[Lee and Cogs] Bounty Counters

[Aromancer]

Viper Lee - 1

"Grr... f-f-fine! Be that way!"

Lee burst out of the inn, cussing under his breath. The people he'd been trying to enlist to help him fight the Reznikov brothers had backed out. Perhaps it was partially his fault; he'd dismissed the girl out-of-hand early on, and it turned out she got along well with the guy. They'd left to have a sidebar for a second, and when they'd returned... it was a no-go.

Well, FINE! He didn't need them! He'd fought Fedor and Alexander before, and he was given to believe that Ivan was the weakest Reznikov! He just needed a plan, a good plan, and he would easily be able to-

"Fedor says hello."

Lee swore again as he turned towards the speaker. Another bounty hunter, this one apparently working under the Reznikov name. The man fired a gun at Lee, who deflected it almost without thinking with his large green blade.

"Really not in the m-m-mood, buddy," he said testily, as he turned to the man. This guy seemed like a bigger threat than the two jokers he'd fought a few days back. He wondered for a moment if Khabib had managed to escape the island; he realized quickly that he didn't care.

"Boss's orders. Whoever kills you gets 50 million berri."

Lee's eyes widened at the statement. "Fifty... you mean... I have a b-b-bounty now???" He jumped in the air. "Whoo! I have a b-b-bounty! And it's fifty million berri! Take t-t-THAT, Cassandra! I have a higher bounty than you!"

This immediately prompted all of the Reznikov hunters within 500 yards to appear in the streets surrounding him on all sides.

"R-right," he said, his spirits falling as quickly as they'd risen. "Bounty Hunter m-m-monopoly. Should've seen that coming." He sighed and adopted a defensive stance; this situation might get a little dicey.

[Blitzfrieg]

"I've made my peace at the place past the bend...."  Cogs sang to herself as she awkwardly tried to balance herself.  She didn't know why she had so suddenly started growing after all these years, but the growth spurt had completely thrown off her naturally flawless balance.  Heck her whole body was out of whack!  It only felt weirder to do it without her bodysuit, which was being repaired and resized at the moment.  She hated being exposed, but politely excepted the flowing white sundress the tailor had given her in the meantime.  

She didn't even realize how little she owned until now.  But she liked it that way.  Simple.  Easy.  Mobile.  Like her gears!

"There in the shadows where the monsters call me friend...."  She was carefully balancing on those gears right now, her Grindhouse transformation.  An axle was centered on each of her anklebones, and attached was a large brass gear about the size of a dinner plate.  She was currently exercising restraint, moving as slowly as she could.  

"I've found my peace at the place past the bend....."  She bit her lip.  Her legs particularly had gotten longer, and her center of gravity was all off.  "There in the darkness where the dreams never end...."  Gingerly speeding up, she started to rebuild her normal boldness.

"I've dug my grave at the place past the...."  She put a little more effort into it, and her gears revved straight to maximum speed.  "...BEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeennd!"  Cog's cried out as her Grindhouse gears carried her straight out of the shed behind the tailors, straight through the wall and down the street.  It took everything she had to stay upright, frantically trying to balance herself and slow down the gears.  But her own panic only made things worse.  

People all over the street dodged and threw themselves out of the way of this strange, squealing young woman in a sundress flying along the ground at such speeds that she send showers of dirt and dust in her wake.  Closing her eyes and bracing herself, Cog's threw up her arms and slammed into something big and squishy.  Unfortunately for him, she was small and profoundly solid.  So the bounty hunter who was threatening Lee directly could do little about being tackled at almost forty miles an hour by a Devil Fruit user.

"WHOOO!  Thank you!  Wow that was fun!"  Cog's laughed, jumping up from the mans prone, unconscious form.  She jumped up and down, practically bouncing.  It just felt so good to move fast again!  Dusting off her dress she finally took in her surroundings.....and saw Lee in addition to the several dozen angry and heavily armed thugs surrounding them.  She tipped her head, and a breeze carried her snow white hair out around her shoulders.  With a warm smile and an innocent quirk of her head, her next words came like a melody.

"You need a hand mister?  You aren't a bad guy are you?"  She opened her eyes slowly.  "I don't like bad guys."

[Aromancer]

Viper Lee - 2

Lee's intense stand-off with the Reznikov brothers' underlings was unexpectedly interrupted when the man pointing a gun at him was suddenly knocked over by a rollerblading young woman. For a moment, everyone just stood there, dumbstruck by the sudden intrusion. Lee's stance wavered for a moment, then he quickly jumped back into battle-ready mode.

