[Flashback Thread] A Trainee of Justice and a Cheery Copper

[Bobbie]

Watching Lassa as he spoke, Simon wasn’t quite sure what to do in this situation. His conscience nagged at him as he couldn't just ditch the man here because things got inconvenient, especially after how kind he’s been to him so far. On the other hand, this wasn’t just about him wanting to avoid trouble, but also the fact that he himself might become a bit of an obstacle for someone as experienced as this young lad. It was very obvious that Lassa knew how to deal with trouble; Simon did not.

Simon didn’t interrupt Lassa and waited for him to finish, taking in every word carefully. He did have the option to report this in and then follow after him. That seemed ideal, as it would also put his mind at rest that if anything happened to them, they would be found before the situation would get too bad and backup would arrive, but there was no guarantee he'd make it in time.

“Okay.” He finally replied after it was settled that Lassa would go on ahead and wait 10 minutes. Simon only hoped that would be enough time for him to make up his mind and do the right thing.

With a heavy heart, he watched the investigator be on his way, and for a few seconds, there was no sign that Simon even moved at all, until at last, a step could be heard. And then another, and another. Each one grew fainter than the last until soon enough the footsteps couldn’t be heard anymore.

“I have to report this… if I don’t, I could get some serious backlash for not only failing to do so, but also proceeding in whatever Investigator Layton’s plan is without any form of back up.” He muttered to himself as he walked on, trying to ease his worries. “He’ll be fine…”

A few silent minutes passed and it wouldn’t be until Lassa reached the hideout that footsteps would be heard again from the direction where Lassa and Simon previously parted ways. They got louder, and faster, and seemed to have an odd echo as one set of feet stomping onto the ground could easily be mistaken for four. Sure enough, Simon soon emerged, just as Lassa must have been in the first half of his ten-minute observation period, but the officer was sprinting toward Lassa in anything but a stealthy manner. “We have to go! We have to go now!” he shouted out before even reaching his partner. “WE HAVE TO GO NOW, WE DON’T HAVE TEN MINUTES!” he continued as the source of that strange echo became evident – three more smugglers were chasing after Simon, each with a cutlass drawn.

Skidding to a stop, he grabbed Lassa’s shoulders, “There were three more of them on their way, I hid everything, but they think I stole the merchandise!” he rattled off in a single breath. “We have to lose them!” in a panic, Simon grabbed Lassa and pulled him away from the stairs to the underground access, and into the actual bar instead, where loud music was playing and there were plenty of people to fill the dance floor and the tables.

---

Simon: #d2ce2f

[Tokoz]

 Lassa was expecting to hear footsteps immediately, or be waiting almost the entire 10 minutes. He was not expecting to see Simon come rushing towards him and drag him into a noisy bar, being followed at pace by three angry looking thugs in a similar vein to the first two smugglers. Oh joy, they had been made. Well, time for the wild improvisation stage of plans going wrong. 

As they pushed into the bar, Lassa narrowed his eyes and looked around. "Right. Move around, they might try to drag us out of here or start a fight but odds are they can't just start swinging in a place this crowded. Here, take this." As they passed a table, he snagged a hat off the back of someone's chair and plopped it on Simon's head, then shrugged off his suit jacket and draped it over the conspicuous police uniform. 

Quickly stealing a seat at a table that had been abandoned by some of the drunken dancers (It was barely noon, this was shockingly busy. Maybe it was a day off. Or people had been partying all night.), Lassa carefully waited. Any second now, the thugs should pass by without noticing him, and then he could-

"You. Where's your thieving friend?"

Or, alternatively, one could grab his arm and spin him around on his stool, glowering with sneered lip and furrowed brow. 

"Are you talking about him?" Lassa said, pointing over the thug's shoulder at a direction entirely different to Simon's current location. When he began to turn to look, the pointing hand slammed down on his shoulder and dragged him forward far enough for the other hand to reach.

Lassa's eyes narrowed. "Nerve Breakdown." He hissed as he slammed an elbow into the side of the thug's neck, cutting off the beginnings of the retort that was starting to form and knocking the criminal out. Carefully standing up, he maneuvered the man into the seat he had been using and said in a louder tone "I told you that North Blue Vodka was too much too fast. Just sit tight, I'll get you some water." 

