As Al approached Salem's ship, his mind linked with the ship's systems. The ramp lowered to the ground, the front wall of the ship slid downward, revealing a rack of what were obviously weapons, and a drawer in the wall popped open. A number of fist-sized, semi-spherical metallic objects, all glowing a dull blue, deposited themselves into the drawer seemingly through the ship's hull.
Al made his way up the ramp without losing speed, and looked into the drawer. There were a dozen or so of the objects in all. He darted back, into the back room/closet that Salem had frequently used to change, and stepped back out with a bag strapped to his side. He loaded all of the spheres into it, and then proceeded to also stuff in two bright orange cylinders from the front wall, muttering under his breath.
As he raced back down the now-closing ramp and towards the bar, his hologram handily hid the bag as well.
Salem rose, his muscles tense, and trained his weapon on Rathien. As he did, his left hand slid into his pocket under his cloak- after a few moments, he found the capsule he was looking for and, sliding off the top with his thumb, pricked his finger on the now-exposed miniature needle. The chemical within was a powerful, yet so far remarkably stable, stimulant- the same one he'd used to wake up his arm after Rathien'd poisoned it earlier. It would provide the equivalent of an adrenaline rush- in addition to his own, natural adrenaline rush- that should last a few minutes. After pricking his finger, Salem's hand snaked back out of his cloak and onto the side of his bulky pistol as a stabilizer.
Some portion of his mind took note of the reactions of the others in the bar. Parker seemed unphased. Jocun... trained his weapon on Rathien? Perhaps Salem had judged Jocun too quickly earlier. Ewa dove for cover- good instinct. One of the humans Salem had yet to meet, drew what looked like an energy blade of some kind- worth looking into later, at least. The two Andalites seemed to tense up- indeed, the whole rebel table seemed uncomfortable with this. There was a new girl who called him "overdramatic," though. Towards her, Salem shot a brief smile that was halfway between charming and mocking, but didn't say a word.
Ideally, Salem would simply lead this fight outside, but Rathien'd walked in too soon. Al wouldn't have his trap set up yet. So what was the best course? Shoot, and hope to take the hunter down? Not with this many patrons. They were just as likely to shoot him as the hunter, from what he'd seen, especially if he began firing inside.
Still, the tension in the room, the eyes now turning towards him... Salem could feel the now all-too-familiar rush starting. There was no way he could take the hunter one-on-one. Things were about to get fun. He just had to stall for a bit.
"I can't think of a better reason to blow holes in something, Ildari," Salem called across the bar to Rathien with a nasty grin. His right hand was steady, keeping his bead on the hunter, even as he reached down with his left and dialed the power back to a lower setting. He wasn't intending to blow chunks of the hunter all over the bar if he could help it. "And right now, I'm not much liking you. Hands up, my friend. It's over."