[Bakiri Retsu]

One would think that given the amount of trouble Bakiri Retsu had run into at the bay she'd stay away from the place but Retsu had never been one for common sense. Sure, she'd lost a limb and a half during a factory raid here, her dignity during a ship raid and nearly drowned in her own blood during a second ship raid but how likely was stuff to go wrong a fourth time?

As she pitched a grenade into the maw of some messed up squid-shark hybrid Retsu really wished she hadn't had that thought about ten minutes back. Things never went well when her mind went there. Why, this was supposed to be a casual raid on a warehouse housing some materials that had been 'redistributed' after she had to depart from her territory. A simple reclaiming of stuff that was hers anyway. It had even gone really well. In hindsight that should've tipped her off too.

Spotting several more of the strange creatures chasing down civilians in the distance her eye narrowed. There seemed to be more of them wherever the crowd was thicker. Maybe it was her imagination or even a coincidence but it wasn't like she had much else to go off. As luck would have it she just happened to know a nearby abandoned factory in a relatively secluded part of the bay. Now she just had to make it there, across a stretch of beach, several more blocks and past a veritable horde of mutated sea life. Just your average Tuesday.

Well, no time like the present. Pulling another grenade out of her duffel bag she threw it into the middle of a group of legged fish and started her sprint across the stretch of beach. Her first target was a lifeguard station about ninety feet away from which she could get a better look at the surroundings, provided nothing got in her way before she reached it.

------

Tags: Freja Helt

[Freja Helt]

Oh fuck, oh shit.

It was just like her to get wrapped up in a mess like this. First she was attacked by a stalker villain, then she somehow managed to upset an organization of insane assassins and became one of their targets, then there was the whole Babel ordeal and the elemental golems. In all honesty, she should have seen this coming, that she couldn't have nice things, that her dreams of going to the beach would be dashed before she could even change into her swimsuit. She had dropped her bag a while ago, she didn't know and she didn't care as long as she survived. What was the bag and clothes anyway? Just material possessions she could replace with enough parttime work. She had already died before, it was horrible, and she had to admit, after being alive for approximately five years after her revival...



SHE WASN'T ABOUT TO BE EATEN ALIVE BY A SHARK WITH LONG ARMS!!!

Sprinting at full speed, she was doing everything she could to hold onto her bat, her only hope of making it out alive was to fight, but she was too vulnerable out in the open. Then the lifeguard station caught her attention. A miracle on the open beach! Taking a sharp turn, the shark was thrown off-course momentarily, buying her a few seconds at best, but it quickly picked up speed again. It wasn't until she was almost reaching the station that she noticed another woman gunning for it. A civilian? She had to say something. ''G-Get down! There's a big one following me!!'' She wanted to sound all brave and hero-like, but her eyes were full of tears and her voice trembled with terror.

Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

If there was one thing her lifestyle had caused Retsu to become experienced at it was cardio. Yet even so being chased by the ghosts of fishing victims past didn't make for a fun experience. She'd have let out a sigh if she didn't need to manage her breathing to make sure she could stay on the run for as long as needed. Ah well, if nothing else the fish blew up easily. As a bang resounded behind her and something wet splatted into her back Retsu's eye twitched. Maybe they blew up a bit too well.

Halfway there now. Her feet kicked up sand as she drew another grenade out of her bag. She cast a look over her shoulder, seeing that the group that had 'scattered' had already been replaced by more sea life. When she heard a second set of footsteps next to her she was moments away from lashing out when a voice came with it. That was both good and bad. The good news was that nothing covered in scales had snuck up on her in the moment she turned her head, the bad news was she now had to deal with a conversation and a crustacean. Pulling the pin of her latest grenade she chucked it into the crabby fellow's maw before she replied, instinctively ducking down at Freja's words while she did.

"Ah fook, anotha one?"

When they reached the lifeguard station Retsu rushed up the ramp, jumped so her foot landed on the railing and kicked off towards the roof. The air was driven out of her lungs when she slammed into the side of it. She pushed herself the rest of the way up with her arms and rolled so she was a bit further from the edge. 

People often said that looking at a problem from a different perspective could show you a solution you'd previously missed. All Retsu could see from here was more fish. At least the sun's glare was a bit less intense from here, a nice bit of shade covering the roof allowing her to...

Shade from what?
 
As something slammed into the side of the station she was nearly thrown into a translucent tentacle. She followed the barely visible appendage up with her eye. Huh. She had no idea jellyfish could get that big. Or fly for that matter. Float? She digressed. 

"Oy, naht ta alarm ya but don't feckin' hit any of the invisible tentacles."

