It'd been a while since she'd last returned to Shinjuku but eventually Retsu's wandering had brought her back here. Close to her old home but not quite there, as if she were the moon orbiting its earth, doomed to forever circle for the moment she'd head back it was likely to mean her doom. For now at least. She didn't intend for society to rob her of that which she built up herself forever. One day she'd be back to stay.

At the moment however her mission was a far less ambitious one. Retsu was simply here to threaten let some old contacts know she was still around and mop up the carrion feeders that would have inevitably invaded her territory while she was gone. Speaking of which, the pair she'd just followed into an alley.

"Funny ya mention stealing," Retsu said in the same tone one would mention the weather while she casually sauntered their way. "What with y'all bein' on mah fookin' turf."

Each step took her closer and close to the armed men yet she still did not display even the slightest care in the world, her one open eye glaring at each of them in turn as if she were looking at rats in her garden. Her gaze briefly flicked to the man on the ground before she addressed the pair of goons, deciding to handle things one problem at a time.

"Now, ah dunno if y'all care ta listen but ah've got a litle piece of advice for y'all fooks. Go the fook away 'fore ah make ya go away."

------

Tags: CHIRP ♪♪

It'd taken a while after the raid on Yizoy to collect all the parts she needed from her various lockers, anonymously rented safes and hideouts but Retsu had finally made her way to the address on Facade's card. Double checking the contents of the card just in case she walked up to the door before she paused, hand hovering in front of the keypad.

In truth she likely could've gathered everything she needed far quicker or even gotten other people to do it but regardless of whether she herself realized or not she'd been dragging her feet, insisting on doing everything herself with the flimsy excuse of making sure it was done right and taking the most roundabout paths imaginable to ensure she wasn't tracked to her hiding places. The weight of the duffel bag slung over her shoulder wore down on her, its contents far more varied than they usually were. Far more varied than they had to be in fact given that this was but the first day of their collaborative project. It was highly unlikely they'd end up using even a fraction of them but that too she'd justified with the flimsy excuse of having no idea what kind of facilities the workshop contained and as such no clue which of her projects she could work on.

She let out a snort. It would be quite ironic for her end to come through a rigged keypad, especially given that Facade knew she'd killed people in exactly that way at her old workshop. Her eye narrowed and her mood soured. That prick was probably doing this on purpose too as some kind of power move, a reminder that he knew her methods and could end her with ease. The corners of her lips curled up as she pressed the first key. Overconfidence was a flimsy shield, easily demolished through high yield explosives. Let him believe himself invulnerable. It would only work to her advantage.

The click of the door unlocking resounded like the pulling of a grenade's pin and for the briefest moment her gaze dipped down, checking for wires as she pushed the door open just in case she had to duck back before a claymore or the like went off. For now it seemed there was no threat but Retsu would keep one eye open. She knew deep inside that their little war had begun the moment she'd set foot into the building and but a single wrong move could lead to her demise, whether now or months down the line.

"Yo. Fancy place ya got here."

------

Tags: facade

[attr="class","likedo"]

What in all the hells was that noise? It seemed to be coming from above, if her ears weren't playing a joke on her. They hadn't been. Unfortunately reality was as she looked up just in time to get hit right in the face.

"Blegh!"

Like an extreme version of someone that'd just ran into a spider web she batted at her face and spat, desperate to remove whatever vile concoction she'd been assaulted with. Her eyes twitched as she looked up to find the culprit.

...She didn't know how to react to that. A goose? With five heads? That just happened to pop up on the one day nothing was going wrong and just decided her face was the right place to-

Her eyes twitched again. Oh, it was on.

"Get back here you fookin' thing!"

------

Tags: Goose

[attr="class","likedo"]

Each step she made reverberated in Bakiri Retsu's ears. Heavy thuds upon the concrete like the ticking of a clock counting down to the moment she lost either her hand or her life. More bangs resounded as if the clock had sped up. Something impacted her hip. Had she had the focus to spare Retsu would've noticed a gradually expanding red spot centered around the result of one of Jaida's shots. Unfortunately she had bigger problems at the moment.

