TWO YEARS AGO, A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION GOING BY THE NAME TEAM IMUM WRECKED CHAOS ACROSS THE LAND, DAMAGING CITIES AND KILLING THOUSANDS OF CITIZENS. While Imum itself has long since been disbanded, however, the region remains broken: entire towns have been laid to waste and the Association struggles to find homes for those who were lucky enough to survive the attempted genocide. Reconstruction trudges on as usual... but with three factions - the Association, the corporations, and the people - each wishing to take the rebuilding of an entire region down opposite paths, how long will it be before Lyeant's last leg gives out permanently?
03.01
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01.28
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Post by Ishini Mazuka on Feb 2, 2018 22:02:56 GMT -6
[attr="class","danced"]
[attr="class","ghostd"]
[attr="class","dark"]@person
A New Beginning
[attr="class","dark"]My Ghost Where'd You Go? I Can't Find You In the Body Sleeping Next To Me
[attr="class","maind"][attr="class","umad"]The sound of skull fracturing against concrete rang through the corridor, the owner of the boot firmly planted on the man's face immediately using him as a springboard to backflip over the metal pipes of his allies, and the auburn-haired she-wolf brushed herself off calmly as the two glared at her, oblivious to the small pool of blood forming under the head of their fallen comrade. Ishini Mazuka popped her knuckles in turn, a cobalt dragon leering from the ring finger of her right hand as did so, eyeing the two with a sneer and rather predatory gaze. She had, of course, picked this fight herself by opting to wander the Underbelly without her hat, and her twin lupine ears twitched idly as she shifted her gaze, hands falling to the two steel items hanging on either hip.
The two men looked at each other for a moment before turning a collective glare at the hound a distance before them, and the girl responded with a smirk and a shrug as the charged her. Hospital it is, then, she thought confidently before ducking, narrowly missing one pipe and catching the other with a steel-clad right hand immediately after, her left hand moving in for a sharp left hook to catch Dumb by the jaw, his buddy Dumber taking a step back as the other idiot moved back to join him. Ishi craned her neck to one side, eyes glowing with a slightly dull shade of jade as she taunted them.
"Oh come now, afraid of my bite, are you?" She gave a toothy grin, sharpened canines flashing in greeting as she dropped her stance, giving the stereotypical 'Come on' gesture with her left hand. Dumb and Dumber looked at each other for a moment before grinning in turn, several more of their buddies showing up behind them. Ishi let out a sigh.
I swear, these idiots are completely unaware of a certain trope, she remarks silently, adjusting her stance only slightly as the group rushes towards her. She had told herself she wouldn't rely on Volt or Cora to help fight her battles, and even though she was concerned with her chances she'd much rather just have her skull bashed in without her Pokemon being eye-witnesses.
Granted they were probably both paying too much attention anyway, especially when the hits started coming in. She blocked the first couple, turning the improvised weapons into literal weapons as she sent them on an impact course with their former user, though in a few moments she ended up moderately surrounded. A wartune began playing in her head, and she hummed it to herself, her movements blurring slightly as attacks began to gradually miss her more often.
She brought her left leg around sharply in a kick, slamming her boot into the side of one thug and sending him like a bowling ball into a pile of his buddies. Four left. She turned her gaze over to the remaining group just in time to catch the blade coming down at her, steel scraping against steel as she held it barely above her head. She spotted the other three beginning to move in, and narrowed her eyes.
Seems I myself forgot a few tropes as well.
[attr="class","headd"]>>Where'd You Go?<<
[attr="class","oathd"]What Happened To The Soul You Used To Be?