The way her hair stood up on her arms the moment she got a bit too close to one of the tendrils combined with the ominous illumination of the jellyfish's main body up above gave her a pretty good idea of what exactly would happen if they were touched. On the bright side, Retsu wasn't the one carrying around a lightning rod. Less positively sea life was still bearing down on them so they didn't exactly have time to stop and think.

"Over dere!" She hissed while nodding her head towards a nearby outcrop with grass on top. A dune? She didn't know exactly what it was called nor did she have the time to care. It looked to be another ninety feet away and too high for her to make out the other side from here. Retsu could only hope there wasn't a whole new load of bullshit on the other side. Pulling out another grenade while she took a step and a half back she took a deep breath. Then she shot off like a sprinter out of the blocks, side stepping one tendril at the last moment and jumping as far as possible while dropping the grenade just off the edge of the roof. 

With some luck it'd turn the majority of the gathered sea life into sea dead. She cringed, consoled solely by the fact that she hadn't said that out loud. Hans was rubbing off on her a bit too much for her liking. She'd need to mail him another pipe bomb when she got out of this. Retsu pushed the thought aside (for now). There were far more important matters to worry about at the moment.

------

Tags: Freja Helt

[Freja Helt]

Wait a goddamn second.

Did that woman just throw a GRENADE???

No, she had to be seeing things, maybe it was her quirk, like a weapon manifesting power? Was that kind of thing legal? Wait- did any of that matter when they were seconds from being eaten alive? ''Y-Yeah!! Keep running or we're gonna die!'' She tried to instruct Retsu, but it came out more like a plea, her lungs crying out for a break as her legs were starting to burn with mad pain from all the running she had been doing. With zero thoughts in her head she just followed Retsu's lead, somehow summoning the required strength needed to get on the roof.

Rolling onto her back, she foolishly closed her eyes as she finally gasped for air. They probably weren't safe here for long, but for the time being it would have to do. The shark that chased her didn't have the hands required to scale buildings, or at least it didn't seem so. This one was a street shark for sure. She braced as something slammed into the station and when Retsu spoke up again she opened her eyes and let out a yelp that wasn't very dignified for a soon-to-be hero. ''What's that?!'' Holy shit, if this was another villain attack it had to be the biggest one she had ever seen. No way this wasn't coordinated, like how could one quirk control not just this many animals, but quirked animals? ''Wait for me!'' She got up to her feet and set after Retsu, narrowly dodging a tentacle herself as she kept her weapon close to her chest. She couldn't risk getting zapped, especially not carrying around a metal bat.

She regret not taking cardio exercises more seriously. If she made it through today she swore to herself to never skip leg day, not even if she was sick. ''Can you manifest some more bombs?'' She called out, ''I think we're attracting the attention of new monsters!'' Think being the operative word. She didn't dare look behind her but she could definitely hear things coming their way.

Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

"Oh ah'll manifest their fookin' ends alright!" Retsu cussed while casting a glance over her shoulder and promptly speeding up right after. Her dropped grenade hadn't culled nearly as many of the walking sashimi as she'd hoped. Well, nothing half a dozen more couldn't fix. As they plopped down onto the sand or thunked into the hardened shells Retsu shouted once more.

"Speed up! Y'r in the splash zone!"

The ground gave way under her feet as Retsu sprinted up the dune, sand crumbling and sinking forcing her to expend far more stamina than a climb like this ought to take. Yet despite the effort expended and the lengths she went to Retsu stopped the moment she reached the top of the dune.



Suddenly she felt like she hadn't quite come armed enough. Retsu reckoned it was fine though. The oversized whale -an adjective you really didn't want attached to something that's this enormous normally- couldn't possibly be both that big and fast now could it? 

"Ah fook. Fook, fook fook FOOK FOOK!"

The fact that the dune was slightly closer to the water than the guard post had been certainly didn't help. There was no way anything in her arsenal could take that thing down. Maybe though, Retsu thought, it didn't have to take it down. So long as they proved to be too much of a hassle to deal with that'd be enough right? Right?

Seeing the thing's head reach farther and farther above the surface of the water Retsu didn't believe there was any more time to waste making plans. Unfortunately she didn't quite have the range to throw anything all the way to it nor did she feel like getting any closer to it. That left but one solution she could think of, one inspired by a game of baseball she'd seen part of recently. Pulling the highest yield concussive grenade she had on her out of the duffel bag by her side her eye briefly scanned the surroundings, spotting a set of aluminium stairs about ninety feet away that led to the top of a rocky outcrop.

"Oy, batgirl! Don't fookin' miss!" Retsu shouted as she pulled the pin and pitched the grenade right at Freja before sprinting away. 

