25: Westside story... With marines.

[Farris (Kuro)]

The cheerful bubbly wotan skipped through the streets of Port West, A town that showed the power of the Marines as they starved off the forces of evil! The town was a model of peace ever since the pirates in the area had been captured. Surely Dietrich couldn't say this place wasn't the good work of The world government and good old Marine Justice! It was then that she saw the flyer about an unruly gang. "OMG! A gang!? In this Marine saved city!" She thought appalled by the thought. It was time that Super Sailor Fish and her Partner The Red Knight (Dietrich) combated this evil force in the name of Justice! Thus it was that the half human, half great white shark bucked into the nearest ladies room and changed into her super hero costume.

Once out on the streets, Esmeralda stood tall and proud doing a fancy and dramatic pose and salute to anyone that would happen to be looking. "I am Super Sailor Fish! Fear not good people of West Port! I shall save you from the bad, naughty gang people that are practically pirates!" She announced loudly before heading of in what was deemed the "Bad part of town" with righteous thoughts in mind...

[White Mimic]

In his negotiative attire, a black suit with an orange silk vest, the man standing with his head concealed in the shadows had a coat slung over his shoulder, a briefcase resting beside his feet. On the opposite side of the room was a lower member of the gang his client lead. Not a very pleasant bunch this gang, but what could you do, most of his clients were unpleasant in some regard.

"You got the goods?" The liason on the opposite side asked in a rude manner patting a metal bat in his hand. The man in the suit tapped the pumpkin on the briefcase twice with the tip of his shoe. "You got the money?"

The gang member nudged a cohort to retrieve the briefcase. The cohort was grasping a large leather bag with difficulty, he looked younger than the rest, perhaps he was a newbie. After appraching the suited man and stopping some distance away, he placed the bag on the ground and backed away. The suited man kicked his own briefcase across the floor to the initiate and retrieved the bag for himself, checking to make sure the rest of his payment was in the bag. He always required to be payed up front partially to show the client was good for it, and in this case, he was glad to see the Beri sitting in the bag. As he leaned over to pick it up, a small glimmer of light revealed his helmet slightly before disappearing from the lamp light.

"So, we all good?"

The members weren't paying attention, they were too busy looking at the 'goods': a collection of gems that the suited man had pilfered from a museum a few islands over. Nothing too difficult but they were still worth a small fortune for these people. He couldn't steal anything bigger or more valuable for them of course, the cheapskates wanted the most for their bare minimum, but he didn't tell them that.

"Yeah man, you can go,"

The suited man turned to walk out the door before being submitted to a burst of light, caused by the metal door to be thrown open by more armed gang members. He lifted his hands above the pumpkin helmet he was revealed to be wearing, allowing the money to drop to the floor. "Soon as you bring back the real costly stuff, Mr. J."

"Well, this sucks. Ah well, I had nothing better to do today. What better way to spend than more work, huh? Nanka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!"

[Die]

Another example of improper cleanup. While the Marines had successfully run off the pirates that had plagued the island months earlier, choosing to fully withdraw instead of limiting withdrawal over another period of a few months had allowed smaller criminal organizations to pervade the island and discretely set up a network, quickly putting the innocent inhabitants under a spell of fear.

Commodore Dietrich von Koenig sat at a quaint-looking cafe on the corner of a street, pretending to read a newspaper very convincingly while keeping an eye for anyone suspicious. The Commodore had been disguised to the point where even the Ensign could not recognize him. He had an informant he had placed here months during the withdrawal of troops to gather information on the efficiency of this particular Marine group. The informant, in his last transmission, had noted suspicious groups beginning to move in in place of the pirates that had been booted months earlier and set up shop. And now that Dietrich and Esmeralda were on the island, it was time to get the rest of the intel on these gangs. It was close to the scheduled meeting time, and Dietrich was listening for the key phrases that let him know that whoever was meeting with him was indeed the informant and that he not under any duress or being followed.

The words came as a man who appeared to be writing poetry slowly walked by. "Accommodation to fixation reach elation. Serotonin and oil are reaching their all time low," said the man.