Standing up, the 'Investigator' moved around to try and find Simon and get them out of here before one of these idiots thought to inform the smugglers that they were about to be found out. 

[Bobbie]

Simon followed after Lassa, nervously looking over his shoulder for a moment to see how close their pursuers were. Thankfully, as the three of them entered the bar, they didn’t seem to notice either of them just yet as they were all looking around in equal parts confusion and frustration at all the commotion that made their task increasingly difficult.

As the hat was placed on his head, the officer reached up to adjust it and then took off his sunglasses, assuming they would be more of a defining feature to give away his identity at this point than anything else.

Next came Lassa’s own jacket, draped onto his shoulders to conceal the distinguishable police uniform that Simon wore. He slipped his arms through the sleeves to wear it properly and watched as Lassa sat at a table while he kept going until he reached the far end of the bar. He sat down at the bar and ordered a drink to try his best to look natural, and perhaps it would also help his nerves too. While the bartender poured his drink, he rested his elbows on the bar and looked around to watch Lassa, right where he left him at the table, then looked around the bar as inconspicuously as he could manage. “Hello… where does that lead to?” he quietly asked himself as he spotted a door on the opposite side of the entrance that had a sign that read ‘RESTRICTED ACCESS – STAFF ONLY’ in bold print.

As his fellow law representative raised his voice, Simon’s attention turned back to him to see Lassa position the smuggler in his seat and then make his way to the bar, but it seemed that he hadn’t spotted him yet. It looked like it was time to go, so he downed his drink in one gulp, and then reached out to try and get his attention with a wave, but he accidentally struck a server who was passing by and caused them to spill a tray full of drinks.

“Ah, watch it! What’s wrong with you!?” they snapped, as the glasses crashed to the floor after most of their contents spilling onto themselves and another poor soul who was nearby.

“I am so sorry!” Simon quickly stood up as the commotion grew, trying to pat the server’s shirt dry with some paper towels, but was soon pushed away when the individual who had drinks spilt all over him grabbed the server in a fit of rage and threw him across to another table, shouting angry, drunken slurs at him. One thing swiftly led to another and the entire bar soon became an arena of drunk contestants, having a good time by placing all their pent up energy and stupidity into an intense bar fight across the dance floor.

His eyes wide at what he had just accidentally started, he watched as the remaining two smugglers were pulled into the chaos, whether they liked it or not.

Simon then looked toward Lassa. Getting through the crowd to reach the door through which they entered seemed very difficult if not impossible, so he began gesturing wildly, frantically pointing to the door that led to some restricted area as he desperately tried to catch his eye.

---

Server: #2b53ec

Simon: #d2ce2f

[Tokoz]

 It seemed that in the few minutes that he had taken his eyes off Simon, the police officer had managed to start a bar brawl. Not to side with the probably lazy, possibly corrupt sergeant back at the station, but he could see why the man had been annoyed with the somewhat bumbling junior officer. 

Then again, it seemed as though Simon was more than aware of his limits and failings. He hadn't asked for this. He had been given a promotion despite his lack of desire, and now he was struggling.

Catching the frantic waving, he slipped through the crowd and joined Simon. "Staff area, hmm? Sounds good, let's go." Heading over to the door, he pressed against the door and slid inside, gesturing for his temporary partner to follow. 

Inside was a typical set of stored alcoholic beverages and glasses, the sort of thing you'd see in the back of every bar in the world. What was slightly unusual was the rug in one corner with the slight bump on one side. Moving over, Lassa tried to pick up the rug, only to find it was attached to whatever was underneath. Glancing under it, he groaned.

"Really? They didn't even make it level? This is just embarrassing." There appeared to be a trap door, meant to open sideways, with the rug attached to the top in order to hide it even if it was closed behind someone. This was sort of ruined by the fact the bump was fairly visible. Maybe there was usually a crate over it or something.

"Right, the smugglers will probably only be distracted for a little while. We can either go down here, or you can block off this side while I slip around the side. I'm sure there's something here that can block it off." 

He didn't want to go in entirely without backup, but letting someone escape out of the other entrance would be would be a potentially fatal mistake. 