 ------

Tags: Freja Helt

[Freja Helt]

As weird of a thought as it was, she was relieved she wasn't running from these creatures alone. Even if she was running alongside a morally dubious woman who didn't exactly give off the hero vibe. That meant vigilante, villain or unusually well-armed civilian and she seriously doubted the latter. Still, it beat being here all alone. Had she not bumped into Retsu there was a very real chance she might have been dead by now. ''Splash zone?'' She screamed when she realized what Retsu meant and somehow managed the energy to sprint a little faster. Seconds after Retsu reached the top of the dune, Freja crashed right behind her after struggling to get to the top.

Catching her breath, she turned to look at the oversized whale that was emerging. Where they ever going to catch a real break? She had so much to live for, she couldn't die again before reaching retirement age. ''We can't fight that... There's no way.'' She wiped some sweat off her brow as she clutched her bat. She had been so stunned by the appearance of the oversized whale that she hadn't thought to look back at her partner-in-near-death. ''Huh?'' What was it with people and calling her batgirl? Did it just come naturally to them? Wait a second, she was throwing something, it was a grenade wasn't it?!

Somehow, even though she had so little time to act, with the way Retsu threw it and her words, she immediately understood the context she was in. Repositioning herself she lifted her bat and swung, hitting the grenade and sending it flying towards their target. Would it be enough to save them from becoming fish food? ''Are you insane?! How about giving me a warning next time!'' She shouted as she ran after Retsu after just narrowly avoiding her own demise.

Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

Even as she threw the grenade Retsu found herself agreeing with the student. There was absolutely no way they could fight that. Not without some serious artillery and wouldn't you know, she'd forgotten to put her howitzer next to her keys when she left the motel. A classic oversight.

"A warning? Ah fookin' shouted a warning at ya da hells are you on about? Are ya gonna bi-"

She didn't get further into her sentence before the grenade went off right as it made contact with the oversized whale. Had that been all she'd have continued complaining but it was the result that stopped her. Quite literally.



Freja's shot hit it right in the eye, chunks of it and the surrounding flesh splattering across the beach while it reeled back and fell with an ear piercing howl of pain. No, perhaps a sound of pain or even an essence of pain would be a better way to put it. For whatever it was did not seem to be transmitted solely through vibrations in the air but through something far more primal as well.

Sand and water rose and fell in large circles for dozens of meters around the beast like shock waves from a large blast. It hit Retsu as if it were a physical impact, staggering her and leading her to gawk at the being like a child at an aquarium. The shrill sound rung like tinnitus even before it intensified to an ear-rupturing sensation so fierce it seemed as it were consuming all of reality leaving nought but the self and the shriek.

Blood ran from Retsu's eyes and ears. Collapsing to her knees she narrowly managed to stop herself from screaming as well when the most intense burst of pain she'd ever felt ran through her. It was as if every single cell in her body resonated in tandem with what the eldritch abomination felt. No metaphor she knew could possibly describe it. When the feeling receded moments later an uncontrollable shiver ran through her. She felt cold. Oh so cold. Her left eye throbbed beneath its eyepatch as if it were nought but an empty socket. 

Only when she finally managed to regain her senses did she realize there was an almost unnatural silence hanging in the air like an aura of motionlessness. The horde chasing them suffered just the same, twitching and shaking while some even retreated entirely into their shells. A gut feeling told her it wouldn't last long and when she saw the whale-looking horror fall backwards she realized that the moment it hit the water the chase would begin anew.

The urge to fight back had been forgotten entirely, replaced by the primal instinct to flee. Subconsciously holding her duffel bag pressed against her torso she pushed herself up and ran with every ounce of strength she had left. Her face went pale when she had another realization. The whale had been leaping for the beach and her grenade wasn't nearly strong enough to knock something that massive all the way back. No, it was more like someone's head flinching back after a fly hit them in the eye. Retsu's mouth went dry.

That wasn't its tail they saw, it was its neck.

------

Tags: Freja Helt

[Freja Helt]

She was all too ready to engage in a shouting match with Retsu, but that was implying they had a lot less to worry about and unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case. Still, she wished that somehow the grenade had maybe caused so much damage that the monster would back off and magically tell all the smaller but still big monsters to go away with it. She immediately fell to her knees and covered her ears, holding on for dear life as the ear-piercing sound compelled her to scream with more fear and pain than she ever had. How could it be? She wasn't being battered, she wasn't being eaten alive. It was sound... Just sound...

She couldn't hear it, but one glance over at Retsu was all it took to know she had experienced the same thing. Was it even worth running anymore? She was in so much pain that for a split second she considered not getting up and instead just succumbing to what fate had in store for her. ''What was that?'' She asked out loud, but she couldn't hear her own voice. She did breathe a sigh of relief when she noticed that the other monsters had suffered too. She winced as she felt something trickle from her ears. Blood.

