Partnership of Convenience [Rhyme/Ancladar]

[rhyme/reason]

Somewhere in a Loguetown back alley, Mikaila Akins stood leaning against a wall, left eye nearly swollen shut, ragged breaths slowly becoming more steady as she took the time to collect herself. She couldn't hear the sounds of her pursuers anymore, but all the same the marine couldn't help looking over her shoulder every few seconds for any sign of them.

It was almost ten minutes of undisturbed calm before Mikaila finally let herself relax, slumping down along the wall to a sitting position and muttering to herself. "Okay. So that was a bad idea." If she was being totally fair, there wasn't any way she could have known that the mugger she had been chasing down was part of a bigger gang, but after she had found out, maybe charging in and challenging the whole lot of them at once wasn't the best idea.

Putting her cap onto her lap for a moment and pulling back her hair, Mikaila gingerly touched at the swelling above her eye - hardly the only painful reminder of her bad decision, but definitely the most prevalent one. She grimaced a little at the touch, but it didn't force her to recoil or anything "...Not as bad as I thought, though." And really, it wasn't. She couldn't keep it all the way open, but she could see out of it if she tried. In fact, she'd probably have all sorts of bruises tomorrow, but given a moment to catch her breath and really assess her injuries, she was surprised to find that nearly all of them were no more than surface injuries. Apparently the gang hadn't gotten too many good hits in before she hightailed it out of there.

So I'm okay to go after them again.

Getting to her feet, Mikaila put her cap back on her head, straightening it before beginning the process of tracing her steps back to the building she had just fled less than an hour ago. It didn't even cross the young woman's mind that nothing had actually changed since her last attempt besides knowing what she was getting into. Nor did she for a moment consider, as she cautiously approached the building, that any sort of organized gang in Loguetown, even small fry, would likely have a bounty on their head. And it certainly didn't occur to her that anyone else might be after the same target.

[ancladar]

"Finally! Work!" Said a young woman armed to the teeth as she held up her small contract. It had been a huge pain in the ass to finally score a decent contract after leaving the navy, but it had finally happened. With the Navy no less too. They probably were short staffed at the moment and that's why the tossed her this contract instead of ignoring her whenever she normally applied. That or they expected her to die on the job as a way to get back at her for leaving the Navy.

Either way she felt comfy taking on this job. Namely because it was a band of small time thugs who were more a nuisance than a threat. The second bigger reason was she had hardly any money to her name. She had been sleeping outside in a sleeping bag and buying bargain bin food for the last week. She had nearly gotten a fine for shooting a seagull for food, but she looked so pathetic ,and poor mainly, that the Marines who saw it merely waved her off with a warning. The gull was scrawny anyways so it hadn't really been worth the waste of ammo.

"Now where are they hiding." She said to herself playing with a strand of hair as she skated down the street on her board looking nothing like a mercenary save for the guns. She'd stop and lean against a lamp post looking over the contract once more grinning at the thought of collecting the reward at the bottom. That would set her up for at least a month so she could find more lucrative work. Folding up the contract and hiding it in her shirt Kellie would pull out her revolver and begin to load it with rubber rounds. She didn't need to kill these guys, just knock them around and take them in. Staring at the building in which the gang was supposed to reside she merely hummed to herself as she loaded the gun wondering how many where in there and if they were even home.

[rhyme/reason]

No first floor windows, no easily accessed back entrance... If Mikaila had thought on it a few moments, she probably would have realized that was probably why the building was chosen as a hideout in the first place, but at the moment she was focused on how it limited her approach. But even if she was limited to a frontal assault it was still possible to go about this in a smart way. She didn't have to just go up to their door and knock.

But she did anyways.

Drawing her tonfas from their place on her belt, the marine rapped on the door three times, calling out to those inside: "Excuse me? Are you all back yet? We met earlier. I'm here to arrest you!"  

It was only in the following silence that the the marine saw a girl, roughly her age, watching the building from across the street with a certain hunger in her eyes. Or maybe just regular hunger - it looked like she hadn't eaten in a good while. Taking note of the guns, she thought for a second about how helpful it would be to have someone watching her back and called out across the road. "Hey!" But asking a civilian for help? The Marines were there to protect the people, putting them in danger like that would be ridiculous! "You might want to get going! There's a bunch of bad guys in there, and there's probably gonna be a fight in a second!"

Almost as if to illustrate her point, the sound of a heavy latch being unbolted rung out, and as the door swung open the man on the other side lunged at Mikaila, only narrowly missing her as she danced backwards just out of his grasp. "So you came back for more? You're not too bright are-" The thug was suddenly cut off as the wooden stick was driven into his chest, gasping for breath as he staggered backwards. Mikaila hopped a few more steps away, seemingly pleased with herself as she backed off further into the road. 