He'd hated the Underbelly from the first time he'd stepped foot there. It reminded him too much of his childhood, for one thing, back in the days when the only thing he was concerned about was how he was going to go about getting his next needle through the arm and how far he wanted to stay away from the home he'd left behind. Eirenhyre had nothing that quite lived up to the standards (or stooped to them, he supposed) of this vile place, of course, but it had its fair share of back alleys and crooks, sleezy men who slipped bills to under-dressed girls, knife-wielding thieves who'd gouge your eyes out for enough Poke to buy a meal. There'd been a time when he'd buried himself in such an atmosphere. Killing, or heck, even just threatening another with a weapon was beyond his personal realm of morals back then, but he'd assorted with the worst and hadn't put his life to use for one Arceus doomed thing. Funny; he looked back on his younger self with such disdain, all bloodless hands and heroin highs. Most would think of moving up to murder as a downgrade. In his eyes, his younger incarnation was just as good at the people he scowled at now – not as bad as the Association members, no, or the priests, but definitely a stain on the world he thought worth saving. If there was incriminating evidence to collect from the Underbelly, he'd have done his best to steer clear of here, both to keep his skin keeping contact with the meaty bits underneath and to keep him from seeing the worst of what the common folk had to offer.[break][break]
(But if there were no rich men, and there were no poor men, would places like this even exist? Surely, tearing down the current order to erase the need for theft and dog fights. Surely, no one would have to take their pleasure from another's pain.)[break][break]
In a perfect world, Nikki may have had the fortune of walking in, getting what he'd come into this awful place for, and walked right back out without so much as a hitch. Even if he shuddered at the thought of participating in anything that was offered here, he certainly looked like a man who could, even without the illegal firearms, something even denizens of this unholy place tended to stay away from. People only picked on those they saw as an easy target. As if he hadn't had a reason to hate the place already, though, it decided to give him another: a scuffle out of the corner of his eye, fists colliding with flesh and cries of pain ringing out loud and clear for all to hear. Just keep walking, just keep walking, he told himself, trying to force his eyes to keep away from the scene. Things like this happened all the time; there was simply no helping it. Getting involved would only earn him enemies that he most certainly didn't need. … And yet walking away seemed to be impossible. Curse his curiosity; just that Skitty in that stupid saying, it'd be the death of him. Worse, still, some part of him nearly sobbed in relief when he did turn, for the sight it afforded him showed something the rest of him hadn't been expecting to see: not a fight between two people, or two gangs at all, but multiple men going after a girl even shorter than the smallest of them. He shouldn't have gotten involved, he shouldn't have. Seeing one person up against many, though? Yeah. Like the Distortion World he'd forgive himself for walking away from that. Miraculously, a few of the attackers were already down by the time the hitman made his decision, slipping into the alleyway under the coat of darkness the shadows afforded him and keeping just out of sight from the attackers who very much weren't down. Three on one with the latter backed into a corner. It was about time he changed that, wasn't it?[break][break]
A swing, full force and with the aid of a blunt object he'd picked up off the ground. His arm was soaring through the air only for a matter of seconds before a thunk heralded the fall of one of the three remaining men, and before the others could so much as react, the barrel of his gun was being aimed at the others. As expected, neither one dared to move much at all at in the face of that. A single step and he'd blow their brains out (or, at least, so he'd like them to think; what sort of psychotic gave a person the death sentence for picking a fight in any alleyway? Not him, that was for certain). “What are you waiting for?” Nikki barked when woman to his left didn't immediately make a move to bolt. So impatient. “Run, lady.”[break][break]
Perfect. With any luck, the darkness of their surroundings would make his visage hard to make out if anyone here decided to keep a grudge, and it had only taken a matter of moments and a bit of effort to secure the “victim” a way out of this mess. Or, at least, it should have been perfect. As it turned out, at least one of the strangers he'd shrugged off as unconscious was not nearly so out of it, and in his own moment of triumphant oblivion, that very stranger moved to make his own attack. A flash of movement in the periphery of his vision – “Fuck!” – and the world around him shut down in an instant.
[attr="class","dark"]My Ghost Where'd You Go? I Can't Find You In the Body Sleeping Next To Me
[attr="class","maind"][attr="class","umad"]If it hadn't been for the gun being drawn, Ishi would've started laughing. True, she'd ended up taking a tad more than she could handle, but considering the situation she was a moment away from finding a way out of it. Truth be told, it was almost better that this idiot had shown himself, it gave the bandits a bit of pause. Though the true fun started when the thought-to-be unconscious fool stood up to make his attack.