When Retsu ran she scrambled to grab her bat and run after her. She didn't know what their plan was, but she didn't want to die here today. How pathetic would it be to get to live a second life, but only live for five years? She had to live. To survive. They both did. ''We need to get out of here!'' She shouted at Retsu, or at least she thought she did, her mouth was moving but she still couldn't hear herself. Hopefully Retsu was faster to recover considering she had a quirk. Quirked people always had it easier, more durable, faster, stronger, super healing, flying. It was bullshit being stuck with no powers.

Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

"Ah dun' know and ah dun' wanna know!" Retsu shouted back without any regard for how loud she was being. They had far bigger things to worry about. A bit too literally for her liking in fact. Rushing across the long stretch of dune they were on Retsu side-stepped large stalks of some grass-like plant, skidded down small slopes and struggled up others.

"Yah, that's the fookin' plan! Ya wouldn't 'appen ta 'ave one a' dem quirks ta beam us the fook elsewhere?" She laughed, the sound coming out hollow and empty. "Who knows, maybe ah'll get lucky 'n finally awaken something just ta get away from that fookin' thing. Wouldn't that be something?"

Panic fueled her and kept her rambling, the words spilling out as if to prove she still existed, that the sound she made was still a part of this world. She was too busy running to notice her hands were shaking and too busy rambling to realize the horde was gaining on them. The sound of millions of gallons of water being displaced as something came right for them however was more than enough to catch her attention.



"Oh shi-"

Using all of her remaining strength she sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her in the few seconds that it took for the beast to reach them before leaping as far as she could. Whether it'd be enough to save her from the monster bearing down on them with its maw wide open only time could tell.

------

Tags: Freja Helt

[Freja Helt]

''Quirks? I thought you had one!'' She panted, running at full speed with one thought on her mind. Survive. ''People don't just awaken to quirks like that do they? W-Whatever just focus on running!!'' She followed Retsu fully in her heroic retreat away from the beach, narrowly dodging the monster alongside her before it would have surely slammed into them and swallowed them whole. ''Keep running! Don't look back just keep running!''

Somehow, whether it was sheer dumb luck, or a hero had secretly showed up to fight the monsters behind them, but somehow they managed to escape. She didn't run the exact same way as Retsu, but she could only imagine the other woman had made it out too. No, she didn't want to believe that she wasn't okay, but she also couldn't safely go back to check on her. ''Damn it, what was her name again?'' She was blanking as she tried to think back, but all she could see was the monster. Shuttering she felt chills run down her spine as she turned to walk towards evacuation. If she saw her there she would apologize profusely. For now, however, the identity of the woman with the eyepatch and the bombs would remain a mystery to her.

Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

A thunderous crash resounded behind them completely blotting out Freja's words. Retsu slammed into the ground hard. Her fingernails tore into the sand as she struggled to get up, the very shaking of the earth causing her efforts to fail. With her eye wide she cast a look behind her. A stretch of the beach a dozen meters across was completely gone.



By itself her gaze was drawn further and further down the furrow carved into the beach all the way from the ocean. The beast's head, so massive it felt unreal, vanished beneath the waves once more, its hunger sated for now. So Retsu presumed at least, for who could truly know the motivations of such a being?

The sudden silence was deafening. Adrenaline still coursed through her veins, her own heartbeat thumping in her ears as she lay there, mind still catching up to the fact that it was over. The chase, the brush with death, the inexplicable horror from within the sea. From one moment to the next chaos had faded to the mundane scene she'd gotten used to over the years.

Gritting her teeth to stop them from clattering Retsu pushed herself up, clenching her shaking hands into fists as she did. She'd survived. That was all that mattered.

---

Tag: Freja Helt

[Sol]

[googlefont=Quicksand]

[attr="class","likedo"]

[attr="class","likedotitle"]

[attr="class","likedotitle2"]Approved

[attr="class","likedoinfo"]

Sound attacks really are the worst, glad they both survived that and everything else!
Approved, nicely done you two!

Bakiri Retsu - 325 tokens + 75 = 400 tokens
Freja Helt - 275 tokens + 75 = 350 tokens

PHARAOH LEAP.

[newclass=.likedo]background-color:#f0f0f0;padding:25px;width:400px;color:#888888;line-height:10px;[/newclass]

[newclass=.likedotitle]background-color:#ffffff;border:solid 9px #444444;padding:1px;[/newclass]

[newclass=.likedotitle2]background-color:#444444;color:#ffffff;font:bold 10px Calibri;line-height:35px;text-align:center;letter-spacing:2px;[/newclass]

[newclass=.likedoinfo]margin-top:-10px;border:solid 1px #e5e5e5;background-color:#f9f9f9;padding:24px;font:10px verdana;text-align:justify;line-height:12px;[/newclass]

[newclass=.likedosub]background-color:#444444;font:bold 8px Calibri;text-align:left;padding:10px;color:#ffffff;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:1px;[/newclass]