[Bobbie]

Following Lassa through the door and into the restricted area, he was surprised to find how empty it was. It was remarkably peaceful, especially in comparison to all the commotion going on outside it, which was probably what was keeping all the staff busy. Bottles upon bottles on the shelves caught Simon’s attention for a moment, quite drawn in by the rustic charm that this supposed storage room seemed to possess, until a hidden trapdoor was found.

Following the investigator, he approached the trapdoor and leaned forward, his hands on his knees, to get a better look at it without having to lower himself all the way to the ground. “What are the chances that it’s only more storage space down there?” he asked, a slight hint of hope in his tone as he wished that all of this could have just been one big misunderstanding and everyone could return to their ordinary boring lives. He had to admit, however, he was enjoying the company that this man brought with him, if nothing else. Apart from being chased down alleyways, he could see how this sort of thing would be viewed as an exciting adventure. Unfortunately, Simon was as plain and ordinary as they come, and adventure was not something he generally looked for.

Simon nodded as the two options were put forward. Just as he was about to reply, a loud crash, followed by a bang could be heard as the door slipped open just a crack, somebody having clearly been flung against it and collapsed to the floor with his arm flopping in through the crack, limp. He whipped his head around to look at the door, flinching at the scene of a man's arm lying to still. Is he dead?

“Uhh, I’ll go with you!” He replied, not very keen on being left alone. Despite the situation being what it is, and as scared as he was, Simon never failed to offer a big friendly smile.

---

Simon: #d2ce2f

[Tokoz]

 Lassa blinked as a sudden crash echoed against the door, cutting off his initially intended comment about the likelihood of additional storage, given how irritatingly difficult it would be to carry kegs and casks up a ladder. Wow. Someone really didn't like whoever just flopped against the door. 

"Probably a good idea. Going back through there right now is maybe-"

*SKRANG* "OH GOD MY GUITAR! AND MY SPLEEN! I CAN ONLY AFFORD TO GET ONE FIXED!" 

"... Unwise." 

Opening the trap door, he began to climb down the ladder. When his feet hit the ground, he looked about. The ladder led down into a small hidden dock, with a small ship tied up and a variety of hammocks, crates, and other such things laying about. One crate was open, and weapons were visible within. 

There were also a good few smugglers gathered around a table down the steps, who were currently looking up at the sounds of the ruckus above with curiosity. The 6 smugglers had apparently been playing cards prior to the fight breaking out, and were muttering to each other about the noise. 

Lassa's eyes narrowed, and a cold expression stole over his face for a moment as they glanced back at the box of weapons. A simple black-iron ball with a fuse sticking out. Reaching out, Lassa grabbed the grenade and held it up to a lighter he drew from his pocket. As the fuse burned down, he suddenly tossed it into the middle of the table. 

There was a shout of surprise, then an explosion of smoke. Lassa's face remained neutral, but inside he was blinking with surprise. That was supposed to be an explosive. Oh well.

"Cover me." He said, drawing his own pistol and the one he had stolen from the thug earlier, and since reloaded. Running into the smoke, he fired into the thigh of two of the smugglers, and turned to locate the others. Turned just in time to see a smuggler with a sword yell and begin swinging it towards his gut.

He had enough time to do one thing, and so he tensed. The sword hit his stomach, and he gave a choked cry, and then after a moment slumped backwards onto the floor, seeming to vanish into the smoke still around waist-height. 

------------------

Technique Used: Tekkai (“Iron Mass”)

Tensing their muscles, the user becomes an unmoving mass as hard as iron, able to absorb attacks that would otherwise cause significant damage to their forms. Tekkai is an effective defence against solid attacks, though sufficient power or attacks that don’t rely on force alone can overwhelm it.

[Bobbie]

Simon cringed and winced in response to the screams of horror that they could hear through the door that was now stuck ajar, the man’s arm keeping it from closing. Wasting no time, he quickly climbed down the ladder after Lassa, eager to get away from the fight that was going on in the bar, and he promptly closed the trapdoor after him. Luckily, he managed to do so without making a sound.