"Oh wow, I wasn't even trying knock his wind out! Lucky me, huh?"

Even as she spoke to herself, more thugs flooded into the street - five so far and counting - fanning out such that she couldn't keep her eyes on all of them at once. For the second time in the day, the young recruit was quickly finding herself surrounded, and it was increasingly apparent that they were planning on all jumping her at once. Eyes darting back and forth between the criminals, one thought passed through her head: What's that they say about trying the same thing the same way and thinking something different 's about to happen?

[ancladar]

Kellie nearly lost her mind when she saw a young woman approaching the den of criminals. Not just any young woman, but a rather roughed up looking Marine armed with pieces of wood. Kellie wasn't normally one to judge, for she had seen the thing some of the higher up Marines could do with just their limbs. They were however ranked far higher than this girl.

The second reason she was annoyed was because this was her contract and the Navy either changed their minds and sent this woman in to do the job herself thus denying her the reward. Or she was acting on her own and if she succeeded Kellie would be denied the reward still. Her stomach rumbled in protest at this travesty, but before Kellie could react the woman was knocking on the door and telling her to leave. Then the fight was simply on.

"Oh come on! Can nothing go right for once?" She said as she watched the criminals coming out to attack the foolish Marine.  Kellie could be a bit greedy at times, but she wasn't going to let someone get mobbed in front of her even if it could possibly cost her reward money. The thugs were armed, but so far see didn't see a single firearm. It was mainly pipes, clubs, and a dagger here and there for the moment. That gave Kellie all the advantage she needed.

"Hey you punks. Hands in the air!" She called approaching with her revolver constantly switching targets. "If any of you move I'll fire and I can and will shoot you in the nards!"

[rhyme/reason]

Mikaila had her hands halfway in the air before realizing she wasn't being addressed. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the woman she had just tried to warn away slowly approaching, gun drawn. So a bounty hunter... Or a pirate with a grudge, but she'd been pretty lucky today so far. And if she asked for help now, she wasn't actually involving a civilian, she was just asking for help from a civilian who involved themselves.

"Hey! I'm willing to post a bounty on these guys if you're willing to help out! I mean, not officially, but I'll get some money together, pay you out of my paycheck if I have to." Ignorant to the actual bounty on her target, Mikaila hoped the offer of pay would be sufficient to bag her an ally.

Although she wasn't overly concerned about how desperate she sounded, she was a little bit worried about how the thugs initial shock of having firearms pointed on them seemed to be wearing off quickly - already they were starting to look back and forth between each other like they were judging the effectiveness of their numbers versus a gun. Lowering her body and raising her tonfa to protect herself better if they tried anything, Mikaila tensed as her eyes darted between her would-be assailants and her could-be ally.

[ancladar]

The young marines words confirmed one of her suspicions. The girl was clearly not very experienced. Tackling the building alone without a lot of guns was nearly suicidal. "Bounty? Girl these men are my job and you're just getting in the way of it. What are you doing trying to take on all these people barely armed and without backup? No when I take them all down I'm collecting the money off the contract I got and not out of a grunt's stipend. We both know ensigns don't get paid jack diddly."

Kellie was speaking from experience on this. She remembered the days of the mediocre pay while trying to protect the people. Of course now wasn't any better, but still she wasn't being ordered to go get shot at. She was willingly going in and could retreat anytime she wanted.

As the two women talked the thugs seemed to have come to a consensus on what to do. That consensus was every man for himself. One doofus would bolt inside the building to warn the others, two would simply run in opposite directions, and the last two actually had the stones to try and attack the two women.

One would charge towards Mikaila while the other would attempt to throw his dagger at Kellie. Kellie however merely turned her revolver on him and pulled the trigger twice to send the rubber slugs into his gut causing him to fall over in agony. "Damn it all no runners!"

[rhyme/reason]

"Things are kind of crazy right now, so I can't really get any backup." Though her nonchalant manner didn't change, the particularly observant could have easily noticed notice the way the redhead's focus suddenly narrowed as she flipped the tonfa in her right hand so that she was holding it by the longest part. "I'm the only one patrolling here. No, not here exactly-" As Mikaila's assailant brought his pipe down in an overhead swing, he suddenly found her dashing directly into him, the weapon flying harmlessly above. The moment they collided, she simply stood up and hooked the weapon's handle behind her opponent's knee and struck him in the chest, throwing him to the ground.

"Well that doesn't matter." Mikaila flipped the tonfa in her right hand back to the natural grip, grinning ear-to-ear at Kellie. There wasn't much time to bask in the little victories, but however annoyed she sounded about it the bounty hunter had just saved Mikaila from a beating. Correction: Another beating. And there wasn't exactly time to offer her thanks now, but Mikaila Akins wasn't the sort of person to forget debts easily. 

