Mission #1: First Hunt, Last Call. (Virus, Ragnarok)

[Ragnarok]

This was not how Ragna had expected her first bounty hunt to go at all. She'd imagined that after kicking ass they'd head off somewhere for good food and juice, beer even since this was an occasion to celebrate. Zenit had been a great partner, and she'd thought he wasn't the type to mull over what was wrong and what was right, that he knew that sort of attitude would be what got him killed. Unfortunately, people like that were difficult to find. Pity.

She was ready to leave after knocking Zenit out, ecstatic about her first paycheck and hunting experience, though not as excited about getting lectured by the old fart after he found out that she'd left her little cousins to their own in the dojo. Then she felt something latch onto her leg, where she nearly lost her balance out of surprise when she realized it was her former partner. However, she'd failed to notice the blade that he had produced in time and really lost her footing when he plunged it into the back of her thigh. She gritted her teeth hard to muffle the poorly repressed yell that erupted from her throat. Her knees- uh, knee, buckled under her and she fell forward, hand pressed to the wound, her white trousers now forming a patch of blooming red.

"Guh! Shit... Shit! That bald, ingrate douchebag. I should've just killed him on the spot- ugh!" she grunted when she tried to pull it out. Curious civilians began to close in when Zenit began crawling away, and she forced herself up, majority of her weight placed on the other leg. Finally recalling the roll of sports tape she had in her trousers, she hastily dug it out, and pulled the weapon out in one swift tug, barely wincing. For once she was thankful to have been stabbed before - at least she was used to it and had prior experience. She wrapped her wound quickly and with such strength that it was more like binding her leg than anything, half-heartedly promising herself to take care of it later. With her wound dealt with, a slightly light-headed Ragnarok again pursued her target relentlessly, this time in a more foul mood.

She was this close - THIS close, to catching him when something heavy threw itself on her, and she face planted right into the ground. Zenit would also be apprehended by a group of uniformed men. Raising her head, she spat dirt and sand out before straining her head to look at the fool who'd thrown himself onto a killing machine, then groaned.

Zenit's savior was man of a fairly large build and in his late forties, who also happened to lead a squad of marines that patrolled Loguetown. He chuckled at her reaction. "Hello to you too, Miss Blank. Honestly, I didn't think I'd be seeing your grandfather again so soon. I just had tea with him this morning." He spoke in such a familiar tone, one could tell that he was well acquainted with the young troublemaker. "Alright kid, you know the drill. I'll send someone for Thunder; better get ready to appease the old man. Bring them in, boys!" Ragna dropped her head into the ground again. She was so dead.

[viruswithshoes]

Even men with cracked ribs crawling away from battle didn't get special treatment from the contingent of Marines. Zenit screamed in pain as he was pulled and bent into a position to be handcuffed. When he woke up in a jail cell with his cuts covered by bandages and handcuffed Zenit assumed the cuffs used earlier were sea stone and caused his blackout...then again that might have been the pain.

"Well, kids, I hope you learned your lessons about sending and responding to newspaper ads for a bounty hunting partner."
It all clicked then. That damned newspaper ad seemed like a good idea at the time. Zenit was a long range gunman and could use someone skilled in melee to make up for his weaknesses and vice-versa. It made a great deal of sense back then but in hindsight it had been a rib-busting ordeal. Next time he'd hold interviews. In depth ones. He assumed that Ragnarok would also appreciate a partner that wasn't so quick to pull out his guns as well as moral superiority complex. Suddenly, the man representing the bounty hunting guild who dealt with problematic hunts didn't seem so condescending when he called them "kids".

As much as it hurt his ribs to look to his right Zenit did so and found his right wrist chained through the cell bars to his previous partner Ragnarok Blank. With a great deal of pain Zenit scooted closer to Ragnarok's cell.
"I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have shot at you. Or stabbed you. We could have just acted like regular people and talked.
He leaned further towards the dividing bars of their adjoining cells and stuck his left hand through it as a gesture of reconciliation, though he could definitely foresee his ex-partner using that opportunity to break his arm.

Two Marines and one frustrated bounty hunter guild representative heaved sighs with eyes rolled hard enough make Zenit wonder if they would go blind. He'd heard of bounty hunters racking up some bodies and property damage but never heard how they got out of it. Usually, the story ended by then. Now seemed like a good time for a chapter break, but Zenit knew he was hardly a pulp novel protagonist.

