CorReictive Action
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Date: 12/31/2017 |
Disincorporated East Side What was once a thriving neighborhood has decayed over the last decade. Most of the houses have disappeared, replaced by overgrown meadows. Of the houses that remain, most are abandoned and left to time and arsonists, falling slowly in upon themselves as the years pass. Trees line the some of the side streets, and backyard forests have sprung up where neat plantings have overgrown their boundaries. Street signs keep lonely sentinel at corners and no one pays attention to the stop signs any longer. Power lines trail off into the distance, seemingly going nowhere. |
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Cast: Storyteller: | |
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Detroit's disincorporated neighbourhoods have a few things in common with space. They're cold; they're dark; the government no longer funds any programs to reach out to them. But most importantly for tonight: in Measure 2, nobody can hear you scream. Or at least, nobody cares.
No matter how much that young man in green shouts, it all gets absorbed by the socks crammed into his mouth. No matter how much he squirms, the two men behind him keep firm hold of his limbs and keep him from getting anywhere. And that's just half of his 'escort'. The four are older than him, maybe even almost twenty, and built thicker. But significantly, their scarves are /blue/.
The leader gets their victim by his collar and shoves him into a crumbling alleyway. "That's the last time you step on our turf, toothpick. You greenies have given us enough trouble." There's a click as he pulls back the hammer of his gun. "It's time we made an /example/ of one of you."
Just another night in Detroit, it seems. Well THAT is not very social behavior. Rei is out scouting through the Measure 2 area near Packard as she often does for useful salvage and to make sure there are no strategic threats moving in that could pose a risk to her base of operations. She is generally not the most sympathetic to gangs either after that time they tried to assault her. The extreme confinement of the obvious prisoner and readied weapon get her attention as an imminent danger. Activating Distraction Protocal: "Excuse me, I was wondering if you gentlemen could give me directions? I see to be lost." she calls out in a voice loud enough to be clearly heard by them. Strategic threat? Hah, no. Compared to her, these guys are probably about as threatening as a wet paper bag.
Not that they know that. The leader and one other take over holding the prisoner, keeping him pinned to an alley wall. The other two step forward, forming a half-wall of human bodies between her and the Business happening behind them. "You're right," one says. "You /are/ lost. I think where you'd rather be is right back the other way." He slaps his baseball bat against his empty palm, while his friend twirls a knife to catch the moonlight. This far into the discorporated area, there's no streetlight to glint off it. Rei shakes her head as the gang bangers draw weapons, "She said I was supposed to give you a chance to be better and this is your choice?" she doesn't really seem surprised, maybe disappointed. She locks on to her priority target, the one with a gun, at which point she suddenly ducks into a short sprint and leaps into the air sending 300lbs of force accelerating towards her target as a flying sidekick. "What the fu--" That's the verbiage that greets her as she goes for that kick. Mr Bat starts to react in just enough time to step back and avoid the full weight of the hit, left winded rather than crushed. Yet, winded he is, and he staggers farther back into the alleyway while he regains his bearings. So much for scaring her off.