Once he reached solid ground and unmounted the ladder, Simon looked around him. “Wow, this is a lot of stuff… how long do you think they’ve been hiding out down here and smuggling all these weapons?” he asked, his gaze also falling upon the same crate that caught Lassa’s eye. He would have picked one up out of curiosity, had Lassa not done so before him. Then the young man brought out a lighter.

“What… are you doing?”

He brought the lighter to the fuse.

“What are you doing!?”

He threw the grenade right into the centre of the table where some smugglers were sitting and playing cards.

“Are you insane? I thought this was an intel operation!” he whispered at, rather than to, investigator Layton. His shoulders tensed as he was also prepared for a big explosion, only to hear a puff of smoke expel from its casing and fill the air surrounding the smugglers.

“Cover you?? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!?” he hissed and desperately tried to grab at the seemingly insane person that he stood there with, but he moved away too quickly. “Cover him… cover him, cover him, cover him… with what?” he frantically looked around for anything that could help, but he had no idea what all of these things were, and he wasn’t about to just fire his own gun. Going a full 360, Simon frantically looked for anything that could be used without a fire source – unlike Lassa, he did not carry a lighter on him.

Crouching down low, he found a smaller container that seemed to hold little spiked pegs. Picking up the box, he swung it with all his might to send them all flying out of their container and making it rain what were essentially makibishi spikes as he prayed that Lassa would not be below them as they fell.

Many cries would come from the smoke, as one by one each smuggler revealed their location either because of a spike that fell out of the sky and struck them, or because they stepped on a device designed to hurt the sole of one’s feet almost as much as a legendary lego brick.

Before he could begin digging through another crate, the trapdoor above him started to rattle and was suddenly swung open. Down came two smugglers, clutching onto the ladder prongs. "No, no, no, no, no!" muttering to himself, Simon grabbed the ladder and tried to shake it, to no avail, the weight of the two fully grown men clinging to it proving to anchor the structure down fairly well. However, he did unintentionally block their path from lowering themselves all the way, prompting the lower of the two to take out a cutlass and start swinging it at Simon. With a quick duck, he was able to dodge the strike, which hit the side of the ladder instead. It took some effort for the smuggler to pull the blade loose and then tried again, and again, each time his sword hit the wood, it chipped away at it, until finally-

Knock, knock, knock... CREEEAAAK

Now lacking the support of the two vertical beams, the ladder gave way under the weight of the two men, as it collapsed sideways and sent both men rolling down the stairs and into the smokescreen, like two bowling balls, right on mark to hit the pins.

---

Simon: #d2ce2f

[Tokoz]

 As the smuggler who had just hit Lassa turned around, noticing Simon, there was a deep creaking like the bones of an old man rising from a chair. The ladder leading upwards cracked and fell, tumbling to the ground and sending a pair of the man's fellow goons spinning down into the ground and bowling him over. 

Whatever Lassa's plan had been, he had clearly overestimated his ability to handle 6 armed men on his own. Maybe he had been trying to keep Simon out of the fight. Maybe he had just been overconfident. Whatever the case, he was a dexterous fellow, not strong in the way required to win that fight. 

On the ground, unseen in the slowly clearing smoke, Lassa reached into his jacket and poured a vial down his throat. His form twitched and shook. 

Thankfully, she could be.

As the remaining couple smugglers without injured feet or concussions turned to look at the direction their compatriots had come from, a much taller shape rose from behind them. Just over 9 feet, the woman was heralded by a cracking of knuckles before driving both her fists down onto the top of the smuggler's heads.

"Boo."


With twin yelps, they fell, and she quickly grabbed a wooden chair and slammed it down onto one of the rising shapes. Despite the increase in numbers, the distraction and impromptu bowling had shifted the odds.

The figure now more clearly visible was taller and more muscular than Lassa had been, with a thin gap in the front of their dress shirt showing the slightly bruised but very much not cut open skin on their stomach. Glancing back at Simon, Lassa called out "Are you okay?" as she tried to dodge around the recent influx of caltrops, focusing on the smugglers that were still attempting to get back up. 

"And to answer your question, it is. These people have intel on someone much more important, and if they run, I lose the only lead I have." 