The gray-bearded bounty hunter scratched at his cheek. "I guess it's my fault for okaying a couple of dumb kids for this cakewalk bounty."
A dry comment about the old man being condescending AND passive aggressive almost left Zenit's mouth but it had gotten him into enough trouble that day.

The man sat down on the jail floor across from the divide between the cells of Zenit and Ragnarok. It looked like they were not the first bounty hunters he'd visited in jail.
"Since no real people died, just bounty heads, I'd call the whole thing a day and jack up my percentage." The old bounty hunter with the oddly unwrinkled and unmarred face grimaced.
"You see, though...you got the law involved so here's the deal. You got one more bounty to collect...and I'm using the word 'bounty' real loosely here, kids."

A wanted poster was produced the image of which caused a moment of stunned silence in Zenit who almost laughed it off as a joke. Some of the Marines were smiling but Zenit could recognize smiles of pure schadenfreude. The small, beady eyes of a rodent met Zenit's when he looked at the wanted poster.

"Lemming Kilmister: Pet. Twenty beri bounty. Normally, wouldn't give a rodent's ass for this lemming but you two caused me trouble and I don't like your faces. Bring in their pet and complete the bounty. Otherwise...well, I got some good recipes for prison wine."

[Ragnarok]

Ragna was undoubtedly displeased to be chained to Zenit, but that mule of a Marine cared less about her opinions. That aside, she was in a whole lot of trouble when her grandfather got here. And it was all. Because. Of. Him. Sure, she was at fault for sneaking out of the compound and away from her babysitting duties, but she did that all the time and rarely did the consequences involve being thrown into a cell. She pulled the folded cut-out newspaper ad from her pocket - the one thing that had led her to where she currently was. She huffed, crumpling it up and threw it at the bar that separated her and Zenit, who by the way had been out like a lightbulb since he'd been apprehended.

She shifted her legs about, both cuffed together with a strong wooden cuff that had also been lined with metal as a precaution. They chafed at her skin too. Her wounds, like Zenit's, had been taken care of after she persisted that they checked on him when he didn't wake up even after being dragged all the way here and thrown in. He'd broken his ribs, needless to say, and his side was horribly bruised and ugly, but her kick hadn't been strong to the point that she bashed his bones in completely like she had the other guy. He was already lucky that his lungs were still functioning properly, so she had little need to feel remorseful about anything. After all, she'd already shown him more than enough mercy.

Her grandfather had been notified of her situation, but he was currently busy with entertaining guests from another family - her suitors again, she assumed - and would be arriving a while later. Meaning, she was stuck with Zenit until he woke up because the Captain was somehow denying her bail, saying they couldn't leave till that jerk was up. Thus, she'd spent the past two hours staring at the ceiling and getting as comfortable as she could on the stone bench.

The rattling of the chain links alerted her that the dark-eyed sniper had finally regained consciousness. Sitting up, she leaned into the concrete wall, lips pulling into a taut smile when he reached his hand out, hoping to reconcile some sort of non-existent bond. She sneered. "Don't apologize. A fight is a fight, and injuries are a part of it. Of course, I'd have preferred if your superior philosophy thing hadn't landed us behind bars, even though I'm partly at fault for accepting your challenge in the first place." she waved her free hand as if to dismiss the matter as the authorities entered the scene. For a moment, she considered returning his handshake, but the nagging discomfort at the back of her mind made her decided against it. That didn't mean she was afraid.

Just... Worried. But they were two entirely different things, she blatantly assured herself.

At the bounty hunter's remark, she snickered. "Ugh, I know. Believe me, I've not even fully wrapped my mind around the fact that that kid's still alive. Last I checked he was on the verge of pissing his pants." she sighed in mock exasperation, half-heartedly considering breaking the wooden piece around her feet, before her attention was directed to something else.

Amethyst eyes lingered on the poster momentarily, before they widened, venomous orbs burning holes into the very person who held the bounty. "You, want US, to catch a damn RAT?! I'd rather my Gramps beat the shit out of me- say, would that happen to be an option?"

[viruswithshoes]

"You, want US, to catch a damn RAT?! I'd rather my Gramps beat the shit out of me- say, would that happen to be an option?"
The representative of the Bounty Hunter's Guild who acted as a go-between for the Guild and Marines in Roguetown smirked.
"Oh, your gramps is comin'. He didn't sound like he was in the mood to love-punch and then hug it out with you. Cold sounding man...and keep in mind I routinely deal with murderers and the like. You'll probably wish this idiot," he said tilting his head towards Zenit who faked the best smile he could. "stabbed you in the heart rather than the leg. Whatever he has planned for you it sure as hell ain't going to be catching a lemming while we watch and laugh."