"Wh-wh-who, me?" He asked, in answer to Cogs's question. "Nah, nah! No evildoing here, ma'am! Just a dude getting ganged up on by a couple dozen bounty hunters! Want to help me take 'em out?"

He may not have expected the help, but he wasn't about to look a gift pirhanna-girl in the mouth! Especially since her teeth appeared not unlike those of a chainsaw... probably a bad idea to look in HER mouth, specifically.

Instead, he leapt into action, brandishing his oversized sword and dashing around the battlefield faster than the eye could follow. Before they could even react, six of the hunters were down. One of the remaining men seemed able to follow his movements with his gun; Lee decided to focus on that guy, as he may well prove a slightly greater threat than the others.

"My n-n-name's Lee, by the way," he said as he rushed around and attacked the man with the gun. "V-v-viper Lee." His sword flickered in front of him, spinning rapidly to block the oncoming bullets of his attacker.

The bounty hunter attacking him had a vicious smirk on his face, even as his bullets were blocked. Each one was getting closer to breaking through Lee's defense, and it was only a matter of time before one got through.

Then he ran out of bullets.

His face suddenly paled as Lee's own grin grew wider, showing off his predatory teeth. Furiously, the man tried to reload his gun, but he was too late. Lee swung his massive sword around and bisected the man, splitting his torso in two and separating his elbows from his biceps.

Lee skidded to a halt, taking a moment to wipe his blade off. Another shot rang out; he blocked it effortlessly, the bullet pinging off his seastone sword.

"W-w-what's yours?"

[Blitzfrieg]

"Bounty hunters?"  Cog's put on a puzzled expression as this guy stammered out a defense.  She looked around at the gruff people surrounding them.  The street had mostly cleared of civilians, but a few were still trying to get clear of the looming conflict.  "But bounty hunters only go after bad people right?"  She frowned, placing her hands on her hips.

"What the heck!?"  This didn't make sense at all!  Then Viper started defending himself, dashing around with a huge sword with pretty impressive speed.  Cog's stamped a foot.  He shouldn't be attacking bounty hunters!  If they were after him then HE had a bounty!  Which made him a bad guy!

"Out of the way girl!"  One of the bounty hunters rushed past Cogs.  While he attempted to push her aside, he found no leverage against the slender young woman.  Instead he awkwardly bumbled past her, and ran into a young man trying to flee the conflict.  "Come here!"  The bounty hunter reached out and grabbed the young man.  "Hold still I need a shield! Hehe!"  At the same time, the bounty hunters around were all firing at Lee without any care for the town or it's people.  They were causing such a ruckus!  Cogs liked to fight and break stuff, but not OTHER peoples stuff! And only bad peoples stuff!

"UNACCEPTABLE!"  Cog's sprang forward, up into the air towards the bounty hunter wrestling to keep hold of his human shield.  The young woman's fist connected with his cheek just as he turned around to see the source of her shout.  The impact knocked him out far before he could feel tumbling across the street and into one of his allies.  "UNACCEPTABLE!  YOU AREN'T BOUNTY HUNTERS."  Cog's ground her razor sharp teeth, clenched her fists, then dropped down into a very low, predatory stance.  "You are bad!  I BREAK BAD PEOPLE."  With that Cogs blasted off of her three point position.  She wasn't going to use her gears for this.  She didn't need to.  Her raw strength and Fishgirl strength was more than enough for this.

Cogs systematically started taking down any bounty hunters that Lee missed or couldn't get too.  She only ever needed a single hit for these kinds of lowlifes.  A leaping axe kick smashed a sniper on the roof straight down to the ground floor through two levels.  She then immediately jumped from the roof, planting her feet squarely on the shoulders of a man below.  Her weight and speed slammed him into the street, but she kept rolling with her momentum, transferring into a sprinting shoulder tackle that sent her last target sprawling.

"Hmmmm.....uguuu...."  Cog's stood up, brushing off her sundress.  It was a bit dusty, but that kind of gave it character!  As Lee approached, she turned around with a beaming smile.  "You are fast!"  She grinned ear to ear, showing off her serrated red teeth. "My name is Cogs.  I'm a bounty hunter too you know!"  She frowned, touching her index finger to her bottom lip as she stared up at the sky.  "Why were they after you?  They weren't doing things right so I punched them but if you are a bad guy I'm gonna have to punch you too okay?"  She grinned again, tipping her head to the side.  "Don't even think about running!  You may be fast but I can catch you no sweat!  I'm really good at catching people."  Her eyelids narrowed ever so slightly.  "Really good."