[Switch Trait Activated: Newkama Constitution]
[Inhuman Dexterity has become Inhuman Strength]

[Bobbie]

Simon was in shock at how he somehow successfully got rid of the two coming down the ladder and now also prevented any more from following the same path. Raising a hand to his chest, he tried to catch his breath and needed to sit down on the steps for a moment.

As he took the time to take everything in and see if anything else needed to be done, he watched the smoke cloud, fearful that he wouldn’t see Lassa rise from it again. He had seen him quite clearly swiped at by a blade before falling backwards and disappearing into the smoke, and he had yet to reappear. He couldn’t tell if it had been to a vital location or not, but he could see that it was somewhere to his front torso.

"Oh no... Inspector Layton!"

Getting up from his seated position, he began to make his way down the steps to approach the smoke. He had no idea what he would do once he got there, but he needed to make sure Lassa was alright. Simon only made it down a few steps however, before a colossal figure of 9 feet suddenly came out of the smoke that seemed to dissipate around it and disappear into thin air.

Frozen on the spot, the young officer, still wearing Lassa’s jacket and the stolen hat, stared as two massive fists rose to the air and then slammed down upon the two smugglers who were still present and facing Simon, completely oblivious to the monstrosity that seemed to grow out of the ground behind them. His eyes grew wider as Simon trembled and his knees buckled, causing him to sit down on the steps once more while his gaze remained fixed on the significantly larger and decidedly more feminine-looking Lassa. That is Lassa, isn't it? What was more, they seemed to be completely unharmed. A bruise could be made out on their chest, but it was impossible to determine the severity of it from this distance; either way, there was certainly no blood.

“How… are you not bleeding?” he asked in a whisper, failing to reply to the question that he was asked. Is he okay? That question didn’t necessarily need an answer – his face had become so pale as the blood drained from it by what he saw, that he looked like he could faint any second.

“Intel… the only lead… what is going on?” as per usual, Simon repeated the words that were uttered to him as he tried to make sense of the situation, but nothing made sense. He staggered to his feet, but soon found that that was a mistake, as his eyes rolled back a mere second later, and everything went black as his body collapsed and began tumbling down the stairs.

---

Simon: #d2ce2f

[Tokoz]

 Before Lassa could answer to any of the questions put to her, Simon's eyes rolled back in his head and he hit the ground, passed out cold. Well. This was... unfortunate. Time to wildly improvise. 

Lassa quickly downed another vial as she began to rummage around, tying up the various smugglers and looking through their papers. 

After about 10 minutes, if Simon hadn't woken up, he (and it was he again) would kneel down and tap the side of his face until he came to. He had found some papers, and had a few prisoners. A couple of the smugglers had not been in a state to be tied up, and had been quietly weighted down and dumped behind the ship. 

"Are you awake?" 

Once Simon was awake again, he stood up. "Feeling okay? You seemed to be a bit out of it. Might have been something in that smoke." Gesturing to the smugglers, he snapped the papers he found. "Seems as though these idiots have been acting as a waypoint for a smuggling route. It also seems as though there has been some 'donations' to the local constabulary to ignore things."

He leaned forwards, raising an eyebrow. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you? I'd hate to think you've been lying to me and you were working with this scum the whole time." 

Hopefully this would somewhat distract Simon from the fact that he had changed into a woman, taken a sword to the gut, and tried to grenade the smugglers to finish this quickly. Plans had gone... fairly wrong, and Lassa was actually panicking a bit. He didn't want to hurt someone innocent, but this mission had gone poorly and he was now improvising wildly in order to get things back on track. 

[Bobbie]

Simon remained unconscious for the entire duration that Lassa took care of cleaning up. When he finally did stir, he let out a groan as his eyes finally opened, and he reacted to the gentle tapping on the side of his face, turning his head away and scrunching his nose a bit.

“What? I’m awake.” He sat up and rubbed his head which had taken a bit of a beating on his way down and his hat has since been lost. Wincing a little, he nodded and sighed. “Yeah, I’m okay. Yeah… yeah, probably the smoke-“ he started to repeat whatever was said to him, but his lips then stopped moving as he realised that that wasn’t quite right. Looking up at Lassa, he stared and blinked, then stared some more, completely dumbfounded by what he was seeing right before his very own eyes.

