People said it's best to enjoy the small things in life. A cold breeze on a hot day, a good meal after working or a pleasant symphony in the distance. Unfortunately for Retsu 'a door chime in the middle of a robbery' was not one of those small things that could be viewed positively. Or at all for that matter, she grumbled as she tried to look towards the door and found a shelf blocking her line of sight to the entrance of the store. Just her luck that she was standing at the one angle where she didn't have a clear view of the door.

"Dun' move and dun' make a sound. Ah dun' reckon ah need ta tell ya what'll happen if you do, right?"

Retsu instructed the hostages while keeping her voice down. With soft steps she crept towards the nearest shelf, leaning against it and peeking around the corner. Empty. Unless whoever came in was behind the other end of the row or could move through solid objects they weren't this far in yet. One more between the register and the entrance. This was it then, make or break. Well, provided they hadn't decided to sneak around the other way but at least she'd be cutting off their escape if so. Raising her gun to head height she prepared to pop out of cover when she had an idea. Whoever came in was much less likely to react perfectly if she added in a distraction.

She moved the bottle around in her hand so that she was holding the cap between index and middle finger she threw it into the row at head height. A second later she burst out of cover with her pistol aimed one handed in front of her. It was only then that she noticed the obvious. The person that'd caused the chime to go off hadn't even entered. Her eye narrowed even as she lowered her weapon. Deciding to ignore how dumb she must've looked doing all that within plain view of the door she hadn't bothered to check a second time due to assuming whoever caused the chime went inside, Retsu's gaze flicked towards Noa's hands before she made eye contact once more. She let out a sigh. 

No weapon but the police was probably already on its way. She briefly considered calling in support through the ENKI system before discarding the idea. The fewer people knew about this the better. Instead she made sure to keep her gun down and sauntered over the door, the infernal chime ringing once more as she pulled it open.

"Look, kiddo." She said to the woman that was roughly her own age. "No one's gotta get hurt here. Turn 'round and walk away. Ya didn' see shite, this ain't y'r responsibility."

Tapping her leg with the side of her pistol her voice took a more serious tone as she leaned against the door.

"Or we do this the hard way. Bullets'll fly and you dun' look bulletproof. Your call."

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Tags: Arataki Noa

Had she not had earphones in Retsu might've clued in on the fact that she was being followed a bit sooner. Then again, maybe not. With how much she'd had to deal with recently she was more than a little out of it and desperately needed a drink. In fact that was exactly what she was out to get right now. A new bar had opened and was having one of those 'opening sales' which was twice the amount of reasons she needed to go there even without factoring in recent events.

Either way the result was that she'd only caught on to the fact that she was in for a ride when it was already too late to get out scot-free. She'd entered an alley that was maybe a bit darker than the norm what with the evening gloom and the broken streetlights on her way to get drunk when the other end of said alley was cut off by a guy that had to be at least seven feet tall. Broad as a fridge too and with a maw more suited for a shark than a person. One could be forgiven for failing to spot the shorter, bug eyed teen that was standing behind him and almost seeming to be smothered by their own thick black hoodie. Or the lanky man with messy blonde hair and a crooked grin next to them that was in the process of lighting up a cigarette for that matter. 

Retsu didn't. The remainder of the group closing off the other end of the alley behind her took a bit longer for her to notice, unfortunately. Probably because of the earphones. 

"Listen, punks. Ah dunno who ya are nor what the hells y'r doin' but you've got the wrong person." Retsu growled while taking one of the earbuds out. "Ya wanna try me? Be mah guest. Ain't gonna go the way you wa-"

Her posturing was abruptly interrupted by a loud, wooden thunk. It was only when when she was halfway to the ground that her mind caught up and kindly informed her she'd been hit by sending a sharp spike of pain up the side of her head. Her first thought was 'Damn it, I just got those earphones'. Her second was only slightly more coherent. Well, it was more of an emotion than a thought, really. Anger. Pure, undiluted rage. She'd absolutely had it with everything and someone was going to pay. 

