Logs:More of You

More of You
cn: violence
Dramatis Personae Akihiro, Blink	2021-09-30 "I did not think that's what you meant by 'not going easy'!"
Location Lower East Side
An alleyway, somewhere in the heart of the Lower East Side. The bustle from the city-street at the alley's entrance echoes down the channel; three stories of barred windows and bricks frame it on either side. After about 25 yards or so, there's just a dead-end -- the back-wall of a comic-book shop. There's a locked door and a dumpster -- and not much else. At the alleyway's entrance, however... there's three men. Young, white, and clad in leather jackets -- a two-handed sword is stitched onto the backs of either jacket, with a snake aggressively wrapped 'round the hilt. It looks like a new design. The man in front -- the leader -- looks like he's in his 40s, but trying desperately to look like he's in his 20s; he's got that 'Fonzie trying to still be Fonzie way past his prime' look. 'Greaser'. Knucklehead #1 stands behind him, to his left. He's nearly 6 foot 6, with fists like cinderblocks and a face to match. His nose looks like it's probably been broken more than a few times; his head is shaved down to peach-fuzz, with a patchwork of scars across it. He's so big that they had to cut the jacket just for him to fit in it. 'Brick'. Knucklehead #2 stands to his right. He looks like... the youngest out of the group. Early 20s, maybe even late teens -- he's got an anxious, frantic energy to him... and a face that's unusually lanky, almost sharp. His nose is more narrow, and oddly curved; almost like a beak. His hands keep drifting to his waist, where he's got... some sort of sheathed sword? 'Beak'. They stroll forward, into the alleyway... after their prey. Greaser's grinning ear to ear, chewing a wad of gum, a thumb hooked in his trousers. "Hey hey hey... if it ain't our favorite mud-blood." “You know, if you idiots we’re trying to be stealthy following me in here, I’d really hate to see what it’s like when you’re being loud.” Akihiro turns to greet the men with an entirely too warm smile, unshouldering a blue Nike brand bat bag and resting his hand in the slightly unzipped top. He’s dressed for the weather, sporting a black leather jacket with brown rings around the biceps over a grey t-shirt and worn denim jeans. “So, how’re we doing this? One at a time, or you boys want me all at once?” His gaze moves past them to the younger man with them and his lips curl up into a smirk, “Maybe he wants to go first, looks like it’s his first time. I can’t promise I’ll be gentle though.” "Aw... ain't that sweet, boys? He thinks we were tryin' to be sneaky," Greaser says, flipping his head back to throw Brick that giant grin. There's a distinct odor coming off of him; one that Akihiro could smell from a mile away. It smells like... well, it smells like over-used fry-grease. Maybe it's whatever he's using for that hair? Speaking of: Greaser flips out a switch-blade, except as he snaps it open, it becomes apparent it's a switch-comb. An expensive one, to boot. He uses it to comb back that over-conditioned mop he calls hair... and that gross, greasy scent thickens. Most folk might not pick it up, but for someone with keen senses, it's... 'pungent'. Beak's nostrils flare as he grimaces... and proceeds to brandish that sword. It's some sort of knock-off imitation katana; the sort of thing you'd buy on late-night television... or maybe from a vendor with a name like 'COLD STEEL'. "Th' fuck you calling young you weak-ass piece of shit? I'll--" Greaser holds his hand up for quiet, the stroke of his comb just about to finish. Then... he flicks the comb out, snapping it up at the last minute... sending a thick glob of glistening hair-grease at Akihiro. The grease... is sizzling. Like acid. "Fuck him up." Brick and Beak launch forward, the former's footsteps thundering -- the latter blurring ahead like a speedy little bird, imitation katana gripped tightly in hand. Akihiro doesn’t budge, the grease splattering across his face with an audible sizzle, the skin starting to blister and peel back. Instead of flinching away he steadies himself, twists his hip, and draws an authentic katana from his bag, one you’d expect to pay several thousand dollars for at auction and swats Birdman’s blade away and planting a push kick squarely into his chest. “{Fancy yourself a swordsman, boy?