"Tether to me sonochromatic frequencies. Don't stand in my way trust science," replied Dietrich with a barely audible whisper. The informant had not been followed. He took a seat across the table from Dietrich.

"It's been a while, Commodore," said the informant.

"Indeed it has, Giles," replied the Commodore, using the informant's codename. At the same time, he waved to a waitress to bring them tea. "Your last transmission brought some rather disconcerting news."

"Ah yes," Giles began as he reached in between the pages of the notepad he had been writing poetry on, and drew out a small, nondescript envelope and a slid it over to the Commodore. After that, the waitress returned with tea for the two and left.

"Excellent, thank you, Giles," said Dietrich. "Once our elimination of the criminal organizations on this island is complete, I will be stationing your Marine division on this island for the next few months to ensure security."

"Understood," replied the informant as he began to drink his tea.

At the same moment, the Ensign had gone past by shouting in her "superhero" outfit. "I am Super Sailor Fish! Fear not good people of West Port! I shall save you from the bad, naughty gang people that are practically pirates!"

Looking at the odd spectacle, Giles turned back to Dietrich and snickered, "She one of yours?"

"...unfortunately," Dietrich facepalmed.

"Should go after her before she hurts some poor dumb spectator," Giles giggled.

"I can easily catch up to her if need be," the Commodore replied as he took a sip from his tea.

[White Mimic]

He had hoped to be moving along in his schedule by now, but it really annoyed him when the clients thought they could boss him around by force or something like that. The deal was they had to afford his services if they needed something specific, but every so often Jacques had to deal with this kind of situation. It was alright though, he was able to deal with this sort of thing, and he had dealt with it, all the time actually.

At the moment, they were taking him deeper into the building, probably to make it harder for him to escape (Hah! and again HAH!). He was used to the pattern, some form of blackmail to extend the business contract indefinately, pull off some super heist for free, come back, repeat the process, blah blah blah. The room they took him to, the central room, was a very dark two story warehouse with a few skylights. "So what is it I'm doing again?"

"SHUT UP!" The gang member was holding a pistol to his back and keeping a close eye on him. Other gang members were doing the same, but they weren't quite as zealous with their aim, some were just keeping the guns by their sides even. Amateurs. If they wanted him to stay, they'd need better practice than that. The gang leader waited on the other side of the large room, sitting in a rather large wooden chair, elevated from the floor by a wooden platform. The gang member that had the jewels and money went over to what might have been the leader and held the bags up for the 'leader' to inspect. "Hmm. Yeah, that'll do for now I suppose." He looked up from the jewels to inspect the one called Mr. J. "I think you know your predicament well enough so I'll cut to the chase."

He leaned foreward in his chair intimidatingly. He was a large man, probably 8 feet tall, and a little round though his musculature was well defined. His clothes were a bit ratty but he was adorned with some faded jewelry. His red hair was tied into a messy topknot, stray strands of hair sticking out a bit. "Here's what we want you to do."

"Uh huh." Jacques was looking around as if he wasn't paying attention.

"We want you to steal some weapons from the Marines for us first. Then you can go and find some more treasures for us."

"Whatever."

The large man started to become irritable but retained his composure. "If you don't, we'll reveal to the world who Mr. J is and who you really are."

"That's cool. Because, you see, you say that, but you don't even know yourself I'm betting."

"We could just as easily take your helmet off right now and find out."

"That's funny, I'd like to see you try." The leader grumbled a bit, signaling to the member who had his pistol at Jacques's back to remove the helmet. Beneath the helmet, he smiled wickedly, waiting for the moment. Seconds before the gang member was able to take hold of the helmet and remove it, Jacques whirled around, kicking the pistol out of the man's hands and throwing a smoke bomb against the ground at the same time.