The moment she managed to get her feet under herself again.

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Tags: Farrin

Driving through the ruined street Bakiri Retsu learned three things as she got closer to the golem. One, it was probably exactly as sturdy as it looked. Two, her grenade did fuck all and three, she really fookin' hated people screaming in her ears. The fact that the person doing the shouting was using a megaphone at close range for some reason certainly didn't make it better -albeit it did give her some ideas for new grenades- and the fact that they were keeping up with her fancy new bike using a broom of all things was just the cherry on top.

"Shot op, witch! Make y'rself fookin' useful instead a' screaming mah ears off!" Retsu yelled through her helmet while reaching for her pack. Unzipping it with practiced motions she pulled out a sticky grenade and zipped it back up again before reaching her hand out towards Shion. "If ya pull the pin the sides'll fall off exposin' the sticky part. Fly up and chu-"

Her words were interrupted by the ground shaking harder and the fookin' pavement trying to drag her off her bike. Seriously,didn't she have enough problems yet? Now the ground itself was trying to fight her too? Ah, no, she realized as she swerved to dodge the grasping hand and leaned almost parallel to the ground to avoid another strike, the annoyance had just multiplied. Satisfied that the planet didn't decide to get literal with its efforts to bring her down she wrenched the steering wheel to somehow bring her bike under control again and managed to pull herself upright without making it sway all too much. Which was good because her leg was hurting from the earlier maneuver she'd pulled and she was pretty sure anything faster than a jog was beyond her right now should she get unseated. All that was before accounting for the damage a crash would cause which she quite frankly didn't feel like thinking about. So she didn't. Instead she continued her explanation as if the attack she just dodged didn't phase her in the slightest.

"As ah was sayin'. Fly up and chuck it at that thing's head." Retsu finished while tossing the grenade towards Shion. She then promptly swore up a storm as she ducked her head down to make sure the flying rocks didn't brain her. For as much as she ended up spending on her new helmet she doubted it was 'giant golem incursion' proof. Manufacturers don't tend to keep that in mind when making their stuff. Big oversight.

Not an oversight Retsu herself intended to make. She sure as hell was going to keep the giant golem's capabilities in mind. Specifically by leaving dealing with it to everyone else and maybe tossing some help their way now and then. For while her frag didn't do much to the big lug there was nothing suggesting it couldn't get rid of the smaller ones. Other than the fact that they seemed to be made of the exact same thing. She decided not to think about that either.

Whatever, it wasn't like frags were the only things she brought. Zooming past the big one she spotted three more of the things surrounding a group of civilians which seemed as good of a target to test her bombs as any, honestly. With only a few seconds to act before she'd reach them she pulled a C4 out of her beg, booted up the attached phone and briefly let go of the steering wheel to pull off the cover of the adhesive strip on its back. Quite frankly what she was doing was needlessly dangerous and she really didn't have any reason to be doing it but that had never stopped Retsu before. So she simply kept her bike as steady as possible before sticking her arm out at the last moment and slapping the C4 against a golem's back while she drove by. She hit the breaks a second later, her rear wheel leaving a quarter circle shaped skid mark on the road as she ground to a halt. Even before she finished sliding her phone was in her hand and she set off the C4 while putting her leg down to brace herself and make sure her bike didn't fall over as she checked the damage she inflicted on the golem. The wrong leg. The exact one she'd been complaining about earlier in fact. If nothing else, she thought as she muffled a pained groan, it gave her a pretty good idea of what the damage to herself was.

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TL:DR; Retsu gives a sticky bomb to Shion and dodges the small golems' attacks before slapping some C4 to the back of one of the three surrounding Elijah and Emilia and sliding to a stop close behind them and setting off the C4.