Suddenly, Lassa was leaning forward toward him, and Simon recoiled, pushing his back against the edge of the stairs behind him to move away from him, still seated. “W-What?” he hesitated a moment, having missed what the actual accusation was entirely as he was too lost in thought. How is he… he’s a he again? And… his wound…

Without warning, Simon raised a hand and awkwardly placed it right on Lassa’s chest, getting a little handsy as he pressed against where he was sure he had seen bruises before. Raising his other hand, he suddenly began tugging at Lassa’s shirt to try and get a look. There should be a wound… a cut… it was here somewhere!

“You were hit…” although brief, some form of an explanation for his actions finally came out as his hands carried out their explorations until they'd be forced to stop. “And you were… you were a woman.” He said, before he quickly withdrew his hands if they hadn't been seized already, sprang to his feet and moved backwards away from Lassa, further down the stairs. “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to…” he gestured toward his chest, “You know, I wasn't trying... I just… I-I saw you last night, you were a woman, and you were tall. Like… really taaaaaall.” He elongated his description as if that would imply a greater height.

---

Simon: #d2ce2f

[Tokoz]

 Simon seemed off-balance, and Lassa was just congratulating himself for the ingenious deception when there was suddenly a hand on his chest. Well. Clearly he hadn't been that distracted. 

"You know, if you wanted to feel my abs, you could have just asked." He said, only sheer force of will keeping him from making any sign that he was blushing a bit at the blatantly flirtatious nature of that statement. 

Brushing Simon's hands off the cut shirt, he gestured to the slit in the white fabric and conspicuous lack of blood. "I managed to escape a gut shot by a hair. It just skimmed across my shirt, see?" 

Unbuttoning the shirt more, he showed his uncut stomach before buttoning it back up again, gesturing for his coat back in the meantime to cover up the damaged undergarment. "As for being a woman.... I don't think I appear to be a woman upon current inspection, but I suppose that's flattering in a way." 

Pointing back at the broken bits of table and chairs, he shrugged. "Maybe you saw me climb onto something? I'm not really sure what you saw, so...?" He gave a shrug. Hopefully this would convince Simon, but he was starting to get the feeling the police officer wasn't about to let this go. 

This whole mission had gone poorly in terms of subtlety, but he had managed to identify this group and shut it down. Without any witnesses but one, even, and while he knew what the standard protocol would be for such a thing, he was hesitant to take such a step. Even if it wasn't killing a fellow law enforcement official, it was... wasteful. Pointless. 

Dark Justice was subtle, surgical. It wasn't pointless slaughter or more bodies than absolutely necessary. 

"Either way... I think we need to talk about this." He said, again trying to change the subject. It was a note from one of the smugglers reporting about who was amiable to some monetary persuasion in exchange for looking the other way. Sergeant Miguel seemed to be topping that list.  

"Your boss appears to be making some deals on the side, hmm?" He said, flicking the paper. "Is there any reason I shouldn't be marching back there to arrest him?" 

[Bobbie]

Lassa’s charisma seemed to be powerful to sway any audience as even Simon unexpectedly felt his own heart skip a beat at his comment. Instead, he frowned to cover his own embarrassment up and glared at him. “That’s not what I was trying to do, and you know it.” He muttered, watching as the younger of the pair, clearly a male at that current moment, unbuttoned his shirt to prove both that fact and the absence of any cuts or bruises.

With a sigh, he nodded, “Sorry, yes… this is yours.” He took the jacket off and carefully held it out to him again. “Thanks for that.” He muttered, puzzle still written all over the officer’s face as he struggled to connect what Lassa was saying to what he was sure he saw. “I know what I saw…” he replied, with a slight waver in his tone. Right?

Glancing in the direction he was pointed toward, he looked at the tables and chairs and raised an eyebrow. He supposed that, technically, maybe that could have been the case? If the tables and chairs were well concealed within the smoke, then he wouldn’t have seen him get up on them – but then why wouldn’t anybody else in that fight get up on them too instead of just allowing Lassa to tower over them like that? What about those pretty big fists that pummelled the smugglers down? He spent a good matter of seconds staring at the bits of furniture as he considered the possibilities, until Lassa moved on to another topic.

