by side. On the top floor, they found a single office that took up the whole floor. The office looked like something one would find in a high-end office on Earth. The man was living in opulence while robbing his workers of living wages.
He was sitting at his desk when they walked in. He stood up and did something which made Lana think he used an ability. Everyone around her stopped moving mid-stride. Lana was confused, so was the man.
"What did you do?"
The man laughed, "Does it matter?" He made the same movement again and nothing happened. "Why is my time-stop not working on you? Who are you?" He was getting quite angry.
"Time stop, huh?" She started thinking about all the things she was wearing. Nothing she knew would cause something like that to not work but she was wearing something she didn't have assessed. A bracelet. She found it on a corpse on her planet. That must be it. She started laughing. Her eyes started glowing green. Her voice turned vicious, "Release them from your grasp and I'll be gentle."
The man took out a sword that looked really high end. She didn't know if her whip would work on it but there was no time like the present to find out. He swung the sword towards her and she tried to block with a qi-infused vine. It sliced through the vine.
Lana felt fear as her vine fell to the floor. She quickly moved back and grabbed a sai off Duff's belt. These were advanced-tier. She had not practiced with it but she watched him do so. It seemed easy enough. She infused this with her Qi and the next swing of the sword in her direction, she was able to block. Not only that, she was blessed that this man was not a skilled swordsman. She guessed he used this weapon against his employees.
She was able to push him back and get the blade hooked into the sai. Using only one, all her strength could be applied. She then push-kicked the assailant who fell to the floor. She put the tip of the sai to his throat and informed him he would cancel the ability or die. He refused. So, he died.
Lana then put her bracelet on each person individually and returned Duff's sai to him. "You're teaching me how to use these," she proclaimed. "Let's search this building. I want all survivors moved to our ship. Make this quick."
Lana then found his money card and did the same thing. These people needed lots of health care, many still would not make it. However, she would make sure they were taken care of. While the others started the search, she looked at the papers on the desk and took some of them. By the time she was done, the next two floors down were searched. The only one remaining was the basement. Rene stayed on the main floor that was searched by Almin while he waited for Kattie. She healed as much as she could so get these people mobile. She would get them each a bit to eat on the ship.
The others came up and stated there were no other people alive down there and the females were told not to go there.
While there was not enough room for 40 additional passengers to sit in the seats, they would have to simply go slow and have them sitting tightly on the floor. As they were clearing the atmosphere, they saw blips on the ship indicating there were several fast-moving ships heading toward the shelter.
Lana called Logan, "Did you get all of that?"
"I did. Take them to your planet. I needed to do a bit of work."
"What are those papers you told me to grab?"
"Businesses. Deeds to textiles on several planets. I need you to send me those." Logan paused. "Actually, I don't need you to do that. The faction can no longer be reached. Are you safe?"
"We are away from the planet but we are moving slow. I had Shalt cloak us as soon as we took of just to be safe."
"Good. You just got a whole bunch of new businesses for your family. I'll provide you the details soon." With that, Logan hung up.
Lana was going to ask if she could keep this surveillance equipment but he already hung up. She had a feeling it would come in handy. She wanted to go lay down but was unable to walk. There were way too many people on this ship. They all needed a shower and she was trying hard not to throw up. She decided sitting there trying to meditate would be best. Rene handed out food in small bits to all the people on the ship. Although a lot of food was provided, it wasn't much in comparison to all the people who now needed to eat. Too much food when a person was starving was bad for them anyway.
Since they were using stealth to get back due to being so heavy, Lana realized it was going to be 20 hours before they got back. She had Shalt look for an Earth Station. She couldn't put these people through a teleporter but she could put most of her team through the teleporter to go visit the Crows and take on more food and water. They would need to stop at 2 based on the length of time needed. With factions getting hit by the Sunshields, she didn't want to risk that again.
Half an hour later, Kattie, Duff, and Almin were sent to visit the Crows with a message to let them know what was going on. They were given quarters that they needed to pay for but they didn't mind. Lana and Shalt went on the food run and got a lot of selections. The ship had a small bathroom but there would be a line. That wasn't a good situation for a pregnant woman. Shalt was able to convince Lana to go through the teleporter as well with Caser as it was that much less strain on the ship. He and Rene would get these people back home.
Lana didn't want to pass on the responsibility but she was quite relieved when she stepped through the teleporter. She found Quinn, Blip and Dennis and let them know what happened and why her people came for an impromptu visit. They were happy she did as her health could have been put in jeopardy.
Lana used their system to send the files to Logan then went and got herself something to eat. Two hours later, she and her team members were ready to leave with a bunch of shopping bags in hand. She was surprised the Crows even had clothes as much as she kept purchasing.
Lana got a message just as they were heading to the teleporter to go to the ship, then home. Logan had transferred all the businesses over to the Plantwell Family and fired all management teams. They had been replaced with credible people and would be sending her profits monthly.
Logan was able to find out the people who had no families or were in desperate situations were used for free labor when possible. There were others that were treated well but they were not the majority. They also worked in different buildings than those who were abused. They never saw the mistreatment and thought they worked for a decent company. Now, under new leadership, they did.
Lana smiled as they stepped through the teleporters and arrived back home. In her room, she removed four crystals from her gloves and several more from her pockets. She then set the sword on the shelf in her closet. She needed to decide what to do with these things. These crystals were not beast crystals. She would need to have Logan look at them. There were a few other small items that were in that office she took as well and placed them in the drawer under her bed. She subsequently laid down for a nap. She glanced at her interesting bracelet once more then fell asleep. She intended it to be a nap but she slept until the next morning again.
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