[Aromancer]

Viper Lee - 3

Lee was about halfway through massacring these chumps when he heard an inhuman screeching from behind him. He turned to watch, dumbstruck, as Cogs absolutely decimated several of his attackers. A few men managed to get away, running and screaming from the pair of nearly unstoppable fighters.

"Wh-what?" Lee asked, as the girl suddenly came right up to him and threatened him not to run away. "Oh! n-n-no, I'm a b-b-bounty hunter too! These guys are just running a p-p-protection racket!"

He laughed. "Yeah, every now and then, one of 'em will attack the town, then they'll p-p-pretend to stop him, and ask for a ton of money as a "reward." And if anyone r-r-refuses, they get hit in the next "attack."" His jovial nature was gone as he finished explaining their racket. He took a deep breath, calming himself so he could talk more normally.

"They're after me because I attacked their bosses," he explained, "these three guys called the Reznikovs. They've completely taken over the entire damn island, and I can't get off it because they've bribed or intimidated everyone with a ship not to take me. So, it's either them or me."

He wouldn't be so hung up about it, but the hospitalization had led to him losing the Devil Fruit he'd been after, as well as the girl who'd stolen it while he kept the Reznikovs busy. They probably wanted him so bad so he could give the fruit back to them, but obviously that wasn't going to happen. Plus, the last time they'd fought, Lee had come out much the worse for wear. He didn't want to have to go through that again. At least not on his own...

"Hey, you seem pretty strong, and like you like to do the right thing," Lee said, holding a hand out to her. "You wanna help me take these guys down? If the bosses fall, the whole organization will go down with them, and the island will be free again!"

[Blitzfrieg]

Cog's listened as Lee explained the situation.  With every revelation her jaw grew tighter and tighter, her eyes narrowing as she started to make her decision.  "Hurting people is bad enough.  But tricking them into paying to make it stop?"  She bared her teeth.  She was angry, but she was more excited than anything.  These sounded like really bad guys!  That meant she could hurt them really bad in kind!

"GRRRRR!"  She started grinding her razor sharp, serrated teeth in frustration.  She wanted to go beat these people up IMMEDIATELY!  Her teeth transformed into small, vertically spinning gears.  Spinning them up to speed, they ground and sparked inside her mouth, causing sparks to fly out in a horizontal fan accompanied by a loud metallic grating noise.  She tensed up her body, crouching down, clutching her hands close to her chest.  With a gutteral groan that rose in intensity, she suddenly shot up into the air, hands up and out to the side.

"YYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAH!"  Her tone was instantly shifted to one of jubilation and glee.  "Bad guys!  Wooot!"  Cog's landed and shot Lee a thumbs up, then rushed up to him.  "Hold on!"  Cog's didn't look strong, but she was extremely strong.  Her fishman heritage gave her an advantage in that category.  She grabbed Lee's wrist, and hopped up in the air.  "Giya Giya no.....Grindhouse!"  Large gears sprang from her ankles again, about the size of dinner plates.  She balanced on their edges, then revved them to full speed.

Unless he resisted, Cog's would take off like a rocket, skating across the ground on her spinning ankle gears with the grace of a ballerina.....only with a full grown bounty hunter man dragging behind her somewhat unceremoniously.  It never dawned on Cog's that she'd gotten so excited she had no idea where she was going.  This didn't ultimately matter though, because she only made it a few houses down the street when the entire wall of a large storehouse exploded outwards, blocking their path.

"Whhooooah!"  Cog's screeched to a halt, then reversed her speed just in time to avoid some massive metal bludgeon from turning her into fishgirl paste.  Cog's flipped backwards, loosing her grip on Lee as she escaped the attack.  The flip through her off balance, and she had to backflip several more times to recover properly, which put her some small distance from the action.

"Hands off girlie.  Best be getting back to school."  The voice was deep, and booming, and calm.  As the smoke cleared, an enormous man, almost twice Viper's height, emerged from the storehouse.  He was covered in what looked like bombs, explosives, and similar tools.  In his hand, was a huge naval cannon mounted on an almost twelve foot long polearm.  He had a three foot tall green mohawk, and a matching colored bushy mustache.  "Those other chumps were fodder.  Only wish they could have made my job easier."  He cracked his neck, and leveled the cannon at Lee.  "No matter. This is where you die. Just hold still and it will be over in a second."  The cannon fired, belching out a cloud of smoke and cinder as a solid iron shot careened through the air at Lee.

