Post by Jade on Dec 31, 2020 1:14:15 GMT -5
As "Sixgun" made his way through a back alley, the panicking crowds and clouds of dust behind him, the click of a gun behind him stopped him in his tracks. He sighed and slowly raised his empty hands up into the air. "Hey Benji.""Miles."
Howard Miles turned about to find Captain Benjamin Bennett holding his rifle up, trained on the other man's head. Just behind him stood a young blonde woman wearing the garb of a Marine officer. "Just to make sure I have this right, this is the man who stopped you earlier, Ensign?"
"That is correct," Beatrice responded, and then crossed her arms. "Shall I take him in cuffs, Captain?"
The Captain continued to stare the other man down for a second, and then sighed as he lowered his rifle. "It's not worth it." Ignoring the indignant sound Beatrice made, he shouldered the rifle and walked up to Sixgun, getting almost into his face before stopping. "What the hell are you trying to pull here? This isn't your style."
"Aw, look at you, believing in me," Howard replied, patting Benji on the cheek. "That's almost sweet. But nah, you're right, I-"
Before the conversation could continue, there was the sound of cracking wood a block or so away - both men turned in the direction of the sound, only to crane their heads upward as a blue-skinned, white-haired giant wearing the tattered remains of a Marine uniform appeared in the sky above. Miles gave a low whistle under his bandana while Beatrice squinted; as the giant started to turn, grabbing at something on her shoulder, the Ensign dashed back out into the street.
Captain Bennett followed her out, leaving Miles to shove his hands into his front pockets and continue on his merry way. When he had caught up to Beatrice, she had cupped her hands over her mouth and was shouting upward: "What the hell, Tomoe?!""What the hell, Tomoe?!"
The called-to woman nearly dropped Felix from her grasp at the sound of a familiar voice - she turned slightly, looking down at the woman she'd arrived on the island with. "Bea? Oh, hi Bea, I- I'll be honest, I've been having a very confusing past few minutes, so give me a second to... Figure this out."
The Marine's screaming hadn't lessened in the slightest since being removed from her shoulder, and there was still the definite sound of sizzling going on - just redirected to her hand now. And the smell of burning wood... As Beatrice shouted something up at her, Tomoe glanced down, stumbling back a step through what was left of the bar she'd started in to find the place burning down under her. As the gears started to turn in her head, the oni woman let out an ohhhhh of understanding, and then hurriedly dropped the Marine she'd been holding. Sure enough, the sound of sizzling came to an end, even as the crackling of wood catching flame became louder. "I, uh, I don't- Hang on, this is weird and new to me, I'll uh-"
The intensity of the heat surrounding her doubled, and then abated as all three of Tomoe's eyes shut tight - and then her massive frame suddenly shrank down mid-air, although not quite to her original size. The wild mane of white hair didn't suddenly return to its original wrapped state, her skin remained blue, but the tusks and claws retracted, leaving a ten foot woman floating in the sky around where the forty foot oni's head had been. Her left eye peeked open, and then the third eye in her forehead and her right eye opened, looking over Pecos Town laid out under her. Beatrice now seemed to be talking animatedly with the dude with the rifle slung over his back, seemingly paying her no mind other than to gesture up at her every so often.
With that taken care of, Tomoe glanced underneath her, panicking for half a second as she realized that there was nothing under her feet to support her weight - and then came the realization that she wasn't falling, and looking down at the roaring pyre that had once been a bar had caused her to start gently tumbling forward in the air. She quickly righted herself, putting both hands forward as if steadying herself and the tumble stopped. She looked down below again, and a moment later the raging inferno grew closer; looking back to the sky got the opposite effect.
"-so, in short, no, she's not a Marine, and-""Hey, sorry to interrupt!
Beatrice and Bennett both turned to find the blue-skinned half-oni floating on her side, resting her head on her hand as if she were lounging around on a particularly comfortable couch. "As long as I'm like this, I might as well see about stopping those rampaging bulls. I'll catch up with you later, Bea!" Tomoe grinned, showing off her lengthened canines, and then zipped off through the air, leaving an exasperated Beatrice standing in the middle of the street with the Marine Captain beside her.
"So, to put it all together, a weirdly nice flying demon kidnapped you?" Benji asked, and then raised a hand to cut Beatrice off before she could even bother to open her mouth. "That was a joke, Ensign. We can sort that problem out later - your friend there has the right idea. Our first duty is to see to the safety of the people.""Oh, Lumikki!"
At the sight of the ill-dressed skier, standing in the street facing off with a particularly nasty-looking bull, Tomoe came back down to the ground for a landing. Unlike what she'd been trying for, the landing was a little like a child's first attempt at skipping a stone - she hit the ground harder than expected, not quite knowing how to keep up the momentum she'd been managing without even trying as her feet hit the earth, and instead of breaking out into a run, she just slammed her face into the earth and skidded about twenty feet across the street into the front of a building.
After a moment passed, an azure hand pushed out of the rubble, making a thumbs-up gesture. "I'm okay!"