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Tags: Fanthes  Shion Utsui  Claudio Bernardo  Elijah  Emilia Hall

It hadn't been long since Retsu had gotten herself a new motorcycle. Until recently her old one had worked just fine and she saw no need to replace anything she could fix with a bit of elbow grease and some spare -or homemade- parts. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, recent events had rendered it a bit beyond even her ability to repair so she'd splurged on a better one. Her new 'Artemis' was a neat, factory-fresh lime green and capable of comfortably cruising at more than 200 mph. Not that she was mad enough to actually go that fast on a public road but if she wanted to she could.

Provided the road was intact, of course.

Something that very much didn't seem to be the case in Nerima. If the wreckages all around didn't tip her off that something was going on then the ruined streets and screaming in the distance certainly did. Wasn't that just her luck? She was just here to check out the old military base to see if it had anything useful or could be used as a temporary hideout, maybe get off a sale or two if the people she'd arranged to meet there showed up but no, everything just had to start going wrong even before she got there. 

A manic grin split her features beneath her fancy state-of-the-art helmet. Driving was difficult when you had no depth perception but luckily for her she'd managed to find a helmet with a darkened visor allowing her to leave her eyepatch off for the ride. Which was good because she didn't want to crash and ruin her shiny new biking outfit. She'd barely had the thing for a few days and she'd be pissed if it already got ruined. 

Hitting a pothole that sent her skidding for a moment before she could get her bike under control again -not something that was easy while wearing a backpack full of objects that were both heavy and loose- her eye twitched at the blatant disrespect. Seriously, of all days to pull a stunt like this it just had to be the one where her second-in-command, Hans, arranged a sale this far away from her usual territory. Someone was going to pay for this and it wasn't gonna be her. With that thought in mind it didn't take Bakuretsu long to follow the cacophony of destruction to its source. 

Weaving through the crowd with almost contemptuous apathy for their safety Retsu reached behind her and unzipped a side pocket on her backpack. She was nothing if not prepared and the moment she pulled out the grenade within she squeezed the lever and hooked its ring-pin into the neat little metal hook attached to the zipper, allowing her to prime and toss her grenades completely one-handed.

Not that she thought her frag would do much against the veritable goliath but hey, if David could down one with a rock Retsu could do so with a grenade. Lazily tossing it between his feet as she passed him by she continued driving for a few seconds before tilting left and making a sharp turn, one foot on the ground to act as the pivot she needed for her abrupt change in direction. Revving her bike the moment she finished her turn she sped back towards the scene, eager to see how badly the entire situation could've possible escalated in the few seconds she'd looked away.

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Tags: Fanthes Emilia Hall Claudio Bernardo Shion Utsui Elijah

Get in, bag the target, get out. Simple in theory but once again complications were making it much harder than it had to be. Case in point, the fact that she was getting cut off by a dumpster of all things. A fookin' dumpster. Not exactly something known for its combative abilities or willingness to start a fight but here she was, facing exactly that.

If the blow she'd taken earlier wasn't still hurting so much Retsu would've thought this was some weird ass dream. Or nightmare. She wasn't sure yet. Either way she wasn't willing to let the joke be solely on her.

"Hah! With passion I gain power!" Retsu yelled as she turned her dash into a leap, her foot narrowly managing to catch the edge of the dumpster's lid and use it as a springing board to jump higher. With her blade raised over her head and her cloak flapping in the wind Retsu glared down at Rhea as she reached the high point of her jump. Her mind's eye could already see the following moments where she came down and split the woman from head to toe should her strike land. She doubted it would be that simple but she could always hope, right? 

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Tags: rhea Bakiri Retsu

Four.

The big number of death, the amount of people they’d come here with and the dimension that was the source of her woes. Or at least so she was starting to assume as she raced across the deck. It'd taken much too long for her liking but now all the pieces were starting to come together into a jigsaw puzzle of Retsu's own making.