}” he taunts in Japanese, his face turning deadly serious as he brings his sword up into a guard and shuffling forward to meet Brick’s charge. High above this brawl, a flash of purple light expands into a swirling portal from which Blink appears, apparently unconcerned that she immediately starts freefalling. She's wearing a lightweight pink-and black brocade cape, short in front but long enough in back to flutter dramatically behind her. The rest of her outfit is less flashy, but still unusual enough to draw attention even if she didn't just fall out of a purple hole in the sky: a pink Mandarin tunic and purple wide-leg pants, both trimmed in black, and soft calf-length black boots. She frowns as she sees the showdown in progress, and rotates herself in the air to fall head-first through a portal that has suddenly appeared beneath her. At the same moment a matching portal appears diagonally behind the Swords of Tyr, and Blink leaps out of it with the momentum from falling, though to the less physics-minded it probably looks as magical as the portals themselves. Up close she is even more unusual, between her disturbingly large green irises, purple skin markings, long pointed ears and magenta hair in a messy herringbone braid. "Hey, you all should walk away while you still can." Her hands glow purple as she settles into a fighting stance. "Got 'em!" Greaser announces, still holding the comb with his thumb as he uses both hands to do 'finger-guns' at Akihiro. He makes a clicking noise with his tongue. But when he notices that Akihiro isn't screaming... he frowns, clearly perturbed. Meanwhile, Beak's swooping in close, his sword striking Akihiro's with a flash -- eyes suddenly as wide as saucers -- right before the foot makes contact. WHOOSH -- Beak is flung back, arms flailing wildly in the air, flung by the kick like a pin-ball (he feels a lot lighter than Akihiro might have expected). He's trying to shout something as he stumbles backward, waving the sword frantically... but he doesn't have much in the way of air-supply, at the moment. It sounds like an extremely disjointed attempt at wheezy, broken Japanese. Brick, meanwhile -- slower than Beak but significantly stronger -- is swooping in to just try and tackle Akihiro with the full weight of his form. One arm held out. Akihiro can feel it through his feet; each step he's taking indicates a man who is significantly heavier than he looks. And he already looks like he's clocking 250 pounds. The flash and swirl of purple light is missed by both Beak and Brick... but not Greaser, who's head cants up at the first flash of light, brows clenched together... only to stare in confusion as she apparently... vanishes? When she lands right behind him, he does a double-take -- looking from where she is to where she was, then back to where she is -- and proceeds to scowl. "Oh, fuckin' great," he tells her, his hands gleaming as they excrete a greyish, semi-transparent grease. Grease that sizzles when it hits the concrete. "More of you." At the last moment Akihiro throws himself out of the way and turns to cut down the mountain of a man’s back, his head tilting so he can track the other two without looking at them. “You feel that you pasty fuck? That’s fear.” The flesh on the side of his face starts bubbling violently before it pulls itself back together like nothing happened. “Don’t go easy on them.” "That's what I thought," Blink says, "and that's all the deescalation I'm going to give!" She flicks one wrist and the glow around it vanishes as a portal opens in front of Brick, more or less where Akihiro was just a moment ago. The matching portal opens above Greaser's head. A quick eye can see the top of Greaser's greasy head through one portal and Brick's thundering charge through the other. The blade carves a swathe across the back of Brick's coat, but the blade refuses to dig much deeper than a superficial wound -- the edge clashing against his spine. It's like Akihiro just took a swing at... well, a cinderblock. "Motherfuckin' --" he starts, stumbling forward, trying to slow himself by slamming a heel on the ground and pivot -- just as he's already slipping through Blink's portal. "The fuck kind of shit is 'deescalation'? I'm gonna melt your ass, you fu--OHFUCK!" Brick's pivot doesn't slow him enough to stop him from suddenly slamming into the top of Greaser's head, right into that slicked back do. And once he does, he's stumbling, the shift in gravity putting him off-balance -- tumbling back through the portal only to crash atop of Greaser in a violent smash. As Greaser writhes beneath Brick, Brick grunts and tries to re-orient himself... only for a loud sizzling noise -- accompanied with the scent of burning asphalt -- to emerge from beneath his back, where Greaser's pinned. Brick starts screaming, flailing to get off -- his heavy, swinging fists threatening to clobber Blink if she gets too close. Meanwhile, Beak has recovered -- the light-boned Nazi has rolled into a crouch, his own blade held out horizontally as his eyes narrow... and he darts forward with two rapid steps -- the last of which catapults him in the air, soaring nearly 6 feet up as he stabs the sword down toward the side of Akihiro's shoulders...! “Watch out, the big one is built like a brick wall.” Akihiro calls out towards Blink as he turns to face the flying