[Aromancer]

Viper Lee - 4

Lee's resolve began to waver as he took note of Cog's... let's call it "enthusiasm." What he had initially taken for righteous anger seemed to be in actuality an acute sadism that meant she found nothing more enjoyable than harming others... although it was probably okay, so long as she was only hurting bad guys... right?

His moral quandary was solved for him when Cogs grabbed ahold of his arm and immediately zoomed off into town. "W-w-waaaaaaaaIT!" Lee cried, struggling to keep himself upright as Cogs dragged him through the streets. "I haven't even told you where their hideout is yet!"

His words fell on deaf ears though, as Cogs rushed towards the most threatening figure she could find. Fortunately, almost every threatening figure on the island who wasn't the two of them was in some way associated with the Reznikovs, so Lee quickly found himself face-to-face with yet another bounty hunter. Unfortunately, said bounty hunter was clearly a much bigger threat than the small fries they'd been dealing with up to this point.

With little warning, the man fired a cannonball at Lee. Thankfully, Lee didn't need much warning; he angled his sword so as to catch the kinetic force of the ball, before whipping it back around towards the new enemy. "Serpent's Strike!"

He adopted a defensive stance now, his blade humming with power as he vibrated it with his hands. "L-listen, Chainsaw Girl," he said, trying to keep her attention while they fought the green-haired man. "You seem pretty strong. B-b-but the Reznikovs are gonna be heavily guarded by guys like this, and they're the strongest of anyone here! We can't just r-r-rush in recklessly!"

Another shot, this one firing a grenade at Lee instead of a normal cannonball. He took a deep breath and dashed out of the way. "Quetzalcoatl!" As he cried the name of his most powerful technique, he disappeared, travelling faster than the eye could follow and jumping on air at the same time.

[Blitzfrieg]

"Wooooo!"  Cog's recovered just in time to see Lee deflect a cannonball like some kind of superhero.  Her eyes practically glittered in awe.  He was strong like her Daddos!  Even the way he spoke, with the jitter at the beginning.....it reminded her of grinding gears!  SHE LOVED THAT SOUND!!

"Holycrapnowayyouserious?!"  She blurted out as he told her about all the strong people like this big guy that they had to beat up.  She had no idea there was so many! She didn't really think this guy looked strong at first, but after Viper deflected that shot....for him to call him strong....well he must be super strong right?  Viper could deflect bullets and that basically made him a hero already, or some kind of secret weapon like she was?

"Whooooooooah...."  Gasping, she stared as Lee disappeared with barely a whisper, moving like lightning on the wind far out of the harms way of that grenade.  He was obviously toying with the huge guy! How cool!

"Asshole! Try dodging...."  The huge man aimed his cannon into the air, dropped a strange looking shell in the barrel, then pulled the trigger.  "....THIS! SPECIAL DETONATOR! CLUSTER STRIKE!" Smoke erupted from the barrel....and then....

"GEARBITE!"  Cog's soared through the air like a bullet, every jagged tooth in her mouth transformed into violently spinning gears.  They sparked and spat cinder as she ripped the projectile out of the air, grinding it to pulp before it could even detonate.  Cog's collided with a nearby building with incredible impact.  She hadn't the time to be subtle with her physical exertion, but she was always a creature of grace.  So she landed feet first, her body twisting and contorting like a strange marionette on multilayered gearlike joints and allowed her to completely transfer her footing in an instant.  She then gentle fell to the ground, and cocked her head to the side offering an innocent.....albeit blood red smile.  With a giggle, she spat a chunk of deformed metal onto the ground, then wagged her finger.

"Naughty naughty big guy! No hurty innocent people kay!"  She made a pout and planted her hands on her hips.  "You are lucky I was here! Otherwise people could have gotten hurt!"  She grinned, laughed, then pointed to Lee.  "Did you like that?  C'mon! Now your turn!  Let him have it Master!"  She gave him a thumbs up.  "Show me how it's done!"

[Aromancer]

Viper Lee - 5

Oh no, not this guy. This guy was a chump. Lee had been referring to the brothers themselves when he said "the strongest ones here." But it was only a minor point of contention, and he wasn't even aware that Cogs had misinterpreted his statement, so it should be fine.

He had bigger things to worry about, anyway. Like how his new partner was literally eating bombs. "Um, you r-r-really shouldn't..." but it was too late; the girl spat out the explosives in her mouth before giving him a wide, bloodstained grin. "Ah. Great."