See, Retsu knew she wasn't exactly the most educated kid on the block but she'd picked some stuff up along the way and seeing LDG pop out of existence like she'd never been there had set her mind ablaze, thoughts racing through her head like a horse with firecrackers tied to its tail, -and hadn't that been fun a fun night out- all over the place yet somehow arriving at the water barrel that'd let it douse the hot mess she'd gotten herself into. She realized the metaphor fell apart somewhere along the way but frankly she didn't have the capacity to care. That would take too much energy. The counter in her head gradually ticked up as she pushed the stray thought down. She had to make use of every single second she had if she wanted to get out of here alive.

Having LDG vanish on her instead of taking the dinky boat alongside Retsu herself had begun to put the idea into her head -which in Retsu's opinion was the most useful thing that bitch had done all day- but what really settled it was retracing her own steps and nearly stumbling right into one of her own mines.

A mine she was confident she'd heard go off not too long ago. Really, it's probably that thought that set the wheels in motion. LDG hadn't helped for shit, Retsu would refuse to acknowledge such a thing.

The further along she went on her way back to the weapons cache the more intact mines she found, reminding her of an explanation a drunken colleague had once tried to impress her with in a bar. Fucker hadn't even set foot in the field yet thought he was the hottest shit around, sitting behind his cobbled together -or improved as he called it- laptop and editing security camera footage to cover their tracks after a robbery one frame at a time. 

The way he'd explained it to her was that everything had three dimensions. Up and down, forward and backward and left and right. With just those however, everything was still. An object couldn't be in two places at the same time so any motion was impossible and reality would be little more than a picture. Which didn't make that much sense to her to be honest since pictures were flat not 3D but then again the eggheads rarely talked in anything other than riddles. The important part of his explanation though was the dimension with the next number.

Four. 

Like a flip book it was what turned all of the still slices of reality into the illusion of movement, which really didn't make sense to her either but she sorta got it. Drunk prick had gotten all fancy about it too, explaining that by messing with the footage he was basically 'changing the past' and 'editing reality itself'. Something about trees being silent if they didn't fall near him. She didn't remember the exact line but it made even less sense than the rest of his explanation.

She didn't dwell on it, counting each second in her head and lamenting at the fact that it was taking her so long to get to her destination. Especially since she occasionally had to deactivate mines instead of simply running past them, generally wasn't a great idea to get in front of the ones with motion detectors after all. Maybe she could've found a faster route around them but for all that the mines were in one piece again the smoke grenades she'd tossed down the side paths hadn't gotten the same treatment. In the end that was the final puzzle piece that let her finalize her theory.

For all that her incredibly unimpressive colleague had bullshitted about his 'reality control' he was still limited completely to a single thing. The camera's point of view. Sure, he could take empty frames and use them to replace the ones they were visible in but if the camera hadn't recorded anything he could use he'd be shit out of luck. Retsu didn't think her opponent labored under the same restriction, after all she hadn't exactly been in the room alongside them to see Firebrand go down, but there had to be something. Nothing worked perfectly.

The mines had been reset yet the smoke was still floating. Firebrand got brought back but LDG's candy wasn't stopped. The flashbang she'd tossed right after hadn't been reverted either. No, the woman had waited until after it'd gone off to do whatever the hells it was that let her just stand there unscathed. Honestly looking back on it Retsu would've probably lost the moment she peered back through the door's inset window if the woman's quirk relied on vision. She was pretty sure she had the weaknesses figured out now though.

The quirk could only affect one thing at a time and had a cooldown period before it could be used again. There was no other reason LDG, the quirker and probably biggest threat of the two according to the super powered freaks, would be joinked back but not she herself as well. Not to mention that they were clearly outmatched, if the smoke cloud with all its widely spread particles hadn't been something that gave the woman pause she could've just given chase and taken them down. 

Yeah, Retsu was confident her opponent could only 'edit' one thing at a time and honestly, that seemed like a pretty good way for her to handle things as well. First things first she had to take down the helicopter before Doctress Who once again set her sights on taking lil ol' Retsu down. The seconds rapidly turned to minutes and time kept ticking away as Bakuretsu finally reached the stash and frantically searched for what she needed.