Ishi's eyes flashed, the jade brightening for a moment. Sucker Punch. The move sounded out in her head, and in the following instant she was between the thug and the wannabe hero, her form twisting in the air as she pushed off the ground with her left foot, spinning in the air once before swiftly adjusting the positioning of her legs, her right boot catching the thug at the side of his head and bringing with it more force than should've reasonably been possible. There was a cruel, slightly sickening crunch as bones snapped, and the thug's body flew off to hit the wall it had been flung towards. She landed on the ground lightly, her tail whipping around before drawing back towards the ground as her lupine ears flicked.
"Thanks but no thanks, I'd much rather spend my time beating up these racist bastards," she said matter-of-factly, twisting her body just in time for the blade to come at her again, slashing across her arm and leaving a sizable wound. She hissed, eyes flashing again as she snapped forwards instantly, coming in from low to slam her elbow into the thug's abdomen, causing him to drop the blade and stagger backward, sputtering as he attempted to catch his breath. "It's called Payback fuckhead. Don't go swinging weapons if you can't take the punishment." She stood slowly, eyeing the two thugs warily. She ground her teeth idly, feeling the sparks they gave off. Next bastard to get too close was gonna come to a shocking revelation, especially since only a trained eye would be able to tell she'd just used two moves. All of those fights she got into certain helped her fill out a moveset, though considering she hadn't particularly used it once she met Cor she wouldn't be surprised if she had forgotten two or three of them.
Regardless, the more pressing matter was whether her would-be savior was going to stick around to deal with the riff-raff. Conservation of Ninjutsu appeared to be in full effect, meaning if you subtracted her being a Gijinka they were technically now on even footing. Granted, she didn't anticipate him sticking around, and even expected him to turn on her now that she'd shown she could defend herself to a degree. People who wandered the Underbelly were always of one distinct type: Selfish. This one seemed to fancy himself a hero to boot, which meant he'd probably take offense to not having all the glory.
[attr="class","headd"]>>Where'd You Go?<<
[attr="class","oathd"]What Happened To The Soul You Used To Be?
For a few horrific moments, all Nikki could see was black. An all-too-loud ringing had consumed the sounds that should have been flooding in through his ears, and even though he felt his body fall, he couldn't feel what it was that it landed on in his descent. It could have just as easily been broken glass as it could have a a conveniently placed pillow set aside specifically to catch his fall, though knowing their location, he'd sooner place his bets on the former than the latter. In that time, anxiety far worse than the base level that plagued him in every day life struck: Had the woman ran to safety in the safe window he'd afforded her? Not that it ended up being as long as he'd hoped it would be. If she had, though, it made the inevitable pummeling worth it. Assuming he made it out of this alive at all, he'd probably be boasting scars more numerous (but at least not worse) than those that already tangled up his forearms. His only saving grace in this situation was that he'd probably only be semi lucid for the start of their little revenge play, sparing him from at least some of the agony he foresaw in his immediate future.[break][break]
But the semi-unconscious spell lasted a far shorter time than he'd been prepared for it to last, effectively ripping that predicted “saving grace” right out of his hand. Something to curse the universe for, certainly... had it not turned out that he didn't need it at all. In the brief time that he'd been rendered out of commission, the stranger he'd rushed to the aid of appeared to have knocked his personal assailant out cold – there was no getting up for him anytime soon this time – and while two were still left standing, one looked as though all of the wind had been knocked out of him with a single, harsh blow. “Rushed to the aid of” his ass; in hindsight, it should have been obvious from the groaning bodies he'd taken noticed of when he'd first slipped into this alleyway that the female was a far more capable fighter than he was, and his little surprise stunt had probably just gotten in her way. Stupid, stupid. X had always told him to avoid up close confrontations. At least with politicians, they never knew how to fight. If he'd wanted it, and if he'd had his distance, and if he'd had his sniper, these men could have all been dead in an instant – but he didn't want it, and he had neither, and dwelling on the possibilities was a waste of time when their attackers were still poised and ready.[break][break]
“You're tougher than you look, huh?,” the hitman asked his, at least temporary ally, picking himself up from ground that was thankfully not covered in broken glass and rubbing at the sore spot that he'd been hit at before. He almost considered, for a moment, letting her have her glory in full. It wasn't like he'd come here to claim a debt or anything, anyway, and that thought of only getting in the way lingered dangerously in his mind. However, it was a thought short-lived when he saw the wound, fresh, running up the length of her arm. There was still a chance she could take them on by herself, but Arceus be doomed, he wasn't going to risk it and run away now. One of the thugs reached for – something, a weapon if he had to guess, but Nikki's trigger finger was faster, and his target howled in pain at the bullet that whizzed through his hand. “I'm no good in a close-up fight,” he said through grit teeth, fully aware that his vision was back, but his body wasn't back to one hundred percent, “but I'm a damn near perfect shot. If you wanna take 'em head on, I'll cover you.”