"You said no runners? I can get one of them if you can get the other." Without waiting for a response, Mikaila kicked forwards off the neck of the prone body on the ground, leaving him gasping while she sprinted as hard as she could after one of the two runners. 

[ancladar]

"Why would you announce that you don't have back up in front of the enemy?!?" Said Kellie resisting the urge to smack her forehead. Granted Kellie was happy that no one would be coming to steal the bounty from her, but announcing that she had no back up was a bad move. Yes Kellie didn't have back up herself, but the way she had the assault plan going on in her head it would have looked like she had backup.

Now however the one running inside would tell his boys only two foolish girls were trying to take them down. "Just one of those days." She grumbled as she tossed down her board and chased after her runner. "Yea sure go nab him up and knock his ass out!" She'd yell at the young Marine as she kicked at the ground to gather speed. Slowly she'd start to gain on the runner and raise her revolver.

Kellie was a decent shot, but being on a skateboard trying to hit a moving target was messing her aim. Her first two rubber rounds missed entirely. The next one only grazed him. The two that connected solidly hit him in his shoulder then lower back causing him to trip. He'd start to get back up when Kellie caught up to him and slammed her board right into his face at full speed.

Teeth would fly outta the man's mouth, but combat skateboarding hadn't exactly been mastered yet. Kellie would do a flip then land with a solid thump on her ass. "Owwwwwwwwwww. N-no one saw that!" She'd say as she stood up rubbing her smarting rear. The man was out cold now so Kellie would leave him there to go see how the ensign was doing.

[rhyme/reason]

Since the beginning of the encounter, Mikaila had been more or less flying by the seat of her pants, doing the first thing that came to mind. And why shouldn't she? As far as she was concerned, she had a duty to undertake and it was likely to end in violence - everything else was just details. Until now, at least.

"Why would you announce that you don't have back up in front of the enemy?!?"

The admonishment made the marine think. When she had chased her target into a bunch of his friends, it turned into a fight against a whole gang, but that was no more than a detail. She was injured, not severely, but it had to be affecting her performance - but that was just a detail. The arrival of an unexpected ally that had saved her all sorts of trouble, that was just a detail too. But weren't all those 'little details' ultimately pretty important? Every single one of those 'details' were a factor that wildly and completely changed the outcome. It wasn't as simple as a goal to be achieved and going to achieve it. If she had thought it out a little more, couldn't she have saved herself a lot of trouble? One more question came to mind as her distracted thoughts nearly caused her to miss a step, and her fingers brushed against the back of her quarry's shirt: Isn't it a lot worse if I get distracted and he gets away?

Leaping forwards the redhead tackled the man's legs, sending them both tumbling to the ground. For a few seconds, their flailing as he tried to shake the marine off, and she tried to climb further up the thug's back was almost comical. But eventually she managed to get far enough to reach his head, striking him again and again until he stopped struggling. Not as clean as the other takedowns, but whatever worked was probably fine.

Sitting up on the unconscious body, Mikaila let herself think a little. So I made a few mistakes. Just gotta to work around it. I let them know there's no backup on the way, they're holed up in a building without an easy in... Strategy, forethought, planning, those weren't really her strong suits. But as Mikaila noticed the other girl watching her, she realized there was someone who might be a bit better. And really, she couldn't do much worse listening to someone else for a bit.

Getting to her feet, she started to make her way back over to Kellie, calling out. "So what's the plan now?"

[ancladar]

Back at the seen of the initial contact Kellie rubbed her temples as she watched the ensign pummel the poor thug into submission. The girl had the grace of an ogre, but then again Kellie just crashed her skateboard into a person so she couldn't really talk. Once the thug was secured Kellie would look at the building and weigh their options.

Ideally she could have handled this alone by catching the thugs off guard. Now though they were likely ready and waiting for the two to come in. What they were armed with was anyone's guess and they could have booby trapped the place too. "Alright. Here is the plan. You don't run in screaming like a lunatic waving your sticks around. Instead we'll go in together moving from cover to cover trying to root these guys out. I'll shoot at them and you bash them if they get close. If there gets to be too many I'll toss some real grenades at them and blow them up. I'm hoping they'll be cowardly and surrender after we take down two or three more of them. If not then this is going to be a long day." She made sure her gun was reloaded before looking at the door.

"Any questions or are you ready to go in?"

[rhyme/reason]

"Cover to cover. Got it." So that was easy enough. The idea of a grenade getting thrown around in such a relatively enclosed space made her a bit nervous, but Mikaila was pretty sure that she hid it alright, minus maybe her eyes lingering a little too long on the bounty hunter's weapons. But regardless of any unease over explosives, she sidled up besides the still-open door, quietly noting to herself that the man she had knocked out first was no longer there. Well, all I did was knock his wind out. He probably crawled back in while we weren't looking. I'll be more thorough next time.