Turning to face him again, Simon took a deep breath and exhaled through his nose, a very unsatisfied frown on his face. “Talk about what?” his question was promptly answered as it would have been with or without it being asked. “Miguel? No, that can’t be right. Let me see.” He extended a hand to have the paper. “May I?”

---

Simon: #d2ce2f

[Tokoz]

 "I can neither confirm nor deny whether I know what you were doing." Lassa said with a slightly amused shrug. Taking his coat back also gave him access to his sunglasses again, which he put on in order to cover his eyes and give him a chance to examine the rest of the room for a moment. 

It seemed like there was only two entrances, and Simon had accidentally ruined one of them. Well, unless you counted the ocean, but the covered dock was closed. Presumably they only opened it at night.  

He could also see Simon eyeing the furniture, and had to groan slightly in his head. 'Dammit. He's not buying this, is he?'. Would he be better off admitting some part of the truth? No, that was hewing too close to his real identity. That was risky, especially for a local cop like this. He knew what he saw, he said. Unfortunately, that was both accurate and very very wrong. 

Handing over the piece of paper, he gave Simon a chance to read it. After a minute, he spoke in a low, serious tone. 

"Listen, Simon. You mentioned not wanting to get glory, to do the job because someone had to. So, I hope you understand when I say I am doing the same thing. I'm not a pirate or rebel or something in disguise, I'm just here to do a job. One that went... not exactly as I had planned."

He ran a hand through his hair. "That being said... I'm not supposed to be famous. I'm not Sora, Warrior of the Seas or some famous do-gooder. I'm just here to find information to keep people like this from continuing to do what they do. From the looks of it, Miguel is possibly responsible for allowing that to continue."

He glanced at the smugglers. "For one, this group needs to be arrested, possibly executed for piracy depending on what else they've done. It's the only way to keep more evil from creeping into Water 7. But also, we need to keep what happened here hushed up. If people are expecting me, I can't do my job."

He looked back, an honest appeal in his eyes, only partially aware of how harsh the first part of that sounded. It seemed Simon had a bargain to consider. 

[Bobbie]

Once Simon had the paper in his hand, he looked down at it, reading all the names on the list. It took him an oddly long time, longer than necessary to simply read a couple of names on a list, and he was deathly silent as his gaze was fixed on the paper while he listened to everything that Lassa said.

Visibly shaken up, he swallowed uncomfortably, before he folded the paper in his hand, but held onto it. “You can change your shape and form… withstand being slashed at by a very sharp weapon without shedding a single drop of blood or sustain any kind of injury whatsoever, and you can take down- I don’t even know how many of them there were!” he looked at Lassa, gauging his reaction as he spoke more slowly now. He was calm now and equally convinced.

He hesitated as he looked down at the folded paper again, feeling absolutely horrible for what he was about to say – but what choice did he have?

“I’ll stay quiet about everything that I saw down here… nothing out of the ordinary, just an empty dock beside a bar.” He said with a shameful nod, before he looked up at Lassa. “But I can’t let you turn Miguel in…” the look in Simon’s eyes was conflicted. He was a horrible liar, and he knew it, so he didn’t even bother trying to mask his feelings. He felt terribly guilty for not only aiding somebody get away with criminal activity, but perhaps more so, for blackmailing Lassa in this manner. He pocketed the paper, keeping his hand over it, keeping it safe and sound.

Miguel will blame me and he’ll take me down with him… he’s a sergeant, what am I? I’ve only just acquired this position, he’d take me out in the blink of an eye! I’ll lose my job. I’ll lose everything.

“I am sorry… just let me talk to him.” He continued, naively believing that it could make a difference. “Give him another chance. Look, if he’s really as bad as you say he is, he’ll show up again on another list, right? With you on his tail, you’ll find that out pretty easily, but it can’t be this one.” Simon let out an exasperated sigh, "He's not a bad guy, he just has a way of getting away with things. He's got all these connections and stuff - and - I will stop talking now." again, he paused to assess what Lassa's immediate response would be, before reinforcing his main point. "You can't turn him in."

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Simon: #d2ce2f