fascist. Instead of defending himself he actually opens his guard, letting the blade sink into his flesh and using the opening to drive the point of his own blade through the smaller man’s submental space out out the top of his head. Without missing a beat he yanks the cheap katana out of his body is a spray of gore that would make Kurosawa proud. With surprisingly little effort he frees his own blade and moves to regroup with Blink. Light on her feet, Blink slips sideways out of Brick's reach, but her steps faulter when she sees Akihiro get impaled, and then direction of his next attack. "Ta ma de" she cries. "I did not think that's what you meant by 'not going easy'!" Brick grunts, continuing to flail, his hollers and shouts degenerating into screams; a hand manages to seize hold of the wall to his left, dragging himself up... revealing gouges of chalk-like 'flesh' that have sizzled away across his lower spine and the back of his thighs, eating through the fabric of his trousers and leather jacket. The affected areas are coated in a smear of sizzling transparent-grey grease-goop; he's frantically hurling himself at the ground, rolling back and forth, trying to smear it off of him. Greaser, meanwhile, is struggling to get to his feet -- his own clothes bubbling and melting in strips (though the grease doesn't appear to be melting his flesh). "Fucking HELL, what the fuck man--" he starts, just as he catches... oh. Beak, wide-eyed and shocked, jaw slightly sagging as a blade drives its way underneath his jaw and emerges like a crown from the back of his forehead... his grip on his sword-hilt going slack. Beak drops to his knees, his body like a puppet with the strings cut; he soon slumps to the asphalt, face-first -- smk. "...shit." Greaser's shoving his way to his feet, backing the hell away toward the exit -- clothes continuing to sizzle -- trying to keep Blink and Akihiro in front of him. Both his hands are extended, the skin of his palms (and the length of his arms) shimmering with melty goopy acidic grease. “They came here to kill me, figured they’d be ready to die too.” Akihiro offers in way of apology to blink, turning his full attention to Greaser. It’s his turn to rush now, and he’s much faster than the bikers were probably expecting, and in the blink of an eye he’s on top of the man, launching a snap kick at the side of his acidic head. "Well yes but--" Blink shuts her mouth, lips pressed tight. "Gan," she mutters, much quieter. She opens a portal under Brick and drops him behind Greaser as he retreats, her other hand glowing in readiness to intercept any further acid hurling. "If I knew you had a sword on you I might not have butted in, you can clearly handle yourself. But don't you think these guys have learned their lesson?" "You fuckin' -- fuckin' -- Jesus CHRI--" Greaser proceeds to topple back over Brick, who's hollering and bellowing is now cut off as he tumbles out of a portal suspended in the air behind him. There's a brief frantic scramble, followed by a few more screams as Greaser's arms brush up against Brick's in the tangled attempt to escape. "Fuck! FUCK! Stop -- gettin' in my way--!" They're almost frantically stumbling back to escape from the alleyway, even if it's pretty clear that Brick's limping heavily -- the stench of charred asphalt intensifying. He hurls the still-smoldering coat aside, even as he clambors up to stumble toward the exit... “Bring more men next time.” Akihiro spits on the ground towards the retreating bikers before heading back to his discarded bag. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to use it.” he admits, retrieving a cloth and cleaning the gore off his blade. “I’ll admit it was overkill, but they drew first blood. You’d think after all the men they lost they’d learn their lesson.” His shoulders rise and fall in a shrug before sheathing his blade and shouldering the bag once more and looking around, “You uh.. mind giving me a lift to the roof to change clothes?” Blink's stance only relaxes once the surviving Swords have fled. Her uncanny green eyes snap to Beak's corpse, lying in a bloody heap. "He looks like he's 16." She takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Was. And I thought you were exaggerating about your body count." She looks back at Akihiro, biting her lip. "Alright, c'mon." The sweep of her hand is kind of half-hearted, but a new portal opens between them anyway, showing a view of a nearby rooftop. "Just don't start stripping until I'm gone." And with that she hops through. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you got dragged into it. They’ve been trying to kill us for a while now, and we’ve been killing theirs. Don’t even think it makes the front page anymore.” Akihiro lets out a tired sigh and musters a smile . “Thank you for having my back though, I owe you one. I can see myself down from here.”