By then Zenit was absolutely terrified of Ragnarok's grandfather and imagined they lived in a castle of human bones in the middle of a lake of blood. He felt like he made a certain peace with one member of the Blank family and didn't feel like pressing his luck. After all, Ragnarok may have been the gentle one.
"I'll-"
"Nope," the gray-bearded bounty hunter said. "I either get the team of Weak and Crazy or I walk. That way maybe you'll both be weeded out of the gene pool." He held up his crossed fingers with a rueful smile. "Here's hopin'. Listen, it's not such a bad deal. You fumble around like idiots catching a rodent and you get to walk away with a percentage of the bounty you earned and not in prison."

"Miss Blank...let's take the deal. It's a lemming. Dead or alive. It'll probably just walk into the ocean or something and die. Come on, I have things I want to do in life that don't involve Impel Down." The sniper with the cracked ribs doubted he'd get thrown in such an infamous prison but it was the first and worst prison that came to mind. He wondered if he could somehow barter his safety in prison with photos of women he had taken and then assumed they would neutralize his devil fruit powers.
Catching a lemming seemed all the more tempting.
"Do you think we'd be worse off than this?"

The option of 'worse off than this' walked through the door shortly after Zenit made his plea in the form of an old man who looked directly at Ragnarok.

[Ragnarok]

She smirked, knowing that her punishment would unlikely involve anything violent. Honestly, Thunder had never once physically punish her like he did the other kids. Not even when she'd tried instigating him to do so. Often, she would wonder why, comparing herself to the others occasionally only to be further confused when she found that she could very well handle more hits than most in her generation. The adults who looked at her with pitiful eyes, as if she were a disgustingly frail and delicate thing, soon learned that even the smallest of bodies can possess unbelievable strength. Even bamboo rods and canes were likely to break after a few beatings - she'd actually tried that out, of course, but oddly enough, got reprimanded heavily for doing so. Still, it was after all one of the reasons she was hailed as a prodigy.

"Aha, well I do hope you're right. Extra chores and house arrest is getting quite dull." she smiled innocently, as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with an old man round housing his granddaughter into a wall.

"Worse? No, don't think so." she replied, just as a familiar face entered the scene with graceful strides, the sound of wooden clogs echoing loudly with the arrival of an aged male. Pale-haired, dark eyed and bearing the distinguished, noble elegance and finesse his granddaughter seemingly lacked, Thunder Blank was hardly a man normal people would even consider approaching. The Marines and Bounty Hunter were pitifully overshadowed, and lowered their heads in respect to the ex-marine captain.

Ragnarok beamed, jumping up to her feet only to be stopped by the sudden jerking of the chains that stuck Zenit with her. Her head whipped around, scowling at the piece of metal before she returned her attention to her grandfather, bright eyed and relieved that he'd come to bail her out. "Gramps!" the door to her cell opened, and a Marine entered with the keys to her cuffs. Another Marine went into Zenit's cell and released him as well, but as soon as they were led outside, Thunder himself slapped a pair of cuffs onto the same wrists. He looked to Zenit, solemn and notably composed despite the current situation.

"Young man, it's unfortunate that you've been involved with my granddaughter. On behalf of this foolish child, I apologize. However, understand that you are at fault yourself, for recklessly challenging someone as brainless and gutsy as her." Said girl opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted when Thunder abruptly held up her hands in his. "Ragna, my only granddaughter. You know I love you very much, don't you?" the girl nodded her head anxiously, wondering if this was another one of his dramatic moments again. Odd. He was getting more senile by the days. "Which is why I won't punish you. Instead, I'm leaving it to the Marines and Bounty Hunters. Aren't you glad? You and your friend get to hunt and are paid for your effort-" she cut him off by slamming her forehead into his, pissed beyond reasoning and extremely tempted to kick the old demon into the wall. She could care less if she destroyed the building's foundation. She snarled, prideful voice resounding loud and clear throughout the whole facility.

"YOU SLY OLD FART!"

Moments later, Ragnarok trudged out, fuming. Yet, her head was kept up, and regardless of Zenit's please, protests or whatever he was saying, she began the search for Lemming Kilmeister; a prime candidate for stupidest pet of the year and a new addition to her very short list of humiliating acts. She had every intention of fulfilling the job properly. If she had to do something ridiculous and a waste of time, she'd at least do the best she could for the family name. Blanks were prideful people, after all.

[End - Exit Thread]