Alright, probably best to quit toying with this guy and bring him to justice before Cogs bit off more than she could chew. Lee began whipping his sword around his body, fast enough that he was a spinning wheel of destruction. Then he dug his blade into the ground, launching his entire body forward at unnatural speeds before ramming into the man with 5 feet of sharpened seastone.

The cannon was split right down the middle, it's wielder brought face-to-face with the mighty Shichishito a mere centimeter away from his nose. He began foaming at the mouth before falling unconscious, too terrified by Lee's prowess and his own near-death experience to bother putting up any more of a fight.

Lee stood up straight and sheathed his blade once more. Then he turned to look at Cogs.

A millisecond later, he was standing in front of her, his speed such that she hadn't even seen him move from point A to point B.

"L-l-listen, kid," he said sternly, not realizing that Cogs was actually older than him. "First off, that thing you did? That was super badass, but also really stupid. You need a lot more experience before you can catch stuff like that in midair." He looked over his shoulder at his sword. "Took me years of practice to be able to reflect my enemies' attacks with this thing."

"Second..." here he turned back to look at her again. "I'm n-n-nobody's master, got it? There hasn't been a good "Master" in the history of this messed-up world. I'm happy to teach you some tricks, but only as friends, not master and apprentice."

He sighed, then lowered his head. "But thanks. Redirecting explosives is a lot harder than normal projectiles. I might've gotten seriously hurt if you weren't there. Now come on!" He gestured for her to follow him towards the Reznikovs' hideout. "With you by my side, I think we can finally b-b-beat those Reznikovs once and for all!"

[Blitzfrieg]

Cog's was bouncing on her toes as Viper spoke, nodding and grinning as she absorbed absolutely nothing of what he was saying except for key elements.  He was unhappy with how she caught the grenade, but he thought it was cool, and basically she shouldn't call him master?  But he acknowledged her as a friend.....and said he taught tips to his friends.

"Awesome!  Wait so.....you are going to teach me to deflect bullets?!"  Cog's eyes might consume her face if they got any wider, or any brighter.  She squeeled, and jumped onto her Grindhouse ankle gears.  With a giggle she pirouetted around Viper, barely containing her excitement.

"I'm going to be so friggin cool!  We are going to be Best Friend Masters together!"  She shadowboxed with a serious face on, still drawing circles around Lee.  "Beating up the bad guys...."  She spoke as if some theme song was playing in her head, and her words were loosely lyrics.  "....looking super sweet...."  She pretended to deflect a bullet.  "....with secret training in the mountains...."  She suddenly stopped, her face furrowing in deep thought.

"No wait that doesn't fit the narrative.  There are no mountains here."  She looked up, still constantly following Lee absent mindedly, having been lost in her own thoughts.  If he wanted to lead her anywhere, this was the perfect time to do so.  She'd be very liable to simply follow along, building some bizarre construct in her head that no one but herself would really understand.

"Hey Friend Master Lee?  If you had a gritty backstory what would it be?  Like if you were the stoic veteran warrior taking a young newbie under his wing?"  She grumbled to herself.  "Or is that to cliche?  Maybe this is getting derivative...."

[Aromancer]

Viper Lee - 6

Lee couldn't help but chuckle at his new companion's enthusiasm. "I m-m-mean, not much I can teach you unless you have one of these," he said, jerking a thumb to the weapon on his back. "My own training was pretty sp-sp-specialized. Although I guess I could teach you about patience and focus..."

His musings occurred while Cogs was making up a song about the pair of them, but were interrupted when Cogs asked about his gritty backstory.

"Hm? O-oh! Uh, my b-b-backstory isn't anything too gritty. My dad was in deep with the fishman mafia, so I took up underground fighting to pay the b-b-bills. Eventually killed the guy my dad owed and set off on my own to pursue a career as a b-b-bounty hunter." There were a few more twists and turns, but a) they didn't really have the time for Lee to get too deep into it, and b) he was a little distracted by Cogs' use of the phrase "Friend Master." "Although, my run-in with that Daibukai Cassandra might be worth retelling... l-l-later."

While the two of them spoke, Lee led them towards the Reznikovs' lair. Once they were a few blocks away, he crouched into a stealthy position and signalled for Cogs to keep her voice down. "W-w-we're getting close to their hideout," he whispered to her, "so try and k-k-keep it down. We want to avoid causing a scene until we've located the t-t-targets."