[attr="class","dark"]My Ghost Where'd You Go? I Can't Find You In the Body Sleeping Next To Me
[attr="class","maind"][attr="class","umad"]She winced as the gunshot rang out, canine ears flattening against her skull in an attempt to save her eardrums from the worst of the sound. On the upside, the thug that had been reaching for his weapon got a hole in his hand instead, and the words the stranger spoke were almost an unexpected surprise, albeit a nice one. She couldn't help but laugh. "Let's take these idiots down a peg, then." she flashed a grin, canines catching what light there was before she dashed forward, sparks dancing at the corners of her mouth as she ran at the one with the hole in his hand. He had a weapon, best she ensure he couldn't use it. She ducked under the strike he threw at her, jumping up and biting down onto his shoulder. Electricity arced through his body, and she let out just before he dropped to the ground, sparks dancing off of his frame as another gunshot rang out, catching the other one in the arm behind her. She turned around, startled. It looked as though the other one had tried to take her out while she was electrocuting his buddy, and she couldn't help but let loose another grin, slamming her fists together, steel gauntlets slamming into one another a moment before she ducked low and to the right before coming up sharply in an uppercut, steel catching under the man's jaw with enough force to send his head back with a bit of a cracking sound, and he crumpled where he stood. As easy as ever, though she was still a bit disappointed at her own recklessness at getting caught with that blade. She looked over at the cut on her shoulder, sighing at her own lack of dexterity before looking at the stranger. Now that she had a chance to get a proper look at him, he didn't particularly seem the type that stalked the Underbelly all day. Then again neither did she, and she'd just beaten the tar out of... she did a mental check. What, fifteen guys?
She placed a hand over the cut as she moved back towards the stranger. "Thanks for helping out," she said. She didn't particularly need the help, but it had been nice having someone on her side in a fight for once. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like. Not even Volt or Cora were allowed to fight with her when she did things like this- a lesson learned from a particularly long conversation back before the war. Volt had never liked it, though she couldn't say the same for her Salamence. Shaking herself out of her memories before they dragged her all the way down, she looked at the stranger for a moment before speaking.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?" she inquired. It wasn't often someone was willing to help a Gijinka, most people simply feared them for what they could do. Granted Ishi wasn't particularly helping soothe that fear. Though it was also entirely possible that he simply hadn't realized what she was yet, though if he looked now the ears and tail would be a dead giveaway. She dearly hoped she could move fast enough to avoid getting shot, but at the same time she didn't particularly think it would come to that.
[attr="class","headd"]>>Where'd You Go?<<
[attr="class","oathd"]What Happened To The Soul You Used To Be?