Three twenty one. She opened another crate finding boxes full of ammo and tipped it over to search the one below it. Three thirty two. Slinging a holster with a big gun in it over her shoulder alongside several belts of ammo she cracked open another crate and found several lengthy boxes. Three forty four. Slotting the warhead into the RPG she carelessly stuck two more into her half open bag keeping them within easy reach. Three fifty seven. Stepping out of the container she raised her head to spot the heli. Three fifty eight. The RPG came up, her squinting eye looking at the chopper through its scope. Three fifty nine. She reached for the trigger as she inhaled.

Four.

She was back inside the bridge. Balancing herself mid-step as she reappeared in the midst of running for the door her stomach dropped and with it the Scorpion in her hands, the loud clatter of it hitting the ground sounding like a gong announcing her defeat. Her eye lost its light and she finished her exhale as a sigh as she took in the scene.

"Yeah, ah reckon so." She replied tonelessly. "What're y'r terms?"

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Tags: Revision Bakiri Retsu

Retsu nodded along to the guy's words. Properly purifying things was a process she struggled greatly with. Her methods still had room for improval but said improvements were happening less and less often. As much as she hated to acknowledge it she was beginning to find the limits of how far she could push things before she ran into a serious bottleneck.

That didn't make hearing it said out loud any more fun though. With her face scrunched as if she'd bit into a lemon her fingers tapped the table in contemplation. By now she could likely source refined chemicals but it still sat wrong with her to trust someone else's expertise with a matter this volatile. It sounded like a good way to blow herself up, no, she wasn't about to go trusting her black market connections like that unless she had no other choice.

Juan's next suggestion resonated much more with her. It put to words an idea that had long been circulating in her head, the concept brewing for quite a while now yet failing to come to fruition. Explosions were versatile. In essence they were a massive application of force caused by the rapid expansion in volume of whatever you blew up. What that release of energy caused was where the options opened. Anything from the engine of a car, the firing of a bullet, the use of dynamite for mining to even the use of rockets to propel something beyond the very boundaries of the world were all made possible through the use of explosions.

Through centuries upon centuries of experimentation, learning and mastery mankind has kept improving upon the method of making stuff go very fast and the sheer amount of information publicly available on the subject is staggering. So much in fact that Retsu despite having manufactured explosives strong enough to reduce everything within a room to small pieces or even bring down buildings is still only scratching the surface of what she's been able to find even without tapping into her less legal connections.

With such a mountain of possible ways to progress she'd hardly spend any time yet on trying to innovate. The very thought of how stagnant she'd been in her way of progressing made her sick. Just following along a path so many others did as well without thinking for herself beyond ways around the complications. Of all things she did so in the field that interests her most too. Shaking her head she put the thought aside to focus on what mattered. The here and now.

"Ah ken see that, yeah." 

There were plenty of weapons that were banned due to morals. Some like cluster bombs were banned in war yet a smaller version of it was already amongst her arsenal. Others like using gasses on one's enemies was banned in war yet allowed against protestors. Everyone was tied to some fookin' law, whether it made sense or not. Except villains. Sure, go too far and you'll get all kinds of shit coming your way but technically there was nothing she had to care about when it came to what she could and couldn't do. The very thought brought a smile to her face that was decidedly unhinged.

"Electricity ain't exactly somethin' i've fooked around with yet but ah ken see a lot of other options yh. What kinda acids d'ya think would work well? Low yield and glass casings surrounded by metal that drops away when the pin's pulled loike f'r sticky grenades could be a neat option. In theory of course. Don't think ah ken make glass even if ah felt like actually makin' one a dese concepts." She lied, she probably could wrangle something up or place an order for specially made glass through some people that didn't ask questions. "Discardin' shite like napalm of course, even hypothetically that shit's fooked."

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Tags: Zhu Chan Juan