On reaching the door, Mikaila hesitated a moment waiting for her companion to move forwards before realizing that since they were going to be indoors, in close quarters with their opponents, keeping them away from the gunner meant taking the lead. Taking a moment to glance into the room past the door, she saw only an empty room, a hallway opposite the entryway and a door to the right. It essentially went without saying as the marine slipped through the door into the dark, empty room beyond, but she said it all the same: "I'm as ready as I'm going to be." 

[ancladar]

Once the young ensign was inside Kellie followed. There was no one waiting with a weapon and no trap had been sprung as of yet. That didn't mean they weren't simply waiting for them. "Stay down and whisper." Said Kellie in a hushed tone as she entered the same room as her partner. Nothing seemed to be in this empty room Probably was just used for storage space or something.

She'd tap the girl on the shoulder and motion for her to follow her down the hallway. Moving slowly Kellie stopped as she noticed a string stretched across the hall way. What it was connected too she didn't know, nor did she want to know. Slowly she stepped over it and motioned for the Marine to do the same before continuing on down the hall.

There was a door on her left in the hall which she slowly peeked into. Kellie was met with the sight of a bottle being tossed at her face. Hastily she ducked behind the door to hear the bottle smash against it. "Little turds are actually throwing bottles at us. No wonder the pay isn't that great for them. I can see why the marines felt it was beneath their pay grade to go after them too. You ready to go in after I lay down some cover fire?"

[rhyme/reason]

Mikaila stepped cautiously over the makeshift tripwire, noting for a moment the way it seemed to trail off under the floor past the eyelets holding it taut. Of course it didn't matter where it led or what it did, only that she knew it was there so she could avoid it - it wasn't worth thinking about. Or maybe it was another of those 'little details.' It was hard to tell. 

The sound of glass breaking and stopped Mikaila from distracting herself further by overthinking the situation, only to lead to more as her partner grumbled about how little the pay was. Something felt wrong, yes, but she couldn't quite put a finger on what. They were cowards but it wasn't like they were unarmed, and they had to know they outnumbered the intruders by now. They hadn't hesitated to try to all just rush her when they were all against one, why did two change their behavior so much? 

What am I missing?

Maybe nothing. It could just as easily be that in the short time she'd been trying to think everything through before acting, she was just overthinking things. Paying no further mind to the quickly pooling alcohol on the floor, Mikaila gave the bounty hunter a silent nod and raised her fists to her face to take a more clearly combative stance.

[ancladar]

"Awesome. Get ready." She said after taking a calming breath. Kellie would peek back in very quickly to see where the low lifes where. More bottles sailed at her, but she'd manage to see three men behind an over turned table with what seemed to be a recycling bin beside them filled with bottles.

"At least they recycle." She muttered as she held up her hand to the ensign to keep her charging at the moment. "Wait till you hear a scream." Kellie ordered. Keeping the door open just a crack she'd look for a good surface to bounce her rubber bullets off of. The wall opposite to the right of the overturned table seemed to be the best bet. Kellie raised her gun and angled the shot so her rubber bullets would bounce off the wall towards the area behind the table the men were located on.

"Screw you guys!" She called as she fired into the room striking the wall at several different angles with the rubber bullets. The first two shots missed wildly, but Kellie unloaded her entire six shots into the wall. One man had a bullet smack his shoulder, but the second had three strike him all over his body causing him to cry out in pain from the bruising impact.

"Go go!" Said Kellie as she began to reload her weapon as the men panicked for just a few moments thinking they had been shot with real bullets.

[rhyme/reason]

The moment she received word, Mikaila leapt into action. Slamming the door all the way open, she surveyed the room quickly.

Two men recoiling, one surprised. Maybe...

No. Wait. This wasn't the place for thinking things through, was it? Now the fight was on, it was just a matter of doing what felt right. With that in mind, she charged the overturned table dropping her weapons as she vaulted over it to plant her knee directly in the face of the center man. Planting her feet on the ground as the first man fell, she lashed out with both hands, grabbing the heads of the men who were now on either side of them before smashing them into each other letting them go to hit the floor with a wet thud.

A wet thud?

It wasn't until then that she noticed that alcohol was pooled all over the floor underneath them, and a number of the bottles she assumed to be empty at first glance were at least halfway full. She didn't have much time to contemplate it though, as the sound of breaking glass made it hard to concentrate. The sharp pain wasn't helping either. Or the inability to stop herself from falling. As she felt herself hit the ground, through her increasingly blurred vision she saw the fourth man crouched tight against the overturned table.

Oh.