“Let's take these idiots down a peg, then.”[break][break]
For the better that he hadn't thrown himself into a fight on the side of someone who refused to accept aid. Even after admitting that he wasn't necessarily suited for this type of work – although, even if he hadn't intended for it to, maybe shooting a man straight through the hand helped his case a little bit – she seemed pretty fine with him sticking around and offering a hand (ha) now that he was here. Part of him couldn't help but wonder if she even really needed it, though. It was one thing to see an alley full of semi-conscious bodies and another to see the force that had put them down in the first place in action. She moved like a whirlwind, hit like a Tauros using Strength, downed one in almost an instant. It did, however, force her to lower her guard just enough and for long enough that the second remaining thug took his chance to charge. Like the Distortion World. Nikki took his own at firing again, another bullet whizzing through air and flesh and bone, and in the moment that his nameless partner turned to realize her could-have-been mistake, this fight was all wrapped up in a metaphorical pretty pink bow. If the alleyway had been full of growning, still bodies, one could exaggerate and call it overflowing now. The only two left standing were himself and the major culprit, and while one part of the back of his mind still warned him to be careful should she decide to spontaneously turn on him and put him out of commission like the rest, she seemed to be making no move to do so.[break][break]
“Thanks for helping out,” she said instead of moving in to strike another blow on the only witness left conscious. Paranoia, he tried and tried to tell himself, was rarely worth the anxiety it brought it. As he slipped the gun back into place, one of only a handful he had stashed away in the many inner coats that decorated his trench coat, and mourned the loss of two perfectly fine bullets that could have been sent through the brain of a particularly viscous man of power, she went on to ask: “If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?”[break][break]
In truth, he did mind. Nothing against her in particular, of course, but the threat of getting captured again and forced back into that horrible, horrible ward only became more real the more people knew his name, the more information about himself slipped out into the world. At the same time, though, failing to introduce himself wasn't going to earn him any brownie points with someone who could probably snap his neck if given a good reason. For another reason, one he wouldn't really allow himself to admit, there was something almost charming about his newfound, albeit temporary company. She was violent, or had the potential to be, but she didn't seem unreasonable now that the dust had settled. Unless she pulled a one eighty (as part of him couldn't stop fearing she would, but that was a fear he held when it came to everyone else in the world), he probably wouldn't mind having to stick around. “Nikki. You?” A question asked out of habit. If he had his own concerns sharing his name, it was safe to assume someone who spent any amount of time in the Underbelly had their own. Not, he mused as he bent down, examining one of her fallen enemies and being grateful to at least find a pulse, that he'd probably remember it come morning. What he was really interested about in the moment wasn't her name at all, no. Groups of this size didn't just attack a person for money. (He hadn't even noticed the ears poking out the top of her head rather than the sides.)[break][break]
“So, uh -,” Nikki began awkwardly as he rubbed at the sore spot they'd left on the back of his neck, “you owe these shitheads some money or somethin'? They must've really wanted you gone if this many of 'em attacked you.” Not that numbers mattered much in the end, anyway. Had he had it in him, the hitman may have laughed.
Such a casual response. Were it not for the mass of bodies piled up around them the Howling Storm would've laughed. As it was she couldn't help but smirk slightly as she removed her gauntlets, the soft sound of steel clinking against itself the only sound for a moment before she responded."Ishini Mazuka," she said, the fading high of battle allowing her to block out the reflexive overlay of 'Ryusaki' lined atop it as well as the would-be crushing weight of her own guilt. Adrenaline was to her as a good shot of heroin was to half the addicts in these tunnels. Arceus knows she'd go well beyond her own morality for a fix of it these days. She couldn't help but relax slightly in the male's company, reasoning that if he was going to shoot her he would've, though with his next question she tensed back up, ready for any of the myriad of reactions she got with her common response, though she was really hoping she wouldn't have to add this kid to the pile behind her.
"So, uh..." he had hesitated slightly, "You owe these shitheads some money or somethin'? They must've really wanted you gone if this many of 'em attacked you."
"Arceus knows I wish it were that simple," she said with a sigh, hands planted on her hips, though her stance was still remarkably like the one she took in combat. If anything, she still looked ready for a fight as she pointed up to her ears, the pair of them twitching slightly in response to the focus directed at them It's the same old story. Bunch of punks getting pissed at a Gijinka cause she wouldn't let them have some tail," she did, of course, leave out the fact that she had come here intentionally in the hopes of picking a fight. Nobody needed to know of her tendencies, much less her more blatantly suicidal ones. The beastial part of her found itself drawn to Nikki, seeing within him a skill she hadn't witnessed in some time, and she vaguely wondered if he'd be someone worth staying a bit closer to.