"WHAT? Somebody stop him!" Gang members ran through the smoke to find Jacques, who had already began climbing the wall to the nearest skylight. The smoke was thick enough to obscure the view of those beneath him but supposed leader had a clear view of him. "NO you idiots! He's above you!" He took hold of a large axe that was sitting behind the chair and threw it to Jacques. A twisting of the torso allowed him to avoid the damage easily, and a quick untwisting sent him through the skylight and onto the roof. He could hear the leader from inside the building screaming at his minions "He's outside! Somebody go get him!"

Jacques didn't want to leave his payment behind but he could always steal it back when the action settled down for a bit. He leapt off the roof as a few henchmen poured out of the building to retrieve him. They fired a few bullets in his direction as he whirled his jacket off, obscuring the view of him as he changed his apperance. When the jacket was flung to the ground, he had become a young woman wearing a brown jacket with a fur collar and a bright blue dress underneath. Perhaps it would get more sympathy and protection from others as he ran. In a very convincing female voice, he ran through the streets, dodging bullets and hoping to not have to fight them himself, not in public anyway.

"Somebody save me! Please!" He'd have to silence them somehow when he had the chance.

[Farris (Kuro)]

The cry for help was not unheard as Esmeralda spotted a pretty young woman in a brown jacket and blue dress. No doubt this was the work of the evil gangs! So they were bullying innocent women too? Those fiends! The Wotan charged forward making a dramatic entrance as she stood between the woman and the perusing criminals. With a pose that any superhero (or genyou force) would be proud of before saying, "As Long as evil exists in this world, the wrath of Justice shall strike it down! Against any fiend! My justice Shall not waver!" She announced it a loud, clear voice then make a few pose movements before drawing her Tonfas. "For I am, Super Sailor Fish! Defender of Justice!" She said this time taking a combat pose, and saying to the distressed damsel, "Fear not Miss, I Shall protect you from these villains!" She said as overdramatically as ever before engaging the "criminal scum".

Esmeralda lunged forward, her tonfa spinning as she held it high in the air before bring it down with her inhuman strength on the head of one of the gang members. A few attempted to fire at her but found it ineffective as her spinning tonfa deflected the attack. She simply continued to close the distance between the gang members and deflect their attacks. There were a few close calls but the Wotan seemed to have some experience or training being a melee fighter fighting ranged combatants. Still it would take her a few moments to knock out all of them, and their were those that were getting away too. Seeing that the fishwoman was more than they could handle. Yet she had no back up so it wasn't like she could ask for someone to take these guys she had taken out to jail while she tracked down the other criminals. As the last one fell at her feet that hadn't run off, The bubbly Wotan sighed, "Dietrich - sempai probably could have caught all of them..." She said disappointedly almost forgetting about the woman she was saving.

[White Mimic]

"As Long as evil exists in this world, the wrath of Justice shall strike it down! Against any fiend! My justice Shall not waver! For I am, Super Sailor Fish! Defender of Justice!"

Jacques hid behind the marine, holding himself as any terrified woman would. The fishgirl took a dramatic position in front of him in a warning to the gang members that were chasing him. 'Not bad.' It wasn't exactly his style of posing but it did the trick as far as theatrics went. The marine soon dropped it however and fell into a fighting stance. "Fear not Miss, I Shall protect you from these villains!"

"Mm..." Jacques nodded and brought a hand up to his face, expressing worry with his new femme features. He used his palm to rub some of the latex and scratch the itch that just popped up. He watched on as she valiantly took on his pursuers, violently dispatching each of them. He moved to cover to avoid being dragged back into the action but emerged once more after the marine had taken care of business. A few unconscious bodies of the pursuers were scattered across the ground as Jacques slowly approached the marine. He glanced around them, looking scared, but he was truly making sure no one was awake to give away his current identity.

One of the bodies rolled on it's own, prompting him to scream briefly as a woman and kick the body in it's head. It didn't look like it was much, but as held back as it seemed, it had enough force to put the one conscious person under with all the others. He immediately followed the act by hiding behind the marine girl again. "Thank you so much! Those monsters would've killed me if it weren't for you." Now that he was relatively safe from the criminals, he needed to find a way to dupe the marine into helping him get his money back.