The others process what happened, and decide that the weird Japanese lady is a more active threat than the guy who's already sobbing with pain. The leader gets his gun around and fires off a shot, but he's in too much hurry and it just goes sailing into the night. His friend drops the greenie and brings an awkward crowbar to bear. The man with the knife ducks forwards and /almost/ lands a blow, but Rei parries him back before he can get in close with the short blade. After careful analysis of their fight patterns, Rei's threat analysis algorithms return Threat Level: 1. The gunshot goes wide, which is hardly surprising given her unexpected entry into close range, and an arm comes up and blocks the block the knife as she glares at the others. After that first surprise, the man with the bat recovers. He turns his staggering into getting around behind Rei, and makes a swing for her head. The bat hits, barely... but it does nothing. And there's a brief groan from the wood, as if it was in danger of splintering. Rei does not even seem to notice when the gangster with the bat takes a swing at her, shrugging it off completely as she lunges toward her primary target with the clear goal of planting her fist deep within his ribcage, though he manages to deflect the brunt of the blow with his gun. Now that time has caught up with the remaining thugs, it's all a blur of activity around her, but she can keep up. The knife man's next strike rushes around her with just as much futility as the last; she doesn't fully deflect the crowbar, but neither does it cause her harm. The leader takes a moment to aim, but still his shot just goes wild. Perhaps she'd knocked the sights loose when he'd parried her before. In the frenetic storm that is combat, it's easy to just... miss things. Such as your enemies -- the thugs all pile in and try to hit her, but those that do manage it are only glancing blows. Another wild shot rings out into the night air. But at least they defend themselves, too, as the gunner gets his hand in the way of a kick that could have spelled doom for his future children. Somewhere in the whirlwind of moving limbs and weapons, the leader manages to get in close. He jams the gun right against Rei's collarbone, and as soon as he feels that pressure, pulls the trigger...%r%r...to no effect. His eyes go wide, and he mouths the words 'what the fuck'. The others may not have noticed, or may have brushed it off as somehow missing, but he knows what just happened, even if he can't know /how/. One hit lands, and that paves the way for others. Now it's starting to feel more like a proper gang-up. Except... as the knife comes in under her ribs, the blade snaps off. As the crowbar hits her shoulder, it bends. Those two gangers stumble back, eyes going wide and faces going cold. Pressing firearms against a person's throat and then pulling the trigger is not very nice, though most people die when that happens. Rei is not most people and she is not amused. The expectation of her imminent demise has made the man cocky and the punch that Rei buries deep in his chest moments later takes him completely by surprise even as the realization occurs that she is not in fact dead. The force behind the punch is anything but human as her android strength crushes his ribcage lifting him clean off the ground and sending him flying several meters down the alley. Rei spins around after dispatching the gang leader with the gun leaving him to his feeble attempt at crawling away. Reaching out with both hands she grabs hold of both the bat wielding thug and the crowbar wielding thug by the scruff of their shirts, one in each hand, and lifts them off the ground letting their legs kick feebly beneath them, "What you are doing is wrong." she says sternly looking up at them, "I am going to give you a chance to be better, now go pick up your companion and take him to a hospital before he bleeds out and never do anything like this again. This is your chance to be better, I will not be so merciful next time if you squander this chance. Do you understand?" The knife man -- well, the /formerly/ knife man, now broken-off-shard-with-a-handle man -- just tucks and runs, wanting to get out of Dodge City. Perhaps the whole frontier, even.
The others aren't so lucky. She catches them by the scruffs of their clothes, like a mother cat scolding her kittens. They even duck their heads. One goes limp, like he's trying to play dead.
The other squirms, saying, "What are you going to do to us, you crazy Chinese bit--" He blinks as he starts to process what she's saying. "Yes! Yes. I'll go get Dick /right/ to the hospital, and then I'll go to church and become a priest. S-Sound good?" The one who goes limp gets a good shake, goddamn she is strong, he can probably feel his bones rattling. "I can't hear you." she says to him. Then her gaze shifts to the talkative one, "Good. I hope you are sincere, for your sake." she says dropping him, though his friend isn't off the hook just yet. Okay, playing possum didn't work so well for him. Her rattling makes him groan. "M-Miss, I think I hurt my neck! But I'll be good from now on, I promise!" The former bat-wielder has already run back into the alleyway, though he's not strong enough to carry his injured boss all by his lonesome. "Wise choice." Rei says dropping him as well, "Then you have a reason to go to the hospital with him." she tells him before turning around to walk back down the alley herself to where the leader's gun is laying. She bends down and picks it up pocketing it, not like he'll be needing it anymore with that new leaf he's going to turn over. She waits just long enough to make sure both of former-thugs are helping their former boss in the direction of a hospital and then walks off herself. | |