Granted relationships in general had become something of a sore spot for her ever since Corvou, and try as she might to move forward it always felt as though something kept pulling her back to that day, to that moment. She already knew what he'd say, how he'd berate her for living in the past for so long. Though in truth she never had been very good at putting her more foolish mistakes behind her.
[attr="class","headd"]>>Where'd You Go?<<
[attr="class","oathd"]What Happened To The Soul You Used To Be?
Ishini Mazuka – a foreign name, or at least one that was foreign sounding, something he would inevitably end up butchering a dozen times from a mixture of his own typical stupidity and the brain cells he'd most certainly fried after years of close friendship with the needle and its illegal highs. Assuming, of course, that he ever had need to use it. Truly an unlikely happenstance. Vaguely, he wondered if that was even her name, seeing as people of their ilk and the frequenters of the underbelly seemed so fond of hiding their identities to avoid repercussion, if not general detection. It was a safe guard he didn't indulge any more than refusing to accept his old family name, though. He gave any who asked (shy of the law, of course) what he went by, and while the chances of others doing the same were small, he didn't put enough value in a name to worry too much about them not doing the same in turn. Again: Not as though he was expecting to get much use out of it.[break][break]
“Arceus knows I wish it were that simple,” she said in response to question of why this all came to pass. If he were a happier man, Nikki may have snorted in some mixture of amusement and contempt, mind fixated on the idea that owed funds to criminals were usually anything but a simple matter. Certainly, he'd sooner stoop to theft for making funds than take out a loan with faces like these; why anything would do otherwise usually involved some long, complicated story he didn't care to hear. In comparison to that, then this was - “It's the same old story. Bunch of punks getting pissed at a Gijinka cause she wouldn't let them have some tail.” - different, certainly. She pointed to something just above the top of her head, shadows in the dark of the alley that he'd assumed to be tricks of the light or those silly cat-eared headphones that seemed to be all the rage with the socially stunted youth of the modern era, but now that his attention was on them and them alone, the idea that they were such an accessory was laughable. For one thing, they wouldn't have matched the rest of her attire, much less their grimy surroundings at all. For another, those ears in question were moving. “Fuck, those are real?” he asked, knowing fully well the answer as soon as he posed the question, but taking a half step back in shock. Gijinka weren't unheard of, but this was his first time meeting one face to face. Well, that he knew of, anyway. Now that the obvious had been pointed out to him, he was almost ashamed that he hadn't noticed any sooner.[break][break]
No more ashamed, of course, than he was of the bodies littered across the ground. Having never interacted with a gijinka, he paid very little mind to their struggles or their movements toward rights. To assault one on that basis alone, however, to try to defile or even kill, was proof of how infected their region had become over centuries and centuries. His face paled from shock to disgust. Men like this had ruined Mary's life; he saw her face and grit his teeth as the heel of his boot dug into the hand of the nearest unfortunate victim. (A small penance. If he didn't stick so strongly to his morals, he may have considered doing more.)[break][break]
More than anything, however, the hitman was reminded of why he was here in the first place, and why he very much did not care to be here at all. Ishini's attackers had all been effectively downed, and the immediate threat that he'd begrudgingly forced his way into was no more. If there was an ideal time to bow out, it would be now, and he opened his mouth to say his parting peace: “Your, uh – shoulder.” Curse him and curse his fucking bleeding heart. This woman could turn on him at any moment she wanted to – had no reason to, but a man he had been closer with and trust more had hurt him more for less – and he had the perfect opportunity to flee with his dignity, identity, and, most importantly, life, but now that his eyes had latched onto the blood on her person and his mouth had made note of it, he was as good as trapped. And the worst part was that part of him didn't even mind. (Any who would leave a person to die are worthy of that death themselves, correct? He wouldn't be like them. He wouldn't, he wouldn't.) “It's bleeding pretty bad.”