The grenade went off. 

Excruciating pain shot through her as from one moment to the next her hand vanished, coating the inside of the orb to look like the most messed up Christmas tree decoration in existence. It occured to her that somehow pain signals got through but the rest of the explosion's shockwave hadn't pulped her bones. Truly, thoughts go to the weirdest places when things go terribly wrong.

She bit down on her teeth hard enough that her gums bled and if looks could kill Deadlock would have suffered the same fate as her hand. Her gaze flicked to the now empty alley behind him. Kill the prick and use it to make her escape before she bled out. It wasn't much of a plan but thought had given way to rage the moment her mind was overwhelmed by pain.

Her haze was lifted just enough to hear the villain's words when Facade's drone hit Deadlock in the head and forced him to the ground again, the Pro's spinning eyes and failure to get back up once more hinting at the heavy concussion the impact had given him. The wet sounds of blood and bits hitting the concrete next to her the moment Deadlock's orb went away certainly contributed to her momentary clarity. And momentary it would be for with the amount of blood she'd lost she was little more than a dead woman walking.

She started to turn towards the nearest cop car, the fact that Facade had just taken out two Pro Heroes with a single drone not at all being a determining factor in her decision to take his advice.

"Stop!"

At the shout her head turned back to where Deadlock now lay. Her eyes met those of the policewoman that was with him. The officer's service pistol was pointed straight at her, taser still hanging by her side.

"Don't move."

Retsu smiled ruefully, the thought crossing her mind that this would be the most pathetic way to die after all she'd survived. Shakily raising her hand she pointed her thumb back at Wired and the red flashing light shining through the broken windows.

"See that? Gon' blow 'less it's deactivated. Ain't no way to deactivate it wi'out the code and ah ain't talkin' 'fore ya drop the gun. Think ya can get e'ryone outta 'ere in time wi'out it?"

With an anguished scream officer Haruka threw her pistol to the floor, hatred and fear warring atop her features.

"'s what ah thought. Codepad's by the door behind the counter. Two Six Four Zero Nine. No clue when it'll blow so ya might wanna fookin' run."

The code was a fake one that'd instantly trigger the detonation of course, given solely so Retsu herself could drag herself to the car. With her remaining hand she pulled the one grenade from her harness that she always carried with her. Her very own kill switch. It'd seen many variations over the year but one thing remained true. Of all the explosives in her arsenal this one was the single most potent one. Holding it close to her she hooked the pin behind one of her harness's many hooks while making her way towards the car. One movement would be all it took to turn herself and anyone who's try to stop her into front page news. 

With her vision blurring from the blood loss and eyes stinging due to the light she took one shaky step after another, red trailing in her wake. The decision to take her eyepatch off to have some proper depth perception had backfired immediately when some fucker with a 'bright lights' quirk showed up but Retsu was far beyond caring about that particular fuck-up. 

When she finally crashed into one of the car's seats she was almost completely out of it to the point that she couldn't tell whether Rui was in there too or not when it began to drive. Her consciousness faded into and out of existence for the entire ride, flashes of light and unintelligible sounds entering her senses, all of them beyond her ability to comprehend at the moment. Perhaps later she could parse through them. Perhaps not. Only time could tell.

------

Tags: Rui Matsui Shō Matsui Jaida Connor Ghouligan facade

---

TL;DR:
-Retsu takes a bullet to the hip from Jaida's gun while she runs.
-Continues running at Deadlock and the alley after the grenade goes off, now with more anger and bleeding out.
-Changes her mind and decides to go with Facade's plan without any external motivation fr fr when the second Pro gets dropped with the same drone.
-Is confronted by the officer that was carrying Deadlock (Haruka) and gives her fake deactivation codes so as to not to get her to go away instead of getting shot.
-Wired will explode the moment she types the number into the keypad (NOTE: should any of you require more time than a run would take before it explodes feel free to assume the keypad was broken by Retsu's earlier punch)
-Makes sure to keep her deadliest grenade in hand just in case someone feels like trying her
-Stumbles over to the car, crashing into the seat and fading in and out of consciousness during the ride.

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